Colorado 03 Lady Luck (26 page)

“Corned beef hash is better than bologna,”
Ty remarked.

“Yeah, but as far as I can see, you have
perfect teeth.”

And he did, all white, strong, even. His
teeth were as beautiful as the rest of him.

“Least those two gave me something,” he
muttered and a giggle erupted out of me.

“Yeah, count your lucky stars, honey,” I
advised.

“I am,” he returned and his voice was soft,
those two words had meaning and I knew what that meaning was.

I knew what it was.

I knew.

And what it was was proof Lady Luck was
feeling generous.

And I knew then I was not going to fuck this
up and piss her off.

No way.

* * * * *

I was right. A kickass Viper did not go to
the garden center.

This was because, outside Chantelle, there
was a Toyota dealership. And Ty slowed before the entry of that
dealership, muttering, “Quick stop, baby.”

I didn’t care if we made a quick stop. He
was calling me baby again. His lips were twitching. I’d even heard
him chuckle. And he was sharing. I’d take a quick stop in hell to
keep all that.

We were gliding through the lot when a man
with light brown hair wearing an ill-fitting pair of slacks and
sports jacket saw us, his face split into a huge smile and he ran,
actually
ran
to where Ty
parked the Viper.

Ty barely cleared his door and I was only
folding out when the man was on him, shaking his hand, grinning
like a lunatic, head tilted back looking at Ty like he was a
top-paid professional athlete on a mission and there to clear out
the lot of all their high end models.

“
Ty, fuck, Ty.
Ty!
I heard you were out. Fuck! Good to see you, man,”
he said, pumping Ty’s hand

“Stan, yo,” Ty replied, pulled his hand
free, moved out of the door of the car, forcing Stan out too and he
turned and looked at me over the roof. “My wife, Lexie, Lex, this
is Stan.”

“Hey, Stan,” I called, slamming my door but
Stan was staring at me, mouth open.

Then he swung his open-mouthed stare to
Ty.

“
Buddy,
you’re married?
” He looked at me then back at Ty and spoke again
before Ty could answer. “To a
hot chick?
”

“Not gonna marry butt ugly, Stan,” Ty
muttered and I pressed my lips together as I moved around the back
of the Viper toward them.

“
All right, to a
super hot chick,
” Stan slightly amended.

“Yeah,” Ty replied as I made it to his side
and his arm slid around my shoulders, pulling me into him. “Lucked
out.”

Lucked out.

Yeah. I’d take a quick stop to hell to keep
this. I’d even stay for a cup of coffee.

“You could score but, holy fuck, she’s like
a white Jennifer Lopez,” Stan observed.

“
I think I look like Jessica Alba,” I joked
because I did
not.

He looked me up and down and then nodded. “I
see it but that ass, all Lopez.”

“
Stan, you mind not talkin’ about my wife’s
ass to my wife or, say,
at all?
” Ty asked in a way that Stan could only give him one
answer.

And he did, on a mutter, “Yeah, Ty,
sorry.”

Then Ty asked, “Here to see what kinda deal
you can swing me on a Cruiser.”

That was when I went still.

A Cruiser? As in, a
Land Cruiser?
What was he doing? We were
going to the garden center to buy plants not drop tens of thousands
of dollars on an SUV.

“You know I’ll take care of you, Ty.”

“Yeah, I do. That’s why I’m here. Get the
keys to one, dark gray or black. Upgrade.”

“All over it,” Stan said on another maniacal
grin then he ran to the building.

I curled into Ty.

“Uh, honey lumpkins,” I called, his head
tipped down to look at me and when it did, his mouth was twitching
again. “Looking into purchasing an SUV is not exactly a quick
stop.”

“Okay, not-so-quick stop,” he revised very
belatedly.

“Right, so, can I ask why you’re looking
into purchasing an SUV at all?”

I asked this and his forehead wrinkled. He
was perplexed. It seemed not to occur to him that he already had a
car. I also had a car. He had a job as a mechanic, had sworn off
poker games and he had a score to settle. I wasn’t sure how an
expensive SUV fit into all of that.

