Sinners are Winners

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  ***

  To say that Kettle was happy to see his daughter was an understatement.

  I kind of felt a little bad for him since I’d managed to convince his daughter to stay in Kilgore with me instead of going home.

  I tossed the ball that had rolled over to my feet back to Saylor, and she caught it expertly.

  I winked at her, and her smile went wide.

  “You know,” Adeline said as she watched Kettle and Saylor throw the baseball back and forth to each other. “I didn’t think there was anybody on this Earth other than her father that could coax a smile like that out of my girl…but then I just saw that.”

  I dropped my glove as I watched the two of them toss it to each other, higher and higher.

  “She makes me happy,” I found myself saying. “You have no idea how much.”

  She made a humming sound in the back of her throat.

  “I always wanted so many kids,” she said. “I thought we’d have ten, with how much I loved her father.”

  I looked down at her.

  “I’m not sure why we never had any more,” she admitted. “We considered going to the doctor once, but Tiago and me? We decided to let fate guide its way. We had one beautiful, perfect little girl. If we were meant to have another, then that was what would happen for us…and it never did.” She looked at me. “We fostered a whole lot. I’m talking, a lot. We had kids in and out of this place for years. Days and weeks at a time, but never for long. Saylor loved them all.”

  I thought about the one boy that had freaked her out so bad and pointed that out.

  “There was something wrong with that kid,” she said. “And it broke my heart into a million pieces that she had to be uncomfortable for one single second in this house that we made for her to feel safe.”

  I understood what she was saying.

  “You want her to stay here.” I said. “Until we can figure out what’s going on.”

  “When I first started dating Kettle, there were some things that happened with his stepfather,” she said. “I didn’t realize how powerful the Dixie Wardens MC was until then. And yes, she’d be protected here.”

  I didn’t doubt it for one single second.

  After we’d explained to her father what was going on, compared notes between us all, it quickly became apparent that there was more to this than met the eye.

  “It all started here after we came down there and helped her move into your place,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of thinking. And…that’s what I’m coming up with.”

  ‘It all’ being threatening letters in the mail. One of those being a photo of Saylor and me staring at each other while I was still inside of her.

  You could tell that I was still inside of her, too.

  Something that Kettle had not, even a little bit, been excited about getting in the mail. No father wants to see something like that when it came to his daughter.

  The photo itself was mainly of me from behind.

  But then there was a picture of a scope ring trained at my chest. Not only where my heart would be, but where Saylor’s head would be once it’d passed through my body.

  Then there’s the same fucking dick in the picture, letting us know that they’re one and the same.

  But the guy had fucked up.

  At least, in my opinion.

  He’d accidentally allowed a tattoo to slip into the photo. It was on his hand.

  From what little I could tell about it, it was a skull of some sort.

  “My mom would give her as long as she needed,” I found myself saying. “If you can convince her to stay.”

  Adeline’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “You’re not going to fight this?” she asked. “I haven’t brought it up to Kettle. I wanted to say something in private in case I couldn’t convince you.”

  I shook my head and brought my glove up just in time for Kettle to launch the ball straight at my chest.

  It went a little wide and would’ve hit his wife had I not moved quickly enough.

  “Hey!” Adeline cried.

  Kettle’s smile was bright.

  “Sorry, honey,” he lied.

  He knew I’d catch it, though.

  “I want to do what’s best for Saylor,” I admitted. “And, seeing as there are two off-duty police officers here right now, and we’re in the middle of nowhere, I think you may be right. This place is like Fort Knox.”

  My place was nothing to sneeze at.

  I lived in a pretty well-to-do neighborhood in Kilgore. My parents lived in a much nicer house in the country on about two hundred acres of land.

  But there wasn’t any escalation of crime happening in Benton. There was in Kilgore.

  And he’d already proven that he could get close to us without us noticing.

  I wasn’t one to take chances with the woman’s life, either.

  Reaching into my pocket where I could feel the velvet-lined bag, I handed it to Adeline.

  She took it, opened the tiny drawstrings, and looked into it.

  Then she gasped.

  “Do you think she’ll like it?” I asked.

  Adeline’s eyes shined.

  “We’re going to get a beer, Kettle!” Adeline said, waving us off.

  I took the glove off my hand and tucked it underneath my armpit, walking side by side with Adeline as she poured the ring out into the palm of her hand and looked at it.

  “Wow,” she said, speechless. “I can’t…. This is just perfect. She’s going to freak out.”

  “Kettle’s going to blow his top,” Loki surmised as he leaned over and got his own good look at the ring.

  “I haven’t asked him yet,” I found myself saying. “Is he going to kill me?”

  Trance started to laugh.

  “I think that’s a father’s right.” Trance looked at the ring, too. “But when Oakley and Pace got together? I was happy for them. I didn’t realize that they were going to be each other’s forever. When I did realize it, and Pace asked? I kind of knew that he’d protect her. Love her. And I’d lose her to him.”

  I frowned. “You didn’t lose Oakley.”

