“Fuck!” he yelled, pulling out the earpiece that was linked to the other security teams. “I must’ve left the mic on.”
“Everyone heard you?” I laughed, doubling over and grasping my knees. “You are so screwed. By tomorrow, every guard with Silver Aces is going to know.”
“Shit. I’ll have to quit,” he said, starting through the woods again.
“No, you won’t. They’ll tease you, but they won’t hold it against you. You weren’t the only teenage boy who was quick on the draw. And look at it this way, at least they’ll know who you are. Most of the time, these guys ignore the new guys.”
Trigger snorted and shook his head. “You’re one odd lady.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
I rang the doorbell before entering the house through the basement sliding door. Trigger followed me up the stairs and into the open kitchen.
“All clear!” I called out and heard a collective sigh throughout the house.
“I’ll get Anne and the kids,” Katie said as she ran up the stairs.
Lisa ran after her, with Drake following.
“I’ll call someone to replace the glass in the basement,” Goat said.
I walked out to the balcony and retrieved my phone, carrying it back inside before tossing it to Tech.
“This phone was brand new,” Tech said as he looked at the cracked plastic. He was laughing as he walked down the stairs where we kept a stash of replacement phones.
Sara, Nicholas, Anne, Whiskey, Lisa carrying Abigail, and Drake came down the stairs.
“Where’s Carl?”
“He won’t come down,” Sara said, running over to me to pull at my arm so I’d lean forward. “He peed his pants, and he’s embarrassed,” she whispered.
“Got it.” I started for the stairs. I found Carl pacing with tears in his eyes in Sara’s room.
“I got scared.”
“Everybody gets scared. Come on. We’ll take the secret passageway to Alex’s house so you can change.”
“Nobody will see me?”
“Nope. Nobody will know.”
I led the way down the ladder from the safe room, into my bedroom, then down the hidden ladder from inside my bedroom closet into the furnace room below. From there, I opened the hidden door behind the furnace and followed the tunnel first through Lisa and Donovan’s basement, then the next tunnel over to Alex’s house. Carl happily skipped past me to run upstairs and change his clothes. When he was ready, we followed the tunnels back to the main house, stopping in the basement gym.
“Thank you, Kelsey.”
“You’re welcome. Now go find Sara and Nicholas and make sure they’re behaving while I clean up down here.”
“Okay,” he said, running up the stairs.
I pulled the trash can out and grabbed the broom and dustpan, carrying both over to the sliding door and sweeping up the glass. When I was done, I turned to see the trajectory of the bullet and cringed. The bullet hole was dead center on the back rest of the leg press.
“Bones was on it,” Katie said, handing me a drink. “They heard you call out, and he rolled off the chair onto the floor right before the bullet came through.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. Nicholas and Goat are searching for a contractor to install bullet-proof glass. The windows on the back of the house need to be upgraded.”
“I’m good with that,” I said before taking a drink. “But maybe we should level the woods. Clear all of it. This isn’t the first time we’ve been in danger because of them.”
“Let’s wait. Carl and Sara are going through ideas to combine her heat sensor program to the new cameras Carl built. We might be able to have the woods covered electronically to alert us of a threat.”
“Shit,” I said again, walking over to sit on one of the barstools. “What am I doing? These kids aren’t safe with all this chaos around us.”
Katie shrugged, following me over to sit beside me. “Even with all the precautions we take, yes, sometimes the shit is going to float back up to the surface. It’s inevitable.”
“Not if I quit. Not if I move the kids away from all of this.”
We both sat there in silence, drinking our drinks.
“Katie without a snarky retort?” Lisa said from the stairs. “You must be tired.”
Katie shrugged. “I don’t have kids. I don’t know how I’d feel if I did.”
