26
Tito
Wednesdays had always been the one day of the week that I looked forward to. Now, I saw hump day as nothing more than a hassle. The mid-week meeting with the MC was once an opportunity to rub elbows with people I liked to call my friends. Now, the get togethers were more of an evil necessity.
“The system is archaic,” I explained. “The cameras lack any pan or zoom features, and there are no motion detectors. The entire thing can be disabled by snipping one wire. We’ll have as long as we need to rid the shop of the coin collection.”
Baker looked at me like I had developed a sure-fire cure for male-pattern baldness. He sprung from his seat. “No shit?”
I closed my notebook. “No shit.”
His look went serious. “Nearly a month of research, and it’s that easy?”
My priorities hadn’t been the club, or the club’s need for my services. My focus had been Reggie, and I didn’t see that changing anytime in the future. Nevertheless, I wasn’t about to make excuses for what I had done, or what I planned to do in the future.
“It was an evening of research that took a month to implement,” I replied. “I’ve been busy.”
“All that matters is that we can pull this thing off without a hitch.”
“Looks simple to me.” I shifted my gaze from him to Cash. “As long as Cash doesn’t fuck something up.”
“Fuck you, midget,” Cash spouted.
“Every close call we’ve had can be traced back to something you’ve done,” I said through my teeth. “You fuck everything up.”
“Fucking this up will be impossible,” Cash argued. “In and out in minutes. Stupid little town with a stupid little two-man police force, and some stupid coin shop guy with a stupid fucking alarm.”
Goading Cash into an argument wasn’t a difficult thing to do. I gave him a side-eyed look of disgust. “Sounds like a great place for some stupid fucker to do something stupid.”
“E-fucking-nough,” Baker growled. “Jesus with you two.”
I stood and addressed the group with my eyes. The shared mood amongst the MCs members was soft, almost subdued. The emotional fire we shared while planning a job was absent. I wondered how many of the others shared my thoughts and feelings, especially after my tirade with Cash a few weeks prior.
“I’ve got something else I need to say,” I said. “An idea to present to the club. A proposition, of sorts.”
Baker scratched his beard with the tips of his fingers. He did it when he was uncertain. “Let’s hear it.”
“I think it’s time we make some changes.”
“Like what?” Baker asked.
It was a simple thing to think of but difficult to address, especially when everyone’s mood was somber.
I exhaled a long breath. “After this job, I say we do things on the up and up. No more crimes.”
Cash leaped up from his seat. The veins on his muscular neck bulged. “What the fuck?” he bellowed. He glanced at Goose, Reno, and then Ally. “Somebody get this guy a fucking replacement hat. He’s going nuts without it.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with the hat,” I said, trying to remain calm. “It’s got to do with statistics.”
“You and your fucking statistics,” he seethed. “What bullshit are you going to tell us now?”
“We’ve been doing this for more than fifteen years. We’ve never been caught. The odds of—”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ve never been caught because we’re better than everyone else.”
“Sooner or later, we will be caught,” I argued. “It’s only a matter of time.” I looked at Baker. “I don’t think I want to continue to take the risk.” I glanced at everyone except for Cash, who was now pacing the floor. “We’re getting older. Everyone’s in a relationship. We’ve got a lot at risk. And, if one of us does something, we’re all going to be punished for it. Under the RICO act, if I kill someone, everyone here goes down for murder. I’ve never done this for money. Completing a job gave me a sense of self-worth. It provided affirmation that I was on top of my game. Now? Now I don’t need that. I know my abilities. Most of all, I don’t want to spend the second half of my life behind bars.”
Cash faced me and began to clap softly. “I don’t know whether to shed a tear or call bullshit on your little speech. What do you need? Some attention?” He spread his arms wide. “A hug?”
I gave him a shitty look. “I’m serious.”
“He’s got a good point,” Ally said. “Each job puts us out there. We almost got it on that bank job in—”
Cash spun to face her. “Oh, Jesus. You, too?”
“We don’t need the money,” she explained. “I’m doing this because—”
“Big fucking surprise that you don’t need the fucking money,” Cash snapped, his tone expressing irritation and jealousy. “Ghost left you a multi-million-dollar home and who knows how many millions in—”
Goose shop up from his seat. “Hold up a minute, motherfucker.” He puffed his chest. “I’ve got what I’ve got because I’m responsible.”
With his eyes locked on Goose, Cash lifted his chin slightly. “And I’m not?”
“No,” Goose said. “You’re sure as fuck not.”
“Fuck you,” Cash spat. He looked at me. “And, fuck you.” He glanced at Baker. “You don’t have anything to say about this bullshit? If the little man says we should stop working for a living, we just stop?”
“I haven’t had an opportunity to get a word in edgewise,” Baker complained. “I was going to—”
“Fuck this shit,” Cash muttered. “Whatever you’ve got to say, you can say to my back.”
With those words, Cash stomped toward the door. As we all stared with open mouths, he got on the elevator and rode it to the basement.
