“Hey, don’t do that. I trust you and that’s all I fucking care about right now.”
Sebastian’s voice boomed over the group of men. “I trust Chris completely on this and Alison has given us no reason not to trust her. If you don’t want to be a part of this, walk away right now. But you won’t be staying under the safety of Reed Security. This is a safe house and everyone in it needs to feel safe and that includes Alison and her son. You have a problem with that? Get the fuck out.”
Nobody said anything, but everyone looked at each other, wondering if anyone was going to follow Gabe out the door. Nobody followed and I felt some of the tension leech out of Chris’s body.
“Alright, let’s stop this bullshit bickering and get on the road.”
Sebastian walked out of the room and the rest of the men filed out to follow him. Chris stayed with me until everyone was gone and then kissed me hard. “I don’t want you to even think about this bullshit. You know I trust you with my life.”
“I know. I’m just sorry that people doubt me. I don’t want things to be harder for you.”
“I can handle it. I just want this to be over so we can move on with our lives.”
“Chris.”
We both looked over to see Gabe standing in the doorway. Chris stepped in front of me again and I felt his muscles flex under his shirt.
“I’m sorry, man. I do trust you and if you trust her, then I’m with you all the way.” Chris nodded and Gabe walked in closer, looking at me. “And I’m sorry that I’ve been so hard on you. I’ve always questioned everything and I’m probably the most skeptical person on the face of the earth. It won’t happen again.”
“Thank you.” Chris looked at me with a raised eyebrow, like he couldn’t believe that I would brush all that aside so easily, but the truth was, I didn’t want everyone leaving here angry. They were basically going to war and needed to have each others backs. “I’ll get to work on that list right away.”
I walked away, leaving Chris with Gabe. If they had some guy shit to work out, I didn’t need to be around to hear it.
✯✯✯✯✯
Chris had left with the other guys early this morning and the rest of us were left to roam the house. I was starting to feel out of sorts. I liked to stay busy and I didn’t really feel like I could do that if I was stuck in this house for too much longer. It was weird because even though this wasn’t the cage that my last home was, it was still a cage. I wasn’t allowed to leave and someone was always watching me. Even if it was for my own good, I still didn’t like the feeling.
When I walked into the living room, I was surprised to see Maggie there. She hadn’t been out of her room since we’d arrived and I assumed that she wouldn’t be up to the company after what happened to her. All the girls were gathered and even though I had spent some time with Lucy, Claire, and Cara, I felt like an intruder on the group. Then I saw Lindsey sitting there looking just as awkward as I felt. Only she looked pissed. I would be too if my place of business had been shot up and I had been taken away from my home against my will.
Maggie smiled at me brightly and I briefly wondered if she had been drinking. She seemed way too cheerful. “I was wondering when you would come down.”
“I, uh, wasn’t really sure what to do here. Are we allowed to wander around the house?”
“Of course,” Kate smiled. “This is partly my house, even if Hudson insists that he runs it.”
“Who’s Hudson?”
“Sorry, I forget that everyone calls him Knight,” Kate said with a wave of her hand.
“Why do they all have nicknames? It’s so confusing.”
“I think it all started when they were in the military and just kind of went from there,” Maggie said. “Like my husband, Sebastian, is called Cap. He was a captain in the military and it just kind of carried over.”
“And they call Chris Jack because he likes his whiskey?” I asked.
Vanessa nodded. “Yeah, but he’s lucky. Sam, my fiancé, his nickname is Cazzo. It means dick in Italian.”
“He lets them call him that?” I asked incredulously.
“He doesn’t know what it means,” she snickered. “He’s too hard headed to look up the meaning.”
“So, all this time he hasn’t known what his name means?” Lindsey asked. When all eyes turned to her, she almost looked like she was cowering in embarrassment for having intruded on our conversation. Vanessa smiled at her reassuringly and nodded.
“Yep. He’s just too stubborn to look it up.”
