“Hector’s a wild man, and she’s not his sister,” Lee pointed out.

“Lee,” Hank said low, “they grew up together. She isn’t, but she is.”

Lee took a breath in through his nose. This meant he saw Hank’s point.

Hank laid it out. “I’m gonna give her space. I’m also gonna ask you to train her.”

“Hank—”

“She wants this,” Hank said quietly. “And it’d make me sleep a fuckuva lot easier knowin’ you gave her the skills she needs.”

Lee’s jaw clenched.

Hank continued. “And she’s good at it. You’ve seen the tape. Ice cold at Lincoln’s. Like she’d been doin’ that shit for years.”

“Easy for her to do that when she knows she’s got firepower at her back,” Lee countered.

“Yeah. You’re right. But Darius told both of us, since he laid it down for her months ago, she never made a move without him bein’ in the know and him bein’ at her back if she needed him. She’s not gung ho and proving a point. She’s moving forward smart and doing it making all the right moves.”

Indistinct noises of more retching floated into the room. Hank lost Lee’s attention when his brother turned his head and looked at the door.

“You wanna go to her?” he asked, then offered, “I’ll wait.”

Lee looked back at his brother. “She gets pissed, I get too much in her space.”

That was Indy. Like Ally, two peas in a pod. They needed everybody, but were damned if they’d let it show.

Hank took a sip of coffee, thinking he looked forward to making babies with Roxie. He looked forward to having a family.

He did not, however, look forward to this shit.

He gave his brother a second then declared, “I’m gonna have a conversation with Ally. You do what you need to do, but what I’ll ask you to do is think about it. You could teach her things she needs to know. You could also help her get licensed so she can make a better go of this.”

“She’s not findin’ trouble gettin’ cases,” Lee noted. “She doesn’t even have an office and she’s had two fall in her lap.”

“Could that be because she’s already established a reputation for getting the job done?” Hank suggested.

Lee said nothing.

“Just think about it, yeah?” Hank prompted.

Lee gave him a nod.

Hank took a sip of his coffee before asking, “Now, why’d you want me over here?”

“My phone’s been busy this morning. Mace. Hector. Tex. Even fuckin’ Kumar,” Lee told him.

“Yeah?” Hank said.

“And also Brody,” Lee went on.

“And?”

“Jane wrote that Rock Chick book,” Lee announced.

Hank went still before he whispered, “What?”

Lee shook his head but said, “Yeah. Jane. Middle of the night last night, Brody found a trail from the person who gets reader mail to Jane.”

“Fuck,” Hank bit out.

“Yeah,” Lee agreed.

“What now?” Hank asked.

“That’s why I asked you here,” Lee answered. “I don’t know. No tellin’ what Indy’s gonna do. She thinks of Jane like family. I don’t know if she’ll lose her mind or defend her. Bein’ Indy, though, my guess is she’d defend her. But right now, her sick all the time, she doesn’t need this shit. She’s also told me about Jane. That woman loves books, always wanted to become a writer. She’s written fuckin’ dozens of them that went nowhere. Now she’s livin’ her dream.”

“Off our lives,” Hank pointed out.

“That’s the rub,” Lee stated. “’Cause what does it hurt when what it does is give one of our own the key to her dreams?”

Hank stared at his brother. “Are you shitting me?”

“Tod and Stevie have been over here cackling about that book least a dozen times since Indy and Ally found it. Fuck, Tod’s highlighted parts that he reads out loud to us. And I gotta admit, that shit is funny. Wasn’t then. My woman in my bed, wearin’ my ring, pregnant with my baby, it is now.”

“I’m not sure I’ll get there,” Hank replied.

“You asked me just last night, I would have said the same thing. Then when Brody told me it was Jane, Indy pukin’ in the bathroom, us having viewings to get a bigger place to prepare for our family, I didn’t have it in me to get pissed. Jane’s got nothin’ in her life except that store and us.” He paused. “And now her books.”

Hank thought about Jane. Quiet. Always working. Most of the time there, but always on the cusp. He’d known her since he was a kid and she’d always been the same. It wasn’t that she kept herself removed. Hank reckoned it had more to do with the fact she didn’t quite know how to get involved.

And Roxie had read the book. Hank had heard her laughing through the whole fucking thing. She knew Hank was pissed about it and didn’t say anything to him, but he also knew, if she found out it was Jane, she wouldn’t give a single shit.

