17.
F ISH
“I hear you’ve got some excitement going on down there,” Ajax said as soon as I answered the phone. “Want to escape the craziness for a few days and take care of a job for me?”
“I don’t know if I should leave right now,” I hedged as I looked over at Cat in question.
“Staying is not going to change anything. Besides, it may be good for you to get away and recharge for a few days.”
“The woman has been around your family too long if she considers going away for work as taking time to recharge .”
“Ajax is right,” Cat conceded. She was smiling when she asked, “Ajax, do you have any jobs coming up for me?”
“Honey, the only job I would ever have for you would be at a demolition derby, and I don’t have anything lined up in that area at the moment.”
Cat flipped off the phone and walked out of the room. I was still laughing when I told Ajax what she’d done, who thought it was just as funny as I did.
“So, are you in or out?”
“What does the job entail?”
“I need you to check out three addresses near you. We’ve got a runner with lots of contacts and clearing each of them, one by one, is making me nuts.”
“What was his bond?”
“Two mil.”
“Holy shit. What did he do?”
“White collar bullshit. He embezzled investors’ money and used it to buy things for his many girlfriends while keeping his wife in a modest three-bedroom in the middle of Atlanta.”
“Is she paying you to find him, or is the bondsman?” I asked sarcastically.
“They’re currently in a bidding war.”
“I’ll take it. Send me the information. I’ll leave tomorrow and then follow up on any leads I find.”
“Sounds good. Kiss those sweet little girls for me, and tell Bubbe that I’m still her one true love.”
“Fuck off, Ajax.”
“Grandpa. Call me grandpa.”
I could hear Sandi laughing in the background, and it irritated me that she found his teasing just as funny as he did.
When Cat came back into the living room, I held my hand out toward her, and when she took it, I pulled her onto my lap.
“I think we should stop talking to Ajax.”
“What he said wasn’t really that bad.”
“I’m talking about his constant reminders that Bubbe tried to make him my grandfather. What he said about your driving was God’s honest truth.”
“After what happened the other day, I don’t know if I want to drive anything ever again.”
“Honey, as much as I love having you as a passenger princess and as terrifying as the thought of you getting behind the wheel might be, this isn’t like Chicago where there are cabs everywhere. We’ve got Uber and the like, but the drivers are usually young as hell and their driving terrifies me almost as much as yours does. You’ll probably at least have to drive the golf carts or the Gators now and then.”
“I guess I will if I have to.”
“I don’t want you to feel like a prisoner in your own home, so I think you should keep your options open as far as getting around, and don’t get down on yourself because driving isn’t your thing. You can’t be good at everything , and being a bad driver is the only fault I’ve found so far.”
“Quit trying to flatter me to make me feel better.”
“I tell you that knowing there are at least a dozen things about me that you can’t stand in the hopes that you’ll find some mercy in your heart and let me live to see our children married and happy.”
“You’re digging deep, buddy.”
“I heard you tell Rachel that you go to sleep every night thinking about smothering me with a pillow.”
“It’s not every night.”
“God, I love you, Abbie-Cat.”
“How long will this job for Ajax take?” she asked.
“I’d say at least a week, if not longer.”
“It’s going to be weird not seeing you every day. I may start to miss you,” Cat said as she leaned forward and slid down to the floor. As she ran her hands up my thighs, running them up under the cutoff sweats I wore around the house, she said, “Will you miss me?”
“Of course I will.”
“How much?”
“Abbie-Cat, if you’re about to do what I think you’re about to do, I’m not going anywhere because I’ll die right here on the couch.”
Abbie laughed before she pulled the waistband of my sweats down and leaned forward to take my cock in her mouth. I moaned and let my head fall back against the couch as I enjoyed the feel of her mouth on me, taking her time and laving my cock with her tongue before she took me deep to the back of her throat.
I enjoyed her attention so much that I knew I wouldn’t last long, and when I told her that, she just laughed. So, as much as I hated to lose her mouth, I leaned forward and lifted her up onto my lap to straddle me. Cat laughed as she settled down against me, rubbing her panties along the length of my cock as she kissed my neck and whispered in my ear.
