25. Chicken Tacos

TWENTY-FIVE

CHICKEN TACOS

I ’d been patient a long time.

I really had.

So it wasn’t untoward when I snapped, “Oh my God! This is agony.” I turned to the girls in the backseat and asked Raye and Luna, “Did it take this long when they cleared out those traffickers?”

“No, it didn’t take this long,” Luna said quietly, holding Raye’s hand.

“I see the martini wore off,” Titus remarked.

I sat straight in my seat, crossed my arms on my chest, knowing Raye was freaking just like me and I didn’t need to make it harder on her, so I only thought to myself, if Eric gets dead doing this for me (and Homer, and all the rest of them, and everyone else those assholes were fucking over), I was going to kill him.

“Well, shit,” Titus murmured.

He was staring in his rearview mirror.

I turned around and that was when I saw the police lights. And within a few seconds, heard the sirens.

They were heading our way.

The two patrols shot past us, and it didn’t take a genius to know where they were going.

“Is this good or bad?” I asked unevenly.

“I know one thing. If those motherfuckers put holes in your boys, they aren’t calling the police after they did it,” Titus answered.

My heart started thumping, and I turned again in my seat to look at my chicks.

“This is the clean-up crew,” Titus concluded as another police car shot past.

I smiled at Raye.

She smiled at me.

My phone vibrated at my ass, I whipped it out and engaged the screen.

Text from Eric, Tell Titus to bring you in .

Thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you, God !

“We can go,” Raye and I said at the same time, this meaning she got a text too.

Titus started rolling forward, but it took a while to get the three blocks to where all the police cars with their lights still flashing were angled around because Titus had to pull to the side twice for more patrols to pass us.

In that time, I texted Eric, Coming!

When Titus parked as close as he could get, he said in a voice he hadn’t used yet, one that was not to be denied, it was also another indication of why he was who he was, “You go only when I tell you to go.”

Not in the mood to see what would happen if I tried to deny Titus, I texted Eric, We’re here, but Titus won’t let us get out until he knows it’s okay .

After that, we waited.

An ambulance came screaming in.

“Oh God,” I whispered.

And then we heard the horns of a firetruck before we saw a couple of cops angle their cars out of the way so that big, red behemoth could get in.

The firemen dropped down practically before that thing was fully parked and started hustling.

That was when I noticed the smoke billowing up from the house one down and across the street from where Titus parked.

“I’m thinkin’ your boys don’t mind mess, which I’m also thinkin’ with this crew they were up against is a little bit of all right,” Titus observed.

It seemed so. We only had to hope none of them were part of the mess.

I twisted again in my seat and asked Raye, “Cap texted, right?”

She nodded.

“There!” Harlow cried and pointed.

I looked there and saw Eric doing his beautiful saunter through the mess of first responder vehicles, heading our way.

He didn’t have any blood on him, thank God, but he did have a gun holstered at his hip, as well as one in a shoulder holster.

“You can go now,” Titus allowed.

We all jumped out of the car.

But only Raye and I raced across the street. Me to Eric, and Raye to Cap, who was trailing Eric by about five feet.

I hit Eric like a dart, if his oof! was anything to go by.

After I hugged him tight, I touched his head, his shoulders, ran my hands down his chest, while asking, “You all right?”

“Fine, honey. We’re all fine.”

Thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you, God !

I looked into his eyes. “Homer?”

“Come with me.”

He took my hand and walked me to the sidewalk. We had to dodge a bunch of people, and a cop started to say something to us, saw Eric and stopped, when Eric led us into the yard of a house, the back of which was on fire.

To the side of the yard, well away from the melee but being guarded by some cops, was a gaggle of scruffy people.

One of them was Homer.

I pulled my hand free and raced to him.

Eric called, “She’s with me,” to the cop who moved to block me.

I came to a rocking halt in front of Homer.

He looked unsettled, undone, and seemed to have trouble focusing on me.

