3. We Eat in an Hour
3
WE EAT IN AN HOUR
Hugger
Hugger was pissed right the fuck off.
There were many reasons for this.
First , Diana Armitage was traipsing around this hot-as-shit, sun-drenched, parched fucking city—a place no one in their right mind would willingly choose to live—and she was doing it in high-heeled gold shoes, driving the smallest, most unsafe car he’d seen in his life, all while being tailed by two gun-toting henchmen of a local mob.
Yet she did it like it was just any other day. She was just going where she needed to go, like two gun-toting henchmen of a local mob weren’t on her ass.
Which meant she was either bravely stupid or stupidly brave, but neither was smart.
Second , the bitch was gorgeous.
Lots of tits. Lots of ass. Perfect makeup. Sparkling green eyes. Long , thick hair any man would get a hard-on to have his fingers in and have it spread all over his lap when she was blowing him.
She had sass. She had attitude.
And she was messed right the fuck up, considering she inserted herself into this situation because she had a beef with her pops, and that was so fucking dumb, he wanted to turn her over his knee and spank some sense into her.
Third , she had a tight-as-shit crib.
It didn’t take a behavioral scientist to call her favorite color was blue, considering the color of her car, and her pad was mostly white with a lot of blue. It was crisp, stylish, comfortable-looking and feminine.
Even if it wasn’t his gig, he liked it. It looked good. It suited her. It was feminine without being girlie, and that was her to a T . And he dug she knew herself well enough she could stamp her space so clearly with her style.
He was on a mission.
He did not need to want to bang this woman.
But he seriously wanted to bang this woman.
Last , Suzette Snyder showed after having a brief conversation with Diana in a room down a hall.
When she showed, her arm was in a sling, she had a limp, and there were still stitches in her lip and across the cheekbone under the end of her left eye. The bruising hadn’t all disappeared either, even after three weeks.
But she couldn’t be taller than five three. She couldn’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds. And she looked about thirteen years old, even if he knew she was twenty-six.
It meant Babi? didn’t bother picking on someone his own size and he might have some pedo shit going on.
For the first time in his life, Hugger understood what “it made my blood boil” felt like.
Suzette didn’t come close to looking any of the men in the eye. She also didn’t come fully out into the open. She lingered at Diana’s back, just to the side, and she had her fingers wrapped so tightly around Diana’s forearm, Hugger could see the white come out around the beds of her nails.
That hold was going to leave bruises, but Diana didn’t flinch or give that first indication she even felt it.
Hugger partially understood this, considering his vibe was joining the other men’s when they caught sight of her, and these were not happy vibes. He wanted to control it, but the state of Suzette , he was finding that impossible.
The other part he understood was that a man did this to her, so men freaked her.
“ This is Hugger and, uh…” Diana started to introduce them.
“ Eight ,” Eightball grunted.
“ Muzzle ,” Muzz said.
“ Cruise ,” Cruise put in tightly.
“ Like I told you, they’re here to help us keep things steady and cool while the DA builds his case and then…” Diana trailed off.
“ Stick until Babi? is locked up,” Eight bit out.
“ So , um…for the long haul,” Diana concluded.
Suzette said nothing.
Diana turned to her, pried her hand off her forearm but held it in hers, grabbing the other one too.
“ They need to know you’re okay with that,” she said gently. “ So now you’ve met them, you and I’ll go back to your room and talk about it. Okay ?”
Suzette nodded, let Diana go and nearly sprinted back down the hall.
Hugger’s hands closed into fists.
Diana shot them a look and swiftly followed her.
Hugger concentrated on her ass swaying because he needed that goodness to chase out the bad.
“ That motherfucker…” Muzzle gritted.
“ Cool it,” Cruise murmured.
Hugger needed some air, even if that air was dusty, dry and hot as fuck.
So he walked to the sliding glass door that led to a balcony, which had patio furniture that was mostly blue (the cushions and pillows) but also white (the frames).
He stepped out and homed right in on the two sleazeballs that were sitting outside a coffee place across the courtyard from Diana’s unit.
One of them lifted his paper cup Hugger’s way.
Hugger considered flipping him the bird but decided against it.
He also considered going down there and knocking their goddamned heads together.
He decided against that too.
Instead , he stepped closer to the railing and cased the courtyard in the middle of the square complex.
Six breezeways to unit entry vestibules. Two in the middle on each side and one at each corner.
Total fucking open-to-all space in the middle, with ample visitor parking on the north side.
Slip in behind a resident at an elevator lobby, like they did earlier with some unsuspecting resident, then slip in behind some health-conscious moron who takes the stairs, you’re right at their door.
