“Yeah, it was just for Lexie until you opened, Tyrell. I still don’t give a f**k about you but you made it pretty f**kin’ clear you give a f**k about her and I spent years watchin’ her be with a man who didn’t so, in a roundabout way, I’m also doin’ it for you.”
Jesus.
“Peña,” he felt it necessary to warn, “you do not know what you’re up against.”
“Tyrell,” Peña fired back, “I know exactly the filth I’m up against. You got your color, I got my own so I know. And I figure, with Jackson’s nosin’ around, he’s given you the head’s up so you know I ain’t stupid and, I’ll confirm, I ain’t. I figure you aren’t either but I’ll still remind you not to be and I’ll do it because of where her Charger is, what bed she sleeps in and those petals she stares at doin’ the dishes. I like my life so I don’t waste it so I won’t waste it tryin’ to talk you out of whatever you’re gonna do. But I’ll remind you to think of those three things you got that other men would kill to have and I’ll advise you that someone like me can get a f**kuva lot further in this mission than someone like you.”
“You’re from Texas,” Walker reminded him.
“A cop’s a cop, Tyrell, in Texas, in California, in Colorado or on the moon,” Peña returned.
Walker stared at him. This wasn’t true. Those boys pissed all over their patches, did it regularly so no one could mistake the smell and, no matter you carried a badge or not, they let in only who they wanted to let in.
Then again, what Tate said about this guy’s tactics, he had balls, who knew what he could do?
Finally, he said, “No one calls me Tyrell.”
Peña stared at him. Then he grinned.
Then his grin died and he asked quietly, “How’s she doin’?”
“Ella, Bess and Honey just left after spendin’ two weeks with us,” Walker answered.
“Jesus,” Peña muttered, “So she’s happy as f**k but you’ve been in hell.”
Yeah, he made it his business to know Lexie.
“Somethin’ like that,” he muttered back.
Peña hesitated. Then he pushed it.
“She make a beautiful bride?”
Fuck.
And f**k him. He gave it to the bastard.
“Magnificent.”
Peña nodded but he’d asked a question the answer he already knew.
Walker was now officially done.
“They burn you, I don’t know you but more importantly, Lex doesn’t.”
“I told you, I ain’t stupid.”
“And I’m tellin’ you, you stick your nose in this, it blows back on my wife, ex-con versus cop or not, you got a problem. Am I understood?”
Peña held his gaze. Then he didn’t grin. He smiled.
Then he whispered, “Waited a long time to see that woman with a man who gave a f**k. I see you haven’t missed I wanted to be that man. What you don’t know is, the kind of interest I have in Alexa Berry Walker, I don’t care who it is just as long as he does.”
“Then we got somethin’ in common, ‘cept of course, I’m that man,” Walker replied.
Peña nodded on another smile.
No hard feelings.