Page 78 of Smooth Sailing

Rush was silent for a solid two minutes after he got the update, before he said tightly, “Wash has got to know this by now, though I’m not surprised he hasn’t called me. They could be fixing to go rogue. Let me talk with Wash and Buck. Might need to send down Jag and Coe to help keep a lid on things. We’ll see. I’ll get back to you.”

That was it, and now was now.

Another day in a sweet crib with a beautiful woman, a broken girl, and a lot on his mind.

He turned to the coffeepot, made himself a mug, took it to the sofa and cleared away the bedclothes Diana insisted on tucking around the cushions to make a bed for him.

He was stowing them out of sight when his phone—resting by his gun on the coffee table—lit up.

It was a call from Big Petey.

He took it and his mug to the balcony.

When he answered the call, the sky was lighter, some women were in yoga clothes carrying yoga mats and heading to a place on the bottom level, but other than that, there was no one around.

“Yo. You good?” he greeted.

“I managed to stop Eight and Muzz from storming Imran Babic’s house last night, and instead, waiting for Rush, Buck and Wash to decide how they wanted it handled. So that was a win.”

It was, though Hugger reckoned it was a battle and not the war.

“Good,” he said.

“You’re up early,” Big Petey noted. “I thought I’d be leavin’ a voicemail.”

“Couch as a bed is shit, man.”

“I bet,” Pete mumbled. Then, “Gonna hit the shower, grab some donuts and come over. Workin’ with these old bones, that’ll probably mean a couple of hours.”

“Diana wants a huddle with you to try to figure out how to get Suzette talking. But she doesn’t want Suzette seeing the huddle. So if you could figure out how to do that, it’d make her feel better.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Something in Pete’s voice was tweaking him.

“You sure you’re good?” he asked.

It took a minute for the man to answer.

Eventually, he sighed, “Too old for this shit, Hug.”

Hugger couldn’t disagree, but he didn’t like to hear it come out of Pete’s mouth.

Still, he said, “You need to head back to Denver?”

“You couldn’t pry me away from those two women with a whole case of dynamite until I know down deep in my gut they’re safe,” Pete returned.

Hugger smiled and took a sip of his coffee before he replied, “Right.”

“How you doin’ with all of it?”

“Suzette said goodnight to me last night, so I think she’s getting used to us. Today might be a day to push. Diana will be back at work tomorrow. It’s a lot on her to work to live and then come home and have an even more important job on her hands. Her job seems cush, but it requires a lot of detail and concentration.”

“Agreed. Though, gotta put out there, Suzette isn’t there with me, son. Hate to say it, but we don’t have the time for me to get there with her. Diana and I will talk, but this is all gonna be on Diana.”

Hugger suspected that, but he still didn’t like it and tipped his head side to side to release the tension in his neck before he took another sip of coffee and replied, “Yeah.”

“Looks with the way you two were together yesterday like you made up your mind about her.”

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