Devan nudged me with his elbow. “Let’s go. I want to catch the girl before she leaves. We need to talk to her.”

I nodded, giving my lawyer a quick thank you as I left. I stopped and signed a few autographs, but finally we made it out into the sweltering Tucson heat. Jesus, I wanted to go home already, but not before we got what we came for.

Devan wanted to buy Huey. I knew that. And I’d pay anything for him. But one look at Nova Stone told me that wasn’t going to be an option. She looked shit scared but determined, and I knew that kind of expression. She was a do-what's-right kind of person. She wouldn’t sell a baby for any amount of money.

So that was what we had to appeal to, but we had to do it stealthily. I wasn’t known for my even-temperedness, though. I was an enforcer for the team, though I was fast and good at defense too. Gone were the days you could just be an enforcer, skating around and starting fights. So I worked hard and protected my team if they needed it.

Devan, though, was as smooth as he was dark. Rigby often joked that Devan didn’t have an emotional wall around him. He had an abyss. If you stepped into it, you either sank or managed to drift across to find that soft heart he kept hidden away. Most people never made it that far.

He was a product of his upbringing, but we all were. Me with the fighting, Devan with the emotional unavailability, and Alana with her daddy issues that had gotten her knocked up by a man whose daughter was only two years younger than her.

We waited in the parking lot, and eventually, Nova Stone arrived. Her feet stilled as she saw us all, waiting around my Range Rover. I tried to put myself in her shoes as fear crossed her face. Maybe we should’ve waited for her in the courthouse, not out here in the parking lot like we were going to jump her.

The long silence probably didn’t help as my brain scrambled around, trying to decide what to say.

As always, it was Rigby to the rescue.

“Miss Stone? My name is Rigby Engman. We just wanted to formally meet you, if we could. River you’ve met, of course, and this is his brother, Devan Mayson. We’re in town for another day, and we’d really like to set up a meeting with you, just to discuss Huey.” He gave her a soft smile—the disarming one that attracted women to him like flies to honey—before glaring at me over his shoulder. I curled my lips into something I hoped was a pleasant expression.

“If we could, Miss Stone,” I grunted out, so she didn’t think I was mute. Devan didn't even try.