Unmistakable (12 page)

Damien is always a balls to the wall kind of guy, worse than Jake and me combined. I suppose losing men, more than all your fingers and toes together, does that to you. Even Brian, who’s the calmest of us all, can’t change LT’s way of thinking.

“Are the girls ready?” LT asks as he gets his morning cup of Java.

I give him a nod while looking at my watch. “In about an hour. At least, that’s what we all agreed on last night.”

“So, the schedule is, going to Trish’s doc appointment, then grocery shopping.”

I nod as I watch him map out two possible routes. This has been our life since the welcome gift the cartel left on our front door. There’s always two possible evac plans. Two routes. He looks for choke points and plans around them. It’s a big production when we venture out, and sometimes, it’s just much easier if we stay at home; but, keeping the girls cooped up makes them crazy as fuck.

LT shakes his head. “I don’t like taking all of them just to buy some chow.”

I grin at him. “All the girls are at their wits end, especially your sister, and I’m not subjecting my dick to being in timeout. Your dick might be shriveling from non-use, but don’t include me in that, man. Besides, it’s been quiet since that damn package.”

With an exasperated sigh, LT says, “That’s the thing! I don’t know when they’re going to strike again.” Shaking his head, probably trying to shake off his nerves. “Anyway, I should punish Roxy for giving us our call sign. Tell me again why I didn’t say no to her?”

“I know, you’re afraid she’s gonna cut your balls off.” I smirk at him.

Jake hollers, “We’re ready to roll guys.”

Seconds after I pulled out of the driveway LT’s pissed off voice is heard through the walkie we have in our car.

“My asshole is waiting, over.”

I can hear the snickering from the girls, and I’m sure, they’ll lose it when I answer back.

“Copy that. My baby dick is right behind you.”

Right on cue, the girls laugh uncontrollably, and Jake loses it. “Trish, stop! Every time you laugh, your tummy tightens. Relax, babe.”

“Oh, baby dick move a little closer to asshole. Hmmm, maybe not too close, you might penetrate him,” Roxy says, and it starts, another laughing fest.

Tami chimes in. “Wait, don’t we need an oil change? We have to lube it first you know, for a smooth, easy glide.”

Another round of laughter brought to you by the pussy gallery. Roxy reaches for the walkie and says, “Asshole, if you want, you can back up nice and slow.”

Summer answers, “Are you ready to mount, baby dick?”

LT’s voice in the background echoes, “Son-of-a-bitch!”

Brian shakes his head, and I almost want to slap him. He wanted me to drive, so he could avoid saying this stupid call sign. I look at Jake through the rearview mirror, and he’s pinching the bridge of his nose, more than likely counting backward. Thank God, the hospital is only fifteen minutes away. I can only say baby dick and hear asshole so many times before I completely lose my patience.

LT sounds off again. “My asshole is parking.” A couple of seconds of silence, and he comes on again. “All clear. Brian, go with Jake and take Summer. Cody, keep the brat and Tami with you. Once they’re safe inside, back up and keep moving. I’ll follow them.”

“Copy that, LT,” I answer quickly.

I turn to face Jake before he gets out. “Give me a five minute heads up before you guys come out, alright?”

Brian and Jake sandwich Summer and Trish as they enter the building, while LT follows close behind. I circle the parking lot twice until I decide to park farthest away from all the cars, so I have more room to maneuver, just in case.

“Love, can I go sit up front?” Roxy asks.

“Stay there, Rox. Don’t.Move,” I say as hard-nosed as I can without sounding like an asshole.

I’m giving Roxy another two minutes before she complains about boredom. While I’m used to it, she isn’t. I’m used to holding my position and sit for hours to wait on my target, sometimes for days. My love is like the energizer bunny. She just keeps going….and going and going.

My phone vibrates, and a text from Gunny comes through. A sense of foreboding encloses my heart, and my brain’s running at warp speed thinking of what could be wrong, now. My eyes can see Roxy is fine. She’s with me after all, but call it a sixth sense or what-the-fuck-ever, I know something bad is about to happen.

