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“What if I keep ‘em close to the house?” Sparky asks. He waves his hand in the air. “Like by the basement exit?”
Hope raises her hand. “Uh, have I ever mentioned my deathly fear of bees?”
Sparky gives her sad puppy eyes. “Oh no.” His face brightens and I brace myself for whatever he’s about to say. “The best cure for apiphobia would be probably be flooding. Lots and lots of exposure to bees, First Lady.”
She turns to Rock, who shakes his head.
Besides the wild things that fly out of his mouth, I have the feeling Sparky comes up with and discards a lot of ideas. But the brothers are kind and humor his eccentricities. Okay, kind is probably stretching it.
“Thank fuck some of the others went for a ride,” Teller mutters. He squeezes Charlotte’s hip. “I’m regretting not joining them.”
“No honey for you when I get my bees, you fuckwad,” Sparky says.
“Everything okay at Crystal Ball?” Z asks Dex.
Dex leans forward. “I miss you, bro. Christ, some of them are a pain in the ass. I caught Annie charging an extra twenty for hand jobs in the back and had to fire her.”
“I knew she wouldn’t last long,” Z says.
“Wait, you actively discourage that?” I ask.
They both stare at me. “We’re not running a whorehouse,” Dex says. “They get caught hustling for anything more than a lap dance, they’re out. We haven’t had an issue in a while now.”
I shrug. “When I danced, the owners didn’t care. Made it unsafe for all of us because customers didn’t know what to expect. Which girls to proposition and which ones would kick them in the nuts if they tried.”
Stash leans forward, suddenly interested in our conversation again. “I’m guessing you were the second one?”
“Watch yourself,” Z warns.
“Yes. Officially they said it wasn’t allowed and like an idiot, I believed it.”
“That’s why Salvatore’s went out of business,” Z winks at me.
“These fuckers know what to expect in our place,” Dex growls.
“I meant, maybe the girls don’t know you’re serious. If she danced someplace before that told her one thing when they hired her but looked the other way…maybe she didn’t know.”
Dex tilts his head and studies me. “I had no idea you danced.”
“Long, long time ago.” I glance at Z, hoping he’s not annoyed I brought it up.
Dex runs his hand over his chin and flicks his gaze to Z then faces me. “We’ve kicked around the idea of a manager for the girls for a while now.”
Z slips a possessive arm around my shoulders. “Yeah, what’s your point?”
“You have experience, plus you’re a success story. Went to school and landed a job way outside the life. Be a good role model for them.”
My stomach churns. “I hardly think I’m a role model for anyone.”
“My old lady has plenty to keep her busy, bro.” Z’s statement comes out more like a threat.
A threat Dex seems to sense because he backs off and holds up his hands. “No offense. Just a suggestion.”
I narrow my eyes and glare at Z, not sure I like him speaking for me. What does he expect? That I’ll never work again? I’m not sure I could do that.
Z
Fucking Dex. I love that motherfucker, but I could throat-punch him right now.
The conversation goes on around us but eventually Lilly gets up and goes inside. I follow her to our room and shut the door behind us.
“You all right?”
She spins, long hair flying around her. “What do you expect from me, Z?”
She’s pissed. About what, I’m not sure. “What do you mean?”
“The way you shut Dex down when he suggested I work at Crystal Ball. Don’t you think that’s my decision? Or do you not want me working on your turf?”
Huh? My head’s throbbing trying to figure out what’s happening here. “No. I thought you…I don’t know, I thought you’d be insulted.”
She places her hands on her hips. “Why would I be insulted?”
Where did I go wrong? “Uh, because you left that behind to do something more important?” Not that I want to bring up bad stuff for her, but I’m not sure how else to explain my reasoning. “I thought now that the sick fucker was gone and…I don’t know…I assumed eventually you’d want to go back to working in government.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders drop and the anger melts off her face. “Really? You’d be okay with that?”
“If that’s what you want to do, yeah. Why?”
She shakes her head. “You don’t want me home catering to your every need?” It’s almost said in a teasing way, but I sense she genuinely wants to know.
My mouth twitches. “Yeah, if that’s what sets your heart on fire, I’m down for it. But I can’t see you being happy doing that for the rest of your life.”
