33

STEEL

 “Steel, now I know you think it is risky, but I believe it will work.” Mannix tried to calm me, but it was way too late for that. Never in our years in the military would I have ever asked this of one of my brothers, and here I sat with this stupid fucked-up plan put on the table, and I was supposed to agree? No fucking way. Wasn’t fucking happening.

Turning hard eyes on my president and former CO, I glared at him.

“Pres? Got anything to say,” I ground out, my tone harsher than I had ever used with him.

Booth had his lips pursed in contemplation, and I knew just from that look that I was fucked.

Fuck!

“I see no other way, brother. We will have eyes everywhere, and every contingency imaginable will be put in place,” he answered, making my blood run cold and boil at the same time. “We won’t let anything go wrong.”

I wanted him to promise me that, but I would be waiting a fucking long time for that to happen. Nothing could be promised here except for shit to go wrong.

“If you were in my position now, would you be jumping up and down to volunteer for this? Deck, would you?” I nailed Booth and Deck with what I hoped was a look that would change their minds on this absurd mission. Deck dropped his head for a second before looking back up at me.

“No.” One simple word. One word I wanted to fucking yell at all of them.

Booth looked at me, and his gaze never wavered. “No,” he admitted quietly.

Throwing my hands up in the air, I growled in frustration.

“Then why am I meant to agree to this?”

“It’s too dangerous. There are far too many variables for things to go wrong. We can’t ask this of anyone.” Creed’s voice broke into the silent staring match.

I whipped my head around and faced my road captain. Instantly, I knew where his head was going, and with one look between us, he had my back on this. Lifting my chin at my brother, I returned my glare back to the other men at the table. Darth was missing from this meeting. Normally, he would be there, and I also knew he would have my back with this, but Vegas had wanted to go home to see her mother and sisters, so he went as not only her man but as her detail. He would never admit it, but Vegas was his, and he would never see her go alone.

“Booth, please. There has to be another way, please,” I begged my president. I sounded like a girl, but I didn’t give a shit. This was my fucking life on the line here, a life with my woman and my unborn child—and it was one fight I wouldn’t stop until I won.

Booth scrubbed his hands down over his face. The man was stressed the fuck out. Being second in the club hierarchy, there was no one more than me—well, now Stella—who knew his struggles to keep everyone safe. When we started the club, we knew from the get-go that we wanted to stay on the right side of the law. The whole illegal guns and drugs thing were never going to be our thing. Our gun shop and range were operated strictly under the letter of the council by-laws, and our strip club had a strict ‘no sex, no touching’ policy. For years, we had prospered financially from these and our other businesses. Other MCs in our area had never bothered us with all that territory bullshit because they knew we were no threat to them or their dealings, so when Rogue popped up and started terrorising us, Booth’s stress levels multiplied.

“Cooper, I have tried to come up with another plan of action. Do you think I really want to put you through this? I have a wife and child on the way, too, so I feel your trepidation and your pain, brother, but I am fucking responsible for the whole club—every member, every employee, every child. Deck is getting married tomorrow here, and I have two fucking men with automatic weapons positioned on the roof so no one takes pot shots at the fucking wedding party. This is happening because of me. This cunt is doing this because of me, so trust me, brother, I haven’t taken this decision lightly.” Booth’s voice was low and pained, his tone weary and tired, and his face looking much the same. Since Stella and he officially got together, Booth had dropped all the personal guilt he had carried since Afghanistan when his blood brother was killed. He had been, well, happy. It was fucking awesome to see, not just him but Deck and me as well. We were happy for the first time in a very long time.

I gave all that credit to my beauty, and I was sure Deck and Booth credited their women for their chance at happiness, as well. Being in love was something I never expected in my future, but I had it, and there was no fucking way I was giving it up for anything or anyone. Losing it would kill me. Mia was my other half, the most important part of me that made me whole. Her beautiful smile stole my breath every time she graced me with one. She made my heart beat.

Suddenly, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and the tingling sensation was something I knew well. Before I could turn to see the most beautiful woman in the world, I heard her sweet voice saying the worst thing that I never wanted to hear.

“I’ll do it.”

Fuck.

Jumping out of my chair, I rushed over to Mia, who was standing in the doorway of the war room. She had to have been lingering to know what she agreed to, and that earned her a spanking. The women had slowly become more involved in the business of the club since Rogue came into the picture. We all decided they needed to be included, so they were better informed and aware of the dangers following them, but they knew the war room was off limits unless they were invited in, which was mostly when they needed a dressing down for doing bad shit. Stella and Charlotte knew that better than anyone since they’d copped a dressing down when they hid Stella’s injuries and the whole horrible story of being brutalised by her stepfamily from the club.

“Mia, first off, you know you shouldn’t be anywhere near this room. And two, there ain’t no fucking way you are doing anything, so don’t even go there,” I told her, my face only centimetres from hers.

Her beautiful chocolate eyes sparkled with fire, and I waited for the inevitable argument coming my way, but I didn’t give a shit. She wasn’t putting herself in danger.

Pulling away, Mia narrowed her eyes at me before walking around me and moving further into the war room.

“Booth, will it help if I do this?” she asked, completely ignoring my deep growl of frustration.

If this were under any other circumstances, I would be proud as fuck the loyalty and love she was showing my club, but my heart couldn’t take this. We had no idea how stable in the head Tori was. She was hiding from us—that much we knew—since she hadn’t shown up for her shifts at the Bar and Grill or the strip club. She had to be on to us, not to mention her close ties with Callie. That scared the shit out of me because Callie hated her sister, with a passion, so I didn’t want Mia within spitting distance of that bitch.

