Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 138315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
“That doesn’t sound like much of a dick,” Auggie observed. “What you said is the truth.”
“There’s layin’ out the honesty and bein’ an asshole while you lay out the honesty, and I was the second one.”
All the men knew of that distinction, so no one said anything.
“What about Cisco?” Mag asked, bringing them full circle. “Do I need to get Evan on that?”
“Let me talk to Hattie tomorrow,” Axl said.
“It might not be him takin’ it there, making a move on her,” Boone told him. “Told you all, Cisco’s got a thing about the women. He’s taken them on. Feels responsible for them. Probably guilt he scared the shit out of them when he abducted them. But I gotta admit, maybe it’s just that he’s a nuanced guy and he’s a piece of shit out there in the world, but he knows the right way to treat women.”
“The man fired on Axl,” Mag, jerking his head toward Axl, reminded Boone of the firefight Axl had with Cisco’s associates while they were taking Ryn.
“They’re either the worst shots in history, or they had orders not to hit me,” Axl said and all eyes came to him. “There had to be nearly eighty rounds exchanged in that and there was a lot of damage to the vehicles parked in that parking lot, but no one was even grazed.”
“So now you’re on the same bent as Boone that there’s more that makes this guy when he’s picking up Hattie from work at two o’clock in the morning?” Mag demanded.
“I think it’s clear I got more work to do with Hattie and it’s not gonna help me, not even having taken her out to dinner, bein’ that guy who’s an even bigger ass to her, I jump to conclusions about what’s going on with Cisco when, right now, strictly speaking, it’s none of my business. But she knows I want it to be my business, so I ask, and she can decide if she wants to tell.”
“I do not see Hattie with Cisco,” Mo mumbled.
Obviously, Axl didn’t either.
He saw her with him.
He saw all that curly hair of hers on his pillow in the morning and in his lap when she was blowing him.
He saw himself wading in and finding a way to guide her out of her father’s life, no matter what fucked-up reason she was still in it, so he could help her find a road to healing.
And he saw himself finding ways to make her laugh and finding others to give her a life that, the next time she pulled a mold from set concrete, seeing what she wrought might bring joy, not cut you to the quick.
That’s what he saw.
And if once, just once, she gave him a shot to kiss her like he meant it, she might see it too.
“Me either, I barely see her with Axl,” Auggie stated, taking Axl from his thoughts. “She needs an accountant or something. Boring and no drama.”
“And I’m drama?” Axl asked.
“Brother, her father’s a top-of-the-heap dick, when I thought yours was. But Don Yates beats out even Sylas Pantera, something that was impossible, until Hattie. So she still deals with Yates’s ass, but this goes the way you want it to, she’s gotta meet your dad, and if you think Sylas won’t bring the drama, you need to wake up. Because I believe in you and I saw Hattie dance that dance. So you’re gonna win that battle, eventually. But with those two in the mix, that’s not even close to winning the war.”
“Way to be a ray of sunshine, Aug,” Boone clipped.
“We’re all thinking it,” Auggie clipped back.
Yeah.
Axl could definitely say that Hattie meeting his dad had crossed his mind more than once.
First, she was a stripper, or had been, Sylas Pantera would look down on that, and it depended on his mood how, or more accurately, when he shared that with her.
Second, Sylas Pantera could find a mood where he felt even a stripper he looked down on was too good for his boy, and he’d find the time to share that too.
Axl sighed.
Then he suggested, “Maybe we should get some work done?”
It would seem they’d have no choice, because the men barely made their various gestures of agreement before the door opened and Hawk walked in.
None of them moved when they saw the look on his face.
He stopped at the bottom level of workstations and shared what he had to share from there.
“Got a call from Mamá.”
“Mamá” would be Mamá Nana. A woman who traded in information. She did it successfully. It did not make her rich, because she was Robin Hood to her community. It did make her respected, in a variety of ways, and not just that she was Robin Hood to her community.
She was an ally of Hawk’s.