I juggled Moxie as I unlocked the back door, and Tonks ran in yodeling her greeting to Abigail, while I followed her and Hutch followed me.
I made it to the mouth of the hall that led to the store when I found my upper arms seized by Abigail.
She held tight, examining my face.
I dropped Moxie and she scampered.
“Like I told you on the phone yesterday, I’m fine,” I said quietly.
She yanked me to her and held tight, pushing out, “God.”
Word was spreading, no surprise, and as such, Abigail had called yesterday to ask if I was okay, even not knowing (as Sean told me no one would know) I was the one who instigated the raid on The Lion and The Lamb compound.
Once I told her, she lost her shit.There was a lot of me soothing her and then, when she informed Brett of what was going on while she was on the line with me, I’d had to hand the phone over to Hutch, so there was a lot of Hutch soothing Brett (dude style).
Evidently, I hadn’t soothed her as well as I thought.
I gave her a squeeze and said, “Let’s get out of Hutch’s way.”
She let me go but took my hand and guided me into my own store, looking over her shoulder at Hutch.“How you doing, Hutch?”
“All good,” he grunted (he’d been grunting a lot since it all went down).His gaze came to me.“Counter, babe?”(Yes, that was another grunt.)
“Yes, please.”
He took the box to the counter and dropped it.
Then he came to me, got toe to toe, tipped his chin, and he ordered, “Shop.Or town.”
I knew what this meant because I’d already received my briefing.
Unless he was at my side, I wasn’t to leave my shop, or the town (however, if I went somewhere in town, he wanted me to text him where I was going to be), even though I didn’t know what he thought I’d do, considering I didn’t have my truck.
Hotwire a car and go on a joy ride?
Since he was tweaking, I just nodded.
He kissed my forehead, dipped his chin to Abigail and stalked out.
Abigail and I turned to watch him go.
When the door slammed, and after we heard him testing it was locked, we turned to each other.
“Let me guess,” she began.“Mr.Alpha had his turf threatened, and he’s pissed.”
Abso-freaking-lutely.
“He’s a mess,” I shared.“He’s more of a mess than I am.I think he’s said two words since we got back from the police station Sunday morning that weren’t grunts.”
She linked her arm in mine and led us to the counter, humming, “Mm-hmm.”
When we got to the counter, I stowed my bag, scarf and jacket, and she started rummaging through the box.
I went to the tablet to get to the inventory list so I could log them in, and I did this talking.
And since I could multitask, freaking.
“I’ve all but moved in with him, Abigail.”
