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I grasped Kelli’s hand and tucked her behind me when I noticed both the driver and the guy in the passenger’s seat watching her like hungry predators.
“What do you want with my sister-in-law?” Jet demanded, noticing where their focus was trained. Kelli made an indiscernible sound, but no one paid her any attention. “She owe you money or something?”
“I can ask my own questions,” Kelli grumbled, trying to move around me and in between my brothers.
“Actually, I’ll ask the questions,” Gracie informed everyone as she rested her elbows on the open driver’s window. Her pretty eyes changed in an instant, and she was no longer the sweet girl we’d all come to love over the years. She became the badass little lawyer Jenkins had turned her into. “What brings you to Creswell Springs, gentlemen?”
“Friends,” the driver answered, still trying to get a glimpse of Kelli, whom I kept firmly behind me.
“Thought you said you were here to visit family?” I reminded him.
“Family and friends,” he was quick to clarify. “Does it matter? You the cops, lady?”
“No, but I am the lawyer for these guys. If there’s going to be trouble, I’d like to get ahead of it so I can start on my arguments to keep bail at a minimum.” She leaned in, her eyes going toward the back seat. “And what’s your name, sir?”
“Gracie,” Hawk rumbled. He caught her by the waist and lifted her a foot off the ground. Turning, he deposited her behind us. “Stay out of this. Get your ass back into the office and stay there until I come get you.”
“No way,” she started to argue.
“I said now, Gracie. Do you really want to take any chances right now?”
To my surprise, her mouth snapped shut, stopping whatever argument she was planning on blasting him with. After a small hesitation, she sighed, frustrated, and stomped back across the street, leaving me and the other guys blinking in astonishment. The glass door trembled as it slammed behind her.
If only Kelli would listen like that, I would be a happy man.
Instead, she used the advantage of Hawk moving out of the way to slide around me and reaching inside the SUV. She grabbed the driver by his shirt and pulled him toward the window, hard. He was caught by surprise, and his head connected with the top of the doorframe, his brow puckering in pain.
“Fuck, lady, what’s your problem?” he snapped.
“You and your dumb-ass friends are my problem,” she spat. “Now tell me who you are and why you’re following me around like the sleazy creepers you are.”
The back window slowly lowered, giving us a look at the man in the back seat for the first time. Like the other two, this guy was a stranger to me, but Kelli inhaled sharply and released her hold on the driver instantly, stepping backward until her back connected with my front.
Taking a closer look at the man, I thought maybe I might have seen him before, but I couldn’t place him. He was a thin man with short hair that was almost completely gray. There were deep and fine lines around his eyes and mouth. The suit he wore looked expensive, but there was something in the set of his shoulders that suggested he hadn’t always worn such fine material.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice losing all the steam from just moments ago. Hearing how weak she sounded now that she was face-to-face with this man, I put my free hand on her hip so I could get her out of the way should anything happen suddenly.
“I heard about your mother’s death,” the man told her, his voice deep but oddly sympathetic. “I was concerned about you.”
“You shouldn’t have expended that kind of energy,” Kelli told him, her voice growing a little stronger as she stared the old man down.
“It took bigger balls than Samson could ever claim to have to go to the press like you did. The story broke about an hour and a half ago. It’s all over the talk radio channels, and it’s the number one trending topic on all the social media sites.” The old man’s lips lifted into a half smile, half grimace. “I always wondered if you knew what he was up to, but I never really worried enough to find out.”
“You didn’t think I would actually do it? Knowing how much I hate him, you should have probably considered it. I don’t want to fight with you, Uncle Hank.”
Uncle? The realization that I knew next to nothing about Kelli’s family and past was glaringly obvious. But was Hank her biological uncle or an honorary one?
“So, you’re Badcock,” Jet chuckled.
“Shut up, Jet. You don’t want him as an enemy,” Kelli hissed.
That only had me and the others snorting. “Babe, we aren’t worried about some guy we’ve never even heard of before today.”
“I hear Vito is happy with your protection runs for him,” Badcock
commented, making us all stiffen. It wasn’t public knowledge who we worked for, but if this guy knew it, then he must be connected to Vito in some way. And that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “I might call him, see if he would recommend you boys to do a little work for me when you’re not helping him out.”
Fuck.
