by Prince, DD
“Love you, baby girl,” he whispered.
“Love you, too, baby.” I said as my eyes drooped and I fell asleep feeling warm, feeling safe, feeling immensely relieved. Everything wasn’t totally over, there were a lot of unanswered questions, but I was relieved that progress had been made and that he was here beside me.
I woke up to Tommy’s hands and mouth on me. My back arched as his fingers prodded between my legs and I let out a little moan. Then I heard squeals of laughter outside the door and he put his hand over my mouth and winked. The kids were awake and sounding like a herd of elephants running down the hallway. Tommy ignored their ruckus and kept at me, hand over my mouth the whole time. When, I wasn’t too far off an orgasm, the door burst open and Luc’s two girls and Tessa’s older boy all barreled in and were on the bed with us. Tommy had been on top of me, thankfully we were covered by the blankets but the three of them were jumping on the bed, “Uncle Tommy, Auntie Tia! Breakfast is ready!” Tommy blew out a slow breath and said, “Okay, guys. Get downstairs and tell them to pour coffee. We’ll be right there.” The kids all scattered. I felt my heart warm at being called Auntie.
He looked at me with a wicked grin, “To be continued,” he said. Then he got up and got dressed and so did I.
“What happened last night?” I asked before we left the room.
“We’ll talk later. Let’s go down for breakfast. I smell bacon and I think I can hear it calling my name. And if I can’t be inside of you hearing you call my name then I need to answer to the call ‘o the bacon.”
I giggled and pushed away annoyance at not being answered. But maybe it was better that I knew as little as possible. Plausible deniability and all. I followed him down thinking that maybe the Romero threat was done with but that there was at least my father to still worry about, not to mention Tommy’s father. Was my Dad still alive or was he gone?
The mood downstairs was strained. There was still a cloud looming, obviously. Coffee was handed to me and to Tommy as we entered. Tessa was sitting on the sofa in a bathrobe with her hair up in a towel turban with Luc and they were talking quietly. Tessa still looked awful. The kids were all eating pancakes and bacon. Nino, Eddy, and Dario were eating. The other women were all busying themselves in the kitchen, buttering toast, washing and drying frying pans, another putting clean dishes away from the dishwasher.
Tommy and I sat at the table with Dario and Nino.
“Pop’s showing signs of improvement,” Dario said to the group, then added, “After I finish my coffee I’m takin’ Tess to make arrangements for James. We don’t want the whole family in one public place at one time for a while until we know things are settled down so he’s being cremated and we’ll do a memorial service later.”
Tommy and Dario exchanged looks that made it obvious there was more to everything. Fear prickled the back of my neck. What now?
I heard a phone ringing and Tommy reached into his pocket and answered it. He stepped away from the table and outside with the phone.
I drank my coffee and managed to get a piece of toast into myself and then was helping by drying dishes when Tommy was back.
“Wanna grab our stuff and say bye? We need to go.” He grabbed a piece of bacon off the platter in the center of the table and sipped his coffee. I nodded and made the rounds, thanking Marie for her hospitality, hugging Marie’s sister, getting a big hug from Bianca and thanking her for her help last night. We talked about getting together soon. Then I said goodbyes to the rest of the ladies as well as the kids, who all gave me hugs. I told Tessa if she needed anything, for me to help with the boys, or anything like that to just call me. She nodded solemnly. When I hugged Luc I felt her baby kick me through her belly and I told her that it felt like a he, like a soccer player. She hugged me hard. I hugged Tommy’s brother, Eddy, and Nino, thanking them for all their help, too.
I dashed back upstairs and made the bed and then got our things and when I got to the door, Tommy was standing there talking to his brother quietly. They separated as soon as I got there and Dario pulled me in for another quick hug and kissed the top of my head as Tommy reached for the bag from me. As we left I saw there were six men mulling about outside. We got into Tommy’s car, the convertible; I didn’t know how it got here, where the jeep was, or where the Harley was, either.
When we pulled out past the gates and were on the road he reached across and held my hand as he drove.
