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If something in me punches walls at the thought that this isn’t more than this, right here, then I ignore it.
Just like I ignore the thought of how she’s mine, and how I never want to let her go.
* * *
The buzz of my phone pulls me from a doze. Outside, it’s light, and the night of sex, and talk, and more sex recedes into where it should be. In the dark, under the cover of dreams.
I check my phone.
Tizio.
Next to me, in a tangle of bedding, is Avah, her golden hair spread out, one of her hot little handfuls of tit showing. The bite marks and bruises from my mouth on the pale flesh should make me cringe with guilt, but it doesn’t. It makes me hard.
I brush a finger over her nipple and the little pale button peaks. She moans, turning in her sleep like an offer to me.
Fuck. As I answer the phone, I shove my way out of the bed and snag a pair of jeans from my closet.
“What’s up?”
“Got some info for you.” Tizio hums to himself, and I know he’s pulling up some info on a computer.
In the background comes a child’s high-pitched voice and the bark of two dogs. He’s at Leo’s. That’s Rocco, along with Tink and Blue, Blake and Theo’s child and dogs. I half smile because the dogs are sweet and the toddler even sweeter.
But that half smile fades as I tug on the jeans and set up some coffee brewing in my kitchen. Something tells me I’m going to need it.
“So, you asked some questions and went into some fucking places you probably shouldn’t,” he says, voice low. “Lowlanders are twitchier with the tightening of supply chains on their end.”
“El Cabeza are playing with them?”
He doesn’t laugh. “More than usual. They’re able to get in through the crackdowns, which, word on the street, means E.D.’s importance had grown.”
“Bigger footholds.” There’s an uneasiness inside as I pour the coffee into a mug. I hesitate, then pour one for Avah. I don’t know how the hell she likes that shit or even if she drinks it. “You think they’re into more than the supply chain?”
They’re dangerous, run a chunk of Mexico, and are secretive. And . . .” He blows out air. “Seems your little girlfriend’s dad had a tryst with someone from that family. About eighteen years back. Retaliations, standoffs, you name it, but this wound . . .”
“I fucking hate you using that word.”
“Yeah?” Tizio taps loud on a keyboard. “It went south and the woman died in the crossfire. No idea what level of relation she was to the head of the El Cabeza family, but I’m thinking some things here.”
“Like revenge?”
“Fucking A. Then again, it could be nothing. They don’t like shit known, so it’s beyond lockdown on the information. Took me a lot to get even this. But . . . look, dark shit, remember? Dark fucking blood, Nic,” he mutters. “They bury everything and all rumors. It’s like hardcore level security. The only thing that gets out is people don’t want to work with them. And . . .”
I kind of have an idea of what he’s going to say.
“There’s one thing.”
“Let me guess, Tiz. The Gheatas? They used to play with them?”
“You got it.”
Old enemies are playing with an unknown that apparently leaves an unsavory, bad taste. “So what the fuck are Lowlanders doing?”
“No idea, man.” His voice drops a little more. “The crackdown? A deal they couldn’t refuse?”
A loud bark is followed by the howl of a child’s laughter and the growl of Frozen himself. But Theo’s all warm and gooey when it comes to his kid and wife. He’ll turn on a dime to destroy anyone who dares touch his family.
To have that kind of ability comes from a good family life and a woman like his little Snowflake.
