Vaporized.
She didn’t hold his hand or press up against him and givehis neck a kiss or anything like that.
But she stayed close, bumped him with a hip if she was beingfunny or feeling saucy (something that happened often), grabbed onto his bicepsto get his attention or hooked a beltloop and tugged to change his direction.
All this meant Mo was in agony.
And that agony wasn’t just about all of that.
Lottie had thrown right down with Tammy, no hesitation, andthis wasbeforeshe knew who Tammy was and what she’d done.
There was no way to deny it.
That felt good.
But it was even worse.
It was clear Lottie had claimed her man.
The end.
And he was that man.
Mo couldn’t think on this, mostly how it made him feel.
All of it.
Fortunately, she was talking so much, his mind didn’t havethe opportunity to go there.
The FBI had come back with a negatory on the language, orany religious radicals in the area they were keeping an eye on that fit thisguy’s description.
This meant they had zero leads on whoever this man was whowanted to harm her, and they’d all made the decision that the second letter,received yesterday, Lottie would not know about because she was already alertand not doing anything stupid.
But mostly they agreed on that because the degree ofdisturbing in the latest letter had ratcheted up about fifteen notches.
Smithie had called the ball on that one, not telling Lottieabout it and not taking it to the police, or the FBI.The last two would, afterthe second letter, want very badly to get involved.
This was because Smithie wanted the threat eradicated, nodicking around, and although Mo agreed with Smithie (to a point), Hawk did not.
The guy was gearing up to make a move, building hisconfidence, getting his shit tight, getting off on the increasing extreme ofhis letters and the fact he hadn’t been caught yet to take him to the placewhere he could act out his twisted fantasies.
They all knew it.
Smithie wanted it handled.
Hawk wanted this guy on FBI radar.
Mo just wanted Lottie safe.
But Lottie didn’t need to know all of this was going on.
And Mo did not need Lottie being evenmoreof allthat was good about Lottie when this guy was on the loose, fixed on her, andworking himself up, her being more of all she was only serving the purpose ofmaking Mo want her more.
But for the life of him, he could no longer handle the angerand hurt that had poured his way from her the last three days.
So when Tammy opened it up, and Lottie rushed right through,Mo seized on it and he did not have it in him to shut it down, being a dickheadabout it, or otherwise.
It would probably bite him in the ass.