“Lex, we’re in Colorado.”

“Mm-hmm,” I agreed unnecessarily.

“It snows here.”

Oh. That’s how it fit in.

He went on, “You don’t drive the Snake in
snow. You drive a Cruiser in snow. Part of the reason I sat that
game in Vegas was to set myself up when I got home. I’m settin’
myself up.”

“Right,” I whispered.

“I had a Cruiser before, had to sell it to
finance my defense.”

I felt my heart skip a beat at this
unpleasant bit of history.

He kept talking. “Won’t be summer forever
and you’re thinking deck plants, we need a utility vehicle.”

Again, this made sense. And his sudden and
far from unwelcome domesticity made my heart beat faster. And he
had four hundred and fifty thousand dollars somewhere. And a job.
And, clearly, a history of getting cool things in one way or
another. And he was a grown man, he wanted an SUV, who was I to say
differently?

But I needed a rewind.

“You had to sell your other Land Cruiser to
finance your defense?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you have to sell anything else?” I
asked.

“Coupla cars I won the pinks on, few other
toys. Things got cheaper when I copped a plea.”

My heart skipped another beat and my body
went solid.

“You copped a plea?”

“Yeah. I copped a plea.”

I pressed closer to him and put a hand on
his chest. “Why, when you were innocent, did you cop a plea?”

“’Cause I had no alibi, my fingerprints were
found at the scene and a bunch of assholes made statements and lied
about my whereabouts. They wanted second degree and were muttering
about bein’ aggressive and goin’ for first. That nightmare ended, I
had things to do and I wanted to do them so I wanted out in five,
not fifteen and definitely not fuckin’ twenty-five.”

My sunglasses looked into his
sunglasses.

And I knew.

But I asked anyway and I did it on a
whisper. “This is not about justice, it’s about payback.”

He looked over his shoulder and then back at
me, his other arm sliding around so he could hold me loosely but
his head dipped close.

“This isn’t where I wanna have this
conversation but it has to be had. You’re right. This isn’t about
justice. It’s about payback.”

I didn’t have a good feeling about that so I
started, “Ty –” he shook his head and gave me a light squeeze so I
stopped.

“
I told you who Tate is and who he was. He
pulled out all the stops when that shit started goin’ down. He got
nowhere except on radar. I pulled him back from that so he didn’t
get caught in the same shit storm as me. And this goes to what I
told you earlier.
You
do not get
on radar. They get you in their sights, they’ll chew you up, babe,
spit you out and not fuckin’ blink. And, sucks for you, but you got
shit in your past they will use to fuck you with. And make no
mistake, baby, the instant you picked me up outside the
penitentiary they started lookin’ into you. That means you gotta
keep your mouth shut and a tight handle on it. At all times. Carnal
PD is infested. The citizens of that town keep their heads down and
go about their business. You do that too. You let me handle my
business and I’ll let you know if I need you.”

“Aren’t there any good cops in that
department?” I asked.

“Huddle with the boys first night I was
home?” he asked back, I nodded and he went on. “Update. Nothin’s
changed except Fuller is now Chief of Police rather than just the
captain. Which is worse. There are three cops Tate trusts and all
of them are in uniform. No rank, no power.”

“Isn’t there some other authority –?” I
began.

“
Babe, they
are
the authority.”

I pressed my hand into his chest to get
him to listen to me and I said, “Some
other
authority.”

He shook his head but said, “Tate had hope.
At the party, I heard Betty talkin’ to you about Dalton, that guy
who kidnapped Laurie, stabbed her and Jim-Billy?”

I nodded.

“FBI got involved in that. Agent in that
case, name’s Tambo, smelled somethin’ funny workin’ with Carnal PD.
Tate thought he’d run with it. He didn’t.”

“Maybe you could talk to him?”

“And tell him what? I got played by pussy
and dirty cops in two fuckin’ states not even connected conspired
against me? He’d think I was a fuckin’ nut.”

I slid my eyes to the side and had to admit
this was true.

“Lexie, look at me.”

