I had that with Cross, and I hoped to always have that, but I felt my mom around me at that moment. I missed my mom right then, something fierce.

Bonnie asked my name, asked my last name, and when they told me they were bounty hunters, I mentioned I knew a few. The conversation happened at light speed after that. I left work that night thinking I needed to find another job. It was a good job, but it just wasn’t me, and when I opened my phone, Channing had left a text. Gramps and Bonnie had gotten in touch after they were released from the ER, and he said they had a job offer for me.

Hence me being here.

“So, you’re technically an intern.”

Well, fuck. I needed to get paid.

Hawk’s mouth curved up. She held a hand up. “But don’t worry. That’s only the name of your position, but it is paid, and you’ll transition into an office assistant almost right away.” She had a pile of papers in her hand and her eyes narrowed, tracking my every emotion. Or would’ve if I had been showing any. I knew I wasn’t. I’d been professionally locked down since my mother died.

So, I waited.

See…I get that I wasn’t being normal.

I’m young. I’m new to this world, and this town, and I was still just starting out on the exploratory trek of finding what the hell I wanted to do in the world, but the usual roles that I should be portraying, the ones that spoke of my background and upbringing, I wasn’t. I wasn’t new, or innocent, or eager. I wasn’t ambitious. I wasn’t hopeful.

I was jaded.

I was tired.

Give me a fight to break up and I’d wade in without a second thought; that was the world I was comfortable in. If she was hoping to get a new recruit, someone ready to ask how high when told to jump—I needed to make sure she was disappointed from the very start. That was me. That was who I was. Doing my thing.

“You don’t say much.”

I cracked a grin at that. “My brother’s the charming one.”

She leaned back in her chair slowly. The papers were pushed back, and she moved her chair to face me more fully. The way she was looking at me, I had a feeling she was about to lay some ground-moving shit out there. Or it would be in her opinion.

I wasn’t holding my breath for it.

She raised her chin up, just slightly. “Can you type?”

“Graduated school.”

She didn’t miss a beat. “Can you keep shit quiet?”

“Only telling you my name because I have to.”