Locke 2 (Blackwater Boys #4)

Thirty-Four

Kali

I knew he was in the room before I opened my eyes.

The bedroom felt full, as though it was crowded to the brim with people. That was what Locke did: he filled a space with the energy of ten men.

I opened my eyes. The room was pitched in darkness, but I could see the silhouette of him seated on the edge of the bed. His head was angled in my direction, as though he’d been watching me sleep. If it were another man, that would have unsettled me, but I felt the opposite with Locke.

In an instant, I remembered that face on the wall and felt a sharp bolt of fear. No, I was not unsettled by Locke at all. In fact, in a world so cruel, having Locke in the same room as me made me feel protected.

“Locke?” I whispered.

It took him a few moments to respond, “I’m here.”

“What time is it?”

“Early.”

I sat up quickly. “Did I sleep in?”

“You can rest a little longer—”

“We had plans,” I cut in. “You know, people to beat up, right?”

“Ever the violent one.” I could hear a smile in his voice.

“Jem said it, not me.” I felt my lips twitch. “And I’m not violent. You are, wolf .”

I held my breath, waiting for his response. I felt his eyes on me, taking me in. “If I’m the wolf, what does that make you, Kali?”

What did that make me? My mind searched for a quick response, but the only thing I could think about was the name I loved hearing on his tongue. “A little lioness, apparently,” I said in a small voice.

I was glad he couldn’t see my cheeks flaming. It took serious effort to talk to Locke with a bit of wit and sass. One had to be quick on their feet around him. He was serious and heavy, and it didn’t bother me, but I couldn’t see myself responding in kind. We had to balance each other out.

“That you are,” he replied, much too softly.

My whole body flushed, his gentle tone having a strange affect on me. I cleared my throat. “Now that I’m unemployed and sort of homeless, what are we doing this morning?”

“Breakfast,” he declared and, sensing my confusion, his voice sounded light as he added, “One can’t go beating on doors without food in their belly, can they?”

“You’re so good at it, I would have thought you’d have found a way around this irritating time suck.”

He stood up, towering over me. In a fresh suit, it occurred to me he’d changed and washed up. I could smell his cologne, fresh and delicious. “Unfortunately, I haven’t discovered a way to overcome our biological needs.”

I smiled wide, watching him make his way across the room. I hated that he was leaving. “I’ll find you downstairs then?”

“Downstairs,” he confirmed. “With your dog.”

My eyes bulged as I instinctively looked around the bed. Oh, my God. “I forgot to bring her up.”

“She made herself at home in Jem’s lap most of the night.”

Jem? I frowned. The dude didn’t strike me as the kind of guy that was tender to anything, even animals.

“Where did you sleep?” I wondered before he left me.

He paused at the door and turned his head to look at me. “Are you going to invite me into your bed again?”

“That was one time,” I corrected him. “And you made it clear it would only happen if we did more than sleep.”

“I was greedy.”

“Why didn’t you lay with me?”

“The same reason you hide.”

His words took me off guard. I licked my lips, searching for a safe topic, but there was nothing left. We were stripped bare. No more branches poked out around us to swing off when things got tricky. “How do we go forward, Locke?”

His answer came swift before he left me. “We start by having breakfast together, little lion.”

◆◆◆

Breakfast was lively.

Jem and Conor’s voices were booming. I heard them as I descended the stairs. The scent of food wafted through the air. Bacon and eggs and waffles. I entered the kitchen, surprisingly feeling relaxed around three huge guys as they sat around the kitchen table, shoving food in their mouths.

“Nice of you to join us,” Jem said by way of greeting.

I had to look at him to see if he was being snarky, but there was nothing mean in his eyes as he looked at me. “Coffee is made. It ain’t that fucking enchanted shit you had when you bumped into your fancy doctor, but it’s loaded with caffeine.”

My heart spiked at the mention of the doctor. My eyes swung to Locke. He was piling food on two plates, unbothered. “Don’t worry,” Jem whispered, though everyone could hear. “He knew all about that doozy, apparently.”

“I know everything,” Locke stated.

I cracked a smile. “Is he dead then?”

They stilled, looking at me with surprise.

“Would it bother you if he was?” Conor wondered.

I feigned dismay. “I was just really hoping for that follow up.”

Conor chuckled. Jem grinned into his food. Locke stared at me like he was pulling me apart. And he was. I may as well have been naked the way his eyes trekked my body. He settled a plate on the table. “For you,” he told me.

I sat down next to Conor and down at my plate. Locke had filled it to the brim. My stomach grumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten in who knows how long. As I dug into the food, they chatted with ease.

“Has Locke filled you in on Tammy's ex boyfriend?” Conor asked.

I shook my head no and went to glance at Locke. He was already at my side, sliding a coffee to me. I looked up at him, our eyes locking for a long second before he moved away.

“It’s a brand-new development,” Jem said. “That Keenan fuck is hiding.”

“Hiding?” I repeated.

“Yep, Locke sent some of his boys over to question him. Fucker was working in some shelter type shit job, and the second the boys started to ask about Tammy, he bolted.”