Gunny: Establish COM ASAP

After reading Gunny’s text, I immediately look at Roxy through the rear view mirror, and the expression on her face sends alarm signals blaring in a deafening tone to my head. She has a combined look of shock, panic, and worry on her face, as she stares at her phone, I assume. I have no clue what she’s looking at, but it’s enough to raise my suspicion. Something doesn’t smell right.

My gut tells me that whatever Gunny is about to say is somehow connected to Roxy’s weird reaction, just now. It’s an unspoken rule, whenever we have to talk about anything that has to do with our current situation, the girls can’t be within hearing distance. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case here, so I have to tread lightly while I talk to Gunny. I punch in his number and brace myself.

“Gunny, what’s up?” I ask, trying to appear and sound as casual as possible.

“Are you free to speak?”

“Nope.”

“I got a text from my brother’s phone saying he wants to see Roxy. Confiscate Roxy’s phone, ASAP. I don’t care how. Just do it.”

Hearing Gunny say ‘confiscate Roxy’s phone’ makes me shake my head, because that’s impossible. I may as well ask a crack addict to surrender his stash. It stresses the shit out of me every time I have to ask Roxy to give up something. I know she’ll challenge me at every turn. Plus, I’m dying to tell Gunny what I just witnessed myself. If it’s something that scared her and it’s no big deal, she would have voiced it by now, because that’s just how my girl is.

“Negative, Gunny.”

“Make it happen. Continue on as if nothing’s wrong so as not to alert the girls. Tell Damien to call me ASAP, like yesterday.”

“Anything else, Gunny?” I ask, as I’m already thinking of what to tell Roxy.

“That’s it. Keep them safe.”

Gunny hangs up before I could even say goodbye. I immediately send a text to LT since we have to nip this in the bud A-fucking-SAP. I can’t really explain much on a text, but the immediate action needs to be to secure her phone.

Me: You need to check Roxy’s phone per Gunny’s instructions. I’ll do the diversion. Check for text, email, voice mail. Code 0408.

LT: Make sure she drops her purse in the cart. I’ll do the rest.

Seconds later, Jake calls to tell me they’re done. I get the move on; as soon as I see Brian, I jump out of the car; and signal for him to drive. The need to be close to Roxy is, without question, the only thing I need right now. It’s not because Gunny told me to do something, but because her father’s request could mean a lot of things. For all I know, it’s the damn cartel instructing him to do it.

Roxy’s my peace, and I need it…I need her surrounding me with her presence to calm the avalanche in my brain that’s threatening to spill over. I need every inch of her skin touching every inch of mine.

I hold the back of her head while my fingers anchor in her silky hair, as the intensity of my kiss starts to deepen even more. Then all too soon, reluctantly, I give her a few more pecks on her well-loved lips as she gifts me with her smile.

Then, my needs are over…and her needs come first, always.

“Love, why the scared look on your face earlier?” I ask, cutting to the chase.

She looks at me for a second. Her eyes, frantically, move all over my face, searching for what, I don’t know. Maybe clarity…maybe an excuse, but definitely not the truth. It’s all over her eyes…her eyes that calm me every time I look at her are now swimming in turmoil of unspoken truths. Her eyes and the way she looked earlier, finally confirm my fears.

My love, who’s sitting next to me holding my hand and snuggling closer, makes my over active brain imagine so many different scenarios. Am I too late? Did the motherfucker call her? That couldn’t be, I didn’t hear her phone ring. It could very well be on vibrate. Fuck! He could have texted her, and she could very well have erased it. I’m so tempted to grab her phone and check it myself, but I can’t. I need to follow through with our plan of diversion.

“Look at me, Rox,” I request, using my authoritative voice.

She looks at me, immediately. Gone is her scared, panic stricken face from a while ago, and in its place is a mask of innocence. Will she lie to me? Would she? Even though I’m not one hundred percent sure, somewhere deep inside tells me she’s hiding something from me.

“You didn’t receive any calls or text messages from your dad or anyone today, right?”

“No! Why would he? Who would be texting me? Why are you asking?” She answers without looking away from my stare.

