*Elio*
Dreams of the night before when I held my woman in my arms and made love to her under the moonlight and stars played center stage.
I had to carry Cat in because I didn’t want to wake her. She looked so lovely. Her eyes were closed, and her lashes made shadows on her round cheeks. She was so much softer than . Her head had lain against my shoulder as I carried her into our suite. Her eyes fluttered slightly and I shushed her.
“Go back to sleep, baby,” I told her as I lay her in our bed and undressed her.
Her skin was always so silky and smooth. I had to hold back my desire for her so I could let her sleep. Yes, I wanted to show her the city and have a good ti, but I also wanted her to rest. Childbirth and caring for our baby had really been a lot for her, and she deserved the rest.
Not long after I lay her on her side of the bed, I slid into bed beside her, pulled her into my arms, buried my face in her hair, and fell asleep myself. Being next to her was the most comfortable, relaxing thing in the world.
What felt like minutes later, the phone rang and I rolled over to see what ti it was. The bedside clock said three in the morning. I wanted to scream at whoever it was, but I knew it had to be important for anyone from either my legit business or the illicit one. I smirked at that thought as I saw Frankie’s na flash on the caller ID of the phone’s screen. My anger mixed with a slight panic as I wondered what was wrong. It had to be sothing bad to bother now.
“What the fuck, Frankie?” I asked even though I wasn’t nearly as pissed as I figured I’d be in a minute. I supposed the worry was overpowering the anger.
I stood from the bed, pulled on my boxers, and walked out of the room so I wouldn’t wake Cat. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and sat at the table.
“Sorry,” he said. “I know you’re with your woman right now and we shouldn’t bother you, but we have a big problem.”
“Well, don’t keep in suspense,” I urged.
“The MS13 assholes in lockup spilled their guts like little bitches. And the ones that are out have all of a sudden contracted diarrhea of the mouth. They spilled everything about our guys on the inside and out. We’ve got so cleanup work to do.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” I shouted. I wasn’t just pissed. I was furious. This was exactly what I got for dealing with that punk-ass mother fucker Ignacio.
As if he had read my mind, Frankie cut off that train of thought by saying, “I’m not sure whether Ignacio had sothing to do with this. I reached out to him imdiately after I heard about his boys singing like canaries. He said that the MS13 boys who ratted are traitors. He told he was going to be looking for them.”
“Are the assholes who did this dead, Franky?” I asked, thinking that if they were still alive, then Ignacio wasn’t looking for them hard enough and that he was playing and Frankie for fools.
“No, but we can’t worry about that now,” he said. “We need to take care of our own boys.”
“I want to know everything you find out as soon as you learn it. You got , Franky?”
“Yeah, of course,” he said calmly. “I’ve got you.”
I wanted to throw the damn phone at the wall. This was the last thing we needed after the shoot-out a few weeks ago, which had left damn near half our boys in prison, though so had gotten out since then. Now, we had to have the guys we were able to get out lay low. This was going to put us in a bind with our enterprises because we didn’t have enough n to get the work done if everybody was wanted by the cops and the Feds.
I had to trust Franky and his ability to gather information. I didn’t know how he did it, but the man could take one inquiry and turn it into a smorgasbord of endless information. I knew he had street runners and a network of underground people, but I didn’t know all of them, and I probably didn’t want to.
Franky would know who to talk to in order to find out not only where Ignacio’s boys were and what all was spilled. I had a lot of confidence in him, and I regretted the way I’d scread at him. He was obviously doing his best to clean up the ss in my absence.
As Franky had said in his own way, there was no sense in crying over spilled bad cologne. We had to do sothing about this.
My voice cald as I continued. “Get so nas. I want to know if Ignacio had anything to do with this. The fact that his boys are still above ground and breathing doesn’t make want to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“I’ve got this,” Franky said. “You know I’ve always got your back.”
