“She was a pen-pal while I was in prison,” I told him.
“Like an ex?” he asked, brows pinching.
“No, I never actually met her before today.”
“Okay…”
“Long story short, those letters helped me get through my time with my head on right,” I told him, shrugging. I was too old to pretend that I was made of stone. We all had our ups and downs. I was doing no one any favors by trying to pretend that shit never touched me.
“I can understand that,” he agreed, nodding. “Why is she showing up now, though?”
“That’s another long story.”
“CliffsNotes,” he demanded.
“She never meant to stop communicating with me. She went on a mission—“
“Like a military mission?” he cut me off.
“Like a religious one,” I clarified. If that surprised him, his face was impassive. “And while she was down there, she got herself attached to the wrong kind of guy.”
“Down there,” Fallon repeated, exhaling hard. “Let me guess. The wrong kind of man has cartel connections.”
“Don’t know much about the cartel, but from the sounds of it, he’s not just connected.”
“Shit. Seriously, the fuck with these women? It can never be a normal problem, can it? No. It’s got to be some fucking international organized crime problem.”
“Yeah, well, she fell for the wrong guy. Who ended up making it impossible for her to leave.”
“Until she did.”
“Until she did,” I agreed.
“And she came right to you?”
“She lived a really cloistered life. I was the only person she’d ever been in contact with who was outside of her weird culty upbringing. She needs help.”
“I bet she does,” he agreed.
Fallon bit the inside of his cheek as his gaze slipped away toward the picture on the wall.
The family.
His family.
Full of strong-ass women who’d made sure they’d raised him right, that they made him acutely aware of his responsibility to help a woman when she needed it. Women who would whip his fucking grown ass if they found out he stood in the way of a woman in need being left to suffer on her own.
“I need to know what kind of help I’m going to be able to offer her,” I told him, shrugging.
His hands flattened on his desk as his head dipped.
He let out a small laugh before his gaze lifted.
“Well, I gotta say, Cary, I’m impressed that you would even come to me first. Most of the others would act first, and ask later.”
“Not my first club,” I reminded him, shrugging. “I get this is your call.”
“But if it was yours?” he asked.
“I’d do whatever it takes to make sure she doesn’t have to worry about that fuck ever again.”
“Alright,” he said, nodding. “I get it. Do what you gotta do. But I have one request.”
“What’s that?”
“Take her out of the club. That’s not me saying we don’t have your back if you need us, but get her somewhere else that is safe. You can even ask some of your brothers if they want to help do a guard shift if you are needed at the club. But I don’t want to invite any kind of ambush. Heard the horror stories about how that happened with my old man. I don’t want to have that be the future for us.”
“I understand that completely,” I agreed, nodding. “Thank you.”
To that, he snorted.
“Cary, man, don’t thank me. You might find yourself with such a headache that you will be wishing I’d told you no.”
“Don’t see that happening,” I said, shaking my head.
“Alright. Keep in touch. Let Brooks know what you’ve got going on.”
“I will,” I agreed, nodding. “Than—“
“You fucking asshole,” Hope’s voice roared as the door flew open.
“Oh, shit. Here we go,” Fallon mumbled under his breath as he dropped down into his chair like his legs couldn’t hold him up through any more problems.
“No, I mean, really, are you an idiot?” she asked, waving out a hand.
“Nice to see you too, Hope. How’s the family?”
“You’re goddamn right it isn’t going to be nice to see me right now. Just like it wasn’t nice to see you last night. When you fucking blew a three-week-long stakeout I’d had going on that was finally going to get me the evidence I needed for my client.”
Fallon exhaled a deep breath, his gaze slipping to me. “Why don’t you head out, man? This is my flaying, but she’s pissed enough to start peeling off your skin just for being here.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
I got myself out of there.
I liked Hope.
She was a hardass with a tough shell to crack, but she was a fiercely loyal friend and family member with a heart of a romantic underneath it all. Though she’d go to her grave denying that.
But despite how much I liked the woman, I didn’t want to be anywhere near the kind of fury that was going to come out of her when someone got in the way of her job.