An hour later and they were downstairs in the nursery.  Rowena was told to take a break so they could spend time alone with their son, and she gladly did just that.  He was still asleep, resting peacefully, and Hammer was seated in a chair holding him.  With her stilettos off, Amelia was down on her knees, between Hammer’s legs, rubbing JoJo’s back.  Her head, with her long, thick hair, was resting against Hammer’s arm, as they watched their baby sleep.

But Hammer was also watching Amelia.  Despite the fact that she was endangering her life with that shit she was in, and it angered him still that she refused to get out, she was a wonderful mother to his son.  She loved him and Hammer trusted Amelia above anybody else to protect him.  She had skills most of his men didn’t possess.  If he was in a fight for his life, there were four people he would feel had the skills to assist him: Amelia; his kid brother Trevor Reese; a man he respected, Mick Sinatra; and Ozzie Jones.  Although his brother Trevor would top his list - nobody had skills, he felt, like that man, Amelia would be a close second.  Not because their skills were above Mick the Tick’s.  Mick Sinatra was the baddest man Hammer had ever known.  But because he believed Amelia, Trevor Reese, and Ozzie Jones cared deeply about him, and would give it all they had.

“Hammer?” she asked, without looking away from JoJo.

He continued to stare at her.  “Yes?”

“What do you know about Leo Tamberelli?”  She asked this and looked at Hammer, as if she needed to observe his reaction.

And he had a definite reaction.  He frowned.  “Why are you asking me about him?” he asked.

She hesitated, but she had to tell him.  She was going to need him in this fight.  Even she wasn’t too proud to admit that.  “He’s the one who took a big chunk of my territory,” she said.

Hammer’s look changed from concern to alarm.  Amelia could see it in his eyes.  “Leo T took your territory?”

“Yeah.  That’s what I’ve been told.”

“What territory is that, Amelia?  Drug territory?”

She didn’t want to respond to that.  Hammer already knew, and she knew he did.  “Yes,” she said.

At least she didn’t lie to him, he thought.  But Leo T?  How could she have gotten herself mixed up with that killer?  Damn!  He exhaled.  “What do you want to know about him?”

“How do I get to him?  I have connections, but not that high.  Unless I pull you and my brother into this, which I don’t want to have to do.”

“Well you have no choice in the matter now, Amelia.”  Hammer had anger in his voice.  “You play with dogs, you get fleas.  That’s why I wanted you out of that drug shit.  Now the fleas are from one of the biggest drug dogs out there.  You have no choice.”

“I just need to know how I can penetrate his defenses.  That’s all I need.  I’ll take it from there.”

Hammer stared at her.

He knew she was blowing smoke.   And he wasn’t going along with it.  So she cut the crap.  “I need your help,” she said.  “I can’t fight a man like Leo Tamberelli alone.  He’s almost as big as my brother in the underworld, and with almost as much reach.  Will you help me?”

“You just said it yourself.  He’s almost as big as your brother.  Why don’t you go to Mick?  He can take Tamberelli out.”

“No thanks,” Amelia responded.  “Thanks to your decision to call Mick in the first place, he almost took me out.”

This concerned Hammer.  “He came to see you?”

Amelia nodded.  “Him and Big Daddy.  That’s what everybody calls my oldest brother.  They both showed up at my house last night.”

“And you and Mick got into it?”

“Little bit, yeah.  That’s why I want to do this without him.  If I can,” she said, and looked at Hammer.

But Hammer was offended.  “You know your brother hate what you’re doing, but what you figure?  I don’t?  That I don’t want to get your ass out of it too?  You don’t think I hate what you’re doing as much, if not more, than Sinatra does?”

“No.  That’s not what I mean at all.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“You get me.”  She said this with deep feeling.  “Better than Mick or even Charles, you understand where I’m coming from.  To them all I have to do is quit the business and go into business with them.  Mick has offered me a position in the past, and so has Big Daddy.  But you know I can’t do that.  You know I have to do my own thing.  And the only thing I know how to do, and do well, ain’t exactly legal or moral or any of that shit.  But you know I can’t change who I am.  And I won’t change who I am just because other people are uncomfortable.”