“My thought is,” Lee carried on and Hank focused on him. “I tell the men. They tell their women. I’m not gonna say shit about how they react, seein’ as they can react however the fuck they want. I’ll wait ‘til Indy’s in a good spot and tell her, and same goes for her. Jane did what she did, the chips will fall as they fall.”

“Not thinkin’ any of the women will have an issue with it,” Hank noted.

“Seems the case,” Lee agreed.

“But even one of those guys loses it and gets in Jane’s face, how’s that gonna go down?” Hank asked.

The look on Lee’s face said precisely how it was going to go down. Jane barely had the courage to live her life. One of the men got in her shit about those books, she could break. Which could mean she’d leave the store. Which would mean Indy would lose her.

Which would not be good.

Just like her grandmother, Indy regarded everyone who walked in that store on a regular basis like blood family. Grandma Ellen had looked after Jane. Indy did in her way, too.

She’d lose her mind if one of the men lost it with Jane.

“My guess,” Lee started, “is that those men will also think about how that’d go down. And if they do confront her, they’ll have a mind to that.”

That, fortunately, was true.

“They also have a right to know,” Lee continued.

Hank nodded and sipped more coffee.

“You gonna tell Roxie?” Lee asked.

Hank’s brows went up. “The Rock Chicks knowin’ something she doesn’t know? And then her knowin’ I knew and didn’t tell her?” Hank shook his head. “She’d have a fuckin’ conniption. She rode my ass half our honeymoon about Ally and Zano.”

Lee grinned, but Hank didn’t find it funny. Ally making a scene with Zano at their wedding reception, clueing the Rock Chicks in to something the men already knew, was not taken kindly by his then-brand new wife.

Luckily, he was able to be creative in getting her to shut up about it.

“Darius says Zano is lookin’ into those books, too. You have a sit down with Ally, will you give her that heads up?” Lee asked.

“Yeah,” Hank answered. “And since I’m out, that’s up next.”

He took his last sip of coffee, rinsed the mug and put in the dishwasher.

Lee walked with him to the door.

At the door, Hank brought up their earlier conversation. “You’ll think about Ally?”

“Said I would,” Lee replied.

“She’s got what it takes, Lee,” Hank pointed out.

“She’s also got no fear,” Lee returned. “Never has. And sometimes that’s not a good thing.”

“You get scared before you do a job or do you just know you can get it done?” Hank asked.

Lee again said nothing.

“You’re measuring her by another yardstick, brother,” Hank noted quietly. “Careful of doing that. It’s not only not fair, she’ll cotton on and the results of that will not be pretty. But, I’ll point out, you’re holdin’ the key to her dreams. Our sister is the kind of girl who’ll bust the door down anyway. And she’s doin’ that. But it’d make it easier, you just hand her that key.”

For long moments, Hank withstood his brother’s intense stare before Lee lifted his chin.

Again, point taken.

There was no more he could do, so Hank opened the door.

“You leaving, Hank?” he heard Indy call from upstairs.

“Yeah, Indy. Got shit to do,” Hank called back.

“Sorry I couldn’t come down,” she yelled.

“Understandable. Another time,” Hank yelled back.

“Later,” she kept at it.

“Later,” Hank replied.

When he was done, he caught Lee smiling.

His smile died when they both heard more retching.

“Seven months, man, and you’re a dad,” Hank pointed out.

That did it.

And what it did was get him another smile.

* * *

Ally

“Babe.”

I snuggled into the pillows.

“Ally.”

I batted around my head like an annoying gnat was there.

The hand warm on my back slid to my hip and gave me a squeeze. “Baby, wake up. It’s nearly noon.”

My eyes fluttered open. I turned my head and saw Ren sitting on the side of the bed wearing jeans and a tee and looming over me.

His eyebrows went up and his tone was teasing when he asked, “Sleep is overrated?”

“Whatever,” I muttered, looking away and snuggling back into the pillows.

I heard his chuckle before, “Honey, your phone is buzzing with texts and Hank called. He’s on his way over.”

Shit.

I rolled from my side to my back and asked, “Why is Hank on his way over?”

“He didn’t say. He called me when he couldn’t get you and just said he was comin’ over.”

Interesting.

“And Eddie brought your stuff,” Ren went on.

Interesting.

Time to check for Firefly DVDs.

Also time to haul my ass out of bed.