“I’m sure he’ll break someday,” Kate said.
“So, what are the other guys’ names?” I asked.
“Well, Mark is Sinner. That’s Cara’s husband. He had a bit of a reputation with the ladies before he met Cara,” Maggie smiled.
Cara rolled her eyes. “His last name is Sinn. It just kind of worked out that way.”
“Right, it had nothing to do with how many women he used to bed,” Maggie smirked.
“Okay, how about we not bring up my husband’s former bedmates?”
“You mean like Vira? We still don’t know exactly what happened there,” Maggie raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, do we have to talk about that woman?” Lillian rolled her eyes.
“Fine,” Cara huffed. “If you really want to know, when he moved out to California, as you know, we were broken up. He thought he could screw me out of his mind and he tried with Vira, but,” She bit her lip and grinned. “He couldn’t get it up all the way for her. Vira said it was the worst fuck of her life.”
Gasps sounded around the room and I didn’t really understand why everyone seemed so shocked by that. Were these men so fantastic in bed that it was a sin for one of them to be less than worthy?
“No way!” Lucy said in shock. “He’s just…sorry, Cara, but your man is big time eye candy. I don’t really see how he could be bad in bed.”
“He’s not,” Cara said smugly. “He’s amazing in bed. But he didn’t want to be with Vira. He told me that the whole time he was trying to get off, he kept thinking about how much he wanted to be with me.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet.” Claire held her hand to her chest with a desperate look on her face.
“Great Caesar’s ghost,” Lillian sighed. “I hope I never see or hear from that woman again. She just ruffles my feathers so much.”
“How do you know Vira?” Lucy asked.
Lillian looked down at her pants and rubbed a small pattern for a few seconds before speaking. “Sean was involved with her before me, and sort of at the same time. He was over the moon for her, or at least, he thought he was for awhile. But she kept dragging him along and he got tired of it. She kept coming back into his life and we almost didn’t get together. I wasn’t very experienced with men and she’s…well, she’s a professional at public relations.”
Cara snorted. “That’s a nice way to put it.”
“She’s really not that bad,” Maggie chimed in. Cara and Lillian glared at her. “What? You have to remember that I knew her before you. She was a friend of one of the girl’s I met through Sebastian. She’s really a lot of fun, but yeah, she’s a bit of a slut and people don’t like her for that. But if you just go hang out for a good time, she’s hilarious.”
“You’ll never get me to see her as anything other than a trollop.” Lillian gasped and covered her mouth as if she had just said a horrible word. I got the feeling that swearing was not something that she did, which was kind of endearing.
“The guy that dragged me out here, Ice? What’s his real name?” Lindsey asked curiously.
“John,” Maggie answered.
“John? He doesn’t look anything like a John,” Lindsey wrinkled her nose.
“I know, right?” Lucy stared off in the distance with a dreamy look in her eyes. “Can’t you just see him saying, You! You’re still dangerous. You can be my wingman anytime.”
“Bullshit, you can be mine,” Claire laughed. I felt like I was missing something here.
>
“I don’t get it.” Everyone stopped laughing and looked at me, stunned.
“Val Kilmer? Iceman? Top Gun?” Lucy said urgently.
“Sorry, I never saw it.”
“Shut the front door,” Lillian gasped. “Even I’ve seen that movie.”
“Well, I…” I was about to say that I hadn’t really had the luxury of watching movies, but I didn’t want to sour the mood. “I guess I’ll have to rent it.”
“And then there’s Hunter,” Maggie said after a beat. “He goes by Pappy because his last name is Papacosta.”
“And Hunter is your husband, right?” I asked Lucy.
She nodded vigorously. “Well, he will be soon enough.” She shoved the ring in my face and grinned. It was a beautiful ring, not too large and gaudy.
“Maybe you and Claire should have a double wedding,” I grinned.
“I don’t think Derek or Hunter would like that,” Claire smirked.