  “Yes, I did,” Trance confirmed. “Which is what is supposed to happen.” He tilted his head toward Kettle and Saylor. “Those two have been thick as thieves since the day she came into the world. But we’ve always known that our time as number one was tentative. We knew that one day they’d meet someone and that their entire world would shift to encompass them. That we’d shift to second place…and that’s okay. Because as long as they’re happy, we’re happy. That’s all we ever want out of life, for our kids to be happy. Who are we to say who they can be happy with?”

  Adeline walked over to Trance and hugged him hard.

  “That was sweet, Trance,” she said softly.

  “But, saying that,” Loki said as he joined in on the conversation. “He’s going to give you a hard time about it.”

  I had no doubt in my mind.

  ***

  Hours later, palms damp from nerves, I sat on the porch with Kettle and tried to psych myself up to tell him the words that I’d been planning since I’d purchased the ring with my mother earlier in the day.

  “You’re making me have a headache, kid,” Kettle said. “Just spit it out already.”

  I snorted.

  “What makes you think I have something to say?” I wondered.

  He gave me a dry look.

  “You’ve been fingering a goddamn wedding ring for the last twenty minutes,” he said. “Don’t you think that I can put two and two together?”

  I looked down at my shorts.

  Saylor had told me that the material was a little thin.

  I guess I was lucky he was noticing the ring in my pocket, and not my dick like she did.

  “I had planned on going through this big spiel about why I was perfect for spending the rest of my life with her,” I said. “How I’d be there fo
rever until the day that I took my last breath.”

  Kettle chuckled low under his breath.

  “Do you think I would’ve left you with her over the last couple of weeks had I not trusted you?” he asked. “I knew that the pool house was just a temporary thing. I could see how y’all looked at each other. I’m not blind.”

  No, he wasn’t.

  “I didn’t see it yet,” I admitted. “I just knew that I wanted—no, needed—her to stay.”

  “You have it,” he suddenly said. “But I swear to God, kid.” His eyes lifted up to meet mine, sparkling black in the near darkness. “If you hurt her? There’s not a single place on this Earth that you can hide,” he promised. “I’ll find you, and I’ll shred the meat from your bones with my bare hands.”

  I had no doubt in my mind that he would.

  Maybe not all the way, but he’d find a way to fuck me up if I ever hurt his kid.

  I could read the promise in his eyes.

  He wasn’t kidding.

  And I respected him for that, because I loved his daughter, and I loved that she had someone like that in her court.

  “I won’t hurt her,” I promised.

  He snorted. “You will. We always do. But just don’t make that hurt big enough that she ever comes crying to me about it. Because I can and will act on it.”

  My lips tipped up at one corner in a smirk.

  “Thank you,” I said, standing up and offering the man my hand.

  Kettle took it, squeezing harder than necessary, before letting me go.

  “And you may be sleeping in her room with her,” he said. “But if I hear any goddamn thing at all, I’ll shoot your dick off. No exaggeration.”

  I left him laughing on the front porch and knew that he wasn’t kidding.

  Thoughts of my dick being shot off aside, I liked Kettle.

  I liked it even more that he was a fairly good man to have at my back.

  Pushing through the door to Saylor’s room, I found her sitting cross-legged on the bed, staring at me.

  I glanced at the open blinds that were allowing moonlight to pour in, then back at her.

  “Can I see it now?” she asked into the darkness.

  I blinked.

  “See what?” I asked, hoping that she wasn’t asking about what I thought she was asking about.

  “Don’t play dumb, Lachlan Downy, Junior,” she ordered. “I’m talking about that ring in your shorts that is so close to your cock head that I can’t decide which one I want to look at.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head, then took the ring out of my pocket.

  Before I could even take it out of the bag, she’d snatched it out of my hand and was dumping it out onto the bed.

  She gasped when the light caught the diamonds and made them twinkle.

  She put the ring onto her finger, then moaned.

  Pointing to the ground beside the bed, she said, “Okay, now ask me.”

  I laughed.

  “You’re already wearing it,” I pointed out. “Why would I ask you? It’s obvious what you would say.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Ask. Me.”

  I pulled her up until she was kneeling on the bed, then put one knee into the bed beside her.

  “The ground is hard,” I pointed out. “And I’m sorry, but if I get down there right now, I won’t get back up. The mileage we did earlier wrecked me.”

  She snickered.

  “That’s funny,” she said. “Kneel on the bed then.”

  I did as she asked.

  “Now what?” I teased.

  She smacked me on the leg, and I couldn’t suppress a moan.

  “Owww,” I whined. “I told you those hurt.”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “This is my proposal, Lock.” She growled so cutely that I couldn’t stop myself from pressing a kiss to her nose. “Now, do it.”

  So, I did it.

  I gave her both barrels.

  “I’m not good with words,” I said, trailing my fingers down her chin. “I never have been. I’m not the most well-versed of men…so I can only put this simply,” I told her. “I love you. Have loved you for a while.” I tipped her chin up and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Expressing emotion has never really been something that came easy to me…not until there was you. Now, every single day that I wake up next to you, I want to tell you that you changed my life. That you made me want to live it instead of just experience it. Every single day, I wake up and I smile.”