Tami turns to face us and asks, “Yeah, why are you asking her? Is that why my dad called you earlier?” Tami turns to face Brian and asks, “Honey, did my dad call LT?”

Brian shakes his head, but looks at Jake through the rearview mirror.

“Is everything okay? Jake, everything’s okay, right?” Trish doesn’t waste time jumping into the lets-ask-a-billion-questions-game.

Jake kisses Trish’s forehead before speaking, “Everything’s fine. Dad was just checking up on us.”

No one says a word. Everyone seems to be wrapped up with their own assumptions, me included. Roxy just makes it too easy for me. One thing, I won’t tolerate is her lying to me, not when she puts herself in danger. She better not use when I hid the truth from her about her relationship with LT, because it can’t be compared to her lying to me now. I did it to protect her. She doesn’t have any business protecting anyone else.

It’s our job.

It is
my
job.

“I need to know the second he does, Roxy. Do you understand?”

She nods her head. “I will. Relax, will you.”

So, I let it go, for now.

I make sure Roxy puts her purse in the cart before pulling her to the produce section, leaving Tami to push it. I look back to see LT grab it when Brian sidetracks Tami by kissing her.

“Hmm, because of that kiss, honey, dinner is Chicken Marsala, pasta, and salad. Your favorite,” Tami says, then plants another kiss on Brian’s waiting lips.

“Okay, make way for the waddle mama over here.” Roxy laughs, as she guides Trish in the produce section.

“I want watermelon, Jake. Um….” Trish says, while she caresses her stomach as she scans the fruit section. “Oh, and a banana for later.” Trish winks at Jake, and my friend lovingly kisses her forehead.

Roxy shakes her head. “Ah, the very famous banana. What about this cucumber, Trish? It fits my LBF kind. What do you think?”

That earns a giggle from Trish and Tami, while Jake grins like a fool, as if he’s getting sucked off. What the hell is an LBF? Leave it up to my love to make up acronyms for everything.

I scrunch up my brows asking, “Love, what is an LBF?”

Roxy starts playing with the cucumber. Her right thumb and middle finger moves seductively up and down the damn thing, while her left hand grips the bottom tightly, and my damn dick jerks to life. Slowly, I walk toward my prey, never breaking eye contact. It doesn’t even register in my brain that we’re in a public place. My dick has a one track mind right about now, and veering off course is a no-no. As I approach her, the rest of our friends scamper away, either to continue shopping or to avoid being embarrassed. Whatever the reason, I only hope LT gets the info we need. I immediately focus on Roxy again and how she’ll be embarrassed with what I’m about to do, while I enjoy watching her squirm.

Slowly, she starts to walk backward. “Cody, knock it off!”

I shake my head, giving her my smirk that drives her insane. My stalking comes to a standstill when she hits a bin full of oranges and glares at me. We’re now toe to toe, her breath mixing with mine, her front flush to mine.

“What is LBF, Roxy?” With a husky voice I ask her, holding her stare.

She tips her chin and confidently says, “Long, Big, and Fat.”

Then, my naughty girl bites her lower lip and looks at me, daring me to act on it. So, I do. I grip her hips and slightly pull her toward me, making her feel what she’s done to me. With my lips barely touching hers, our eyes lock with each other, it’s my intention for her to think I’m about to devour her; but of course, I won’t. My dick is ready to rock and fuck. I’d like to finish what I’ve started, but unless we want to go to jail for indecent exposure, this shit isn’t happening here. However, who says I can’t tease, my love?

“You know, I’m dying to be inside you, but I’ll let you wait. I’ll let you get primed and wet,” I whisper against her lips.

Her sharp intake of breath and the way the pulse on her neck is pumping like crazy are dead giveaways that she’s getting just as excited as I am. Not to mention, she drops the cucumber. So, I go in for the kill.

“FYI, before you grab something, make sure it’s not a damn cucumber next time, love. That thing won’t do anything to satisfy you. This right here…” I grab her hand and put it right smack on my raging hard on. “This is what you need, and I’m willing to give it, all of it.”