The doorbell chimed.

I was unloading a crate in the back storage room when I heard it. Walking up to the front section of the empty store—or what was now my new office—I saw Bren standing there. It wasn’t seeing her that made me pause. It was that she was alone.

No best friend with her, no crew members.

For a moment, it wasn’t her that I was seeing. It was Heather—a flashback to another time when Heather had walked into Manny’s. The place had been empty. She was taking over officially, and her hand had gripped mine. She didn’t know she’d been squeezing it almost to the point of breaking a bone, and I never said a word.

For a split second, Bren and my imagined Heather stood in the exact same position—in front of me, just stepping through the door. Turned sideways, head down, their hair slid over their shoulders.

They both stood as if the weight of the world was on them, but then Bren looked up, and the resemblance was gone.

The memory faded.

“Hey,” I murmured.

“Hey,” she murmured back. She scanned the office, taking in the large main room, the two smaller offices in the back. There was a short hallway that led to a bathroom and the back door. We’d just finished installing another door, which connected Tuesday Tits to this place.

“I thought you were getting this as a place for the crews to hang out.”

I grinned at her. “Yeah, right. Like you guys would chill at a place I own with the rest of the other crews.”

I caught the twitch of her lip. I was right, and she knew it.

Their crew would stick to their own, only mingling with the other crews at parties—parties her big brother wasn’t attending.

“This is the place, then? Where you’re starting that new business?”

This was my second business now. Tuesday Tits was still going full-force ahead. The expanded clientele was bringing new life to it, but we made sure to keep the regulars happy as well.

I nodded. “Yeah. This is it. New Kings Bounties.”

She snorted. “You’re naming it after your crew? Are you kidding yourself about the whole leaving thing?”

I frowned. “No. I did leave.”

At that moment, the door opened and in walked Moose, Congo, Lincoln, and Chad, each carrying a box. They greeted Bren with a nod, then began unpacking.

They didn’t ask where to put things. I gave them no directions.

Chad took his box to the front window and began unloading signs.

Congo and Moose took their boxes to one of the offices in the back.

Lincoln set his box down in the main room and began unloading what would eventually be his desk.

Bren watched all of it and shook her head. “Left the crew, my ass.”

None of the guys responded, but Lincoln was hiding a smile. Which said a lot from him.

She gestured around the place. “So this is what you’re doing? Opening a bounty agency?”

“Pretty much.”

“And let me guess, your co-workers are all your old crew members?”

Lincoln paused, looking up.

Chad looked over.

Congo and Moose came in from the back office. They paused in the doorway.

I nodded. “Yep. I mean, we all have to take the test and get registered, but I have a feeling we’ll pass just fine. We already have our first client.”

“And Heather’s okay with this?”

“Oh yeah.” All the guys were smirking. I was trying hard not to. “She was ecstatic.”

That was an exaggeration, but she was happy.

I was still with my guys, I just wasn’t involved with the crew business.

Bren rolled her eyes, her hands sliding into her jeans pockets. “And the lie that you’re perpetuating, the one where you left your crew—you’re still spreading that?”

The guys started laughing.

My smirk went down a notch “That’s actually true. I’m out. These guys know it. They accept it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hang out with them.” Or work with them in another capacity.

Bren nodded. Slowly. “Right.” She started for the door. Before opening it, she looked back. “And if something happens and you have to return to the crew life?”

My smirk was gone.

I straightened to my fullest height. “If something happens where I have to step in and save my brothers, I will. But it’ll be a quick trip in, and a quicker trip out. I left for Heather. After you, she’s my first priority.”

Bren’s normal stony exterior softened. She blinked a few times. A small grin tugged at her lips before she coughed and the old mask slipped back in place.

“Good,” she said, “because I love her. Not as much as you, but I still do. Don’t fuck it up, brother.”

The reversal of roles wasn’t lost on me. It made me feel all warm and cuddly, not feelings I was used to experiencing with my sister.

I touched two fingers to my forehead, giving her a small salute. “Will do, sister.”

She flicked her eyes up to the ceiling and stalked out, like the momentary showing of emotion was a bad memory for her. Which it might’ve been.

That’s just how Bren was.

Later that night, sitting on Heather’s porch, I told her about Bren’s visit.

“Wait. You didn’t tell me you had a client already,” she said. “Who is it?”

I slid my hand down her arm, moving to her waist, and I picked her up. Manny’s was full, with a line extending out into the parking lot. They’d had to get a pager system to alert people when they could get a table inside. Half the parking lot had people sitting in their vehicles waiting. The other half had a drink from the bar, hanging outside. All the tables in the back section were full.

But as always, Heather enjoyed the chaos. So instead of hanging out at my house, we were at hers, even with all the moving boxes cluttering up the kitchen and living room. She was moving into my place, after selling her half of the house to Brandon. That was the only thing she was allowed to sell, though. No more talk about selling Manny’s. I was biding my time, but it was in the back of my mind to wait and see how the bounty hunting business would do, then approach Heather about franchising Manny’s and setting up another one somewhere else.

We’d see, though. That was all future adventures, future projects. Right now, I was damned content with where we were.

“Hey.”

“What?”

Heather smacked my shoulder. “Who’s your client? Tell me.”

“Oh. You remember that Peter from a while back?”

She paused, frowning. Her eyebrows pinched together. “That slimeball lawyer? His employer’s son was that con guy, right? He take off again?”

I grinned now, because there was nothing not to smile about—finally. “No. The con man is in prison now, but turns out Peter has a few other clients that have people they want found too.”

“I thought you were a bounty-hunting business.”

“Bounty hunting.” I shrugged, tugging her to rest against me. As she did, I lifted my chin over the top of her head. It fit perfectly. “Or just searching for people. I’ll get paid either way. My only requirement is that the person we’re looking for deserves to be found.”

“And if someone tries to use you guys in a bad way?” Heather asked. “What if someone needs to stay lost for whatever reason?”

I smoothed her hair back, kissing her forehead. “Then we turn around and help them instead. No one is getting hurt on my watch.”

That meant her.

That meant Bren.

That meant my guys.

My hand dipped down to her stomach.

That meant the little one inside her.

Ginger Gypsy called Chad and had him share with me that she’d had a dream. She said our little girl who had passed was watching over us, and it struck me now what else she’d said.

She told Chad she’d dreamed of us on our porch. Everything was in place, and Heather was on my lap, my hand resting on her stomach. There was chaos surrounding us, but not where we were. We were peaceful.

I felt goosebumps rise on my arm as Heather fulfilled the last portion of Ginger Gypsy’s dream:

Her hand fell on top of mine, just as Ginger Gypsy had said it would.

And Naly was watching over us.

If I hadn’t known it then, I did now.

Heather, me, our family—we were going to be just fine.