Page 16 of Mimosa

“Well, maybe not for this weekend, but from now on. They love when we dance on the bar, but if we had choreographed moves, it would be even better. We do that here and there, but every time we’re up on the bar? That would wow the fuck out of them.”

Abs came in during the last of his speech and confessed to Mims, “He told me this already. I think it’s a great idea.”

“Only if I can stay behind the bar.”

“Mims, you dance well.”

“Yeah, but keeping up with all of you? Eh, I don’t know.”

Cosmo was much more excited. “I have two left feet, but if the moves were simple enough, I can go along.”

“Great, great! We can practice normally today, but next week, we can spend an hour a night getting some moves down.”

Murphy came into the room and pointed to the bookcase. “We need a meeting before we start practice, guys.”

Mims’s stomach sank to his feet. “Why, Paps?”

“Trouble.”

They gathered into the meeting room and Murphy closed the door behind them as they took their normal seats. Scowling, Murphy walked slowly around the table to get to the head of it, where he didn’t sit, but stood hands in fists, knuckles knocking on the surface.

“We got word that the IA cop, Santiago Aguilar, is going to be at the pub every weekend night, and possibly more.”

Cosmo sighed and said, “Is that all?”

“Cosmo, listen, it’s good we know he’s on our…well,mostlyon our side. What it means to me, though, is that we are most definitely on their radar, and we’re more worrisome to them than the feds and cops first thought.

“Having someone here to watch us and infiltrate us, well, it means they are keeping eyes on us. And we will not know if that Sonny character and his partner are the only ones they’re sending. That was the word from Taran, who just called me with the news. That means extra precaution on all your parts. We do not talk about any of this unless it’s right here, in this room. Not in your rooms, with boyfriends, nothing. Cosmo, that goes for you and Taran,” he said, and Mims’s eyes went right to Hippy. Ducking his head, he looked away from Murphy and his scowl was more pronounced than Murphy’s.

“We don’t, Murph. We don’t know where we might be bugged. If at all, but, you know, never be too cautious.”

“Good. The rest of us, do we get it?”

All nodded and a few verbally agreed. Goldie asked, “Murphy, how long do we…I don’t know, watch our Ps and Qs?”

“Always!”

“I mean for this. We all know if we’re caught what it means. I mean, well, being on watch for these fuckers?”

“I guess the feds and cops will have to tell us that.”

“Not if we have our own guy in there,” Goldie suggested. “Why can’t one of us infiltrate them? Why is it that we’re always having to be so appeasing and let them come into our lives?”

Murphy hollered, “And chance one of you are even in more danger? Fuck no, Goldie!”

Haze disagreed. “Murph, listen, we’re being accommodating because it will serve us, but if we were smart, we’d do our own invading.”

Mims saw it all in his mind, the second before Abs looked over at him. “Mims?”

“What?”

Goldie growled, “Not Mims.”

“Why not?” Abs asked his best friend. “Just because we’re not musclebound guys, it doesn’t mean we’re weak.”

“No one said that,” Cosmo tried to assure. “But we’d be risking anyone we sent to do that.”

“Not if Mims was simply pretending to be dating that cop, Aguilar. Then, well, maybe he could bring Mims around the other members of the BBC, and they’d try to get stuff out of him, and in reality, he could actually get stuff from them.”

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