Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"Don't worry about that," Duke said, his hand sliding up my thigh a little. "I'll get you used to the communal shower thing. Then, by the time you got kids trying to break in on you, it won't even phase you."

"You do realize those are two completely different..."

"Don't bring your logic into this," he said with a smile. "I was trying to inform you that anytime you're naked from here on out, I want to be in on it. Also, I like the idea of having kids."

"Good to know," I said with a nod. Meanwhile my ovaries were doing a little happy dance.

We pulled up the road toward the compound a couple minutes later, making me stiffen in my seat and lean forward, trying to get a better look.

But there was no 'getting a better look'.

This was mostly because where there used to just be a high chainlink fence, there was a giant cement wall.

"What..." I started, shaking my head.

"Yeah, we and the Hailstorm people have been busy as fuck," he said as we pulled inside the opening. But he didn't pull into the side field like we used to. We pulled into a giant structure much like the one at Hailstorm that was connected by a (new) hallway to the compound.

And that wasn't the only change.

"What was that on the roof?" I heard myself asking as we got out. Duke came around to me, taking my hand, and pulling me threw a door with a handprint access, and into the hall. The hall led us right into the main area of the club house, right next to the full bar, a few feet from the front door.

It was all different from the last time I saw it. Part of that was because it was just so empty without all the men around. The other part was the fact that they had decorated. I thought, with a heavy heart, that it was probably because everything in the old room had probably had blood on it. The walls were painted a medium gray. The floors were cement like they had been, but painted a darker gray. The couches, chairs, coffee table, TV... it was all new. As was the front and back doors. Where they used to be your standard issue security doors, they were replaced with ones that resembled bank vault doors more than house doors, with just small glass panels to see through.

"Wow," I said, shaking my head. "You guys have been busy."

"Babe..." he said, shaking his head with a smile like I was being silly.

"What?"

"This is nothing compared to the rest," he informed me, pulling me into the hall. Again, new paint everywhere. And all the doors were opened to the bedrooms, all of them repainted and bare, no personal items left. "This way," he said when I automatically went to move toward his room.

He pulled me instead toward the landing to the basement where I found another of those big security doors that he accessed with a code. It opened with a mild groan and we moved down.

Really, I hadn't expected much.

What could be so different about a basement after all?

And while there was still the vault toward the back and the washers and driers against that wall, there were other things too. Like a bunch more bunks, a mini kitchen, and a bunch of storage racks filled with food.

"You made another fallout shelter," I said with a smile, remembering the other one fondly.

"For everyone. There are even blow up mattress in case we have more people here than beds," he said, gesturing to the lower shelf of storage where eight boxes of blow up mattresses were sitting.

"What's that door?" I asked, turning and pointing to where one was situated next to the laundry where it had never been before.

"That's the best part," he said, excited like a kid to show you his Christmas presents.

He walked over to the door, hit another long code in, and pulled the door open.

"It was a fuck of a lot of work dealing with the concrete and trying to dig out the space for this landing," he told me, hitting a light to illuminate the small space that was, indeed, a landing. Meaning it was a space small enough you couldn't even throw your arms out in and a ladder leading up the wall.

"Ah..." I said, shaking my head as I looked up, feeling a bit lightheaded at how steep it looked.

"It looks worse than it is. Go on. I'm right behind you."

Not wanting to be a chicken and maybe trusting my newfound muscles more than my old puny ones, I grabbed the rung right above my shoulders and put my feet on the bottom rung.

I sucked in a deep breath and hauled it. I knew it would only be worse if I took it slowly, let my fear build, and let my arms get weaker. I could hear Duke behind me, but knew better than to look down.