“You’re supposed to protect her!”
“I did!” I yell back at Nash. “I tethered my rope to her and watched her do her fucking job. Like a boss! She can handle herself, but this shit? These traffickers? I busted a ranger who’s a part of it. He was a threat to Alena. He was way too into her, and?—”
“Goddammit!” Nash surges to his feet. “Do your fucking job and protect our princess!”
I surge too. I got two inches and twenty pounds on him. On all my brothers. I’m no one’s fucking baby. Not when it comes to Alena.
Fear’s making Nash an asshole. It brings out the worst in everyone. I get it. I know Alena’s at risk.
“I am!” I boom. “I’ll kill for her. I’ll smash bodies on rocks for her, but I can’t be everywhere. Not when you won’t tell her who we are. When you’re making me lie to her. Decide: what do you want? For me to keep her alive or to keep her in the dark? You can’t have both.”
“He’s right.” Mom’s calm. “Loch needs backup, and it can’t be any of you. And I don’t like lying to her either. But she didn’t ask for this life; she deserves to live free of it. And if she ever gets taken, I can’t bear the thought. The less she knows, the happier and safer she is.”
“So,” Axel reasons, “when it’s not one of us kings protecting Alena, then who? Because I don’t trust anyone else with one of ours.”
Sire offers, “I know some cousins who can watch her.”
Bingo, Brother. That’s who I was thinking of.
“Fuck no!” Nash barks. “Not those crazy killers.”
“Aw, come on. Bishop is sane.” Sire chuckles. “Sorta.”
“Bishop, maybe.” Axel shakes his head. “But Wilder is bat-shit and Remi’s a wild card.”
Nick huffs. “In our line of work, sanity is a liability. You need someone risky enough to guard our queens, but smart enough not to touch them.”
Sweat hits my pits, my guilty heart, hammering.
I’m the one fearless enough to guard Alena. The one willing to die to touch her again. I’ll take the pain. I just want a chance to love her before Nash kills me.
“Look, it’s like I told Axel today…” I crouch, sitting back down. “Alena and I are friends. We’re work buddies now. It’s the only way I can guard her without raising her suspicion.”
Or Nash’s. Or Axel’s. Or Mom’s. And fuck, what about Alena coming to the club tonight?
Pull one wrong string and all our secrets unravel.
I push my plan, telling Nash, “Talk to Wilder. Remi and Bishop too. Put the fear of God in them and a hundredkin their account to back me up.”
Axel nods. “Let’s invite them here tonight.”
Uh, let’s not.Fuck, my plan is going sideways.
“Nah, man.” Sire, beside me, must sense it. He knows how I feel about Alena. “Let’s go to their brewery. I’m craving a field trip to the country.”
I exhale, and Sire hears it, tapping his knee against mine.
“Besides,” he adds, “we might need their backup on the Florida buy too. I’m trying to get us a meeting.”
“Fuck,” Grant rants. “Florida? Tennessee? I hear rumors around the club that there’s a trafficking ring out of Hilton Head too? And now, New Mexico?”
Mom looks at him. “New Mexico?”
“Yeah,” I jump in. “The RV I busted in the park had Tennessee plates, but a New Mexico LLC owned it.”
Her inhale is deep before she seethes, “There are only a few men I know who’d run an operation that vast and evil.”
Our father.
