Oh boy. That didn’t sound good. That sounded very, very bad. That sounded get my ass to the mall instantly and buy sexy underwear as a reward for my rescue bad.

“I had it covered,” Skull returned.

“Your man inside?” Hawk asked, edging toward sarcastic but still extremely displeased.

“Yeah,” Skull answered.

“They scented him, they wouldn’t play, they’d cut his f**kin’ throat and dump him in the Platte,” Hawk growled. “In no way did you have this covered.”

“I had to use Ginger or Gwen, before I handed her over, I woulda wired her and tagged her so we’d know exactly where she was and could hear everything goin’ down,” Skull hit back. “And, by the way, it woulda helped, she was in on this shit but you and Wonder Cop here,” he jerked his thumb at Lawson, “were breathin’ so hot and heavy down her neck, the night I broke in to have my chat with her to give her a head’s up, sirens sounded before I could get her goddamned bedroom door open.”

Well, that explained that which, for me, was somewhat of a relief. At least that meant there wasn’t another unknown person out there after me for nefarious reasons.

Hawk, nor Lawson, it was clear to see, felt relief.

“What?” Hawk whispered.

“You heard me, man, with your knight in shining armor bullshit, you f**ked this every way you could f**k this,” Skull returned.

“Maybe, you let Hawk and me in on this shit, it wouldn’t be f**ked,” Lawson suggested angrily.

Skull leaned back and his eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, I woulda kept my cover havin’ sit downs with The Rock and John McClane.” He leaned back in. “Did you miss me tellin’ you how far beyond the call of duty I had to go to keep my cover, bangin’ that filthy, foul-mouthed, drug-addled piece of ass?”

Sarcasm and it was clear neither Hawk nor Lawson appreciated sarcasm much.

“Roarke would uncover a wire and a tag in a split second,” Lee Nightingale entered the conversation, throwing down on Hawk’s (and my) side.

“My man was primed,” Skull retorted.

“He’d out Ginger and he wouldn’t do it with a threat on Gwen, he’d do it with a blade slicing through her skin,” Luke Stark put in and he appeared to be unhappy too.

“I’ll repeat,” Skull clipped, “my man was primed.”

“You took a big chance without the primary player knowin’ you were usin’ her for this shit,” Eddie Chavez growled as he pointed at me.

“I think you know more than anyone, Chavez, that the streets of Denver have been flooded with product. You boys on the Force were so far over your heads keepin’ on top of that shit, you petitioned the Pope to declare a miracle when Kane Allen backed out of the safety business,” Skull returned, Eddie’s face got tight and a muscle clenched in his cheek. “And Gwendolyn Kidd was the second part of that miracle.”

Okay, firstly, if I was given a chance to decide if I wanted the opportunity to participate, I wouldn’t have wanted any part of that miracle not only because I was a scaredy cat but also because I felt that perhaps someone trained should have that job and secondly, I didn’t know if it was annoying or comforting to know all this shit tied together.

“We don’t play it that way in Denver,” Hank Nightingale clipped.

“Yeah, and that’s why you got so much product flooding your streets,” Skull clipped back and Hawk moved.

Closing the distance between him and Skull in a way that could not be misinterpreted, he got chest to chest and eye to eye with him.

“Let’s go back to talkin’ about you downin’ my man and targeting my woman, I wanna hear a little more about that,” he said quietly in a way that stated clearly he didn’t actually want to hear about that, he wanted to rip Skull’s head off.

“Uh-oh,” Elvira mumbled.

But it was safe to say I’d had enough. I’d been broken into, firebombed, shot at, abducted and imprisoned, kidnapped, tied up and targeted and almost used as bait by an undercover DEA agent who was obsessed with getting the bad guy. I was not going to let my new boyfriend get arrested for assault and battery.

Enough was e-fucking-nough!

I let go of Elvira’s hand, stood and shouted, “Stop it!”

Hawk and Skull didn’t separate but both their heads turned to me.

My eyes went to Skull. “I understand and admire your mission but this is America which means I’m free to choose if I wish to participate in your mission. And should I choose to do so I’m entitled to the training I’d need to maybe make it out the other end alive. You didn’t give me that choice which is not cool. But, FYI, I would have chosen no. I wear high heels, drink cosmopolitans and edit books. That’s my life choice. I don’t go undercover. I have no desire to do that. The streets may be flooded with drugs, I’m sorry to hear that, I wish it wasn’t true and I want to express my best of luck to you on seeing that situation altered but I know enough about myself to know I wouldn’t have been able to help much in that situation even if I would have wanted to. I would have messed everything up. But there are people, like you, who would make a different choice, they would have been able to help and, bottom line, you should have found another way.” I sucked in breath and continued. “Now, my sister is tied up in this shit, I knew it was bad but now I, and incidentally my and Ginger’s Mom, know it’s worse so if you wouldn’t mind controlling your testosterone, standing down and regrouping in order to fight another day I’d appreciate it because I’ve had a pretty bad day, Brett and Betsy’s have been worse, and we don’t need anything to make it suck any more than it already does.”

This was received quietly, all the badasses and badass commandos simply staring at me so I went on.

“And baby,” I said, my eyes going to Hawk, “I can appreciate you’re upset about Brett and having to rescue me again but if we find out Brett’s going to be okay, you promised me a night out and I don’t think you meant that night was me visiting the police station to talk to you on a phone through glass. I don’t have a visit your incarcerated boyfriend outfit and,” I leaned in, “I don’t want one.”

“Tell it like it is, hon,” Elvira muttered and I could tell it was through a smile.

Hawk didn’t move and his expression didn’t alter, the same true for Skull.

“Stand down from the DEA agent, Hawk,” I ordered and he continued to scowl at me so I quieted my voice and urged, “Baby, Betsy needs you now.”