I was so nervous, I thought I might throw up. Bull squeezed my hand and smiled at me.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “Just relax. We know what we’re doing, right?”

“Right.”

“And it’s good. Remember that. It’s damn good.”

“All thanks to you.”

He laughed. “No. All thanks to you. I just answered your fucking questions. You wrote the thing.”

I sighed and didn’t feel like arguing.

Over the past week, we’d done nothing but work on the article. Well, we did that and then we had sex. Lots of sex. The kind of sex that made me want to cross my legs just thinking about it. We slept together, and then we wrote the article, and then we slept together again.

Okay, let’s face it. We fucked. We weren’t sleeping; we were fucking. I couldn’t describe what we were doing any better than that, and I absolutely loved it.

The office was unusually warm, although that could have just been my nerves. Bull was dressed up in an outfit Lacy Gray had chosen for him. I didn’t really like Lacy, but she was very good at her job, so I couldn’t complain. Besides, we needed her help, especially now.

She had set this meeting up, which was weird, considering we were meeting with my boss. Coop had seemed annoyed at first, but when he figured out that Bull would actually be here too, he couldn’t say no.

“Charley,” the secretary said finally, “he’ll see you guys now.”

“Thanks,” I said, standing up.

Bull stood up beside me. I was surprised all over again by just how big the man was. He looked like a giant on the field, but in person he was even bigger.

“Let’s do it,” he said softly, and he squeezed my hand one last time before dropping it.

I nodded, and then we walked back through the office. I caught Dee’s eye for just a moment, and I couldn’t help but smile at the pure hatred and jealousy that I saw there. No matter what happened in the meeting, that look was so absolutely worth it.

We got to Coop’s door and I knocked.

“Come in,” he called out.

I opened it and stepped inside. Bull followed me. He shut the door and we took our seats in front of my boss’s desk.

He frowned at me. “Charley,” he said. “Mister Dixon.”

“Bull,” he grunted in reply. “Just Bull.”

“Okay, Bull. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Sure.”

Coop looked at me. “This is pretty weird, Charley. Normally, my employees don’t set up a meeting through a PR firm.”

“I know. But you understand why we did it?”

He stared at me, his face hard. Coop looked stressed, more stressed than usual. I could only assume it was because of the copy of the article we sent him the night before.

The article said everything we wanted it to say and more. It spoke about Bull’s beginnings, about his childhood with his deadbeat dad and his useless mom. It spoke about how he was inspired at a young age to work hard to get out of his hometown, to better himself.

And then it spoke about his father’s death and the mob. Things were dark for a while in Bull’s life, but because of his unusual talent, he was able to secure a full ride to a good university. He was one of the best college players in the country, and he had the awards to prove it.

He also had deep ties with the mob. They were helping him out, greasing the wheels in a lot of ways. He was also paying off his debt, little by little, and he was getting more deeply ensnared in their web the more he used them.

Then came the pros. He told me about the money, the parties, the women, and the mob. He paid them off, but that wasn’t enough. They had him, and because of that he used their services, paying a premium. He threw party after party just to keep the mafia happy.

I also wrote about his charities. I wrote about him volunteering at local cancer hospitals and about his involvement with Make-A-Wish.

I wrote about everything, sparing no details. Bull came off as a real man, flawed but inherently good, and it was the best thing I had ever written.

And Coop was the second person to read it. Not even Lacy Gray got to read a copy. Only Bull and Coop had seen the whole thing.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said finally.

“So you like it?”

He shook his head. “I do. If you can prove a lot of this stuff, and it gets past my fact checkers, well, this is probably the best story I’ve ever read in my entire career.”

That made me want to stand up and scream for joy. I couldn’t believe Coop liked it, much less was willing to rave about it. Bull grinned at me.

“So then you want it?” I asked him.

“Of course I want it.”

“Hold up now,” Bull said, jumping in. “This is where I get involved.”

Coop cocked his head at Bull. “How’s that?”

“We’re raising the price for this article.”

Coop frowned. “How much?”

“Fifty grand.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Good joke.”

“I’m serious. Fifty grand. We have meetings with every big publication in the country, but we’re offering it to you first.”

“I can’t do fifty grand.” Coop leaned back in his chair. “Plus, Charley works here. Everything she writes belongs to us.”

“No,” Bull said, “it doesn’t. And I have an army of very expensive lawyers that will say otherwise.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No. I’m telling you that if you try to pull that bullshit, I will sue this company until it goes bankrupt. I have the resources and the desire. All I need is for you to test me.”

Coop just shook his head, completely taken aback. “I don’t know what to say. Fifty thousand is a lot of money. I can’t make this deal.”

“Okay,” Bull said. “That’s fine. We’ll go elsewhere.” He stood up.

“Wait,” Coop said. “Wait a second. That doesn’t mean I can’t get it done.”

“Don’t waste my time,” Bull said.

“I’m not. Please, sit.”

Bull slowly sat back down. I couldn’t have been prouder.

“Fifty thousand,” Bull said again.

“Okay,” Coop answered. “I want this story. I’ll make some calls and get it done.”

“We have another meeting tomorrow. You have until then to decide, or else someone else will have the chance to buy it.”

“Fine,” he said. Coop looked at me. “Congratulations, Charley. Looks like you’ve outgrown me.”

“Thanks, Coop.”

He shrugged. “Good luck out there, kid.”

“I don’t need luck,” I said, and smiled at Bull.

We all shook hands, and then we left Coop’s office. I couldn’t believe how well that had gone. I felt like we had just won some kind of battle, although really we had just sold a story.

We left the office calmly. Dee was nowhere in sight, but I didn’t really look for her. We got into the elevator and the doors slowly shut.

Bull turned to me.

I laughed and threw my arms around him.

He lifted me into his arms, hugging me hard. “We did it,” he said.

“You did it.”

“Fuck, we did it together.” He put me down and kissed me hard. “God, you’re so fucking sexy to me right now.”

“Stop this elevator. You can have me right here.”

“I bet I can.” He smiled, and we laughed together.

I felt so giddy and lighthearted. I couldn’t believe that had gone down so well. We were getting fifty grand, and we were one step closer to finally being free of the mafia.

After this, after we finally fixed things and paid them their money, they wouldn’t be able to hurt us anymore.

And we had done this together. I wrote the article, but it had been Bull’s idea from the start to write it the way I had. Bull told me the stories, and we worked together on the details. It was his idea, and I couldn’t have done it without him.

We were a team. We were a damn good team, and I couldn’t believe we were really pulling this off.

Soon, we would be raising a baby together. And if this last week meant anything, I had a feeling we were going to make great parents. Great parents were always a great team together, and I knew I could do anything with Bull.

Only a week ago, I felt like I was drowning and like I couldn’t do anything to save myself. But now that I had Bull, I felt secure and safe for the first time since everything had started. He made me feel that way. He made me feel like the world was going to be okay.

That was all because of Bull. He took what was broken and he made it right.

We slowly broke apart as the elevator reached the ground floor. He took my hand in his massive palm, and we walked out into the foyer and left that building together.