Duke(63)

Gen liked Duke’s idea of manning the bar, so she made herself comfortable on a barstool. Most of the women knew who she was, and some called her Gen while others called her Duchess. A few just called her “Duke’s woman.”

Most of the men disappeared into a room for about twenty minutes, and they looked grim when they came out. Duke stepped up on a raised section near one of the walls and the room went quiet.

“All the kids in the other rooms?”

Gen watched a few mothers usher their children into one of the two kids’ rooms, and when they gave Duke the all-clear, he continued. “We’re on the lowest level of lockdown now, but I foresee us going up a notch later tonight. With this in mind, let’s go ahead and put the kids to sleep downstairs so we don’t have to move them. If you’ve been voted access to the back hallways and want to sleep in your man’s room, feel free, but know we may move you downstairs later.”

He looked through the glass wall into the room with the teens, and Gen followed his gaze to see Brain talking to them. “The rule still stands about not texting or emailing your friends to let them know where you are, or why. Brain’s running the control room tonight, and you all know he can watch any data streaming into or out of our compound, whether you use our wi-fi signal, or bypass it and use your cell signal. Each of you is here because a brother vouched for you. Whatever you and your children do reflects on your man.”

He jumped down and stalked his way across the room to Gen, going behind the bar, pulling her into his arms and putting his mouth at her ear. “Some of the women are werewolves, too. Can’t tell you which, but need to give a heads up. They can smell fear, so try not to be afraid.” He stroked her back, kissed her cheek. “When everyone starts going to bed, I want you in my room. Lock the door and keep your piece close. I’ll be out of pocket, but if you have a serious problem let Brain know. If we go to a higher alert you’ll be downstairs. Keep your piece on you down there, even if you have to sleep with it on your hip.”

“I can’t be on lockdown tomorrow. You know that, right? I have an eleven o’clock appointment and I’ll need to leave here by eight to go home and get ready for my day.”

He nodded. “I may send someone with you as a bodyguard, but I’ll do my best to keep my shit from disrupting your life.” His gaze traveled over her face and he asked, “We good?”

“You can’t take the time to talk right now so I’ll put everything on the back burner until you can.”

He wasn’t happy with her answer so she wrapped her arms around his neck and went to her tiptoes, stretching up for a kiss. He leaned down and kissed her, and kept kissing her. When he finally pulled away she said, “We’ll talk. We’ll figure it out. Be careful out there, okay?”

“I’m really hard to hurt, Beautiful. I’ll be fine.”





Chapter Twenty-Five





Gen worked the bar and talked to people, but there were too many for her to remember names. She couldn’t drink, as she had her gun, so she stuck to ginger ale at first and then moved to coffee.

When it came time to put kids down, the women started leaving, until eventually it seemed to be just the kidless people left.

One of the prospects was guarding the door to the back hallway, and when she tried to go to Duke’s room, he had to call the control room to be sure she had access.

He was on a walkie-talkie, so Gen heard Brain tell the prospect to send Gen in to see him.

“I was there when ya’ll voted, Brain,” she said as she stepped into the room, “and Duke said he wanted me in there waiting for him when he got back.”

Brain nodded and said, “We’re about to up the lockdown level, which means about the time you got settled you’d just have to get up and go downstairs. However, we’re short staffed so I need to ask a favor.”

He glanced away from the screens and to her, then back to the wall of monitors. “This is me asking, not Duke. I’m in charge of the compound while he’s running an op. I currently have one member and three prospects I trust to protect us, and four more prospects who need light duty. I trust you more than the light duty prospects. Way more, but Duke’ll be pissed if I put you on guard duty somewhere. My first thought was to ask you to be the guard in the room with the women and children downstairs, but then I thought it might be a bad idea to broadcast the fact you carry on Thunder property to the wives and girlfriends.”

He nodded to his left, to a bunch of monitors currently turned off. “I’m rotating through different places, but if I have an extra set of eyes in here with me, it’ll be better. Can I give you six or eight screens to watch?”