“Tack –” I started but stopped when one of his hands came to my jaw again but his thumb rested on my lips.

“Dog,” he said into his phone, “Elliott Belova just left Tyra’s house. Pick him up. I want him at the Compound in an hour. I’ll meet you there.”

I felt my eyes get wide as Tack flipped his phone shut and shoved it into his back pocket. Then my fingers curled deeper into his shirt and I pushed closer.

His thumb slid from my lips to my cheek and I whispered, “Please, talk to me.”

“Your friend just offered me half a million to whack the big man in the Russian Mob.”

I blinked and swayed at the same time and Tack’s arms went around me fast and tight.

Then I breathed, “What?”

“I think you heard me, baby,” he said softly.

“Whack?” I whispered.

“Murder, kill, assassinate,” Tack explained.

“I know what it means,” I shook my head. “Do you… do you do that?” I asked.

His arms tightened briefly before he said low, “Fuck no, except five minutes ago when I was moved to consider it when that f**kwad stood on your back deck and offered me five hundred large to end another guy but it wasn’t the guy he wanted me to end I was considering ending.”

“Then why… what… why…?”

Tack’s face got close and his arms got tighter.

“This guy, Red, this guy is not a good guy.”

“But he’s Elliott,” I said stupidly.

“He is not a good guy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I say it because he offered me five hundred K to kill someone. I say that because I know he’s not as smart as you think because he’s dumb enough to get involved with some seriously f**ked up shit. And I say that because I just found out he’s got the love of a woman who’s probably a good woman and she’s gonna end up brokenhearted, hurt or worse.”

I felt my breathing escalate.

“Why do you say that?”

“This shit, the kinda shit he’s in, leaks and no one’s safe.”

I gave him my full weight as I heard my breath hitch and felt tears fill my eyes.

“Tack,” I whispered.

“She’s gotta cut him loose.”

“Tack –”

“Yesterday, Red.”

“Oh my God.”

“You get me?”

“My God.”

His hand came back to my jaw, the pads of his fingers digging into my neck. “Baby, do you get me?”

I pulled myself together and nodded.

“You go to her,” he ordered.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“But you wait. I want you on the back of one of my boy’s bikes when you do.”

I nodded.

“I’m bringin’ him in and he and I are gonna have a chat.”

I nodded again

“She needs to be here, she’s on the back of one of my boy’s bikes. I’m done with him, I’m comin’ here. If she needs you, you bring her here. You do not stay there. I’m puttin’ your house on radar. You’re in this bed tonight when I get to you. Yeah?”

I nodded again.

“Give me the words, Tyra.”

“If she needs me, I bring her here, only on the back of one of your boy’s bikes and I’m in my bed when you come to me.”

“That’s it, baby.”

I swallowed and felt a tear slide partway down my cheek but it didn’t get very far before Tack swept it away.

“That’s the only tear he gets, darlin’. This is not a guy you cry over.”

“I’m crying for Lanie,” I told him as another tear spilled out of my other eye.

That one didn’t get very far either because Tack’s head dipped in and his lips kissed it away. That felt unbelievably sweet but my heart hurt so much, when he did that, I closed my eyes and tears spilled down each side.

I felt his forehead against mine, another swipe of his thumb to wipe the wetness away and I heard him whisper, “Baby, I can’t keep up.”

“She’s my best friend,” I whispered back.

“She’s in good hands,” he said. That made me open my eyes and look into his brilliant blue ones.

I did not know this man. He freaked me out. He scared me. He infuriated me. And he excited me. I fell in love with him once and started to do it again. All of this in less than two weeks.

And I had absolutely no idea if I could trust him.

“Promise?” I whispered and he nodded. “Give me the words, Tack.”

To that, he grinned, his mouth moved to mine and he murmured, “I promise, Red.”

Then he pressed his lips lightly to mine, touched his tongue even lighter to my lips and then his face moved an inch away.

Then he said, “Need a set of keys, darlin’.”

I nodded and it was me who took his hand before I led him to my kitchen where there was a Kokopelli key holder on the wall by the backdoor.

I grabbed a spare set and gave Tack the keys to my house.

Chapter Ten

Metal Detector

“You okay?” I asked Lanie who was tucked into the double bed in my guest bedroom, her eyes red and puffy, her nose red and swollen and about a thousand used Kleenexes littering the nightstand and floor by the bed.

“No,” she snuffled, reached out to the Kleenex box, snatched another one out, shoved her face into it and burst into loud tears.

“Honey,” I whispered, stroking her hair back.

I was sitting on the bed beside her, although for the last hour I’d been lying in it with her. She was inconsolable until about two minutes ago when she’d pulled it together and I thought it was safe to leave her.

Apparently it wasn’t.

Earlier, Tack had taken off after having a quiet word with Rush in the kitchen, giving his daughter a kiss on the cheek and one on the lips for me. Rush and Tabby had hung around until Brick roared up on his bike. Rush walked me out to Brick’s bike and promised to lock up behind him and Tabby. I’d gone to Lanie, explained what had happened with Elliott and what Tack told me about him not including the fact he was picking Elliott up to have a “chat”. I didn’t think Tack’s “chats” were like any kinds of chats Lanie and I could comprehend and I figured Lanie would know that.

Not surprisingly, Lanie had not believed this at first. There was a drama where she accused me of being insane and blinded by hormones when it came to Tack.

Brick, who had been quietly standing inside the front door of the house came in and confirmed my words by saying, “Babe, what Cherry here says is true. Everyone on the grid knows Elliott Belova is a serious bad dude. I got no reason to shit you. This guy is whacked.”