Page 25 of Smooth Sailing

“Listen—” I started.

“No,” Hugger bit out so sharply, it cut like a razor.

I felt that pain, so I shut my mouth.

He then laid it out.

And me while he was doing it.

“You got no idea what you’re doin’. You don’t even have any idea why you’re doin’ it. We got muscle. We got guns. We got manpower. We got a stake in this. And we got experience. You either got an axe to grind or something to prove to your pops. You gotta work that out, but not at the expense of a woman who needs someone looking out for her, not whatever she’s workin’ out for herself. You got her to the point she feels safe with you, whatever. We’ll take your back too. Now you’re gonna walk us into your crib, introduce us to Suzette and tell her you recruited reinforcements. And we’re gonna take it from there.”

“Excuse me, but this isn’t about me at all,” I snapped.

“It isn’t?” he bit back.

That hit uncomfortably close to the bone.

“Maybe why I started it, but it isn’t where it’s at now,” I retorted.

“Bullshit,” he shot back.

He was a little right and a lot wrong.

The wrong part pissed me off.

“You’ve known me maybe five minutes,” I returned. “You can’t make those judgments about me.”

“Remember that part I said about experience?” he inquired sarcastically.

“Yes, I do,” I replied. “And maybe you’ll explain that, since you’ve shared only you’re members of motorcycle clubs, not top-notch security consultants or behavioral scientists.”

He leaned his strapping torso back, and asked, “You think you got this?”

“No, I do not. But tell me, if you were me and four dudes cornered you in an elevator and offered assistance, out of what apparently is the goodness of their hearts mixed with some vague camaraderie with the victim of a violent crime, and you’d promised a woman you’d do what you could to keep her safe, would you let those four guys waltz in and take over?”

He swung a long arm out to indicate the others and replied, “They looked like us and were offering when you got nothin’ to offer, fuck yeah, I’d let them waltz in and take over.”

He had a point.

“Again, it’s not this woman’s choice,” man-bun guy said. “It’s Suzette’s.”

It was, damn it.

Don’t get me wrong, these men showing out of the blue was a gift from God. Especially if there were more of them.

I wasn’t a fan of the “we got guns” assertion, because I wasn’t a big fan of guns. Though, I suspected Babic and his boys had them, so at least that evened those odds.

I also was a little confused about the “we got experience” portion of his litany.

But I’d texted Suzette when to expect me home. She was expecting me home. I didn’t want to worry her and this was waylaying me from getting to her so she wouldn’t worry.

I had another decision to make, and it was a big one.

I wasn’t really sure what was going on.

What I was sure of was, if Babic made his play, I did not have the skills to counter it.

These guys might not either, but it was evident they’d be better equipped than me.

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