“Hey, Homer,” I greeted. “You okay?”

When my voice sounded, it appeared as if some of the confusion cleared.

Therefore, I kept talking.

“Do you need me to go get some plastic bags so we have everything to get you home?” I asked.

I watched the confusion completely clear, and he focused on me.

“You’re here,” he whispered.

“Yeah, big guy,” I whispered back. “I’m here.”

He stared at me.

I lamented my decision to study cocktails and not psychology.

Then I held my breath as he walked up to me, got toe to toe, bent his neck, pressed just his forehead to mine, and repeated, “You’re here.”

Good Lord.

I was going to lose it.

“You’re my friend,” I said huskily.

“You’re my friend too, Jessie,” he replied.

Totally going to lose it.

“I’m so glad,” I choked out.

We looked into each other’s eyes.

Then he stepped back and the spell was broken.

“Can I go home?” he asked.

“As soon as we can manage it,” I answered. “Promise.”

He nodded and shuffled away to get close to the others. They didn’t look good, mentally or hygienically, though at least they looked fed.

Harlow and Luna were cautiously approaching the huddle when I turned and nearly bumped into Eric.

The look on his face aimed right at me took my breath away.

I powered through that and requested, “Can we get them home?”

“Don’t ever again tell me you’re not special,” he said as reply.

Oh God, I was holding it together, and he was going to send me over the edge.

“I can’t now, honey,” I warned him.

He nodded sharply and shared, “We’re working on it. The cops obviously need to interview them. Mace is trying to tell them that’d go better if they got them where they feel safe.”

I looked across the bustling space and saw Mace in an intense conversation with that man who wore a more-official-than-the-normal-official uniform.

Then, after I got over the shock of them all standing together (seriously, it was like staring at the sun), I also saw Liam, Brady, Knox, Gabe and Roam hanging. They were chatting like they were discussing how they thought the Cardinals would do tomorrow, and not like they were in proximity to a house that was ablaze, firemen working to contain it, nearly a dozen cop cars with the cops from those cars hustling around, and (cripes!) paramedics rushing an occupied stretcher to the ambulance.

Gabe had some blood on his Henley, but it was clearly not his.

Time to stop looking at the guys.

I turned back to my guy.

“Copy that,” I said to Eric.

“I’ll go check and see how that’s progressing,” Eric said. “Stay right here. I’ll be back.”

I nodded.

Harlow and Luna got close to me. Raye wandered over when Cap was called to talk to a uniform. We stood together, with me glancing often to Homer and the others to see if I could take their temperature (I couldn’t).

Though, they were openly tweaked and restless, but who wouldn’t be?

I felt something funny and looked the other way.

Titus was leaning against the fender of his Jag, arms crossed on his wide chest.

When he caught my eyes, he dipped his head down and to the side in what I understood was a unique salute.

He pushed away from his car, went to the door, folded in, reversed out.

And he was gone.

* * *

A couple of not-so-fun things happen when you spring a bunch of abductees from unpaid, forced labor in a Fentanyl, heroin, cocaine operation.

Yes, it was confirmed that was why they took Homer and the rest of those people.

Allow me to explain…

The first not-so-fun thing was watching your man, who prided himself on keeping his cool, lose his ever-lovin’ mind, at the same time you watched your friend’s man do the same, when the dude with the more-official-than-the-normal-official uniform told a couple of cops to round the four of us Angels up, put us in police cars and take us to the station.

I shared a car with Harlow, and before we were whisked away, I watched Eric being very in the face of the big kahuna cop. Cap, his entire body so tight, it was a visible ticking time bomb, was right at his back.

The rest of the guys were fanned around them, and I couldn’t tell from body language, should the situation escalate, if the Hottie Squad would pull Eric and Cap off or join in.

Though, it seemed like they were veering toward the joining-in scenario.

That was scary, and after all we’d just been through, I didn’t want Eric to get arrested for assaulting a police officer, but it was also all kinds of sweet (not to mention sexy AF).

