Page 63 of Duty and Desire
Hawk stopped and turned.
Mo stopped and shifted slightly to the side so he wouldn’t have to waste the nanosecond it’d take if he had to make a full turn to get back to Lottie if she needed him.
“You saw her first set,” Hawk noted.
Mo nodded.
Hawk jerked up his chin.
Then he asked, “You gonna be able to do this?”
Hawk Delgado was not stupid.
And he knew his men.
“Fuck no.”
His boss didn’t look surprised, but he started to look impatient.
“Mo—”
“But I’ll do it,” he finished.
“It’s just a job. Her job. Three sets. A couple songs. Then she sits back in the dressing room because Smithie doesn’t want her mingling,” Hawk told him something Smithie already briefed him on.
Smithie didn’t want her mingling not because it made her seem elusive and exclusive.
He did it because he knew, like Mo knew, that a lot of men were assholes, those who weren’t were whackjobs, and the ones who were neither of those were at home with their wives.
In other words, Smithie didn’t want her in danger.
Where she was now.
Because she stripped.
“I’m on it,” Mo stated.
“It’s just her job, Mo. She’s good at it. She’s famous for it. But to her, it’s how she pays her mortgage,” Hawk told him.
He didn’t need another lecture about stripping that day (or ever again).
But he was surprised Hawk would press this with him.
Mo had four older sisters.
Hawk knew Mo had four older sisters and a mother, all of whom Mo looked after since he had his first coherent thought, so no way he’d ever be down with a woman taking her clothes off for money.
That didn’t matter.
It wasn’t about it beingherjob.
It was about it beinghisjob to protect her.
And he could do that.
“I’m on it, Hawk,” he repeated.
Hawk gave him a look.
