Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Butcher

I leaned against the door frame to the gym and watched as Isla showed the kids how to work with straight-edged weapons. The knives were actually made with rubber, but the kids didn't seem to care. Lock had bought them after he'd found us having a tournament with real blades. I'd been victorious in that competition and enough of the others bitched about getting sliced up that Lock had found a solution. That was what he was good at. As well as leading. Somehow the guy even managed to get bastards like me to follow him. That was proof enough that he deserved his position.

"Forward."

The kids moved forward in various stages of awkwardness, but it was easy to see that Isla had already worked on fighting stances. It made me wonder if the parents had okay'd all this.

Stupid question, of course they did. What parent wouldn't want their kid to get a knife fighting merit badge? And to learn from a professional assassin?

I shoved off the frame and walked forward, watching Isla move, showing the children what they needed to do before she called out that movement for them to copy. Her head turned and a mischievous twinkle entered her eyes. It was enough to have me pausing.

"Get him," she ordered.

Suddenly, seven kids, the hellions, Gwen's two, and Dex all swarmed me. Someone bit me on the shin. "Fucking shit! No biting!" I yanked my leg away, hoping I didn't nail a kid in the face as I did so. They'd circled around me and someone had my cut and t-shirt from behind. The neck was cutting into my throat.

"What the hell?" The laughter made everyone pause and we all looked over at the doorway. Toxic shook his head. "Do I even want to know?"

The kids all looked at each other, then glanced over at Isla. Her smile widened as she nodded and the kids, as one unit, let go of me and rushed Toxic.

"No! No! I'm not playing. Ow!"

I chuckled as I walked over to Isla and pulled her in close for a kiss. "Keeping busy, I see."

"They've been hounding me to teach them things," she admitted, but her smile told me she was just as happy to be doing this as they were. I knew for a fact it wasn't easy for her to wait here, instead of taking matters into her own hands. Her run-in with Warrant and Scythe showed what happened if we kept her bottled up. It was sexy as hell to watch her fight, but it had taken everything in me not to kill the other men for putting their hands on her. Not that she'd appreciate me doing that.

She was used to doing things alone. Having to listen to a group and follow orders had to be grating on her, but she was here, doing what we asked. Lock never moved on a target until we were well prepared.

We had too much to lose these days, and suddenly I was starting to understand how the other men felt about leaving their old ladies and kids behind to do this shit. Even though Isla would be going with us, it still made me hesitate. Made me want to make sure we had all our shit in a row before we took on an unknown number of assassins .

"We'll be leaving in a couple days."

"Why not now?" she asked.

"Lock is still working stuff out with the Saints."

"Who?" she asked, frowning.

"Friends of ours up in Phoenix. Trust me, we'll want all hands on deck for this."

Relief flashed in her eyes. "Okay. Not that I don't like it here..."

"I'm ready to end this, too," I told her. It was strange. There were very few people I really understood. Their motivations and what moved them didn't really compute. But her? I just seemed to get her. And I had the feeling it was mutual.

"Has Glitch managed to find anything?" she asked.

"Last I heard he was following Randal's trail. He's confident he'll pin Randal down soon. So first, we take care of the assassins, then we go after Randal."

An excited look crossed her face, and I realized I was grinning too. Toxic was right, we fit well together. I didn't know exactly what that meant once all this was over, but I wasn't exactly a plan for the future kind of man. I'd deal with it when the time came.

"Owwwww! Call off your dogs!" Toxic hollered.

It was too late. Gabby had used the weight racks to gain height and was hanging from a bar we'd installed to do pull ups. She swung her body and dropped onto Toxic's shoulders.

I watched, impressed, as Toxic stumbled around, trying to pull the girl off his shoulders, but she'd been taught well. She managed to execute a perfect wrap around his neck. Sean and Dex grabbed her ankles and pulled. Toxic's eyes widened as he realized what was happening, but between her weight and the boys adding to the pressure, he was shit out of luck. The only way he was getting out of this was to hurt Gabby and I knew he'd rather get choked out than do anything to harm these kids.

He took too long deciding what to do and dropped to his knees, that way he wouldn't hit as hard. It wasn't long before he was out like a light. Within seconds his pockets were empty and the kids scrambled away from his prone body .

I laughed and shot Isla a look. The pride on her face was enough to tell me who'd taught them that move and how to work together.

"Okay kids," Isla said, voice cool and calm. "Back to work."

"Hey, Toxic." Warrant walked through the door, tripping over his Toxic's body. "Oh. Nice when it's not me." He winked over at Isla, making my blood boil, but she just rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

"Ugh, fuck me." Toxic was coming to and staggering to his feet.

"I'm just going to kill him," I told Toxic, ignoring the fact that my friend was still struggling to focus. "Put him out of my misery."

"Give him a chance," Toxic replied, rubbing his throat and shooting the kids a menacing look. "You'll like him." He didn't bother to scold the kids because they were already back to practicing.

"Never said I didn't like him," I muttered. "He just keeps making stupid decisions."

"What's up?" Toxic asked Warrant, ignoring me.

"Got a surprise for you, Brother," Warrant answered, ignoring my scowl.

"What is it?" Toxic asked.

"You better come out front and see for yourself."

We walked together out of the gym, leaving Isla and the older kids to their practice. "Word of warning," Toxic told Warrant, "from brother to brother since I've known you most of my life." Toxic had been in the Berserker's Rage MC when he was younger, but circumstances brought him to Tucson and he'd ended up joining up with Lockout and the Vikings. No one held it against him and he was still close with his old club brothers. "I'd quit making eyes at Isla," Toxic continued. "Otherwise you'll have to deal with him." He jerked a thumb in my direction.