Before we had a chance to continue the conversation, the sound of Cash’s motorcycle being started echoed off the building’s walls. Then, the muffled drone of the engine accelerating faded into the distance.
I looked at Baker. “Everyone here can decide for themselves.” I glanced at Goose, Ally, and Reno. “Short of me, everyone here has a family outside of this family. They’ve got a family they have created or are in the process of creating. The tattoos on our back spell it out clearly: family over all. Things have changed. Our family is no longer contained within the limits of this room. I feel like we’re all on borrowed time, and I don’t like it.”
Baker put his hands on his hips. His gaze fell to the floor. A long breath escaped him before he looked up. “I’m not disagreeing with you, Tito. It’s just. I wasn’t really prepared for this. You took me by surprise. I can’t say it isn’t something that I’ve thought about from time to time, especially after that job up by Torrey Pines.”
“I’m not asking for an answer right now,” I said. “I want this to be addressed after everyone’s had time to think about it. Being incarcerated for our crimes isn’t something I want to have to worry about any longer.”
Baker looked at everyone else. “Why don’t we all give this some thought. Like I said, I wasn’t prepared. Now that its’ been mentioned, I’m afraid if I don’t act on it that I’ll be destined to be reminded of why I should have.”
Reno nodded. “I’m with Tito. We’ve been on borrowed time for a decade, Bake. We’ve been nearly caught a dozen times or more. We have been caught once. Luckily it was by a dirty cop. If a dirty cop can catch us, a clean one can, too. When that day comes, we’re toast. I like thinking this can last forever, but it ain’t likely that’ll ever happen.”
“Agreed,” Goose said. “The chances of another dirty cop catching us and letting us go are slim to none. The next cop that catches us is going to either shoot us or handcuff us and take us in. I’m not interested in doing time.”
Ally tugged the bill of her ball cap low on her brow. “I’m doing whatever Goose is doing.”
Reno’s look hardened. “I’ll warn each of you now. When I go out, I’m going out
in a blaze of gunfire. They’re not locking me up in a six-foot by eight-foot box, that I can guarantee you.”
Baker glanced at each of us. “I’ll get a timeline put together for this job before next week’s meeting. We’ll plan on doing it next Thursday. The coin show is on Saturday. On the other matter, I’ll have a talk with Cash.”
Reasoning with Cash was never easy. To succeed, a person needed to convince him that all ideas discussed were his own. In this circumstance, doing so would require Baker to be extremely creative.
In short, it would be nearly impossible.
“Good luck,” I said. “Because you’re going to need it.”
27
Reggie
I pulled the drapes to the side and stared at the silver late-model Chevrolet sedan that came to a rest in the driveway. It looked like Tito was sitting inside, but I couldn’t be sure with the sun’s reflection gleaming off the windshield.
As I studied the silhouette, the door opened. Dressed in his normal attire of a white tee shirt, cuffed jeans, and a pair of boots, Tito stepped outside the car and opened the back door. Surprisingly, he removed a large wrapped gift from the rear seat. Tied around the center of the shiny white package was a big lavender-colored bow.
I ran to the front door and snatched it open. “My only earthly concern was finding out the contents of the box. Mentioning it, however, would make me seem materialistic, which I wasn’t.
I was simply curious.
“Why are you driving that car?” I asked.
He jostled the package back and forth as he stepped onto the porch. “I couldn’t carry this on the bike.”
“Oh,” I said, feigning surprise. “I didn’t even notice.”
He lowered the package and gave me a look. “Really?”
“Well, maybe I did.” I moved to the side. “What is it?”
“It’s a surprise.” He edged his way past me. “For you.”
“For me?”
“Well.” He leaned the gift against his only remaining option, the love seat. “It’s not for me.”
Curiosity ate away at me like a cancer. “What’s it for?”
“It’s just a gift,” he replied. “For you.”
I kissed him. “Can I open it?”
“That was the plan,” he said. “I bring it over, and you open it.”
Getting a gift for no reason was better than almost anything. I fought not to act like a giddy eight-year-old at her birthday party.
I glanced at the large flat package. “Now?”
He seemed to be nearly as excited as I was. Grinning from ear to ear, he tried to play it off as if it was no big deal. He shrugged. “It’s as good of a time as any, I suppose.”
I started to reach for it, and then paused. “I feel crappy.”
“Crappy?” His brows knitted together. “Why?”
“Because I don’t have anything for you.”
“It’s not a gift exchange,” he said with a laugh. “I just got you a little something.”
“Just because?”
He smiled. “Just because.”
I removed the bow, set it aside, and carefully unwrapped the gift. As I suspected, it was a picture frame. Upon seeing what the frame contained, my heart faltered.
A dark-blue sphere filled with constellations and the names of the stars. Beneath it, the latitude and longitude of the location and the time of day.
The Stars Above the Buckle
June 6, 2019 2:07 p.m.
32.806063 N 116.967509 W
Above it, the title:
The Moment Our Adventure Began
“Is this…” A lump rose in my throat. “Is it the—”
“It’s the stars above your store on the day and time we met,” he said. “I thought it was better than a bunch of flowers or a bottle wine.”