“Well, I have a kid,” Lisa said, gliding down the rest of the stairs, followed by Alex and Anne. “And while days like today scare the shit out of me, I’m proud of my husband for going after the bad guys. I’m proud of Kelsey for tracking their asses down. I’m proud to be part of a family that’s fierce, loyal, strong, and has saved so many victims, including myself. I want my daughter to grow up learning to be brave, and to fight back, even if it’s only in some small way. And like today, we’ll continue to protect them until they’re old enough to protect themselves.”
“Kelsey,” Anne said, walking over and grabbing my hand. “Sara and the rest of the kids were safe today because you made sure of it. You not only built a safe room, installed alarm systems, and designed secret tunnels, but you taught them what to do when an emergency does happen. My kid feels safer here than she ever did in our old life. Neither one of us has any interest in leaving.”
“You are who you are,” Alex said from behind me, wrapping his arms around me. “And we love you for it. How many lives have you saved in the last year alone? Thirty? Forty? More? And that’s not including the people who would’ve become victims if you wouldn’t have taken the bad guys down.” He smacked his lips against my cheek and gave me a loud raspberry kiss.
I giggled and pushed him away.
“You making a move on my woman, Alex?” Grady grinned, stepping off the stairs and walking over.
“I knew her first,” Alex said, pulling me away from Grady.
“And now she’s mine.” Grady said, pulling me off the stool and down the hall toward the old war room. I laughed as he somehow managed to manhandle me while being gentle at the same time.
Lifting me onto the table before the door had closed, Grady started pulling at our clothes until we were skin to skin. He entered me slowly, filling me as I leaned back and arched to take him deeper.
“Fuck,” he growled as he pulled back and slammed into me again.
I moaned, gripping the edge of the table and holding on for the ride.
Chapter Nineteen
I stretched my arms above my head, breathing heavily as Grady laid his upper body across the table beside me, breathing just as hard.
“Your pep talks are way better than Lisa’s,” I said, reaching over to stroke my hand across his panther tattoo.
“You didn’t need a pep talk,” Grady said, raising enough off the table to lean over and smack his lips against mine. “You needed to release some of that inner frustration, and so did I.”
There was a loud knock on the door.
“Go away,” Grady growled.
“Wish I could, man. This is totally awkward,” Tech yelled back. “But Mickey’s on the phone, insisting on talking to Kelsey—right the fuck now. The dude scares the hell out of me.”
Grady growled again. He picked up his shirt and tossed it to me. He waited for me to pull it over my head before he threw the door open, grabbed my cell phone, and slammed the door closed again. Seeing as Grady wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, Tech likely saw more than he expected.
“Mickey,” Grady said into the phone. “You have really bad timing.” There was a pause before Grady replied. “Yeah, she’s still alive. Hang on.”
He handed me the phone and then picked up our clothes, tossing them on the table.
“Hey, Mickey. Sorry I hung up on you earlier.”
“It’s to be expected. But so is a call back next time!”
“I’ve been busy. Geesh.”
“Ducking bullets or screwing Grady?”
“A bit of both,” I answered, holding in a lau
gh. “Do you have intel?”
“Yes and no. My boys inside confirmed that Daryl Sorato played the middle man to connect his son with a guy by the name of Ernesto Chaves. I don’t know who Chaves is, but it took one hell of a beating to get information out of the old man. Interestingly enough, Daryl was found shanked this morning, and I swear, my guys didn’t do it. They roughed him up enough for a twenty-four-hour stint in medical, minus a few fingernails, but he was returned to his cell last night cleared for gen pop.”
“His son died two days ago while in FBI custody. No surprise the father was next on the list. You better separate yourself from this one. I appreciate the intel, but we’ve got it from here.”
“Who’s Chaves? And why is he coming after you?”
“He’s not really coming after me, at least we don’t think so. Grady and some other guys were part of a raid last year that took Chaves down. Unfortunately, the case fell apart. Now he’s running loose and looking for people to punish.”
“Thus, you yelling sniper and dropping the phone earlier?”
“Yeah. But we’re whole. Nothing more than a broken window.”
Grady looked up with an evil grin.
“Well, at least on our side,” I said, thinking of the snipers.