As we drove away and lost sight of them, I took stock of my girls’ and my current situation.

On the good side, we hadn’t been handcuffed.

On the bad, we were in the back of cop cars, somewhere I’d never been, and I couldn’t say much for the experience.

And after I asked what this was about, and the cop who was driving said, “Chief wants you, that’s all I know, so don’t ask any more questions,” I was no closer to knowing why I, as well as all my besties, were in cop cars on a mandatory trip to the station.

More on the good side, when we got there, we weren’t printed, nor did we have our mugshots taken, which was fair, I thought, seeing as we hadn’t committed a crime (that I knew of).

Instead, all four of us were taken to an interrogation room, we were given cups of really bad coffee and told to sit our asses down and wait.

And wait we did.

For two hours.

(Okay, maybe it was more like half an hour, my sense of time was skewed seeing as I would rather have been procuring plastic bags and whatever the others needed to feel safe going back to their spaces.)

Eventually, fancy uniform guy walked in.

We were seated, two on one side of the table (me and Harlow), two at each end (Raye and Luna).

He took the only open chair on the other side of the table from Harlow and me.

“I’m Jorge Alvarez. Phoenix Chief of Police.”

He didn’t offer his hand, so none of us did either.

“Now, my guess is, you girls know about the Rock Chicks,” he went on.

Okay.

I could call myself a girl. And my girls could call me a girl. And other girls could call me a girl. And Eric could call me his girl.

But I was a thirty-three-year-old woman.

To this dude, I was not a girl.

My eyes narrowed.

He didn’t miss it.

“Shit. Women,” he muttered his correction.

Better.

I kept my eyes narrowed.

I also spoke. “I’d really like to see how things are going with Homer.”

“We have psychologists who are going to assist in questioning the victims and returning them to their…places,” he replied. “I can tell you that all of them seem healthy and fed, even if a few of them have clearly been roughed up.”

Not good news.

My narrowed eyes got narrower as my always lacking patience began to run out.

“What I’m saying is, we’re looking after them,” Alvarez asserted.

“I’d still like to see for myself,” I stated.

“Yes,” Alvarez retorted. “And you can do that as soon as I inform you that Phoenix is not gonna be the car bombs exploding, high-speed chases on city streets, haunted houses being shut down, cars getting plastic wrapped, quarterly kidnappings, apartments obliterated, assassins dispatched nightmare that Denver became when the Rock Chicks were active.”

Cars getting plastic wrapped?

Assassins dispatched?

No one mentioned anything about any assassins.

“Now,” he said sharply and turned to Raye. “I know about your history, and I’m truly sorry for your loss and what your family went through.” He looked to me. “And I know you were searching for your brother, and although I’m glad you found him, I wish you’d tell him to stop doing fucked-up shit, like right now I’m telling you to stop doing it.” He then looked between Harlow and Luna. “And I don’t wanna know what you two might get up to.” He took us all in. “And that’s the reason why you’re here.” He lifted a hand and circled a finger to the table. “This, whatever it is you women are tied up in, ends tonight.”

The last was a proclamation.

Before any of us could say anything, Harlow tentatively raised her hand.

“What?” Alvarez clipped at her.

“Well, first, only Jess got kidnapped, and it was by her brother, so it kinda doesn’t count,” she said.

Alvarez looked to the ceiling.

“Well, it doesn’t,” Harlow pressed.

I was of a different mind. A girl gets hooded and zip-tied, it doesn’t matter her brother did it to make a point.

But I wasn’t going to slow Harlow’s roll.

“And second,” she went on and lifted her chin when Alvarez aimed his steely gaze at her. “We’ve semi-kinda helped solve two cases without any high-speed chases or that other stuff. I mean, barring Jess’s kidnapping, which we already agreed doesn’t count.”

