8.
Z ANE
I rolled over to answer my phone and reminded myself that I shouldn’t snap at whoever was calling me at this hour because they were just doing the job I hired them to do.
That didn’t make the urge to yell at them lessen, though. All I wanted was to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. I managed to control myself and sighed before I asked, “What’s up?”
“Sorry to bother you, but we need all hands on deck.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“We either need to tow the vehicles individually or get the big trailer out and figure out how to do things that way, but we’ve got six locations around town that each have at least half a dozen cars that need to be towed.”
“What?” I asked as I sat up and put my feet on the floor. “We’ve got a call for . . . Start from the beginning.”
“You know those reflexology massage places that have popped up around town lately?”
“The rub and tugs?” I asked.
Joan laughed before she said, “I always thought you were joking when you called them that, but apparently, you were right. They were raided last night, and there were a bunch of arrests. The cops want all the vehicles on each property towed to the impound lot.”
“Fuck,” I mumbled before I yawned loudly.
“See what I mean about all hands on deck?” Joan asked.
“Let me call a few guys and see if they can join the party. I’ll get everything coordinated and then call you back.”
“You’re calling Kings Customs and your family garage?”
“Yeah, we’ve got some extra magnets they can use tonight to become part of Duke’s.”
“Dahlia Forrester has a tow truck, too, you know.”
“Okay, see if she’s available, and I’ll call the other guys.”
“Thanks, Zane. I’ve got all of our trucks on the way besides you, so if you’ll get the rest of them moving and let me know how many, I’ll coordinate from here.”
“Sounds good.”
“And I’m sorry I had to wake you up on your night off.”
“I have about as many nights off as you do,” I reminded her. “We should probably work on that before one of us goes on a sleep-deprived killing spree.”
“I have that scheduled for next Thursday.”
“Sounds good. Pencil me in for Saturday.”
I called my younger brother, Xavier, and had him get the old tow truck from the scrapyard and then called my cousin Kaiser to have him bring the one from my family’s garage.
With the others from Duke’s Towing, a separate business from K&K Retrieval that took the repo contracts, along with Dahlia Forrester, if she was available with her wrecker, that might give us enough manpower to wrap this job up before lunch today.
So much for sleeping in on my day off . . . or sleeping through the night, for that matter.
◆◆◆
COURTNEY
“Mama!”
I lifted my head and looked at Leo before I looked at the window over his shoulder and realized it wasn’t even dawn yet.
“What’s up, baby?” I asked as I held my arms out toward him.
Leo crawled onto my lap, and I adjusted him against my side so that we were both comfortable in the recliner.
It had been hard for me to go to sleep last night because every sound I heard made me think Dayton might be sneaking out again.
I finally gave up on sleeping in the sunroom and decided to try to get some sleep in the living room closer to the front door.
His only other exit would be the kitchen door, which tended to stick and made a horrible sound every time it opened - the perfect deterrent for that exit.
I had found myself wishing this old house would shift a little more so I had the same problem with the front door and could have kicked myself at the thought.
The last thing I needed was another issue with this house I couldn’t fix or wasn’t worth fixing.
The place seemed like it was going to fall down around our ears any day now.
“My tummy hurts,” Leo complained.
“I wonder why,” I said softly as I brushed his hair back from his forehead. “Would it feel better if you slept here with me?”
“Probably.”
“Let’s try that,” I whispered before I kissed his temple. “I bet you’ll feel better when we wake up in the morning.”
I had just drifted off to sleep when Leo sat straight up and gasped.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He moaned right before he threw up all over both of us.
There wasn’t anything I could do to stop him, so I just stayed still until he got it all out and then carried him into the bathroom with me and stepped into the shower.
Once our clothes were sprayed off, I looked at the stuff swirling down the drain and asked, “Leo, honey, what did you eat that was blue?”
“I want my tattoos to be pretty!” he murmured as he leaned against the shower wall, clutching his belly.
“I get that, bud, but that’s not blueberries.”
“Play-Doh.”
“Oh, God,” I muttered as I looked up into the shower spray in the hopes that it would wash away the image of what I’d just seen.
“Mama?” I heard Beau yell from outside the shower.
“Go back to bed, Beau. Leo’s not feeling well, so he’s going to stay with me.”
“I got sick in the hallway,” Beau said in a tearful voice. “I’m sorry.”
“Fuck,” I whispered. “What color did you eat?”
