Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
The cops left.
The door was closing behind them, but then it didn’t, because Martha, Linda, Patsy, and worse, Jessie, Luna, Raye, Shanti and Willow were all of a sudden in Jacob’s apartment.
I loved Jacob and Alexis together (and separately). We’d all watched as they’d circled each other for-what-seemed-like-ever. Thus, it was a long time coming. Now, they were very together and cute as all heck.
But I didn’t know how she handled his pad.
There was an oversized black leather sofa, an equally oversized gray leather chair, and about fifteen guitars on stands (okay, only five, but that was a lot, wasn’t it?). The TV was humongous and totally didn’t work with the space. A fancy treadmill was scrunched in with all of this, and every surface seemed littered with mail, fliers, and what appeared to be laundry that was either clean and had yet to be folded and put away, or dirty and hadn’t made it to the hamper.
Alexis was really into Jacob, and he was really into her, as well as being nice, protective and gorgeous, so I could see maybe dealing with the massive TV that far from worked in that room. And maybe the leather furniture, which I would never say out loud, but even so, not speaking it openly didn’t negate the fact it was ugly.
But the treadmill, the mess and the laundry?
No.
They’d been together for months. They both had places at the Oasis. Alexis lived next door to Martha, who wasn’t thrilled with their sex-a-thons, which Martha shared with all and sundry could get loud, so they were usually at Jacob’s. As such, with all that time in, it was my philosophy it was high time for her to instigate a woman’s touch.
But at that moment, there were twelve people jammed in and sharing space with all this stuff.
And this was impossible.
“Why were the cops here?” Jessie demanded to know, her gaze pinging from me to Javi to Alexis to Jacob, back to me and Javi. “And why are you guys in Jacob’s apartment?”
Martha, with difficulty due to the zero space allotted her, pushed center stage.
“To hell with that!” she yelled. “I’m contacting Bill and Zach. We’re having an Oasis-wide meeting.” She jabbed a finger at me, then to Jess, Raye and Luna. “Reporters clogging the entrances to the parking lot wanting to talk to Raye, Jessie being kidnapped, Harlow having her home broken into. Once and for all, we wanna know what you girls are up to.” She homed in on me. “I looked in your door when Javi came out with the cops. Your pad is a disaster!”
“Your place is a disaster?” Willow breathed, the color draining from her face.
“It’s been tossed,” Javi grunted.
“It has? For heaven’s sake, why?” Luna asked.
“I don’t know, woman,” Javi drawled. “Maybe because she was out on a date with an asshole who got his throat slit last night?”
“Oh my goodness!” Linda cried.
“What the hell?” Martha demanded.
Patsy made the same gurgling noise the register guy did at Thai Chili 2go.
Javi ignored them and looked at me. “The boys are gonna go in and see what they can get out of the place. You’re with me.”
“What boys?” Raye asked.
“I’m with you?” I asked a far more pertinent question.
“You’re staying with me until we figure this shit out,” Javi answered my question.
My stomach dropped and it was both pleasant and terrifying.
“She can stay with me and Eric,” Jessie stated.
Javi turned on her, and when she and the others caught sight of his face, something, from their reactions, I was glad I couldn’t see, Linda’s eyes rounded, Patsy bit her lip, Martha narrowed her gaze, and Javi said in a vibrating voice, “She’s with me.”
“Okay, hermanito, I’ll back off,” Jessie muttered, exchanging glances with Raye and Luna, then sending another one that screamed I’m sorry! to me.
I knew she didn’t mean she was sorry about caving to Javi. She meant she was sorry about what happened at the motel.
She and I should have a chat about that, but at that moment I had to stay focused.
“I get to say where I’m staying,” I put in.
“No, you don’t,” Javi denied.
Before I could argue, Raye reiterated, “What boys?”
“Our boys,” Javi told her. “We just took over this case from you.”
Uh-oh.
“Did not!” Raye snapped.
“Talk to your man about it,” Javi said. “Or better, talk to Mace about it. See how he feels about you women wading into this shit, whatever this shit is.”
“It’s our case,” Raye retorted.
“Case?” Martha asked. “Case?” Martha shouted.
Needless to say, the other residents at the Oasis didn’t know about our Angels business.
“Not me you gotta convince,” Javi told Raye, ignoring Martha and going to our bag of food.
He snatched it up, then he snatched my hand up, and me and my chicken bites were being dragged through the packed-like-sardines people to the door.