Page 27 of Redemption

Men.

Besides that, I did love the ride so compromising on the things I’ll need for the next few days isn’t that big of a deal.

“Cowboy!” Vector shouts and I look up to a man about his age walking toward us with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“About fucking time you got here,” he says by way of greeting as Vector drops the saddlebag rather than my hand to give him a one armed hug. “Christ, what is she? A hostage? Let go of her and let me get a look.”

“This is Sloane. Sloane this is Cowboy, he’s the guy I was telling you about, from down South Carolina way,” Vector introduces us, and I start to reach my hand out until I notice he’s shifted his arms to grasp his hands behind his back, giving me a nod instead.

“Nice to meet you,” I reply, slipping my hand back into Vector’s. “Vector was telling me about Hawk’s Landing, it sounds a lot like where I grew up.”

“The Bayou, by the sounds of your accent. Yeah, I’m on my boat almost as much as I am my hog,” Cowboy says with an even larger smile, and I nod. His eyes drop to where our hands are joined, and he lets out a laugh before slapping Vector on his shoulder. “Damn, brother, you and Ford got it bad, huh?”

“Ford?” I ask, not entirely sure of all the guys that are meeting up. Just that, besides the Northern Grizzlies, they’re either going to be Saint’s Outlaws or Demon Chasers.

“DCMC,” Vector softly reminds me before Cowboy continues.

“He found himself a red-head also, barely lets her out of his sight,” he informs us. “We’re going to go play some table games, why don’t y’all get settled and shoot me a text?”

“We haven’t had dinner yet, so after I get the room and feed my woman, I’ll let you know what we’re up for,” Vector responds, much to my relief.

I worked in the field all day, then after scrambling to repack, we just got on the road to get down here. And honestly, I don’t know how Vector’s leg is holding up after that ride.

Parting ways with Cowboy, we head toward the reception desk, where I get distracted by a map of the property.

“Feel free to throw me under the bus tonight, if you’re beat.” I offer him an out if he needs to rest.

“I can take the hit all on my own. I’ll just let Roman know in case he wants to join us for dinner. Unless you want room service?”

“No, stretching my legs sounds good right about now. I am calling the first shower though!”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming a big advocate for water conservation,” he teases me as he unlocks our room.

“What is this?” I gasp, spinning around to look at the extra-large space.

“They offered us an upgrade while you were studying the map,” he replies, watching me with a satisfied smile on his face. “You like it?”

“No.”

“No?”

“The bed’s too big.” As intended, that gets him laughing.

“I’ll remember that when my ass is hanging off the side at 2 A.M.”

“That happened one time,” I sass back, pretending to pout. Apparently, I like to cuddle up against him at night, so the past few nights I’ve crowded him a bit. “Besides, I thought you liked myapology?”

Just then I hear his stomach rumble and he gives me a wry smile when we make eye contact. “Dinner, then your apology?”

“You want me to apologize in advance?” I ask, throwing my hands up in mock frustration as I slide back into the shoes I walked out of near the door.

“More like it’d be nice to have ten minutes when you’re not sassing the hell outta your man.” The wide grin on his face softens his words, and we’re once again hand in hand as the elevator doors open.

“If you can’t take the heat …” I barely notice the couple who are in the corner of the elevator, until I see the expression on Vector’s face change and instantly start to worry that his leg is cramping up.

“Andrew?” The woman’s voice is soft, but melodic and as I’m turning to look at her, my eyes, instead, catch those of the man holding her.

“Grace,” Vector whispers the name, and the woman finally tears her eyes from his face to look at me.

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