His arms gave me a squeeze. “Baby, I’m a cop. I know a lotta people and a lot of the lotta people I know aren’t one hundred percent solid citizens.”
“Um…” I started hesitantly, “does this president of a biker gang perhaps owe you a favor?”
“No,” Mitch answered which meant if he did this, he’d owe the president of a biker gang a favor.
“Is that a good idea?” I asked quietly.
“No, owin’ Tack is not good. But I also got a woman and two kids who sleep on three almost brand new Spring Deluxes. Since she got them delivered, my ass, most nights, has been in her bed and the kids have been off school so my Mom’s been here watchin’ ‘em if you and me aren’t. The windows for another break-in have been rare and he probably knows your boyfriend is a cop so if he’s lookin’ for a chance, he’s probably bein’ cautious. I can’t know if he’s found what he was lookin’ for and I’m not takin’ any chances. Even if he has, I wanna know why he destroyed everything you owned, how he’s connected to your cousin and I want to ascertain you, Bud and Billie are under no threat. And I’ll do what I gotta do to ascertain that. Even owe a favor to the president of a biker gang.”
Well, one could say he had a point there.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Okay,” Mitch replied.
“I have to say,” I started to inform him, “this has kind of freaked and bummed me out and put me off a night of cosmos and women I don’t know giving me the third degree to make sure I’m good enough for you.”
Mitch smiled.
Then his arms got tight around me and he returned, “And I have to say pretty much nothing puts me off a night that’s gonna end with you drunk on cosmos and still in that dress and those shoes considering the sex was seriously fuckin’ hot when you weren’t drunk so I’m lookin’ forward to how much hotter it could get when you are.”
Suddenly, I was back in the mood for a night of cosmos and women I didn’t know giving me the third degree to make sure I was good enough for Mitch.
“Right,” I said firmly, “off we go. Time for me to commence Operation Drunk Sex Later.”
Mitch burst out laughing.
I smiled as he did it.
When he was done, still grinning, he assured me, “I’m gonna make it okay.”
And, still smiling, I assured him instantly, “I know.”
He stopped grinning and I knew he liked that I trusted him, just how deeply and just how immediately, when he whispered, “Fuck, Mara, I love you.”
I didn’t stop smiling when I whispered back, “I know.”
But whispering that made Mitch grin again.
Then he kissed me.
Then he let me go, moved through the house to turn out the lights as I moved to the door and waited for him.
Then he took me to Club where I commenced Operation Drunk Sex Later but only after he walked me in, greeted the already at least one sheet to the wind girl gang and laid a hot, wet, heavy one on me.
I sat down, got introduced, ordered my cosmo and heard the gorgeous, blonde Gwen say to the equally gorgeous, African-American Camille, “Sex hair. Mitch got the business before going to work. She’ll do.”
Third degree over.
I passed.
It was time to get drunk.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chestnut
I was three sips away from the end of cosmo number four. Kenny had already picked up Roberta. A handsome black man introduced as Leo had picked up Cam and Tracy. Brock had come to get Tess. Mitch had texted that things were going to go later than he expected so I should catch a ride with Hawk, he would get home as soon as he could and I was not to take off my dress or shoes (it was a long text and a bossy one, a sexy bossy one). And Elvira, Gwen, LaTanya and I were waiting for Hawk to show to take us home.
I was also giggling myself sick, the kind of giggles that are silent but your whole body shakes and your stomach muscles hurt. Although I was giggling myself sick, I didn’t exactly know why. And I didn’t know why because Gwen was relating the story of the aftermath of her man Cabe “Hawk” Delgado getting kidnapped and her story was kind of scary. If that happened to Mitch, I would be beside myself.
But the way she was telling it was hysterical. Because Hawk got kidnapped, he pretty much rescued himself then, after they were reunited and everything was okay, he lectured Gwen on how to be a commando’s woman. And although his rules were as scary as the story, I couldn’t help it, they were also scary funny.
