Page 129 of The Deals We Make

“Fine,” King says. “You and Halo and Bates can work on it.”

“Wait,” Halo says. “Why am I working on it?”

King tips his chin at Lola. “Because you know what the little kids need. And Switch, tell Sophia to make it happen. I don’t want to pay over the odds for that land either.”

Switch huffs a laugh. “Have you met my old lady? She’ll wrangle the owners down into the dirt. They’ll be paying us to take it off their hands.”

“That’s why we like her,” Niro says.

“Okay. You can’t all be sitting in a group like that when Calista gets here in six minutes,” Rae says, placing her hand on King’s shoulder.

He grabs her wrist and tugs her down onto his lap before kissing her soundly. “We can sit wherever we feel like,” he says.

“Not if you don’t want to sleep in the spare room tonight?”

King grins at Rae. “You heard what my wife said. Move.”

I look at where Calista is on my phone. She humors me with the number of trackers I have on her. I put one in her work purse. There’s one on her car, now all her belongings have been shipped here. She has a new watch, and there is even a micro tracker in the back of it. I keep all but the one around her neck muted at her request.

Her rationale was solid.

If she went missing, I could unmute them all. Until there was a problem, the locket should be the only tracker I needed.

“You gonna sit there all day or go stand by the door like a gentleman?” Niro says.

“She’s four minutes away now. Not sure how you all convinced me that I should do this in public.”

“Then don’t,” Rae says. “Take her to your room. Or your pantry. Or the yard.”

I shake my head. “I want the grand gesture. Proposing in front of you all. Mixing your lives together. It’s important to me.”

“Is she here?” Sophia says when she comes into the bar.

Switch takes her hand. “Not yet, sweetheart. But stay here anyway.”

Catalina slips beneath Niro’s arm and he throws his over her shoulder. “Remember when you proposed to me?” she asks.

“Not really. I was fucking terrified. I remember the sex we had that night, though. When you?—”

She slams her palm over his mouth. “They don’t all need to know.”

Gwen laughs as Clutch pulls her in front of him. “We already do. You told us when we went to that new bar Rae had found and you drank all those cocktails.”

“Shit,” she curses, and the women laugh.

Iris takes Archer from Spark, and the little guy almost immediately soothes. Spark strokes the top of his head. “Feel the same way when my mouth is anywhere near those tits too, buddy.”

Iris shakes her head. “You’re ridiculous.”

Spark laughs. “It’s true, though.”

Halo lifts Ari so she’s sitting on the bar. It’s one of his favorite things to do. I swear to God, he probably fucked her on it one night when everyone else had gone to bed.

“Why is everybody standing up?” Avery asks.

“Because Uncle Vex is going to ask Auntie Calista to marry him,” Niro says.

“NIRO!” The word and groans come from everyone. It’s meant to be a secret from Avery because she’s a little blabbermouth.