“Why not?” Lucy put her hand on her hip.
“Well, I was talking with Derek about having a Superhero themed wedding. Sort of an inside joke. I don’t think Hunter and Derek would agree on the decorations.” Claire’s eyes twinkled as she spoke and Lucy’s nose wrinkled in disgust.
“You’re right. Hunter and I will definitely have our own wedding.”
“Does this have something to do with why they call him Irish?” I asked in confusion.
“No,” Claire waved me off. “That’s just because his family is Irish. Very creative, these men.”
“Yeah, just like Burg,” Maggie grinned. “His last name is Reasenburg. Very creative, right?”
“Which one is Burg? I’m getting them all confused.”
“He’s the one that looks like the size of an iceberg. He’s huge, like way bigger than Hunter,” Lucy said.
“And who is he with?” I looked around the room, counting all the women and not seeing anyone else, but I thought Chris had told me he was taken.
“Her name is Meghan. We’ve hung out with her a few times,” Maggie said. “She was on vacation with her mom when this all happened, otherwise you would have met her too. They’ve been together for over a year now.”
“Wait. Isn’t Knight Hudson’s last name?” Claire asked.
“Yes,” Kate said. “It’s not really a nickname. But that’s what they call him.” She looked down at the ring on her left hand and sighed. “We were supposed to get married soon, but I’ve been so busy at the clinic that I’ve been putting it off.”
I sat down in an empty chair across from her. “What clinic do you work at?”
“I have my own clinic,” Kate informed me. “I didn’t want to work at a hospital, so I opened my own clinic and I help out when Sebastian needs me.”
“Oh. So, you know the area pretty well then. I’m a nurse. I’m going to have to find a job when all this is over.”
“What kind of nurse are you?” Kate asked.
“Well, I’ve always worked in the ER.”
“That would be perfect for Sebastian if he needs the help, but you could always send me your credentials. I’m always looking for a good nurse. It can be a little boring compared to the ER, but it’s steady hours.”
“That actually sounds really nice. I’ll definitely send you everything if we ever get out of here.”
“Oh, we’ll get out of here,” Maggie insisted. “I’m not staying locked up here while they’re all out having all the fun.”
“Don’t you need to rest?” I asked, a little concerned that she was ready to run out of here after all she had been through.
“I’ll be fine,” she waved me off. “So I’m missing a couple fingers. It’s really not that big of a deal. It’ll slow down my typing, but I can work around that. I can still fire a gun and pull the pin on a grenade.”
“I’m confused. Are you a part of Reed Security?”
The girls all snickered around me. I felt like I was missing some vital piece of information.
“She’s not, but her and my husband like to pretend that they’re the Lone Ranger and Tanto,” Cara grinned.
“And Sebastian’s okay with that?”
Maggie waved her hand at me, brushing off my concern. “Ah, he doesn’t like it, but Sinner and I have so much fun when we’re together. I think he’s actually a little jealous because he doesn’t get out of the office as much as he’d like.”
“And you still want to go shoot a gun and throw grenades after what happened?”
She looked at me funny. “Why wouldn’t I? If anything, I want to even more. I crave the excitement and while I don’t like what happened, I’m not going to sit down and take it. You know exactly what I mean.”
She looked at me pointedly and I did know what she meant. Just because something happens doesn’t mean you stop living your life and that was precisely what I meant to do when we left this place.
“Yeah, I definitely get it.”
“So, your son is older than all our kids. Is he already looking at colleges?” Lillian asked.
“Actually, with the way our lives were, we hadn’t really had the opportunity to plan much of anything. I would love for him to go to college, but I think he’s actually thinking of going a different way. He’s been really questioning Chris about his time in the military and his face lit up when he learned how to use a gun. I have a feeling he’ll go that way.”
“It’d be good for him,” Vanessa said. “After what you’ve been through, it’ll give him the feeling of control. That was something that was really important to Sam after he was injured.”
