Page 77 of The Reluctant Siren
He shrugged. Strangely, he wasn’t worried. If he lost itall, he would start over. He didn’t feel the same way about her. “We’ll dealwith it as it comes. You’re more important.”
“You know you weren’t included in that assassination order,”she pointed out. “You should be able to go back to your normal life. Hamiltondoesn’t know how you’re involved. I can call Big Tag and have him assign you abodyguard. You don’t have to give everything up.”
“Or you could convince Gabe to not hate my ass and find acouple of my fellow club members who’ll fill in for a while. Like we all dowhen someone’s sick or needs help.” He’d worked in a bakery for a couple ofdays when a sub had her wisdom teeth out and couldn’t keep up with her work.Some of The Hideout members had worked shifts for her and gotten her back onher feet. It was what they did. The Hideout was their community. If there wasone thing he was afraid of losing beyond Harlow, it was his place in thatbeautiful found family.
“I’ll talk to him,” she promised. “I won’t let him kick youout. He’s being an overprotective big brother. Or he’s showing off for Gigi. Ican’t tell what’s happening with those two. But I’m serious. You should thinkabout this. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Jensen. I think Jack willwork a deal out with him, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take. I alsodon’t know how bad it got after he pushed me out.”
“I know he wouldn’t physically hurt anyone.”
“Do you? Because I watched him get pretty rough with some ofthe guys in the organization. He had to in order to move his way up. They don’tlet you hang out and refuse jobs. He’s had to run drugs and knock headstogether and likely some other things I don’t want to know about.”
She was giving him exactly the opening he needed. “And hedidn’t want that for you.”
“I know,” she agreed. “I know why he did what he did.Personally, I think I could have manipulated the situation in a way that got meout of any rough stuff, but he didn’t give me a chance. He didn’t even talk itout with me.”
“I was scared you wouldn’t listen so I didn’t even try, andthat was my bad call,” a deep voice said. “If you did the same thing to me, Iwould be so angry, Harlow. I was playing a role in my head with you. I wasmartyring myself to save you from something you might have been able to handle.Or at least you could have understood why I wanted you out. Sorry. I woke upand y’all weren’t there.”
She frowned. “So you thought we were out here cheating orsomething?”
Oh, she was prickly. “No, princess. He thought we might bedead.”
She growled and stood up, starting for her chair. “Did not.”
“Well, it did go through my head that maybe Hamilton gotyou. I think I’m paranoid. I could have sworn I heard someone moving around onthe porch, but no one was there. It must have been one of you.” Jensen yawnedand sank down on the third chair. “Also, I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t use theword cheating when it comes to the three of us. That’s not how it works, right?I thought we were free to fuck you whenever you agree to let us. I’m cool withthat.”
Miracles did happen. “Yes, that’s the general rule. As longas it’s the three of us any pairing is fine.”
“Really?” Harlow’s lips quirked up.
“I will never say never, but I think we’re both prettyhardwired in our sexuality,” Niall explained. “I think of the two of us, I’mprobably the one most likely to enjoy bottoming from time to time. If we wantto experiment that way.”
Jensen grinned, looking younger in the moonlight. “Dude, Iwould have told you I would never, but that sounds fun. I do have things Iwould like to take out on your ass. I still haven’t forgiven you for the greatfood fight of Bonnet High.”
“It was an accident.” Niall winced. He had let Jensen takeall the credit for it though. “I’m only saying it’s cool for us to talk aboutthings we want to experiment with in the lifestyle.”
“When we can go back to a club,” Harlow said with a sigh.“Although you know if we get tired of being out here, we can stay at Sanctum.It’s got safe rooms. Apparently Big Tag’s people get into a lot of trouble. Wecould stay at The Club, but then we run the risk of seeing my dads in leathers,and let me tell you, it’s disturbing.”
“According to Ruby, Jack thinks this thing will be overfairly soon,” Niall pointed out. He didn’t want to move. He liked it out here.It was quiet, and if they went back to Dallas he was fairly sure she would beat a friend’s house.
“Yeah, well soon can mean different things with the feds,and we have to worry that they might decide there’s a bigger fish to fry andthey make a deal with Hamilton,” Harlow pointed out.
Jensen shook his head. “I’ve studied this organization foryears. Hamilton is the head. He’s trying to make some deals with otherorganizations like the one he made with the cartel a couple of months ago, buthe hasn’t made a ton of inroads. I think he’ll have to give up too much controlif he goes that route, and that’s why he’s decided to expand into Houstonrather than make a deal with another group.”
“But you admit you weren’t in the inner circle.” Harlowleaned forward. “There could be a lot you don’t know.”
“I was close enough to get most of the accounting. The realaccounting, that is. I managed to hack into Hamilton’s right-hand man’ssystem.” Jensen sat back like he was talking about the weather.
Okay, even he knew that was bad. Like not morally bad.Jensen was trying to close the organization down. But from Hamilton’s point ofview, it was a damn fine reason to kill Jensen Wiley. “Does he know?”
“Does Jack have it?” Harlow asked.
A long huff came from Jensen’s chest. “No, I did not give upmy potential get-out-of-jail-card for free. I keep that information on a thumbdrive and no one knows where it is. It’s secure, and once I talk to that lawyeryou’ve mentioned and we cut a deal, I’ll hand it over. As to Hamilton knowingabout it, I doubt it. I think the hit he put out on us was for helping Mirandaleave.”
“We can’t know that,” Harlow said with a whistle. “What wereyou waiting for? If you turned that over, you could have been out. How longhave you had those?”
Oh, they were in a dangerous place. He kind of wished Jensenhad stayed sleeping. They were in a good space earlier tonight, and now Niallfelt the ground shifting. “I think he was trying to find a way to proveHamilton killed his brother.”
Jensen was strangely quiet, almost preternaturally still.
