25. Tim
25
TIM
REUNION
W e head downstairs the next morning to find my bar closed up. The floors have been mopped. The chairs have been stacked. The pool cues are neatly arranged on the green-top, and every glass in the place has been washed, dried, and placed until they’re pulled out again tonight.
Daisy was the best investment I ever made as far as this place goes. She could ask for a seven-figure salary, and I wouldn’t tell her no.
“Are you attracted to Daisy on a sexual level?”
“For fuck’s sake.” I wrap Aubree up and drag her beneath my arm, crushing her against my ribs as I yank the front door open and step out into billowing snow and inches-high sludge on the sidewalk. “Well, this is shit weather.” I force her right, then back in through a glass door.
“You didn’t answer my question.” She grins wide and anchors her hand on my opposite hip as we start upstairs. “She’s very pretty.”
“She is pretty.” But I tangle my hand in her hair and tug her head back until our lips clash. “Objectively, that is. Jessica Alba is pretty, too. But you’re the prettiest.”
“You think you were helping your case,” she drawls, stumbling up a step, but not falling. Because I refuse to let her go. “But now you’ve gone and added another name to my list.”
“A list of what? Pretty women?”
“A list of pretty women I have to hurt, because you like them and I don’t share very well. It’s odd, really, that I have seven siblings, but I never learned the art of division.”
“Pretty sure Jessica Alba deserves your mercy. We’ve never met in person, and even if we did, I’d still choose you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Mmhmm. And Daisy?”
Jesus Christ on a unicycle . “Daisy is my friend. She’s my employee. She’s really fuckin’ good at her job, and I hope she sticks around forever, because for as long as she’s working for me, I’m not chained to that bar. And now that I’m a married man whose wife works a standard nine to five, I’d rather be with you in the evenings, and not with a hundred drunk cops who chose the bar over going home to their families.”
“ We choose the bar over going home. Often. At least four nights out of seven.”
“Yeah, but you’re there to see me.” I pull her in and press a kiss to her supple lips. “What are you telling them?”
She pauses for a beat, as though to process my question, then she glances upstairs as we approach the third-floor landing. “I’m telling them you broke the law, forged a federal document, coerced me into a marriage I never asked for, failed to buy me a diamond as bribery, and yet, here I am, still sticking around like a punk.”
“You pick the diamond.” I drag her in and kiss her temple. “Any kind. Any size. Any price.”
“Because buying a woman’s love never backfired on anyone in the past.” She smirks and glances up when Minka’s apartment door opens and Cato steps out, his wild smile dropping away to something coated in disappointment.
“It’s just you.” He holds the door and waves us in.
“Good to see you too,” Aubree drawls. “My morning is infinitely better now that you’ve welcomed me in with such a warm, brotherly embrace.”
“You want me to hug you, doc? Minka would warn you against it. I grab ass every time.”
“Grab mine,” she taunts, “and I’ll rearrange your testicles. Did I ever tell you how we remove them for autopsy?”
“Nope. But Mayet did.” He presses his massive basketballer hand to the back of her head and pushes her into the apartment. If he was any other dude, any other time or place, I’d slit his fuckin’ throat and bury him in the woods. But he’s Cato, and somehow, he manages to go untouched by the shit he does .
Maybe these are the lessons he’s supposed to learn, but we let him get away with it.
Maybe we’re setting the prick up for something worse in the future.
Cheery thought.
“Coffee.” Aubree announces her arrival and makes a beeline for the machine on Archer’s counter. “Morning, Bestie.”
“You can just call me Minka. Or Boss.” Minka follows her second into the kitchen and leaves Archer leaning against the back of the couch. “ My Liege also works. Or Duchess has a nice ring to it.”
“Minka will do.” Aubree fills her mug almost to overflowing, then she pours a little into Minka’s to top up what’s already consumed. “Any word on the Booth case? No, wait…” Her tone changes in an instant. From bored curiosity to sharp rage. I turn to the door, expecting a fucking war to siege through. But Aubree sets her coffee down and stalks across the apartment instead. She cocks her arm back, winds her shit up, and slams her fist to Archer’s shoulder with a grunt of anger.
He doesn’t move a single inch.
But his brows pop high on his forehead. “Issue, Doctor Emeri?”
“Don’t you Doctor Emeri me, Detective Asswipe! You knew he had Cordoza marry us and you said nothing?”
Panicked, his eyes swing to mine.
“You knew!” she hits again. “Married against my will? That is a violation of human rights, and you are a cop!”
