Chapter 18 #2
And I got, Nice. Then, Thursday. 6:00. I’ll tell my girls. You tell yours.
Well, that was easy.
I texted the Angels.
My assignment complete, I got back to work.
Because peasant blouses didn’t pay for themselves.
* * *
About three hours into my shift, my apron buzzed with another text.
I nabbed my phone and saw a picture of the inside of Knox’s drawer at my pad.
As I was staring at it, I saw an incoming picture of the neat edge of the hang of Knox’s jeans in my closet.
I then got, Babe.
I burst out laughing.
When I could see through my humor, I typed, Deal: I do laundry, you do dishes.
Knox didn’t hesitate to reply, Deal.
We so totally had this partner stuff down.
I sent him emojis of a shirt, dress, jeans, bubbles, and ended it with a pink heart with yellow stars.
Knox replied with just a red heart.
Yeah, we were good at this.
I got back to work.
* * *
I was mildly upset that Knox told me he’d be waiting outside when I picked him up after work so I wouldn’t have the hassle of parking downtown and coming up to the office.
I was upset because the NI&S offices were lush and always worth a visit.
I was also upset because there was an ongoing beef happening between Shirleen (overall operations manager) and Marjorie (Phoenix branch manager), and although it was a longshot, I was hoping I could watch those two in action.
This hope was dashed when I saw Knox’s tall frame detach from where he was leaning against the side of the building when he caught sight of me in the Prius.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the expression on his face when he was walking up to my car because I wasn’t certain how to read said expression.
He folded in, leaned across to me, and we shared a peck before he sat back, buckled in and I checked mirrors to pull out into traffic.
I did this asking, “How’d that go?”
“Home,” he replied.
“What?”
“We’ll wait until we get home.”
Hmm.
Not a good sign.
“How was work?” he asked.
“You and me are old, but also new, thus we need to get some things down. As in, do you want to know when Tex threatens to do something crazy?”
“Yes, considering Tex never threatens to do anything. If he says he’s gonna do it, he’s gonna do it.”
Well then.
“What’d he threaten to do?” Knox asked.
“Disable Cheyenne’s car.”
For a second, nothing.
Then I felt him shift so he could pull out his phone.
“You know, if he does, we might not have to worry about her until she gets it fixed,” I remarked.
“Yeah. I also know Tex is an ex-con. He did his stint a long time ago, but he doesn’t need to get wrapped up in my shit and get his ass incarcerated again.”
True.
I heard a text swoosh before I asked, “Do you think you can stop him?”
“Hell no. That text was to Mace.”
“Okay. With that intel, I’ll amend. Do you think Mace can stop him?”
“I think Mace will tell Stella. Stella will call Jet. Jet will call her mom. And Nancy will deal with Tex.”
This was very convoluted, and diabolically genius.
“You’re so smart.”
He trailed a finger down the outside of my thigh.
Yum.
“Feeling better?” I asked.
“It was good to have a chill day. Though, being sedentary that long means I need to start pushing it, just more gradually.”
I’d allow that.
Since his work wasn’t far from the Oasis, we did the “what are you thinking about for dinner” thing the rest of the way home (yes, we meal planned, but we’d also shopped, so there were options—we decided on meatloaf). Knox plugged in my car. We headed up. I took Jacques out.
When we got back, Knox was in the kitchen taking a long tug of a beer from a bottle I noticed was already half empty.
I already deduced his convo with the team unsettled him, but that was a further sign it absolutely did.
I got the leash off Jacques. He went to go say hi to Knox, and I hiked my ass up on one of my bar stools opposite my guy.
“Hit me with it,” I encouraged after he straightened up from giving Jacques some pets.
He rested the bottle on the counter but didn’t take his fingers from around it.
And he started, “I shouldn’t be surprised, they’re a lot farther than I thought.”
“What?”
“In fucking my family completely,” he elucidated.
It was both awed and freaked when I echoed my, “What?”
“Lee is here. So is Hector. Hector used to be DEA. For a variety of reasons, he’s kept his ties strong with ex-colleagues.
And since I got shot, Lee and Hector have been single-minded in succeeding in the mission of neutralizing my family.
” Emotion moved over his face that tore at my heart at the same time it fed it. “You don’t mess with one of Lee’s men.”
He’d never had that, someone stepping up for him.
Not since his mom left.
“Honey,” I whispered.
“He’s pissed. And a man like Lee pissed is fuckin’ something. It isn’t that Mace isn’t pissed, all the guys. But Lee’s in the fuckin’ zone.”
“What’s happening?”
“They’re talking to the cartels.”
Wait…
“What?” And yes, that came out as a screech.
“Not direct. Hector’s doing some behind the scenes shit. Lee’s riling up some rival players. They’re playing both ends against the middle. Endgame: either the cartels deal with them, or their rivals take them out.”
“Take them out…” I let that hang.
“Outside NI&S involvement being cloaked, none of this is under radar. If they’re smart, my family I mean, they’ll see the writing on the wall and make moves to get clear. Those moves being going somewhere remote and disappearing. If they’re not, they’ll face the consequences.”
I studied his expression, and I did this thoroughly before I asked, “Are you okay with that?”
He slid his beer across the countertop while he bent over to rest on his elbows.
Once in position, he explained, “Baby, this has always been my life. I think it might be part of why Mom left Dad. People in these careers do not have a long shelf life. Honest to God, every day I woke up, I did it wondering if Dad or one of my brothers would bite it. One of my uncles. Crew and Poe’s friends. And sometimes, Luna, they did.”
Were those tears springing to my eyes?
They were.
But who could blame me?
I detested it that this was the life he’d lived.
Reaching to him, I took his hands in both of mine.
“How did you survive that?” I asked.
“I had no choice,” he answered.
