My phone rang in my bag, and automatically, I reached in and found it.

I pulled it out and it was a number I didn’t know.

I was so in my head, against all the laws of dealing with robocalls, I answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hattie Yates?”

“Yes.”

“Hattie Yates.”

“Yes.”

“Nice voice.”

“What?”

“Nice voice. Nice tits. Nice hair. Great ass. Tie you down. Tie you down tight. Whip that ass. Whip you until—”

I took the phone from my ear, disconnected the call and blocked the caller.

I did all of this remembering after what went down with Axl how to breathe.

And I was doing that rapidly.

Staring at my phone.

“Okay, okay, okay…” I whispered, deep in the trenches of flashback city.

Not my own flashback.

One that was about what had started all of this. Months ago. When Lottie got that creepy guy sending her even creepier letters which was why Smithie arranged a bodyguard.

That bodyguard was Mo.

Not long after, Lottie was living with Mo and fixing all her girls up with Mo’s boys.

And now I had a call from a number I didn’t know, someone who probably saw me dance, someone who’d found out my name, my number and was calling me telling me he was going to tie me down and whip me.

I should tell Mo, Mag, Boone…Axl.

I should call them and tell them what just happened.

But I’d blown it.

And it was just a creepy phone call.

Nothing to get excited about, right?

Though, they’d never shared in full, but when they found out who was sending Lottie sinister threatening letters and put him out of commission, the vibe with Smithie was super off for a while.

It wasn’t just a crackpot.

It was worse.

And then there was the thing with Evie and her brother, the result of which got all of us (save Lottie) kidnapped.

Which carried on to Ryn having her thing, and a guy was shot dead on her back deck and a friend of hers was murdered.

So, I mean, it seemed like if shit could happen, it would.

And he knew my name.

My number.

Probably, if he was talking about my ass, where I worked.

And he could follow me from there to where I lived.

I shouldn’t take any chances.

I reengaged my phone.

Went to Contacts.

And scrolled.

I hit the button to make the call and put the phone to my ear.

“Hey, beautiful,” he answered.

“Brett, um…I think I need you,” I replied.

Chapter Three

Don’t Give Up

Axl

He knew something was up the minute he walked into the offices the next morning after he laid into Hattie.

All his buds, Mo, Mag, Boone and Auggie, were in a huddle at Auggie’s workstation two rows up in the large theater-style main space that made up Hawk’s operations base.