Tugging on the sweats I’d grabbed on my way out of the room, I tied them enough to stay on my hips, then put some earbuds in and turned on music. I faced away from the living room, grasped the pull up bar and started loosening up my muscles by doing pull ups. I was a creature of habit. I started every workout with thirty pull ups. Then I’d do a few dead hangs to stretch out my back before I got started with my dumb bells.
We were closing in on The Collective, I knew that, but fuck if it was fast enough for me. I wasn’t the only one who was starting to get keyed up about the fact that we hadn’t located them. Camila was going to be having her baby soon and Kilo looked like a strung out junkie, starting at every sound. He was going to end up killing someone just because they inadvertently moved wrong. It’d be like coming up on a grizzly and scaring the fucking thing. It’d rip you in half before it even realized what the fuck you were.
OD wasn’t much better. With Rue being pregnant and having her and the boys here, he had more to protect than most. And keeping those two teen boys here, occupied, and out of trouble during summer? It was only the middle of July, so he had awhile left to keep them entertained.
I didn’t envy the man. Small miracle that none of the motorcycles disappeared during the night. OD was smart and kept the bikes he’d gotten for them locked up unless he, or another brother, was there to supervise them using the machines. Just until they learned to ride well.
In fact, I should note the mileage on my odometer, just in case the little shits get brave and suicidal.
Puffing out a breath as my arms began to burn, I gave a happy groan. I fucking loved working my muscles to fatigue. Most guys hated working out. There was just something aboutkeeping my body in shape and ready that wasn’t only necessary, but it just helped keep me balanced.
Maybe Relay should start joining me for training sessions again. We used to train together all the time when we were younger. That fucker could definitely use some balance. And a way to work off all his excess energy. He was the worst of us right now. Didn’t matter that he didn’t have an old lady to protect. He could only go so long before he needed to…purge…the demons that ate at him. Killing was the easiest way to do that. But he wasn’t a complete fucking psycho. He didn’t kill good people. So he often had to shove down everything he felt.
I couldn’t say whether he enjoyed the killing or not. He wasn’t born this way. This darker part of him had been created. I knew everything he’d gone through during his time in the military, though he’d be pissed, and horrified, if he found out that I knew. He’d shared some of it with Dad, Isaac, and me. A bit more with the MC, but none of them knew the true extent of the shit he’d gotten into while deployed.
We’d all seen war in one form or another. We understood. But Relay still didn’t share everything. And I didn’t force it. I wasn’t supposed to know, but I was a crafty bastard and some useless filing cabinets hadn’t been able to keep me away from my brother’s files.
Sweat ran down my chest as I neared the end of my pull ups. I tensed on the downward portion of my last set. Someone was watching me. Letting go of the bar, I turned, wishing I had my fucking gun closer at hand. If The Collective had made it in here somehow, I needed to be prepared.
But it was just Devyn. She was standing in the doorway of our bedroom—it wasn’t just mine now we’d been sharing it for weeks—staring. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was hanging open, and her cheeks were flushed.
Pulling the earbuds out, I grinned. “Good morning. I hope I didn’t-” The smile slipped off my face as she continued to just stand there. She was so damn still I was starting to think something was wrong. “What is it? The baby?”
My eyes dropped down to her stomach, but she wasn’t clutching it. Her arms were hanging at her sides. I frowned at her, crossing the room and taking her gently by the shoulders. She lifted her head to look up at me, shaking it a little as though to take herself out of whatever daze she was in.
“No, fine. I mean. The baby’s fine,” she said, her voice breathy. “It’s just…you…”
I arched a brow. The sweats were hanging low on my hips, I had no shirt on, and I was sweaty. Yet she seemed to like that. “I what?” I prompted, trying to contain the smug smile that was fighting to come out. The woman was going to have me strutting around like a fucking peacock if she kept stoking my ego. My brothers would just love that. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it wasn’t like I suffered from self-consciousness.
She swallowed. “It’s…nothing.”
“No, really, what?” I asked, placing one hand on the door jamb above her head and leaning in toward her a little. Now that I knew nothing was wrong, I was more than willing to flirt. She was great to flirt with. She usually picked up on the game and gave it back easily. She seemed to be a little off this morning.
Though a little spark of amusement lit in her eyes. “Alright.” She held up her phone—I hadn’t even realized she had it in her hand—and tapped at it.
Grunting and huffing filled the air. Without being able to see the screen, I was starting to wonder if she was showing me a porn video. What the…
I groaned.
“Yeah, that’s pretty close,” she said, her smile growing as she flipped the phone so I could see. She’d recorded me doing mypull ups. That was me making the sex noises. Only they were working out noises, but not the obnoxious yelling a lot of fuckers liked to do in the gym. It was hard to lift my fucking body mass and stay quiet.
Narrowing my eyes, I asked. “And what are you planning to do with that?”
Her smile was coy, with a side of triumphant. The former turned me on. The latter? That was beginning to worry me. “I already sent it to my sisters.”
I swore under my breath. “Great.”
“Sophie has suggested you start up a website and sell these videos.”
I barked out a laugh. “Right.”
“Shay came up with an even better idea. Women could pay you to say their names sporadically as you do your workout, too.” Her smile was huge and smug as she teased me.
“Yeah?” I asked. “And you wouldn’t mind sharing, huh?”
She gave me a look saying she was unimpressed with that idea. “I liked Vivian’s idea best. Why cut out a quarter of your marketplace by only catering to women?”
“Huh?” I asked.
