Dream Chaser (Dream Team, #2)(63)

Evie was there now as well. They were all drinking iced tea, or a tea with the words “Long Island” in front of it, and Pepper was on her feet, bent toward Hattie, brushing something on Hattie’s lips saying, “I swear to God, it plumps them. Like you got injections. It’s insane.”

They were fucking around with makeup.

A man shot dead not fifty feet from there, and they were fucking around with makeup.

He had to admit, that said more about all of them than any recommendation from Lottie that they were the shit and her boys had to get in there.

Ryn turned to him when he showed through the door and immediately shot him a huge-ass smile.

Christ, she was pretty.

Never prettier than when she was smiling…or laughing. And he’d now seen her come, so that was something.

So the last thing he wanted to do was wipe that smile off her face.

She jumped up and made her way to him, calling, “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said when she got to him.

She put her hand to his abs and tipped her head back.

He didn’t miss her invitation, or the opportunity to accept it.

He bent and touched his mouth to hers.

When he lifted away, he muttered, “Can we talk in your room for a sec?”

That was a thing he got from his father.

Porter Sadler was not a man to give over to negative emotion about anything.

But one thing Porter openly hated was procrastination.

It had been drilled into Boone from a young age that you got shit done. And if some of that shit was more uncomfortable, onerous or annoying than other shit, you did that first.

Regardless, it was getting late and Ryn would be thinking about dinner and getting to work soon, and since she had no work to get to, she needed to know.

Her gaze was moving all over his face, and when she finished doing that, she nodded.

He took her hand and led the way to her bedroom, hearing Pepper whisper, “What’s going on?”

“Later,” Lottie said.

It was impossible for Ryn not to hear them, but that wasn’t the only reason, after he got her in her room, she instantly asked, “What’s going on?”

He moved to her, put his hands on her hips, and pulled her closer.

She took his hint and lifted her hands to put them on his shoulders, but other than that, she kept distant.

She’d moved on.

It was a little crazy, and a lot strong, that she’d had the day she’d had, from start to murdered man on her back deck, and she was with her girls, drinking tea and experimenting with makeup.

He had a feeling Kathryn Jansen had been forced to just move on from a lot in her life.

But shit was about to get extreme.

And he felt a jolt of pure fury race through him that she was going to have to suffer yet another blow.

With no small effort, he shook that off and decided to do this quickly so they could get to the part where she moved on.

But this time, he’d be there to help.

“Right. Cisco shared there’s been a campaign to try to force him to come forward and take a rap for a killing he didn’t commit. They’re focusing on women in his life that mean something to him. First, they targeted his sister. A stalker. So bad, she quit her job and moved to Alaska. You know about Corinne. And now it’s you. They’re using ex-cons to do this work, we don’t know how, we can guess why. And the guy they sent after you was a sex offender.”

She sucked in breath.

Boone quickly kept talking.

“So there’s a reason behind the extremity of Cisco’s reaction to someone trying to break into your house. I still don’t condone it and wish you didn’t have to live through it. But it’s arguably a valid reason. He might not have known what that guy was intent to do, but he knew the ante was being upped.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

“As I said, these guys are only targeting women in Cisco’s life. No clue why, but I figure we don’t need more evidence they’re assholes,” Boone went on.

“No,” she whispered.

She was freaked, not hiding it.

Goddamn it.

He squeezed in at her hips.

“We’re on it, baby,” he assured her. “Hawk, the guys. Eddie and Hank. Slim and Mitch. Malik. Chaos is in. Sebring will keep his ear to the ground if he doesn’t wade in full throttle. This won’t last long, and I’ll do a damn sight better looking after you from here on out.”

She shook her head and squeezed in at his shoulders, saying, “It’s not on you, Boone.”

“It isn’t but it is.” He shifted closer and explained, “We’re new, but you’re still mine. Mine to eat onion rings with, mine to fuck on the bathroom sink and mine to protect.”

Either she knew Doms enough to know she didn’t speak against that, or she knew guys like him enough, because she didn’t reply.

“Talked to Smithie. There was a discussion with him, me and Dorian. Smithie decided you’re on a hiatus until all this blows over,” he finished.

Though, he was going to say more, but her change in expression made him stop speaking.

“You talked to Smithie?”

“He needed to know,” Boone pointed out the obvious.

She pulled away from his hands and asked again, but added more words this time, and on the last words, jerking a thumb at herself, “You talked to Smithie? My boss?”