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I knew that he had her.
Sex trafficking was very near and dear to her heart. She hadn’t liked the field aspect of it, but if she could research and do the busy work, she would feel like she was helping.
I knew she felt guilty about leaving.
Especially before the last motherfucker was found.
“And,” Lynn said, “I think that I have some good news for you. The man that you were trying to snag in Florida, the man responsible for Cannel Cantrell’s kidnapping, has been found. He’s actually running his operation in East Texas now. He’ll be our first mark.”
Beckham grinned. “I know. I have information on him that I was compiling. I have been following his whereabouts since everything happened.”
Lynn’s eyes went soft.
He knew what happened to her.
Hell, the only people that probably didn’t know were her family.
“Smashing,” Laric drawled as he took a drink of a beer. A beer that he hadn’t had a moment before. “Now, do you want to be known as the ‘enforcer?’ Or what about the ‘treasurer?’ You can’t be vice president. That’s my job. Bruno’s the ‘pres.’ Though, technically, Lynn should be the president. But he doesn’t want to be. He says he has to do other things. He did say that he’d be a part of our club, though. For appearances’ sake, anyway. He’s low man on the totem pole for that, though.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about half the time,” Bruno grumbled as he finished off his beer and went for another one.
“So, who do you want to be?” Laric pushed, looking at me.
“Why do you have to put labels on it at all?” Six asked curiously. “Just be.”
“Do you even ride, State?” Laric asked.
I felt a strong pulse of anguish pierce through my heart at him calling me ‘State.’ I’d never be ‘State’ again.
That part of my life was gone.
“Don’t call me that,” I growled. “It’s Trouper. Or Troup.”
Laric gave me a thumbs up.
“No State. Got it. Now, have you ever ridden before?” he asked.
I grinned then. “I rode all the time. I just have to find another bike.”
“About that…” Beckham shifted in her seat. “I didn’t sell your bike. I, uh, took out a loan and paid it off while you were in there.”
I looked at her.
“Did you do anything that I asked you to do while I was in there?” I grumbled. “I wanted you to take care of yourself. I wanted to take care of you.”
She hadn’t sold my car. She hadn’t sold my bike.
I mean, I knew why she hadn’t. She knew that I’d loved them.
But I’d also wanted to take care of her. That’d been the only way that I could do it.
“How about we have this discussion later,” she suggested.
The baby that I was holding woke up with a flourish, and everyone blinked in surprise.
Everyone but Beckham, though.
“He wakes up starving,” she sighed. “Just like his father.”
A whisper of warmth flooded through me.
“Speaking of dinner, now that we’ve established that she’ll help, what are we having?” Laric asked.
I easily transferred a really awake, getting madder by the second Hiro to Beckham’s arms. As much as I’d love to help, I just didn’t have the right equipment.
“She didn’t agree yet, moron,” Six said.
“She agreed. I can tell by her body language.”
I looked at my wife.
“I’m in if you’re in,” she whispered.
I nodded once. “I was in or I would’ve never left that hellhole.”
Two hours later, we were on our way to the house that Beckham had rented out in the middle of nowhere.
“This is nice,” I mused as I looked at the small log cabin home in front of us.
She sighed, not commenting on the house at all. “I need to tell my parents that I’m home.” When I looked toward her to gauge her reaction, it was to see her grimacing. “And it’s time that they met my real husband.”
We hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet.
Reaching for the seatbelt that I’d just taken off, I clicked it back into place.
“Let’s just take care of everything then,” I suggested.
She looked over at me with terror in her eyes.
“It’ll be okay,” I promised, offering her my hand.
She took it and held on to it like her life depended on it.
She didn’t let it go. Not once. Not when I sneezed and needed the use of my other hand. Not when I shifted gears. And not even when she wiped the tears from her eyes.
CHAPTER 23
This is my drinkin’ shirt. I don’t know if I wear it every day.
-T-shirt
BECKHAM
“Let me go in first,” I said as I stood at the bottom steps of the police station. “Give me, like, two minutes.”
“They’re not going to be happy,” Trouper said as he deftly moved the sleeping baby in his arms to his shoulder. “I don’t want you to do this alone.”
