Page 88 of Cosmo

“It’s not like we don’t know about it, Paps,” Mims said as he skipped off to the bar to fetch it.

“Assholes, I swear.”

They all gathered at the tables closest to the bar and Hippy told him, “I never saw a man on fire like you were.”

“I haven’t felt like that in a long time. Since I first went inside. A guy tried to fuck me, and I…stopped that shit fast.”

They all nodded silently except for Abs. “You were scary, but someone messed with your man.”

He opened his mouth to deny that Taran was, in fact,his man, but couldn’t. He’d said it himself. “How am I gonna deal with it? He’s a cop.”

“You deal with it like I deal with Murphy,” Eazy said to him. “We have to trust they are careful, and they know what we’re losing if they take the wrong risks.”

Murphy kissed his husband and said to all of them, “These cartel cops, they’re gonna be a problem. I still like Cosmo’s idea. We endear ourselves to the neighborhood, then the city, then the entirety of Denver. It’ll mean we get bigger and take more risks.”

“Bigger? More guys?”

“No,” Goldie said. “I think Murphy would agree. The more guys, the more problems. We all mesh well, and we have our positives and negatives. What we need to do now is find fences and others to work with who we can trust and who won’t sell out to the BBC.”

Liam spoke up, “My fence is small time, but he might connect us with bigger people, if he gets a cut.”

“But that’s okay,” Eazy said. “That just affirms our wanting to get more money out to the locals, to be…”

“Robin Hoods,” Haze finished. “We’re gonna be Robin Hoods. And why not? All the best anti-heroes in history have started out that way. What we need more than anything, though, is if we gain power, we don’t let it go to our heads.”

“I can keep us in check,” Abs assured. “Me and Daiq.”

Ryan came into the pub, sitting hard on a chair. “My little siblings are finally down for naps. What the hell? Do you givethem candy for breakfast? Little Mick was wired for sound, man.”

Eazy laughed and said, “You were still that way when you were thirteen.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Eazy turned to Murphy, and his voice was smooth as he eased his husband’s mind while getting him to say okay to letting Ryan into the mix. “If we keep him safe, shield him like that guy shielded his people…”

Murphy glared at his oldest son and said, “You are behind the scenes! You put one toe out of line and you’re out so fast, your head’ll spin. You got that?”

“Yeah, Dad, I swear! I’ll be here. No one will even notice me!”

Liam smiled and gave his blessing. Not that it was needed. “It’s good to bring him in, Murphy. Scary, but he can learn from you the right way. I knew guys born into families who did stuff like us, and they took off and made their own crews and got screwed every time.”

As Ryan sat up proudly, he assured his father, “I’ll learn from the best.”

Hippy laughed and said, “And…well, we’re all the best. I think I’ll finally come in a lot handier now, though.”

“You will. I want us all to have vests like the fed did, and I want all of us trained with weapons. That starts tomorrow, Hippy. On everything from knives to rocket launchers, if we have them.”

“We don’t have rocket launchers,” Mims said.

“We could. I know where there’s a stash,” Hippy said, winking over at Mims.

Abs took out his phone and started swiping the screen. “I’m beefing up security around here, too.”

“I was gonna tell you to do just that,” Murphy sighed. “My kids, besides this big one, have nothing to do with this shit. They’re protected.”

“They can’t protect themselves,” Liam said, and for the first time since his mother killed his siblings, he realized it to be true. The guilt of not protecting them waned enough for him to take a breath without pain. “We, the adults…we gotta do it.”

Tally had been quietly sipping Murphy’s good whiskey while she listened to the men come up with what she likely thought they should have been doing all along. When Liam, however, said that about the kids, she saw it. “You looked like something came to you just then, Cosmo. Are you okay?”

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