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"Mav got the idea from Wes," Nolen explained. "Besides, Wes is the kind of man who needs to be in charge. He doesn't always play well with others."
"And you are?"
Shit. My manners were clearly lacking today. "This is Nolen. I'm guessing Owen and Hendrix introduced themselves out front."
"Owen did. I figured out Hendrix's name because Owen said it after the man told him not to be a dick."
Interesting. It was normally the other way around. Not that Owen would ever call any of them a dick, but usually when referring to someone being a dick, everyone's first guess would be Hendrix.
"That means you've officially been introduced to half of the team. Our boss, Maverick, and Aaron are out right now but you should meet them soon. I can't say when you'll meet Lex, the last man on our team, as he hasn't moved into town yet."
Kati looked around at all of them. "You're referring to Aaron Hill, right? Hometown hero who came back and brought the rest of you with?"
I lifted my eyebrow at her but didn't say anything.
"Small town, remember? Everyone likes to talk. As soon as Aaron told his mother he was coming back for good, she spread the word pretty quickly."
Of course, she did. There was going to be no way of keeping a low profile in this place. I wondered if Mav thought about that before deciding to let Aaron convince him this would be a good place to set up shop.
"Good ole Mrs. Hill. She always did spoil us when we were deployed. Her care packages always contained fresh-baked cookies. I wonder if she will spoil us now that we're here in person?"
Leave it to Hendrix to think with his stomach. My friend was completely inappropriate ninety-five percent of the time.
"I'm sure she will," Kati answered. "She pretty much spoils everyone since Aaron is an only child and hasn't given her grandkids yet."
"Sweet." Hendrix rubbed his hands together. "I know where my new favorite spot is."
The rest of us just shook our heads. There was no point in saying anything. Hendrix was who he was at this point. It would be up to Aaron to keep their friend in line.
"Can we get back to the reason Kati is here?" I attempted to wrap things up. As much as I enjoyed being in Kati's presence, I didn't want her around my friends any longer than necessary. Certainly not Owen and his damn dimple smile.
"I'm good with your suggestions. How long would it take to get the security system here and then installed?"
I was glad Mav insisted we kept all security systems in stock. "We already have it. How does this evening sound to get it installed?"
Kati chewed on the side of her lip. For a brief moment, I wanted to replace her teeth with mine. I mentally shook off the thought immediately. Nothing about that thought process was proper when it came to a client.
"This evening will be fine."
Her soft answer kept me focused on the topic at hand: keeping Kati and her son safe from whoever wanted to drag her back into a gang's clutches.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kati
Why had I let Easton convince me that coming tonight was a good idea? I wanted to keep this whole business as far away from Lucien as I possibly could, and instead, he was going to see just how far things had gotten away from me.
"You know you could just tell me, right?"
My hand flew up to my chest as I spun around at the sound of my son's voice.
"Don't sneak up on me like that," I lashed out before I could think better of it, but Lucien merely shrugged.
"If you weren't thinking so hard, you would've heard me come down the stairs." He walked right past me and headed straight for the refrigerator. As the mother of a teenage boy, I quickly learned just how much food I could go through in a matter of days. "So are you going to tell me what you're worried about?"
"What makes you think I'm worried about something?"
The look he gave me over his shoulder could only be described as one a teenager could make. It was a cross between don't bullshit me and you're kidding, right?
