11. “Love Story”
ELEVEN
“LOVE STORY”
(TAYLOR SWIFT)
T hat evening, I was in the kitchen at SC, pulling big sheets of plastic wrap from industrial-size boxes to cover my fresh-from-the-oven pigs in a blanket, when Jessie stuck her head in from the staff room.
“Javi’s outside,” she told me.
I got happy warm all over and smiled at her.
“When you go out, can you tell him I’ll be right there?” I requested.
Eric appeared out of the shadows at her back. He was her ride that evening.
He was wearing a very un-Eric-like scowl.
Javi and I could have taken her home to the Oasis, and I offered this, but apparently, Eric didn’t want Javi’s bodyguard attention split in two, so he nixed this idea.
Inner caveman indeed.
It was gas wasted, but if he wanted to be assured his woman was covered, who was I to argue?
“Will do. See you at the Oasis,” she said and ducked out, Eric disappearing with her after giving me a chin lift.
Yeah.
Totally caveman.
I quickly finished up with the pigs, covering the plastic in foil in an effort to keep them a modicum of warm before I hurried to grab my bag from my locker, back I went to the kitchen for the platter, then I headed out.
Javi hadn’t dropped the groceries for me to make them. When I texted what I needed, he texted that he was “on something” and couldn’t get away, so Cody was going to drop the stuff.
Cody did.
He didn’t seem happy about it, but he did.
I ducked into the kitchen forty-five minutes ago to do my duty for the Oasis meet.
And now I was walking out the door, balancing my platter, watching Javi jumping down from his truck that was idling just outside.
“Hey,” I greeted when I got to him.
He took the platter from me, opened the back door to the cab, placed it on the floor, closed the back door to the cab, hooked an arm around me, hauling me flush against his body.
He dropped his head, kissed me dizzy, lifted his head and replied, “Hey.”
My toes were curled, my legs were trembling, and I was thinking maybe I was that girl who jumped into her feelings instead of being careful. That girl who lived her life doing what felt good, understanding there might be consequences, but willing to take the risk.
While I was still evaluating this, Javi asked, “Good day?”
“Dream came by today.”
Although I hadn’t noticed Javi having any direct involvement with Dream (and trust me, I would have noticed, since I noticed everything about Javi), his eyes still clouded over, such was the long arm of Dream’s bad attitude.
“On a scale of one to ten with Dream interactions, it was around a one point five, so it was okay,” I assured.
“Luna good?”
The perfect question.
I mean…
He was such a nice guy!
“Yeah, she’s good.”
He nodded, moved his arm to round my shoulders, and then he guided me to the passenger side of his truck.
He opened the door, reached in to grab a bag that was on the seat, handed it to me, then helped me up into the cab.
I juggled the bag while I put on my belt and Javi shut the door.
He was in, belted up, and we were on our way when I lifted the bag and asked, “What’s this?”
“Look,” he replied.
Did he…
…buy me a present?
Oh em gee !
I loved presents!
I dug into the bag. I shoved aside the wads of tissue.
And then I gasped.
Loudly.
I also pulled out the striped glass mushroom.
So, it wasn’t the exact same. It wasn’t green and white.
It was pink and white.
So it was even better!
“Oh my God, Javi!” I exclaimed, turning to him. “How did you find it?”
“I typed ‘striped glass mushroom local’ into Google.”
He did a Google search for me!
I didn’t even think—what he’d done was just so sweet, so incredibly thoughtful—I stretched myself to the limit in order to kiss his jaw.
“Baby,” he whispered as I moved away.
God, I loved his rough, deep voice, especially wrapped around that word when he was directing it to me.
“Thank you,” I said earnestly.
“It’s not a big deal,” he replied.
I settled happily in my seat (yes, this required a little bouncing, sue me, Javi got me a new mushroom!) and looked out the windshield.
I then proclaimed, “It is to me.”
There was a vibe humming in the cab that felt strange, so I turned back to him.
He was also staring out the windshield, obviously, since he was driving, but a muscle was dancing in his cheek.
My heart squeezed.
“Did I say something wrong?” I asked quietly.
Not taking his eyes off the road, he reached a hand to me. Making sure my mushroom was safe, I took it.
Only then did he reply, “No, Harlow.”
“I—”
I barely got that out before Javi cut me off. “I’m just glad you like it.”
I was sensing he didn’t want to dive deep into whatever was going on with him, so I said, “Okay.”
His hand gave mine a squeeze and he let me go.
“Did you have a good day?” I asked.
“Had better.”
Oh no.
Maybe the weird vibe in the cab was because something happened that day.
