CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

They sat like guys at a prom waiting for their girl. Mick, Charles, Hammer and Atticus. All rich. All powerful. All scared.

Especially Atticus. He hadn't seen Amelia since that night at that restaurant when she rejected him. And he wasn't at all sure if he was still pissed with her or not. But he still cared about her. Deeply. That was why he came.

He got up and began pacing. As he did, Hammer started watching him. Amelia never mentioned Atticus Wales to him not once, which was her way, but he found out about their history anyway. And for him to show up at that restaurant six months ago didn't endear him to Hammer either.

And then Amelia, with the lawyers, finally walked into the lobby where they were assembled. Seeing her for the first time in a long time, Atticus couldn't help himself. And as Hammer was standing up along with Mick and Charles, Atticus hurried over to Amelia. They looked at each other and then Atticus pulled her into his arms.

Amelia was so surprised to see him that she allowed the contact. But Hammer wasn't going to allow it. As Mick and Charles knew he would, he walked over to the couple and separated them, breaking up the reunion. Atticus was surprised that he even cared. Mick and Charles weren't surprised at all.

Hammer kept his arm around Amelia's waist. "You okay?" he asked her.

She nodded, but the terror was still in her eyes. And just seeing that look rocked Hammer with guilt. "Let's get you home," he said to her.

But then Charles stepped up. "She's going home with me."

"No, she's not either, Charles," Hammer objected. "We've got to safe-house her until we find out what the hell is going on. My house is a safe house."

"Don't even try that shit, Hammer," Mick said. "We thought she was safe with you when we left her with you. That was a lie!"

And then Hammer and Mick got into it the way they always did. And Amelia, emotionally exhausted, left the station. Charles and Atticus followed behind her.

When Hammer finally looked around and saw that Amelia had left and that his inability to avoid confrontations with Mick the Tick got the best of him again, he hurried behind her, with the Secret Service agent and Ozzie hurrying behind him.

Mick didn't hurry, but he left as well, causing the Clayview police officers to shake their heads. "All that for her?" asked the chief. "Why I never!"

Outside, Amelia was leaned against the Escalade, the only vehicle out there she knew the owner of: Mick always had his tricked-out Cadillacs almost everywhere he went. This one, undoubtedly, had been driven over from Wilmington. And Atticus and Charles were standing on either side of her.

Atticus looked at her. "Sure you're okay, Millie?"

"I'm okay. I just need some time to figure this shit out, and my brothers and Hammer are trying to handle me again. I'm the one in this mess. I'm the one who's going to figure this out."

"Nobody's trying to handle you," said Charles.

Atticus looked at her. "Want to come to my house? I have great security too you know."

Amelia looked at him. He broke her heart all those years ago. What was he doing? "No I'm good," she said.

"You aren't holding onto a grudge I hope. That's not the woman I used to know."

"I'm holding onto my heart," said Amelia. "That's also not the woman you used to know."

They stared at each other. Atticus wanted to explain himself. To make clear that he really didn't sleep with that girl. But what was the use? He had behaved inappropriately. That was enough for her. She left him and refused to hear him out even back then. She wasn't about to hear him now. She gave him and every other guy only one chance to mess up. She gave Hammer Reese dozens of chances.

And then Hammer, Ozzie, and the agent walked out.

When Amelia saw him coming toward her, he was the one she wanted to be with. But she couldn't trust him with her heart either. He was too preoccupied with saving the world to save their marriage. She'd be a fool to think anything had changed.

"Let's go, Amelia," Hammer said as if he was tired of arguing the point. She was going with him and that was all there was to it.

Charles wanted to object. He was pissed with Hammer for leaving their baby sister in the first place. But he knew it had to be up to Amelia. And Charles knew better than anyone else which man she was going home with.

But to their shock, she got onto the front passenger seat of her brother's Escalade. "Take me home, Mick," she said just as Mick was walking up to them. "To my home."

Mick glanced at Hammer. And then he nodded.

"Nice seeing you again, Millie," Atticus said.

Millie didn't respond. Then Atticus looked at Mick. "Be sure to handle the situation we discussed," he said. Mick nodded. And then Atticus got into his SUV and his driver took off.

Then Mick looked at Hammer. "We need to talk."

