At that Axel looked thoughtful. Loretta reached them then and looked down at Axel from the almost six-and-a-half feet height her high heels gave her. “Is the runt causing problems?” she asked. It was amazing how a woman in a green dress with little white flowers on it, wearing makeup and jewelry and high heels, could look so intimidating, but Loretta managed. She had it down to an art form. It also helped that Morgan had recounted the scene between her and Warren Gooding, so all of them knew her reputation and that she generally took no prisoners.
Bo was the only one who laughed outright. The men all hid their grins. Axel looked both outraged and terrified. He wasn’t a runt, maybe medium height or a little better, but Loretta definitely made him look runtish.
“He’s trying,” Bo said, not about to let him off the hook.
Loretta simply waited, her gaze locked on Axel. He fidgeted. He turned red. He ran a finger around his collar. Bo could tell he wanted to go into one of his classic Axel scenes, but the bottom line was he was afraid of what Loretta might do. She was an unknown quantity to him, and he was on her territory. If she knocked him into tomorrow, everyone, even his own men, would swear he’d tripped over a tree root.
Finally he focused on Morgan. “Would you stay on as a consultant?”
“We can talk about it,” Morgan said, though Bo knew that would be the perfect solution. He wasn’t about to give Axel power going into the negotiations though.
“All right.” Axel looked relieved. “Come see me Monday. Uh—unless you’re going on a honeymoon, or something like that.” He shot a glance at Bo that said he still couldn’t believe Morgan had actually married her.
“No honeymoon yet,” Bo said. “We’re waiting for when it will inconvenience you the most.” Beside her, Tricks stopped staring balefully at the man she disliked to give a woof of agreement.
Perfect.
Morgan went through security at the county courthouse and slipped into the courtroom where Kyle Gooding was being arraigned. The process had taken long enough to get to this point, but Kyle had remained in jail the whole time, so that didn’t matter.
What he assumed was most of the Gooding family was in the courtroom. The district attorney was there, the Gooding lawyer, and a couple of reporter types, some just out of curiosity. Morgan took a seat away from the others, choosing to be as isolated as possible. He wanted Kyle to see him.
The county deputies brought Kyle in. He’d had his hair cut and he wore a suit for all the world as if he was expecting to walk out of the courtroom free instead of going back to jail. There was a hum of anticipation from his family group. He looked at them and gave them a small cocky grin. In that moment Morgan knew for sure that Kyle intended to back out of their agreement.
He sat motionless, his gaze locked on Kyle. After a minute Kyle felt himself being watched, even as insensitive as he was to everything other than himself. He turned and looked over his family group, then turned the other way to survey the rest of the courtroom audience.
He saw Morgan, and his eyes widened. He swallowed nervously. Morgan just stared, never blinking, every ounce of malice he felt burning in his eyes. This son of a bitch had tried to destroy the woman he loved, and no way was he letting him get away with it. He might not do anything about it today, but the reckoning would come, and soon. The time and circumstance would be of his choosing—and he’d get away with it.
Under the weight of his gaze, Kyle turned pale and jerkily faced forward again.
When the charges were read and the judge asked how he pled, in a tight, shaking voice Kyle Gooding said, “Guilty.”
His family erupted in a muted uproar because that wasn’t what they’d expected. His lawyer looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. The judge began banging his gavel, shouting for silence. Morgan sat motionless, merely watching as the hubbub died down and the proceedings came to a close. As Kyle was led from the courtroom in handcuffs, he looked back over his shoulder at Morgan.
Morgan didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t break eye contact.
When the door closed behind Kyle, he got up and quietly walked back to his pickup, which he’d retrieved from his condo the weekend after he and Bo were married, eight days ago and counting. They had also retrieved the Shark from the marina, and it was now at Bo’s house.
As he exited the courthouse, he glanced up at the blue sky and thought it looked like a great day to get in some fishing.