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I couldn’t help but laugh. As if I could ever kill this man. For one, I loved him like a brother. For another, he outweighed me by a good hundred and twenty pounds. It would take a lot of good planning to kill Bash Reid. “So this is real?”
“Jenkins doesn’t make fake deals, sweetheart.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed one ankle over the other. He looked relaxed and I was sure that he wasn’t lying to me. “From what I’ve read, it looks like a good deal at that. You going to take it?”
“I don’t know yet. It seems too good to be true.”
“Because it solves all your problems?” I nodded and he snorted. “Sometimes miracles do happen. More often than you think, actually.”
“So are you saying I should take it?” Okay, so it was a cop-out, trying to get someone else to make this decision for me. I was smarter than that, more independent. I didn’t need anyone to make my decisions for me, but right then I wanted someone else to do it for me.
Bash pushed himself to his feet and gave me a small smile. “If it were me I would take it, but it’s not me. You have to decide if this is what you want. Is it something that you can live with if you take it? But don’t go off of what I say, Gracie. Think about it for a day or two. Talk to Hawk about it. This affects him too, whether you want to admit it or not. You two are together now, so whatever you decide you both have to live with.”
With those words of wisdom he left me alone in the office once more, and I sat there still conflicted.
Hawk
I hated plumbers. I especially hated them when they charged me an outrageous amount of money. I glared from him to the bill that he’d just handed over, then down at the mess that was still the men’s room of Hannigan’s.
Yesterday the bar had been closed since it had been Sunday. When the guys and I had locked up Saturday night, everything had been fine. Then today I’d come in to grab the books for Raven, and the bathroom had been completely flooded. Someone had broken in and destroyed a pipe and it hadn’t left the place pretty.
I had my suspicions of who had done the damage, but of course I couldn’t prove it. Didn’t mean I was going to let it go, just that I had to bid my time and catch that fucker Kevin Samson. He was hiding out right now, scared that Spider was going to kill him after he’d left a screwdriver in Willa’s tire. Apparently he’d grown a little more bold since he’d snuck in and did this damage, but he was no doubt back to hiding his scared ass.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I growled at the plumber. He wasn’t the usual guy that we dealt with, but he’d been the only one I could get hold of in my rush to get the water pipe damage contained.
“I had to cancel three other appointments to get out here. That number included the emergency fee.” The short man with the potbelly scratched his chin, not seeming the least bit intimidated by me. Since he was from the next town over I was sure he didn’t realize who I was or what this bar represented. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been so fucking ballsy right then. “I take cash only. No checks from people I don’t know.”
Muttering a curse, I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit connect on Raven’s number. “Yeah?”
“I need some cash. Can you drop it off now so I can get this dickhead out of the bar before I decide to drown him in the piss and shit I’m currently standing in?” My threat got an eye roll from the plumber but a laugh from my sister.
“Yeah. I’ll be right over. Gonna have Lexa with me, though.”
“Thanks.” I glanced at the time on my phone and frowned. “You take Gracie her lunch?” I’d wanted to take it over myself, but I’d had to deal with the water pipe thing.
Raven blew out a sigh. “Of course I did, Hawk. She’s eaten and she’s taken care of. Oh, and I saw Jenkins pulling in as I was leaving.”
My frown turned into a grin. “Good. Drive carefully.”
“How long she gonna be?” The plumber asked. “I gotta be at another place in forty minutes.”
“Chill your tits, asshole. She’s on her way.” I waded through the mess to the bathroom door. Stepping into the bar, I pulled off the rubber boots we kept in the office in case of messes like this. I wanted a drink and I would have killed for a few headache relievers.
Fifteen minutes later, Raven and Lexa came through the front door and I had never been so happy to see my baby sister. I’d been seconds away from having to hide a dead body. The fucking plumber was a
t the top of my list of people that needed to be offed in the near future.
“Uncle Hawk, you have your grumpy face on,” Lexa informed me as she climbed up onto the stool beside me.
“Uncle Hawk has a headache, Lexa.” I grabbed hold of her waist and sat her on the bar top in front of me. I pointed to the center of my forehead. “Right here.”
Here blue eyes widened and she leaned forward to press a sweet little kiss to my head, just as I knew she would. Lexa was a big believer in kisses making pain go away. “All better?”
“It’s a start.”
Raven was already counting out the cash for the plumber, who was eyeing her in a way that made me want to feed the fucker his dick for lunch. Raven glared at the man and shoved the cash into his hands. “There’s the door, jackass.”
He licked his lips and rubbed his hand over his mouth. “If you need one, I could give you a discount, little lady. Save you some money.” Beady eyes were on Raven’s chest and I was two seconds away from grabbing his balding head and beating it against the bar top.
“Oh yeah? And what would you want in return for this ‘discount’?” Raven snarled.
