Page 48 of Hot Cops

“Put it down,” Riley said. Bella paused for a moment. “Put. It.Down.”

Riley started to yell at Aaron for not stepping in to help her but one glance to her left proved he was fighting his own losing battle. He had his arms wrapped around Johanna from behind as the woman flailed about, attempting to batter Trev with her purse, her fists, her feet. Trev was pleading with her to calm down, his hands constantly moving, alternating between covering his face and his privates. She was putting up one helluva fight.

The sound of sirens outside had the effect of someone dousing them with a hose, and the fight went out of them. Jo hung limply in Aaron’s arms. Bella put her hands in her lap and Bubbles sank into a chair at another table.

Two policemen came in and the manager pointed at them.

“Great,” Riley heard one of the cops mutter as they walked up. “Bubbles and Bella. Again. What did we do to deserve this?”

* * *

An hour later,the seven of them found themselves back on the street—sticky, hot and three hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty-four cents poorer. Somehow that was the price tag the manager put on the destruction they’d wrought in the restaurant. Luckily, Aaron had managed to talk the Vegas cops out of citing them all for disorderly conduct.

“What now?” Riley asked. She wanted to go back to the hotel and clean up. Unfortunately she was surrounded by too many crazy people looking to her for answers. There was no way she was going to risk taking them someplace where they could destroy anything else. She was officially broke.

Aaron pointed to a small café that had outdoor seating. “Do you all think you could sit at that café without throwing fists, food or drinks at each other?”

They all nodded wearily and proceeded down the street in a pack. Riley ignored the looks of passersby. She knew they all probably looked as if they’d escaped from some asylum. They were covered in food. Riley’s hair was stuck together in three places with dried mashed potatoes. Bella’s long blonde hair was coated with tomato sauce and Bubbles’ hot pink ’do was flatter than Riley’d ever seen it, weighted down by ice cream and hot fudge.

The guys had actually fared worse. In addition to the food stains, Trev had a fat lip. Aaron was going to have a black eye by morning, thanks to an accidental headbutt from Jo, who looked like a reject in a white T-shirt contest from the pitcher of soda Trev had lobbed at her in an attempt to calm her down.

Surprisingly the hostess at the café agreed to seat them. She gave them one of the patio tables and brought them all glasses of water.

“Okay,” Aaron said, when they were all seated at last. “Here’s what happens now. Trev, you and Bella are gonna tell us where you were for the last two days. The rest of us,” he gave an especially stern look at Jo, who looked contrite, “will listen. We’re not speaking until their story is finished. Then we’ll all calmly say our piece and go our separate ways. Got it?” Everyone nodded and Riley grinned.

For a moment she saw her future, saw Aaron solving fights between their children this way.

Children. She’d never considered having kids, but watching Aaron handle five unruly adults drove home to her how much shedidwant them. Lots of them. Maybe she’d try to break her parents’ record and go for eight. The thought made her smile and she saw Aaron give her a quizzical, confused look.

“I’ll tell you later,” she mouthed.

“So,” Aaron prompted, and Trev began his tale of woe while the rest of them listened in dumbfounded silence.

After leaving Riley and Aaron at the blackjack table, they’d gone up to his hotel room. Unfortunately, guilt over cheating on his wife had left Trev unable to perform, so they’d decided to hit the gambling tables again instead. Bella had been blowing off steam, angry with Johnny for trying to pressure her into marriage.

Riley figured Bella and Trev had found a sympathetic ear in each other. They’d only been at the slot machines for a few minutes when Trev hit the jackpot, winning a hundred grand.

“To celebrate, I took Bella out and bought her a fur coat.”

Jo narrowed her eyes but Trev raised his hand quickly. “I was gonna get you one too, honey, but since I didn’t want to carry it around with me all night, I was gonna go back later.”

His answer seemed to appease his wife, but Riley knew better. In addition to the fur coat, he and Bella had stopped by Sal’s Sex Shop and, if the note he’d left her at the front desk was to be believed, he’d intended to marry Bella. Obviously, too much time spent in each other’s presence had proven them incompatible and Trev had had a change of heart. He was putting out some serious ass-kissing vibes and Riley tried not to be disgusted by the fact Jo was falling for it. Sheesh. Stupid woman.

“Anyway, Bella knew of some guys who hosted a nightly poker game with a big pot, one where you needed five thousand bucks just to enter. She said we should go, make a fortune so we could quit working and live the rest of our lives like fat cats.”

“You took him to Vinnie’s place?” Johnny asked.

Bella nodded guiltily.

“Vinnie the Snake?” Bubbles added, her eyes wide as she crossed herself reverently. “Jesus,chica.”

Riley looked at Bella. “So let me get this straight. You called and quit your jobbeforethis Vinnie the Snake’s poker game? Didn’t that seem a bit premature to you?”

Bella shrugged. “I thought we were on a roll. We were feeling real lucky.”

“You lost all the money the very first night, didn’t you?” Aaron asked.

Trev nodded. “In less than two hours, I was twelve thousand in the hole. Apparently those guys didn’t believe in IOUs and I didn’t have that kind of cash on me. I told them I was good for it, but they got sort of pissed.”

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