“You help me do that right, yeah.”
“Oh my God,” I kept whispering. “I’m so happy.”
“Glad to hear it, sweetheart, but do me a favor and make Elvira happier.”
I nodded madly, now choked up but also grinning like a fool.
“Good we ironed that out,” he stated.
I kept nodding like a crazy woman.
And grinning because my girl was going to get what she wanted, I got to plan that, and it was going to be sublime.
He grinned back and again offered his hand.
I took it. He squeezed mine, let me go, pulled out his wallet, and said, “My card. You got a plan, call me.”
He handed the card to me.
My fingers closed around it. “Will do,” I promised.
He gave me another smile. I got happier that Elvira was going to have that for a lifetime, then he said, “Sorry this is short, but I got things to do.”
I nodded again.
He turned to the door and I moved around the desk to follow him.
When he made it to the door, he stopped at it and looked down at me.
“While you’re plannin’, one thing you could do to keep my woman in a good place is find help.”
I stopped smiling.
His voice dipped back to lullaby range but it was different this time.
“I know Chaos closes ranks when shit goes down. I know they take care of their own. I get that. I also know my woman is worried about you and I don’t like that. But the thing I hope you get is that no brother chooses a woman for old lady that he doesn’t wanna hand the world. You need it, High’ll want you to have it. That’s guaranteed and you know it. They also don’t choose women who aren’t strong enough to live their way of life. Which means they don’t choose women who are too weak to ask for help. Not dissin’ you, sweetheart. I get the need to try and con yourself that you can make it on your own. I’m just sayin’, why do that if you don’t have to?”
I felt my eyes narrow. “Did you come here to ask me to help you plan a pop-the-question night that will exceed Elvira’s wildest dreams or did you come here to deliver a lecture because you’re sick of hearing how your woman is worried about me?”
“Two birds,” he replied.
Elvira.
And her man Malik.
I liked her but I was beginning to realize she could be a pain in the ass.
“Just because you felt free to come here and lecture me, I’m not asking my florist for my usual discount on the suite full of roses at the Brown Palace that I’m gonna book for your proposal,” I declared.
“Sassy,” he said through a smile. Then decreed, “Old lady.”
“Damn straight,” I returned.
He kept smiling.
Then he quit.
“Get help,” he whispered.
“I will,” I whispered back.
I didn’t know him at all but the relief I saw in his handsome face was not about his woman’s peace of mind.
“Thank you,” he said, and before I could reply, he disappeared.
I stared at the door he closed behind him.
Then I smiled at the door.
Because I knew Elvira caught herself a good one.
And she was so going to get the best proposal in history.
High
High parked his truck and moved up the dark, deserted lane.
He didn’t carry a flashlight. It had been a while, but he knew his way.
The shadows in front of him moved but he just kept walking toward them.
It was no surprise, as he got closer, that Shirleen formed through the darkness.
This was their meeting place. This was where they went when bad shit was going down. This was where he got his briefings when she needed him to take her back. This was where he gave her hers when he needed that returned.
None of that had happened for years.
So her calling him there was a surprise.
And not a good one.
He stopped two feet from her and barked, “Talk to me.”
She did.
And she did it to bark back, “Do not fuckin’ blow it.”
“What?” he clipped.
“Boy, you got redemption. Do you know how hard it is to do good deeds, a hundred of ’em not comin’ close to erasin’ just one of the bad? Don’t answer that ’cause I know you do. You’re on that path. Do not stray.”
He threw out a hand, pissed, surprised, and blindsided, none of which he liked.
“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” he asked.
“Your woman was taken. That is not good. She was found safe. You hold on to that and you bury the burn of vengeance so you don’t blow it.”
He got it.
And what he got took him from pissed to ticked.
“You keep outta this shit and you keep Nightingale out of it. It’s now all Chaos,” he warned.
It was.
Mitch, Slim, and Hawk were history. Tack had them on a string so they wouldn’t cotton on, Rosalie still in play, so as far as they knew, Chaos was keeping their shit and it was all still a go.
But Tack had sent Hound in.
So in the end, it would be all Chaos.
Shirleen got in his space and he didn’t move, staring down his nose at her.
“It is. No other way it could be. But you guide that, High. You guide it so the bounty you got when you got your woman back does not suffer. I know what happened. I know what she did. I know why she did it. Do not make decades of sacrifice all for nothing.”
He stared into her eyes through the dark, then he lifted his gaze and looked over her head.
She stepped away, murmuring, “You get me.”
He looked at her again. “What he did cannot stand.”
“No. And a hundred good deeds don’t erase one bad. You got enough bad, High. We both do. You take him down, you do that shit right. You’re never gonna have a golden soul, but your woman has one. Don’t tarnish it.”