Indistinct noises of more retching floated into the room. Hank lost Lee’s attention when his brother turned his head and looked at the door.

“You wanna go to her?” he asked, then offered, “I’ll wait.”

Lee looked back at his brother. “She gets pissed, I get too much in her space.”

That was Indy. Like Ally, two peas in a pod. They needed everybody, but were damned if they’d let it show.

Hank took a sip of coffee, thinking he looked forward to making babies with Roxie. He looked forward to having a family.

He did not, however, look forward to this shit.

He gave his brother a second then declared, “I’m gonna have a conversation with Ally. You do what you need to do, but what I’ll ask you to do is think about it. You could teach her things she needs to know. You could also help her get licensed so she can make a better go of this.”

“She’s not findin’ trouble gettin’ cases,” Lee noted. “She doesn’t even have an office and she’s had two fall in her lap.”

“Could that be because she’s already established a reputation for getting the job done?” Hank suggested.

Lee said nothing.

“Just think about it, yeah?” Hank prompted.

Lee gave him a nod.

Hank took a sip of his coffee before asking, “Now, why’d you want me over here?”

“My phone’s been busy this morning. Mace. Hector. Tex. Even fuckin’ Kumar,” Lee told him.

“Yeah?” Hank said.

“And also Brody,” Lee went on.

“And?”

“Jane wrote that Rock Chick book,” Lee announced.

Hank went still before he whispered, “What?”

Lee shook his head but said, “Yeah. Jane. Middle of the night last night, Brody found a trail from the person who gets reader mail to Jane.”

“Fuck,” Hank bit out.

“Yeah,” Lee agreed.

“What now?” Hank asked.

“That’s why I asked you here,” Lee answered. “I don’t know. No tellin’ what Indy’s gonna do. She thinks of Jane like family. I don’t know if she’ll lose her mind or defend her. Bein’ Indy, though, my guess is she’d defend her. But right now, her sick all the time, she doesn’t need this shit. She’s also told me about Jane. That woman loves books, always wanted to become a writer. She’s written fuckin’ dozens of them that went nowhere. Now she’s livin’ her dream.”

“Off our lives,” Hank pointed out.

“That’s the rub,” Lee stated. “’Cause what does it hurt when what it does is give one of our own the key to her dreams?”

Hank stared at his brother. “Are you shitting me?”

“Tod and Stevie have been over here cackling about that book least a dozen times since Indy and Ally found it. Fuck, Tod’s highlighted parts that he reads out loud to us. And I gotta admit, that shit is funny. Wasn’t then. My woman in my bed, wearin’ my ring, pregnant with my baby, it is now.”

“I’m not sure I’ll get there,” Hank replied.

“You asked me just last night, I would have said the same thing. Then when Brody told me it was Jane, Indy pukin’ in the bathroom, us having viewings to get a bigger place to prepare for our family, I didn’t have it in me to get pissed. Jane’s got nothin’ in her life except that store and us.” He paused. “And now her books.”

Hank thought about Jane. Quiet. Always working. Most of the time there, but always on the cusp. He’d known her since he was a kid and she’d always been the same. It wasn’t that she kept herself removed. Hank reckoned it had more to do with the fact she didn’t quite know how to get involved.

And Roxie had read the book. Hank had heard her laughing through the whole fucking thing. She knew Hank was pissed about it and didn’t say anything to him, but he also knew, if she found out it was Jane, she wouldn’t give a single shit.

“My thought is,” Lee carried on and Hank focused on him. “I tell the men. They tell their women. I’m not gonna say shit about how they react, seein’ as they can react however the fuck they want. I’ll wait ‘til Indy’s in a good spot and tell her, and same goes for her. Jane did what she did, the chips will fall as they fall.”

“Not thinkin’ any of the women will have an issue with it,” Hank noted.

“Seems the case,” Lee agreed.

“But even one of those guys loses it and gets in Jane’s face, how’s that gonna go down?” Hank asked.

The look on Lee’s face said precisely how it was going to go down. Jane barely had the courage to live her life. One of the men got in her shit about those books, she could break. Which could mean she’d leave the store. Which would mean Indy would lose her.

Which would not be good.

Just like her grandmother, Indy regarded everyone who walked in that store on a regular basis like blood family. Grandma Ellen had looked after Jane. Indy did in her way, too.

She’d lose her mind if one of the men lost it with Jane.

“My guess,” Lee started, “is that those men will also think about how that’d go down. And if they do confront her, they’ll have a mind to that.”

That, fortunately, was true.

“They also have a right to know,” Lee continued.

Hank nodded and sipped more coffee.

“You gonna tell Roxie?” Lee asked.

Hank’s brows went up. “The Rock Chicks knowin’ something she doesn’t know? And then her knowin’ I knew and didn’t tell her?” Hank shook his head. “She’d have a fuckin’ conniption. She rode my ass half our honeymoon about Ally and Zano.”

Lee grinned, but Hank didn’t find it funny. Ally making a scene with Zano at their wedding reception, clueing the Rock Chicks in to something the men already knew, was not taken kindly by his then-brand new wife.

Luckily, he was able to be creative in getting her to shut up about it.

“Darius says Zano is lookin’ into those books, too. You have a sit down with Ally, will you give her that heads up?” Lee asked.

“Yeah,” Hank answered. “And since I’m out, that’s up next.”