“Yes, Amelia, I understand where you’re coming from,” Hammer responded.  “That’s the only reason why I haven’t shut it down before.  But after what you just told me; after who you’ve gotten yourself entangled with, I may have no choice but to shut it down now.”

Amelia looked alarmed.  “But I told you I’m handling that.  Yeah, I need your help with Leo T, but I got the rest.  Why are you even thinking about shutting me down?”

“Why?”  He couldn’t believe she asked him that.  “Why do you think?  Danger, Amelia, that’s why! Danger!  You allowed the wrong dog into your gate.  I’ve got to get him out of there.  And you’re going to do everything I tell you to do to make sure he leaves.  I let you run it; I let you do your thing just like you said, and look where it got you?  I’m running this shit from here on out.”

“And what about me?  What about my business?  What am I supposed to do, Hammer?”

“You’re supposed to stop selling that shit to kids and devastating families, that’s what you’re supposed to do.  And you’re going to come work for me.”

But Amelia was already shaking her head.  He was singing that same song Mick and Big Daddy were singing.  She could see him taking over her life if she went down that road.  She wasn’t going back down that road.  “No,” she said.  “I work for myself.”

“Then find yourself something else to work for.”

Knocks were heard once, and then Watson opened the nursery door.  “Miss Dell has arrived, sir,” he said.

Hammer exhaled.  Here we go.  “Put her in the parlor, Watson.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ll be there shortly.”

“Yes, sir,” Watson said, and then stepped back out and closed the door behind him.

Hammer looked at Amelia.  He could see the sudden look of concern in her eyes.  “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready for this.”

“Ready for what?”

“Her.  Reggie Dell.  I don’t know if I can deal with that right now.”

“Don’t you think I’m the one who needs to deal with it?”

Amelia nodded.  “Yes.”

“Then that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

But then he just sat there, staring at her.  “What?” Amelia asked him.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

Amelia’s heart began to hammer.  What now?  She had Leo T to deal with.   She had Reggie Dell to deal with.  And Hammer was threatening to shut down her business for good.  What else?  “What is it?” she asked nervously.

But his answer stunned her.  “I think it’s time we take our relationship to the next level,” he said.

For a second, Amelia wondered if she had heard him correctly.  If what he said was true, it would be like a dream come true.  But she didn’t want her heart to get ahead of her good sense.  “The next level?” she asked him.

This wasn’t easy for Hammer, either.  But it had to be said.  Finally, it had to be said!  “I have very deep feelings for you, Amelia.  I know you think it’s only because you’re the mother of my child.  That’s a part of it.  But it’s much more than that.”

Amelia was staring at him as if he had just dropped down from the moon.  This was Hammer?  This was the man who made clear to her that open relationships were the only kind he would ever bother to have?  Or was he saying he wanted to take her to the same level he’d already taken Reggie?  As in a threesome, or some freaky shit like that?  “What about Reggie Dell?” she asked him.

“This isn’t about her.  This is about you and me.  You’re my lady.  You’re my girlfriend, or whatever you care to call it.  I don’t want anybody else.”  He looked deep into her big, clear eyes.  “I need you to know that.”

His girlfriend.  His lady.  His.  Amelia had never been anybody’s number one ever before.  Her heart began to race.

“If that’s too heavy for you to deal with,” Hammer continued, “or if I’m putting a title on you that you don’t care to have, that’s fine too.  You have every right to say no.  But that won’t change the way I feel.”

Tears began to appear in Amelia’s eyes.  She remembered the first time she realized Hammer was a different kind of dude. It was the day she told him that she was pregnant, and the child was his.  She remembered it, not because of the gravity of what she was telling him, but because of what he didn’t tell her.