I tested the waters. “Everything okay?”
“Nope.” He said shortly. “Last night, Cody was in the control room, and he was supposed to be monitoring the cameras. Not sure what he was doing. Am sure he was jacking around. He missed the guy breaking into your place.”
Oh boy.
“Mace reamed his ass,” Javi continued. “Though he was a lot more cool about it than I would have been, and not just because this was about you.” He shook his head. “Cody’s skating. I’m not certain he’s committed to doing his part to be a productive member of our team.”
Hmm.
I was seeing where he was coming from.
After they lost two of their brothers, NI&S had taken on the remaining Shadow Soldiers, Javi, Jeff (Jessie’s brother) and Cody.
But back then, they were his soldiers. Javi’s.
So Cody messing up reflected on Javi.
Or it didn’t, but Javi might take it that way.
“Mace is a badass,” Javi kept on. “But he isn’t a hardass.
Moses, who manages the control room, is a hardass.
That’s his space. His responsibility. Cody is directly under him.
The man is solid, totally cool when shit is good.
Patient. Generous with wisdom. You fuck up, not so much.
You fuck up when it comes to protecting a woman, seeing as he loves his wife and two daughters and he gets how big that is, he was rightfully pissed. ”
I couldn’t think of what to say, so I said, “Oh man.”
“I was pissed too,” Javi told me. “Cody’s my boy. I taught him better than that.”
Ugh.
He was totally taking this as reflecting on him.
I reached out a hand and squeezed his thigh.
When I was going to take it away, Javi laid his hand on mine, so I left it where it was.
And then he kept speaking.
“He’s the youngest. We got former military guys in that crew.
There are men with a lot more experience, a shit ton more skills, and to get those, they paid their dues.
They’re used to ranks and earning your way up them.
I ran my boys like a brotherhood. All for one, one for all kind of shit.
This isn’t like that. You gotta prove yourself.
Youngest, least experienced, Cody thinks he’s getting all the shit work, when he doesn’t see it’s part of his training. He’s acting out, which is fucked up.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with him.
“Piling on that, this was about you,” Javi continued.
“He left you vulnerable. He should have seen that guy go in. He should have seen him go out. The man was in your place for seventeen minutes. Plenty of time to call a team to go in and catch him in the act. He knew a man got dead just the night before. He knew the stakes we’re playing against. I don’t know what was in his fuckin’ head. ”
I didn’t either, and since Cody was the one of all of them I knew the least, I didn’t have an opinion (though, now his surly mood when he dropped off the groceries was explained).
The only thing I could do was give Javi’s hard thigh a squeeze and say, “I’m sorry.”
“Mace made it clear when we came onboard, he’s not a one strike and you’re out kinda guy.
He knew we had our gig. He knew he’d have to wean us off the way we did things and get us straight with the way they did.
He’s willing to give grace. But he also isn’t a three strikes guy.
The shit we do means you can’t be a fuckup.
Which means Cody fucks it again, he’s gone. ”
I could imagine, one of his brothers being axed from the team was a really big thing for Javi.
“I’m so sorry, Javi. I don’t know what to say.”
“I’ll talk to him,” he grunted. “Hopefully, he’ll get his head out of his ass.”
“Hopefully,” I mumbled. Louder, I asked, “So you got the guy on tape, anything else?”
Another shake of his head. “No one knows who he is. We got Brody doing some facial recognition shit, but he walked up from the street, so we didn’t get a make on his vehicle. Only things we got was gender, male, race, white, and build, medium.”
That wasn’t much.
“Right,” I said.
“He might have made a mess, because he was in a hurry, but the break-in wasn’t one. It was professional. So we also got that.”
I wasn’t sure what to think about this news.
I guessed it was good, if I had to be broken into, it was by a professional.
His fingers curled around mine. “We’ll figure it out, babe.”
I had no doubt.
He drove the rest of the way to the Oasis holding my hand and again parked on the street.
When we hit the courtyard, we saw everyone milling around already, and someone (probably Bill or Zach) had confiscated people’s outdoor seating to create a makeshift meeting area with rows of mismatched outdoor furniture.
The tables were groaning with food, with Jessie at one, shaking a cocktail shaker.
Javi took my mushroom, handing me the platter he was carrying, and said, “I’ll drop this in your pad.”
With that, he stepped away.
I didn’t bother asking him how he’d get in without a key. These men had ways.
I put down my platter, uncovered it, and Martha was there piling three pigs on her plate.
Told you they were popular.
I went to Jessie. “What’s your cocktail of the evening?”
She quirked a smile at me. “The Fallen Angel.”