Through stiff lips, I whispered, “You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.”

“Damn.” I was still whispering. Then I asked, “What’d you do?”

“What could I do?” he asked back then I read it as the warning sign it was when his arm got tight, his body turned slightly into mine, his eyes locked with mine and I braced. “I hauled my ass over there and calmed her down by promising to have dinner with her.”

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

I pressed my lips together and looked at the counter.

“Baby,” another arm squeeze and I looked back up at him. “This is a minefield. I gotta go slow and cautious. This is why Hector’s here.”

I stared up at him in confusion then looked to Hector, still in confusion, then back at Brock when he started speaking again.

“Hector worked with me at the DEA. He now works for Lee Nightingale. Lee’s got an operation, bounty hunting, some security, private investigation. I got enough on my plate and Hector owes me a favor. I’m callin’ it.”

“You’re calling it?”

“Yeah. I’m havin’ dinner with Olivia and we’ll talk but this shit, it’s the last straw.

Draggin’ the boys into this, cryin’ and carryin’ on, freaking out Rex, plantin’ shit in their heads about you. And when I got there Joey was freaked too. Said she was drivin’ crazy, flipped them both out and it didn’t get better when she continued her drama back at the house. I am not down with that shit. I’m so not down with it, I’m done with it. I’m not goin’

for joint custody, I’m going for full. And to go for full, I gotta have shit to back that play.

Hector’ll find it. Somethin’ on Dade, somethin’ on Olivia.” He pulled in breath and said,

“Sorry, sweetness, but in the meantime, I gotta play her game. I want my move to be a surprise, I want her scrambling and, bottom line, I want my kids. I’m willin’ to do just about anything to see that happen and I’m gonna need to ask you to ride that out with me.”

Immediately, I nodded.

He took in my nod and smiled, this one reached his eyes.

Then that smile died and he said softly, “Somethin’ else happened today.”

Fuck!

“What?”

He hesitated, studying me.

“Brock, honey,” I pressed into him, “what?”

“You remember I told you in my gut that I knew Heller was poising to strike?”

Oh no.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“He’s poising to strike.”

“Oh God,” I breathed.

“Good news is, with my old job, got contacts, informants, friends, folks who owe me. Had a call from one that says Heller’s been askin’ a lot about me. Diggin’ deep. So I made a few more calls and found out he’s in my business, financials, credit history, work history.”

My brows drew together. “Why would he do that?” Then I asked, “How could he do that?

Isn’t that stuff confidential?”

“You want it bad enough and you got the money then you got the means to do just about anything, find someone who can or buy someone who’ll talk.”

This made sense.

“Okay then, why would he do that?”

“That, I don’t know. That’s why Vance is here.” I looked to Vance then back at Brock when he kept going. “He works for Lee too and he doesn’t owe me, I’ll owe him but he’s gonna nose around and see what he can learn so I can prepare for whatever Heller’s planning.”

This should have pissed me off.

It didn’t.

It scared me.

And it scared me because that night Brock threatened Damian, Damian decided to take Brock down a peg. He might be facing serious jail time but that wouldn’t matter to him.

Brock had not only threatened him, he’d shut the door in his face then he stood in my living room at my window and waited until Damian did what he was told, something Damian wouldn’t take kindly in a serious way. And last, but not least, he stood between Damian and what Damian wanted.

I knew from experience that Damian could play dirty, mean and as nasty as nasty could be to get what he wanted. He might be looking into Brock but if he didn’t find anything, which he wouldn’t, then he’d still find a way to f**k with Brock’s life. And f**king with Brock was f**king with me, f**king with Rex and Joel at a time when that situation was tenuous at best and f**king with Brock’s family who I’d come to care about and were in the throes of their own turmoil.

But, bottom line, first and foremost, he’d be f**king with Brock.

And I couldn’t allow that.

So I made a decision.

“I need to make a statement to him,” I announced.

“Come again?” Brock asked and, automatically, my hand fisted in his flannel but I didn’t notice it.

“Tomorrow,” I whispered, “I’ll go into the Station with you and I’ll press charges against Damian. Assault, battery and rape.”

The room filled with crackling electricity that snapped vicious against my skin.

And this wasn’t coming from Brock.

It was then I remembered we had an audience and I looked to the men at his bar.

At what I read on their faces, I tensed.

Uh-oh.

“Sweet Tess,” Brock murmured but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the men at the bar and Brock kept talking, “I didn’t share. They didn’t know.”

I closed my eyes tight, turned my head to face his chest and clenched his shirt harder.

Damn, now I was blurting that shit out willy-nilly.

I felt Brock’s big, warm hand over mine at his shirt, pushing in hard so I had no choice but to unclench and then he pressed my hand flat to his chest as he whispered, “Hey.”

I pressed my lips together and continued to scrunch my eyes closed.

He gave me an arm squeeze.

“Baby, hey.”

I opened my eyes and tilted them up to him.

He looked into my eyes and a shadow passed through his.

“Look at me,” he said gently.

“I am,” I whispered.

“No, sweetness, look at me. What do you see?”

I felt my throat clog.

“Don’t go there, stay here with me,” he urged softly, I swallowed and he pulled me closer, dipping his face lower. “I took that away, baby, you gave it to me. Don’t go there, don’t take that weight back. Look at me, see me. Feel this,” he demanded gently, his arm tightening further, pulling me even closer, his hand pressing mine into the warm, hard wall of his chest.