I squeezed his hands.
He turned the one without the beer in it and caught mine.
“That’s not to say I don’t have any feeling about this.
I don’t want any of them dead. They’re my family.
I don’t want anything to do with them, but I don’t want them dead.
It’s just that I came to terms with the fact this was the life they chose.
” His jaw hardened. “Even, recently, Gypsy.”
I wasn’t so sure he was committed to that declaration when it came to Gypsy, but I didn’t prod at it.
And since there was nothing to say, I didn’t say anything. I just held his hand all the tighter.
“The thing that’s messing with me is how balls to the wall Lee, Hector and Mace are going at this.”
“Why is that messing with you?”
“They run a business, Luna. And all three have dropped everything to focus on this.”
“And if it was one of the other guys who was in your position, would you find that surprising?”
That shut his mouth.
But I answered for him. “No, because you’d be all in to do it with them.”
It took him a second, and more to reply, and in those seconds, I wasn’t sure he’d let whatever was in his head loose. Something I was right then remembering happened often in phase one of our relationship, I didn’t go after it hard enough, and it fucked us up.
So I prompted, “Honey, please give it to me.”
He gave it to me.
“I find it hard to be in the fact that I earned their respect like this.”
I clenched my teeth.
I struggled with tamping down images of mental violence against the faceless people who were his family.
I bested that and said, “I hope you get used to it, because you did. You earned it. Those men love you.”
He squeezed my hand and put an end to this by gently tugging his other one from my grip so he could take another pull from his beer.
I let him do that. He needed time with all of this to understand what it meant.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to keep a close eye on him while he processed it.
“Sorry, baby,” he muttered when he’d dropped the bottle back to the counter again. “I didn’t ask if you wanted one.”
“I’ll have some wine with dinner.”
He jutted up his chin and then said, “Rounding out the afternoon in the office. Mace cleared me to come in a few hours a day to sit in the control room and keep an eye on the monitors. That is, he cleared me to do that for the next two days. My ass will be in the control room or at a desk for the next two to four weeks.”
I winced because I knew that wasn’t a thrill he was looking forward to.
Knox kept talking.
“It’ll get me out of the house, and I appreciate that. He doesn’t want me there longer than four hours until I’m medically cleared. But that work requires concentration, not action, and he knows I’m going fuckin’ stir crazy hanging around the house all day.”
“Okay.”
“And I talked to Brady. We’re having beers after work tomorrow.”
This was good and made me hopeful.
This was also good because it cleared me to go eat borscht.
What was bad was that now I had to share with him I was going to eat borscht.
I started this convo by inquiring, “I know we’ve committed to honesty, sharing, communicating, and when the need arises, letting it all hang out.
That all may seem the same, but I think we understand the nuances.
However, like we sorted laundry and dish chores, I think we may want to talk about how honest we expect each other to be. ”
His eyes narrowed.
Hmm.
“As in, if the Angels have business, do you want the particulars of that business?” I clarified.
“Yes,” he replied swiftly and inflexibly.
“Okay, well, while you have beers with Brady and sort yourselves out…”
He stared hard at me.
“…the girls, and Titus,” I hastened to add Titus in there, “are going to the Red Bear for dinner.”
I sat on my barstool, watching in horrified fascination as his nostrils flared, contracted, flared again (you get the picture) while he struggled with this information.
In order to assist him with his struggles, I shared, “This move is threefold. One, Dimitri asked us, and it wouldn’t be good to dis him on an invitation.”
That was weak, I knew it, Knox knew it, so I carried on.
“Two, regardless of who he is and what he does, he’s an ally. We don’t know him very well. We’re currently missionless, but you never know when you’re going to need someone. We’re going to strengthen our relationship.”
Knox’s nostrils flared again.
I socked him with the last.
“And I was hoping he’d hear me out about going to Gypsy and explaining you’re off limits to all of them. I figure that message coming from Dimitri wouldn’t be ignored.”
“I do not want that guy taking my back,” Knox said through his teeth.
“Okay then, we won’t broach that.”
Knox didn’t reply.
I gave him time.
He took it…and more.
“We need to be on the same page with this kind of thing, honey,” I told him carefully.
“I know you don’t like me around these kinds of people.
I can promise I won’t start hanging at the Red Bear on the regular.
Titus will be with us, and you know he wouldn’t let anything happen to us.
We’re not asking Dimitri to have a sleepover and braid our hair.
This is business. Not paid, not professional, but I think you understand what I’m saying. ”
“I do,” he pushed out.
“Are we going to have a problem with this?” I asked hesitantly.
“Cap lived on the streets, and now Cap deals every day with shit going down on the streets. He wants Raye taking on the streets like he wants a hole drilled into his head. She lost Macy. She’s on a mission she can’t control. It’s part of who she is.”
“Like all of you guys,” I put in.
“Like all of us guys,” he stated.
“Like me,” I whispered.
Knox gave that a tick to absorb before he spoke again.
“He hates what she does, but he loves that’s a part of her. So he finds it in himself to deal.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
He held my gaze then lifted our joined hands to press his lips to my fingers.
I let out a sigh of relief.
He put our hands back to the counter and said, “You need us, you don’t hesitate to call on us.”
“We always would. Swear. And I definitely would. Swear.”
He kissed my fingers again.
“It’s a little early, but do you want to start dinner?” he asked.
“You hungry?”
“I could eat.”
“Then let’s start dinner.”
Knox let me go.
I jumped off my stool and rounded the bar.
Then, together, we made dinner and ate it in front of a game on TV.
Or Knox was watching TV.
I texted with Alexis to see how she was faring after the drama.
She was hurt but hanging in there.
And I could tell, not even what happened could make her less excited to be officially hitched to Jacob in T minus five days.
The hallmark of true love.