Wild and Free (The Three #3)(38)

At this, Abel tensed, feeling Delilah tense beside him, but the man stopped soon enough and let him go.

He looked to his daughter. “Trust you to find a warrior this good-lookin’. Fuck me, little girl, not a man I clapped eyes on in my life was a match for you, ’cept this motherf*cker,” he stated, jerking a thumb at Abel.

Delilah giggled and moved into Abel again, saying through her laughter, “Totally.”

He let her wrap her arms around him and he returned the favor with one around her shoulders as her father turned his attention back to Abel.

“Hook,” he declared. “Hooker Johnson. My parents named me David, but that’s a stupid-ass name and if anyone ever called me that, I’d rip their throat out. So it’s Hook.”

“Hook,” Abel replied, and Delilah forged in.

“Have you met Jian-Li and the guys?” she asked.

Hooker shifted and turned his gaze to Abel’s family.

“We met this lovely lady. Hadn’t gotten around to her boys.”

“Right,” Delilah replied. “That’s Xun, Wei, and Chen. They’re awesome, Dad.”

“Yo,” Hooker called.

“Yo,” Xun said, and Abel looked to him to see his mouth twitching.

“Hey,” Wei said, his eyes moving from Hooker to Abel and Delilah. He took in their positions, knew immediately what their comfortable closeness meant, and grinned a knowing grin at his brother, his eyebrows waggling, his lips mouthing, “Right on.”

“Cool you’re here,” Chen said.

“And guys, this is my dad, Hook, and his boys, Poncho, Snake, Moose, and Jabber.”

Abel looked at the men behind Hook and he didn’t need to be informed which was which.

There was one who definitely had Hispanic in him and he was actually wearing a fringed, suede poncho, so he had to be Poncho.

Another was long and lean to the point of being coiled, thus the man had to be Snake.

Another had a mammoth gut, broad but sloped shoulders, was almost as tall as Abel, with shaggy brown-gray hair—in other words, Moose.

And the last was short, skinny, wiry, his eyes shifty and alert—clearly Jabber.

“I hope you gentlemen are hungry,” Jian-Li said at this point.

“Fuckin’ starved,” Hook replied, then lifted his hand in an apologetic gesture and grinned. “’Scuse my French.”

Jian-Li smiled and replied, “Don’t mention it, I’ve raised all boys.” This got an approving smile from Hook, but when Abel looked to his brothers, the older two were rolling their eyes and Chen was grinning at his feet. This because the only one of them she let get away with cursing (sometimes) was Abel. “Now, let’s start with drinks,” Jian-Li went on. “What can we get you?”

“Beer,” Hook said.

“All around,” Moose grunted from behind.

“Any preference?” Jian-Li asked.

“Knock us out,” Hook stated. “You got something exciting that’ll trip our triggers, we’ll drink it. Just as long as it’s wet and cold. Got a long length of road down my throat and that always tastes good, but it’s time to wash it away.”

“This we can do,” Jian-Li murmured through grinning lips.

Her grin became a smile when she turned, her eyes lighting on Abel and Delilah before she bustled out.

Wei followed her.

Xun motioned to a big table in the middle of the room that was set for serving. The rest of the tables were minimally set in preparation for business when they opened again.

After Delilah gave hugs to all her father’s men (something Abel didn’t like very much, but he had no choice but to allow), everyone took their seats, Delilah next to him, her father across from them. Beers were brought in. Jian-Li’s food was brought in. And conversation was free-flowing, not even close to stilted or awkward, which gave Abel a sense of why his mate so easily fitted into his family’s fold.

These people did not judge. These people did not hold themselves back and wait for someone to earn their sociability. These people were who they were. You took them as they came, and if you didn’t, they didn’t give a f*ck. If you did, they let you in right off the bat.

This didn’t mean that if trust was broken or wrongs were done, that shit couldn’t turn in a flash in a way that would be messy. It was just that they offered themselves up without any walls to tear down to get in there. If you built the wall, that was your issue.

They lived their lives free.

They were also big eaters.

The platters of food and bowls of rice were nearly decimated before Hooker turned his eyes to his daughter and stated, “Right. Good beer, great food, excellent company. Hate to do it, but”—his gaze shifted to Abel—“we gotta get down to business.”

Everyone came alert, including Hooker’s boys, all their attention shifting to Abel.

But it was Delilah who spoke and Abel was surprised at how honestly she did it. She didn’t hold back, even when she spoke of being attacked, and this was surprising because her father and all his men became visibly restless as she described the incident.

She also told them about Abel being the one she was searching for, including the unknown-to-him-at-that-point knowledge that she’d somehow felt his presence in Serpentine Bay the moment he’d moved there, this being why she came there on her vacation.