“Then,” Gwen kept going, wiping under her eye, “he said, ‘Confirm you get me, babe.’”
Elvira, LaTanya and I burst into gales of laughter. Why? Again, I didn’t know. Possibly because I was three sips away from the end of cosmo number four and therefore significantly beyond tipsy.
Then Gwen affected a super-deep man’s voice and said, “Confirm…you…get…me.”
Hearing her talk like that, the hilarity was too much. I found I couldn’t hold my head up anymore so it crashed down onto my hand on the table and I left it there as my shoulders shook with my laughter.
I was close to pulling myself together when I heard an immensely attractive, deep man’s voice say, “Jesus, babe. How drunk are you?”
My torso shot to straight, my head tipped back and my mouth dropped right open.
Holy cow.
“Hey, baby,” Gwen said to the tall, built, gorgeous man looming over our table but I couldn’t tear my eyes from him and he was just so…damn…hot. I didn’t have it in me even to close my mouth.
Wow.
Wow.
Detective Mitchell James Lawson was the most beautiful man I’d seen, the perfect male specimen from top-to-toe and, now I knew, inside as well as out.
This man who Gwen called “baby” (ohmigod!) was the second most beautiful man I’d seen but in ways entirely different from Mitch. He was tall, black-haired and had an unbelievably great body. Mitch had all this too, of course, though he had dark brown hair that you could run your fingers through, not black and cropped short. But where you knew Mitch was good to the core, gentle, kind, all this just from a look, this guy was not that.
He was dangerous.
The good kind.
“Hi,” I breathed and his eyes went from Gwen to me.
My breasts swelled.
“You Mara Hanover?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, still breathy.
“You Lawson’s?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I answered.
His mouth twitched. Then his eyes went back to his woman.
“So, you’re all shitfaced,” he observed then finished, “Or at least Mara is.”
“Nope, we all are,” Gwen replied airily if a little slurred.
“Fantastic,” Hawk muttered, eyeing the intoxicated remnants of the girl gang and not hiding the fact he was not big fan of dragging our drunk asses home. He then asked the table at large, “Can any of you walk or do I have to carry you?”
I loved Mitch. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Mitch. I wanted to make babies with Mitch. I wanted to grow old with Mitch.
But I also wanted this man called Hawk to carry me. I didn’t even care where he carried me. I just wanted him to do it.
And I was drunk enough to share this.
“I vote for being carried,” I announced and Gwen, Elvira and LaTanya burst into more gales of laughter.
Hawk’s eyes came back to me and my heart fluttered. Then they moved over me and my legs started tingling.
Then they came back to my face. “Lawson see you in that dress?”
I nodded.
“Gave her the business before they came out,” Elvira volunteered, Hawk looked at her while she spoke then he looked back at me.
When he did, I leaned in and up and whispered, “It was hot.”
His lips twitched again.
That was hot too.
Hot!
“Right,” he stated. “Seein’ as you’re hammered, this might not penetrate but
I’ll say it anyway. You lookin’ like you do, wearin’ that dress and bein’ Lawson’s woman, he is not gonna want my hands on you. Unless, say, you were lookin’ like you do and filled with bullets. So, to keep your man happy, my advice is you should attempt to ambulate. You start to go down, I’ll catch you. Deal?”
Gwen bumped into me when she leaned into me and I tore my eyes away from the hot guy to look at her.
“I think this is good advice,” she slurred. “Mitch is sweet and trust me, Hawk can be sweet too. But even if I was wearing sweats and had ratty-assed hair, he would lose his mind if any man touched me. Mitch may be sweet but he’s got that in him. I can tell.”
I nodded to Gwen thinking that what she said was true. Mitch felt pretty intensely about me, in this dress and out of it. I didn’t think he’d take the news that a hot guy had carried to his car very well.
I turned to Hawk. “I’ll attempt to ambulate.”
