AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chase smirks. “He’sbusy.”
Punk lets out a low whistle. “Shit’s getting serious between those two.”
“It’s always been serious. The dumb ass is finally waking up. If he wants to keep Opal for himself, he needs to fucking man up and commit,” I say honestly.
“Fuck. First you, prez. Now Gauge. It’s like a fucking disease is spreading around here,” Punk jokes. “I feel like I need a damn immunization shot or something.”
“One, two, three, not it!” Chase chants while touching his nose.
“Oh, hell no! I’m not the next sucker to get tied down to some pussy,” Punk fights back before realizing what he said out loud in my presence. “No offense, prez.”
Josephine cocks her head and attitude at Punk.
He lowers his head in shame. “Sorry…sis.”
Josephine clutches her chest. “Aww, Punk!”
Punk’s smile practically splits his face in half. “Really? You’re okay with that name? Not going to bite my head off like all the other times I used the wrong name?”
Josephine sniffs and her eyes grow misty. “No, I really like it…little bro.”
Punk guffaws. “I am notlittle bro. Big bro or bro, but not little bro.”
“You are solittle bro,” she giggles.
“Yeah, anyone tell you it’s uncool to pick your own name, little bro?” Chase jabs. “That’s almost as bad as Stage and his obsession with John Wayne and going around referring to himself as the Duke.”
Now that was fucking hilarious. Stage will never live that one down, mostly because our crew won’t let him forget it. I push aside my amusement. “Brothers, let’s focus.”
“I’m taking Triple, Stage, Eagle, and Flay for my team,” Punk says, all joking gone.
“I’ll put Reaper and Brass on patrol duty between all the properties. I need to notify Luke at the station that Jacob will be making a move soon. I’ll have Gauge ask Lorenzo to station his men at the MC build site as well as Josephine’s condo,” I say evenly. “In the meantime, I will stay with Josephine.”
“We should inform the construction crew and Jared that something is about to go down. They need to be on alert,” Chase suggests.
“I can do it,” Josephine volunteers.
I look at her and consider it. “I’ll allow you to call Jared since you are close with him, but let’s have him fill in the crew as a whole, that way all of them know at once and have the same information.”
She nods her delicate head and I can’t help but reach out and grab her, holding her to me and resting my chin on the top of her head. Time is running out for Jacob, and soon the threat of him will be a bad memory. But until then, I won’t be letting her out of my sight.
* * *
Preparing for battle is always a sobering moment. You’ve been trained for this line of work. You’ve conditioned your body for all the emotional, mental, and physical shit about to come your way. You have all the tactical gear which will keep you protected when push comes to shove. And you have the knowledge and capability to wield the weapons given to you.
For all intents and purposes, you should be ready, but that’s not necessarily the case, because there’s always the fear.
The fear of the unknown is one big bitch. It fucks with your head. It fucks with your sleep. It fucks with your appetite. And it fucks with your concentration. Fear can only be bottled up so much before it overflows onto everything else.
I deal with this fear by working out. I run. I go to the gym and lift weights. I punch the bag around for hours. And it helps, but it doesn’t conquer all my worries.
The only thing that does the trick is being with Josephine. When I hold her in my arms at night close to my chest with our hellhound sleeping on top of our legs, my fear subsides. But I need more. I need to bury myself deep inside of her to fucking silence the fear that grows each passing day as we approach our fake wedding. Unfortunately, it will have to wait.
We’re three days from operation-take-down-Jacob and the pressure is getting to everyone. Chase has been practically living in the garage—the asshole hasn’t slept more than an hour or two at a time and even then, it’s only because he accidently fell asleep at the computer. Punk and his team come home to shower and sleep, but not much else. Gauge has been going back and forth with Lorenzo and he’s ready to throw in the towel on the fucker. I’m trying to keep all these pieces together and none of them want to stay stuck.
But Josephine, she’s been acting,different. I thought she would go stir-crazy during lockdown, but she has been unnaturally calm. She has been handling all of her work from the rental, using FaceTime to communicate with her crew and see what’s going on. Work is flying along and they’re doing their best to help with the project.
With more free time on her hands, my pixie has been joining me at the gym. The women who always ogle me are furious to see my fiancée in tow, but I’m relieved to have her in my presence. One, I don’t need to worry about where she is. Two, I get to work out with the love of my life. Three, I get to watch her walk around the gym in her hot shorts and sports bras. And four, all the fucking predatory women are backing the fuck off, finally. No means no, but it doesn’t stop half these women from reaching out and grabbing my arms, pecs, or ass. That shit ended as soon as Josephine walked through the door.