“Ow! Stop hitting me.” He grabs her wrist and turns her around so she can’t keep swinging. “And I didn’t do anything.”
“No shit you didn’t do anything! The first step would have been to arrest the man who admitted to a crime.”
“You married her without her consent?” Minka gasps. “What?”
“Oh shush,” Archer chuckles. “You know. I told you.”
“I knew.” Minka brings her coffee up and snickers behind the lip of the mug. “He told me last night. Congratulations, Doctor Emeri. This is a testament to the power of manifestation.”
“I would have liked to be involved in my own wedding!” She glares across at me, like we didn’t already hash this out. “I’m allowed to like someone without it turning into a whole thing where consent no longer matters and?—”
“Which one of you told her, anyway?” I look to Archer. “She knew, and I sure as hell wasn’t the one who squealed.”
“Wasn’t me. I came home last night, medicated my wife, and went to bed. Now we’re awake and the rapture has arrived.” He accepts Minka when she crosses the room, grinning when she brings him coffee and a warm body to wrap himself around. “Maybe it was Fletch? He said he’d snitch if you didn’t tell her.”
“It wasn’t Fletcher,” Aubree grumbles. “But at least he had good intentions. What’s happening with the Booth Bay shooting?”
“Not our case. But the detectives are short-listing their suspects. We’re starting to think it came from above.”
“Above?” I move closer to Aubree and drag her against my chest when she’s not really sure where else to go. Because maybe we know who we are behind closed doors, but no one really knows what we are outside those four walls. Together? Not? Fighting? Married? Do we touch in public, or are we still just the couple who sleep in the same bed and read books sometimes?
I know the answer. So I press a kiss to her temple to let everyone else know, too.
“Above what?” She slips her free hand into my back pocket and rests against my side. “Above Booth?”
“Yeah. We’ve known all along he’s reporting to someone else,” Archer explains. “Ever since he popped up and messed with Fletch’s ex, we knew he was a mid-level gangster. And every mid-level gangster has a dude higher up calling the shots. No one has been able to pinpoint who that person is yet, but Detective Bird’s informant swears he heard rumors that Booth is leaving too much of a trail behind, especially after he fucked with a cop’s wife. Only an idiot brings that kind of smoke into his own house. Whoever he reports to, this guy who clearly prefers anonymity, is quickly becoming intolerant of Booth’s fuck ups.”
“He’s violent,” Minka adds. “Nathan Booth is especially vicious. And though no gangster is pleasant, the one with a short fuse is dangerous not only to the public, but to his own organization.”
“He had someone slam Aubree against a wall on her way home last night.”
“What?” Minka shoves away from Archer and stalks across the room, stopping in front of us and grabbing Aubree’s chin in her hand. “Booth approached you?”
“One of Booth’s guys. And he didn’t slam me anywhere,” she explains with a grumble. “He crowded me against the bricks and said some stuff.”
“What stuff?” Cato hip bumps Minka aside and pushes Aubree’s sleeves up. To check for bruising, I suppose. To look for damage. “Why the fuck is he coming at you? And why,” his ferocious eyes sling to me, “is he still alive?”
“Because she threatened divorce if I walked out the door to kill a man.” I brush his hands off and keep her all to myself. Mine to hold. Not his. “It was at that point that I found out that she knew about my deal with Cordoza.”
“Yeah, the deal where you had the Godfather do you a favor.” Minka rolls her eyes. “Smart.”
“You can’t let the threat of divorce deter you from doing what needs to be done,” Archer growls. “They’re gonna use that word a million times between now and eternity. Minka says she’s filing at least once a day. If I let that stop me, I’d never get anything done.”
“You are a cop!” Aubree snaps. “And he’s discussing murder. Does no one else see an issue with this?”
“I’m his brother first.” He balls his fists and looks Aubree up and down. “Why did Booth’s guy approach you? Because of Tim?”
“Because of her brother,” I answer, though she turns to stone in my arms. “Duane owes a gambling debt to Booth. Booth went into stupid mode yesterday after the shooting, so he mobilized his soldiers and had them collecting. Duane can’t afford his debt.”
“So you pay it,” Cato snarls. “Easy, dude. Pay the debt and walk away. Keeps her safe, keeps her baby brother out of the ground.”
“He has paid the debt,” Aubree explains. “Multiple times. But my brother is a dummy and continues to repeat his mistakes. Booth enjoys letting him gamble, knowing he’ll lose and owe him. It’s a game, and Duane has yet to face any real consequences for the things he’s doing.”
