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Her cheeks flushed, just like they always did when I called her that. She loved the little names we had for her. “Yeah.”
Capone drew her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her lips. She gripped his cut, her eyes closing. I knew she was just as worried as I was. She didn’t like this either. “Do as they say, you hear me? I can’t concentrate if I think you’re unsafe.”
She cupped his face in her delicate hands, and he shut his eyes for a moment, relishing in her touch. The tenderness he showed her would always warm a part of my soul. A man would be soft for the right person, and she was our person. “I will. I promise.” A sweet smile tilted her lips. “I’m a good girl, remember?”
Capone and I both chuckled before he kissed her again, squeezing her ass. She moaned into his mouth, her lips parting beneath his. With a growl, he released her and then gripped a handful of my hair in his hand, yanking my head back to thrust his tongue into my mouth. I moaned, greedily sucking on it before he pulled back, his eyes dark and hazy with lust.
“Keep her safe,” he growled.
I nodded once, tightening my jaw. “Always,” I vowed.
April was asleep in the passenger seat when we got to the safe house, and River’s head was on my shoulder, his eyes drooping. Probably didn’t help that I was combing my fingers through his hair either. It was his biggest weakness and put him to sleep quickly every single time. But shit, touching him like this was soothing for me, too.
None of us wanted River in on the action. Capone had brought it up a couple of times, but we always shot it down. It wasn’t that we didn’t trust River. We were all just super protective of our boy, and no matter how much we trained him, none of us ever thought he was ready enough. He was our baby, and we just wanted to protect him as much as we protected April.
Thankfully, he didn’t take it to heart. I was pretty sure he liked being babied.
“I’ll carry her inside if you guys can get the bags,” Smokey said quietly as he shut the truck off in front of the secluded cabin. We were staying at a state park about two hours away from home, and we’d booked under one of our fake IDs to keep the fuckers after April off our trail. The last thing we needed was trouble when we were trying to keep her safe.
“We’ve got it,” I assured him as I pushed open the truck door. River quietly groaned and stretched, his shirt riding up to reveal just a sliver of tattooed skin before he slid out of the truck behind me. I let down the tailgate and grabbed the two small duffels—one that Smokey, River, and I were sharing and the other solely for April’s things. She was picky about that kind of shit, so we let it be, even if we did prefer to travel with as little as possible.River grabbed the few bags of groceries we’d brought along with us.
Smokey was waiting by the door with a sleeping April cradled in his arms as we made our way up to the door of the cabin. I fished the key out of my pocket and unlocked it before opening it so he could carry her to bed.
“Unpack those groceries,” I told River, nodding my head in the direction of the kitchen. “I’m going to get a shower, and then I’ll start making dinner.”
“Want me to fire up the grill?” he asked. “I can get the charcoal out of the back of the truck.”
I tugged him close to me, and he let loose a low groan. He was just about as needy as our woman, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I swiped my tongue over his lips, and he stepped closer, pressing his hard cock against my thigh. “No, baby boy. Just put away the groceries and relax. I’ll have Smokey get the grill going.”
Pressing a kiss to his lips, I released him. Smokey slipped out of the room we were sharing with April and quietly shut the door behind him. “Hey, can you get the grill going?” I asked him. “I’m going to hop in the shower.”
“Kind of pointless to shower and then get try to cook on the grill, isn’t it?” he asked, furrowing his brows.
I shrugged. “Being in the truck for so long has got me crawling out of my skin.” I hated sitting still. Not to mention, being in confined quarters for so long left me feeling wrong. Like my skin didn’t fit my body. A shower always helped sort me out. Like a cleanse, in a way.
He nodded in understanding. I traced my fingers over the back of his hand as I passed him. He turned his head, his eyes meeting mine, and the corner of his lips tilted up the tiniest bit. When I peeked in on April before heading into the other bathroom in the hallway to quickly shower, she was still asleep, curled up on her side, her arms hugging the pillow her head was resting on.
Fuck, she was beautiful. I could stare at her all day. Looking at her, I just wanted to lock her away in a tower somewhere where the rest of the world couldn’t touch her and contaminate her happiness.
We’ll keep you safe, my girl. You’ve got my word.
April hummed under her breath as she played in Smokey’s hair, braiding and unbraiding parts of his hair to keep her fingers and mind occupied. I knew she was worried about our guys. Hell, I was, too. They were radio silent, and while I knew that was necessary for not only April’s safety but theirs too, it didn’t make it suck any less.
We couldn’t even distract ourselves with sex. When April was worried like this, sex was off the table. She couldn’t get in the mood. Sure, we could play with each other without her, but she needed our support. Fuck, we neededeach other.
For two days now, we’d been sitting here pretending to watch TV, sleeping, cuddling, and trying to find things to occupy our minds like walks, swimming in the lake, and even the little museum in the state park. But the distractions never lasted long, not when our men were kind of MIA.
River was curled up in my arms, his head resting on my shoulder, blankly staring at the TV across the room above the fireplace but not really seeing it. Smokey and I were doing our best to hold him and April together. Hell, getting River to eat was a fucking headache. He had no appetite. I couldn’t blame him, but he still needed to eat in case something went down. I didn’t think it would, but we always needed to remain on top of what was going on.
At any chance, shit could go sideways.
“I hate this,” April suddenly spoke up, her hands stilling in Smokey’s hair. Smokey leaned his head back, frowning at her. She blew out a harsh breath. “We can’t get a single fucking update?”
I looked at her in surprise. She normally held herself together pretty well, but the stress was evidently taking its toll on her. I hated that I couldn’t take it away from her so she could just be happy.
Smokey propped his head back on her thigh to look up at her a little easier. His fingers wound around her calves, and he squeezed, grounding her. She sighed, her head hanging forward, her hair a curtain around her beautiful face, blocking me from seeing her. “We’re all worried, but we have to trust them. Capone and Tank know what they’re doing, and those two men would never let Hawke and Brewer get hurt,” he reminded her. “They’ve done much more dangerous things than this before, remember?”
The most dangerous op the club had ever done was infiltrating the sex-trafficking ring Smokey was found in. It was pure carnage, but everyone had come out unscathed. It was a near miss for most of us, but we’d managed.
