Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
ELEVEN MONTHS
Dark
Reaching around my van seat, I snatch a small plastic bowl off the floor, set it in my lap, and rip open one of those tuna-lick packets for Sal as a treat, hoping she’ll calm down and stop racing around like a lunatic in the backseat, bouncing off our bedrolls and luggage.
When I set it on the floor, she dives in like a fiend.
Pops whistles and snaps his fingers for me to check outside.
So… This is where I tell you I’m back in town.
No. Not just me. We’re back in town. Thanks to Angel’s cousin, Pops has a new van that we’ve been living out of for the better part of ten days.
We’re running some recon on our women. My woman.
Kali. The whole fucking lot of ‘em. For two days now, we’ve been stalking them on the down low.
From what I gather, my woman has opened a little shop down from Kali’s.
Iris After Dark.
Fuck. That name is a punch to the gut, and I’m not about to talk about what it’s doin’ to my heart and shit. This woman owns me and has owned me far longer than I care to admit.
Parked down from the shops next to an overgrown tree, in front of someone’s yard, Pops uses old-school binoculars to get a solid look at what’s doin’ on an early Friday night.
“I dunno who that man is, but he’s awfully friendly with your lady.” Pops hums and hands me the binoculars to see what he’s talking about.
Sure enough, we’ve got ourselves a fuckin’ dead man. Hand around Iris’s shoulder, locking up the shop next to her, then walking with her down the street to Kali’s like they’re in love.
Jaw clenched, I grip the binoculars until my knuckles ache. “He’s dead.”
“Yep.”
“He’s mine,” I declare, so my father doesn’t get any ideas. If Kali’s got a man, he can handle him.
Pops huffs just as if I stole from him. “Noted.”
A strange noise comes from the back. Once I hand the binoculars to Pops, I turn around to see what Sal’s up to, just as the van’s back door swings open. Thankfully, before I can even get a hand on my gun, a big, bald Mexican fills the doorway, climbs in with a grunt, and slams the rear door shut.
“What the fuck are you doin’ here, Angel?” I tease, takin’ in the sight for sore eyes, given that I haven’t seen this asshole in ages. Fuck. It’s good to be home.
He flips me the bird. “You two need to work on your stalkin’ skills.” The entire van rocks as he lumbers closer and clasps me on the shoulder. “Nice to see you too, cabron.” He grins, all teeth and cockiness.
“Good to see you too, brother. But how the fuck…”
“You think you’re gonna live with my family and someone wasn’t gonna tell me you were there?”
Alright. He’s got a point. “Who else did you tell?”
“Prez.”
“Prez as in Big?”
He nods. “Yeah. To keep him from sendin’ out a search party. Don’t worry. He kept quiet. So you gonna say why you fuckers are sittin’ here instead of goin’ to see your ladies?”
“We’re makin’ sure… ya know.” I gesture toward their shops, and all that implies hangs in the air between us.
“They’re both single,” Angel says with a knowing smirk.
“Then who the fuck’s with Iris?”
“Her employee.”
“Friendly guy,” I growl, remembering his arm around her and how buddy-buddy they were as they headed down to Kali’s.
“I think you mean gay.” Angel bounces his eyebrows and gives me a hot second to let that little tidbit sink in.
Ah.
That makes sense.
He was wearing rainbow Converse.
Pops and I nod. A gay guy workin’ in a floral shop.
Or whatever you wanna call that place. Then again, he could be a plant…
No. Penelope’s dead, and so is my former life.
She couldn’t send another Todd. Not from the grave.
Or wherever Dee and Iris dumped her body. Good riddance, as far as I’m concerned.
Angel pats the top of my seat. “You look like shit.”
Looking at him over my shoulder, I flip the asshole off. “Thanks.”
Angel shrugs one of his big-ass shoulders and out pops another grin.
“I’ve been keepin’ an eye on things. Everyone’s solid…
” A growl suddenly rips from his throat, along with a string of Spanish expletives, as he whips around and plucks a furball up by the back of her neck and holds her out in front of him like she’s diseased.
“It bit me.” He glares at the kitten, and she gives him just as much attitude back with those glowing yellow eyes.
“Her name is Sal.” I chuckle.
“Why do you have a cat?”
“She was a stray at your parents’.”
“And you bought her here?”
“She’s for Lily.”
“You brought your daughter a demon?”
“Fuck off. We couldn’t let her die.”
Rolling his eyes, Angel whispers something under his breath before dropping Sal on my lap.
She hisses at him when she lands, then takes one demonic look at me, rakes her paw down my shirt with her nails retracted, glares as if I’ve offended her, then hops gracefully over the armrest and onto the floor, where she slinks around Angel and goes about her business.
That could have gone worse. Bringing her into the van for the first few nights was a nightmare, but she adjusted.
There are no more late-night attacks. My feet already have too many tooth holes from her using them as toys.
She’s lucky she’s cute, or I would have thrown her out into the wild, where she belongs, somewhere between Mexico and home.
Sal’s interruption forgotten, Angel fills us in on what’s been going down since we’ve been MIA.
For whatever reason, hearing that Iris hasn’t gotten herself a new man eases something in my chest. It may give me a tiny bit of hope, too, that she’ll forgive me and maybe say yes to the question I’ve been dying to ask her since the moment I bought her the house.
The ring sits like lead in my front pocket.
I found it on a rickety table in this little booth outside a gas station in the middle of nowhere when I rode to Kings Cursed to find her.
Something about the gem spoke to me. Let me say this—it’s something I’ve never told another soul.
But I never wanted to get hitched in the first place, not to Kali or Penelope.
It just kinda happened. I got caught up.
My dick did a whole lot of the talkin’ for other parts of me.
This time is different. I suppose lucky number three is lucky for a reason.
It feels important. Pops kept the ring safe when I was recovering.
Now it’s ready for its owner. Hell, I’m ready for it.
I’ve been dreaming of this day for months.
Seeing her. Touching her. Listening to that sexy voice and just… being in her presence.
Fuck.
I miss her.
Tomorrow’s the first day of the rest of my life.