Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

Butcher

Stepping into the doorway of our bedroom, I watched as Isla packed up her clothes. Murder was sitting on the floor next to her also watching what she was doing. Anger had me narrowing my eyes. I turned around without a word and walked into the dining room area. I wasn't used to having so much space, but Priest had said that Lock was letting us keep this apartment. Maybe Toxic's stripper had done us a favor by pissing in my closet. My woman wasn't going to want to stay in a dorm style room forever.

This was so damn confusing. And stupid. I didn't know what motivated people, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't some damn deal with Lock that was making her do this. I'd have to confirm with Toxic later, but I was guessing it had something to do with fear. She was afraid to stay and let people in. Because we might disappoint her.

She'd said that I was the only one who had ever loved her. That was a clue. I was sure of it. Maybe she was afraid that I'd leave her? That the others would insist she go? She was cutting and bailing before we had a chance to do so first.

If that was what was going on here the only way I could prove it to her was one day at a time, showing up and being present. In order to do that, I needed to convince her to stay.

I grabbed one of the wooden chairs that was tucked into the dining room table and brought it with me. Isla turned as she heard me set the chair down inside the bedroom.

"What're you doing?" she asked, cocking her head as I walked past her.

It only took me a moment to find what I needed inside the new, larger, closet. Her eyes widened when she saw what I was holding.

"Wait!" Realizing I wasn't waiting, or stopping, she tried to bolt.

She was a kick ass assassin and possessed skills many men would die for, but I was still faster. Ignoring the stab of pain in my side, I grabbed her and hauled her back against my body. I still hadn't spoken. I was too pissed. And I needed to secure her first. Before she knew what was happening I had her tied back up on the chair.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"You're trying to leave," I growled. "Not happening."

"Butcher-"

I turned and walked away, not bothering to listen to whatever stupid girly worries she'd made up in her mind. She needed reassurance that I loved her and wanted her to stay? That the others loved her and wanted her to stay? She was going to get them.

My luck held true as I stepped out into the hallway and saw Lockout walking toward me. I didn't explain, just grabbed my president by the cut and dragged him into my apartment. It was a testament to his patience that he wasn't bellowing at me right now. I was too pissed and seeing red to explain much. I shoved him in front of where I had Isla tied up. "The two of you need to talk."

I left again, with both of their gazes boring into my back, but this was something she needed to talk over with him. She had it in her head that Lock didn't want her here. That he wasn't going to let her stay. Fucking stupid conclusion. She'd helped save my life. Helped save theirs, more than once. She'd helped make sure the threat to our families was gone. And I fucking loved her. Lock wasn't going to make her go anyway. He just hadn't extended the invitation to stay, because that was my job. And I'd done it, but she understood hierarchy and until she heard it from the prez, she wasn't going to trust it.

Once she accepted his invitation, then we could work on proving that she was loved by all of us. That we all would be hurt if she tried to leave.

Needing air, I stomped down the stairs into the lower section of the clubhouse.

"Hey, Butcher."

I froze, glaring at Lockout as he stood there holding a coffee mug. "What the fuck?"

"What?" he asked, looking confused.

"Goddamn useless twin," I muttered. "At least Ricochet had the decency to have a female twin."

Lock's frown deepened. "What the fuck did you just say to me?"

"Not you, Prez. Your twin," I growled. "Come with me." It wasn't like I gave him much choice. I was dragging him, much like I'd just dragged Idaho a few minutes ago. Lockout seemed to realize that I was pissed and somehow pieced together what was happening enough to come along with me, even though he could have told me to fuck off.

When we walked into the apartment together, I heard Idaho's voice coming from the bedroom.

"The whole point is to leverage other people's money and other people's time, freeing up your most valuable and creative hours to scale up and branch out. When your time is bogged down in the admin, you're stuck. It's not about how much you save, rather it's how much more you can make when free from the bullshit. With Randal gone there's a vacuum in the whole industry, just ripe for expansion."

"You really think I could expand my business?" Isla was asking. "I mean, I do spend more time cleaning up after a hit and clearing evidence than I spend on the hit itself. You're saying if I can farm that out to someone that's competent and trustworthy… Hell, I could probably double the amount of hits I do. What about finding backers? Do people back assassins? I mean other than those who want someone dead?"

"Not what I meant," I snapped at Idaho as I walked into the room.

"What else am I supposed to talk to her about?"

