“You won’t lose me,” she whispered back.
She jumped when the Scotch glass shattered against the wall.
After that, she stepped back, in utter shock, witnessing Stellan Lange totally lose his cool.
“You walked up to that man armed with a phone!”
Damn.
There it was.
He wasn’t pissed.
He’d been scared.
She’d scared him.
He’d loved his sister, she’d been harmed and hurt and worse, and he’d lost her.
She hated that. Hated it.
But in this instance it was vital for him to understand …
She was not his sister.
“I had backup, baby,” she said soothingly.
“You have two gunshot wounds, Simone.” He walked to the dining room table and slammed his fist into the top of it twice. “Two.”
God.
Her man.
He really loved her.
“I did research on these people, honey,” she said calmingly. “I talked to regulars at the club about all the players. I’ve been there before. I did a thorough walkthrough last night. I spent the scene with D and Maddox assessing those DMs—”
“You are not fucking understanding me,” he bit out. “One got his hand on you.”
“I had that situation under control.”
“He touched you, and he was twice your size.”
“Stellan, honey, I can handle myself.”
He looked away, dragging his hands through his hair, muttering, “Jesus Christ.”
“Baby, you need to trust I know how to do my job. It’s my job. You need to trust in me that I can do it,” she said.
He turned back to her. “In all my life, in truth, to the soul, right now, there are two beings who are breathing, only two, Simone, who I love. Who it would rip me apart if I lost. But only one that if I lost her, it would fucking destroy me. And that one is you.”
“I don’t have a hero complex, honey.”
“I read your sketchbooks.”
“That was for Simone.”
“You are Simone.”
“I know.”
His chest moved with his deep breaths.
“We needed to have this conversation,” she said. “It’s important we get to the right place here, baby.”
“And when we have children?” he asked. “Will you do these things when you’re a mother?”
“I think you know Sylvie Creed.”
He looked to the pool, and a muscle jerked up his cheek.
He knew Sylvie.
She was a fabulous mother.
And she was a kickass investigator.
“Actually, first we need to get past the when-we-have-children part,” she tried to joke.
He turned his head and locked eyes on her.
“You’re having my children,” he growled.
“Okay, honey. How many do you want?” she whispered.
“Get over here.”
She decided to cross the great divide. Her man was emotional. He’d had a shock that night.
Apparently, even Stellan Lange had times he needed to be soothed.
So she went there.
She nearly stumbled when he yanked her to him the minute she was within reach, slamming her close and holding her closer.
Sixx wrapped her arms tight around her man.
She let him hold her, assuring himself she was right there, in his arms, breathing, okay.
Then she set about assuring him of other things.
“Right here, right now, I promise never to take unnecessary risks. I promise to do my research and always be cautious and prepared. In my work for Joel, it’s rare there’s danger, but if there is, I promise I won’t go in ill-equipped in any way or without backup. There will be no occasion where I will go gung ho. Above all I will do everything in my power to come home to you, safe and sound, every night, Stellan, for as long as I live.”
With every word she spoke, his arms squeezed tighter and tighter so she was nearly wheezing when he was done.
He got what he needed out of that hug because he took the pressure off but didn’t let her go.
He rested his cheek on the top of her head and murmured, “I shouldn’t have called Carvelo.”
No, he shouldn’t have.
She didn’t confirm.
She just said, “It’s done. We’re past it.”
“Or Rodrigo.”
She grinned against his chest. “Okay, baby, I get it.”
Stellan held her and she held on.
Eventually, quietly, she promised, “The stuff I did to get those scars, Stellan, I vow to you. It’s done.”
“All right, darling.”
She let out a big breath.
“You might want to know, Susan tried to warn me about interfering with your work,” he shared.
Sixx didn’t know her well (yet), but she had a feeling Susan was the kind of woman who would have learned about the Bolt job and taken her concerns direct to Sixx.
“She’s pretty awesome,” Sixx muttered.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“It was righteous that Barclay made Beardsley sell his share in the club for a penny,” she remarked, tipping her head back.
Stellan lifted his to look down into her eyes.
“In getting to know him, I’ve noted that Barclay is ‘righteous’ in a number of ways. To say he was beside himself about what was happening is an understatement. Branch had to physically pull him off that Josh character when he admitted he’d suspected something was going on for weeks and he hadn’t shared.”
“But how could he have not known before?” Sixx asked a question she’d had since the beginning. “Everyone thinks this Barclay guy is awesome, but in one night, the state of those girls, it was obvious.”
“Apparently Barclay has recently met a woman who he’s become rather fond of, and they spend quite a bit of time together,” Stellan explained. “Also apparently, Josh has been lax on holding up his end of the partnership, but he respects Barclay and appreciates what he’s done for the club, which is Josh’s livelihood. So, to give Barclay time to be with his woman, and simply to give him a break since it seems he’s been running the club mostly singlehandedly for years, Josh told Barclay he could take a step back, and Josh would step in. Barclay agreed, continuing to do the books, supervise the bars and stocks of liquor, but gave up night management to Josh so his evenings would be free, and unfortunately handed staff scheduling to Beardsley.”
“And thus Beardsley took advantage of that change in circumstances,” she murmured.
Stellan nodded. “Further to that, although it’s costly, as a precaution, Barclay keeps security footage backed up for six months before he records over it. Branch’s colleague assessed it, and it appears the prostitution situation is relatively new and has only been going on for around three months. It did not escape Josh for very long, and he shared he confronted Beardsley about it repeatedly, being rebuffed. Getting increasingly panicked about it, this culminated in a nasty public argument that set him to finding an outside source to assist him in proving what he sensed to be true, this giving him the ammunition to go to Barclay so they could handle it effectively. Not an altogether wise strategy, but he was trying to do the right thing.”
No, not wise, but at least it ended up getting sorted.
“The dealing, however,” Stellan continued, “through Beardsley and via the DMs who were working that side job, has been going on much longer, right under the noses of Barclay and Josh, who were both unaware until last night.”
“Why didn’t any of the members report anything?” she asked, deciding also to ask the trio the same thing, because they knew it was happening and they didn’t say anything either.
Maybe she’d bring it up when she went over to their place for dinner.
“Drugs are rampant everywhere, Simone,” Stellan pointed out. “And the people dealing them, and doing them, tend to be careful about other people catching them. But I would say it’s more, especially in an environment like that. What people do is their business, and not your own. Reporting decadent behavior, even illegal behavior, isn’t exactly a part of our way of life. In this instance, that could be debated right or wrong. But I can understand why members would simply let it be.”
That made sense.