“So Booth’s guy threatens Aubree last night,” Minka sneers, “she comes home, tells you, you wanna go out and bloody a man, but she won’t let you. And now… you’re here? That’s it?”
“And now we’re here,” Aubree answers. “He didn’t go out last night to hurt anyone.”
“Well, your brother is probably dead then,” Cato quips. “Sorry, cutie. That’s how these things go. And the one person who could protect him was being held captive by a ball and chain.”
“He’s not dead! Jesus. You’re all so dramatic. He’s a money cow to Booth, and Tim is the teat they continue to squeeze from. Why would they kill my brother and cut off a source of revenue so quickly?”
“So you’re allowing this cycle to continue?” Minka questions. “Duane gambles, Tim pays, Booth threatens you, and life goes on?”
“No! I’m breaking the cycle and allowing my brother to learn from his mistakes. He’ll call me in an hour or two, I’ll find out what happened, then we’ll be better people because of it.”
“ Jaysus .” Cato spins on his heels and stalks to the apartment door when footsteps outside echo on the stairs. “Brass balls and a metric ton of naiveté. Fun! You’re gonna have a blast married to Miss Sweetcakes over here.” He swings the door open and beams. “McStinkerson! I knew you’d be by soon.”
“I’m Mia!” Fletch’s four-year-old daughter shakes her father’s hand off and sprints for her next favorite guy. “ And I had a shower today!” She makes a show of sniffing her own armpit. “See!”
“Eww!” He buries his nose against her neck and blows. “Poo-wee! You stink.”
“I don’t stink,” she cackles, beating the top of his head with a red Care Bear. “Are we having pancakes for breakfast? Daddy said we could.”
“I’ll cook you pancakes. ‘Cause you’re my favorite girl on the planet, and if that’s what you want, then that’s what you get.”
I watch the door as Fletch steps through. Not as withdrawn as usual. Not as tired, considering he’s a single dad to a rambunctious kid, healing from a bullet wound, and ex-husband to an actively addicted and spiraling woman who, right now, is probably sucking Booth’s cock.
I lift my chin in greeting. But his eyes are on my arm, wrapped over his friend’s shoulder.
Because maybe she’s mine. But hell, they’re friends outside of us. Which means she’s his, too.
A little, at least.
“Blink twice if you’re being held against your will.” He comes around and smiles at Aubree. “Blink three times if I need to put a blade in his belly and bury him someplace no one will find him.”
“Blink once if you knew I was married and didn’t tell me.” She surges forward and slams her fist to his chest, knocking him back a step and growling when his eyes swing to mine. “Don’t look at him! Look at me. You knew, and you said nothing?”
“I knew for like, five minutes! And I told him to tell you. If you didn’t know by close of business today, I probably would have dropped the news.”
“You could have called me the very second you heard! That’s what loyal people do.”
“She acts mad, but the way she tells it, she knew ever since Felix’s wedding.” I set my hand on her ribs and pin her to my side. “She’s not as angry as she’d have you believe. ”
“I have different levels of angry for different people, depending on their station in my life.”
“Stations?” Cato snickers. “What are you? The queen?”
Yes. She is. That’s the fuckin’ point.
She glances up and holds my eyes, searching like she can somehow read the words passing through my mind. But then she settles on a smile and rests her cheek over my heart. “I’m experiencing mixed feelings about everything that’s happening in my life right now. So I’m dealing with each layer as they come up. I’m neither enraged nor thrilled to be married. But I’m pissed my friends kept such a massive a secret from me.”
“For a night.” Fletch rubs his chest. “Give a man a minute to process the news himself. I was gonna pass it on.”
“I have a running race at school today,” Mia announces. “And I’m the fastest person in my grade.”
“Bet you are,” Cato agrees seriously. “And the smartest. The prettiest. The silliest. And the best reader too, I reckon.”
“I can read! I moved up to level three books and everyfing .”
“Because you’re a genius.” He plops a noisy, juicy kiss on her cheek and earns a giggle from the little girl. “Anyone giving you trouble at school yet, McStinkerson? Because I don’t know if you know, but I’m a very powerful man. Which makes you a very powerful little girl. The most powerful in that entire school. You make the order, and I’ll take care of business.”
“Can we not indoctrinate a cop’s daughter into the mob just yet?” Fletch stomps across the kitchen and snatches her into his arms. “She’s only in kindergarten, dude. Give her time to decide if she’ll use her powers for good or evil.”
“I’m good, Daddy!” She squeezes him and the bear into a hug. “I’m definitely gonna be good.”