by Prince, DD
“You’re the boss,” he kissed my throat, “Except I’ll cook Sunday mornings.”
I laughed, “Deal. And the boss? Me? Yeah, right.”
He laughed and winked at me, “You can be the boss of the food. What’d you do with the boys?”
“I’ll take the power where I can get it.” I winked, “I played Legos with them, did some coloring, we read a bunch of books, and I gave them a bath. What do you need to tell me?”
I hoisted myself up to sit on the countertop.
He looked at me warmly, “Thanks for that. I’m sure Tess appreciated it. I, uh, had your father moved. For the moment, he’s safe. I can’t make long term promises, but I got him moved for now.”
My eyes widened, “You did?”
“Yeah. Called in some favors.” He moved closer to me.
I threw my arms tight around his neck and whispered, “He doesn’t deserve it. But thanks, Tommy.”
“Mm hm,” he said, his voice laced with skepticism. I knew my Dad really didn’t deserve it but Tommy was doing it for me. That counted.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“I’ve decided to put the farm up for sale so maybe tomorrow or the next day you and I will go up there and pick up whatever else we left there the other day.”
My expression dropped.
“It’s not my safe house anymore. I need to find us something else.”
“I love that place.” I said and pouted.
He frowned, “You want me to keep it?”
I nodded, “Can you?”
“I can,” he said and kissed my nose, “If that’s what you want.”
“It is. It’s where you told me you were in love with me.”
He smiled.
“It’s where you played our wedding song for me.”
He smiled bigger and stroked my cheek with his thumb, his other fingers woven into my hair.
“It’s where sun rays shot out of your head when you made love to me when I was wrapped in clover,” I whispered.
He looked at me like I’d lost the plot, “Sun rays? Out my head?”
“Yeah,” I squeezed him tight against me.
“Okay, I’ll keep it. But we need another safe house.”
“Okay,” I said, “Can we spend the night there tomorrow night?”
“Let me see what’s on the agenda. Maybe. I’m gonna go order that Chinese. There are menus in the office.”
“How’s your father?” I asked.
“Getting there,” he mumbled and then I followed him down the hall to his office and he muttered to me that James hadn’t double crossed his family after all, but that he was just another pawn in one of his Pop’s games. My heart sank. Things weren’t getting any better for Tommy and I knew this meant it’d be even more complicated going forward.
Tommy
She sat downstairs on the arm of the chair I was in with me and Dare and Dex all ate. She said she didn’t want any but kept snagging food off my plate while we were there. Anyone else stuck their fingers in my food they’d lose said fingers. I just kept giving her looks but she was totally oblivious. Dare, however, wasn’t. I think he found it comical because he knew me and saw I was letting her away with it despite being mildly annoyed about it. As mildly annoying as it was, it meant there was a level of relaxation and familiarity between her and I that had come and I didn’t want to mess with that.
There were two other guys outside on patrol. We’d decided to move Dex and Nino up. Dex to Nino’s old job (previously Earl’s job) and Nino to Jimmy’s post, which was mixed security for the family and other shit that we needed someone we could truly trust on. Dare was briefing the security team at Pop’s house later.
When Nino arrived and reached for one of the XBOX controllers, Dare said to him, “We’ve gotta talk business with you. No gaming right now,” she just got up and cleared the food, kissed me, and then headed upstairs. I didn’t have to get her to leave the room. It was like she was made for this life. But I wasn’t keeping her in it. It was ending and tonight was going to be the beginning of that.
After a productive meeting with the guys, Dare and I strategized some more. We pulled an all-nighter and then Dare and I went to see Pop at around 7:00 in the morning. I drove us down there and then afterwards, dropped Dare off back at the office where he was gonna crash on the couch for a few hours.
As I came into the bedroom at around 9: am, I found Tia still asleep. I climbed into bed with her. She squirmed into me. She was naked.
“You’re naked,” I muttered into her ear.
She sleepily answered, “You weren’t here to give me a shirt. And so are you.”