The only good thing he saw was that steel bar which might take explosives to get through.
But a desperate man did desperate things, and Hugger had no doubt Babi? wouldn’t blink at setting a few charges to open the way to get to his prey.
He felt company come up at his side, and he looked up at Eight .
“ We need to get her in a safe house,” he stated.
“ Yeah ,” Eight muttered, gazing through the courtyard. “ We need to get her in a safe house.”
Hugger then watched Eight jerk up his chin toward the coffee place, like he was saying hello to an acquaintance.
Then he looked at Hugger .
“ Your take on Armitage ?” Eight asked.
“ This is personal to her because of her dad, which is some serious stupid shit.”
“ It’s personal to her all right,” Eight mumbled.
“ She’s got a beef with her pops,” Hugger noted.
“ She does. She’s also got a beef with Babi? ,” Eight replied.
“ That’s not hard, with what he did.”
“ It wasn’t what he did to Suzette . It’s what some other fuck did to Diana .”
At these words, it felt like a tidal wave pounded into him, stealing his breath, pulling him under, dragging him out.
It sounded like Eight was ten miles away when he heard, “ Hug .”
It’s what some other fuck did to Diana .
“ Hug !” Eight called sharply.
Hugger struggled to the surface.
Eight watched him do it, and then asked, “ You didn’t clock that?”
“ No ,” Hugger grunted.
“ You got a lock on your shit?” Eight asked.
“ No .”
Eight crossed his arms on his chest and studied him. “ You’re into her.”
“ You’re not?”
“ Oh , I’d do her if she gave me a shot, but that’s not where you’re at.”
It wasn’t, considering he wanted to land one in Eight’s throat for saying what he just said.
“ You’re inside,” Eight announced.
Hugger stared at him.
Eight was the leader of this mission. And when Resurrection called it, Chaos didn’t say dick.
This had to do with the fact that those men picked up assignments like this on the regular, so they had a lot of experience, and they kept their skillset sharp even when they weren’t out in the world doing vigilante shit for the downtrodden.
On the other hand, Chaos jumped in occasionally, mostly because it was always for a righteous cause, like this one, but partly for shits, giggles and to keep life interesting.
Regardless their motivation, you didn’t question the leader.
But considering Eight had sensed where he was at, Hugger had to question it.
“ Don’t think that’s smart, man,” Hugger noted.
“ I’ll tell you what I’ve learned, Hug ,” Eight began. “ You got skin in the game, you go balls to the wall to win it. It’s not like any of us are gonna slack. But you got incentive to keep her ass healthy so you can tap it, that works in a big way.”
“ We all need focus.”
“ You’ll be focused all right.”
He had zero interest in hashing Diana Armitage out with Eightball .
“ You’re lead, I’ll do what you say. But I’m on record,” Hugger finished it.
Before Eight could reply, they heard, “ Brothers ,” come from the door and saw Muzzle standing there.
Looking through the window, Hugger also saw Diana had returned.
She’d kicked off her shoes.
With them on, she was only four inches shorter than him.
With them off, it came clear he could throw her over his shoulder and haul her sweet, round ass to bed.
Fuck .
He and Eight entered the room, Hugger sliding the door shut behind him.
She waited until he did, before she said, “ Suzette is okay with you guys helping out.”
“ She know Hugger’s gonna be sleepin’ on the couch?” Eight asked.
Hugger watched closely as her eyes got big, some pink came into her cheeks, and neither helped matters, because both were fucking cute, and both told him she was where he was with this shit.
Terrific .
Her voice sounded slightly strangled when she replied, “ She knows, yeah.”
“ We’re gonna need fobs, keys, and I need a piece of paper to write some numbers down,” Eight told her.
She nodded and headed to the kitchen, which had gleaming white modern cupboards and quartz countertops. But there was a subtle blue in the pattern of the tile that made up the backsplash, and there were cobalt blue glass globes around the three dangling lights over the island.
She pulled out a keychain that had a fob on it as well as a set of keys. She tossed it on the counter.
Eight nabbed it and instantly turned and lobbed it to Hugger , who caught it.
Diana watched this, took a deep breath, then she rooted around in the drawer, saying, “ We’ll get some keys made and I’ll order some extra fobs from the complex office.” She came out with a pad of paper and pen, which she slid across the counter to Eight .
He bent to it and started scribbling, offering so much info, he had to take out his phone and copy shit off it.
When he was done, he straightened and pushed the pad back her way.
“ You program those into your phone. Get Suzette to do the same. Just precautions, you’re gonna be covered,” Eight said.
Diana nodded.