They were at his club, hours before opening time.  He was sitting at the bar reviewing receipts, and she had joined him, declining a drink.  She had just found out herself that she was pregnant.

When she told him, he stopped all movement and looked at her.  “Pregnant?” he asked.

She nodded.  She expected him to go off on her.  To claim it wasn’t his.  To demand a paternity test.  Yes, he removed the condom in the middle of their passion, but he probably assumed she was on birth control.  He probably assumed she’d taken care of that!

And normally she would have.  But, at the time, it hadn’t been that long after Bulldog’s death, and she wasn’t doing shit with anybody at that moment in time.  She started getting sloppy and would forget to take a pill.  She forgot one time too many.

“How far along?” he asked her.

“Two months.”  She touched her stomach.  “I’m barely showing.”

Hammer looked down at her stomach.  Two months ago, they both knew, was the very first time they had sex.  And it was such mind-blowing sex that it made him realize he couldn’t give her up.  The fact that he had felt some powerful connection to her before the sex helped too.

But as she suspected he would, he bought up the obvious.  “I thought you were on birth control,” he said.

“I was on birth control.  But I was inconsistent.  I forgot to take it the way I should have.”

But then, as if he’d already accepted the truth of the matter, he exhaled.  “I’m going to be a father,” he said as if it was still unbelievable to him.  Then he smiled, showing lines of age around his big, blue eyes, and nodded his head.  “Wow,” he said.

But what stuck with Amelia wasn’t what he said, but what he didn’t say.  What he didn’t tell her.  She even felt compelled to ask him.  “Aren’t you going to question if you’re the father?”

Hammer looked at her.  “Why would I question it?  You wouldn’t have come to me with this kind of news if you weren’t certain.  That’s the kind of lady you are.”

She nodded.  She actually wanted to cry at that moment too.  “I’m certain,” she said.  “There wasn’t anybody else.”

“Then that settles it,” Hammer said.  “You understand?  If we ever get a DNA test, it’ll be because you want one.  Not me.”

And just with those words alone, he had a fan for life.

And seven months later, when he saw his son, his belief was borne out.  Hannibal Joey Sinatra looked just like him, with a hint of color.

And just like then, Amelia was feeling that same kind of special way toward Hammer as he told her how he felt about her.  He wanted her to be his lady.  He was ready to elevate her to a different status.  As she sat there, between his legs, with their child in his arms, her tears increased.

He took her chin in his hand, and lifted her face up to his.  “Why are you crying?” he asked her in a voice so soft she barely heard him.

She shook her head, and wiped her tears away.  “It’s silly,” she said.

“Tell me,” he said.  He was studying her beautiful face.

“I’ve never been anybody’s first.  Not ever,” she added, looking into his eyes.  “Bulldog wanted me because I was young and dumb and he knew he could use me and manipulate me and make me what he wanted me to be.  That was never right.  But for you to say you want me to be your lady, and that I would be your only one, is new to me.  Completely new to me.  In fact, outside of my brothers, nobody has ever wanted me like that.”  Then she tried to smile.  “It’s a strange-ass feeling for a girl like me.”

Hammer smiled, too.  Amelia was a badass, and he was glad that she was.  She could take care of herself and their child, if it came to that.  But she had that vulnerable side too; a side so sensitive and guarded that he was pleased that she allowed him to penetrate it.  “Getting out of the open relationship game is new to me, too.  I’ve never had a one and only.  Don’t you forget that.”

“New to you?  But I thought Reggie was damn near your one and only.  I thought she was your main squeeze and the rest of us were sloppy seconds.  I mean, I heard Reggie--”

“I know what you’ve heard.  I know what everybody’s heard.  And it’s all a bunch of bullshit.  But we’ll settle that tonight.”  Then he looked at her.  “Ready?” he asked.

Ready to confront Reggie Dell?  The woman she thought was Hammer’s absolute number one?  Hell no, she wanted to say.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said instead.