Page 18 of Mimosa

Cosmo piped in, “I’d help.”

“Me too,” Hippy said.

“We all would,” Murphy grumbled. “But all of you are about as stubborn as a drunk Irishman. I’m telling you, this isn’t a good idea.”

Haze was glowering at Mims, but it was done in love. After the meeting, when they were starting on tossing the practice bottles back and forth, Haze pulled Mims into the storage room.

“Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that you did this so you could be with that…fucking cop and tell yourself it’s all pretend?”

Sometimes it was like Haze saw the places inside his heart that no one had ever bothered to contemplate. “Haze, I’m afraid, but not that much.”

Haze placed both hands on Mims’s face, cupping both cheeks lovingly. “If that mother fucker lets one thing happen to you, Ali, he’s going to hurt for the rest of his short life.”

“I know. I know how mad you’d be,” he whispered then lifted on the balls of his feet to kiss Haze’s cheek. “That’s for always worrying about me.”

“Well, that’s what family is for, babe.”

Chapter Six

Thelightsweretoobright, but he was used to that. Sonny didn’t sleep a lot, and when he was without sleep, lights were too bright, things tasted funny and he couldn’t get a hard on, but he rarely used his dick anymore. Since becoming a cop, he didn’t seem to have the time.

Thinking about that brought Sonny’s mind straight to the pretty little thing that had come to the meeting. The one that didn’t say much, but had the prettiest brown eyes Sonny had ever seen.

Some kind of Middle Eastern, he was. Sonny figured either Iranian or Pakistani. That creamy brown skin that was just a shade or two darker than his own, and that nice, long nose that looked regal on the pretty face.

Sonny sat drinking his fifth cup of coffee , having been up since three that morning, and that was after lying down at midnight.

His phone rang and he wondered who the hell it was that early, but he should have known. It was Sandy.

“What?” he grunted as he answered the phone.

“Good morning to you, too, darling.”

“Fuck off. What do you want?”

“Well, the agents of the federal government called me this morning, and they’re all a-flutter.”

Sonny and Sandy, they sounded like an eighties singing duet. He could see them in shoulder pads and glitter, doing dance numbers on some weekend show. “Would you just talk normally?”

“You’re no fun. I thought gay dudes would have more flare. You’re very boring. Anyway, we’re meeting up with them this morning. Are you available at nine?”

Sandy was a morning person, and a fucking afternoon person too. Sonny was neither. “Fine. What is this about?”

“I’ll know when you do. See you at the office.”

“The office. Right.”

He walked to the board in his apartment, the one in the bedroom, where he place tapestries over it to hide it, worried about unexpected visits from the BBC guys. He took down the pictures, maps and other items tack by tack. Moving it all to the office they were using worried him, but keeping it where he lived was just stupid. At any time, someone could find it and he’d likely be found in that very room with a big hole through the cranium.

When he got to the office, he found he was the first one there, and he walked up the stairs that was flanked on both sides by puke green tile walls and paint that had been white once but was yellowed and gross looking.

Setting himself up in one of the little offices on the second floor, he sat on the metal desk surface after wiping it off with a rag.

It was exactly like he’d had it at home. It should be, he’d memorized it, looking it over day and night since the entire thing started.

The big players had their pictures on the board. Franklyn Monroe was at the very top, the biggest picture there. That was because he was the biggest target. If he ever had to settle with busting a few of them and one wasn’t him, he’d walk away and retire very, very early.

Franklyn was the one calling the shots. He was the one that started the group buying and selling human beings. He was the one that hurt the prostitutes with drugs, threats and pain before he let his men have their way with them.

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