“Right. And you’re hooked up with Montoya, and I saw you women with Titus tonight,” Alvarez began. “So you’ve managed to make connections in a matter of months that every cop, investigator and criminal has tried to make, with most of us failing, for years.”

Interesting.

“But there’s no reason to be hooked up with those two men except reasons you shouldn’t be hooked up with them,” Alvarez concluded.

“We haven’t hooked up with Javi,” Harlow declared.

“ Yet . For one of us,” Luna mumbled.

Raye chuckled.

Harlow turned on Luna. “I’m not hooking up with Javi. He didn’t even ask for my number.” She swung her attention to me. “And did he ask after me when you saw him before he went to the safe house?”

“I mentioned you,” I told her.

“And what did he say?” she demanded, a super curious look in her eye.

“He told me I was a pain in his ass,” I shared.

The curious light died, and I felt like a bitch.

“He was literally walking to the car to head to a safe house, Lolo,” I reminded her. “And he just lost two friends. I don’t think that puts a man in a romantic mood.”

“So there’s one thing in the negative column of the when-do-I-gotta-get-me-some list for when the opposite sex doesn’t have a mind to get him some,” Luna chimed in.

“Speaking of getting some, we’ve been waiting, since it’s clear you and Eric broke the seal, and you’ve said nada. Zip. Zilch.” Raye aimed this accusation at me.

She was right.

How did I miss doing that?

“Okay. I can confirm you’re correct. We broke the seal,” I said, and then I smiled hugely. “Since, we’ve ripped it to shreds and set it on fire.”

“Right on,” Raye said, grinning at me.

“Which nightie did you go for?” Luna asked.

I frowned. “It was a dud. A cotton stretchy thing. Which makes me glad this is over, and I have tomorrow off. I can go shopping and get new ones. Eric said it wasn’t the nighties, it’s the woman in them, but still. I know he gets off on them. And now I have to one-up my best ones, which is going to be a challenge.”

“He said it’s the woman in them?” Harlow asked. At my nod she smiled. “That’s so sweet!”

“I don’t have anything on tomorrow. I can go shopping with you,” Luna offered.

“I have to pack for the move,” Harlow put in.

“Plan,” Raye announced. “We bring Bosa and coffees to Harlow in the morning to help her pack. And in the afternoon, we go sexy nightie shopping.”

“I’m in,” Luna said.

Harlow clapped. “Ohmigod, guys! That would be so helpful!”

“I need to talk to Eric,” I told them. “Henny’s home alone and I don’t want him home alone all day tomorrow. I’ll see if Eric can hang out while we do girl shit. Speaking of…” I looked to Alvarez, who was staring at all of us like we’d just beamed down from our spaceship. “Are we done here? I need to check on Homer and I got a new cat today, he’s home alone, and he needs his mommy.”

Alvarez didn’t answer my question.

He muttered, “I am so screwed,” got right up and walked right out.

A couple of minutes later, a uniform swung in to tell us we could go, and Eric and Cap were waiting to take us home.

By the by, on the way to go check on Homer, Eric confirmed that he’d look after Henny for me so I could help Harlow pack and then go look for nighties (I didn’t tell him that part, just said “shopping,” after which, even driving, his eyes glazed over).

Totally.

He was the best.

* * *

The second not-so-fun thing that happened didn’t last as long and wasn’t as annoying (though, it was close, with the annoying part).

What happened was, after we checked Homer was all right and got home to find Henny curled up in one of my throws, sleeping and clearly not traumatized by us leaving, Eric started breaking up the chicken in the Crockpot to get the tacos going, and thinking ahead, I changed into lounge pants.

I was walking down the hall when the hammering came at the door.

I headed toward it while Eric scowled at it, and I said, “One guess. Martha.”

I opened the door and immediately scooted back because my brother stormed in, followed by Javi, who was followed by Titus.

I shut the door behind Titus, looked to Eric and inquired, “Do you think there’s any point to that fancy, new security gate my landlord installed?”

