Stel a was a flat out miracle worker.
“Never thought I’d see that, ” Ava whispered to me, a jerk of her head indicating Mace and Stel a but her eyes weren’t on them either.
“Nope,” I agreed.
“It’s good to see,” she went on and I grinned at her.
“Yep,” I agreed.
*
Vance came home late that night, climbing up to the platform where our bed was and waking me. I usual y slept hard and deep but I always woke when Vance got home, even if it was for a few moments.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Go back to sleep,” he muttered, fitting himself to my back from shoulders to heels and putting his hand to my bel y.
I rol ed and Boo, who was tucked into the crook of my lap, got up on a disgruntled, “Meow!” and stalked off the end of the bed.
Vance shifted so I could press us together front-to-front.
I put my hands on his chest and asked softly, “You angry at Roam?”
“I was workin’ my way to that. But seein’ as it worked out in the end, I didn’t see any reason to get in his face about it.
We had a talk though. If there’s a next time, he knows to cal me,” Vance answered. “Anyway, he told me what he did.
They’d checked out the building. No cars, no noises, no people they could see. Tex was in a windowless room and, for obvious reasons, not makin’ a lot of noise. They thought the place was empty. Sniff’s orders were to phone if anyone approached the building. Roam was gonna cal if they had company. There were some errors in judgment but it was good work. He’s learnin’.”
I relaxed into him.
Vance was a patient teacher.
He was going to make an excel ent father.
“You get anything you could use out of Tex?” I asked.
“A little, he was unconscious most of the time. The rest of the time he was alone and makin’ a homemade bomb,” Vance answered.
“I thought you said Carter didn’t mess around.”
“Usual y, he doesn’t. It’s likely they wanted to play with him and wanted him conscious when they did it. They left Tex tied to a chair. He scooted to some metal shelves, used the sharp edge of the shelves to cut through the plastic. They probably didn’t expect him to get loose. They definitely weren’t expecting him to know how to build a bomb. We’re guessin’ they were goin’ back but they got lots of other shit keepin’ them occupied these days.” That was a lucky break. A scary one (in many ways) but lucky al the same.
“Do you think he’l give up?” I asked.
“Carter?” he asked back.
“Yeah,” I answered. “First Shirleen guns down one of his assassins in her living room then Tex blows up one of his buildings,” I explained. “Any sane person would give up.”
“Sidney Carter is a lot of things. I’m not sure sane is one of them.”
This was not good news.
“Eddie and Hank getting anywhere?” I continued my mini-interrogation.
“Yeah, Carter’s operation is in disarray. Some of his men are talkin’, makin’ deals. More warrants are goin’ out.
It’s takin’ time but it’s lookin’ good.”
“So, it’l be over soon?”
“Maybe. They don’t find him, Carter’s gonna start gettin’
desperate. That’s what I’m worried about.” I snuggled closer. “It’l al be okay.”
Vance sighed then shared, “I don’t know if you noticed this, Princess, but we started with Indy getting kidnapped repeatedly. Jet nearly got raped. Roxie got the shit beat out of her. You were shot, twice. Ava was violated and nearly exploded in car. Now everyone’s a target and there’s a man out there who’s desperate. I don’t like it. It does not give me a good feeling.”
“We’l survive,” I whispered.
“Yeah, let’s just hope Hector and Al y get somethin’ on.
That way, we can kil two birds with one fuckin’ stone and be done with this shit.”
At his words, I burst out laughing.
“I wasn’t bein’ funny,” he told me.
I wrapped my arms tight around him. “I hate to disappoint you, honey, but Jet told me that Al y told her that Hector’s like a cousin or something.”
“Fuckin’ great,” he muttered and I let out a smal giggle.
It was his turn for his arms to grow tight.
“Love to hear you laugh,” he muttered and my bel y did a swoop.
We fel into a comfortable silence for several long minutes.
Then I told him, “They accepted the offer on the house.” His arms went even tighter. So did mine.
It was a great house, just a few blocks away, only a couple doors down from where Lee and Indy lived. It had a nice, tidy yard with excel ent landscaping, beautiful plants and mature trees. It had character, warmth and even a white picket fence.
It made me want to laugh.
I used to be a vigilante, head crackin’ mamma jamma who carried a gun, patrol ed the streets and, at one time, took down a bail-jumping pimp and two of his working girls one after the other.
Vance stil was a badass mother.
And we were moving into a house with a white picket fence.