Page 55 of Cocky Secrets

“Well, my advice?” Carmen replies with her eyebrows raised. “Go get them back here and spend every second you can with them, because before you know it they’re grown and leaving.” She heads inside, “I’m going to give Tonk Jr. a call, see how he and Stacy are.”

Luna’s voice is heavy as she announces, “We’ve got groceries melting,” and follows Carmen inside. Melody follows them to help.

Our mom grazes a grateful glance across Luke, Atlas and finally, me. “Makes a mother remember how lucky she is to have you all still here with me. Sage, at least if you marry Bear you’ll live in town where I can visit you anytime I like. I’m going to help them make lunch.” She shakes her head and disappears.

I look at Dad, his teeth grating in his helplessness to make the mood better, help his friends. The family. The club. He goes inside, grunts, “This sucks.”

Scythe and Tonk Sr. are far out in the backyard now, talking to each other in voices too far for us to hear.

Just us of the next generation are left, and training went sour.

Sofia Sol says with zero enthusiasm, “Guess we should grab lunch.”

Atlas starts taking off his mitts, and Luke heads up the porch steps, aiming for inside.

Celia and Sean are about to follow when I snap, “No way! Do we give up when things get rough?”

Luke pauses with his hand on the doorknob, a frown piercing his brow. “Nope.”

“Then train me!”

Atlas grins, slides his mitts into place, and holds them up. “You ready to learn how to kick ass?”

The others flank the ring, watching as I lower my head, hold up my fists and give him a devilish smile. “So ready.”

With the next gen cheering me on, I train to become the badass I’ve never been. And when Dad sticks his head outside and says, “Enough training for one day! She’s barely standing!” the six of us head in for showers and lunch.

Sofia Sol throws her arm over my exhausted shoulder. “You have a date tonight, right?”

Atlas laughs, “Good luck with that!”

TWENTY-FOUR

Bear

The Night Before

The precinct is quiet as I walk in just before 3:00 A.M., my shift over. Besides Detective Rhodes, no one’s at their desks. The police on duty in the jail tonight are all that’s left, Captain Jacoby gone home to be with his family. Nothing unusual about this evening, except I can’t get it out of my head that The Ciphers are more than they seem to be.

I interrogated The Spiders, who are still in custody, and the Judge gave them no bail until their preliminary hearing this Monday. Regardless of them being stuck where they don’t wanna be, no one was talking about The Ciphers.

Not even Briar.

When he and I were alone, two officers watching closely on the other side of the glass, I asked him how he saved Sage. He explained it to me. What he wouldn’t say is why, other than, “I owed Honey Badger a favor for my sister.”

I gathered that from the night of our brawl, and from this enigmatic statement, that Honey Badger had somehow helped his sister.

But how?

So I did some digging and found her. She has a record, but reports from her parole officer note that she’s been sober some six months now. Got back custody of her three children reportedly sired by three different men, just two months ago. Is living with her sister, working at a local grocery market as a manager but it doesn’t give the location — logged in as kept secret for her safety. That she’s in a position of management raised my eyebrows and I thought to myself,that’s some miraculous improvement right there…over what her record has her down for.Prostitution. Drugs. Dealing and Using. Also said she was a member of The Spiders.

Was.

I sit at my desk with nothing to report for the night. Not even a traffic ticket. With time on my hands I could go home and get some sleep. I have that date with Sage tomorrow night. I’d like to sleep in, get some laundry done, work out in my home gym, before I go pick her up for our reservation at Montecellos.

Tapping the computer to life, I do a search on the Internet for The Ciphers and come up with nothing but a movie called Cipher, a business by that name and the definition:

Cipher:A secret or disguised way of writing. A code.

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