It appeared Eric was trying not to laugh, but otherwise he made no reply.

Suddenly, I only had eyes for Jeff because he’d put the pads of his fingers of both of his hands to his forehead, snapped them out, and shouted, “ Have you lost your mind! ”

Henny’s head came up.

“Quiet down, you’re upsetting Henny,” I returned, going to my cat, picking him up, cuddling him to my face and cooing, “It’s all right, baby. Uncle Jeff is loud and mean, but we just ignore him when he gets that way.”

“Don’t turn your cat against me, Jess,” Jeff warned.

“Don’t come in here shouting at me, Jeff,” I shot back before I pulled out the big guns. “Or I’m showing him your picture, then taking away his wet food at least three times every morning to condition him to avoid you.”

“Stop joking around, this is serious,” Jeff said low.

I sighed, because sadly, he was right.

“Homer’s fine. We need to buy a couple of folks new tents because they got bullet holes in theirs. And everything else is copacetic. Chill.”

“ Chill? ” Jeff thundered. “Do you know what your band of badasses did to that crew?”

My eyes drifted to Eric who was calmly whipping up a batch of guacamole.

“I haven’t had a debrief yet. We just got home,” I said to my brother. “Do I care? The bad guys are out of commission. That’s kinda all I need to know.”

I glanced at Eric after I said that, and his attention was off the avocado and on me.

He winked.

My clitoris tingled.

I turned back to my brother to see Jeff was opening his mouth, but then Titus was there, stealing my cat from my arms while murmuring, “Give me this guy.”

I watched as Titus hoisted Henny up to his face, hot guy and cute cat went nose to nose, they came to an agreement, and then Titus cradled Henny in his arms, Henny blinked a few times, closed his eyes and started purring.

“Brother. Not cool. We’re barely in the door, and you made a play for the cat,” Javi groused as he made his way to a stool.

“Snoozing is losing,” Titus said as he went to my couch and assumed it like it was his throne.

“I have a feeling it’s good we cooked all four chicken breasts rather than just the two,” Eric muttered.

I had a feeling he was right.

“What are we having?” Javi asked.

He was right.

“Jess!” Jeff called my attention back to him.

“No, again, I don’t know what they did,” I snapped. “All I know is that all the people who were reported taken were found. Homer being one of them. And he’s back in his tent. He’s discombobulated, but he’s back where he feels a sense of rightness and purpose. And right now, that’s all I need to know. If Eric wants to tell me, I’ll listen. And that’s the end of it. So maybe now we can talk about how the Nightingale men asked for your help, and you refused it so you could horn in on the action…” I put a lot of weight in my pause before I finished, “ Easy .”

Jeff made a frustrated snarly noise when I used his street name.

“She doesn’t want to know how you earned that, brother,” Javi remarked.

“She really doesn’t, but I’ll tell you,” Titus said to Henny, then bent his neck to where my cat lay on his chest and whispered something in his pointed ear.

Since Henny had no reaction, I sensed he was unimpressed by this news.

But they were right.

I really didn’t want to know.

However.

I turned my gaze to Javi. “You’re in this too, hermanito .”

“No, I’m not,” Javi said, taking a pinch of grated cheese from the bowl Eric had put it in and sprinkling it in his mouth. He swallowed that and said, “If someone was gonna roll on them, we were going in with them. Those boys took care of business before we got there, and I don’t blame them. That shit had to end. It did. Done.” He then popped a black olive in his mouth.

“Instead of eating it all, you can help Eric by slicing those olives,” I stated.

Not missing a beat, Eric got a knife and put it in front of Javi.

At this juncture, I noticed my guy hadn’t waded into any of this, not at all.

It was like he was inured to crazy.

And I loved him for it.

Javi got up, walked around the bar, repositioned the cutting board while corralling the rolling olives, and got to work.

“Speaking of olives,” Titus said from the couch. “I wouldn’t say no to another one of your martinis.”

Now someone was speaking my language.

