Page 17 of How to Trust a Hellhound (Hellhounds of Paradise Falls #4)
“That includes you, you know,” he told me. “You raised all these great guys, but you don’t need to do things alone, either.” He blushed a bit as he added, “I’m always willing to listen and help however I can.”
“Thank you, Mei Ume. That means more than you can possibly know. And I can always use help reining in my troublesome pack of boys. They only egg each other on to more chaos.”
He laughed at the last part, just like I intended, but I hoped he also saw that I thought of him as an equal. Atlas and Corbin had been right—I was always willing to support Josh and be there for him, but he needed to know that I wanted him to be there for me, as well.
My phone dinged at that moment, and Josh let go of my hand, motioning to my pocket. I would have ignored it and continued our moment, but I guessed that would be awkward now.
When I looked at the phone, the message was from Quinton, and I stared at it, puzzled.
“What is it?” Josh asked .
“Quinton messaged me, but I don’t know what he’s talking about. He said, ‘It isn’t my fault that they went all hellhound on the dick.’ I have no idea what that means.” I looked up as Josh groaned.
“Ugh. Hellhounds are good guys who take care of bad people in Toby’s books, and Q calls my ex Rick the Dick.
I told Q about the phone call from him because I was asking about changing my number.
My guess is that Liam said something or did something to Rick.
” Josh stood up, suddenly looking a little nervous. “I hope Rick didn’t hurt him.”
I stood up as well, giving him a smile. “Trust me, Liam can hold his own. Not only that, but I saw him looking mischievous earlier, and he had Atlas with him. I’m sure they meant well, but…” I trailed off.
Yeah, there was really nothing else to say. They always meant well, but that didn’t mean they didn’t occasionally fuck things up. I just hoped the fallout didn’t come back on Josh.
I was also a little miffed. After all, if anyone got to threaten Josh’s ex, I really felt like it should have been me.
“Let’s go see what trouble they got into,” I told Josh, and we both walked up toward the main house.
We all sat in Liam and Quinton’s living room—the main house, not the one they shared with Aiden—and listened to Liam describe their little field trip.
Quinton looked pissed off, as usual, but he was also throwing concerned glances at Josh.
Atlas was still in his human form, but he mostly just sat there looking menacing while Aiden sat on his lap.
Josh had introduced himself to Atlas and said it was nice to meet him, which had made Atlas look puzzled since they’d met a dozen times already. A subtle elbow from Aiden had him grunting and nodding. He’d apparently forgotten that he’d been Fluffy every time Josh had met him in the past.
Dexter, Toby, and Jude had come over as well, because everyone wanted to hear about their escapades. Corbin was the only one missing because he was out hunting for a few days.
“...so then, Atlas put his face close enough to kiss the guy—not that he would ever kiss anyone but you, Aiden—and he growled. And that’s when Rick actually peed his pants, and Atlas just looked down as the wet patch continued to grow, and then he dropped Rick right into the puddle,” Liam boasted.
“You’re both fucking morons,” Quinton muttered. “Go ahead and tell them the part where the dickhead threatened to call the cops on everyone.”
“Hey, I’m sure he wasn’t really serious about calling the cops,” Liam reassured Quinton. “After all, what’s he gonna say? We didn’t leave a bruise on him, and nothing is on camera anywhere.”
Toby was frantically writing in a notebook, and he distractedly said, “You did threaten him, and if a person feels bodily harm or death could result from the threat, that’s illegal. Plus, I’m sure you guys were all scary and… stuff.” Toby looked up at Josh for the last part.
We all knew what he meant, though. The boys had more than likely gone all fire and glowing eyes on Rick. Not that I blamed them.
“Eh, so he was ranting a little bit about us being psychopath killers.” Liam shrugged, and they all continued to chatter about their visit to threaten Josh’s ex.
I looked over at Josh, but he looked surprisingly calm. “Are you okay?” I asked him.
He didn’t look at me—instead he continued to stare at Liam. Liam and Atlas sensed it, because eventually everyone stopped talking, and they all looked at Josh, who was still staring down Liam.
“I must have given you the impression that I’m incapable of taking care of myself,” Josh said, and I could hear the fire behind his words.
Liam, Atlas, and Quinton all rushed to reassure him that wasn’t true, but he just put a hand up, and they all stopped talking. It was rather impressive, and to be honest, it was also a turn-on. My Mei Ume was feisty and ready to take charge.
“I understand why you might think that, but I can assure you, I am an adult who can make logical decisions.” The unstated part was that perhaps Liam and Atlas were not capable of making logical decisions.
Q snorted in response, and Jude quietly slipped out the front door.
I could hear a car in the distance, so my guess was that he was going to investigate.
He also probably wanted to avoid getting yelled at since everyone looked a little shamed by Josh.
“Uh, yeah, of course we know you’re an adult, Josh,” Liam assured him, looking at me for help.
“Don’t look at me. None of this was discussed with me, after all,” I chastised. “I certainly wouldn’t have condoned it. If Josh wanted something done about his ex, all he had to do was ask, which I’m sure he knows, since he did ask Quinton for some assistance.”
“Yup. I did ask Q for assistance in changing my phone number, but I don’t recall asking anyone to track down Rick and threaten him.
Not that I have any sympathy for the man, but don’t you think it’s my right, as the one who was wronged here, to have a say in what happens?
But you took that away from me, didn’t you?
” Josh was looking from Atlas to Liam and back again.
“Worse than that, you stooped to his level of pettiness. I expected better from friends.”
They both looked guilty as hell at that. I almost laughed, but I managed to hold my grin in. Josh was going to be the perfect mate—he had successfully put both boys in their place, and he hadn’t even raised his voice to do it.
A moment later the sound of a car coming up the driveway became audible to the humans in the room, and we all heard Jude shout, “Walrus! ”
Josh got up. “And this will be the sheriff dropping in, because I can assure you that Rick would be someone to call the cops on you. So now there’s something else for me to deal with, because you two didn’t think this through or ask my opinion.
” Josh sighed before adding, “Let me handle this. I’ll make sure no one gets arrested. ”
Josh walked toward the front door, and I sidled up next to him, putting my hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. I heard everyone else following behind us.
Of course, we walked outside to mayhem.
I sighed, Toby started mumbling to himself and writing in his notebook, and Quinton cursed under his breath.
Jude really needed to get a handle on dealing with his crush on the sheriff, because although he looked quite happy with himself, being handcuffed and pressed against a police car was probably not a good thing.