Chapter 16
Devyn
“Oh,” I gasped, startled as someone moved in close to me. I glared at my sister as she stuck her head into the back seat of my car as I was bent over, grabbing the bag that had slid onto the floorboards. “Soph!”
“Sorry,” she said, pulling back. But the grin on her face said she wasn’t sorry at all. “Just thought I’d help you carry that up.” She took the bag from me before I could say anything.
“Thanks. You’re earlier than I expected.”
“Yeah. Managed to slip out before my supervisor caught me and asked me to stay late to take over one of May’s projects.”
We both rolled our eyes. May was one of Sophie’s co-workers and she was pretty much useless.
Sophie ended up doing most of her work just so it got done.
Sophie was biding her time. The day was coming when May would get fired, and we had a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge for that day.
It might sound mean, but this woman had made Sophie’s job a nightmare from the day she started there.
My sister was too kind to get her in trouble with the higher ups and wouldn’t tell her off.
So we waited. Celebrating over a couple glasses of bubbly was far less mean spirited than getting her canned, or so Soph claimed.
She’d ended up missing our family Christmas last year because May had waited until the last minute, then pitched a fit when she was told she couldn’t have the holiday off because she hadn’t requested it.
Sophie has pretty great bosses and managers, but they were suckers for tears and May had been quick to both turn on the water works and claim that everyone was out to get her.
You’d think she’d have picked one and stuck with it.
Her last turn of the knife had been claiming that she wanted to take her kid on a vacation for Christmas and everything was already booked.
Then she’d turned to Sophie and asked, “Could you take my shifts? You don’t even have kids.
The holiday can’t mean much to you.” Of course she said this with her expensive mascara tracking down her cheeks along with her tears, according to Sophie.
I’d about lost my mind when my sister told me what she’d said.
But she wouldn’t let me march down there and strangle the manipulative bitch.
Out of anyone in my family, Sophie wanted children the most. She’d almost made it down the aisle, ready to start her family since she’d found the perfect man.
And then he’d been killed in a car accident a month before her wedding.
That was seven years ago and I swear it still haunted her. And we all still grieved with her.
In fact, I’d been worried about her recently since I was starting my own family, though not with that perfect white wedding. That was probably giving my parents some sleepless nights, even though they were being nothing but supportive.
“Thanks for inviting me for a sleepover,” Soph said, shouldering her own overnight bag and my work duffel.
This wasn’t unusual for us. Often it was all five of us, but I had a couple things I wanted to talk to her about so tonight it was just the two of us.
“Thanks for coming and bringing food,” I told her with a grin as we stopped by her car and she handed me a box filled with delicious looking pastries.
She gave me an inquiring look. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to eat them.”
I shrugged. “Me either, honestly, but I’m going to try.
” My morning sickness was coming in waves right now.
It was the weirdest thing. At lunch I’d been so ravenous, I’d pounded down a green corn tamale, two churros, and a glass of prickly pear lemonade.
I hadn’t puked yet today and I was really hoping that I could keep it that way.
I was really getting sick of missing the lunches that Dutch made for everyone.
He was such a good cook. Dutch was our self-proclaimed chef and made the majority of the meals for the whole firehouse.
We’d given him the nickname thanks to his love of cooking—his full name was Dutch Oven, which was his most prized possession—but his wife swore it fit because of his habit of dutch ovening her.
Had to wonder which started first, a chicken and egg problem. Rotten egg anyway.
All the guys found it hilarious, so it’d stuck.
And for some reason Annie stuck with Dutch even though he relentlessly teased her.
The man was a gas ball and thought farts were the best weapon to use against his family.
Being a fireman, or just a man, he also thought farts were the height of comedy. They loved him. For some reason.
Then again, he was with us for great chunks of time too, thanks to their schedules.
So maybe they just missed him when he was on shift and therefore put up with his shenanigans.
My schedule had taken on a traditional nine to five once I’d become an inspector.
I actually missed the old schedule. The guys worked twenty-four hours on, and then had forty-eight off. It was nice having that much time off.
We made our way up the stairs to my apartment. My place was in a decent part of town, but the building was older. It did have an elevator, but I was trying to stick with the stairs as long as possible for the exercise.
“How are you feeling?”
“Decent for now,” I told her, shifting the box into one hand as we stopped outside my door. I dug in my purse for my keys. “I’m hoping that I’m coming out on the other side of this morning sickness stuff.”
She laughed. “You’ve had it for a couple weeks, Dev.”
“So?”
“For a lot of women it lasts the whole first trimester.”
I stared at her, my hand on the door knob. “You’re kidding.”
“And for others it lasts the whole-”
“Shut it!” I said, eyes widening. “Don’t even say that. Don’t put that out in the universe. I don’t think I can handle it.”
Her eyes softened. “You can, but you won’t need to.” Her voice was firm on the last half of the sentence.
We went inside and I put the sugary goodness onto the counter before flipping open the lid. “Can I have a donut now?”
Her voice came floating out from my bedroom, where she was putting away both our bags. We had a routine. “Absolutely! Eat as much as you want.”
