Page 116 of Running on Empty

“There she is!”

Blue strode forward, the rest of the Murder Daddies coming with him to give us a hug. Lois was a little more fluttery, her hands wavering until she had her arms around us.

“You’ve been gone for so long and I didn’t like to worry—” she started to say.

“But she did.” It was then I watched Rusty look up at Ash. “If worrying was an Olympic sport, our Lois would be doing it for Australia, wouldn’t she, son?”

“It’s good to see you, Mum,” Ash said, enfolding her in a hug. “Just take a breath now.” I smiled to hear him using one of Charlie’s scripts on his mother. “And another one, long and slow.”

“We’re gonna get that every time we piss him off now, aren’t we?” Ronan asked, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “I take it back. Therapy was a shit idea.”

“So everything’s good with you lot?” Gun asked, looking the lot of us over. “You were away for some time.”

“Needed the dust to settle,” Jax replied. “Now, we need to get our bags and Ollie from the luggage carousel…”

The dads had brought several cars, so our bags and Ollie were bundled into the back, his nose hanging over the seat and his pants in my ear, as I was sandwiched between Jax and Ash on the backseat. Ronan made a big deal of adjusting the seats and mirrors to his liking, no doubt trolling his brother mercilessly, which probably wasn’t very helpful.

It was funny though.

Ash took my hand though, rubbing his thumb across my knuckles, over and over until I went still, and Ronan let out a little groan of frustration.

“I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “I wanna be in the back with the omega.”

“Too late now,” Ash shot back with a smirk. “So we’re staying at the hideout?”

“We’ve just gotta head home first, make sure it’s still standing,” Jax said. “Pick up anything we need and then we can head out to the bunker.”

“Is that where we’re going to live and work?” I asked. “Because you know you just got yourself a new employee.” All three men groaned. “Or I could go back to working at the pub.”

“We need a woman’s touch around the office,” Jax said quickly. “We’ve been training Stevie for ages, so we all know what she’s capable of.”

“That’s the problem,” Ash told me. “You started with the exciting shit. Most of it is boring stakeouts or watching endless loops of security footage. It might not be that fun.”

“Will you be there?” I asked.

“Of course, but—”

“Will we go on boring stakeouts together?”

“If that’s what you want, though—”

“Will it fuck up your ability to concentrate if I suck your cock while we’re doing that?”

Every man in the car groaned, and I think we were all relieved that the dads and Lois were in the other car.

“I’m doing all the stakeouts going forward,” Jax said, his hand shooting up.

“Fuck you,” Ronan growled, flicking on the indicators to change lanes. “We’ll share them equally.”

They squabbled about that on the whole drive home and I just smiled, looking out at the cityscape as the sun began to set. It looked like it was covered in gold and somehow that seemed perfect.

They kept it quiet,the fuckers, what the extended Kelly family had planned. Our houses were still standing and looked just as we’d left them, and when we piled out of the car, Ollie made a beeline to the boys’ door and barked to be let in. Ash chuckled, scanning the place for any evidence of booby traps, then opened the front door. But once we got inside? My hands went to their bodies, theirs to mine. We’d been very good on the flight over at Ash’s order, but now…?

“Now?” I could barely keep the omega whine from my voice, a terrible neediness rising. But it was different now. I wasn’t the girl looking at them over the fence with longing. I was theirs, all of theirs and I would—

“Surprise!”

I jumped away from Jax, whipping my hands out from under his shirt to find Cat and Bianca and a million other Kellys massing at the door. As I stepped closer I saw that a BBQ was in full swing, chairs set out on the lawn and a table full of food ready to be eaten. Ollie barked twice and everyone stepped aside to let him through, the dog sniffing the yard madly, before bounding over for some pats.

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