Hammer stared at Mick. Mick was not a man given to melodrama. If he said they needed to talk, they needed to talk. "You're taking her home?"

"That's where she wants to go, so yes."

Hammer then climbed onto the second row of Mick's SUV.

Amelia turned around and looked at him, surprised. Mick and Charles looked at him too. But then Mick got in behind the wheel and Charles got onto the second row with Hammer, and Mick drove them away. The Secret Service agent quickly hopped into Hammer's limo and Ozzie sped behind them.

Amelia looked at Charles. "Why did you call Atticus Wales to come here?" she asked him. "You know what that man did to me."

"I would have called the Pope to come here if he could have gotten you out of there," said Charles. "I don't care what he did to you."

"Did it work?"

"No. He tried though. I guess they weren't as impressed with a big time NFL owner like we had hoped."

"So how did I get out?"

"How do you think?" asked Charles. "Mick has his share of cops on the take. But it was going to take a lot more than a cop on the take to get you out of a murder rap against a senator." Then Charles exhaled. "Hammer got you out."

Amelia was inwardly pleased to hear that. "I don't want any help from that man."

"From whom?" Charles asked. "From Hammer?" Because Charles knew better than that. Amelia would do anything for Hammer. Hammer just didn't know it.

And just as he suspected, Amelia quickly corrected him. "From Atticus," she said.

"I thought so," said Charles. "Besides, I didn't call him anyway. Mick called him. That's his old running partner."

Mick glanced at Charles through the rearview mirror.

Then Amelia turned around and looked at Hammer. "And why are you still here? Don't you have a world to rescue?"

"Yes, I do, matter of fact," Hammer shot back. "But your brother said he needs to talk to me. I figured it wasn't a conversation that he wanted a Federal agent listening to."

Charles smirked. "You got that right."

"What did you want to talk to him about?" Amelia asked Mick.

Mick looked through the rearview. "We were ambushed on our way to the police station."

Amelia and Hammer both didn't expect to hear that. "Ambushed?" asked Amelia.

"Do you know who was behind it?" asked Hammer.

"No, we don't know anything yet," said Mick. "Our guys are getting intel on who the now-deceased gunmen might have worked for, but nothing so far."

"I'm disinclined to have any agents snooping around," said Hammer.

Mick looked at him. "Your wife is tied up in this shit too. There better not be any Feds up in this."

"I've ordered the Director of the FBI to stand down, but a United States Senator has been killed. That order can't last very long. We've got to get to the bottom of this."

"Do we know how he died?" asked Amelia.

"One gunshot wound to the head. Execution style. Found in his car here in Clayview. They believe the time of death was within a couple hours of your confrontation with him."

But one word caught Mick's attention. "Execution-style?"

Hammer nodded. "That's the concern I have with it too. We're looking at me as a possible connection to all of this. Maybe we ought to be looking at you."

"Or at Millie's ass herself," said Mick. "She's been telling us that she's been straight, but that detective agency she's running is as crooked as a curve."

"Fuck you, Mick!" Amelia shot back. "It was you who kept getting on my case about taking on mob clients. To get you up out of my ass I stopped taking anybody affiliated with the mob. I did that. But I have a business to run. I got to work with what I got to work with and that means whosoever comes with the cash flow to get the job done. The mob aren't the only unsavory people in this world. So don't even try that shit with me."

"Your ass crooked as a curve, I don't care what you say," Mick fired back. "And don't you dare get sassy with me, little girl. Got the nerve to say fuck me? Your ass the one fucked right now. I'm just trying to get you out of this shit you got yourself into!"

Amelia knew it too, that was why she went silent.

Hammer could feel her anguish. She was getting nowhere with her brothers running the show, and he knew it. Something had to give. "Anybody lost on our side?" he asked Mick. Amelia looked at Mick too.

Mick nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. I lost a couple good men."

Amelia leaned her head back. "Damn damn damn!" she said. "And we all know all this related. The break-in. Senator Kucinich's death. My arrest. It's all related."

"It has to be," said Charles.

"And just because they dropped the charges against me doesn't mean I'm off the hook. They might have dropped the charges for now, but they can always refile them whenever they so choose."

They all agreed with that.

But Hammer was studying Amelia. "What are you going to do about it?" he asked her.