“Yeah, but Ignacio doesn’t, so don’t trust him.” A million worries poured into my mind. I knew I should have never trusted him in the first place. The agreent we’d signed was pretty much worthless when it ca to dealing with an asshole like Ignacio.
“I’m going to try to get to our guys on the inside to see what they know about this,” Franky said. “I just wanted to get so info before I tell you anything. You’ll be the first to know when I have sothing.”
I nodded to myself. I agreed that talking to our guys on the inside was a good idea. They would know more than we did about what went down this ti. They were the ones who were going to have to deal with the fallout of this cluster fuck. I also knew that there were risks with bringing up things like these with so many eyes on our n, but I trusted Franky to handle things discreetly. He had a lot of experience with these things, and I appreciated his skills.
I slowly unclenched my fists and put the damn phone down before I gave in and threw it at the wall. I wasn’t ready to have to buy a new one any ti soon, not to ntion that I didn’t want to frighten Cat. We were here to relax, though I doubted we’d be able to do anything relaxing on our trip now.
Disgusted with the situation and myself, I ran my hands through my hair.
I felt Cat co up behind . She put her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek.
I turned my head to give her a thorough one. Her lips tasted so delicious on mine that I nearly forgot about all my troubles... nearly. This was the worst possible outco, and I had to figure out what to do to keep suspicious off , and to keep all this trouble away from her and our baby girl.
“What’s going on?” she asked, walking around the chair to sit in my lap.
She had on a short night shirt that hit her mid-thigh that made want to lift it and rip off her panties right there, despite all my anger. She laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped in her arms. I wrapped my own arms around her waist and kissed the top of her head. Her hair slled like tropical fruit, and I inhaled deeply, just taking her in.
Shit, what was I going to tell her?
I didn’t want to lay the stress of this on those delicate shoulders, especially after the night we shared. She seed so happy when we were at the dock, her hair shimring with moonlight and stars. Her eyes had been dancing with happiness, her body pliant and sated. Everything about her was relaxed and contented.
Now, I knew that if I told her what was going on at ho, she’d be all tense and ready to fly back at a mont’s notice. No, I’d wait and tell her the truth, I decided. Keeping it wouldn’t hurt her, would it?
“Nothing, just a bad shipnt. Franky thought that it was important enough to tell while we were away. I agree with him. We’ll handle it, though.”
I still wanted to throw sothing. Those singing bastards–I wanted to gut them and shove them under Ignacio’s pug little nose, so he wouldn’t pull so shit like this again. Maybe I was wrong, but it seed like a double-cross to .
“Well, is it sothing Franky and Leo can handle for now?” Cat asked.
“Yeah, I don’t need to go ho,” I lied.
“Good, then co back to bed,” she said, standing and pulling by the hand.
I smiled at her. She was so much smaller than , but this woman was the power behind my every step. From one breath to the next, I thought of her, and it got through the long days and nights. The idea that I could get back to her made the guns, warehouse etings, rotten low-life rats, and the boring day job all worth it.
I walked back to our bed and slipped beneath the covers with her. Cat was a cuddler in bed. She loved using as her body pillow, and tonight was no exception. Her hair fell over my chest. Her head settled under my chin. Her hand lay over my heart. Her thighs hugged one of mine, and before I could kiss her or say good night, she was out.
Her breaths created a soft breeze against my chest and I listened to her quiet steady breathing.
Even as she slept, I felt uncomfortable. I was a traitor myself. I knew how Cat felt about lies. I couldn’t sleep for having lied to her earlier.
I hated keeping things from her. It was only going to be for a few days. I wanted her to enjoy her ti in Belize. We weren’t here to talk about business. I’d made that clear at dinner, but I knew this was sothing she’d want to know about regardless of timing or circumstance.
Trying to rationalize it wouldn’t win any favors and I knew it. It was why I couldn’t sleep. She was going to be so pissed when I finally told her, but I would tell her.
It wasn’t keeping secrets if I had every intention of telling her in a few days, right?
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