Eric gave him a startled smile. It was as close to “Welcome to the neighborhood” as this man was ever going to give.
“Next you’ll be telling me Cotton got in on the action,” he said.
Burton gave a chuckle. “Cotton counseled Arlen Cuthbert’s mistress into leaving his sorry ass before he got killed. Apparently she called Cuthbert as he was on his way to work to break it off, and he made her check the safe for his phone, which is how he knew it had been stolen. So, yeah, Cotton’s part was inconvenient, but on the plus side, he got her to a women’s shelter, and she’s seeing a shrink now.”
Eric couldn’t help it. He laughed, and Burton was still laughing as he faded away.
A nice exchange for a hospital room, but not the only one.
He was there, for instance, when George, dropping with fatigue, climbed into the bed next to Jai.
“You should go home, Little George,” Jai said gruffly. “Do we not have idiot cats?”
“Amal is taking care of the idiot cats,” George told him. “I’m taking care of the idiot Russian who decided to use his SUV like a pinball bumper.”
Jai let out a breath. “Ace needed to be pulled from the other vehicle,” he said. “You know this.”
“I didn’t say it was the wrong move.” George sighed. “I’m just wishing you could have done it without wrecking yourself.”
“I did not anticipate rebounding into the rock,” Jai muttered. “Ace would have. It is why he plans the wrecks and I execute.”
“I need you both to stay out of the wrecking business for a while,” George said. “Ace’s ribs were rebroken. It’s a good thing we’ve got Dimitri to work on the cars, Jai, because otherwise, they’d go out of business.”
Jai grunted. “We will find a way,” he said. “We always do.”
The two of them fell asleep, and Eric pulled out his phone and texted to Burton, suddenly aware of how vulnerable Ace and Sonny were with their whole crew out.
Burton texted that he and Jason were filling in with Dimitri, and suddenly Eric realized how Burton had come to trust the man so quickly. And he realized the humility involved. Burton, professional badass. Jason, who had more stars and bars than Eric even wanted to guess at. And there they were, working in the little garage in the desert to keep their friends from going under.
He knew what he was doing the minute he could get back on his feet.
A resolution that only grew stronger the next day.
“Sonny,” Ace said. “Baby, you need to go home and wash up. You’re starting to smell.”
“Good,” Sonny grumbled. “If I stink bad enough, maybe you’ll remember not to get hurt again.”
“Or maybe I don’t want to kiss a guy with green teeth,” Ace teased. “You ever think of that?”
Sonny looked stricken, and Ace shushed him, cupping his face with his good hand. “I’m kidding, Sonny. I’ll always want to kiss you. But you need to take care of yourself—for you, not for me.”
Sonny grunted. “Ace, I’m no good without you. You know that. You—youknowI fall apart without you. It’s why you gotta be careful on these things, you hear?”
His voice broke, and Ace calmed him again and then said, “I’ll be as careful as I can. You know that. But you gotta know, Sonny—you’re just fine without me. You drove the whole lot of us to safety, didn’t you? Didn’t you save all our lives? You got me in the back of the SUV, shoved Jai over—don’t I remember you squirreling in the fuckin’ window to get behind the wheel of that Tahoe and get it to the gas station?”
“Yeah,” Sonny muttered. “George had to clean up the scratches on my shoulders.”
“Aw, baby,” Ace murmured. “Now see, I hate that you got hurt.” He let out a pained chuckle. “But you remember us in the air?”
Sonny’s laugh was a little unhinged—but in a good way. “That was better’n Disneyland, Ace. I mean, I’d still rather go to Disneyland, but that ride, that was somethin’!”
“Yeah—if that damned cop hadn’t gotten all trigger happy after I landed, we would have made that free and clear. That reallywassomethin’.”
Sonny took a shuddering breath. “If you’re gonna be okay, then I guess I can go clean up.” He was obviously unhappy. “I don’t know who’s been taking care of the garage.”
“Well, see?” Ace said. “It needs you. I’ll be there soon enough.”
But he wasn’t. He’d sustained a concussion, traumatic blood loss, and a fractured arm, and George was right—cracked ribs. Eric and Jai were sent home five days before Ace was, and the day before they were set free, Ernie came to Ace with a strange request.
