Page 5 of Lockout

“They were starting to notice me,” she admitted. “It was a small pub that they were hanging out in. Not a biker bar, not anything connected to the LoS, and they started realizing I was there a couple times a week.” She rubbed her temple. “I always brought my laptop and tried to look busy, but one of them approached me one night. I thought he was hitting on me at the time, but now I’m wondering if he was scoping me out.”

“He was doing both,” I told her. I started pacing again. “What else?”

“From that point on, I could feel them watching me whenever I came into the pub. I’d made friends with one of thebartenders, and always came in on her nights, but I’d gotten on their radar.”

“Young, beautiful woman spending that much time in a bar? Alone? I would’ve been suspicious, too.” She gave me a curious look. “I would’ve figured hooker or up to no good.”

She gave a surprised laugh. “What does up to no good mean?”

“No good for me. So, cop.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “Well, that must have been what they thought, too, because I’m pretty sure they started following me.”

I stopped pacing and stared at her until her eyes dropped away from mine. “Did you tell your superiors?”

“Of course. I told Mike-”

“Who’s Mike?” I already wanted to break his legs.

“The lead agent, Mike Hill,” she explained.

“And?”

“He said it was all in my head. That they needed me to do this and I couldn’t stop now. They didn’t have anyone to replace me.”

“Wasn’t anyone else following these fuckers?” I barked. Now I wanted to break him slowly. You didn’t put innocent young women in harm’s way for your fucking operation. He should fucking know better. He did. But he didn’t give a shit what happened to Keely, clearly. This is why I hated feds, they only cared about their awards and promotions. I’d run into enough of them in my military career. They didn’t care about collateral damage. This one would. I’d teach him to care.

She wasn’t law enforcement. She wasn’t fucking trained in any of this shit. She’d probably inadvertently given herself away the first goddamn night and they’d been watching her ever since.

I was breathing hard, so pissed that I could barely keep my inner demon contained. My temper was legendary amongst those who’d witnessed it. So much so, that I did my best to keepthat shit under control. But there were times it broke free, and I just had to go along with whatever the fuck happened, because I wasn’t in control of rational thought.

“Anyway, when they sent the flowers, I figured that I’d better get out of there-”

“What flowers?” I snapped, working to keep a hold on my anger. I wasn’t pissed at her. It was obvious she hadn’t volunteered for this job. She hadn’t wanted to be following these guys. She’d been coerced into it.

“T-they left flowers in my apartment with a note saying they knew who I was… And signed by Hangman.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, uncrossing my arms I raked a hand through my hair. That wasn’t good. “He’s not going to let you go just because you left D.C.,” I told her.

She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again and nodded. “I figured.”

“What was your plan, Keely?” I asked, tone low and dangerous. She’d put herself in danger by coming here. She had been the whole time; she wasn’t able to get away from it. Instead she just further isolated herself. If they knew who she was, they knew about this house. But I was really pissed because she hadn’t come tome.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I’m just…doing my best to lay low.”

That wasn’t going to fucking work. Not with this crew. Not with Hangman. He didn’t let shit go. I had no doubt they were still trying to figure out who stole their drugs out from under them. The only reason they didn’t know it was us, was because we hadn’t left anyone alive to fucking snitch on us.

“Why wouldn’t you come to us?” I asked. That wasn’t what I wanted to know. Not really, but it would have to do.

“I didn’t want to drag you into this,” she cried out, jumping to her feet and waving her hands at me. “You have enough to deal with. You shouldn’t have to help me with my problems.”

Arching a brow, I asked, “What do you know about what we’ve been dealing with?”

“Nothing,” she said, her arms dropping down. “Dani’s let it slip that you still had them all living at the clubhouse. And I know about what was going on with Billie. Plus, you guys always seem to have one thing or another happening.”

“Looks like I need to have a talk with Toxic,” I said in an offhand manner. Although, Ialwaysneeded to have a talk with Toxic.

She stepped closer and drilled her finger into my chest. She glared up at me, ignoring my scowl as she poked me again. “Don’t you dare get Billie in trouble. I was the one who asked you guys to help her. Plus, we’re best friends and tell each other everything.”

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