“You’re killing me, Cat, but what a way to die.”
Cat laughed again as she reached between us and lifted her sundress up so I could see her panties as she moved her hips to rub against me. As I took her mouth in a long kiss, I slipped my fingers along the edge of her underwear and pressed them deep inside her. Cat gasped and rode my hand until I knew she was as close to orgasm as I had been a few minutes ago.
I couldn’t take any more teasing, so I yanked at her underwear and tossed them aside before I plunged into her. Cat took over then, teasing me by going fast and hard for a few strokes and then slowing down and rocking back and forth. I reached between us to touch the pad of my thumb to her clit and rub it just the way I knew she liked.
It wasn’t long before she screamed my name, her body clutching mine until I came right along with her. When Cat collapsed against my chest with a sigh and muttered, “Yep. I’m dead,” it was my turn to laugh.
I kissed her neck and thought about getting up but couldn’t make myself lift her off me. I suddenly realized what we’d done and gasped.
“Shit, Abbie-Cat. Gotta get up.”
“Not happening, big guy. We’re gonna have to sleep just like this.”
“I forgot the condom.”
Abbie pushed herself up and stared into my eyes before she said, “This is the part where I wonder if I should jump up and run to the bathroom, terrified that you knocked me up, or if I should stay here and dream about what it might be like if you did.”
“What do you want to do?”
“The children in your family are feral and out of control, and since my children joined the flock, they’re quickly becoming the same.”
“Teething is normal, Abbie-Cat. There’s nothing wrong with Macaroni.”
“She prefers to gnaw on the couch cushions more than any gum soother I have bought so far. She’s already ripped the corner of one cushion, and the other two are looking pretty threadbare.”
“We can always buy a new couch.”
“That’s where you and I differ in parenting styles, Chai. You’re perfectly okay with it, and . . .”
“Like I said, babe, at least we can’t lose the couch, right? It’s not like her pacifiers that disappear into thin air.”
“You’ve never specifically said that you want more children, Chai.”
“I would like a house full of kids, Abbie-Cat, but we’re not going to be able to raise them here with my family.”
“Because you can’t live here?”
“Right. I’m not going to let anyone get in the way of me staying with my family every night, and if we stay here, that could be a real issue.”
“What if I find a way to fix that problem?”
“It’s in the rules, babe. They were set before Bubbe and Dodie even moved here.”
“Rules are meant to be broken.”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Right now, we need to think about the possibility . . .”
“I’m not at the right time of my cycle, although that’s not the best form of birth control.”
“But I don’t see you hopping up to do whatever it is that women do to . . .”
“Honey, once the little swimmers have taken off, there’s nothing you can do other than take the morning-after pill.”
“Do you want that pill?”
“I do not.”
“Then neither do I. If what we just shared turns into a baby, then so be it, but I’m going back to condoms from here on out until we figure out the housing situation.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Cat said as she started to move her hips back and forth. Even though it hadn’t been long since I came harder than I ever had before, I felt my cock spring back to life. “But since we already tempted fate, why not roll with it.”
“Just for tonight.”
“Yeah. Just for tonight.”
◆◆◆
I got back on my motorcycle, knowing full well that the man I was looking for was in that house. The woman at the door should never play poker because she had so many tells she’d never win a single game. However, it had worked in my favor because it meant that I’d have the guy we needed soon and finally be able to go home. A few days had turned into more than a week, and nightly video chats with Cat and the girls just weren’t cutting it.
Especially since all I could think about was whether or not Cat may be pregnant.
It wasn’t a worry so much as a hope, but I hadn’t admitted that out loud yet. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be a woman carrying an infant, and my imagination ran wild with what a child between me and Cat could look like.
Would he or she have my eyes or Cat’s? Would they have her lips or mine? What about our hair? Which one of us would win that genetic lottery? Would the baby have my brown hair and her blue eyes, or would it swap and have her blonde hair and my brown eyes? Those were questions that no one could answer but the baby itself - if there was even one on the way.