  Her smile was shaky.

  “I promise to make you smile every single day right back,” I told her. “I promise that I’ll never stop trying. I’ll always love you. And that if you ever try to leave me, I’m going to lose my shit.”

  She burst out laughing, then threw her arms around my shoulders and started peppering my face with kisses.

  When she would’ve escalated them into something else, I wrapped my hand around her hair and pulled.

  “Your dad literally just said that if he heard us doing anything in here, he’d shoot my dick off.” I paused. “And I really do believe him.”

  She snickered. “He probably wasn’t joking.”

  No. No, he wasn’t.

  Chapter 16

  The only thing keeping me from smashing my alarm is the fact that it’s my cell phone.

  -Saylor’s secret thoughts

  Saylor

  The next morning nothing, and I do mean nothing, could ruin my mood.

  I was smiling so big when I walked out, leaving Lock still sleeping in my childhood bed, that not even my dad’s glower could put a damper on it.

  “Did he ask?” Mom asked as she sipped her coffee.

  I held my hand out for her to look at the evidence of his proposal.

  “He did,” I confirmed. “He also told me that Dad threatened to shoot his dick off last night.”

  I looked at my father whose lips were twitching as he sat in the corner of the room reading his newspaper.

  He was dressed for a workout and all of his tattoos were on display.

  He had a new one that I hadn’t seen right above his elbow, making my eyes squint for a second.

  “What’s that?” I asked, pointing.

  Mom snorted. “Told you she would see it.”

  “What is it?” I asked as I moved closer.

  The closer I moved, the clearer it became.

  “Is that…is that a cat’s butthole?” I asked, confused.

  It was a tattoo of a cat’s backside, and there was a very prominent butthole on display, as well as a set of testicles.

  “Yes,” Mom said as she set a cup of orange juice on the table next to where I was standing. “Your father got it because he lost a bet with Trance and Dixie.”

  I burst out laughing. “It’s…lovely.”

  I shook my head and took a seat. It didn’t matter how old the men were.

  They still did stupid stuff.

  Lock’s phone rang in the bedroom, and a couple of minutes later he came out looking grim.

  I frowned, standing up slowly from the table.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.

  “Got a call from work,” he said. “Logan was in an accident. With a 1999 Civic with green wheels.”

  I gasped.

  “Oh, no,” I said softly. “What happened?”

  “The Civic aimed right at him while he was stopped on the side of the road writing a ticket,” he said. “Luckily, Logan’s okay. Has a few scrapes and bruises. The bike’s totaled.”

  “Did they catch him?” Dad rumbled.

  “Yes.” Relief poured through me at his words, quickly followed by anger. “And no.”

  “How does that work?” Mom asked, pouring Lock a cup of coffee.

  Dad didn’t even make mention of Lock’s half-naked state.

  He was in shorts and nothing else. His hair still a mess.

  Still
just as beautiful as ever.

  “He was arrested and taken to the hospital to receive medical treatment. Thank you,” he said when my mom handed him the coffee. “He managed to slip out of triage while his nurses and doctors were busy.”

  “They didn’t have a cop on him?” Dad asked, sounding pissed.

  “They did,” Lock answered, sounding pissed off himself. “But there was a commotion out in the hallway. Two rival gangs firing shots in the waiting room. The cop left the man thinking that he was being watched…and he got away. He’s still handcuffed. Arms and legs, though. So at least he won’t be able to move easily. Or hide well.”

  Dad grumbled something underneath his breath, and Lock rubbed his eyes.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “Now we wait, I guess,” he said. “We have the party. I go home. You stay here until he’s found.”

  I blinked.

  Then blinked again.

  “You’re shitting me, right?” I asked, sounding calm but feeling riled.

  “Saylor…”

  “How about y’all go get some ice,” Dad suggested to me and Mom. “I have some…”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I snapped. “I’m going to talk about how y’all think it would be okay for me to be hidden and put on a shelf for protection when I can handle my own damn self.”

  “Saylor…” Lock tried again.

  But I held up my hand and narrowed my eyes.

  “Talk to the hand, Lock,” I snapped. “Fuck off.”

  Dad snorted.

  “I’ll go get ice,” Mom said. “And I have to pick up my groceries anyway. Saylor, do you…”

  “Negative, Nancy,” I said, crossing my hands over my chest. “I have some blockheads to knock some sense into.”

  Mom sighed and gathered her purse. “I’ll bring donuts back.”

  With that, she left.

  “I gotta go run,” Dad said as he too stood up. “I’ll talk about this later. If I don’t go now, it’s going to be too hot and I’ll die.”

  “Amen to that,” Lock said. “I made that mistake of being a little late yesterday.” His eyes caught and held mine. “It was miserable.”

  I felt my belly flutter.

  I was the reason he was a little late.

  Lock winked.

  Worth it, he mouthed.

  I would not be charmed. I would not be charmed.