Colorado 03 Lady Luck (57 page)

“
These tees are… the…
shit!
” Bubba shouted suddenly, lifting Ty’s up and
holding it out for everyone to see, turning it back to front. Ty
saw it and I knew he did because his fingers at my hip dug in. Then
Bubba dropped his arms and looked at Krystal, “Babe, we gotta get
us some of these.”

Krystal replied instantly, “Long’s mine’s a
tank.”

Laurie giggled.

I was wishing I’d put them away because they
wouldn’t be cool if everyone had their own, they were only cool
because Ty and I did. I was also wishing that I’d had the foresight
to buy myself a matching tank which would be awesome.

Since I was nursing my snit that Bubba and
Krystal were going to steal my kickass idea, I didn’t feel Ty
move.

I only knew he did when I heard in my ear.
“Mama, you are a total… fuckin’…
goof.
”

I instantly lost my snit, melted deeper into
my husband, tipped my head back, caught his eyes and grinned. He
grinned back. Then he leaned in and kissed my temple.

When he straightened, I relaxed even deeper
into him and looked back into the kitchen.

That was when I saw Samuel Sterling’s eyes
on us. When his caught mine, his handsome face split in a huge,
beaming, white smile.

Samuel Sterling was one, seriously hot black
man.

And Ty was not wrong.

He was also a complete romantic.

* * * * *

Ty had just finished, I’d come five minutes
ago and I was sitting astride him, his cock still hard and filling
me, his back was to the headboard, my face was in his neck, one of
his hands was wrapped around the back of my neck, the other arm
wrapped around my waist and his lips were at my ear.

“Took my back,” he whispered and I tried to
move to lift my head but his fingers tightened on my neck and I
stayed were I was. “On the move, rushin’, outta breath to cover
me.”

“Ty –”

“I love you, Lexie.”

My heart skipped and warmth flooded through
me.

“Ty –”

His hand gave me a squeeze and he cut me
off, whispering, “Love you, baby.”

His hand moved then, sifting then fisting in
my hair, I lifted my head and he guided it to his mouth where he
kissed me, hard, wet and very deep.

When he released my mouth, he didn’t release
the hold on my hair and pressed in so my forehead touched his and I
looked up close into his beautiful, curly-lashed eyes.

“You know,” I whispered, my hand sliding up
his chest to wrap around the side of his neck, “I love you
too.”

“On the move, rushin’, outta breath to cover
me,” he repeated. “Yeah, babe, I know.”

I smiled at him.

Then, still whispering, I said, “I gotta go
clean up.”

To that, his fist loosened in my hair but
his big hand cupped the back of my head and pressed my face in his
neck, I felt his jaw slide down my hair and in my ear, he murmured,
“Don’t like losin’ your pussy.”

“Honey –”

“Let me keep it a minute.”

What could I do?

I did the only thing I could, not that it
was a hardship, I gave in on an, “Okay.”

His arm around me gave me a squeeze and I
rested against his big, solid warmth for awhile until his arm gave
me another squeeze, lightly lifting me up and I got his
message.

I kissed his neck, rolled off him and exited
the bed. Then I went to the bathroom, cleaned up and wandered out
to see Ty hadn’t moved except to pull the covers over his lower
half. He was still in bed, back to the headboard, lights on at both
nightstands, his eyes on me.

I moved to my panties, tugged them on then
tagged his Team Walker t-shirt that I’d flung on the end of the bed
with mine. I pulled it on and when I got my head and arms through
and was yanking it down, I caught his eyes to see his lips
twitch.

“So, will you wear it in town?” I asked.

“Mr. Humongo?” he asked back then shook his
head, his lips tipping up. “No fuckin’ way.”

“Well, I’m wearing mine,” I muttered,
putting a knee to the bed then crawling to him and throwing my leg
over to sit astride him again.

I rested my hands on his chest. He shoved
his up the back of the tee and they roamed but his eyes caught mine
and his were now serious.

“
No matter what Keaton said, you don’t
trust him. You don’t trust
anyone
but the inner sanctum. Tate, Deke, Peña, Wood, Maggie,
Laurie, Krystal, Bubba, Pop, Stella and Jim-Billy. Get
me?”

