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Complete and total silence.

You could hear a pin drop.

CHAPTER

THIRTY

HOUND

The silence is followed by a roar. It’s cheers and congratulations. Then they all approach us. It’s not exactly what I expected, but it makes me love my brothers even more.

I’ve told a few of them about Keely. But I’ve been so busy figuring out who is going to do this transport and looking over all the documents surrounding our new merger with the Russians, and then seeing Keely again, and finding out about Thea and all that involved—I haven’t been around here too much the past few days.

It takes a good twenty minutes for the room to settle down. Keely is hugged by every man here, and I can tell she’s overwhelmed, but she doesn’t seem upset. Just surprised, maybe.

Once everyone is back to whatever they were doing, I place my hand against Keely’s back and guide her toward the staircase. I want her to get settled into the bedroom. But we’re definitely going to have to figure out something for Thea. I don’t have anywhere she can sleep.

Opening the door to my bedroom, I stop, then spin around. “Okay,” I say in a warning, “I’m going to ask someone to clean this up while we go and get stuff for Thea.”

“Stuff for Thea?” Keely asks.

“A place for her to sleep, and whatever else babies need. I assume a hell of a lot.”

Keely holds up a hand, her palm facing me, and I know she wants me to stop talking. Her brows are furrowed together, and I can tell she’s got questions, probably a lot of them, considering I haven’t explained a damn thing.

“Are you saying we’re going to be staying here?” she asks.

I smirk, because fuck me, but she looks cute. However, I don’t like the hand-in-my-face thing. But we can work on that. Setting the baby carrier down, I reach up and curl my fingers around her wrist, gently but firmly, and tug her close to me.

Keely’s feet stumble as she closes the distance between us, her body falling against mine. She uses her other hand to brace herself, placing her palm on my chest. I bring her other hand against my chest as well, then wrap my free arm around her waist and hold her close—locking her in just where I want her.

Pressing my lips against hers, I slide my tongue across the seam, tasting her for just a brief moment, then lift my head, my eyes focusing on hers and staying.

“Babe,” I murmur, “you can’t go back to your parents, not after that scene we left behind. I don’t want you there, and I don’t want Thea there, especially not alone.”

Touching my mouth to hers again, I don’t give her the option to argue with me. “Let’s get some lunch, some supplies, and by the time we come back here, the room will be clean.”

There is no way in fuck I can let her see the state of my bedroom. It’s literally my fuck pad. I had no problem taking her to my house, mainly because I don’t do much there. It’s been a storage place and a… I’ll-get-to-it-one-day project collection.

This place is not fit for Keely and definitely not Thea. I’ve fucked clubwhores on those sheets. And the trash all over the room isn’t something I’m proud of. I haven’t given a fuck about it before, but now that they’re here, I am embarrassed as shit.

I pick up the baby carrier and curl my finger around Keely’s wrist before I gently tug her behind me. She follows, but I can tell she looks back behind her a few times. I don’t stop moving, though.

The last thing I need is for her to go into that room and see what an absolute mess it is and for her to realize just what it is, which is a fuck pad, plain and simple. There will be no other way to describe it or explain it away.

That’s what it fucking is.

Because that is what I used it for… for decades.

I can’t pretend that’s not what a large part of this lifestyle was for me. It was, but I can’t imagine being with anyone else right now. I don’t think that makes me some kind of magically good man or anything.

Keely and Thea are everything to me, though. I want to make this work between us. But she needs to trust me a little better before I tell her about all the women. About the lifestyle… the clubwhores and everything else this club gets up to.

I have a feeling if she found out about it all right now, she would run, not walk, back to her parents. And I wouldn’t blame her. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wouldn’t want Thea to choose a man like me.

And Keely deserves better than me, but I’m selfish as fuck, so I’d never actually say that, and I’d never give her the impression that there is someone better out there for her. It doesn’t take us long to get outside. Thankfully, nobody stops us.

Reaching for the car doors, I open them before I set Thea in the back seat and buckle her in safely. “Get settled and the car started. I’ll be right back, and we’ll go.”