“Good girl,” I said and pulled her tight against me.
She was breathing slow and steady and I decided to just let her sleep. I had a lot of shit on my mind. I thought back to Dare and I going to see Pop. He was awake and no longer had tubes in his throat.
“Boys,” he’d said hoarsely when he saw us.
“Pop,” we’d said in unison.
I’d sat in the chair beside the bed and my brother was leaning against the counter off to the side of the bed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Romero’s dealt with,” I said.
He nodded a little.
“Yeah,” I nodded, “They got Jimmy. He’s dead.”
“Dare told me yesterday,” Pop replied. I knew he knew this but needed to lead with that.
“Listen, Pop. I need autonomy. Now. You good with that?”
He nodded a little, “Of course, my boy. I can’t exactly do much from here.”
“For good, Pop.”
He winced and shifted a little, “For good?”
“Yeah, Pop. See, we found out some stuff we’re not too thrilled with. There’s a mess on our hands. My sister’s a widow. We need to clean up. You good with that?”
Pop swallowed hard and closed his eyes.
“We’re done dipping into the business you were in on in Morelia. We know it’s gone on elsewhere, too. It’s bad news. You interested in continuing that from your retirement villa, so be it. Me and Dare, we’re out. It has zilch to do with Ferrano Enterprises.”
Pop had looked to my brother and my brother nodded.
“Two against one, uh?” Pop snickered.
Dare piped up, “We don’t like some of what we found out, Pop. But we’re happy to continue with the existing business structure for now. Tommy and I have a few changes in mind but slowly we’ll make those changes so it doesn’t hurt the company and so it preserves relationships that have been built. We think it’s best we get you to sign over with lawyers. And you retire. Or, you don’t retire but we part ways with the business here. You made a deal that he got married he’d take over. He’s getting married so it’s time.”
I added, “You got a problem with us running things the way we want to run them, clean, we part ways now businesswise. You give us the reins you continue to get residuals of everything we decide to keep doing. You don’t, we leave it in your hands and we go do something else.”
Pop gave a slight shrug without looking us in the eyes, “We’ll talk after. Let me think about it.”
I didn’t like that one bit. It felt like a game I wasn’t interested in playing.
“Alright, Pop. Dare and I, we’ll be back in the morning. Sleep well. Glad you’re alright.”
Pop closed his eyes and my brother and I made our way out, nodding at the on-site security guard stationed outside his door.
Dare and I exchanged knowing glances on the way out. We didn’t like his attitude. He, clearly, hadn’t been thrilled with ours, either. He was a man used to calling the shots, a man who thought of his sons as his right and left hands, not as men who would pull a mutiny over on him.
Tia
When I woke up, Tommy was watching me sleep.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” he answered and his eyes twinkled.
“Isn’t it kinda creepy stalkerish that you were just watching m
e sleep?”
His mouth quirked up into a lazy smile, “I’ll stalk you to the ends of the earth, baby girl.”
I curled into him, knowing it was true but for the first time, not really feeling creeped out by it.
“I smell bacon,” I jolted upwards.
“Sarah’s here today,” Tommy said, “You go. I gotta sleep for a few hours. Wake me at 2?”
“How do you want me to wake you?” I squirmed against him friskily.
“Why don’t you try a few things now and I’ll pick my fave?” he suggested. I disappeared under the blankets and took his cock with my mouth. He let me finish him that way and it was empowering to watch and feel him shatter like that, his hands in my hair, his body trembling as he came. It was rare that he didn’t look after me in return so I didn’t feel slighted when he almost immediately fell asleep afterwards. He’d been running his fingers through my hair while my head rested on his belly and his hand just sort of flopped. I kissed his abs, kissed his chin, and then covered him up and headed to the bathroom for a shower.
A little while later, I found my way to the kitchen and sure enough, Sarah was making breakfast. She poured me a coffee and I sat at the breakfast bar and took a sip. I’d only seen her put one sugar in it. She just wasn’t giving up, was she? When her back was turned I put two more sugars in. She saw me do it and snickered at me.
