Page 102 of Dangle

“Yes, I am.”

I wandered up onto the wide back porch of Hayden, Declan, and Marcie’s house. Hayden sat in an outdoor armchair, a baby cuddled against his broad chest. “Trey, this is my buddyHayden. We served together. He’s married to Asher and Bauer’s cousin, Declan, and Gavin’s best friend, Marcie.”

Trey waved, “Hi. Cute kid.”

Hayden nodded. “Yep. He sure is. Looks like his mother. So, you’re the hockey player who turned this morose motherfucker into a grinning idiot. Good work.”

Trey’s brow pinched. “Morose?” he asked, looking up at me.

“Ignore him.” Looking at Hayden, I asked, “They inside?”

He nodded in response, his gaze locked on the baby in his arms.

I turned and opened the screen door, holding it open for Trey. He stepped inside the kitchen and stopped dead. “Holy fuck!”

“Fuh, fuh, fuh!” a baby mimicked from the floor.

“I give up,” Katie swore.

Trey turned around, and his eyes widened. “Daddy, that’s Katie Carter.”

“Holt, dammit. Her name is Katie Holt!”

“Surprise, baby boy.”

While Trey sat in awe of Katie, getting to know her while also trying to hide just how flabbergasted he was, Jackson pulled me out of the room. He led me down the hall, opening the door to an office where a petite woman with long, straight hair so blonde it was nearly white sat behind a very large desk.

Jackson said, “Slone…this is Charlie?—”

“Charlotte Hamilton Richmond. Not Charlie. Charlotte,” she said as she rounded the desk. “I hear you have some information for me about the team.”

“I do.”

Hours later,the…compound…was the only descriptor I could come up with. I mean, what else do you call a walled, gated, security-staffed private property with houses for, like, ten couples? I understood why it existed after everything Katie and Jackson had gone through, and I’d heard enough stories from Priest, Cam, and Hayden over the years, but actually seeing it in practice was a little weird. The place had settled into an easy quiet, babies down for naps while their parents took advantage of the rare opportunity to do the same.

Trey and I were back in bed, in our usual position—me on my back, him draped over me like a clinging vine, having followed our hosts’ cues. The conversation with Charlotte weighed on my mind. I should probably tell Trey about my meddling.

“I know what you did.”

His words startled me, everything going still, including me.

“What are you talking about?”

He lifted onto his elbow, his head dropping into his hand. “Daddy, thank you.”

“For?” I asked.

“For telling Charlotte and Morgan Richmond about what my dad was doing?”

“What…” I sighed. I refused to lie to the boy. I loved him too much for that. “How did you find out?”

He chuckled under his breath. “She pulled me aside while you were off with Hayden and his husband doing whatever you were doing.”

I shook my head. “I won’t apologize.” I probably should, but I would never apologize for taking care of him.

“I don’t want you to. I love that you seem to know what I need and how much I can handle. And when it’s too much, you step in. Or when I’m being hurt or threatened, you put yourself between me and the world. I also know that you’d let me handle it myself if I wanted to. That you’d step back.”

“That’s my job as your Dom and as your partner. To step up when you need me to and step back and support you in the things you want to handle.”