Page 63 of Sleeping with the Dark (The Righteous 3)
He placed a hand on Cody’s to stop him from finishing the thought. “Why don’t you come here, and I’ll show you how okay I am with the idea of placing a ring on your finger.”
* * *
By the time he and Cody emerged from the bed, it was close to lunch. He’d made a point to treat Cody’s sore back and hips with a little TLC and smirked at the amazing thank you he received in return.
Trev hadn’t stayed in bed past six a.m., other than while he was injured, in forever. He felt refreshed and rejuvenated as he slipped the suit jacket into place.
“Fuck, you really are the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Cody remarked. He was leaning against the open-door frame waiting for him to finish up. “I could watch you dress all day.”
“And here I thought it was me getting undressed that intrigued you,” Trev said teasingly.
“Oh, don’t worry, I fucking love that too.”
“As much as I’d like for us to simply close the door, there is some work we need to address.”
Cody rubbed at his hair. “Yeah, reality sucks.”
Trev stopped as he reached Cody and laid a hand on his chest. “Not this reality, and not the family waiting for us out there. The rest is just noise to be controlled at different decibels. Come on, I’m famished, and I can smell Sally’s cooking.”
Linking their fingers, he gave Cody a tug to follow. He was surprised to learn that Cody had never been in a real relationship before. It made sense after learning even more about the gruesome inner workings of Tyson—no one you cared for would be safe. The most disturbing thing was that Cody didn’t think he’d live past twenty-five, so why get attached to someone? Many of the details of his time with the Vipers, Cody didn’t want to share. Trev understood that, but what he did learn had his blood boiling. As they lay together talking, he traced the jagged scar on Cody’s face that could easily have taken his eye and learned it was from a particularly harsh beating he took at the hands of Tyson. It hurt to see how casual Cody was about being abused. If he could pull Tyson from the grave and kill him again, he would’ve. He no longer thought that Arek’s actions had been excessive. If anything, they hadn’t been near painful enough.
Everyone stopped talking as they walked into the kitchen, their eyes instinctively being drawn to their clasped hands. Renee looked ready to cry. Everyone else, other than Ray’s daughter Simone, a.k.a Little Spice, was smiling and seemed ready to burst at the seams. Simone was only eight, but she had a huge crush on Cody, and it was evident as she crossed her arms and scowled that she was not impressed with the new situation.
“You can all stop staring now,” Trev said, and like a switch was flipped, the room erupted in noise once more. Giving Cody a wink, he let go of his hand to go and speak to Arek.
“After breakfast, we need to have a meeting,” he whispered to Arek and stole a piece of bacon off the massive platter.
“About your new client?”
“That and I have a favor to ask.”
Arek nodded and gave Sally’s shoulder a squeeze as he passed. Some things just couldn’t be purchased with money.
“So what’s the scoop with this Maeve person?” Arek asked an hour later as he flopped down into a chair. If you didn’t know the man, you might say he’d just run a marathon with his melodramatic show.
Cody stood by the door looking like a guard with his arms crossed while Ray quietly sat beside Arek. He was playing the part of a statue well.
“For starters, I do believe she is being framed. Whoever this caller was, they either saw it happen or had prior knowledge. Why is she being framed? That I haven’t pieced together, but it is a top-level job, one that costs large sums of money to pull off.”
Trev slid the image of Maeve across the table for them to see the picture. “She looks like she should be the leader of a punk rock band, not behind bars,” Arek commented and passed the picture on. “Could she even hurt a fly?”
“She is deadlier than she appears. She is one of Morry’s girls.”
Arek’s eyes grew wide. “No shit. Did she say how Morry is, or why she is here on her behalf?”
“Wait, who is Morry?” Cody asked, walking forward to lay the picture on the desk.
“The mission I told you about, our last one.” Trev pointed to Arek. “Morry is one of us, and she is as tough as they come.” Trev leaned back in his chair.
“Morry is one of The Righteous?” Ray asked.
“Yes, she is. She runs a unique rehab facility for drug addicts at the heart of a desert in Arizona and also runs quite a large biker gang. They deal guns and jewels mostly, but never drugs—for obvious reasons. There is more that she is involved in, but the point is when Maeve says she is one of Morry’s girls, it means she arrived there broken and was reborn or would die.”
“She kills those that don’t make it out of rehab?” Cody asked, his eyes wide.
“She has her own brand of cleaning up, just like we do, and yes, as far as I know, you either get right or die trying.”
“Damn, that is harsh,” Ray mumbled. “You all don’t mess around.”
