“You’ve known I was going to leave for a long time,” he replied softly, because he did understand the last month had been hard on Taggart. The man hated change and he’d had a ton of it. “I let you know I was buying my family business back last year.”

“I didn’t realize you were going to spark a revolution,” Tag shot back. “Look at what’s happened. Declan gone. He’s run off after some chick who can cook, and I think she put some crazy ideas in his head. Sadie’s traded us in for some group of misfits at Fort Hood. Just good-bye, Uncle Ian. Gotta go break up some criminals, run from a crazy stalker, and find true love. Riley quit via text because he can’t leave his lady love in LA. I built this division from scratch over years, finding the absolute best and brightest.”

“You call us the full douche when we’re all together,” Remy pointed out.

Taggart waved that off. “An affectionate term. I built this all up and it fell apart over the course of a month. Of course I want to know what happened. I’m left with Shane, who smiles too much now. Does he honestly think smiling is going to stop a bullet? I get it. He’s getting laid regularly by his very own smarty pants, but the happy thing is getting to me. And on the other end of the spectrum there’s Wade. He got left out of the grand exit. He spent too much time with that country-western singer. He acts like he’s in one of those songs. You know the ones I’m talking about. Someone cheats and drinks and someone’s dog dies. What I’m saying is, Wade mopes. A lot. Now, personally I think moping will play way better on the bullet front, but it’s annoying. This was a great team. I fed you all. I watered you. What did I do wrong?”

Oh, he was going to miss that jerk. He found himself smiling because apparently the team’s happiness and joy was cause for Big Tag’s fit. “You want to know the true story, Tag? At least my story. Like I said, you’ll have to ask the others.”

“At least let me understand one of you.”

He leaned forward. “I’m going to warn you, it’s got some parts you might not like. There’s kissing in this story. And I do a small amount of groveling.”