“Okay,” she agrees quietly.
Fuck.
“Love you.”
“Love you too,” she replies, still sounding quiet, and my jaw clenches tighter.
“See you at home, Angel.” I listen to the phone go dead, and I pull it away from my ear and fist it in my hand so I don’t toss it across the fucking room.
“What was that?” Wes questions, and I lift my head to look at him and my boys. Men who have always had my back. Men who I know will always have my back.
“Harmony overheard two nurses talking. Hofstadter got handsy with one of them then threatened her with losing her job if she told anyone.”
“Fuck.” Wes’s jaw clenches, his eyes flashing.
“Is Harmony okay?” Everret asks, and my eyes go to him, seeing he looks just as pissed as I feel.
“She’s freaked and feeling like shit that she can’t do anything to help.”
“I bet,” Mic mutters, his jaw clenching.
Fuck it
“You guys feel like going with me to deliver a message to that motherfucker?” I ask, and they all reply with scary grins.
***
Rolling up to the house three days later, I feel my jaw clench when I see Nico’s truck parked in the driveway. Him leaning against the back of it with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet crossed at the ankles. I know he knows Harmony’s at work, so he’s not here to see her. I park, shut down the engine on my bike, kick down the stand, and get off, keeping my eyes locked on his even as I take off my helmet.
“Dr. Hofstadter had an accident a few days ago. Black eye, broken nose, and two broken ribs,” he says, pushing off the tailgate of his truck and walking toward me.
“Sucks, but accidents do happen,” I mutter, heading toward the house with him following behind me. Putting my key in the lock, I open the door and head in, with Dizzy bouncing at my feet. Scooping him up off the ground, I give his ears a scratch.
“I can’t protect you, Harlen,” Nico says quietly, as I go to the island. I drop my helmet then grab Dizzy a treat, giving it to him before putting him down. “If he presses charges, I can’t protect you, and neither can Cobi.” Cobi, his nephew who is also a cop, one I’ve only met twice, because he’s always working since he moved back to town.
“Is he pressing charges?” I ask, and his jaw clenches. I know Dr. Dick won’t press charges. I also know he cried like a bitch when I got in his face, and then he cried like an even bigger bitch when I laid hands on him. I’ve never been about using my size or fists for intimidation, but with him, I was happy to do both.
“Don’t do anything like that again,” he tells me.
“Lost my dad a long fucking time ago, Nico. Just sayin’ I’m not in the market for a new one.”
“I’m trying to help you,” he grits out, and I shake my head, running my fingers through my hair.
“Yeah, and who’s helping out the women he’s been intimidating? Who’s helping them when he’s got them so freaked out about losing their jobs that they don’t want to talk about what he’s doing to them?”
“Fuck,” he says, and I head toward the fridge, grabbing two beers and hand him one before opening mine.
“He needed to learn a lesson,” I tell him, handing him the bottle opener.
“And you taught him that lesson?”
“Not sure, but if he forgets or veers off the path I put him on, I have no problem showing him the right way again, however I gotta go about doing that.”
“He’s got money. His family has money, Harlen. You need to be careful when it comes to men like that.”
“Yeah.” I smile, shaking my head, and his eyes narrow.
“What?”
“My dad was the owner of MacCabe Lumber,” I state, and his eyes flash with realization. MacCabe Lumber is famous in California. Not so much outside of it, but if you work in the construction industry, which I know Nico did for years, then you know of it. Everyone who works in the industry does.
“The company was given to me when my parents passed. It’s still mine, even though I have no interest in working it. I got more money sitting in the bank than me, my kids, my grandkids, and their kids’ kids could ever spend in a lifetime. Money is just fucking money.”
“Does Harmony know?”
My brows jerk together, and I ask, “About what?”
“That you have that kinda money?” he prompts, looking thoughtful.
“No.”
“Fuck me,” he whispers. “You need to tell her.”
“I’ll tell her when it’s time to tell her. It won’t change anything. I don’t use that money. I work, make a living with my hands doing something I like doing. Our kids, when we have them, will live just like I did growing up, having it all but not having it all handed to them. I’m not worried about Dr. Dick, his money, or him pressing charges. What I am worried about is my woman feeling like she’s got her back to a wall, her calling me freaked the fuck out after overhearing a nurse say that fucker touched her, but she couldn’t do anything because she didn’t want to lose her job.”