“Put Grady back on the phone.”
I rolled my eyes, handing the phone to Grady.
“Yeah,” he answered while pulling on his socks. He already had his jeans on, but was bare chested. “That’s the plan.” He noticed me watching him and tossed my bra at me with a chuckle. “I’ll call when it’s over. I still owe you a beer.” There was another pause, and then Grady laughed. “I would, but she’s being stubborn. Later, man.”
I hooked my bra and pulled my V-neck sweater over my head. “What were you two discussing?”
“He asked me whether I was going to make an honest woman out of you and marry your ass.”
“I was referring to the earlier part of the conversation. The ‘call when it’s over’ part.”
“Guy stuff.” Grady smirked, smacking a kiss on my cheek and turning toward the door. “Hurry up. I’m starving.”
I jumped off the table and pulled my jeans up, nodding to him that he could head out. He opened the door but waited patiently for me to put my socks and boots on. When I walked past him, he grabbed a handful of my butt in a squeeze that made me squeal. “Behave.”
“No.” He chuckled from behind me.
He was in an awfully good mood for a man who had a target on his back. I glanced over my shoulder at him, but he gave me a playful shove to get me moving. Using my hands to protect my backside, I ran up the stairs two at a time ahead of him and was greeted at the top by Lisa, who shoved a loaded dinner plate into my hands.
“Eat. Both of you.” She handed Grady a similar plate.
In the dining room, our usual seats remained vacant. I chose to take Grady’s chair, not the end chair where I usually sat. Several people paused around the table, noticing. Grady shrugged and sat at the head of the table. He stretched his legs out, hooking a foot behind one of my ankles. I grinned to myself as I dug into the beef stroganoff and buttered French bread on my plate. Bridget walked over and placed a beer in front of Grady and a glass of milk in front of me. I happily accepted the milk.
“Hey, Tech? Do you like our new war room?” I asked.
“It’s got everything I could think of,” he said, nodding. “I handpicked the equipment myself.”
“She means the room itself. The ambience,” Bridget said. “The walls. The furniture. The décor.”
Tech rolled his eyes. “It’s a war room. It doesn’t need ambience. Besides, I seldom look up from my computer monitors, so I don’t care about the rest of the room. Though, the glass wall makes it awkward when I need to, umm… adjust the family jewels.”
I grinned over at Tech, shaking my head. Working with mostly men these days, I’d become accustomed to the awkward fidgets and movement when they needed to adjust their boy parts. “Bridget, can you fix the room up for me?”
“Sure. I have credit cards for both Silver Aces and your personal account. Which card do you want me to use?”
“Personal. And get some of that tinted film to cover the windows so we can see down into the gym, but they can’t see us. Then Tech can do whatever he wants when I’m not in there with him.”
Bridget giggled. “I’ll get started in the morning. Haley and I are going dancing tonight.”
“The hell you are,” Bones said from the other end of the table.
“Nobody’s trying to kill us. As long as you’re not with me, we’ll be safe.”
The front door opening paused their argument as everyone turned to see who it was. Alverez escorted Nana inside with a firm grip on her elbow. Bailey followed her through the door holding Dallas in a similar position.
“Permission to clock out,” Alverez said, looking my way.
“Not until you report what happened. Were they arrested?”
“We got them out of the store before the police showed up,” Bailey said, sighing. His shirt was torn with several buttons missing. He also had a bruise forming on his jaw.
“Got them out of where?”
Dallas and Nana stared down at the carpet, looking quite embarrassed. Bailey tugged on Dallas’ arm, pulling her forward.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Dallas said to Bailey before turning back to me. “It wasn’t that big of a deal. We were at a sex toy store, and we decided to sneak into one of the back rooms to watch.”
I looked around for the kids and noticed that they were standing off to the side with a pad of paper and a pencil. “What are you two up to?”
“Logging swear words,” Nicholas said.
“Give me the sheet,” I said, holding out my hand.
