Page 66 of Her Righteous Protector

Hannah’s hand tightened on his.

“What is it?” she asked.

When Zed stopped his vehicle in front of his house, Max saw the new cedar fence that now stretched out on either side of his house. He would bet a hell of a lot of money that it enclosed his entire backyard.

“Somebody better have kept receipts,” he snarled.

“Don’t worry,” Zed gave a long-suffering sigh. “Asher insisted that Kane start a spreadsheet along with all of the receipts scanned in for you to look at.”

“Are we here?” Zephyr asked as his head lifted. He looked first at Hannah and then at Max.

Hannah was grinning—of course she had figured out what was going on. She was always quick on the uptake.

“Yes, Honey, we’re here,” Hannah said.

Zephyr worked the straps off the car seat and started to wiggle out. “Do I get to see my bedroom? How close are we to the beach? Do I get to meet Mikey? When are Grandma Julie and Grandpa Chuck going to visit? Are all your friends as big as Mr. Zed?”

Max picked Zephyr up out of the seat and walked around to the other side of the SUV to open Hannah’s door, but she already had it open. He grabbed her hand. “Let’s go see what other damage they’ve done,” he grumped.

Hannah peeked over at Zed. “So you guys have been busy, huh?”

Zed walked in front of them and used a set of keys to open the front door. “We got bored,” he shrugged. “Well, Cullen did, but he has ADHD. We’d really been hoping when he married a doctor she’d prescribe something for him, but no such luck.”

Zed stepped back, allowing Hannah to walk into the house first. “Max, it’s gorgeous.”

Gorgeous? Fuck, what had they done?

He peered over her head.

Holy hell, they knocked out a wall!

It was now open between the tiny kitchen and living room, and those damned bastards had installed French doors out to the backyard. They’d painted all the walls cream with light blue trim. Which of their women had helped with that? Hell, the whole place was open and filled with light!

“Ohhhh, there is a bouquet of flowers, did you do that?” Hannah sighed as she went over to the dining room table and pulled out the card.

It was a big card. He watched her read it.

“There are a lot of names.”

Zephyr wiggled out of his arms. “Where’s my room?” he demanded to know.

“Uhmmmm,” Max started.

“Go look, I’ll bet you’ll figure it out,” Zed said with a grin.

Max stared at his friend. “You guys are too much,” he said as Hannah looked at the card. As he suspected it contained all the members of his team and their women.

“How am I going to memorize all of them?” Hannah fretted.

Then she looked around the room. “We’re going to have to invite them all over.”

Zed put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Hannah, don’t worry about it, truly. None of us ever entertain at our house. Kane’s a rich son of a bitch, and he has the show house to prove it. We invite ourselves over there and force him to buy food and barbeque. We’re already planning a welcome home party after you get settled.”

“Hannah! Dad! I have a racecar bed! Come look! And a Chicago Bears poster! And a picture of the ocean! Dad, is that a picture of you?” Zephyr shouted as he ran back out to the living room and grabbed at Max’s arm.

“You have to come look at my room, Dad. You’ve got to.”

Max laughed. “Hold on a second, I’ll be right there.”