Decoy intercepted us. “I have her.”
Saint evaporated, abandoning me to bolt across the yard to his bike. His engine clattered to life, and he shot out of the yard so fast he left only silence and shock in his wake.
Adrenaline swamped me, kicking the crap out of my pulse. I was a biker chick. Drama came with the territory, but I’d never be okay with watching the men I loved charge out to war without a single thought for themselves.
My only comfort should’ve been that Nash wasn’t with them. ButLockewas out there, and my fear for him cut as deep as it ever had for Nash and my growing collection of brothers.
Decoy steered me inside and to the door to the residence.
River propped it open with his mismatched boot, and I forgot there’d been five long years when his presence in a moment like this had been unimaginable.
I played my part and dashed past him, not taking a breath until the door slammed shut behind me, the locks clicking into place.
Stairs.Sweat beading my temples, I took them two at a time. Juana waited for me at the top, a weapon in each hand, my ultimate wingwoman.
I claimed the knife my dad had given me for my fourteenth birthday and tucked it into my fist. “The kids all up here?”
“Bedroom.” She jerked her head at the master suite that technically belonged to Cam. “Blinds are shut. Windows locked.”
“Good.” I took a second to calm down and moved into Locke’s room, while Juana stood guard by the master bedroom door.
Locke’s living space was too empty to be untidy. Just a bed, a bag, and a couple of photos wedged into a mirror frame.
I stepped over the bag and took my place at the window, wishing I had a gun. I hadn’t held one in years, but I knew how to shoot. While my ma had been teaching the boys to be men, my dad had made sure I’d never need one to survive.
The gates slammed shut.
Decoy locked down the rest of the compound, phone pressed to his ear, expression too stoic for me to discern who he was talking to.
What they were saying.
The call ended.
He moved back to the gates, ducking into a position that was hidden from anyone approaching. At his sides, his hands twitched, and I wondered if he was itching for a gun too. Decoy was a gentle soul, but his kid was up here, and he’d kill the whole world to protect her.
Bike engines shook the air. I zeroed in harder on Decoy, gauging his reaction. For the longest moment, he didn’t have one. Then he rose, stepped out of the shadows, and opened the gates.
Hogs zipped through, a bobber, a Fat Boy, and a badass V-Rod I’d recognise anywhere.
Nash. He was home, with Rubi and Folk, and it should’ve settled something inside me, but with the others still out there, nothing changed.
Nash parked his bike and wrenched his helmet off
River filled him in and I half expected him to get straight back on and roar out the gate again. But thanks to men like Folk, we had better plans in place these days.
Nash stayed, jogging across the yard to the storage container I knew housed an emergency stash of weapons.
My phone buzzed with a text.
Nash:stay put. sure it’s fine.
An empty promise, but I appreciated the sentiment.
I backed up from the window and sat on Locke’s bed, noticing for the first time that it had no sheets on, as if he’d stripped it and done that man thing of forgetting something else happened next.
Or that he hadn’t slept in it, a thought that made my heart clench as much as the knowledge that Nash hadn’t been to bed either. Men like Alexei seemed to thrive on insomnia. The thrill of it all. Nash and Locke weren’t like that. Tough as they were, they needed more from life.
Dinner.