“They ran me off the road on the Harley just up the road from the farm and knocked me out and took me and when I came to all I could think of was you and how I’d fucking left you a sitting duck. Nino told me you’d gone on a hike and came back to them coming in. They were gonna grab you and after they’d ransomed me out with Dare they were gonna ransom you out with me. Bunch of fuckin’ chuckleheads. No idea who they were messin’ with.”
“That Bianca is badass,” I said.
He nodded, “That was smart thinkin’ on Dare’s part.”
“He was gonna send me in right up to the last minute. He was trying to coach me but he’d been in touch with Nino and Bianca got wind and lost it and insisted she go in instead. They insisted it be a girl and we both have straight hair so…”
Tommy raised his brows, “Can’t believe Dario was gonna send you in.” he looked pissed.
“It all worked out,” I said.
He nodded and squeezed my hand but he still kinda looked pissed.
“And like you said, I’m strong enough. I’m your girl.”
He gave me a thin smile and then said, “Not 100% but leaning in the direction of lookin’ like Jimmy might’ve double crossed us. Tessa knows. Devastated. Lost her husband, her kids’ father, and she lost respect for the man she thought loved her. If so, Jim was expendable to the other side, they got rid of him, but if it was him that’d given them valuable intel that led to Pop getting shot, to putting everyone else in danger, to me being taken from you and leaving you vulnerable? Fuck,” he shook his head.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said softly but his eyes were blazing with anger.
“What’s the status with my father?” I asked quietly.
“No news,” Tommy answered and then he pulled up to the gate of his house and hit a button on his keychain and someone moved into our view as it opened. After we got on the other side I saw a guy who’d been here a few times before; I didn’t know his name.
“Boss, the house has had a full sweep. We found two bugs but all good now.”
“Where?”
“Your office and the staff room. The office one was broken, though.”
Tommy’s jaw tensed, “Right. I’ll be out to chat with you and get a debrief in an hour,” he said and then took my hand and we went inside.
He walked me directly upstairs, directly to the bedroom, and then as he shut the door his hands went to the fly of his jeans and I backed up slowly until I was standing against the foot of the bed.
“I need you. Lie down. Spread,” he demanded, his eyes ablaze.
I obeyed, feeling a gush of warmth down below.
He yanked my pants and undies down at once and was inside of me in record time, his eyes not releasing mine while he took me hard and fast. The muscles of his jaw were hard and tense and his eyes were steely hard, too.
His phone rang. He ignored it. Someone knocked at his bedroom door and he snarled, leaned back, broke our connection, and threw his zipper back up, ‘Under the covers and wait. Do not move. Unless this house is on fire, you stay right there!” He left the bedroom, looking pissed.
I waited.
And waited.
And I waited…
Finally, I was thirsty and hungry and wondering what was keeping him. I got out of bed and reached into my purse and found the flip phone. I didn’t know if the iPhone was still at the hayloft or not. I texted him.
“Hi, since you’re obviously not in a hurry to finish what you started, can I please leave the bed, Master? I’m very thirsty and hungry
and you’ve left me all alone for so very long”
A few minutes later I got a reply,
“Sorry baby! I’d like nothing better than to come and finish! Go & eat. I had to run out for a bit. You’re under 3x security. You’re safe. I’ll be back ASAP. This phone almost out of juice so use my reg. number. We’ll grab your reg phone tomorrow from the farm.”
“stupid iPhone. LOL. <3 U. IDK your reg number off by heart so text it to me. Be safe!”
He replied with a happy face and x’s and o’s and his other number. Sheesh, how long would he have left me there? I had to give him a break; he obviously had a million things on his mind. I found my way downstairs and decided to pop one of Sarah’s frozen lasagnas in the oven. I drank a tall glass of water and then went back upstairs to get a shower.
Tommy hadn’t turned up by the time the lasagna was ready and it was big enough to feed a dozen so I cut off a piece for me, wrapped up a piece for Tommy for later, tossed a big salad and served two bowls out, then put the rest of the lasagna and salad in the fridge in the security team’s break room and stepped out to the patio where that guy Dex was standing, talking on a cell. When he saw me, he put it back to his waistband, “Everything okay, Miss O’Connor?”
