Free Keys To My Cuffs (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 4) by Lani Lynn Vale Page A

dismay.
    He nodded. “Yes. I have to be seen around town. Let fuckin’ Strong know he’s not intimidating me. I have a Toys for Tots run later today. We’re riding down to Natchitoches and back. Once I’m done with that, I’ll be back.”
    This was going to be one hell of a lonely month.
    Christmas was in less two weeks. New Year’s after that. And he couldn’t be seen with me.
    Fun, fun.

Chapter 8
    Gun safety rules: Do not piss off the woman holding the gun.
    -T-shirt
    Loki
    “You look different,” Adeline said.
    I looked over at her in surprise. How would she notice something different about me when I’d only been here less than two minutes and hadn’t said a word?
    “Why do you say that?” I asked.
    “Because you have an ‘I’m going to fuck anyone who bothers me’ look on your face.” Kettle said dryly.
    Kettle was a member of The Dixie Wardens. He was also a firefighter with Benton Fire Department.
    Originally, we’d met while on the job. He’d been the one to persuade Trance and I to consider joining The Dixie Wardens. Then, when we’d decided to prospect, he’d had his best friend sponsor us.
    Adeline was Kettle’s old lady, and the woman who felt it necessary to poke her nose into everybody’s business.
    She was also hormonal. Hence, why I didn’t say what I wanted to, and bit my tongue on the snappy retort that had nearly spewed out of my mouth.
    “I’ve gotta piss,” I said to no one in particular and left.
    I heard the murmurs that followed my exit from the room. I knew they were worried about me. Honestly, though, I didn’t give a shit.
    I walked into the clubhouse, and was instantly assaulted with the smell of pine needles.
    The women of the club decided to put up a Christmas tree the size of an elephant. It reached the roof’s ten foot ceiling and then curled over.
    The women had wanted their husbands’ to trim the top, but it was too much work to find a thirteen-foot stepladder, and was decorated only on the bottom.
    It looked incredibly silly, in my opinion. Then again, I wasn’t a big fan of Christmas. I didn’t celebrate it like everyone else did.
    My mom was a single mother and always worked over the Christmas holidays.
    Then when I joined the Coast Guard, I never went home on holidays. Even now, I’m not sure we would even know what to do with holidays.
    Seeing a tree was new to me. Before all the ladies started arriving, Christmas’ had been just another day, and now I had to deal with the fucking Christmas carols.
    I hadn’t been aware I detested Christmas carols until Baylee, our VP’s wife, brought that shit and put it on the loud speaker.
    Now I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that N’Sync and Beyoncé would never be one of my go-to artists.
    “Why do we have to listen to this shit?” I grumbled as I watched Baylee start to throw a hand full of tinsel at the tree.
    “Because it gets you in the Christmas spirit?” Baylee teased.
    Baylee was a good woman, and a perfect old lady for our vice president, Sebastian. She was a paramedic on the Kilgore, Texas fire department with a morbid sense of humor. Her cheery personality balanced out Sebastian’s serious one. They complemented one another nicely. They had something special; something that I hadn’t even realized I’d wanted until I saw the two of them together.
    But the same could be said for each man in the club that now had old ladies. I hoped that I could find that with Channing. I just had to get through this week, first.
    “Is this group a boy band or a pussy band?” I asked as I walked to the tree and picked up one of the ornaments.
    It was a fire hose made out of spun glass.
    “This is The Backstreet Boys...haven’t you ever heard of them?” Viddy asked in surprise.
    I turned to find her with an arm full of threaded popcorn.
    “I don’t listen to pop. I don’t think my radio’s octave can go up as high as these men are screeching,” I said as I plucked a piece of popcorn out of the bowl