“Sure, girl, if that’s what you need,” Lottie gently replied.

“I gotta go,” Pepper suddenly announced.

“Hey,” I called as she started to take off, not liking her leaving in that state.

“I can’t, Hatz, okay?” she asked. She looked to Ryn. “I’m sorry I lost it.”

“I’m sorry I pushed,” Ryn replied.

“Right. Cool. Now I gotta go. Later,” she finished.

And then she went.

We all watched.

When she disappeared out the front door into the sun, Ryn murmured, “Okay, well, shit on a stick. That didn’t go too good.”

I said nothing.

Lottie said nothing.

Since it was weird Lottie said nothing, I looked to Lottie.

She was gazing across the room.

So I turned my attention there.

And Dorian was standing a couple steps into the club from the stairs to the office.

He had his hands on his hips and his eyes on the front door.

Seemed Ian witnessed that, and although he couldn’t hear our conversation, he couldn’t miss Pepper screaming at us.

His face was inscrutable as he continued to look at the door before he dropped his hands, turned and moved back up the stairs.

“Okay, well, one, she wants Auggie bad, she won’t let herself have him, and all her closest babes are loved up and it’s tearing her apart,” Lottie declared.

I started staring at her because I didn’t get that from Pepper at all.

What I got was, she was protecting her daughter, and her heart, and Auggie was not a possibility because I got her.

These guys were these guys and you had to be in the position to let them be who they were.

They did the same, of course.

But I could totally see Pepper needing more from Auggie than he might be comfortable giving, this so she could trust him, when it wasn’t Auggie that broke her trust, but he’d be the one who’d have to build it again (if that was even possible).

And just how much it would hurt to find out he wasn’t comfortable giving that, and as such, not going there at all.

For her.

And for Juno.

“Totes,” Ryn replied to Lottie.

Hunh?

Lottie again said nothing.

So I asked, “What’s two?”

She turned her attention to me. “There is no two. There’s just that one. You can lead a horse to water and all that. Now, we back off. I gotta talk to Ian real quick. See you tonight.”

And then she was off, walking with a purpose toward the stairs.

Ryn came to stand at my side so we could both watch her go.

When we couldn’t see her anymore, Ryn said, “She totally has a plan.”

She totally did and that concerned me.

Because not only was she Lottie, and one of her plans meant I was sleeping beside Axl every night, but also because she was headed to Dorian.