“It’s uhhm…” I swallowed the emotion that was tangled in my throat. My lips parted, but no words came out. I swallowed again.
“You don’t like it?” he asked.
I’d never received anything so thoughtful in my life. At a point in time where most men would have given me nothing and a select few would have given me a dozen roses in hope of receiving a blowjob in return, Tito gave me a picture of the stars we were standing beneath on the day we met.
The day he asked me on our first date.
I met his wondrous gaze with eyes that were quickly welling with tears. “I love it,” I muttered.
“I thought the Adventure thing was a nice touch,” he said with a smile. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to look back on that day as the beginning of a meaningful adventure.”
I had every intention of saying something. As fate would have it, I couldn’t manage to speak. Overcome with feelings for the man who stood before me, I leaned the frame against the love seat and drew a silent breath.
On shaking legs, I faced him and opened my arms.
We embraced. For a long moment I held him in my arms, cherishing the feeling of having his body pressed against mine. Eventually, he leaned away and looked me in the eyes. I wanted him to kiss me, but still feared asking him to do so would allow the emotions that had built within me to come spilling out.
As if he read my mind, he granted my wish.
The kiss was every bit as earth-shattering as our first. It wasn’t surprising, each time he kissed me it had the same effect: my heart raced, the temperature in the room rose ten degrees, and my panties became soaked.
I kissed him in return, hoping to express my gratitude without speaking. In no time, we were both hopping around on one leg attempting to rid ourselves of our last article of undergarments.
We collided, chest to chest. We kissed. Embraced in the kiss, we stumbled across the living room floor, coming to rest with my back against the wall. Our mouths parted.
His eyes met mine.
Holding my gaze, he cupped my butt in his hands. He lifted me from my feet. I wrapped my thighs around his waist, inviting him to take me right then and there. He propped me against the wall and accepted my invitation without pause.
His entire swollen length penetrated me in one stroke. The breath shot from my lungs. Feeling him inside me provided all the proof I needed that he was the last man I’d ever need to meet.
Apart, we were nothing more than two souls searching blindly for what we didn’t know. Together, we defined perfection.
He withdrew his hips. My eyes shifted to the front door. In my haste to open the gift, I’d failed to close it.
“I left…the front door…open,” I stammered, muttering the statement to coincide with his well-times strokes.
“I don’t care…if you…don’t,” he replied.
I dug the tips of my fingers into the flesh of his butt, encouraging him to continue. He repositioned his feet and pressed his chest tight to mine, pinning me to the wall. I bit against my lower lip and prepared for what was to come.
Without regard for our secrecy we fucked like animals in heat, filling the small room with the carnal sounds of our pleasure.
Through the course of our lovemaking, a long list of nevers was crossed off my list.
I’d never had sex at ten am on a Thursday morning, nor had I had the pleasure of being fucked while pinned against the living room wall. Any wall, for that matter. Furthermore, I’d never had my heart swell with affection during sex like it did.
Moments later, it was over. Pleased beyond words, we were laying side by side on the floor. Drunk on orgasmic pleasure, I looked into his eyes. “Where did you come from?”
“What do you mean?”
At the moment in time that we met, the last thing I needed—or wanted—was a relationship. Nevertheless, Tito appeared. Over time, he proved to be the perfect man.
Perfect for me, anyway.
“You just appeared one day,” I said. “It’s, I don’t know, crazy to think about.”
He smiled. “All I wanted was a hat.”
I couldn’t help but to smile in return. “I wanted a year or two of being si
ngle.”
He swept the hair away from my face with the tip of his finger. “Now look at us.”
“I like looking at us,” I admitted. “From any angle.”
“There’s nothing about me that bothers you?” he asked.
He was the opposite of what I thought I desired. Yet. I wouldn’t change one thing about him if I was given the chance.
“No,” I responded. “I like you just the way you are.”
“I think I fell in love with you,” he said.
I should have felt nervous.
Resistant.
Apprehensive.
Instead, his admission put me at ease. “I think I fell in love with you, too.”
“When?” he asked.
“A little bit each day,” I responded, glancing at the star-filled globe that leaned against the loveseat. “That thing bowled me over, though.” I looked at him. “What about you? When did it happen?”
“I’m not sure,” he responded. “But I realized it the other night, when Mel came over. I asked myself if I loved you before I offered my assistance regarding her concern.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised by his response. “It sure seemed like you offered yourself up without much thought.”
“Maybe I already knew the answer.”
“What do we do now?” I asked.
He leaned forward and gave me a kiss. “Love one another.”
As eagerly as my heart accepted him, I felt that there was nothing that would—or could—tear us apart. Prepared to continue with Our Adventure, I smiled. “I like that plan.”
28
Tito
Tito
We walked along the beach hand in hand. Every few moments the waves washed over our feet, cleansing them of the sticking sand. A few dozen steps would follow, covering our feet with the granular matter once again, only to be swept clean by the next wave that pulsed ashore.
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