I blinked in surprise. “What?”
“Look at him.” She jerked her chin. “He’s big, has those dark blue, scary eyes. His muscles are large, and he could crush you if he wanted to.” She mimed squeezing her hands together, bowing out her arms as if she were crushing a watermelon with her hands.
I suppose, from a strength standpoint, he could crush me if he wanted to.
“And he has a really bad attitude,” Sophia pointed out. “There are people in the gym that don’t like him.”
I blinked. “Really? Why?”
She shrugged. “From what I can tell? I think it’s because he doesn’t like very many people. Is always suspicious. And he questions everything. He comes off as an asshole.”
I looked at her with a grin. “That could be that he’s a cop, and he’s suspicious of everyone and everything.”
Sophia shrugged.
I once again returned my attention to Will.
He was still in his plank, and his arms were shaking now.
Any second, they would give out.
“Maybe he is suspicious. Maybe he’s not. What I do know is that he’s very nice to me…and that’s all I need.”
She might’ve thought I was joking… but I wasn’t.
Like, no joke, as long as Will was kind, and cared for me, I didn’t care what he did to anyone else.
Within reason, I supposed.
When I’d learned that Too… Beau had given Beckham to the same low-life criminals that had taken me, something inside of me had broken. I couldn’t stand to look at him anymore, because if he was willing to do that to someone else… what was stopping him from doing that to me?
Then I rethought my earlier statement about liking Will as long as he was nice to me.
I was kidding myself.
He had to be nice to other people.
And if nice wasn’t an option, he still had to be cordial.
But I’d not noticed Will not being cordial.
He’d been absolutely nice to everyone that I’d been around, including Maribel last night when she deserved to be throat punched.
“Maybe y’all should take a moment to get to know him, instead of assuming he’s an asshole,” I found myself saying. “Because he’s been very nice to everyone when I’ve been around.”
“Maybe it’s just you?” Sophia suggested. “Maybe you bring out the nice in him.”
“Fuck!”
My head once again went to the two men.
Both of them now lying on the floor, panting and sweating, rocking back and forth on their backs as they tried to work out the pain from their muscles.
“They do have potty mouths, though,” I teased.
Clementine got up, dragging Sophia with her. “Let’s go talk to your dad.”
I looked over my shoulder to where Clementine was looking and found Madden stalking into the gym looking like he was about to rip someone’s head off.
“You’re giving me a hard time about Will,” I mused as I watched my brother’s childhood friend slam into his office, then throw the door shut so hard behind him that the frame rattled. “Yet you’re wanting to go talk to him? Clem, give him time to calm down. Whatever pissed him off is still pissing him off. You don’t mess with someone who’s that mad.”
I’d learned my lesson.
“I’ll be fine,” Clementine promised.
I narrowed my eyes and watched as the flush rode up the length of Clem’s cheeks.
Her nipples were hard, too.
There was no doubt in my mind that Clem had it bad for Madden.
“You know, I saw him, my brother, and Taos beat the shit out of someone when I was eight,” I mused. “You were literally just lecturing me about Will. But Madden? He was a bad kid.”
Clem scoffed. “Madden was excellent. He had two kids. He didn’t have the time to be bad.”
I threw my head back and started to laugh, gathering everyone’s attention, even Will’s.
Taos, who’d been doing something across the room, looked at me curiously.
“Hey, Haggard,” I called out. “Was Madden a good boy when y’all were young?”
Haggard’s lips twitched. “Not even a little bit.”
I gave Clem a raised brow that clearly said ‘see’ and shrugged my shoulder. “People always want to reform the bad boy. Well, let me just tell you now, every single person that tried to reform Madden Madden failed.”
“Madden Madden?” Will asked, surprising me with his abrupt appearance.
I didn’t shrink away from him when I said, “Actually, Madden only has one name. Madden. First and last name. I just call him Madden Madden. Have since we were kids and I learned he only had one name. I think he changed it when he was younger. The kids have the last name Madden. So it made sense to me at the time.”
Will’s lips curled up into a small smile, then his gaze turned to the two young women at my side.
He looked them over once, smiled, then went back to Soren to say a few things to him.
“See?” Sophia whispered.
I gave her a raised brow. “I didn’t see y’all saying anything either.”