Yeah.

His girl.

“And maybe explore that light bondage thing you were mentioning,” she went on.

Fortunately, it was only Hattie who got dressed in her panties and his tee when she got up to nuke cheese on chips.

So once he positioned, he was all set to slide in.

Which he did.

And fuck.

Connecting with her, he realized he did purr.

She huffed out a breath, her pussy closing tight around him, and caught his ass in one hand, claiming the back of his neck with the other.

Gazing down at her, her hair all over his pillow, those gorgeous brown eyes hot and bothered, he started moving.

“Love you, baby,” he whispered.

She cocked a leg high, pressed it to his side, planted her other foot in the bed and reared up to meet his strokes.

“Love you too, Axl,” she whispered back.

He kissed her.

He fucked her.

They both came.

And after cleanup, he saw the chips and cheese no longer looked so hot.

So Axl put on some sweats and went to the kitchen to assess things.

He didn’t have fresh cilantro, but he had everything else.

He went back to her while the eggs were boiling, but he left her again.

And didn’t go back until he brought her his Mexican street corn deviled eggs.

They devoured them.

He left the bed again a couple of hours later.

To get their laptops.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The Women

AXL

I can’t believe this is finally happening,” Boone said.

“It hasn’t happened yet,” Hawk warned.

Axl sat in the backseat of the Hummer, Hawk driving, Boone in the passenger seat, and he watched the Colorado terrain slide by.

Cisco had a place in the foothills.

And this was where, in a team effort, Cisco, Mamá Nana and Ally Zano had convinced Lynn Crowley and Heidi Mueller that it would be safe to meet to discuss what they knew about what was happening in the Denver Police Department.

He took his eyes from the landscape to catch Hawk glancing at him in the mirror.

It was not a secret from the crew that his mother and father had split.

It also wasn’t a secret that Sylas’s first response had been tactical.

Instead of proceeding with a divorce, he demanded a six-month separation that included intensive marriage counseling.

Axl worried his mother would cave on that.

She did not.

Onward from that, in the three weeks since his mother moved out, unsurprisingly, his father had dicked with her at every turn. He’d canceled the joint cards, blocked access to the joint accounts, and attempted every legal maneuver in the book to drive up her attorney’s billable hours in order to break her, at least financially.

Again, Axl worried she’d suffer, and as such, last Friday, he took her to lunch to share he’d cover her if she got buried.

“Oh, Axl, darling. Thank you so much. But I prepared for this,” was her response. “I didn’t touch any of my earnings from my business since I started. Not to mention, I deposited half of the household and discretionary stipend your father gave me for the last year in my sole account. I have money coming in and a good nest egg. I can outlast him.” She’d patted his hand. “But it’s good to know I can turn to you for a loan if that occasion arises.”

Axl had to get over the fact his father gave his mother a “stipend,” something, until then, he did not know, rather than her being free to do whatever she wished with their money.

But he didn’t mention that.

Instead, on his way back to work from their lunch, he called his father.

Sylas picked up immediately.

“This is your final warning,” was all he said before he hung up.

To his surprise, that worked. His mom had shared with him that morning that her attorney had told her that Sylas had been in touch and he was ready to proceed.

Axl had no idea if it worked because his father was rethinking things now that his family had imploded and it was coming clear he’d irrevocably lost his wife, and he had to make maneuvers to save his relationship with his son. Or if his father had indeed investigated Hawk’s operations, and since he had a sense of what Axl did for a living, it was an attempt at self-preservation.

He figured it was the latter.

But in the end, it didn’t matter.

The divorce was proceeding, and until it was final, his father had also agreed to a monthly allowance that covered his mother’s mortgage and HOA fees with some beyond that besides, so she could breathe easy financially.

But Hawk and his own father were tight. Axl had met Hawk’s dad and the man was hilarious. He also thought the world of his son. So Hawk didn’t understand that Axl might worry about his mother, but the loss of his father didn’t factor.

So Hawk had been keeping a close eye on his man.

Axl didn’t tell him there was no cause for concern.

He just went to work and did his job.

Eventually, Hawk would get it.

“Proof,” Boone said. “Crime does pay.”

When Boone said that, Axl focused on the property they were approaching.

L-shaped. Made mostly of stone, some wood. A nod to rustic and its surroundings.

But the wide, curving drive made of attractive pavers, the stone balustrades along the way topped with lanterns that would light the way in the dark, the two double-doored garages as well as the double-door front entry, and the fact that the compact front exterior didn’t quite hide that what was beyond was downright rambling stated this wasn’t a rustic mountain cabin at all.

Not to mention Sly, in his suit, with his earpiece, standing outside the front door.

Ally’s Mustang was parked outside. As was Mamá Nana’s GMC Denali.

Cisco’s town car was likely tucked in a garage.

Hawk parked, they got out, and Axl did this with eyes on Sly.

He was talking into his hand.

Their arrival was being announced.

They moved inside and Cisco met them at the front door.

“Nervous,” he informed them unnecessarily.

Nearly two month’s delay in this meet, they already knew the women would be nervous.

None of them replied, there were varying chin movements, juts or dips, and Cisco led them into his great room.

He’d gone with the nod to rustic here too. Wood, stone, hefty ceiling beams, plaid upholstery on the furniture, leather as well, wool throws.