“Sorry to bug you…” I started.
He waved his hand, “It’s what I’m here for. What do you need?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to tell you and the other guys that I put a lasagna and salad in the fridge in the err staff room.”
His eyes lit up, “Thanks, that’s awesome,” he said.
The other guy who’d been at the gate when we came in was approaching and had heard and his face lit up and I decided then that I’d continually put food into the staff room fridge for these guys who were working so hard to keep us safe. It couldn’t be easy being in their shoes after knowing two guys were killed while on that same job the other night.
After I ate and watched TV for a bit I was pretty tired. It was around 9:00 so I decided to crash early. I texted Tommy from the flip phone, “I’m going to bed. Hope you’re okay. Love you. Xo”
I got an almost instant, “I’m fine. See you soon. Love you. xxx” back from him.
Tommy
My plan was to go home, make love to my girl, sleep for a few hours, and then find out how Pop was doing. Instead, I had to meet with my PI and my brother, to get more intel on where things were at.
On my way to get Dare from the hospital, I got a returned call back from a connection that helped me get Tia’s father moved. He was safe. For how long, I didn’t know. Did he deserve it? Of course not. But he was her father and I didn’t want her to have to deal with his death on top of everything else so he was on simmer for the time being.
Turned out that Dare talked to Pop, who’d woken up. Pop had Jimmy doing double duty for insight with his enemies related to the group Romero was part of; he wasn’t really stepping out on us. Pop wasn’t coherent enough to get too into detail so we had to guess at a few things. We guessed the thing with my weapons happened because it’d fallen in his lap while he’d been wearing a wire for the other guys when he was found shot so we assumed he’d been dodgy with me because of the wire. The whole wire thing made sense, too. Jimmy had really been keeping his distance the last few days before he was shot. They’d probably told him to leave me a sitting duck. It seemed like he’d been on his way here, probably to help or warn me, when things went screwy. If that’s what he intended it didn’t happen because he’d been shot instead. Dare and I planned to talk to our sister and we hoped it’d bring her a little bit of peace that her husband had been loyal, too loyal. Fucking Pop.
She wouldn’t be best pleased with Pop for putting her husband in that position, getting him killed. None of us were pleased with him after the things we’d found out.
My Pop was in deeper with drugs than we’d imagined. And it was that depth that had created the whole rift with Juan Carlos Castillo in the first place. Many lives had been unnecessarily lost as a result of Pop moving in on Castillo’s territory. But Romero didn’t have the clout alone needed to take Pop out so at first, he participated in recruiting Earl and they tried to use Tia as a bargaining chip. Not only did Pop refuse to back off but as a result, I’d killed Castillo and worked with Castillo’s arch nemesis to wipe out the Castillo cartel. This had, of course, trickled back home with Romero getting desperate to hang onto his business but without the strength of his uncle he had started trying to expand his team, to swell his ranks, bringing in new guys, careless and / or inexperienced guys, making alliances. The whole thing had been a gaggle fuck. Stuff we’d agreed to with Castillo down south had less to do with what we thought we were working toward and more to do with Pop’s drug deals. Now Romero and most of his crew were gone. Castillo was gone. And Pop was in a hospital bed showing signs of improvement. Big moves almost always result in a trickle effect and I wanted to do some serious damage control.
Pop had plans to move to the islands, yeah, but retirement wasn’t looking like it’d factor into those plans. He had plans to have me and Dare look after business here while he expanded some seedy business to do with women, drugs, and guns into Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Pop didn’t want to retire; he wanted more power, more control, and it was out of hand. One of his enemies was doing well in that part of the world and Pop wanted to take it all away from the guy.
Clearly it was out of hand if he had this secret life. Here it was about construction, the bookie business, loans, and that trickled down into a few other areas, like stolen goods, sex, a little weed. And yeah, some was illegal but where he’d sunk to seemed to me and to my brother to be worse than that, much worse than that. We knew sometimes we had to dabble in those areas but Pop wasn’t dabbling, he was deep sea diving in the cesspool.
