“I hope so, too.”

She nodded and didn’t grin back. She dipped her chin and stared at my chest.

I lifted a hand and pulled her hair away from her face and neck. Then I wrapped my arm around her again and held tight.

Once I did that, I said quietly, “Love you to bits, Charlene.”

“I know, Sylvie,” she replied quietly back without looking at me. “Love you, too.”

I held her close and listened to her take another staggering breath.

And I held her close until she fell asleep in my arms.

And I held her close for a while after.

Then I got up, left her sleeping, closed her door and, as quietly as I could, I cleaned her house.

* * * * *

“Got a firm on retainer. I’ll call them. They have a divorce lawyer who’s a f**kin’ piranha. This ass**le left her with three kids, one Down’s, that guy’ll nail his balls to the wall.”

I was sitting on Knight’s couch in Knight’s office with my cowboy booted feet up on his coffee table.

Knight was standing at his window, looking down at his heaving club.

It was late. Charlene’s kids were home, fed, pajama’d and put to bed. Creed was outside in his truck waiting for me to chat with Knight. I was upstairs doing that, having asked him if he could help Charlene out in some way and also telling him that I would soon be moving to Phoenix to be with Creed.

As suspected, Knight stepped up for Charlene. It wasn’t just hookers he looked after. He wasn’t big on any woman getting screwed over in any way that could happen.

I smiled at him. “You rock.”

Knight didn’t smile at me. I guessed this was because he really didn’t like it when women got screwed. He was pissed Charlene was going through this, even though he’d met her only a couple of times so he barely knew her at all.

When Knight didn’t say anything, I offered, “If I have free time from Hawk’s job, I’ll work for you the next month for free if you set that guy on Dan.”

“Did you miss the part about them being on retainer?” he asked.

“No,” I answered.

“It’s covered, Sylvie.”

Yeah. Knight totally rocked.

I smiled at him again but this time it was bigger.

Knight turned his head away and looked out the window.

Weird.

He could be intense…

No, strike that, he was pretty much always intense but he wasn’t broody. He spoke his mind and didn’t hesitate to do it when he had something to say. He wasn’t a man of few words. He had words and he used them.

So, as I noted, this was weird.

“I’ll take on Creed.”

This came from Knight, directed toward the window but meant for me.

“What?” I asked.

He turned to me. “I’ll take on Creed. Make it worth his while. If he’s got to take extra time to go down to Phoenix and see his kids, he’ll have it. I always need good men, men I can trust. He’s a man like that.”

I stared at him, my breath failing me.

He didn’t want me to leave.

He was trying to make it so I’d stay.

Holy shit!

I didn’t know what to do with this.

“I…” I started, swallowed, sucked in breath then told him quietly, “He doesn’t agree with what you do.”

Knight tipped his head to the side. “He doesn’t agree?”

I shook my head. “He believes you do what you do with integrity but he doesn’t agree with what it is you do. He won’t work for you and even if he would, it wouldn’t be fair to ask him to leave his kids. He loves them. For me, I believe he’d do that but it would tear him apart, so I won’t make him.”

Knight held my eyes a second then looked back out the window.

I took in another breath as I pulled my boots from his table, put them to the floor then leaned my elbows into my knees.

“I’ll come back, visit you and Anya and Kat,” I told him.

“Got a lot to be thankful for,” he told his window, his words confusing me. “A good woman, beautiful daughter, work I believe in, money, men around me I trust.” He turned back to me. “Still, you left, that hole will not be filled. Not ever.”

Holy f**king shit!

I felt my throat start to close and forced through it, “Knight,” but that was all I could think to say.

Knight held my eyes and I was so undone, I let him and I did it silently.

Finally, he spoke.

“We’ll visit you, too, but, warning Sylvie, we’re not comin’ down there in the summer. I’ve been down there in the summer. It’s torture. Maybe Thanksgiving. Anya gets off on holidays. She’ll like that.”

“Creed has a big table,” I said quietly.

“You cook?” he asked.

“When forced,” I answered and finally got a lip twitch from Knight.

“Creed cook?” he went on.

“Absolutely.”

“Then it’s a plan.”

I stood, and was going to move to him but I found my feet failing me. All I could do was stand there, staring at one of only two men in my entire life who really, truly loved me.

So I decided it was time to give that back.

“You know, I love you, Knight.”

“You could have been one of my girls.”

Again, that wasn’t the response I was expecting.

“Say again?” I asked.

“You came to Denver, after that shit went down with you, if that had broken you, you could have found me for another reason. You didn’t. You didn’t let that shit break you. You didn’t bow to it. You fought it. You didn’t become one of my girls. You became the woman who protected them. That says a lot about you, Sylvie. I respect that. I respect you. I respect that you’re professional, I can trust you but you still got a personality, a sense of humor. After that shit happened to you, you kept that, you kept you. I respect that. I respect that we had an attraction and, not like a lot of women, when we found we didn’t suit, you didn’t let that shit turn catty or destructive. You let it go, you kept us solid and it means somethin’ to me you shared your shit with me. You trusted me with it. You trusted that me knowin’ it wouldn’t alter our relationship. That was an honor, Sylvie. I know you haven’t given that to anyone but me and Charlene, and, babe, it was an honor you chose me.”

Told you Knight could talk.

And that was nice and all, really nice, but I was a little put out he didn’t say it straight. He always said it straight.