Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"Fuck no." That was Duke's immediate, knee-jerk reaction.

"She only ever trains with me and while I'm taller than her, our weight isn't that different. She needs to practice trying to take down someone as big as you."

"You got guys here..." he kept trying to object.

"Oh, stop being a pussy and try to tackle your girlfriend to the ground."

Eventually, as she almost always did, Lo won out.

Then I tried to attack Duke.

Which was very much like trying to attack a brick wall.

Even though it was clear he was holding back a lot, he still got me on the ground more times than I could count and the most I managed was a solid crack to his jaw that made him grunt.

"Hmm," Lo said, shaking her head as Duke pulled me onto my feet and kissed my temple in apology for my obvious defeat. "I think you should work with her when she gets back to the compound. She'll still come up here for training and I'll have her start working with people other than me. But you're a lot bigger than most of my guys so you'll give her another leg up."

It was agreed upon and I was actually pretty excited about the idea.

"It makes for great foreplay too," Lo informed me as I watched Duke leave.

It was the ninth day, two days longer than we originally thought, when a caravan of black SUVs with blackout windows came pulling up to the compound.

When I saw Reign and Repo hop out, I didn't think anything of it. They came all the time to see their families. And I stopped being envious of that and was happy for Maze and Summer. They put on brave faces and did their best to be both parents to all the kids, but it was obvious they missed their husbands, especially with pregnancy really starting to weigh on the almost-eight month along Summer.

But when the third SUV opened up and I saw Duke, I knew.

The compound was done.

We were going back.

And as much as I had come to be comfortable at Hailstorm and even form friendships with some of them, especially Lo, Malcolm, and L, I always knew it was temporary. It wasn't home. I still felt a small pang of sadness at leaving.

That being said, that pang was completely smothered by the overwhelming excitement and happiness at being able to see Duke anytime I wanted, not having to sneak hours when we could manage it.

As such, I dropped the knife I was holding and I flew across the field to where Duke had paused, arms wide, waiting for me to throw myself into them.

And I did, the smile big enough to hurt.

And he wrapped me up tight, lifted me off my feet, and spun me in a circle.

Reign and Repo went inside to fetch their women and kids and, after some hurried packing, we were all on our way back to the compound, Lo in tow so she could see Cash.

"Happy," Duke said, eyes moving over to me for a second. Likely because I had been staring at his profile and smiling like an idiot since we left.

"Yeah," I agreed and his hand landed on my thigh, squeezed, then stayed there.

"Me too," he agreed.

"Is everyone moving in?" I asked. "Summer and Maze and the kids?"

"Yeah. Until we can figure out and get rid of the threat, it's better for no one to go home. Reign and Repo have pretty safe places, but they are having Hailstorm go over and make them even safer for the future. For now, though, it is about to get a fuckuva lot more PG over at the compound."

"They're good kids," I defended, knowing full-well that they were all a handful thanks to a more hands-off approach to parenting that The Henchmen preferred, letting the kids get into trouble and scratched up and bloodied and bruised, and only stepping in when things seemed like they might damage property or end up with a broken neck. And I'm not exaggerating. The kids were fearless. I'd seen some of the guys at Hailstorm have to climb trees to get them down before they went through with their plans to jump out of the trees and onto a small workout trampoline to "bounce" into a pile of pillows they stole from all the barracks beds.

Duke gave me a knowing smile. "They're hellions. But that's how they're supposed to be."

"You like kids," I said, more of a statement than a question.

But he answered anyway. "Yeah. Grew up around a lot of them. Having them around feels natural." He paused, looking over at me as my eyes went out the windshield. "You?"

"I never really spent any time around kids until I went to Hailstorm. But, yeah, I like them. They cause a good kind of stress. If that makes any sense. Though, the not being able to shower alone thing is a bit rough."