Page 39 of Two Weddings and a Shoot Out

“It’s only because she can’t reach her feet to get the boots off,” War said.

Roam slapped the table, laughing at his brother. “Dude, if you think I’m not going to tell her you said that if you don’t make it worth my while, you are stupider than I thought.”

“I’m considering why I wouldn’t just shoot you now and save myself some trouble,” War said.

“Because you can barely handle one wife. How would you handle it if you had to take care of Sprite and their brood along with your wife?” Cannon quipped.

“Yeah, War is so not built for any type of sister wife situation. We’d have to build him a separate dog house in the backyard,” Bear said, nodding.

War huffed. “Could we get back on track and at least pretend for a moment that you’re all subordinate to me? Just for tonight and tomorrow?”

Compass and Baron stared at each other and smiled. These younger men had definitely grown up.

Compass listened to the last of the instructions, then walked over to Dex.

“I can help you set up the panels and move the animals. I’ve gotten some experience with animals at the ranch,” Compass offered.

“Thanks. Any and all help would be appreciated. That donkey is vicious,” Dex grumbled.

Compass followed Dex out. He’d help with this, then go spend some time getting to know his wife better—preferably naked.

Chapter Twenty-Five

LocksrodewithHopeon the back of his bike to the park. They’d slept in but were expected at the park by noon for the one p.m. presentation of the cash. He’d wanted a little time with Hope and to take her on his bike, so they’d gotten up a little before eleven and ridden to Coldwater Lake. They’d eaten bagels with cream cheese and sipped hot coffee. It had been a wonderful way to start the last day of the holiday.

Hope had mentioned she’d like to do some redecorating, including personalizing a room how Benji would like it, along with adding some things like a ping pong table and video games for when he had friends over.

The clubhouse had a ping pong table and pool table, but it wasn’t always the place for young kids to be. Hope wanted to make their home the one all Benji’s friends wanted to hang out at. He’d had to swallow to fight the tears when she’d called it their home.

He needed to get a ring and then ask her to marry him. There wasn’t any rush because they were together. He wanted to do this by her guidelines because he still had a lot to make up for. If his girls hadn’t had an intervention or if he hadn’t talked with Regina, he wasn’t sure if he could have committed to being with Hope.

He'd had so many feelings about being with someone, even though it had been ten years. Some days it felt like it had been hours, and other days, it felt like it had been a lifetime.

He turned down the side street to park behind the diner. They had cameras on the parking lot since they hosted Farmer’s Markets there and other events. He didn’t think anyone would mess with his bike with all the people here, but he’d prefer to have a camera on it with Roland still on the loose.

He helped Hope off, and they walked down the alley to the park. He held her hand as they walked and listened to the sound of motorcycles, people, and the music from the park.

He was proud of what they’d built and the money they’d raised for the Veterans Home, but he was keeping his eyes peeled because the back of his neck was itching. He’d honed his instincts dealing with people in bad situations and criminals. Though if he thought the criminals had committed crimes of rape or murder, he refused to pay their bond, even if the judge was stupid enough to let them out on it.

His watch beeped with a text, as did Hope’s phone.

War: Code Phoebe. Everybody keep an eye out.

So War was feeling what he was. Locks wasn’t sure whether to appreciate that everyone was on guard or to worry about the situation.

“Should we worry?” Hope asked.

“I think we need to stay on guard, but we can’t cancel. We don’t have any actionable intel. We could all just be feeling the heightened sense of each other,” Locks said, hoping to allay some of Hope’s fear.

“But your voice says you don’t think that,” Hope murmured, pulling her hand from his and sliding under his arm to hug him closer.

“No, it’s just one of those feelings,” Locks confirmed.

Hope checked on Benji again. He was sitting in the row of kids right in front of Roam, Cannon, Slice, and Bear. Benji had a huge smile on his face and was laughing at something Grant was doing. Micah and Isaiah were laughing too. She’d heard Slice mention it was the next generation of the MC. She adored that Benji would get to grow up with family.

Between last night and noon today, one of their group had moved Lexi and Booker’s RV into the side street between the park and the pickleball court. They’d parked it so the back area was open to provide a contained patio. The younger kids, along with Clara, Faith, Deborah, Remi, and Sarah, were there. She’d stopped by to drop off some snacks for them and saw that Remi had her gun in her thigh holster and Sarah had hers in her underarm holster.

Everyone was on edge, and Hope just hoped and prayed that everyone would be okay.

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