Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 185811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 929(@200wpm)___ 743(@250wpm)___ 619(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 185811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 929(@200wpm)___ 743(@250wpm)___ 619(@300wpm)
Eddie appeared at Tex’s side.
“Lottie, get in here,” he growled.
Oh man.
I felt Mo’s hand come to the small of my back and he put pressure there.
Apparently, he’d realized it was time to handle this.
Immediately.
But at that juncture I wanted to dig in my heels. However, since I was an adult and not ten minutes ago had decided to act like one, I probably shouldn’t go back on that now.
Tex and Eddie got out of our way so we could hit the living room.
My living room wasn’t small, as such.
And it didn’t seem tiny with all those big men in there.
It seemed miniscule with all those big men being seriously ticked off at me in there.
“Uh—” I started.
“Hawk had it covered. I had her covered. It’s done,” Mo said over me.
Was he seeing these men?
I mean…
Did he really think that was going to work?
“We’ll get to you next,” Tex boomed at him.
See?
It did not work.
I looked to my side and up to see Mo had his head bent, staring at his feet, his profile telling me he was even more amused than he’d been before.
Yes, he was insane.
This was not funny.
I had to take things in hand.
“Listen, guys, like Mo said, it’s done,” I shared with the room. “It’s been rough, but it’s over and we’re on to the celebratory phase. So if we could do the debriefing when there’s beer and tequila handy, in other words, some other time, it would be appreciated.”
“The celebratory phase?”
This came from Hector.
And the way it came from Hector had my body locking.
It was then I noticed that the Hot Bunch had been so preoccupied with being pissed at me that they hadn’t quite noticed Mo was there, he was wearing nothing but cargos, and I was in a nightie.
Oh man.
“You do not, ever,” Luke growled at Mo, “enter into an intimate relationship with the person you’re protecting.”
Mo’s head came up and he wasn’t amused anymore.
Oh man!
“He didn’t,” I said hurriedly to Luke. “We didn’t start that until a couple of hours ago.”
“Intimacy doesn’t only involve fucking,” Vance declared.
He had me there.
“It was totally professional,” I lied.
“Looks professional to me,” Ren remarked.
I glared at him, wondering what he was even doing there. He wasn’t a member of the Hot Bunch.
Though he was married to Ally Nightingale, now Ally Zano, and he was most definitely hot, and his own brand of badass, and obviously, when it came to certain things, it appeared it was all in the family.
“It’s over now,” I snapped. “Like I said, we didn’t start the fucking part until a couple of hours ago, even though I would have started fucking a week ago, Mo wouldn’t let me. So from that, you can see it was all professional.”
“Can you stop talking about fucking Mo?” Lee asked angrily.
“I’m a big girl, Lee,” I shot back at him.
“You’re every man in this room’s little sister, Lottie,” he returned. “So as such, can we please stop talking about you fucking anybody?”
I didn’t answer him.
I’d gone solid.
I was Jet’s little sister.
I wasn’t…
Woodenly, my head moved so I could take in the men in the room.
Every last one was scowling at me.
Because it wasn’t that my sister and all her friends’ men (and okay, also my friends) were badasses and assumed they could take care of all the women in their lives’ problems, no matter what kind of satellite that woman was in their life.
It was that all my big brothers had been kept in the dark when something was threatening me.
I didn’t…
I didn’t know.
I was just Lottie, Jet’s little sister.
I had no idea they felt this deeply for me.
But they did.
They did.
They felt really fucking deep for me.
It was then my throat closed and my eyes got hot.
“You didn’t come to me.”
My attention went to the man who spoke.
Eddie.
Oh boy.
“Eddie,” I whispered.
“If they didn’t have it…” He shook his head. “If something happened to you…” He couldn’t finish that either.
And I knew that, now, he couldn’t not only because his life would be hell if something happened to his beloved wife’s beloved little sister, his beloved boys’ beloved aunt.
Also because something would have happened to his sister-in-law, a woman he cared deeply about.
Oh God.
“It didn’t. It was Hawk Delgado, Eddie,” I said quietly. “He had it.”
“I’ve been to this guy’s house, Lottie,” Eddie retorted. “If they didn’t have it…”
He again didn’t finish.
With not a small amount of difficulty, I swallowed.
“Lottie, honey, look at me,” Hank called.
I looked at Hank.
“There was more than just finding this guy,” he said. “You had to be out of your mind worried. You should never take that on alone. It doesn’t help you or the situation and it doesn’t save the people you’re keeping in the dark from anything. They’re just going to feel what you’ve endured over a week in a second,” he lifted a hand to indicate the room, “as you can see.”