Page 48 of Hartley

He nodded; eyes wide. “Yes, sir.”

“I don’t care who you’re falling for, who you want to share your goddamn bed with. I will kill you. Hartley’s safety should have come first. And worse? You knew that and did it anyway. You knew you shouldn’t have let them talk to Lane, yet off you went.” My hand moved from the back of the couch to grip his throat. I wouldn’t kill him, but there was a warning in my hold. “I don’t care how long we’ve known each other or what shitstorms we’ve been through. You fuck up like this again and we’re done. If you think you need to shift your priorities, you fucking talk to me. Not pull a stunt like this. Goddammit, Sheldon.” I released him before I did actually hurt him.

He rubbed his throat. “I know, sir. I’m sorry.”

Pushing back, I went to Oleander, leaning forward like I did with his friend, my hand not on his throat. Oleander did what he did because he would follow Sheldon to the ends of the earth. That was the kind of loyalty I appreciated, but in this instance, he should have stopped him, not gone along with him. “And you. How many times have you been the voice of reason for Sheldon or been there when he needed you? Yet, you let him walk the fuck in there because he wasn’t thinking with his brain or his dick. He was thinking with his heart and that’s worse! Logic goes out the window and all he saw was what he wanted to do for Forest. You should have guided him, not fanned the goddamn flames.” The only thing stopping me from gripping his throat too wasthe reminder in the back of my head of the bullet he took protecting Vail.

“I can’t let you two off with a warning. The others will run rampant, thinking they can pull shit while working for me. The question is, what should your punishments be?” I leaned away, rubbing my fingers over my beard, contemplating the shit I could put them through. “Sheldon, you’re on monitor duty. You can park your ass in front of those screens for eight hours a night for a week. When not staring at them or attempting to sleep, watching every fucking move people make, you’re going to spend it in Hartley’s studio, cleaning every square inch of it. I don’t want to see a damn piece of thread on the floor. Since I can’t punish him for getting you to let him into see Lane, and I know he persuaded you, Hartley’s going to feel like shit while watching you clean. If he helps you, Rory will tell me, and then you’ll be scrubbing every toilet until they shine.”

“Yes, sir.”

One punishment down. One to go. “Oleander, you’re going to have to be quick on your feet this week. You’ve been temporarily demoted. You’ll run every errand, every task the others don’t want to do. You like helping your friends out so much, prove it. I don’t care how small the task is, you’re going to handle it and not complain once. Seven days of you doing the shit others hate. The only time you won’t be doing it is when Vail leaves the building. Then you’ll go with him and be so fucking alert a goddamn ladybug can’t get in his vicinity.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I hate this shit,” I told them, my anger dissipating. “I hate that I had to have this conversation, and that I had to dole out punishments. Most of the others would have been fired, or worse. But I can’t do that to you. Your balls have been savedby the men I love. I trusted you to watch over them and decide when they aren’t thinking clearly. You let me down. I expected better.”

Snapping my fingers, I called for Tahoe to come to me. There was no doubt in my mind he wanted to stay and get attention from them, but they didn’t deserve to pet him. Was I being too hard on them with their punishments and my words? Maybe. Others would have killed them though.

Just the thought of what Lane could have done to Hartley made me want to yell at them some more. Logic told me Lane wouldn’t hurt them. He had been nothing but compliant since he’d stepped into Hartley’s grandfather’s living room. But logic had no voice where my men were concerned. I didn’t think. I reacted. At least this time I gave myself the night to cool down a little.

They wouldn’t pull something like this again, that was for damn sure. Not Sheldon or Oleander. Or even Hartley, for that matter. We would talk and figure this out together. After all, I still had no idea why his grandfather owed money to Lane’s father. It was just another mystery with no way to trace it. Thanks to them doing everything on paper, Lawson couldn’t work his magic this time.

23

HARTLEY

I felt like a kid who’d been scolded. That wasn’t necessarily Jordan’s intention, but the message was clear. I fucked up and so did Forest, Sheldon, and Oleander. Forest stayed in his apartment above my studio. He’d come down once this morning to find Sheldon on his hands and knees scrubbing the tile. Forest opened his mouth to say something, and I shook my head.

Sheldon’s punishment was to sit in front of the security desk and clean my studio. Mine was to watch him while he was here. Forest didn’t get a punishment. Jordan wasn’t about to make him do anything, but that didn’t mean he was happy with him. I asked if we could have him over for dinner last night and got a hard no.

Oleander was off doing tasks no one wanted to do, the ones they gave to the new hires who had to prove their worth. Luckily, Sheldon said no one was taking it too far or making fun of Oleander. They were a tight group and didn’t set out to bully one another.

With my elbows on my desk, I stared at the monitors butdidn’t make a move to work. I was out on the floor, watching Sheldon, but couldn’t take it anymore so I retreated to my small office. I didn’t come back here often, preferring to have my laptop out there with me.

“You can’t hide in here all day,” Hazel said from where she leaned against the doorway.

“No? I’ve been doing a pretty good job of it so far.”

“Well, if I were you, I’d get out there because JJ’s here and he’s having a field day with Sheldon being on his knees.”

“Oh shit.” I stood and rushed around my desk. Hazel slid out of the way to let me by. I forgot JJ was coming in today for a final fitting. I wanted to make sure his order was perfect.

Skidding to a stop a few feet from him, I was ready to yell at him to knock it off. JJ and Sheldon didn’t get along. Well, JJ didn’t like Sheldon and Sheldon loved to make JJ uncomfortable. What I found was JJ with his hands in the pockets of his slacks, staring down at Sheldon with his eyebrows drawn together.

I turned and glared at Hazel. She winked. She knew I’d get out here fast if I thought something was happening. I would have come out regardless, but it wasn’t the first time Hazel had tried to coax me out.

“What’d he do?” JJ asked.

I crossed my arms. “Why do you think he did something?”

“Because I’ve seen this punishment before, but it was a long time ago. Sheldon did something to piss off my old man and it must have been awful for this to happen.”

“Nothing for you to worry about.”

“Does this have to do with the Everharts being in the city?”

“Jesus, you hear everything, don’t you?”

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