What I now had to decide was, how was I getting out without making an enemy of my father? I called Dex to check on things at home and the fuckin’ guy was talking with his mouth full.
“Can’t understand what you’re saying man. What are you doing? Blowing someone? Spit or swallow man.”
“Sorry, Tommy. Your girl put dinner out for everyone. Everything’s cool here. No problems at all.”
I hung up, shaking my head. Then I got a text from Tia that instead of crashing early it looked like Tessa’s boys were being dropped off at our place for a few hours. Tessa was overwhelmed and her mother in law couldn’t watch the kids tonight. Luc was at the hospital with a bit of spotting so Sarah was with her. I shook my head. Feeding my men, babysitting my nephews? My heart swelled for her. I needed to give her a good life. I needed to keep myself in the right headspace to be good for her. And for that, I needed out of this life.
Tia
I’d gotten the call just before I fell asleep but I told Sarah I’d happily keep the boys overnight if she wanted me to. But she said Tessa didn’t want that. They knew Tommy’s house was extra secured so they wanted them here but it was just for a few hours. She had Bianca’s Aunt Joanne dropped them off on her way to work (she was a nurse at a hospital on the nightshift) and was going to have Sarah pick them up in a bit. I put movies on and built Lego structures with them. I let Antonio, the older of the two, play on Tommy’s laptop on a kids’ game website and Lucas was content in my lap with a pop-up book. The time went by quickly and I gave them a bubble bath and put them in their PJs and around 11:00. Sarah got there to pick them up. They were quiet and subdued, not like the typical active baby and toddler. They must’ve sensed something was amiss. They didn’t really know me and it was probably way past their usual bedtimes, too.
Apparently Tom had woken up and Lisa was by his side. Luc was being put on bed rest. As I was helping Sarah put the boys into their car seats in her van, I saw Tommy’s car pull in and Dario’s car behind him.
When Dario got out of the car, he pointed at me accusingly, “You! Follow me. We need to have a conversation.”
My brows shot up in surprise. I glanced at Tommy. He narrowed his eyes at me. He motioned tow
ard his brother with a hard expression on his face so I said bye to Sarah and followed.
Dario marched downstairs and directly to the games room and the Ms. Pacman machine. He was giving me an incredulous look and pointing at the high score list and my #2 spot.
I started to laugh, feeling immense relief. Mr. Angry Intense brother was back but this time, it was funny. I stepped up beside him. I was only a few hundred points shy of his high score. I’d beat out everyone else, taking the previous spot #2, which had said Marco. Spot #3 had said Polo. And now those were spots 3 and 4.
Tommy was behind me, “Dex ratted you out.”
Dex was coming down the stairs.
“See if I feed you dinner again!” I harrumphed.
Dario waved his index finger accusingly at me while Dex laughed and pouted at me simultaneously.
“I’m hot on your heels, boy!” I teased Dario and took off up the stairs behind Tommy as he called out, “Tia, c’mere here baby.” I saw Dex challenge Dario to foosball and I followed Tommy the rest of the way upstairs.
He pulled me close once we got to the kitchen, “How are you?” he whispered in my ear.
“I’m okay. How ‘bout you?”
“I’m good. I just want to tell you a few things, then I’ll order us some dinner. Chinese okay?”
“I ate already but I saved you some food.”
“Dare wants Chinese. We have to work late and sort some shit out. You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah,”
“What’d you make me for dinner?”
“I made one of Sarah’s lasagnas. You can eat it for lunch tomorrow, maybe?”
“Sounds good, babe, even if your lasagna’s better. You gonna cook me dinner every night?” He was nibbling on my earlobe and sending shivers up and down my spine.
“Yeah, most nights. If you want. We can do one takeout night a week, maybe a pizza night, one eat out at a nice restaurant together, and the rest I can cook.”
“Oh,” he chuckled, “Laying down the law, huh?”
“Yeah,” I giggled.