I glared at my president, but the arsehole refused to look at me. Because he was going to ask her to be involved in this stupid plan. Fuck!

“I believe it will, yes. But this is totally up to you, sweetheart. The brothers are split with your participation in this plan. Deck, Mannix, and I are for it. Creed is against it, and I know Darth would vote against it if he were here. And, of course, your man has voiced his displeasure, loudly, but ultimately, it is up to you, Mia,” Booth replied quietly. Finally, he looked at me, his eyes resigned, but when those chocolate orbs turned to me, my stomach dropped. Because in them, I saw her decision. She was going to do it.

“Cooper, your club deserves to be safe, and looking over our shoulders is getting old. Shiloh deserves to be able to play at the park without the possibility of someone sitting in a car with a high-powered rifle pointed at her. Our child deserves to be able to do the same one day, as does Charlotte’s and Stella’s babies.” Coming back to me, she lifted her hands to my face and cradled my cheeks between them. Her soft hands were like a balm to my torment.

“I trust you, babe. You would never let any harm come to our baby or me, and neither will any of these men in this room. Let me do this. I promise to do everything you say, and I won’t play the hero. I just want this over, for everybody.” Her heartfelt words hit me exactly where she wanted them to hit.

The club was growing, and it was a good thing. All the babies were due to be born in the coming months, and Lucky was coming back into the fold after recovering from being shot—more than likely by the hands of or the go-ahead from Rogue. Then there was the loss of Dundee. I knew we had to do this to get closer to Rogue, but fuck me. Wiring up my woman and getting her to lure Tori to the Bar and Grill after hours screamed clusterfuck in my book.

Pressing my mouth to the inside of her soft palm, I groaned in defeat as I took her into my arms and crushed her curvy body to my hard one. I held her tight and looked over her head at Booth and Deck. As VP of this club, I had equal decision-making abilities. They could be vetoed, but then again, Booth’s could be, too. And I dared any fucker to veto any of the stipulations I was about to put down.

“I want Creed and me positioned close with our sniper rifles, and I want to be able to hear every word Mia speaks. I want Mannix in the club, hiding somewhere so he can get to Mia if Tori starts to suspect anything. I mean, the fucking second I think Tori is onto her, Mannix shows himself and gets Mia out of there. We are all going to have communicators so I can hear every single word exchanged. And I want Mia in a bulletproof vest,” I demanded, silently daring anyone to disagree with me.   

“Absolutely. Anything you want,” Booth agreed straight away.

“That’s good because I also want the lead on this one.” I challenged my president and former CO. This demand was non-negotiable. If my woman was putting herself and my baby at risk, then I was going to be the one to call the shots.

Booth nodded his head slowly. “Fair enough. This is your mission, your plan, your call, so you are in charge,” he promised, which I knew wasn’t easy for him to do. As our CO, Booth had taken the responsibilities of that title very seriously. He directed us through hundreds of missions and kept us whole—until the last one.

I waited for the panic to set in and the need to run off to the workout room to exhaust myself physically until the memories disappeared, but I only felt fear for Mia and this crazy-arse scheme to get Tori to confess. Despite all that, I literally felt my shoulders lift, free from the weight of all the shit from fucked-up day in the desert. I had Mia to thank for that. Her unwavering support even when I had been a dick to her, flaunting Callie in her face, the mixed signals I’d sent her, and then going back into her sister's arms. Fuck, Mia stayed and helped me see the light even when I lost all my facilities and proposed! Then with my injury, she made me see that it was a part of me and not something to be ashamed of or something to hide.

Without her, I would have gone back to being a shell of a man who loathed himself, wallowing in the pity parties I loved to throw myself with the faceless women and emptiness. I didn’t want that anymore because Mia had shown me the sunshine, the beauty of living again. I wanted Mia, and I wanted our baby, but I wanted it without shadows lurking in the background—Rogue, Callie, Tori. To be rid of that darkness, I had to follow through with this plan, no matter how bitter the taste was in my mouth from it.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed my face into Mia’s, nose to nose. Her brown eyes swam with emotion. Emotion for me.

I took her hand and pressed it to my chest where my heart sat beating for her. I placed my own hand in the same spot on her chest, and the steady staccato beneath my palm was a balm to my wounds.

“We do this my way. You do everything I tell you, no questions, no sass. If Tori is the one giving out intel on the club, then that means she knows Rogue. And that cunt isn’t getting anywhere near you,” I said firmly. On this, I wasn’t budging. Mia’s safety and the safety of our child depended on her following my every directive to the letter.

“I promise, Cooper, but nothing is going to happen because you will be there.” Her smile—my smile—was wide and bright, but it was her trust that floored me, bringing me to my knees.

“Fuck, I love you, Beauty. I love you to the fucking moon and stars and back,” I whispered before I crashed my mouth to hers, nipping, and sucking at her lips. She opened for me immediately, and our tongues found each other. Fuck, I wished we were alone. Fucking my woman on the war room table would make for some pleasant daydreaming during future meetings.

“Okay, before you start ripping her clothes off and traumatising us for the rest of time, maybe we should get to the details. I still have to get married tomorrow,” Deck said drily.

Not removing my lips from Mia’s, I lifted the middle finger of my free hand, which earned a round of chuckles from my brothers.

Mia giggled against my lips, but because we were so lost in each other, we both missed the look of pain that flashed across Creed’s face.