Page 3 of Mimosa

His smile was wide, bright and framed in full, dark lips that only made his thick lashes and perfectly shaped face look even better. A beauty, too young, and his best friend. Life wasn’t fair at all.

“How are we looking at the Maxfield Parrish? Have you found where it was sent?”

The painting they’d been after for three years had been almost in their grasp, but it was sold right from the place the original owner had sent it to be repaired. They hadn’t found the buyer or the painting, but Haze had already made the copy, so they were determined.

The men at Murphy’s Pub were not only bartenders. Sure, on the weekends, the six beautiful men, including Mims and Haze, did tricks, danced, and entertained the big crowds that came. Mixing drinks, doing body shots, flirting, it was all done at Murphy’s.

What was in the basement, in two secret rooms that only those living in the apartments above the pub knew about, however, was where they planned their other jobs.

Stealing.

They had many experts in the men at the pub. Mimosa, AKA Mims, was their computer hacker, Haze, as in Purple Haze, planned the routes they took to and from the jobs and plans for buildings they were boosting things from.

Absinthe, or Abs, their lithe, blond friend was hands on with security systems, Gold Rush, AKA Goldie, staked out the places they were hitting, doing research for weeks or even months to assure they knew who and what was around the place.

Hypnotic, or Hippy, was the weapon man and Cosmo, their newest recruit, boosted cars for getaways or to sell.

Their benefactor and owner of the pub was Connor Murphy. He and his husband, Eazy, had two beautiful little kids, Katie and Little Mick, who also lived in the pub, in the upper floors that were made into apartments. Little Mick was named for Connor’s dad, Mick, who lived with Connor and Eazy. Rounding it out, so did Connor’s oldest son from a previous marriage, Ryan, who had just started being allowed to possibly take a role in the jobs.

It was a family. Even Cosmo, who’d come to them very recently and hadn’t wanted anything to do with family, was one of them now. They all loved him like a brother, and his cat, Daiq, short for Daiquiri, was shared by them all.

There was a rule that none of them could date each other, but it wasn’t really needed. They were all in love with each other, but they were family. Anything else would only interfere with that.

“What about the BBC? Any word on them?” Haze asked him.

“Sure, but nothing concrete. It’s all speculation.”

Cosmo hadn’t only come into the family recently, but he brought with him a boyfriend who just happened to be a federal agent. Taran and his partner, Campbell Rymes, were after a group of cops who called themselves the BBC. They were bad, really bad, and Murphy had agreed to help bust them.

Murphy and his boys only stole from those that could afford it, and Cosmo had insisted, and they all agreed, they were going to use part of their ill-gotten gains to help others.

The dirty cop squad, however, was hampering their extra cash grabs. They’d already taken over the best car fence in the city and were threatening the rest. Cosmo had one connection, but he was small time and couldn’t handle the more expensive cars, at least not giving them what they should get for them.

“Well, Taran’s coming to see Cosmo and talk to us tonight. Cosmo hasn’t seen him in two weeks,” Haze mentioned.

“Two weeks without sex. Yeah, we’re not talking to Taran until morning at least.”

Haze laughed. “You could be right.”

An alert popped up on the screen and Haze leaned in while Mims opened it. “It’s a new Amber Alert. A teenage girl’s gone missing in Aurora.”

“Aurora. Where the BBC is headquartered, right?”

“Last we heard from Taran and his partner. So? Is this them?”

Haze spoke cautiously, “We can’t jump to conclusions, Mims. I mean, it could be, but there are other things that happen. It could be a parent that lost custody and kidnapped the kid, or something like that.”

Mims read over the alert and then he turned slowly to Haze. “Stranger abduction.”

The door opened again, and Cosmo hollered to them, “Hey! Taran’s here and he’s got something he needs to talk to us about. We’re all coming in.”

Mims and Haze hurried to the next room where there was a long table set in the middle of the room and more than fifteen metal chairs set around it. They all took their seats after Murphy arrived inside the room and the bookcase door was tightly closed. Even Tallulah Murphy, Connor’s sister, was there, as she was for most of the important things.

“Everyone,” Murphy started, and looked around at all of them. “We are about to have a new undercover cop hanging around, and you all will know who he is, but like Taran, it’s under wraps. It’s just us that knows.”

“Who are we gonna tell?” the sandy haired Hippy said, after pulling down his beret. He playfully elbowed Cosmo. “This one is the only one seriously dating anyone, and it’s the other cop in our midst.”

Cosmo laughed and said, “Thanks, Hippy.”

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