“What do you want for dinner?” I asked, then took a large bite of a chocolate frosted donut. I groaned as the sugar and chocolate melted on my tongue. “Sooo good,” I whispered to myself.
Even if it comes back up later, totally worth it.
“You sound like you’re having an orgasm in here,” Soph teased as she walked into the kitchen.
“May as well be.” I licked chocolate off my thumb. “I’ve missed this.”
“Chocolate, or orgasms?”
“Both.”
“I bet.” She hopped up on my counter and pulled open a drawer. “What do you think you can keep down?” she asked, leafing through the take out menus I had stashed there.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” I told her. “Just order from wherever you want and if I can eat it I will.”
“And if you can’t?” she asked, her eyes lifting to mine.
“Then I’ll eat one of my three staples.” My lip lifted in disgust. I was pretty sure I wasn’t even going to be able to look at Ramen again after all this. But that, the corn dogs, and Mac ‘n’ Cheese were all I seemed to be able to keep down when my morning sickness was kicking my butt.
I polished off my donut while she called in our usual orders to a local Chinese food restaurant.
Motioning for her to follow, I went out to the living room and we sat.
She’d tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder and was carrying a bottle of wine and a glass.
I may not be able to drink wine right now, but I was just grateful my stomach seemed to be handling the snacks.
I wanted to eat that whole box of pastries.
There was an eclair in there calling my name, but it was best to wait to see how the donut affected me first.
“How was work?” I asked when she got off the phone.
She made a face. “The usual. May didn’t finish up mid-year reporting and it was everyone else’s fault. Never her own.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know how you put up with her.”
“Me either, honestly.” She waved a hand dismissively, “Enough about me. How are things going for you?”
“Fine.” I shrugged.
“I’m going to need more than fine. How are things going with Bolo?”
I laughed. “We already talked about this.”
“Over text,” she said. “I need it straight from you so I can see your face while you tell me.” She was studying me like I was a bug under a microscope.
“Actually…”
She sat up a little straighter, sensing from that one word that something new had developed, though she didn’t push. She let me consider my next words, waiting eagerly to find out what I hadn’t told her yet.
“You have to swear not to tell anyone else any of this.”
She frowned. “No one?”
I shook my head.
“Not Mom and Dad?”
Another head shake.
“Or the others.” The others being our sisters. Telling them was the same as telling Mom and Dad.
I shook my head even more violently. “No one, Soph.”
“Okay,” she said, worry in her gaze. “I won’t say anything.”
We didn’t keep secrets from our family, so I understood her concern. I had the same worry. “This isn’t my secret to tell, exactly.”
“I’m intrigued.” She poured herself a glass of wine.
Taking a deep breath, I just let it all spill out. It was like ripping off a bandage. Better to do all at once. It tumbled out of my mouth without pause, everything Bolo had told me about himself and his club. And that he’d had his brothers ‘looking out’ for me yesterday.
“Wait,” Soph said when I finally started to slow down. “Does that mean you’re in danger?”
“That’s what I asked. He said no, but that he wanted to make sure so he had them sitting here, watching my apartment.”
“That doesn’t sound like you’re not in danger then,” she pointed out.
“He was just being cautious.”
She frowned. “Not sure I like that. But I guess if they’re going to be involved in that kind of stuff they’ll need to make sure their own families are safe. What exactly does he mean by ‘they take care of the trash’?”
I shrugged. “He said there are bad people here and they clear them out.”
Her eyes narrowed and she pointed at me with her glass. “Yeah, see, but what does that mean? Exactly?”
“I don’t know,” I groaned. “I’m usually more detail oriented-”
She snorted in amusement and took a long sip of her wine.
“Shut it,” I told her with a laugh. I was a bit of an over-analyzer when it came to details.
It was why I was so good at my job. It was also why I’d been the official family trip organizer since I was fifteen.
We’d decide as a group where we wanted to go, Mom and Dad would give me a budget, and I would plan the entire itinerary.
Then they would book everything I suggested, as long as it stayed within the budget parameters.
Spoiler alert, I always stayed within the budget.
“It was just…overwhelming…I guess?” I shrugged. “All the questions came hours later. I couldn’t think of many in the heat of the moment. Plus, some of the questions…I don’t know if I want answers to them.”
“It isn’t every day that a guy tells you he’s a vigilante,” she said with a nod of understanding.
“Exactly.” I waved a hand at her. “It took some time to process it.”
“So, what do you think he means?”
I made a face. “I don’t know.”
“Do you think they just run them out of town? Or…”
“‘Or’ is kind of what I’m worried about,” I admitted.
She bit her lip as she thought about that. “What are you going to do about it, now that you know?”
“Now that I sort of know, but not really?” I asked with a half laugh.
She grinned and nodded.
“That’s where you come in,” I told her.
The smile slipped off her face. “Crap. Somehow if this goes sideways I’m going to get blamed for it, huh?”
“Yeah, probably.”
We both laughed. If tradition was accurate then we’d both end up in trouble with our parents. Didn’t matter that we were grown adults. We’d always be their kids and therefore subject to lectures.
Yay.