“ We got another man with us. His name is Big Petey . He’s older, softer, less of a visible threat, but he’s still got it goin’ on. He’s gonna hang with Suzette during the day while Hugger stays on you”—her eyes raced to Hugger on that—“and other brothers make sure shit is copacetic here at home base. You with me?”
Her attention swung back to Eight . “ I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“ Okay , yeah. Right . You don’t quite get what you agreed to. I’ll elucidate,” Eight said magnanimously. “ Suzette and you just turned this over to us. We got this now. You do what we say when we say it. You don’t question it. We got you how we need to get you. And how that is, is never open to discussion. You still with me?”
She opened her mouth.
Hugger nearly smiled when Eight kept going before she could say anything.
“ Great . It’s not gonna be tough. Unless shit gets fucked, nothing will change. You go to work. You come home. Except , when you do that, you got a man at your back in case Babi? gets any ideas. Suzette stays here. She’s covered, inside and out. We keep things good, and in the meantime, you and us talk Suzette into vanishing somewhere safe so you’re out of this equation, and we are not havin’ to deal with providing protection in what amounts to a huge-ass apartment complex on top of a mini fuckin’ mall.”
She opened her mouth again, and again, Eight got there before her.
“ I heard you when you said she wasn’t down with leaving you. We’ll get her there, and you’re gonna help. But you got no business being a middleman in shit this heavy. You need out from under it and she needs to be somewhere we got total control of her environment. We’ll have a sit down with Buck to see if there’s some local cop he knows is squeaky clean, so we can get word to them that she’s vanished, but she hasn’t vanished , and he can keep the case moving forward.”
He took a breath, but even so, she still wasn’t fast enough to get in there.
“ Sooner rather than later on all this shit. We’ll get her used to us so she can trust us. Then we’ll extricate you. Sound good?”
“ Who’s Buck ?” she asked quickly in order to get the words out, and Hugger felt his lips quirk.
“ President of Aces ,” Eight answered.
“ Um …as for Hugger —” She didn’t quite begin.
“ Yeah , we dropped our shit at our local crash pad. Muzz is gonna hang with you, Cruise and I will go out and get the lay of the land and provide presence, and Hugger is gonna go get his shit and bring it here. He’ll be back in around an hour. It’d be good you talked her out of her room. Hug’s a big guy, but he’d end his own life before he’d hurt a woman. She’ll learn that, but not if she’s in her room.”
Diana pushed back on that. “ You have to give her space to do what she needs to do.”
Eight nodded. “ Sure , she can have space, but we don’t got a lot of time. You are not a dumb broad. You know what I’m sayin’ to you. You’re either on this team or we’re gonna have to huddle and figure something else out.”
Hugger could not only see, but feel Diana getting pissed.
The fuck of it was, he liked it. That grit and the fact she wasn’t a fan of letting anyone, even someone like Eightball , steamroll her.
“ Figure what else out?” she demanded.
“ I don’t know, that’s why we’d need a huddle,” Eight told her easily. “ What I do know is, whatever way it goes down, you’re out and she’s safe. That’s our goal line. And we’re gonna get the fucking ball over it if it kills all of us.”
“ You’ll have to excuse me for being a mite confused as to why you all are so dedicated to this task,” she remarked.
“ Maybe we’ll share that over a beer one day when Babi? is rotting in a cell and his crew is scattered to the winds,” Eight replied. “ For now, you’re just gonna have to trust we’ll do what we have to do to get the job done.”
“ I’m not sure I have any choice,” she bitched.
Eight smiled. “ Good we’re on that same page.”
She glared at him.
Eight turned and said to the men, “ Right , let’s get this shit rollin’.”
Hugger started to move to the door, which was through an opening that led to a room that had nothing in it but a long, white dining table (with blue upholstered chairs), a built-in bar and a glassed wall that held a walk-in wine cooler.
She clearly inherited that with the pad, because there wasn’t much wine in it.
“ Hugger ,” she called.
He stopped and turned to her.
“ I’m starting dinner,” she stated. “ We eat in an hour.”
Was she serious?
“ If I’m not here, eat without me,” he said.
“ And how’s Suzette going to get to know you if you’re not at dinner?” she asked.
Fucking hell.
“ Like Eight said, I’ll be about an hour.”
“ It’s rush hour now. That gets hectic in Phoenix .”
“ Then make something that keeps warm, woman, ’cause I don’t have control of traffic.”
“ Fine ,” she snapped.
“ Great ,” he said. “ Can I go now?”
She shrugged. “ Sure .”
Christ , he wanted to bang her.
Shit .
He scowled at Eight , who grinned in return.
Then he got the fuck out of there.