Page 114 of Never Enough

Haskell hesitated, then nodded. “I didn’t want to love him, but…”

Flame giggled. “Yeah, it’s difficult not to love the big idiot. I swear, if there’s a way to eff something up, that boy’s got it down on how. Nemo’s heart is as big as his stupid. But without him, TB might never have got his head out of his gorgeous butt over me.

“The point to all of this is… Nemo loves you. He claimed you, loud and proud, to the guys. Now, I’m not going to lie. He madea lotof mistakes regarding how he handled that emotional commitment to you the past few years, but the love itself never wavered. And because he loves you so much and so deeply? Those five men he calls teammates will doeverything they can to bring him back. Yeah, his boss wants him back. We girls want him back. But for you alone, because he loves you, they are willing to burn the world down so thatyoucan have him back. They’re the same way about me, the same way about Kubrick, and the same way about Cherry. World. Burning. No questions asked.”

Flame smiled at Haskell. “Look around, Gem. Those guys have let you into their world in a way that Kubrick and I can never experience. You were almost one of them, I hear. That factors into this as well. Don’t hold yourself off from them. The big lumps will never admit that your inability to connect to them hurts their feelings. Which I get because they are men, and that whole X-Y chromosome thing makes it nearly impossible for them to articulate they even have feelings, let alone that they hurt. Trust them, Gem,” she pleaded. “They’ve got Nemo, and by extension, they’ve got you, too. You’re not alone anymore.”

There was a shouting noise from inside the house. Haskell turned around at a knocking sound on the glass door, and TB was standing there, twirling his finger in the universal “wrap it up” gesture.

“Is that Mr. Grumpypants telling me you need to go?” Flame asked.

“Yeah.” Haskell nodded.

“Okay. Remember what I told you because it means everything. World burning. Now, go be amazing at what you do. So jealous! Well, not really, but when this is all over, you and I need to sit down with some ice cream and chat. There’s got to be a novel in this somewhere about a cat shifter,” Flame mused.

Haskell felt the first honest smile on her face in several days. This woman and her shifters!

“Take care of yourself, Gem. And do me a favor. Give TB a smack on the ass for me.”

Haskell felt horror spread across her face. “You know he’s going to add more swats for that. And I’ll probably get a few myself.”

Flame giggled. “He wouldn’t dare swat you because I can be a jealous witch with a ‘b.’ As for me, I’ll enjoy the extra swats, so no worries there. Just wish I could be there to see what happens when you do it.” Flame giggled, winked, blew her a kiss, and cut the connection.

When Haskell stood to go back inside, TB came out and collected the laptop. “We finally got a communication from Pharaoh Kader, so Nova was able to pinpoint Nemo’s secondary tracker.”

Relief flooded through her. “That’s great.” He had barely passed in front of her when Gem said, “By the way, I have a message for you from Flame.”

He set the computer down and looked at her. “What’s the message?”

She looked at him nervously. “I’m kind of afraid to give it to you.”

He chuckled and turned back to the table. “No need to be afraid of me, Gem. What could she possibly tell you to tell me that would make you worry?”

SMACK!

TB froze in his slightly bent-over position at the table.

All of the guys in the room were wide-eyed, gazes bouncing from her to TB.

Haskell crossed past him, using Demon as a shield. She looked at TB and shrugged. “Please don’t shoot me. I’m just the messenger.”

There was a silence that hung in the air for another moment or two, then there was a snort that someone couldn’t hold in, followed by a “holy shit,” and then everyone exploded in laughter. Except TB.

He turned on her, nostrils flaring, eyes shooting flames. She wondered if maybe she’d made a mistake in trusting Flame. Then she was pretty positive she had when TB started stalking her around the table. Before she could get an apology out, he swooped in, threw her over his shoulder, took her out through the patio doors, and tossed her in the pool.

When she came up sputtering, it was to see Scheherazade standing on the edge of the pool barking her fool head off and all the guys clutching their sides and stomachs, bent over laughing with tears coming out of their eyes. She smoothed the hair out of her face and looked up at TB. Just the one corner of his mouth was tipped up in the slightest smirk.

Haskell grinned. “I told her it would cost her five extra swats if I did it, but she said she didn’t care.”

“Oh, it’ll be way more than five.” TB reached his hand down to her to help her out of the pool. She latched on, and with one yank by that single arm, she was up out of the water and standing along the edge.

“Don’t be too mad at her,” she begged.

“Nah. Gotta love my princess,” he said. “She always knows the right thing to say and do in a crisis. Go on. Go get dry. We got shit to do.”

Haskell scampered into the house between the men still laughing and rehashing the event, including impersonations of TB’s face, and ran upstairs to change clothes.

The tension had been eased. Now they could all get back to work.

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