I looked at Locke. He was leaning back against the kitchen counter, nursing a coffee, listening with an unreadable look on his face.

“They weren’t obvious about it,” Conor added. “A couple normal looking guys asking easy questions. He didn’t buy it at all.”

I tried to view Locke’s guys as “normal looking.” We had already had a few visits last night. Men with hard faces, dressed in casual clothes, taking orders from Conor and Locke without asking a single question.

I noticed one very interesting oddity they shared between each other. They had numbers inked on their wrist. I glimpsed a 14 and a 21. They were enamoured by Conor, and the way they glimpsed his wrist, and the number inked there made me wonder what Conor did to earn their respect. It was the one thing Charlotte had never been forthcoming to me about. I knew what the tattoos represented, just not what the person did to earn it.

And Locke, with the number 1 inked on his wrist, was the reason these men existed.

“Do you know where he is?” I asked.

“He’s hiding out in some seedy club,” Jem answered. “And you won’t believe this, but you know that complex being built behind Lenny’s house? Guess who owns it.”

He had his brows up at me, he was so chuffed about this. I just looked at him, already guessing. “Ambrose?”

“That’s right.”

I frowned and took a sip from my coffee. “That’s not that big a deal, is it?”

Now Jem chuckled, swinging his eyes at Conor and Locke who were not smiling back. I raised my brows, annoyed. “Is there something else?”

“Guess who Keenan works for.”

The coffee turned to ash in my mouth. “Ambrose?”

“One of his companies.” Now Jem made a thoughtful humming sound. “You know what’s interesting about Ambrose, Kali?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” I replied, dryly.

“He enjoys employing men freshly out of prison.”

Now I bit my lip, already aware of this. “It’s hard for them to find work. They can’t change their lives if they’re constantly being judged for what they did. They’re trying to get rehabilitated, and if you keep stripping their ability to get jobs or places to stay, they’re going to offend again because they’ve run out of options.”

Jem watched for some time, the humour gone. He nodded, and something gentle flickered in his expression. “On this, I agree.”

The boys watched us. Jem was being nice to me. He was agreeing with me. I took another sip of my coffee, and admitted, “The fact two hits have come from Ambrose is not a good sign. I agree with you, too.”

He held my gaze. “We’re trying to find anyone in that little boy’s immediate circle. The fact Ambrose personally made contact with him raises suspicion.”

“I’m open to Ambrose being a suspect,” I said to him. “It’s just hard to learn that someone you thought might be a hero to children might actually be a villain.”

His smile was sad. “It’s devastating, especially to those little kids.”

I nodded, smiling back.

This was the most ease between us.

Had we reached a truce? This was a micro step in the right direction.

Conor grinned. “I can’t wait to do this in Blackwater. Have us all together again, with Dom sitting right there.” He pointed at an empty chair across the table. Jem’s eyes pierced that empty spot, and he swallowed another big gulp of his coffee, looking bothered.

“That won’t be for some time,” Locke replied. “Dom is in a very bad place.”

Jem tapped the table, thinking. “Kali, did you want to visit that club tonight?”

I raised a brow. “Me?”

Locke edged closer, though his face remained empty. Jem nodded. “We can’t make noise, right? I would love to have the club door bashed down, but that’s too much attention, and since we know there’s a hole in this adorable little town and Lenny might be in it, we have to think outside the box.”

I nodded, following along. Smiling, I said, “You want me to lure him out?”

“You’re a gorgeous girl.”

“Absolutely not,” Locke cut in.

Jem didn’t pay him any attention. He kept his eyes on me. “Bring him into a backroom. We’ll be waiting—”

“I will shoot you if you continue speaking,” Locke retorted, and this time malice filled his tone. His expression was darker than I had ever seen. “This is my woman, and you will not use her like a fucking prop.”

My heart hiccupped at his words. My woman. His possessiveness seared me.

“Can’t she decide for herself?” Jem asked, calmly. His eyes were still locked on me. “Do you have any brighter ideas, Locke?”

I looked up at Locke. “I can do it. Anything to keep things quiet.”

“It wouldn’t be quiet if he touched you,” Locke retorted. “If he so much as looked at you in any fucking way—”

“Max,” Jem cut in, finally looking up at him. “Let your woman decide. She can say no.”

Locke clenched his teeth, but he didn’t reply.

He looked at me.

They all looked at me.

I mulled it over, and the more I did, the more it made sense to do it.

“It will be fast,” I said. “I can do this, Locke. We can get information out of him about where Tammy might be, and we wouldn’t be breaking down doors. It’ll be quiet, like you want.”

Locke was so pissed, his face turned a shade of red. But then he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Then I have to be there.”

Jem groaned. “Fuck me, Locke, you stand out like the fucking Statue of Liberty.”

“She’s not leaving my sight.”

“Then you need to change. You need to pretend to be…fucking normal.”

Locke nodded, like that was an easy task. “I can do that. I’ll do that.”

My lips flinched.

This was going to be interesting.