We chatted amicably while she made breakfast and she smiled big at me when I got in there and started popping bread into the toaster. Tommy had come down, talking on the phone and walked into his office. His arm went around my waist as I was buttering toast and he scooped me against him, my back to his front, and leaned down and kissed my temple, “It’s only 10:00, honey, you should be sleeping!”
“Yeah, something’s come up. Looks like I’ll have to sleep when I’m dead.” He reached and snagged a piece of toast, “Call you later.”
“Kay.” I nuzzled back into his warmth, “Don’t get dead.” How this man could seriously function on zero sleep so often was beyond me!
“I won’t. Love you,” he said huskily into my ear and then kissed my lobe, leaned over and kissed me quickly on the lips and I told him I loved him too, and then he was gone.
Suddenly, it was like the life was being squeezed out of me. Sarah Martinez had her arms around me and she was shouting in Spanish while hugging me, hard.
“Whoa,” I laughed, taken totally aback, dropping the butter knife to the floor.
She was shouting to the ceiling in Spanish and then she kissed both of my cheeks and my forehead with a flourish.
The toaster popped so she let go of me, I got a fresh knife all red-faced, and she said, while wiping up the floor with a soapy paper towel, “I never thought I’d hear that boy tell a woman those words. You’ve been the prescription, Chiquita, the prescription.”
“Yeah, well it’s not all ice cream sundaes and walks on the beach, lemme tell ya,” I started and then stopped myself. I bit my tongue.
She gave me a knowing smile, “Peaks and valleys exist in all relationships. All marriages.”
Yeah, the peaks were high, the valleys deep. Dark and deep. Tommy and I being married would mean I really did have to take my ‘for better or for worse’ promise to heart.
Since it was just me, Sarah joined me for breakfast, teasing me about making eight pieces of toast for the two of us (but I was used to the bustle in the Crenshaw kitchen so had done that out of habit) and then I helped her clean up and she went over a bunch of stuff with me about running the household and gave me her cell number. She was planning to come by twice a week for half days to do some deeper cleaning but we figured I could handle the rest and if I couldn’t or wanted to change things, she was open to it. She also promised that when she did freezer meals for the girls she’d make batches for Tommy and I. She did a day of cooking once a month to put several entrees into everyone’s freezers. She was here to pack her room up as she was moving into Tessa’s now to help out for now and would be working between here, Luc’s, and Tessa’s. I offered to help her pack up her room. I had nothing else to do, really. We had a nice afternoon together.
Tommy texted me that afternoon and told me we’d have to wait until the following day to go to the farm. He said he’d be home late and told me not to wait up.
The next day we left to spend two nights up the hayloft and filled our time, making love, fishing, hiking, making love some more. He’d been sweet and attentive and we avoided talking about touchy subjects. We just took those few days to de-stress and it was mostly vanilla and totally…well…wonderful.
But the next day when we’d gotten back to the city, Tommy told me that he had to take off for about a week to clear up some stuff to do with his father. He wouldn’t tell me very much, just packed a bag, made love to me, and then he left. He told me he’d text me daily. He told me his brother was staying at the house while he was gone to keep an eye on things and keep me safe.
I stayed home the whole time, other than hanging by the pool. I baked, I watched Tessa’s boys one day, I played Miss Pacman, I burned through a half a dozen romance novels on the kindle app on my phone and computer, and not much else. It was really boring. Dario and I had a few meals together but he seemed pretty busy, pretty preoccupied, mostly spent his time in Tommy’s office.
Tommy and I had texting conversations daily. Most of it was just quick check-ins from him. On the fifth night I was in bed and hadn’t heard from him all day so texted, “Hope you’re okay. Love you. Miss you. Xo”
When I got his message back a few hours later, it woke me up,
Tommy: “Hey.”
Me: “Hey”
Tommy: “Whatcha doin?”
Me: “Zzz’ing. Dreaming about you. Missing you. You?”