Obviously, I’d told him everything.

I nodded.

“Not even Frank,” he went on.

I nodded again.

“Also not Dewey.”

I nodded yet again.

“Nobody,” he kept going.

“I get it, hubby,” I said, pressing my hands
into his chest. “Nobody.”

“But maybe Sterling,” he amended on a mutter
and I was thinking he was right.

I didn’t get my kickass celebration dinner.
The celebration took its usual turn when our friends were around.
Deke took off and brought back two cases of beer. Laurie got on the
phone and Pop brought Jonas over and both stayed. Stella came with
them. Krystal got on the phone and ordered pizzas. Wood popped by
for a beer but didn’t stay long because Maggie was at home with the
kids. Shambles’s cake was decimated but part of it being laid to
waste was Ty eating a huge slice with ice cream so I didn’t mind. I
managed to keep the champagne away from the impromptu partygoers
but they weren’t really champagne people. Except, possibly,
Sterling who stayed for the festivities but drank beer like all the
rest.

Then, as they do, the men went out to the
deck to huddle. Sterling went with them.

I would learn after they left and before Ty
and I went up to bed to have the real celebration, that Tate was
taking the money, gun, weapon paraphernalia and Misty’s letter. He
had a scanner and was going to scan it and send it to Angel that
night. He was also going to send it to other people. He was further
going to make a shitload of copies of it, give Ty and I some but
keep the original safe. And lastly, Ty had contacted his friend
Max’s wife Nina, who was an attorney in Gnaw Bone, who was also on
Tate’s e-mail list to receive a scanned copy. That said, she’d
already been on the line to Colorado’s Attorney General’s office to
discuss Ty’s case and how the letter shed new light on it and to
get the ball rolling to uncover whatever else Misty had sent to
whoever else she sent it to.

Although the Attorney General’s office
assured her that they felt this was as serious as Nina Maxwell
communicated to them it was and would be acting on it thus, that
was as far as we got.

It would be nice to get a knock on the door
in five minutes and go down to see the Governor there to grant Ty a
full pardon with a thousand news reporters behind him ready to
receive his statement that Tyrell Walker was a wronged man and
Arnold Fuller was a racist, asshole, dirty cop dick but I doubted
that would happen.

So I would take what we had since it was way
better than what we had yesterday.

“Do you think Keaton is working with Frank?”
I asked Ty.

“I think Keaton’s wife got shot and Keaton’s
shook. He did not do me dirty except that he married Misty and was
and is known to look the other way frequently and clearly he did it
during my gig. How dirty he is, I have no idea but I do know you
jump in the mud, it’s impossible to stay clean. And I know he
jumped in the mud way before what went down with me. His seein’ the
error of his ways now does not surprise me. But I wouldn’t trust
him to change a light bulb.”

I nodded.

Then I pointed out, “Fuller, today, was
arrogant. I don’t think he knows what Misty got up to or what Frank
and possibly Keaton are currently up to.”

“Fuller has been a big fish in a small pond
for a very long time. Fuller has convinced himself he’s untouchable
and the long ride he’s had has helped him do that. He’s got shit on
people, he’s got people in his pocket and he’s demonstrated that
his retribution will be fierce if he’s crossed and not just with me
and Misty but often and for decades. He’s not dumb as his boys but
no man should suffer from hubris. Hubris is the worst thing a man
can have because it makes you weak without you knowin’ you’re weak.
Hubris has brought bigger, smarter, more powerful men to their
knees. A man like him, it’ll destroy.”

“I hope so,” I whispered.

His hands stopped roaming and his arms
wrapped around the middle of my back, pulling me close so my torso
was plastered to his and our faces were an inch apart.

“Seein’ that man in my house I thought would
rile me. Seein’ how he was, though, it was the first time I felt
any real hope. All this shit goin’ down around him, even right in
front of him, Gifford clearly hatin’ his guts, citizens there in
his face that they were not scared or cowed and he still stood
their proud, thinkin’ he had the upper hand. That isn’t smart. He’s
blinded by his perceived power. It’s the wrong way to be.”