"Nothing. You're not the good twin. I don't need you ," I told him. "Don't even like you," I muttered.

"Ouch." Idaho looked far too amused for my liking, but I was on a mission. I glanced over at Lockout. "I need you to talk to her." Crossing my arms over my chest, I waited.

Lock walked farther into the room. His intelligent hazel eyes noted the bag of clothes and belongings on the bed and Isla tied to a chair. "Going somewhere?" he asked, almost conversationally.

I couldn't help the angry sound that forced its way out of my chest.

Everyone in the room looked my way, then Isla focused back on Lock. "The deal was that I stayed to help take care of the assassins and Randal."

"It was," Lock said in agreement. "And now you want to leave?"

She looked away and I saw the hurt all over her face. "She thinks you won't let her stay," I told him.

Her gaze flashed back to me and she admitted to us all, "I want to, but-"

"No buts," I snarled. "You're staying."

We both looked over at Lockout and his brows shot up. "Oh, it's my turn?"

I huffed out a breath and nodded, knowing he wanted me to shut the hell up so he could help fix this. I wasn't above taking help. At least, not anymore. "You know all the words, use them."

"Isla," Lock said, his voice the epitome of calm and reasonableness in the face of our anger and despair. "I'm not sure why you think that you're not welcome here, but you are."

The hope in her eyes was like a knife to the fucking chest. I already knew what it felt like to take one in the side, so I knew it was an accurate description of what was happening inside me right now. She wanted this so badly, but had been willing to walk away because of some imaginary deal she thought had been struck between her and the club. Women . I shook my head.

"But you-"

"I said whatever I needed to at the time to ensure that you joined forces with us," Lockout told her, interrupting. "Now that the threat has died down and you and this idiot have realized that you're in love, we all want you to stay. I'd never hear the end of it from the women and kids if I let you walk away. Not to mention, we'd lose Butcher," he told her.

"Makes it sound like you only want her to stay for the others, Bro," Idaho pointed out before I could say anything.

Lock studied his twin and then sighed. "When the hell did you become so insightful?"

He shrugged. "I have an old lady. If I said that to her it would hurt her feelings."

"Isn't this your job?" Lock asked me.

"I already did this part. She needs your okay to stay here, too."

Isla remained silent, looking back and forth between us as we spoke. But she still looked hopeful.

"Everyone loves and respects you," Lock told her. "I'm not telling you I love you because this asshole will attack me if I do, but I want you to stay as much as everyone else. Not because of all the reasons I listed before, though they are a part of it, but because we, and I, want you to be a part of this family."

Isla sucked in a breath and her eyes began to tear up. "Thank you," she managed to choke out without allowing the tears to fall.

Lockout nodded at her, then glared at me. "Can I go now? I've had my fill of uncomfortable conversations, thanks to you."

I grinned. "Yeah. Thanks, Lock."

He looked surprised, probably because I didn't exactly express gratitude very often. Lock started to move toward the door, then grabbed his nosey twin—who'd stayed even though no one needed him—and dragged him out the door by the cut.

I studied her for another moment, then decided I had one more move to play. It was dirty, but I had to make sure she fully understood. I stepped out of the room and went down the hall, knocking on a door. "Come with me," I said and turned back to my room.

Standing in the doorway of the apartment, I leaned against the frame. A flood of children swarmed past me. Felt like six hundred of them. I swear more of them showed up every day. There were joyous screams as the kids flooded past me and into my bedroom. "Aunt Isla! Ah ha ha, you're tied up." I wasn't sure who was talking.

"I can get out of that, betcha I could." That was Taylor, and I was betting she was right.

Making my way back to the bedroom, I watched as the swarm roved over her in excitement, and probably picked her pockets, before I chased them off. Despite still being tied up, she was glowing. "They'll be devastated if you leave."

"That's playing dirty," she told me.

I shrugged. "I don't play fair, I play to win." Left alone with Isla, I scowled back at her. "If I let you loose, are you going to run?"

"You really want me here?" she asked.

There was that hope again and it was killing me. "Yes, Woman. I want you to stay. I'm claiming you. I want to marry you. Even better, you're going to be my old lady. I fucking love you, Terror."

"Okay," she said, though she looked a little afraid. She was battling demons that only she could fight. I'd help as much as I could, but she had to do the brunt of the work.

"Okay?"

"Just one more thing."

"What's that?" I asked, amused with her response to my declaration of love.

"I don't share, Butcher."

Frowning, I shook my head. "What?"