Sara skipped over and handed me the sheet. I rolled my eyes after scanning through it. “I’ll handle it. Why don’t you both head upstairs to play, though.”
They both giggled and ran up the stairs. I set the pad down and motioned for Dallas to continue.
“We were perfectly fine.”
“I was punched!” Bailey glared.
“You shouldn’t have interfered,” Nana said. “What happens in back rooms, stays in back rooms.”
Grady was looking down at his plate, shaking with laughter.
“Tell them what you did next,” Alverez said, pushing Nana in front of her.
“We were having a perfectly lovely time at a local bar. We weren’t doing anything more than having a beer and dancing.”
Nana’s shirt was buttoned wrong, and no longer tucked in. Her hair was also standing up at odd angles.
“You were strip dancing in a biker bar!” Alverez yelled, throwing her hands up in the air.
“I only took off my shirt!” Nana yelled back at Alverez.
“Very true. She only took off her shirt,” Dallas said, grinning.
“And you?” I asked.
“I might’ve taken off more than just my shirt.” Dallas looked down and raised her breasts in her hands. “The girls looked especially good today.”
“What bar?” I asked, gritting my teeth.
“The Last Season, just outside of Bangor,” Bailey answered.
“I know it.”
Grady pulled my phone from his back pocket and handed it to me. I called Renato.
“I was expecting a call.” Renato laughed lightly. “They get home safe?”
“They’re here. I’m not sure if they’re safe, though. I’m still mad. Any damages?”
“No. And I encouraged the locals and ordered my guys to delete the videos from their phones. I recognized Dallas from your house. Who’s the little old lady, though?”
“My nana.”
Renato laughed and hung up.
I looked back at Dallas and Nana, pointing a finger at them. “From now on, you two are not allowed to be together outside this house. I mean it! If I catch you sneaking off, I’ll put Nana on a plane back to North Carolina. And, Dallas, I’ll ra
t your ass out to Dave and tell him what you did in Miami!”
They both inhaled sharply.
“Dallas, go home. Nana, go to Lisa’s and clean yourself up.”
Both of them scurried for the door, and as soon as it closed, we all started laughing.
“All right, everyone,” I said, reviewing the list of logged swear words. “Every curse word said in front of the kids is ten pushups. Katie, you’re at a hundred and twenty. Tech, you’re in second place with forty.”
I only logged twenty pushups because most of the swearing I had done hadn’t been in front of the kids. I passed the list to Grady who called out everyone else’s numbers.
“Shit,” Tech grumbled as we all moved to the floor to pay up.
“We heard that!” Nicholas called down.
“Fifty!” I said, laughing at Tech as he struggled to push himself up. “By the looks of things, you’ll need to do yours in batches.”
Katie was already up to fifty by the time I was settling back at the table. Everyone else was getting up as well, including Tech who took a break at ten and promised to finish the rest later.
I was a little dismayed at how many swear words the kids had overheard.
“No wonder Sara has such a bad habit,” Grady said. He was the only one not on the list. “Let’s all see if we can curb our language in front of the kids. It’s not just Sara and Nick. We have to remember that it won’t be long before Abigail starts talking too.”
“Yeah,” Donovan said. “I really don’t want my daughter’s first word to be fuck or shit.”
“Twenty pushups, Uncle Donovan!” Sara called down.
Donovan let out a frustrated groan, but got back down on the floor, grumbling to himself.
Bridget got up and started clearing the dirty dishes, and I got up to help her take them into the kitchen. Anne followed me in with another load and stayed to help me wash, dry, and put away, while Katie and Grady sorted the leftovers.
“Hey,” Grady said, turning to me. “Was that a process server in the driveway earlier? When we were heading over to search the property?”
“I forgot,” I said, drying my hands. “He served me with a summons.”
I walked into the garage to the SUV, pulling out the envelope which was still lying on the floorboard. Grady, Anne, and Katie had followed me into the garage. Lisa and Alex must have seen us walk out and followed as well.
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