He was a good boss, generous with his knowledge, gave credit where it was due, didn’t get in your face if you fucked up and held up your hand that you did …

And he had time for you even when he didn’t.

“I met Hattie’s dad last night.”

Hawk’s lips thinned.

Right.

His boss might not be in on their chats, but not much happened with his crew that Hawk didn’t know about.

So he knew about Don Yates.

“I got blindsided,” Axl told him.

“How?” Hawk asked.

“He loves her, Hawk.”

Hawk held his gaze a beat before he sat back in his chair.

Yeah.

This was going to be a conversation.

Hawk’s voice was lower when he inquired, “He loves her, and he hits her?”

Axl shook his head. “I got no excuse for that. Or the verbal abuse he keeps doling out. What I know is, recently, he called her a whore.”

“Jesus,” Hawk clipped.

“She didn’t tell me that. She told Ryn, Ryn told Boone. And I got it from Boone. But before … ” He paused, then got to it, “I can’t step in with her dad. She knows their relationship is dysfunctional. She feels beholden. I could only have her back. Until I heard that. Then I shared I was going to have to have words with her father.”

“Good,” Hawk murmured.

“Then I got there, and the man was practically beaming, he was so fuckin’ happy Hattie brought her boyfriend over to meet him.”

“Fuck,” Hawk grunted.

“So we sat down. He gave me the ‘What do you do for a living’ and ‘How’d you meet my daughter’ gig. I answered. All was good. Then I told him I couldn’t have him upsetting Hattie like he did by calling her a whore. He tried to explain it by saying he was in a bad mood. I told him, in future, if he was in a bad mood, he needed not to take that out on Hattie.”

“On your first meeting,” Hawk noted.

“On our first meeting,” Axl confirmed.

“Which happened … what? How long have you been seeing her? A few days?”

“Yep.”

“You laid down the law with your woman’s father the first time you met him after you’ve been with her a few days,” Hawk laid it out.

“Yep.”

“Christ, Axe, you don’t fuck around,” Hawk muttered.

“This isn’t really something you fuck around about.”

“No, it isn’t,” Hawk agreed.

It was time to give Hawk the fullness of it.

“She goes every night to make him dinner and clean up after. She runs errands for him. He’s a part of her day-to-day life. And the man I saw last night wasn’t the picture of health, but he could see to himself, even with the errands. What I told her was that I was there to support whatever she felt she needed to do. But full transparency, my hope was that she’d find her way to helping him move on without him infiltrating her life on a regular basis the way he does. Now, I’m not certain.”

“Men do this,” Hawk stated.

“Sorry?” Axl asked.

“We see another man and the shit he’s in and we don’t realize we put ourselves in his shoes. Without knowing where your thoughts have turned, you’re thinking, if I had a daughter and I loved her and I fucked up with her in immense and arguably unforgivable ways, I would not want the door closed to redemption.”

“That makes sense,” Axl said.

“Is Hattie an only child?” Hawk queried.

“Yeah.”

“And her father is ill?”

“Diabetes that he doesn’t manage very well.”

“So she’ll manage it for him,” Hawk deduced.

“Correct. But he has a nice house. A newish car in the drive. She says he has a job where he works from home and makes good money. She started dinner, he was down to finish it and clean up after so we could get on with our plans. She’s had to skip a few nights with him last week, but neither he nor his home looked neglected in any way. He doesn’t walk freely, but he can have groceries delivered. He can also drive through a pharmacy.”

“It’s bullshit.”

Axl nodded once. “It’s control. She knows it. We’ve had some talks. She’s thinking on things and part of what she’s thinking is she wants to pull back from him so she can get her head straight about what he’s done to her and how it continues to affect her.”

“And now that you know he has genuine healthy feeling for her, you’re not sure that’s the right path.”

“That’s why I’m talking to you. I honestly don’t know where to go from here. Again, Hattie and I are new. We’ve talked about the mental abuse, but not him hitting her. But needless to say, because there was both, it seemed cut and dried.”

“And now it’s complicated.”

“Now it’s complicated,” Axl affirmed.

“Have you spoken to her about where the dad might be at?”

Axl shook his head. “No, I didn’t want to give her hope because even with all that, she wants what everyone wants. Her dad to be a good dad.”

Hawk gave it only a beat.

Then he broke it down.

“First, as an only child with a father who has a chronic illness, one as significant as diabetes, it is inevitable there will come a time where he will need her. And if she feels she must do what she’s currently doing, which she does, because she’s doing it, she’ll feel duty bound to meet those needs when they become more considerable. But it is my strong opinion that now is absolutely not that time. She needs to wean him off her. And that isn’t about abuse. It’s not about control. It’s about dysfunction in a family unit that needs to be rectified. She will be in her twenties and falling in love once in her life. She doesn’t need a family member sucking her time and energy when she should be enjoying being young and falling in love.”

Falling in love.

“And straight up,” Hawk continued before Axl could recover from the velvet hit of those three words. “The man isn’t ninety, but he is ill. He’s got a life to live that is likely going to be abbreviated by his condition. So he needs to be encouraged to live it.”

“Yeah,” Axl grunted, still stuck on the thought of Hattie falling in love.