And, to be fair, the club had dropped the security on all the other women and the kids. That said, they hadn't been the one kidnapped and surveilled and confronted on multiple occasions.
Fallon had suggested we let it drop a week before. Begrudgingly, I might add, since he was clearly not in agreement with his brother and his father, but hadn't quite gotten the leadership position yet, so he had to follow orders for the time being.
I had been the one to put my foot down about it. Because I'd just gotten the woman back in my life. I couldn't let anything happen to her.
I'd lost her once.
I refused to do it again.
Even her father had pulled me aside and suggested it was time to loosen the reins a little bit.
From all the information we'd been gathering thanks to Finn's dogged determination to know everything there was to know about the Alcazar Cartel, it seemed like everything was okay. For the moment.
The cartel, led by the enigmatic Andres Alcazar, were minding their own business, setting up their own headquarters.
It didn't escape anyone's notice that the house they'd chosen had once belonged to the town's biggest villain, back in Reign's early days as a leader, some sick fuck by the name of Lex Keith.
We were all just hoping it was a coincidence, not some sort of power move.
The mansion had been rebuilt several years ago, but thanks to the ugly history, there hadn't been any buyers. Until someone moved into town who didn't give a shit about the sordid past.
Security fences went up, guard dogs went out, and men could be seen pulling shifts checking the perimeter.
But no more violence was spilling out onto the streets.
Andres hadn't had any more contact with Andi.
It really was time to let things go back to normal.
What can I say? I liked having an excuse to keep my eye on her at all times. It was interesting to see her in her element, cooing at animals, soothing scared cats, helping wrestle angry large dogs who were being babies about getting their nails trimmed.
I'd always known her to be knowledgeable and calm around animals, but I'd never seen her with their owners, calmly and confidently explaining their care needs. In the past, she'd always deferred the authoritative shit to her mom. It was interesting to see how college and life away from her crew had changed her.
"What? You getting sick of me?" I asked as I walked her up to the back door of her office.
"You know that's not it, right?" she said, stopping, pressing a hand to her heart.
"I'm joking, baby. If you're not sick of me after all these years, I don't think it's going to happen."
"It's just a waste of your time. You look bored half the day. And we shored up the place."
That was fair.
She didn't technically own the building—though she told me that was her end goal, her dream, so she could do with it what she wanted to make the vet experience better for animals and humans alike—but we'd managed to convince the actual owner that the building needed to be more secure. Then we'd hired local experts to lock it down tight. There were locks with intricate passcodes to get in and newly installed security doors. Cameras had been set up to capture damn near every inch of the place. There were even panic buttons placed sporadically around the office in case of an emergency.
I didn't know what the future held for the club, but I wanted to make sure that my woman was safe no matter what came our way.
"Guess I've been a little over-protective," I admitted as she punched in her code to the door. "Today can be my last day."
"It will give you some time to miss me," she told me, giving me that pure sunshine smile.
I would, too.
Since having her back, I couldn't get enough of her.
That said, it was time to start planning some shit. Some putting-down-roots and building-a-future shit. A lot of it was a surprise for Andi, and since we spent almost every moment together after work, it would be good to have some time to myself to research things without constantly worrying about her catching a look at my phone.
There were big things coming.
I just had to get to work on it all.
Andi - 4 months
"No, absolutely not." I didn't like how snippy my voice sounded. I didn't like the way my arms folded and my chin jerked up when I said the words either.
But, well, no.
Absolutely not.
"Andi," Niro tried, giving me his soft voice because he knew it worked on me. And it did. Just not this time.
Just this once, I was putting my foot down.
"No, don't Andi me like I'm being unreasonable. Do you not remember how bad it was last time? Because I remember."