Warrant turned to study me, then just nodded as we kept walking.

I was holding back on beating his ass out of respect for Toxic, and to try to keep Lock from going nuclear. Our president was already at max capacity planning this mission and trying to keep all of us, the Berserkers included, in line. He didn't need more shit from me. Fuck was it hard being responsible and shit though. I didn't like it much. Good thing we were about to go kill a lot of fucking people. It would help take the edge off. Besides, something told me that beating Warrant's ass wasn't going to make Isla any happier. And that seemed to be important to me.

We stepped outside and Toxic froze next to us. Warrant had a shit-eating grin on his face as we stared over at the people clustered around a newcomer.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Toxic asked, frowning.

"Tried to come with us yesterday. Told him that old beater pick-up couldn't keep up with our bikes," Warrant replied. "Guess he still decided to come. If I'd known, I would've made sure to stick with him."

"He wouldn't have let you hear the end of it." Toxic made a face, then mimicked, "I'm a fucking grown man, I don't need a babysitter."

Warrant and I chuckled at that. I'd met Daryl Sutton years ago and I liked him immediately. He didn't take shit from anyone. And judging by the way Scarlett and Silvia were smiling and giggling at him it was safe to say that Toxic had come by his charm naturally. It rolled off his old man in waves whenever he was speaking to the girls.

"Pops."

Daryl glanced over and scowled at his son. "Boone, you asshole, you were supposed to come home for a visit by now." Everyone moved out of the way as Daryl charged forward to pull Toxic into an awkward, dusty hug. The man was always dusty and dirty, thanks to running the family ranch up there in Wyoming. Granted, these days Toxic did most of the running remotely, and had one of his cousins—Cynic's older brother—doing the majority of the manual labor. Still, his father always smelled of horse hair and dirt. And for reasons I'd never understand, women loved it.

They always made sure there was enough work to keep Daryl busy though. He wouldn't know what to do if they told him to retire. And he'd likely blow a fuse and kick them all off the ranch.

It was going to be a surprise to our brothers to find out that Toxic and his father owned, and ran, one of the largest cattle ranches in the country. Others had asked before what Toxic did all day, just assuming it was drinking and sleeping around. He did plenty of that, for sure, but he played a heavy part in keeping the Diamond Mountain Ranch running. He often saved most of his boozing until after the sun went down and his father, cousin, and hired ranch hands wouldn't need him anymore. He made it all look effortless, which was why no one thought he did much.

"Sorry Pops, got busy." Toxic grinned at him.

"Toxic," Kit said. Everyone was out here except Isla and the older kids. "I'm so confused," she continued with a laugh.

"Same!" Seek added. "Daryl is your father ?"

"He is," Toxic replied with a grin. As if anyone needed to ask. Toxic was a carbon copy of his dad.

"When did he have you?" Hellfire asked. "When he was ten?"

Everyone laughed at that. It was the same damn thing I'd asked when I first met Daryl years ago and found out Toxic's age. Now the fucker was forty-two and still didn't look a day over thirty. Daryl looked like he was somewhere around fifty at the most. I'd been fucking shocked to learn he was in his seventies. No one ever believed him the first time he told them his age. "Baby-faced motherfuckers."

As if they were controlled by the same brain Daryl and Toxic both flipped me off, causing everyone to laugh again.

"Seriously though," Dani said. "I thought they were messing with me when they told me Toxic was in his forties. Now I see it's just good genetics. Really good genetics."

"Why thank you, Darlin'," Daryl told her. He reached over and dragged her and her four month old daughter, Hannah, into a side hug. Her blush must have been from head to toe.

"Hey now," Smokehouse said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I see how your son is. I don't need you stealing my old lady away from me."

Daryl chuckled and shook his head. "Sutton rule, boys. We don't take married women."

"We're not married yet," Dani teased, blush deepening.

Smoke snorted. "You're better than married. I claimed you, Woman. Get over here." The last command was said in a softer—for him—tone of voice as he gently pulled his girls back into his arms and kissed each on the head. She laid her head on his chest, happy to be exactly where she was.

I watched, wondering if I'd ever be capable of that kind of emotion. And if so, would I ever be able to express it? I was pretty sure I wouldn't. I didn't know anything about being soft and kind. My mind drifted to Isla, missing everything the others were talking about for a minute.

"Right Butcher?" Ricochet asked.

Focusing back on them, I found everyone watching me. "Yeah."

They all laughed and Toxic shook his head. "Now you see why I've never introduced you to the rest of this MC family," he told his dad.

"Let's head inside," Lockout told everyone. "Scarlett, can you get us some beers?"

"Of course!" She took an extra second to ogle at Daryl before she hurried inside as the rest of us moved as a group toward the clubhouse.

Toxic caught my eye and I saw the question there in his gaze. He was a good friend. Shit. He was more than that. He was a good brother. He always looked out for me. It hadn't escaped his notice that I wasn't paying attention earlier and he was checking on me. With a quick jerk of my head, I dismissed the concern. I was fine. It was going to be a fun night as the Sutton men reunited and we prepared for the upcoming mission.

We had a couple days to prepare everything once we got to the White Mountains before Isla made the call to her friend that would set this battle into motion. We were going to make the most of every hour we had with our families. And it'd been years since either Toxic or I had seen Daryl. Despite meeting him only a few times, I had this strange feeling in my chest whenever the man was around. It was like he was the father I never knew. And fuck if I was going to miss the opportunity to drink the night away with him.