Page 23 of Hardy

There was a loud whoop, and then themen started to make their way out of the room.Hardy gave Baker asign that he’d be a minute.Tiny and Lash were the only two menleft in the room.

“Congratulations, Hardy,”Lash said.

“Yeah, I’m not here forcongratulations.Want to ask you both advice?”he asked.Hardy’s hands weresweating.

“What advice do you want?”Tinyasked, leaning against the table.

“Women.”

“You’ve been married overten years and you’re asking us for advice?”Lash asked, lookingconfused.

“I’ve not exactly made it asuccess.I fucked up.”

“Yeah, man, what the fuck wasgoing through your head when you fucked another woman?”Lash asked.“I wouldn’t dream of fucking on Angel.She’s my world.I love her,and I’d die for her.”

“I love and I’d die for Rose.Iwas young, okay?I was young, an idiot, and I fucked up.Nothing was goingthrough my head at the time.I’ve regretted it ever since.”Hestared at the two men he respected in this life.

“I cheated on Patricia allthe time,” Tiny said.“I never once cheated on Eva.I was young,and Patricia was a nagging bitch.She pissed me the fuck off allthe time.I loved her, but she made it hard for me to loveher.”

“Eva would cut your ballsoff,” Lash said.

“She would, and she’dprobably feed them to me.I don’t want to have the taste of my nutsin my mouth.”Tiny shuddered.“Anyway, what advice do you want?”heasked.

“Women, I want to know ifyou guys go out for your woman’s personal things?”Hardy’s cheekswere heating.He never thought in the whole of his life that he hadto consider this.

“Yeah, I have to.Angeldenied me sex when I refused to get her some personal woman’sthings.She said to me if I’m not willing to help her out, then Ididn’t deserve her.I learned my lesson.I’ve held Angel while ithas been bad and her stomach has been cramping.I’ve given hermassages, foot rubs, and I’ve cleaned up her vomit.”Lash smiled.“Like I said, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my woman.Angelwould do it all for me.”

“I’ve always gotten Eva’sthings.Wouldn’t dream of denying her,” Tiny said.“What’s thisabout?”

Hardy let out a breath.“I’m justhaving my eyes opened on a shitload of things.Nothing for you toworry about.”

He shook their hands and made his way outof the room.Baker and Rose were waiting for him.Baker gave him astrange look, but he didn’t pay him much attention.

“Is everything okay?”Roseasked.

“More thanokay.”

****

“Are you okay?”Lacey asked,rubbing Whizz’s back.He was so damned tired, and he couldn’t findthe information that Gash wanted from him.There was only one womanhe could detect, and she’d been through hell and back, and itwasn’t even the woman that Gash wanted.It was another woman, awoman who had known Gash in the past.From the information thatGash had given him, this woman’s only problem was because shedidn’t come forward for him at the time.There was one hell of areason why she didn’t come to help Gash.The information that he’dgotten from Gash had concerned both a woman and a man, but therewere two women linked to Gash during that time.Both women hadlived in the same apartment, and one accused Gash of rape andmurder.The other had disappeared during that time.Whizz had foundthe wrong woman, and he couldn’t just hand that information over toGash, not yet.

Could he risk giving him thedetails of a woman that was only linked to the one Gashactuallywanted?What if Gashdecided to kill this innocent woman?

“Yeah, I’mokay.”

“You don’t sound okay.”Shehelped remove his leather jacket, and he leaned back in his chairas she started to run her hands all over his chest.Closing hiseyes, he basked in her touch.He wasn’t in a rush to take over orto tell her what he wanted.“Talk to me?”

“This shit with Gash.Idon’t know what to do.”

“You can’t find the peoplehe wants?”

“No.Whoever wiped them offthe face of the earth did a damn good job.”He threw his keyboardon the desk, knocking over a mini box of pens, and scuffing thepost-it notes he had on top.

“Don’t do that, baby.Don’tget angry.”

“What the fuck am I supposed todo?”Hegrabbed the keyboard, and brought up the details he could.“Thiswoman is all I can find, and look at what happened toher.”

Whizz shook his head as Lacey startedto read.“Fucking hell.”

---