“I don’t know if I could, I mean he was an extreme example, but certainly not the only one. Government is full of sexist jerks. Even if the culture is shifting and changing a bit right now…it’s so ingrained in everything.”
“Then, they need more people like you, don’t you think? Help keep that change going.”
“Wow.” She sighs. “You surprise me all the time, you know that?”
“Why?”
She shakes off the question. “Even though it’s trendy to talk about it, that’s all it is—talk. Men don’t give up power easily. Eventually there will be a backlash and I don’t know if I want to be there for it when it happens.”
“Babe, those kind of men gotta die eventually.”
She bursts out laughing. “I really love you.”
“I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy.” She glances down. “Let me get used to being your old lady and all that entails.”
“You’re already good there.”
“Let’s worry about our wedding. Then, I’ll figure out what kind of career I want to have next.”
A streak of possession thunders through my veins. A desire to do anything and everything to make sure she’s always safe and happy. And I really like hearing her say our wedding’s on her mind. “Anything you want.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Z
As family day winds down and darkness creeps over the sky, Lilly yawns. Rock and Hope left hours ago. Wrath and Trinity disappeared to their room. Murphy’s still here, helping me keep the guys in check. I’m not sure where Teller disappeared to.
“You ready to head home?” I ask Lilly.
The party will turn rowdier. Hell, it already is. The guys built a huge bonfire. Soon, girls will start arriving by the carload to party with the brothers. Seen this and done it so many times over my life. All I want to do is go home with Lilly and Chance.
With Chance asleep in my arms, I walk them out to the parking lot. “I’m going to finish up here. Talk to Rooster, and then I’ll be home,” I promise Lilly.
“Ooo, stop,” she says.
“What, why?”
She lifts her chin toward the mountains where they sky’s slowly fading from purple to pink to orange. “I want to take a picture of you holding Chance asleep like that with the sunset behind you. So adorably perfect.”
“It’ll probably come out too dark.”
“Shush. Stand there and flex those dad muscles.” She laughs as she holds her phone out, framing the photo the way she wants. “Damn, you’re one fine looking man,” she mutters.
I never get tired of her saying that.
“Turn toward me a little,” she calls out.
I press my forehead against Chance’s hair. “You had to pick now to be all cute, didn’t you?” He drools on my shirt in answer.
“Perfect!” Lilly says. “One more.”
She uses the flash this time, nearly blinding me in the process.
Gravel crunches and engines roar into the parking lot. Again, I’m blinded, but this time by headlights.
Shielding my ey
es and turning Chance away from the glare, I scowl at the intruders. “Who the fuck is that?” I growl.
Lilly’s relaxed, happy smile fades as she studies the cars. “Z?” Her feet move faster over the gravel. “What’s going on?”
I recognize the officer who steps out of the first car. One of the two who stopped by to hassle us after Malone’s burned down. “What can I do for you?” I call out, hoping this is nothing more than another annoying social call.
Something about their demeanor and the fact that two cars showed up sends dread spiraling into my gut.
“Angus Frazier?”
Fuck me.
“What’s going on?” Murphy calls from the front door. As soon as he realizes it’s the cops, he joins me. “What the fuck are they doing here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sir, this doesn’t concern you, go back inside,” the first officer orders.
Not likely. Murphy crosses his arms over his chest and widens his stance, making it clear he’s not leaving.
Three other officers step out. All of them with their hands too close to their weapons for my taste. I curl my body around Chance and shift him away from the officers.
“Miss are you the child’s mother?” the officer asks.
Lilly glares at him defiantly. “What’s going on?” She doesn’t bother answering the question.
“Miss, I need you to take the child and step away.”
Lilly’s visibly trembling when she turns back to me, her scared eyes asking what she should do.
I have to get them out of here.
“Here, take him.” I hand Chance over. “I’ll handle this.”
As soon as Lilly steps away, three of the officers swarm on me. “Get down! Get on the fucking ground!”
When I don’t go down fast enough, one of them kicks the back of my right knee, sending me to the ground.
“What the fuck?” My jeans don’t do much to stop the gravel from digging into my knees.
“Down! Down on the ground!”
The commotion wakes Chance and it only takes him a few seconds to start screaming. “Daddy! No!”