“Good call,” he muttered, his eyes going to Gwen and his lips twitching again.
Totally…
Hot!
Then I heard him ask softly, “Sweet Pea, tab?”
“We haven’t paid, baby,” she answered softly.
Ohmigod!
He called Gwen “sweet pea”.
He could be sweet.
Hawk headed to the bar and I turned back to Gwen and declared, “He’s the second love of my life.”
Elvira and LaTanya both burst out laughing again but Gwen’s slightly hazy eyes grew more than slightly dreamy and she whispered, “He’s the only love of mine.”
I liked that for her. She was gorgeous, definitely. But she was also very funny and really sweet. If I was still classifying, she’d be a firm eleven. She deserved a dangerous hot guy. Totally.
“I like that for you,” I whispered back, she focused on me (kind of) and smiled.
“Think Hawk’s in the mood to move so you got ‘em, suck ‘em back,” Elvira ordered then did as she told us to do and slammed back half a cosmo. After, she put her glass down and declared, “He gets back, Hawk on the move, we gotta be ready to roll.”
I took her direction, quickly sucking back the rest of my cosmo. Hawk was a commando and although gorgeous, definitely scary. If he was in the mood to move, I wasn’t going to give him any lip.
He came back while we were all getting up and snatching our purses. Being awesome and becoming even more awesome, he pulled both Gwen and my chairs out as we pushed up.
A gentleman.
Totally the second love of my life.
Once I gained my feet and ascertained my legs were going to support me, I looked up at Hawk. “How much do I owe you for the tab?”
“On me,” he replied.
“No, really, I had four cosmos. How much –?”
His black eyes focused on me and I shut up.
“On me,” he repeated firmly.
“Okey dokey,” I muttered.
He grinned.
My nipples started tingling.
Then he kept talking. “You get to the truck, got a folder for you.”
I blinked up at him.
Then I asked, “Pardon?”
“Melbamae and Lulamae Hanover?”
I felt my lips part but I didn’t reply.
I didn’t need to reply, he read my face.
“Sent a man, he had a word. Did some diggin’, created a file. They give you shit, which would surprise the fuck outta me if they do, my man reported he was thorough, then you turn that file over to your attorney and you’re golden. Yeah?”
I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t burst into drunken tears.
He was sweet.
“Mara?” he called then prompted, “Yeah?”
“I’ll make you one of my barbeque chicken pizzas,” I blurted and that was when I got his smile.
And it was a nice smile.
A really nice one.
He had two dimples.
Two!
Holy cow.
Gwen who was standing beside him, her arm tucked through his, leaned around him and told me, “Cabe’s body is his temple. You want to give payback, buy him a big vat of protein powder or a coupon for a lifetime supply of cottage cheese.” She grinned. “But I’ll take the pizza.”
“You’re on,” I whispered then I looked up at Hawk. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Hawk’s deep, attractive voice replied quietly.
Yep. So totally the second love of my life.
“Yo!” Elvira called. “We goin’ or can I order another cocktail?”
Hawk’s gaze sliced to her and I bit my lip.
Elvira raised her brows. Hawk shook his head.
Then he started walking.
Without a word, the girl gang teetered behind him and Gwen.
We were ten feet from the door when my purse rang. In my inebriated state, I slowed and clumsily pulled my phone out of my purse. I slowed more when I saw on the display it said, “Mitch calling.”
I took the call and put my phone to my ear.
“Hey honey,” I answered.
“Hey sweetheart,” he replied and I got a heart flutter, breasts swelling, legs tingling and nipples hardening all at once. “Done here. I’ll swing by Club and get you.”
I shook my head and put my hand to the door that had swung closed behind LaTanya.
“Hawk just showed. I’m walking out the door now,” I pushed it opened, stopping and looking out into the parking lot to locate the others and I saw they were well ahead of me. I started to hasten my step as I walked out the door and went on, “And I’m walking to his truck all by myself.”
