More panting but he talked (Sniff talked a lot, it would take more than running from an exploded building to get him to shut up). “Tex blew up the fucking building. It was insane.”
“Give me that fuckin’ thing,” I heard Tex boom through his own panting and then I heard him in my ear. “Jules?” At the sound of his voice, my hand went to my throat, tears hit the backs of my eyes and I shifted my body until it was close to a chair. I was sinking into the chair when I asked, “Are you okay?”
“Fuckers conked me a good one. I got a splittin’ fuckin’
headache,” he answered. “We need a ride,” he said this last like he’d been at a party and the designated driver ditched him and he was partial y annoyed but stil enjoying the party.
In other words, Tex was al right.
May was running up to me.
I turned to her and shook my head.
“Where are you?” I asked Tex.
I heard scraping on the mouthpiece then, “Where are we, kid?”
“Commerce City,” Sniff replied and then I heard him
“Commerce City,” Sniff replied and then I heard him giving some streets and cross streets. My eyes moved to Roam who’d come close and I snapped my fingers for his phone.
“Hang on, Tex,” I said and then snatched Roam’s phone out of his hand and put it to my other ear. “Vance?”
“You got me, Princess,” he said.
“I’ve got Tex on my phone. He’s fine. He’s with Sniff.” I gave him al the info I had.
Vance repeated the streets in my ear, likely he did this for the benefit of whoever he was with. Then he clipped, “Roger that, Jules. You stil got him on the line?”
“Yeah. He’s on Sniff’s phone.”
“Get off. Darius is closest. He’l cal Sniff.”
“Okay.”
“You said he blew up a building?”
“That’s what Sniff said.”
Silence for several beats then, “Christ, we got it on police band now.”
Then he started laughing.
“Crowe! There isn’t anything fucking funny about this!” I yel ed and everyone turned to listen.
“You’re right.” He was stil laughing then he said, “Out.” Disconnect.
I flipped Roam’s phone shut and went back to mine.
“Tex, you there?”
“Where the fuck else would I be?” Tex boomed and even though this was rude, it was Tex and he was alive and wel enough to be rude so I could have shouted with joy.
“Vance knows where you are. Darius is in the area.
You’l have a pick up soon. Keep the line open for Darius’s cal .”
“Gotcha.”
Disconnect.
I looked at May but it was Roam who said, “Law, you shouldn’t say fuck.”
I growled.
Then I felt it coming, ran to the bathroom and puked.
*
About an hour later, Bobby came to get me and Roam. Stel a and Ava were already in his Explorer.
We al went to Fortnum’s.
Tex was behind the espresso counter when we got there. Roxie was close by his side. Jet, Indy and Al y were al behind the counter with them. Lee, Eddie, Hank, Sniff and Darius were al standing in front of the counter. Duke and Jane were standing at the end. There were no customers, Fortnum’s was official y closed.
Tex swung a portafilter at us the minute we entered the store. It was stil ful of used coffee grounds. The grounds flew across the room and splattered next to a table.
“If you girls get near me, I swear to God, I’m gonna rip someone’s head off!” he boomed. “I’m al right. No more fucking hugging! ”
We al reared back and Ava even put her hands up.
“Al right, al right. No hugging,” Ava said and we cautiously moved into the store.
Roam went to Sniff. They didn’t hug either, just did some complicated handshake and then moved away from the complicated handshake and then moved away from the adults.
“Tex, I’m happy you’re alive and al but I kid you not, you toss a portafilter fil ed with grounds around one more time, I’m gonna rip your head off,” Indy snapped.
This made Tex lose his scowl and grin at Indy.
“What happened?” I asked when I got close to the counter.
“He hasn’t said,” Al y informed me.
“I’m gonna tel the story once. Daisy and Shirleen ain’t here. If I told it to Indy and Jet when I got here, I would have had to tel Al y when she got here and then Roxie when she got here. Now you. Then Daisy and then Shirleen. You’re gonna have to fuckin’ wait,” Tex boomed.
“He blew up a building!” Sniff shouted, deciding he liked the adult conversation better than the teenage one.
Ava and Stel a both gasped. Obviously, they hadn’t had the ful brief yet.
“You blew up a building?” Stel a stared wide-eyed at Tex.
“Morons took me to a building with chemicals,” Tex explained.
“He built a bomb!” Sniff shouted, coming to the group at the front of the counter.
Everyone’s eyes moved to Tex and he shrugged then said, “They’d locked me in. I had to get out somehow.”
“So you blew up the building?” Stel a asked.
“I just meant to blow open the door. But, like I said, the place was fil ed with chemicals,” Tex replied.
“So once you blew open the door, the entire building blew up,” Stel a said, clearly not able to take it in.