Tommy: “Send me a pic of your face.”
Me: “I’ve been sleeping. I’ll look all sleepy and messy.”
Tommy: “Don’t care.”
I snapped a selfie with my lips puckered. Gah! It looked sleepy. I sent it anyway, “You asked for it.”
Tommy: “Gorgeous.”
I smiled and cuddled into the pillow, “Send me your face.” I wrote.
“Send me a pic of your boobs first.” He replied.
I laughed out loud and snapped a picture of my chest with a bit of cleavage and the use of my arms to squish my boobs together and up but I had a tank top on. I sent it.
“Naked boobs please…” He wrote.
I giggled, “I’m not that kind of girl.” I replied, “Send yours first and maybe a dicture (lol) I’ll think about it. ;0)”
“Dicture?”
“Dick picture. LOL.”
“You first.” He replied.
Then it hit me. What if this wasn’t him? I cringed and thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t sent a naked picture.
“Gimme the code word,” I replied, “So I know it’s really you!”
Five minutes passed. I started to feel sick. It’d been instant replies up until that point and now nothing. I dialed his number.
He answered, “Tia?”
“Hi!”
“Hey, Baby. It’s late. You still up?”
“I’m so happy to hear your voice.” I started to shiver.
“Me too. Miss you. Sorry I haven’t texted you today yet. Been a bit nuts. I should be home in 2, maybe 3 days, though. Why you up so late?”
“Tommy.”
“What?” His voice changed. He knew something was wrong, “What, Baby. What?”
I told him what’d happened.
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He growled, “I’ll deal. Go to sleep. Don’t stress.”
“Don’t stress?”
“No. I’m calling Dare. I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Kay,” I whispered.
“Tia?”
“Hmm?”
“Love you. Good catch.”
“Yeah. Love you.”
“Save the messages. My brother might need to look at your phone.”
We said goodn
ight. I didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night.
Who now? I couldn’t wait until all of this was over, until he got us out and away from the danger.
It was embarrassing when Dario went through my phone in the morning. Him seeing the banter and my silly kissing photo, not to mention the tank top with the cleavage and references to Tommy’s dick. Ugh. He’d gotten a call from Tommy at 2:30 AM when we’d gotten off the phone and looked very serious about the matter. He took my phone while we were at the island in the kitchen, perused the messages, his jaw got tight, and then he disappeared into Tommy’s office with the phone. I didn’t hear anything else about the matter and he gave me the phone back and told me to keep being vigilant about messages.
The night before Tommy was scheduled to come home, I woke up to an alarm blaring the house down. Burglar alarm?
I jumped out of bed and threw my robe on and climbed under the bed. There was only the knife strapped, Tommy hadn’t replaced the guns. My heart hammered in my chest and I wasn’t sure if by this point I should be permanently traumatized or starting to get numb to this sort of stuff.
When the alarms stopped, I heard the bedroom door open and my hand went to the knife. Then I hear Dario’s loud and panicked-sounding voice, “Tia!”
“Under the bed!” I called out.
“Come out,” he told me.
“What was that?” I scampered to my feet.
He had a gun in his hand, pointed at the floor and a ferocious-looking expression on his face. He walked over to the patio doors and checked the knobs. They were locked. He moved the blinds aside and looked out. Then he opened them and looked out. His whole body tightened for a second and then he turned around and looked at me. I was standing there, arms wrapped around myself but trying to get a read on his expression, which looked absolutely murderous, “Dario?”
“Get dressed.” He motioned toward the closet absently with the gun. I frowned, looked at it, then went in and put on a pair of jeans, a hoodie over my tank top and sleeping shorts. I slipped on my leather flip flops. I fastened an elastic band around my gathered up hair into a messy bun as I walked back out and then at his, “Follow me,” I followed him down to the office where a guy I didn’t know personally but had seen over at Tom Sr.’s house stood. He looked alert and at Dario, his arms folded across his chest. He gave me a polite nod.