Page 47 of Doozer

“Trouble took out two bad guys and saved all our asses,” Tackle said.

“Is that right? Is that what happened?” Taxi asked, turning his attention to Boots. “Is that how you see it?”

“Actually, yeah,” Boots said.

“Well, please allow me to inform all of you exactly all of the ways you’redead fucking wrong,” he shouted, before turning to me. “Trouble, what was blue team’s mission?”

“To make contact with the red team and exchange money for drugs,” I replied.

“For what purpose?”

My palms were sweating, and I felt like I was gonna pass out. “F…for the p…purpose of furthering the relationship between ours…selves and the sellers.”

“Very good. That’s right,” Taxi said, cheerily. “Now, let me ask a follow up question. How fucking good do you think our relationship is with them now that their brains are splattered all overfucking Main Street?”

“The deal had gone south,” I protested.

“Are you completely sure about that? In the training scenario, these were first-time buyers, right?”

I nodded.

“In the real world, sellers test buyers they don’t know very well. Who’s to say the display of power on the part of the red team wasn’t all just part of a test?”

“They were holding Jette hostage,” I pointed out.

“That’s how you saw it from two-hundred meters away.”

“Boss, that’s how it looked on the ground too,” Tackle said.

Taxi stopped pacing and turned to face us all. “You know, for a bunch of criminals, you sure think like cops. You must start thinking outside the box. Jette may have been a hostage, and she may have been a double agent, working with the cartel. Perhaps, she was loyal to blue team and was working on a strategy of her own. There were still many options on the table that could have led to a successful outcome, but Trouble’s itchy trigger finger eliminated all of them.”

“I was protecting my team,” I said, trying to hide the quiver in my voice.

“You made the wrong call,” Taxi said, unsympathetically. “In the real world, your little Annie Oakley routine would have torched an ongoing operation, exposed your team, and left two dead bodies in the street. If that’s not a failure I don’t know what it is.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Doozer

IT HAD BEEN a month since Trouble left and I was climbing the walls. There was no place on Sanctuary grounds that didn’t feel haunted. No matter where I went, something reminded me of her, and it was driving me crazy. I needed to get the hell out of here and find something else to occupy my mind for a while.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up to see a text from my sister, Gia. I was about to get a bigger distraction than I ever could have imagined.

Gia:The family is having an impromptu lunch at Vincenzo’s today at 1:00. It won’t be the same without you. Please say you’ll join us.

I started to type that I wouldn’t be able to make it but stopped. As much as I dreaded the thought of lunch with my father, I did miss my sisters and mother. I’d successfully managed to dodge every family get together since Trouble and I hooked up but knew that couldn’t last forever. Eventually I’d have to see my family again, and once they knew about Trouble, they’d want an introduction, but the mere thought of subjecting Trouble to my family made my feet sweat. At least with Trouble currently out of town, I could check in with my family without opening that can of worms.

Two hours later I was shown to my family’s usual table at Vincenzo’s Fine Italian Eatery where my father was waiting for me, alone.

“What the fuck do you mean Mama and the girls aren’t joining us?”

“Please, Marco. Do you have to use that kind of language? Especially here, at Vincenzo’s. It’s our family restaurant.”

“Yeah, Pop.Family. Which is who I agreed to have lunch with. So where are the rest of them?”

“Sit down. Sit down,” My father said. “You always make such a scene. You’re like your mother.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said, reluctantly taking the seat at the far end of the table, just as two bussers came to the table and removed the place servings set out for the mother and sisters. “They were never coming, were they?” I asked.

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