I meant what I said about moving, though. I was not going to raise my family on a boat unless I came across the money to buy one about three times the size of the one I was still paying for. I also was not going to “live” on the boat while I snuck into the house every evening to spend it with my family, only to sneak out in the morning to avoid the HOA spies.
Bubbe had been fined more than once already because the HOA had proof that I was staying inside her house, which was why I usually pulled out of the canals into the Gulf each night before I went to sleep. It was more distance than I liked, considering the trouble my grandmother and her sister could get up to on any given day, but it was far enough away to get those nagging harpies off Bubbe’s ass.
Ari had been able to keep the HOA at bay so far, but I knew that too many more infractions would mean trouble that was likely impossible to fight, so I went against Bubbe’s wishes and made sure I was out on the boat the majority of the time.
Until Cat came home with me, and then I couldn’t make myself stay away. Which meant that Marjorie was going to start getting notices and fines at some point, which I would happily pay, but that would start causing too many waves for her and Cat.
It didn’t help that Cat was already in hot water for running over the president of the harpies. Agnes Whatshername’s foot only got hurt because she realized that the petition she was trying to get signed was about me.
The woman really needed a hobby.
I pulled into the parking lot of a garage I’d seen when I drove into the neighborhood of the last contact and took a quick few minutes to make friends with the owner and head mechanic. He was amenable to taking a crisp hundred-dollar bill to watch over my bike for a while, maybe even a few days, if necessary. As soon as I knew it would be safe, I took off back toward the house where the target was hiding out.
I’d given him enough time to pack his shit, and I was sure that he’d be on his way as soon as the sun went down.
I found a spot on a bench at a bus stop a block away from the house and kept my eye on it as I called Ajax to let him know that I thought I’d found my guy. Luckily, Ajax trusted my instincts as much as I did and assured me he’d have the bondsman on the next flight out and would get back to me with his information so I could meet him at the nearest airport.
I watched the woman of the house start carrying bags and suitcases out to the minivan parked in the driveway and knew without a doubt that I was right. Our target was hiding inside, waiting for it to get dark enough to run.
I hung back probably longer than I should have before I made my way down to the house, but I was able to find a place to hide in the back of the van before he came out. I heard voices outside the vehicle and then a woman crying as a man said goodbye to her. He got into the van and headed north to whatever hiding spot he’d picked out this time.
We were about thirty minutes from the house when he pulled over and stopped. I peeked out to find that we were at a pay-by-the-hour motel in the seedier part of town. I sat still until he went inside to pay for a room and then unfolded myself from my cramped spot and got out of the van. I hid in the shadows while I waited for him to come back, then watched as he pulled around the building to park in front of his room.
He was busily trying to figure out which bag held his toiletries when I walked up behind him and shoved two fingers into his back as I grabbed his shoulder.
“You’re gonna be fucking still and do what your told, or you’re gonna need a doctor more than a hideout.”
“You can’t kidnap me! It’s illegal,” he whined.
“So is stealing other people’s money and then running from the law, yet here we are,” I retorted as I marched him into the hotel room. It didn’t take much effort to get the man tied up in the chair next to the struggling AC unit. I opened his suitcase to toss some of his clothes on the bed to sit on before I called Ajax to update him on the situation.
After a few minutes spent coordinating with the bondsman, it was decided that I would wait with the target in the hotel for him to arrive, which would luckily be by lunch tomorrow, instead of meeting at the airport.
“I need to pee.”
“And I need to be home with my family. We are all dealing with difficulties.”
“It’s against my civil rights to deny me access to the facilities.”
“You’re gonna have so much fun in prison,” I replied with a laugh. “They’re gonna eat you alive.”
“I think you watch too much television,” the man said in a snotty tone.
“Actually, when I served my seven years in the pen, I got to watch quite a bit of TV.” The man’s eyes locked onto mine and grew wide when I said, “If you make nice with your cellmate, you probably will too.”