And with that highly successful speech, she turned from him and threw open her door.

Then, with a ballerina’s grace, she jumped down from his Jeep in her high heels, slammed the door, and holding Mac’s present to her chest, the gift bag with a bottle of champagne in it dangling from her other hand, she skip-ran up Jet’s front walk.

He watched the whole show.

And then he muttered, “Fuck.”

* * *

Mo was waiting for the elevator on the parking level and Axl would learn he was continuing to do a piss-poor job of hiding what he was feeling when Mo turned as Axl walked up to him and his big, bald head twitched.

Fantastic.

“Everything good?” Mo asked.

They had a deal.

They did not keep shit from each other.

Not ever.

And when this kind of thing came up, stuff that surfaced about when they served, absolutely, one hundred percent not ever.

“Hattie knows about Jordan,” he said as the elevator doors opened.

They walked in, Mo tagged the button, and turned to Axl.

“And?”

“I gave her the brief, and it was brief, and told her that was all she’d ever get. We won’t talk about it again.”

“Axe,” Mo said low.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Not a good call.”

“You gotta be ready to talk about this shit,” Mo stated. “I don’t know how this started, but you obviously weren’t ready to talk about it. Just tell her that. She’ll get it.”

“She reminded me that the fallout of her having a dad like she has isn’t mine unless she makes it mine, but I made it mine before she gave that to me.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it?”

Mo didn’t reply.

“And she said if I let her deal with that on her own, I’m the shittiest boyfriend in history. And she’s right. She also said we won’t work if I protect her from me.”

“She’s right about that too,” Mo said carefully.

“How do you deal with it with Lottie?” he asked as the elevator doors opened.

They stepped out.

But they didn’t go to the office.

They stood in the hall and Mo answered, “I don’t, she does.”

“What?”

“She does,” he repeated. “To use the correlation Hattie’s making, you told me you laid it out for her dad. She didn’t have that conversation with him, you did. She wasn’t dealing with that, you were. Shit gets real for me, you guys aren’t close, Lottie rolls in. I feel it, she absorbs it. We all know there’s a never-ending well of it. She just wrings herself out so, when it comes again, she can suck it up.”

He hated that for Mo.

And he hated that for Mac.

And he didn’t want that for Hattie.

“And that doesn’t gut you?” he asked.

“I fuckin’ hate it. But she doesn’t. She loves me and that’s a part of me and she has all the patience in the world for it, all the time I need, because she has both of those for me in everything, and this is part of that everything.”

Shit.

With Hattie’s last speech she was telling him she was that kind of woman.

More.

She needed to be that woman for him.

“I fucked this up,” Axl stated the obvious.

“Listen to this, brother. If she is who she needs to be for you, she would hate with everything she’s got that you feel that way. Text her. Tell her you’ll talk later. And I’ll bet you a thousand dollars standing here right now, you’ll get a text back in less than a minute.”

He pulled out his phone, saying, “I won’t take that bet.”

Mo grinned at him, it was slight, imperceptible to the untrained eye, but he did it.

He then slapped a hand on Axl’s shoulder that nearly sent him two inches into the floor.

Mo went to the office.

Axl stayed in the hall to text Hattie.

That didn’t go well. I was unprepared.

So fucking sorry I acted like an ass.

We’ll talk about it later, baby.

Enjoy the shower.

And he was barely inside the door to the office when his phone chimed.

You didn’t act like an ass.

We were both unprepared. I didn’t

handle it great either.

We’ll talk, but only when you’re

ready.

Now you badasses are only

allowed to plan an end to

whatever is going on.

Not take over the world.

xxx♥♥♥xxx♥♥♥

He grinned at her quip, but more, her indication they were okay.

So when he lifted his head and saw Mo’s eyes sharp on him, he jutted his chin.

Mo jutted his back.

He entered the conference room and noted immediately this business was getting crowded.

Their crew: Hawk, Mo, Boone, Aug, Mag, Jorge and Axl.

Nightingale’s team: Lee, his right-hand man Luke Stark, and his stealth guy, Vance Crowe.

Chaos: Rush Allen, their president, Tack Allen, their past president, also Shy Cage, Joker Steele and Dutch Black.

Sebring: Knight, and his first lieutenant, Rhashan.

Cisco: Brett and his driver, bodyguard and general Man Friday, Joe.

The cops: Eddie, Hank, Malik and Hawk’s two other best buds outside Tack, Mitch and Brock.

And last, a free agent, Ally Zano, sister to Hank and Lee, resident badass with a pussy.

Chairs had been brought in, but Mag, Vance, Joker, Dutch, Joe, Rhashan and Eddie had all opted to hold up various walls.

As Mo took his seat, Axl moved to stand by Mag.

“Right, let’s get this shit out of the way so we can all have a Saturday,” Hawk started it and then looked to him. “Axe, break down what you told me this morning.”

Axl gave it to them about the setup.

When he was done, Hawk shifted his attention to Lee, “You’re up.”

Lee nodded and launched in.

“Part one, I had Brody on something else yesterday, so it sucks you lost a day when he could have saved you that time, but he had to put your search aside until this morning. But he got on it and Laszlo Kovack took a company transfer about a week after Boone handed him his ass. He’s currently up to his neck in packing to move to Portland, Oregon, something that’s scheduled to occur next Monday. And as a farewell to Colorado, he’s up in Vail right now, and this morning he had a Denver omelet for breakfast prior to gassing up and heading back down. However, what there is absolutely no evidence of him doing is dicking with Axl and Boone. So it’d come as a big surprise to him if you boys showed and handed him his ass again.”