"I won't allow you to claim me, to marry me, if it means you sleeping with other women. "

"Wh-" I gave her a confused look. "Okay," I said instead of blowing up. "I haven't slept with another woman since I met you. Since before I met you," I admitted. "And once I claim you neither of us are sleeping with anyone else. Ever. Got it?"

She grinned and wiggled on the chair, fighting the restraints. "Let me go so I can kiss you," she demanded.

I chuckled and cut her loose, careful to keep my knife out of reach so she didn't get cut as she tossed herself into my arms. I caught her beneath the ass with one arm as she wrapped those strong legs around my waist and locked her lips to mine.

"I love you, too, Butcher," she breathed against my lips. "I accept your claim."

"Of course you do," I growled, tossing the knife aside and wrapping both arms around her so I could squeeze her against me. I wasn't fucking ever letting her go anywhere again. She was all mine.

We settled down as Lock came into the room. He'd called church so we could go over everything that had happened while we'd been in Belize.

Idaho looked over at me as he sat down across the table. "She staying?"

"Yes," I replied, feeling smug and satisfied.

"Who?" Toxic asked, then looked at me in shock. "Wait, your girl tried to leave?"

"Again?" Hellfire added.

I glared at him. "She thought she had to leave."

"Why?" Hush asked, looking confused.

"Because women." I said, as if that explained everything. Most of the men looked like my words made sense to them.

"Let's rehash this later," Lock said. "We worked through it, she knows she's welcome here and she's staying." He looked over at me. "Which is good. Keep her happy and keep her here with us."

"Will do, Prez. "

"Okay," Lock said. "Who wants to go through this?"

Toxic took the lead, and I was fine with that. Warrant and Scythe had headed straight back home once they'd dropped us off. He explained about Randal being dead, and I interrupted to give the gory details about how he was decorating the stones of a courtyard in Belize, earning unamused looks from the others.

"So, there's still this company out there, right? Heliaz Relay?" Smoke asked, interrupting my description of how Randal's blood had slowly crept over the floor as he bled out. I glared at him, but he just shrugged.

"Yeah," Riptide replied. "Heliaz Relay Telecom Corporation is a huge company."

"They need a shorter fucking name," Toxic complained.

"But they took the contract out on Butcher?" Ricochet asked, ignoring Toxic.

"No, it wasn't the company," I told him.

"It was Evan Danners," Lock answered. "He was one of the board members, but as far as we can tell the rest of those in charge of Heliaz Relay weren't aware of what he was doing."

Riptide explained further, "In all likelihood they all knew what Evan was doing. He was trying to clear that village back then to get access to lithium mines. Lithium being one of the components needed in their satellites. He recently got elevated to the board of directors and was the preferred pick to be their next CEO, thus why he needed you guys killed. Knowing that he tried to kill a whole village is the type of thing that the press would eat up. Now that he's dead the board and next CEO can pretend it was all Evan, if it ever even surfaces."

"So, we're lettin' them go?" Hush asked.

"We have to," Idaho replied. "Heliaz Relay has their hands in a lot of different pies. Everything you research about them will say they're in the telecommunications sector, but they have deep pockets and even deeper interests. They have a lot of powerful people backing them."

"Plus they work with Homeland Security," I added. "That's why my team was assigned to help them in the first place. And it's why I called Gail. She'll get with the talking heads and make this shit die down."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"They're getting a pass for now," Lock stated. "But we'll be keeping a close eye on them."

"Something tells me this isn't going to be the last we hear from them," Priest added.

Toxic groaned. "You just had to say it, didn't you?" He pointed at Smokehouse. "It's usually his dumbass that always has to say that kind of shit. When something bad happens part of it's going to be your fault this time."

Priest shrugged and grinned at Toxic. "At this point, what does it matter if I said it? We were all thinking it."

"Doesn't mean you say it out loud," Toxic muttered. "Now we're going to have something else coming our way."

He was right. We all knew it, but it didn't matter. As long as I had my brothers and my woman with me, I'd face whatever it was head on. We'd take it down together, the way we always did. I was pretty sure this kind of shit was never going to end, and that was just fine by me, because even though I was in love and had found the perfect woman it didn't mean I still didn't need violence and death to keep me grounded. I'd always need that. But now, I needed Isla, too. I was looking forward to all the chaos and trouble we would cause together during the rest of our lifetime. Whatever we faced would only bring us closer together and I was ready for it.

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