Page 130 of Savior
“Girl, you don’t see what he just did here?” she says, pointing at the envelopes and gesturing to the two girls. Veronica takes them and hands one off to Jessica.
I glance back at his employees, busy with customers again, before I look back at Latisha. She takes my arm in hers once more, as we walk across the lawn back towards the parking lot.
“That was a power move right there, having you pay these girls instead of him. He’s letting them know your hand is equal to the one he’s been feeding them with.” She explains.
“You think so?”
“Knowing Dean as long as I have. My brother working for him in his shop these last few years. Without a doubt.”
“And here I thought he was just busy.”
“Busy making sure the world knows you’re his Queen,” she laughs, “As he should!”
An in-coming call from Jason Caldwell lights up my phone, just as I’m tucking Serene in for the night at home. I’ve been anxiously waiting to hear about the cellphone I turned over to him, more than a week ago, in hopes it would lead to a few arrests.
“You might want to turn on the seven o’ clock news.” He informs me. “The sting operation went down this afternoon. Multiple arrests. Might only be a matter of time before we know who you’re really dealing with.”
“Fuckin’ Aces.” I grin to myself, eager to finally know the reason behind Legion’s involvement with Jack. Locking the garage, I head for the house. The lights are on inside, and I’m sure Vanna’s getting dinner ready, as per her usual, and much appreciated, evening routine.
As I walk up the steps, I notice there are new plants hanging between the columns of the front porch, and it brings a smile to my face. I used to dread coming back here alone. Preferring to spend my nights in my dingy room at the club house, rather than face the empty structure this place once felt like for a time. A painful reminder of loss and failure. But since Vanna has come into my life, she’s really turned this house into a home. One that I’m happy and eager to return to, every night.
When I enter our home, Vanna’s in the kitchen, working her magic over the stove. The mouthwatering aroma of her cooking fills the air.
“Hey there, baby.” I smile at her.
She wipes her hands on a towel as she walks towards me. I meet her half way and she arches up on her toes for a greeting kiss.
“I love you.” She tells me.
I can’t help cocking a brow at her as she smiles and walks back into the kitchen. It isn’t that we don’t say those words to each other often, there’s just something about the way she just said them.
“I love you, too, doll.” I say, slipping out of my cut and hanging it up on the rack beside the door along with my keys. “Something going on?”
“Just making dinner.”
I glance at the clock on the mantel in the living room. It’s a quarter to seven now. “How much time till dinner’s done?”
“About fifteen or twenty minutes. I’m making one of your favorites.”
“I love everything you make.” I say, walking to the fridge to grab what I hope might be a celebratory beer to go along with a kick ass meal, and some good fucking news for once.
“I made you dessert, too.” She smirks at me as I crack the top off and take a swig.
“Alright, what gives?”
“You do.” She turns from the stove to wrap her arms around my neck. “You give me so much. More than I even realize sometimes.”
“That’s a mutual exchange from where I’m standing.” I say, wrapping an arm around her. “Have we entered some kind of pregnancy, lovey-dovey phase?”
“Oh, is that what this is? Another trick of these damn hormones?” she teases me, dropping her arms from my shoulders to playfully shove me away. “In that case, off with you! You’re crowding my kitchen.”
I chuckle as I make my way into the living room and turn on the news.
Dean is sitting in the living room beside Nico on the couch. A beer in one hand, the remote to the flatscreen above the mantel, in the other. He’s wearing a slight grin as he flips the station to the local news. As I set the table for dinner, I wonder what he’s so eager to see, and if it has anything to do with what he briefly mentioned last week.
“Come on in here a minute, baby.” He calls to me. “I want you to see something.”
“What’s going on?” I ask, walking over to him. “Did the police find the missing girl?”