“But he… with Misty –”

“Misty was a speck of dust that he blew off.
He cannot blow off the IA or the FBI or Tate Jackson. He’s got more
powerful enemies than him and he doesn’t see it. Means his plays
will be off.”

“I hope so,” I repeated on a whisper and got
a strong squeeze of my man’s arms.

“Team Walker is in the home stretch, mama,”
Ty whispered back, I sighed, he smiled then he ordered, “Get off
me, baby, we don’t know what tomorrow’ll bring. We need to
sleep.”

I nodded, touched my mouth to his and rolled
off.

He turned his light off and slid into bed. I
turned off mine and rolled back to curl into him.

I fell asleep tucked to his side. As usual,
what seemed like moments later, I was on my other side and felt my
husband leave the bed. He was never gone long and this time was no
different. Then he was back and curving his long body into
mine.

I snuggled back into him, doing it deep and
fell back to sleep.

Christmas Comes Early

Ty

Lying on his back on the couch, Ty heard his
wife’s heels on the floor then he heard them disappear and he moved
his eyes from the game to over the back of couch because he knew
her feet hit rug.

When he saw her he didn’t know whether to
grin, frown or get up, grab her, throw her on the couch and fuck
her hard and quick before their company came.

This was because she’d just come from
being upstairs for an hour, she was tricked out and she looked
good. Another sundress, this one black, clingy t-shirt material,
tank in the front with straps that crossed at her back, exposing a
good deal of skin and a long expanse of her legs were also on view
because the skirt wasn’t
short
but it was short. She had on a pair of spike-heeled,
ash-colored sandals with an abundance of criss-crossed thin straps,
so many they nearly covered her foot, rode up her ankle and the
shoes had to zip up the back. And last, she had on big silver
earrings and so many silver bracelets on one wrist, he could hear
them jingle even over the commentators on television.

He hadn’t seen the dress before… or the
shoes. His woman had a lot of clothes and shoes so it could be
she’d dug something out of the closet. Then again, one night after
work that week, she’d gone with Laurie and her friend Wendy to the
mall, she’d come back after Ty was home from the gym and she’d done
it carrying numerous bags. He’d been on the phone so he didn’t pay
much attention but the next day he got home from work, he saw two
more frames on the mantel, one holding a photo Laurie took of Ty
and Lexie with her family at Maggie’s barbeque and another of Ty
and Julius that Lexie took on the deck the night after they had
dinner at The Rooster.

But those frames did not take numerous bags
to haul home and Ty was discovering the reality of something he
already knew, his wife liked to spend money and it wasn’t just on
frames. It was her discussion of painting rooms, making curtains,
setting up a “reading area” in their bedroom and going so far as
dragging his ass up to the office so she could show him a website
where she picked out furniture for this “reading area” that he had
to admit was the shit but he also saw the price tags so there was a
reason it was the shit.

He made good money and they could have a
good life even if she didn’t work. He didn’t just put the money he
got from selling the Skyline down on the house but also earnings
from a couple of games. Therefore, he bought every upgrade the new
build came with and still the mortgage was low. But they had three
vehicles, all of which had taxes, plates and insurance that were a
bitch, not to mention their development was a nice one that
attracted a certain income bracket not only because property values
were high due to its seclusion and views but also because the HOA
fees were near crippling. It made for nice, well-kept landscaping
and meant the roads were cleared quickly when it snowed but it also
was a monthly whack.

He knew his wife was setting up house,
making a home for him
and
for
her, something neither of them had ever had, settling them into a
nest where they’d feel safe that was theirs together. He also knew
she was acutely aware that his life had been interrupted and she
was running to catch up so he wouldn’t walk into their home every
day and be reminded of the time he lost.

And even after his outlays on informants,
furniture and vehicles, he still had a fuckload of his earnings
from Vegas and a healthy bank balance due to his overtime, but his
woman was off the pill and if her parts worked and his did too, the
amount of sex they had, she’d be knocked up soon and, as far as he
knew, babies didn’t come with government checks to cover their
upkeep for the first eighteen years.