Page 28

Mika

I was up on the roof, letting Milly take care of business before Hawk and I left for the club.

“Hurry up, sweet girl, it’s chilly up here.” I’d loved having the roof as a hang-out place all summer, but now that fall had blown in, that good old West Texas wind made our trips up here much shorter.

I walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down over the park where I normally took Milly to play. I loved the view from up here. I could hardly even believe this was my life now.

So much had changed in the six months since my nightmare with the Iron Jackals had come to an end. It had taken some convincing, but eventually, I’d caved and gone down to two days a week with Mary Ellen. She didn’t really need me any more than that, and I had plenty to do here to keep me busy.

One room at a time, I was making changes to the condo. Hawk had kept his promise and had helped me pick out most of the furniture. I’d given up on asking him when it came to décor, though. The man hadn’t been joking when he said he didn’t care.

Milly ran over and nudged me, letting me know that she was finished.

“Okay, girl, let’s go downstairs and get you a treat.”

I still couldn’t believe how fast she could navigate the steps with her short legs, but by the time I made it down the stairs, she was sitting in the kitchen in front of her treat container, waiting not so patiently for me to get there.

I’d just handed her a treat when Hawk came into the room. “Are you ready to head to Kirby’s?” he asked.

“I need to go check my hair. The wind up there is wicked.”

He grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. “You know I always think you look amazing, but you probably do want to do something about that hair.”

I slapped him on the chest. “Jerk.”

“Hey, I promised to never lie to you, remember.” He gave me a quick kiss and swatted me on the ass. “Go get pretty for me.”

“It won’t take me but a second.”

“No rush. You know Andy has a table reserved for us.”

A little bit later, we walked into Kirby’s and made our way to the table that we always sat at for Daddy Night. That was another big change. We used to always sit at a booth on the far wall, but now they’d added a table and chairs to the area because the guys from Three Bears had joined us at our table.

Gator and Wolfe were already there, as were Keith, Caleb, and Andy. Jesse would be around there somewhere, but since this was his club, he was probably working.

Julius was also at the table. When he’d cut my hair the other day he’d said he would come but I wasn’t sure. He’d been dating this guy from Austin, so we hadn’t seen him around the club for a while

“Hey, Julius, how are you?”

He downed the rest of what I doubted was his first drink and grinned at me. “Great. I’m single and ready to mingle!”

Gator grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Well, sugar, you’ve come to the right place. Come dance with me.”

“Sure thing, Daddy, let’s go.”

I watched as they headed out to the dance floor and turned to look at Caleb and Andy. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine.”

“Good.” I took my seat and ordered a drink.

“So, is Crowe not coming tonight?” Keith asked.

“No, he has a group out at the camp right now,” Wolfe answered.

“Gotcha.” Keith nodded. “I just wanted to tell him what a great time we had out there last week. We learned a lot, but he made it all fun.”

Andy had told me all about this. Samuel had arranged for all the firefighters from Station 69 to spend a day of team building out at the camp. Like Keith, he’d said it had been a great time.

“Good, I’m glad,” Wolfe said. “I’m hoping the other stations in town will do the same.”

Gator came back and flopped down in his chair. He poured himself a beer out of the pitcher and took a long drink. “I’m getting too old for that.”

“You’re not old,” Hawk grumbled.

“You’re just saying that because we’re the same age, and you don’t want your boy here to think you’re too old for him.”

“My boy knows I can keep up.”

Gator waggled his eyebrows at me. “Is that right, Mika?”

I rolled my eyes. “Trust me, my Daddy has no problem keeping up. But the question is, where’s Julius? Were you not able to keep up? Did he ditch you for a younger model?”

“Not even close. He went to the bathroom. He’ll be right back.”

Hawk stretched his arm out on the back of the chair behind me, and I grinned up at him. I’d never been this happy in my entire life, and there was nothing about it I would change.

“Love you, Daddy,” I mouthed, and he kissed me.

There were whistles and cheers all around, but I honestly didn’t care.

“Julius is taking a long time,” Andy said. “Are you sure he was coming back to the table?”

“He said he was. Maybe I should go check on him,” Gator moved to stand up just as Julius rushed up to the table.

“Guys, I think I just saw someone get abducted in the alley. We need to call the police.”

The guys at Three Bears Tactical Services are just getting started and Gator is up next: Gator