I headed straight to the bar cart.

“Jess, we’re not finished discussing this,” Jeff declared.

I picked up the kickass shaker Javi bought me and turned to my brother.

“Yes, we are. Everyone I love is alive, breathing, healthy. I don’t have to do stakeouts anymore. And I’ve got a new mission of finding sexier nighties than the off-the-chart sexy ones I already have, because Eric has seen all those.”

Jeff raised a hand. “TMI.”

“You came in, mouth a’blazin’, you deal with the fallout,” I returned.

“Lucky man, honcho,” Titus said from the couch to Eric.

Eric just smiled at the guacamole he was forking together.

“To end,” I continued, “you also don’t have to be in a safe house anymore, another plus. Now, fortunately, before another shitstorm hits, I’ll have time to find the perfect Taser holster. Life is good. Take a load off, stop distracting me from my cocktail shaker, and let it be good, Jeff.”

He glowered at me.

I took it.

He kept doing it.

I kept taking it.

He kept doing it.

I got over it and turned to Javi, lifting the shaker. “This is pure class, Javi. I don’t think I thanked you.”

Javi winked at me.

His wasn’t as good as Eric’s, but it was still nice.

Jeff got on the stool beside the one Javi had used, asking, “Please tell me you have chips.”

I turned to the counter, grabbed the bag of tortilla chips, and tossed them at my brother, who caught them.

Then I opened the freezer to grab my vodka.

As I was closing it, I felt a touch on the small of my back and looked to the side and up at Eric.

“Life is good,” he whispered.

Him standing right there?

“It sure as hell is,” I replied.

His onyx eyes were twinkling as he bent his head and kissed me.

And there it got better.

He went to the kitchen bar, slid the bowl of guacamole to Jeff and moved to the stove to start warming up tortillas.

I should have been making margaritas, but that wasn’t requested.

Anyway, martinis went with everything.

Though, in the end, it was just me and Titus with a fancy glass.

Eric, Javi and Jeff drank beer.

* * *

Everyone was gone.

I was brushed, cleansed and moisturized, looking forward to a good, quick fuck and bed, as I walked into the bedroom.

Eric was coming out of it, and I moved to step out of his way, when he caught my hips.

I dropped my head to catch his eyes.

“Now,” he said.

“Now?” I asked.

“The men are gone. The case is closed. The day is done. Now, you’re safe to do it, Jessie.”

I stared at him, having no clue how he knew.

But he knew.

I then allowed myself to feel the ghost of gratitude and fondness and the precious gift of human connection pressing against my forehead.

That was when I did a faceplant in Eric’s chest, my shoulders heaved, the sob scored my throat, and the tears came.

Eric held me while I got it all out.

And when I was done, he lifted my face with his hands cradling my jaw and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears.

“Better?” he asked tenderly.

So falling in love with this man .

I nodded. “Though, I think I have to reapply moisturizer.”

He smiled a sweet smile, touched his lips to mine, and said, “I’ll bring it with me from the bathroom.”

He headed that way, and I turned as he did, calling to his back, “That might have been a tender moment, but I’m not in the mood for gentle sex. We’re fucking.”

“Copy that,” he shouted from the bathroom.

I grinned and climbed into bed.

“Babe?” Eric called from the bathroom.

“Yeah?” I called back.

“Just closing the loop, I’m falling in love with you too.”

That gooey feeling suddenly overwhelmed me, and straight up…

I didn’t mind at all.

“Okay then!” I shouted in reply. “You win. We can have gentle sex.”

Henny jumped up on the bed and had a sniff around.

I watched him and thought Eric and I were wrong.

Life wasn’t good.

Oh no.

It was awesome .

Eric showed at the door to the bedroom and leaned against the jamb wearing only his cargoes and holding my tub of moisturizer in his hand, his magnificent chest on display.

“Too late, babe. The decision was made. We’re fucking,” he said.

Oh yeah.

Life was awesome .