“Well, if he follows in Chris’s footsteps, I can’t say I would be disappointed. He was about to be initiated into a gang, so anything is a step up from that.”
“That would make Chris so happy,” Maggie smiled.
“You think?”
“Definitely. To know that the son he didn’t know about already wanted to be like him?” She nodded like it was dumb logic. “All of these guys hope that they can have little boys that want to follow in their footsteps.”
Alex, who had been quiet the whole time finally spoke. “I think that really bothers Cole. We aren’t able to have kids. I was pregnant once a few years ago and I miscarried. I just shrugged it off as fate, but I can tell it really bothers him. He wanted me to keep trying to get pregnant, but it never worked for us.”
“Did you talk about adoption?” I asked.
“Yeah, but honestly? I think he wanted it more than me. I’m okay with not having kids. I just wanted my life with Cole, but I think after everything that he went through in the military, he just wanted that normal life.”
“I guess that’s all I want at this point, a normal life and I don’t really care if it includes more kids or just what I have. I’m just glad to not be in that hellhole anymore.”
“That’s exactly how I felt.” Alex threw her head back and laughed. “I’m so glad someone else gets it.”
I didn’t know her story, but I wasn’t about to ask in a room full of women either.
“I think when we get back home, we should head to the Reed Security building and blow some shit up,” Maggie said after an awkward pause. We all looked at her like she was crazy. “What? I’m telling you, it’ll make you feel so much better.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Chris
TENNESSEE
“We’ve got three inside,” Ice said in my ear. He was on the other side of the house, scoping out our target through the back window. “They’re all headed for the living room. Looks like they’re just gonna hang out. They have beer with them.”
“Copy that,” I said quietly. I was laying on my belly in the trees across the street from the house. Jules was closer to the house, but would have a harder time getting there unseen.
“Don’t be a fucking cowboy,” Ice growled. “There’s one for each of us.”
“No problem, man. As long as I get to spill some blood, it’s all good.”
“Aw, fuck. He’s going without us,” Jule
s said.
“I said I would let you have some fun too,” I said with a grin. I had no intention of letting them have any fun tonight. I had been waiting to take out these fuckers since Ali came back into my world and I wasn’t letting anyone take that from me.
I stood up and crept across the road, not waiting for Ice and Jules to tell me they were ready.
“Ice, he’s moving,” Jules said urgently.
“Fuck, Chris. Wait for us.”
“I’m just getting into position.”
I sidled up along the house and peeked in the window. They were all sitting around, drinking beer and bullshitting. It was fucking perfect.
“You’re just getting into position to fuck us over.” I could hear Jules breathing heavily as he ran. I only had seconds to do this before they would be coming in behind me. I ran up the steps to the house and banged on the door.
“Son of a bitch,” Ice swore over coms. I heard a bang on the back door. Fuck, he was trying to break the door down. The front door swung open and I lashed out immediately, slicing my knife across the fucker’s neck. Blood squirted everywhere as his hands went to his throat as he tried to staunch the bleeding. The back door flew in as Ice kicked it open. I flung my knife across the room into the second guy who was standing there staring at his friend. The knife plunged into his heart and he dropped to the ground. Ice ran toward the room as Jules’s footsteps pounded up the stairs. I jumped over the bodies to the third guy and kicked him in the nuts before snapping his neck. When he dropped to the ground, I turned around to see Jules and Ice glaring at me.
“What? You guys weren’t here yet. Did you expect me to wait around for you all night?”
“We weren’t here because you went in without us, you asshole,” Ice growled.
“I wouldn’t have had to go in without you if you weren’t so fucking slow. I swear, old age isn’t working well for you.”
Ice stepped over to me, shaking his head before he punched me in the fucking face. I honestly wasn’t expecting it, but I couldn’t say that I didn’t deserve it.
Whiskey: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 7) Page 17