I slid my eyes back and I got another light
squeeze.

“Keep your head down and a handle on that
sass. You unleash it, you do me no favors. Worse, you put yourself
out there and you do, I think you get from where we met I cannot
protect you.”

“Can I have one exclusion? If I run into
bitch-face Misty, can I unleash my sass?”

His chest started shaking and I guessed it
was with laughter considering his mouth was also twitching but he
said, “She’s married to a police detective.”

“I’ll be discreet.”

“You rub up against Misty, you’ll be
fucked.”

I held his eyes thinking he was probably
right about that too.

Then I gave in, “Oh, all right.”

That got me another light squeeze but only
with one arm because his other one left me so his big hand could
cup my jaw as he dipped his head so his lips were against mine when
he whispered, “Thanks, baby.”

Then he kissed me lightly.

My heart fluttered not only at the kiss but
because his hand felt nice on my face and his arm felt nice around
me.

When he lifted his head, I said, “One thing.
Misty’s fair game after you wreak your vengeance.”

His shades held mine. Then he whispered, “I
can give you that.”

“Thanks,” I whispered back.

“Got ‘em!” We both heard Stan shout and we
looked to the side to see him running to us, hand up, jingling a
keyfob. “Magnetic gray!”

Five minutes later, Ty and I were pulling
out of the lot on a test drive.

An hour after that, I was in the Viper
trailing Ty in the Cruiser on our way home.

And sitting behind the wheel of the Viper, I
was having the weird feeling that Lady Luck was beginning to like
me.

* * * * *

Ty parked under the deck, I parked the Viper
in the garage. He took the outside stairs. I took the inside
ones.

I met him in the kitchen, bouncing on my
high-heeled wedges.

“
That was
awesome!
Can we go back…
oof!
”

The “oof” was because I was so excited about
driving the Viper, I didn’t see his intent when he was coming at me
and only saw it when his shoulder dipped when he made it to me. And
his shoulder dipped so it could hit me in the stomach and he could
heft me up.

My stomach got tight and I felt another
tickle between my legs, this one nicer than the Viper
tickle.
Way
nicer.

“Ty,” I whispered to his back as he started
up the stairs.

“Told you, Lex, a man released from prison’s
got his first day off work, he’s gonna spend it fuckin’ his new
wife.”

Another tickle. A lot nicer.

It seemed that Ty was getting around to
giving me an orgasm. I wanted Ty to give me an orgasm. Therefore, I
fell silent.

He took me to the top and set me on my feet
by the bed.

The first thing I did was pull off my
top.

His eyes went dark and he pulled off his
tee.

Another tickle. A really good one.

God, he was perfect everywhere.

I reduced the area between us by half and
since we were less than a foot away that made us super close. Then
I undid my shorts and shimmied them down.

Ty picked me up and threw me on the bed.

No tickle that time. A spasm.

Then he hooked his fingers in my panties and
tore them down my legs, he put a knee to the bed, an arm around my
waist, he lifted me, dragging me further across the bed, then he
planted me in it. He wasted no further time, he spread my legs wide
with two hands and then his mouth was there, he tossed my legs over
his shoulders then his big hands came around, cupping my ass and
pulling me up to him.

At the feel of his mouth and tongue and just
how good it was, my entire body arched and the heels of my sandals
dug into his back.

I should have known, the way he could kiss,
he could use that mouth. I should have known.

Now I knew.

And he used that mouth to build it hard and
he built it fast.

“Oh God, honey,” I whimpered, my hips
surging up, my hand going to his head to hold him close but he
wasn’t going anywhere, he was hungry.

Starved.

And it was so good, I was close.

But I wanted him.

“Ty, God, I need you, baby.”

He kept eating, pulling me deeper into his
mouth.

Oh yeah, he was good at this.

“
Ty,
God,
” I
moaned, “I need you inside.”

I said it and his mouth was gone but I was
up then I was straddling him, one of his arms around my waist, the
other hand between us working his jeans.

“You get it, you take it like I give it to
you,” he growled as I tried to focus on his face.