Then the grin faded and he whispered, “Think about it. And call me with a night you can come over.”

“Right,” Walker murmured.

Tate gave him a chin lift and moved to his SUV. Walker moved toward his condo and looked to Jackson’s truck. Laurie gave him a wave through the windshield. He jerked his chin up and stopped close to the condo to watch Tate swing in, switch on the ignition and then he shifted his body to watch them drive away until they were out of sight.

Then he turned around and was moving to the stairs but stopped at the foot of them when he saw the shadowed body of Ella Rodriguez sitting on a step in the middle.

He tipped his head back the inch he needed to catch her eyes.

She started.

“Got good friends.”

“Yep,” he agreed because she was right.

Ella fell silent. Walker didn’t break it but he waited because he knew she had something to say.

Then she spoke again.

“Later, when you got quiet time with her tonight, my girl’s honest, she’ll tell you straight she laid it out for us.”

This was also not surprising.

“Got nothin’ to hide,” he replied but this was only mostly true.

She said nothing just held his eyes.

Finally, she murmured, “’Spect that’s true.”

Then she said no more and didn’t move.

Walker waited.

Then she spoke again and she did it gently and with feeling.

“I’m sorry that was done to you, boy.”

Fuck him, why did that coming from a woman he barely knew feel as good as it felt?

He didn’t ask this.

He lifted his chin and said, “I am too.”

“Got no doubts you’ve felt it. But I’m older than you, as bad as you’ve felt it before this happened to you, I’ve felt it worse. And as bad as I felt it, what I know my parents felt was worse. So I know, the like that’s done to you, it leaves demons.”

She was not wrong about that.

Walker didn’t respond.

“What you don’t know is that you got yourself a girl who’s not afraid of demons, she’ll take them on. You don’t shut her out, lock her down when that time comes when they threaten to overwhelm you, she’ll help you beat them back.”

He responded to that. “I know what I got in Lexie.”

“No,” she said instantly and shook her head, “you might think you know but you have no idea.”

“Ella –”

“My boy had demons,” she whispered and Walker’s body got tight. “He shut her out, locked her down. He told himself he didn’t but he did. Started before he left for Indiana, strugglin’ to keep his nose clean, stay outta trouble, not get sucked into that life. But all he saw was struggle, all he felt was responsibility, all he thought of was makin’ that right, his entire focus was bein’ certain he was in the position to change that, not for him, for us, for Lexie. He had no Daddy. He had no man in his life to teach him how to be strong and he ignored my lessons to do right, so determined to take care of us, no matter how he had to do that and, when he was growin’ up, they were like a swarm of bees buzzin’ around, constant, showin’ him a different path, teachin’ him bad lessons. They went at him hard and they went at him dirty and one night they got to him and Duane stepped in and saw him through. The only thing that boy ever did that was good in his life, I figure. I don’t know all that happened, just know it happened. He saw my Ronnie through and Ronnie never forgot it. But that left him with demons and messed with his head and caught him a debt he repaid by takin’ seven bullets. Instead, he shoulda taken Lexie’s hand and let her lead him to the good life. And I’m tellin’ you this now so you don’t make that same mistake.”

She stopped talking and Walker didn’t reply.

So she kept talking. “What was done to you was no good, the worst, see you with her, see you reachin’ for happy. But no matter how strong a man is, you take a hit like that, it’s hard to bounce back. You’ll hit a wall and struggle to get through. You’re a strong man and your first thought won’t be to take a woman’s hand. But I’m older than you. I watched a lot of boys fail ‘cause they made that same decision, thinkin’ wrongly that that decision is weak. Be stronger than that and know when to take your woman’s hand so she can help you break through.”

Again she stopped speaking and again Walker didn’t reply.

She didn’t start again.

So Walker drew a line under it. “’Preciate the wisdom, Ella.”

She looked at him through the growing darkness. “Hope you take it to heart, Ty.”

He again lifted his chin.

She stood, turned and slowly walked up the steps, timing it perfectly, she was close to the top before she stopped, looked down at him and dealt the killer blow.

“You don’t take it to heart, love she feels for you, the kind of love she was smart enough not to give my boy, you’ll break her. That’s my girl and I know. I see it the way she looks at you, talks about you, you don’t grasp hold and let her give as good as she gets, you’ll destroy her. So when I say I hope you take it to heart, Ty, I really do.”

Then Ella Rodriguez walked up the last two steps, turned and disappeared.

And for a long time Ty Walker couldn’t move because that thing piercing his chest twisted viciously.

When he got it under control he walked up his steps toward a houseful of women.

Chapter Twelve

Where She Parks Her Charger

Ty

“I’m tellin’ you, brother, it’s hot.”

Walker was standing in the locker room of his gym, side to the door so he could see if someone came in. Dewey was hidden by the lockers. At the best of times, he wouldn’t be seen with Dewey, they were tight, or as tight as anyone could be with Dewey, but the kind of stink Dewey produced had a tendency to make anyone reek. But considering they were both ex-cons, he definitely shouldn’t be seen with Dewey.

But he had to meet Dewey and Dewey had just two minutes ago shoved himself through the window so he was with Dewey even though, at this moment, he did not want to be because two seconds after he shoved himself through the window, he’d launched into his bullshit excuses.

“Haven’t heard from you in weeks, Dew, no return texts, no return calls and now your cell says disconnected. Don’t like that shit. Don’t like finally hearin’ from you only for you to spout shit. And don’t like givin’ you twenty-five K for six weeks of nothin’,” Walker told him.