Chapter Ten
Little Sister
Lottie
“I’ll take care of it,” Mo announced.
Say what?
You didn’t take care of Tex.
No one could take care of Tex.
Especially when he was bellowing louder than his normal
bellow and pounding on a door.
I suspected even my mother couldn’t take care of Tex
when he was doing that and Tex was head over heels in love with my mother.
Sadly, while these thoughts tumbled through my head, Mo had
found his cargos and tugged them on.
He exited the room doing the fly.
Shit!
“Mo! Wait!” I yelled, scrambling to get out of bed.
It took me too long to find my panties and nightie in the
mess of bedclothes and too much longer to struggle them on at the same time
racing out of the room.
My nightie was floating down as I hit the top of the stairs
and I started to bolt down them as I heard, “You! You’ve got
some explaining to do.”
Tex.
Tex getting in the face of Mo.
I kept going, just a lot faster, and when I made it to the
bottom, my feet squeaked on the floor as I slid across the hall and slammed
into the arch to the TV room from my momentum.
This was when I saw that this situation was not just Tex in
A Snit bad.
It was worse.
Way worse.
Because, filing through the foyer, was not just my big,
wild-haired stepdad Tex.
Behind him came Lee.
Hank.
Vance.
Luke.
Hector.
Ren.
And Eddie.
The entire Hot Bunch (save Mace, but I figured he only
wasn’t there because he now lived in LA and he hadn’t been able to catch a
convenient flight).
Shit!
They all glowered at me as they trooped into my living room,
trailed by Mo.
Mo was not glowering.
When he turned his head to look at me, he appeared to be
having trouble containing his mirth.
No.
No, no, no, no, no.
He didn’t get it.
This was not funny.
I’d been onboard when Smithie had explained why he brought
in Hawk, way on board, for a variety of reasons.
First, and arguably the priority, because the Hot Bunch run
amuck in Denver in protection mode of one of their own was a very scary thing.
Second, and arguably the priority, because Eddie would tell
his wife, my sister, who would tell my mother, and the other Rock Chicks, and
they’d all be worried, just like everyone at Smithie’s.
And I couldn’t have that.
Now, it was very clear the men knew.
And now, they were ticked, not that they’d been kept out of
the loop, that they hadn’t been asked to do the job.
And the Hot Bunch ticked was another very scary thing.
I needed to handle this.
Immediately.
I rushed to Mo.
“Mo—”
“Babe, go upstairs and put on some clothes,” he murmured.
Was he insane?
We didn’t have time for that!
“But—”
Tex boomed, “Get your ass in here, girl.”
There it was!
No time for that.
Mo looked toward my living room.
I looked toward my living room.
It was filled with the Hot Bunch.
Tex appeared in the archway.
“What did I say?” he demanded (in another boom).
“Tex—”
“Eddie got the word. Smithie had some lunatic who was
fixated on you and sending detailed letters of how he was going to cleanse
you,” Tex stated (loudly, as well as irately). “And you. You
didn’t call in me or the boys.”
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.”
To be honest, I hadn’t even thought of that.
I just put my head down and got on with it.
But I did that because I didn’t want to worry anyone.
Worrying the girls at work was bad enough, and that wasn’t my choice. If it
was, I wouldn’t have done it.
And I was Lottie Mac. I was a tough broad. I could handle
anything. I’d been on my own and doing that for a long time.
Not to mention, I had Smithie. Hawk Delgado. His team.
And I had Mo.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “But I had Mo.”
Bad idea.
Hank looked to Mo and his gentle big brother expression
vanished.
“How about you go put some clothes on while we have a word
with Mo,” Luke suggested.
Oh no.
“Luke—”
“Lottie,” Mo’s hand came again to the small of my back, “go
get dressed.”
I looked up at him. “I’m not leaving you.”
“It’ll be okay. We have to have a chat,” he replied.
My spine snapped straight. “I’m not leaving you, Mo.”
“You need to put some clothes on,” he retorted.
“I’m practically wearing a smock,” I fired back.
“It’s sexy AF and not helping anything,” he
returned.
It was not.
Was it?
“It isn’t.”
“Lottie, I would know,” he pointed out.
“I would too, my eyes are burning,” Luke muttered.
“Babydoll nightie, Christ,” Vance bit out.
I looked down at myself.
Okay.
Maybe it was cute.
And a little hot.
I turned to the men. “You’ve seen me strip. All of you.”
Luke’s gaze bored into mine. “Don’t remind me.”
“I might hurl,” Hector mumbled to floor.
Holy smokes.
They were totally my big brothers.
“Lottie, go put clothes on,” Mo rumbled.
And there was the Brook No Argument Voice.
I glared at him. “Fine.” I turned my glare to the men in the
room. “But no one hurt him while I’m gone.”
“We’re not gonna hurt him,” Ren
said.
“I might hurt him,” Vance murmured.
“I’m in on that,” Hector added.
“You’re not gonna hurt him!” I
yelled at Hector.
“All right, all right. Cálmate,
hermanita,” Hector replied.
To make certain that happened, I turned my attention to Tex
and announced, “When the time comes, I want you walking me down the aisle.”