Jack wasn't going to hold back on this one. "If you think for one minute that—"

"Jack. Office. Now." Riley's voice was strident and firm, and Neil scrambled away from the wall to open his office door and then moved behind his desk. Like having the desk there was going to stop Jack from fulfilling his mission. Riley stood between them again, and Jack waited for Riley to move that single inch that would let him though to Neil.

"How much, Neil?"

"What do you mean?"

Neil was wide eyed, but at least he was standing tall. Jack had to admire the other man for not cowering despite having put a desk between them. Still, he didn't admire him enough to allow anything more permanent with his mom.

"How much money will it take to get you to leave her alone?"

"What the hell? I don't want your money."

"We can have it in your account by tomorrow."

"I love Donna—"

"Riley will pay you," Jack snapped. "So how much do you want?"

"I'm not paying anything to anyone," Riley interrupted.

"I don't want her money—" Neil said at the same time.

"She's twenty years older than you. What the hell else do you get out of it—"

"I love her."

Jack used his extra body mass to trip Riley forward, and when Riley released his hold on Jack to balance himself, Jack took the opportunity to reach for Neil. In seconds, he had the shorter dark-haired man up against the metal file cabinets with his hand twisted into Neil's scrubs.

"Jack!" Riley was trying to pull him back.

"You think you're going to get to me and Riley through my mother? Is that what you want? A tap into the Hayes millions?"

"No. Jack—let me explain."

Neil was pushing back, and Jack stumbled. Neil wasn't dissimilar in size to himself, though a little shorter. The vet was broad and built. One final push from him and there was air between them, Neil holding out a hand and Jack being held back by Riley.

"What else can it be?" Jack spat. "It has to be money. She's old enough to be your mother."

"My mother lives in San Antonio, Jack. Donna is my lover, not my mother."

"And it's just sick—"

"No. She's everything I want, Jack. She's beautiful, smart, independent, funny, and I love her. Her heart, Jack…" Neil's tone changed, and some part of it fractured Jack's temper. "She has such a good heart, and she makes me laugh. How many times do you want me to say it? It's simple. I love her."

"It's wrong." Jack didn't feel the heat burning inside of him anymore. Something in what Neil was saying was getting through the red mist. Riley moved between them.

"Like us then," Riley said simply. "We're wrong, aren't we? Two men bringing up a kid? Married?"

"No," Jack breathed, and looked directly into Riley's hazel eyes. How could Riley say that? Is what he thought? "There's nothing wrong with us." Then it hit him, and in the second between one breath and the next, his anger left him, and he felt nothing but shame.

"Jack?" Riley was speaking so damn quietly.

"You love her?" Jack had to hear it from Neil again.

"I want to marry her if she'll have me." Neil winced as he said this, and Jack felt yet more guilt that the other man thought he was going to get beaten up. "Wait, I have these…" He turned to the drawer behind him and pulled out a folder of papers.

"I don't have anywhere near what Riley has. I probably don't have half of what you have, but there's money in the practice, and I have about a hundred thousand in the bank. Here." He thrust the papers at Jack. "You can see it all."

"Neil—"

"I'll sign a pre-nup," Neil continued. "I don't want anything of yours or Riley's or your mom's. I just want to be with Donna and make her happy."

Jack backed away a step and was up against Riley, who simply supported him with a firm grip.

"I don't need to see," Jack said. "I have to go. I'm sorry." He wasn't entirely sure what he was apologizing for. Was it the fact he had thought the worst of his mom? Or he had wanted to beat Neil into a pulp? Was it that Riley had said something about them being wrong? Whatever it was, he wanted to outrun it, and he stumbled out of the room, past startled clients and out into the sunshine.

When Riley followed him into the parking lot, he grabbed the keys from Jack's hand. "I'm driving," he said simply. "I need a beer."

C

HAPTER

12

The neon sign for Shooters was a welcome and familiar sight. It was missing the 't' and the 'e', but it still signaled the one place that leveled Jack the minute he walked through the door. A twenty minute drive and he had gone from scarlet red with anger to a calmer temperament. Resentment still simmered below the surface but probably due more to being angry with himself than at Neil. Jack checked out who was there, but at three in the afternoon, it really was only him, Riley, and Eddie the bartender, who was also the owner. Beers in hand, they took the corner table as usual. Riley had his cell in his hand and was texting.

"What are you doing with that fucking cell again?" Jack asked quickly. Riley frowned. Probably at the heat in Jack's voice.

"I'm just texting Eden, telling her we'll be back in a couple of hours."

"It won't take that long. One beer and we'll go back."

"Hmm." Riley was still hunched over his phone, and his phone beeped to indicate receipt of something. When he checked it, he nodded to himself, and then with a smile, he sat back in his seat. "We have some time to sit and relax."

Six feet plus of Riley sprawled this way in the dented seat was a sight for sore eyes. His blond hair was longer than the last time they'd been in Shooters, which had been only a month or so ago. It wasn't slicked back or styled to within an inch of its life any more. Jack liked it, for reasons other than the way it looked. It gave him something to grip on to when… Idly he looked to the left and the door to the room he had used pre-Riley. The door locked, it had a table and chairs in it, and he remembered it was always clean. Well, nearly clean. They wouldn't have lube here, but the time was well past for them to use condoms, and they could just…