Mitch’s voice was trembling with laughter when he asked, “You’re what?”
“I’m walking…”
I trailed off and stopped walking when I heard the screeching of tires close. My head turned to see a car coming into the parking lot at high speed. This shocked me but it also alarmed me because it appeared it was coming right at me. Vaguely, I heard the roar of motorcycles, not one but several. But this didn’t register because seeing that car racing toward me, I didn’t think of anything but getting out of the way.
So I got out of the way, drunk and running on high heels which, by the way, was not easy.
The car came to a screeching halt while curving and cutting me off so I had to stop too as I heard Hawk’s voice shout, “Mara! This way. Run!”
One of the doors to the car opened, a man came out, he was big and scarier than Hawk but not in a good way and I pivoted on my foot and started running toward Hawk.
Another car was coming in at high speed from the other direction. It cut me off from Hawk who was running toward me and I awkwardly had to take last minute evasive maneuvers. My ankle turned, I wobbled and I threw both my arms out to stop myself from going down. My heart was racing, my adrenalin pumping and my mind was blank of anything but surprise and fear.
Then suddenly from out of nowhere there were motorcycles everywhere.
Everywhere.
Shooting through the two cars, all through the parking lot and, as I continued to stagger, one shot right toward me.
Before I could avoid it, I was hooked at the waist by something strong and solid and couldn’t hold back my, “Oof!”
Then my ass was planted in front of the rider.
“Hold on,” a gravelly voice ordered.
“I –”
“Hold the fuck on!” the gravelly voice barked.
Even as we kept cruising, I turned to face him, my arms sliding around his middle. His arm around me went back to the bike handle and he must have given it some gas because we shot out of the parking lot.
Oh God.
What was happening?
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Keep quiet and stay calm. You’re safe,” he answered as, from my vantage point of looking over his shoulder behind us I saw the rest of the motorcycles line up behind ours.
“Safe? Safe from what? Who are you?” I asked and tipped my head back to see a
strong jaw, a partial view of a goatee and longish dark hair curling around a muscled neck and his ear.
“I’m Tack.”
Oh boy.
“President of a biker gang Tack?”
His chin tipped down slightly but not enough for me to get a good look at him before his eyes went back to the road and he muttered, “See Lawson’s told you about me.”
“Uh –” I started.
He cut me off. “Motorcycle club.”
“What?” I asked.
“Chaos isn’t a gang. It’s a club.”
From the firm tone of his gravelly voice sounding over the roar of the motorcycle I noted that, clearly, this was an important distinction.
Right.
“Um…sorry,” I murmured.
“Just keep quiet and hold on,” he ordered and I thought this was good advice seeing as I’d never been on a motorcycle. I also didn’t know you could ride on a motorcycle like this. It didn’t feel very safe though he seemed in command.
Still, probably better if he had nothing to concentrate on but the road and making sure we didn’t crash and die since neither of us were wearing helmets.
We roared onto Speer Boulevard then we turned and roared up University Boulevard then another turn and down we roared on Alameda then another turn and more roaring down Broadway and then we turned into the enormous forecourt of a mechanic’s garage.
He parked in front of a long rectangular building and all the bikes roared in beside us like they practiced this formation often and they were the motorcycle equivalent of the Air Force Thunderbirds.
It was then that I realized somewhere along the way I’d lost my phone and purse.
And I’d been talking to Mitch when it all happened.
“Oh no,” I whispered, staring at Tack’s neck.
“Hop off, chestnut.”
I blinked and looked up at him to see his shadowed face looking down at me.
“What?”
“Can’t get off until you let me go and get off so hop off, chestnut.”
“Chestnut?”
“Your hair,” he grunted. “Now hop…off.”
And it was then I noticed that I still had my arms tight around him. Considering his tone was becoming impatient, I felt it prudent at that juncture to let him go and hop off. So I did that and stood unsteadily beside his bike while his brethren closed ranks.
Law Man Page 39