"I'm going home. I'm going to bathe this prison shit off of me. And then I'm going to catch those motherfuckers myself. That's what I'm going to do."

"You'll do no such thing," said Charles, "or I declare, Millie, I'll drag your ass all the way to Maine to stay with me."

"We'll handle this." Mick agreed with his brother. "And I mean that, Amelia. You got this started when you threatened that senator. Now they're holding that over your head. And what the hell was that other senator breaking in your house for? And you think you can find the answers? Like hell. We're handling this," Mick said as he blew through a red light.

But Amelia wasn't trying to hear it. She knew what she was going to do. They thought they could manage her. And they had been because she was allowing it. Her marital difficulties with Hammer kind of shook her and she allowed it. But that allowance was over. They thought they still had a stranglehold on her. They were soon to find out they didn't. Not after what she'd gone through over the last twenty-four hours.

But what struck Amelia most was that Hammer hadn't interjected his two cents into it. Which usually meant he was on her side.

She turned around and glanced at him. He was staring at her.

Then he spoke. "You can put me off here, Mick," he said.

Mick looked at him through the rearview. He knew how Hammer operated. He didn't like the way Mick spoke to Amelia. He never liked their arguments. But he never interfered. Millie could take care of herself, and Hammer knew it better than most. That was why Mick and Charles both signed off on their marriage. They figured he was the best man alive to handle her without her dominating him. Although, if both brothers were to be honest with themselves, they were the dominant ones when it came to their baby sister.

Mick pulled over to the side of the road. The limousine behind them pulled over too.

Ozzie and the Secret Service agent quickly got out of the limo and went to the back passenger door where they knew their boss was seated. They both were looking around for any unusual activity as they did.

Hammer looked at Mick. "Let me know as soon as you find out anything. I have a network of people who can get intel even faster than your mobsters. But they need a name."

"I'll let you know as soon as I get one," Mick said. He knew this kind of situation was better suited to Hammer's resources. "But so far, none of them seem to have any affiliations that we know of. But I'll let you know."

That was good enough for Hammer. "Let's go, Millie," he said as he began to get out.

But Charles and Mick both made clear she was coming with them this time. "We tried your way before," said Charles. "How did that work out for her?"

Hammer stopped his progression and looked at Charles. "Let's get one thing straight," he said. "She's your sister, and I respect that. But she's still my wife."

"Soon-to-be ex-wife," Mick said.

Hammer looked at him. "She's still my wife," he said again. Then he looked at Amelia. "Let's go, Millie," he said and got out of the Escalade.

Mick looked through the rearview. What amazed him was how Hammer didn't wait for Millie to say yes, no, or I suppose so. He and his men were heading back to the limo behind them. Charles found it arrogant and insulting.

But Mick had a different take. Charles still thought of Millie as an innocent despite her actions to the contrary. Mick knew her better than that. And he knew the way Hammer was treating her in that moment was the absolute only way a man could handle a high-strung, take-no-prisoners boss bitch like his beloved baby sister without her handling him.

He looked at Amelia. And just as he suspected, she began taking off her seatbelt.

"You aren't going with that guy," said Charles. "He's the same asshole that left you alone this morning. What are you doing?"

Amelia truly didn't know why it was that Hammer had such a pull over her. He left her alone after she nearly died fighting that senator. That should have been door closed right then and there. But those damn butterflies in her stomach and that fluttering feeling in her heart kept coming back with even more intensity every time he came around her. It was love. She knew it was love. But it was more than that. She respected Hammer despite his neglect of her. He didn't try to change who she was the way her brothers did. And she believed, deep down, that he still loved her too. "I'm going home. He'll take me home," she said to her objecting brothers. "I'll call you guys later." Then she got out of the SUV, walked over to the limo where Hammer was standing with the backdoor open, and she got in. He got in. They took off.

Charles was still puzzled. "Why does she keep letting that guy treat her like that? The government calls, she's off again. He has to know that!"

"She knows it," said Mick. "But it's the same reason Roz puts up with my bullshit."

"Which is?"

Mick frowned. "Love motherfucker, what else?"

Charles looked at his younger brother and smiled. Then he laughed heartily. "That very well may be the first time I heard you ever say that four-letter word."

"Ah fuck you, Charlie," Mick said as he pulled back onto the road, and took off too.