“Green.”
“Of course you did.”
◆◆◆
I was startled awake when someone knocked on my door, and even though I probably looked like Medusa, I didn’t care. I threw the door open, ready to kill whoever had just interrupted the first decent sleep I’d had in thirty-six hours.
“What?” I roared as I yanked the door open.
“Mornin’,” Zane said with a grin as he handed me a cup of coffee. “You seem cheerful.”
“And it’s all your fault,” I said as I took a few steps back so he could come inside.
“What did I do?” Zane sniffed the air and asked, “Why does it smell like lemons and Play-Doh?”
“The lemon smell helped mask the smell of vomit.”
“Sick boys?” Zane asked. “How is it all my fault?”
“Because Leo wants his tattoo of a motorcycle to be bright blue, and Beau wants his dragon to be green.”
“Okay?”
“And they thought that eating Play-Doh in the right colors would work quicker than eating fruits and vegetables.”
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes,” I said before I took a sip of coffee. “Luckily, The Lion King taught them that ‘cheaters never prosper,’ and they now understand that eating anything other than fruits and vegetables won’t get them the desired results.”
“How many times did they puke before they figured that out?”
“Four hundred and eleven.”
Zane looked around warily, not calling me out on my exaggeration before he asked, “Are they finished?”
“Yes.Thank God.”
“Where are they?”
“Dawson and Alana offered to take them over to the splash pad at the park for a few hours so I could get some sleep.”
“Where’s the other boy?”
“He went with them.”
“Was he tied up?”
I burst out laughing as I shook my head. “No, but I’m sure he’s got some nefarious plan in the works because he’s been awfully quiet since he spoke to Dr. Hamilton the other night.”
“Since Dawson’s not here, do you mind if I wait for him?”
“I’m guessing it will be a few hours before they come home. The bag of snacks and drinks I packed was so heavy that Dayton almost couldn’t pick it up. I was hoping that would keep them out of the house for a while.”
“I can hang out with you while we wait.”
I really wanted to spend more time with Zane. Who wouldn’t? The man was an enigma. He was funny, smart, caring, and so hot that it nearly singed my retinas to look directly at him.
But I needed sleep more than anything else.
If I didn’t get some rest soon, I was going to crash, and I didn’t have time for that.
I learned that lesson early on after I came to Rojo and tried to do everything by myself while caring for two infants, an elderly woman, and three other children.
If I don’t do at least the minimum to take care of myself, I’d end up sick and have no choice but to drop all the balls I had in the air.
As if he’d read my mind and was trying even harder to be the perfect man, Zane suggested, “We can nap together while we wait.”
“Are you psychic?” I asked.
“No, I’m just exhausted because the troopers don’t know how to conduct a raid in the bright light of day. I just got off after a seven-hour shift on my day off.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so tired that I saw your mouth moving, but all I heard was Charlie Brown’s teacher.”
“Same, babe,” Zane said as he walked around the couch and then sat down. He pulled off his boots and slid them under the coffee table before he laid down with his head on an armrest and his feet sticking off the other end. “We haven’t done anything the normal way, so why start now?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, our first date was a brawl, the second date was pizza on the driveway, and it’s looking like our third date will be centered around a much-needed nap.”
“I like that idea,” I said as I walked over to the recliner. I sat down, pulled the lever, and then pushed myself back again. “You’re setting a high bar for date four.”
Zane yawned loudly before he said, “I’ll figure something out.”
◆◆◆
ZANE
“Shhh. It’s the tattoo man again.”
I heard a little boy whisper, and then the other one giggled before the sweet girl with them whisper-yelled, “Get your asses upstairs right now!”
I felt someone near me, so I opened my eyes. It took everything in me not to jump when I saw Dayton’s face just a few inches above mine as he bent over the back of the couch.
“What are you doing here?” he growled.
“Why are you in my face?” I countered.
“You’re on my couch.”
“Did you buy it?”
“No.”
“Then it ain’t your couch.”
“What are you doing?”
“Minding my business. You should try it.”
“Fuck you.”
“You’re not my type.”
“Dayton, how many times am I going to have to tell you not to use those words?” Courtney’s sleepy voice said from the recliner.
“Why is he here?”
“Because I opened the door and invited him in,” Courtney replied. “Generally, the way to greet a guest is to say hello and ask if they need anything.”
“ Generally , guests don’t prop their stinky feet up on our couch.”