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More pause and then, “Love you too, sugar.”
She ended the call, returned the phone to her pocket, and looked around the room. “You should come stay with us.”
Ryder shook his head, “Wouldn’t want to put anyone out.”
Holly laughed, “I don’t mean at the compound. I mean with me and Lowe.” Holly looked around the room and shivered, “You’d be much more comfortable than in this place.”
“Thank you for the hospitality, ma’am, but I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
“Of course, it would,” Holly argued, turning to face Ryder. “Listen, I get that you’re being respectful and polite, but Lowe is crazy about me, and then I had him a couple of kids, and he built me a mansion in the hills. No shit. The place is a castle,” she grinned, “and I love every square foot of it.”
Ryder was about to argue further when he heard boots on pavement and turned toward the sound.
Harlowe Dane was older than Ryder but looked younger than Gate, so Ryder would put his age somewhere in his early forties.
His hair was dark with streaks of gray, and the shadow on his face had more salt than pepper.
He wore cowboy boots, jeans, tee, and a Daggers cut, and Holly bounded out the door and into the president’s arms.
The man wrapped Holly up in arms that were thick with muscle and colored ink. He looked up at Ryder over all that brunette hair. “You should definitely come stay at the castle. Shit’s going south, and if anything happens to you, Gate’ll have my ass.”
Ryder nodded and pulled his cell from his pocket. “Let me make a call first.”
Lowe settled Holly at his hip, and the two of them watched Ryder while he waited.
He didn’t have to wait long.
“Yeah?” Gate answered in one.
“Standing here with Harlowe Dane. He’s extended an invitation to stay at his place.”
“Holly there?” Gate asked, chuckling.
“Yep,” Ryder answered. “Head’s up would have been nice.”
“Wouldn’t have been the same. They had to know,” Gate said.
“Know what?”
“The kind of man you are. Now they’ve extended hospitality, and you can trust it.”
“Clear,” Ryder agreed, ending the call, still halfway pissed that Gate hadn’t warned him about the cagey Dagger president.
Ryder reached over, tagged his pack from the table, and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ve got your six.”
Lowe kept Holly tight to his side as they crossed the parking lot.
Ryder gave the room a once over, dropped the room key on the table, and then closed the door behind him.
Chapter Nine
Utopia
Anna
“Your gift was cool as shit. Don’t see how you got the thing in here. Has to weigh as much as you do,” Gate’s whisper tickled my ear, and I did my best to hide my reaction to the heat of him that warmed my back.
Once Layla had left me flying solo with Gate at the bar, I tried to keep my gaze steady on Jenna opening gifts, waiting for Gate to take his leave.
