Maybe.
Instead of waiting for it like a love-struck teenager with her first crush, I navigated over to my brother’s number and called him. He picked up on the second ring.
“Hello, dearest sister,” he sounded annoyed and tired. “I’m so glad your lovely voice is the first thing I hear today.”
A feminine sigh came from the background, followed shortly by a solidthwackand Taylor’s yelp. “Really? You’re so fucking dramatic. Hey, Lore!” He must have answered on speakerphone.
“‘Sup, Sasha. Keeping my brother in line?”
Sasha barked a laugh. “God himself couldn’t keep this guy in line, much less with you two being double trouble. But I manage,” she sighed again. “Duty calls, I’m guessing? I’ll get the coffee started, hon.”
A fleshysmackcame down the line, and her playful laughter sounded like it was moving away. “That’s a good woman,” Taylor teased. “Best piece of ass I’ve ever had!”
Their teasing brought a smile to my lips as I twirled in the chair, leaning back to stare up at the ceiling with the phone on speaker. “You two sound like an old couple. Can I have ‘Taylor the Enforcer’ now? You’re making my teeth hurt with all this sickening sweet talk.” I plucked at the neckline of my baggy Nirvana shirt. “We need to talk business.”
“Right.” There was a rustling of bedsheets like Taylor was getting out of bed. A loud yawn andcrackfrom what I assumed was his back stretching gave the impression he was finally getting up. “Whatcha got for me?”
I braced myself for the verbal berating I was going to get from this. Meaning, I trudged back to the kitchen to refill my mug with a drop of creamer and more steaming bold coffee. “I’m meeting Grant Black for lunch today… as myself.”
His silence spoke volumes. Screaming, cursing volumes. “Lore,” he began, his voice low and rumbly in that pissed-off way I was very familiar with. “I mean this in the most loving and protective way possible…but what the actual fuck is wrong with you?” By the end of it, I was sure Taylor blew a blood vessel in his eyeball or something with how loud he’d gotten.
Hopping up to sit on the counter beside my emotional support coffee—something else that would drive Taylor nuts—I kicked my feet lightly, twirling a piece of my hair and getting distracted with the horrendous split ends while my loving half-brother ranted for the next five minutes. By the end of his scolding,actual sentences were taken over by sputtering and cursing.God, I needed a haircut so badly… but, I wear wigs most of the time so is it even worth the trouble?
“Are you even listening to me?” Taylor asked, all pissy-like and exasperated. “Nope, don’t answer that. I’m sure it will just piss me off even more when you blatantly tell me that you zoned out and started playing with your hair. Tell me I’m wrong.”
I grimaced. “I get it, you don’t like the idea. I don’t need a dressin’ down like you’re my–” I was going to say ‘dad’, but that would be an outright insult “–overbearing parent figure. Can you help me out with logistics or not? I know Jerel’s got you helping out with questioning guys about the shooting.”
“Yeah, so why you givin’ me even more shit to stress about?” Man, he was so snarky this morning. And his accent was growing stronger by the minute. Something we had in common when we got worked up.
“So you want a social outing with this guy, even though no less than two mobs are gunnin’ for your ass? And you’re not going to let me convince you otherwise?”
“In a nutshell, yes,” I chirped. “And you’re the best security manager a boss could ask for, so I know you can do it. After you’re done bitchin’ to me about how stupid I am.”
Taylor grumbled like an angry bear. “I will never be done bitching at you about something, it seems. And you’re too feckin’ stubborn to be convinced of something you have your twisted mind set to.” Sasha’s voice chimed in with something again, and he responded with a warm tone. Then he took a long slurp of what I assumed was coffee, a sound that he knew would drive me nuts. “So, we’re gonna have to shut the restaurant down. Do you have the place picked out?”
“Of course. It’s the Scorching Chick.”
“Of course it is,” he muttered. “At least Molly likes you. She won’t get pissy over closing shop while you’re there. And we’llhave to shut the street down running in front of it. So we’ll need at least three guys on either end of Westward to block traffic, and—“
“I’m bringing enough members to fill the cafe. They’re gonna pretend to be customers.” I clicked over to my messages and pulled the cafe owner’s number up in a chat. “Grant’s not dumb. He’s not going to walk into an empty restaurant. And Molly’s not going to be losing out on profit. So round up anyone who wants a free meal, they can invite their partners who have been vetted for gatherings.”
“You want this done in… three hours?”
“Two, actually. I already texted Molly, so don’t worry about that part.”
I smiled into the tense silence on his end. He was trying to keep his cool with some steady breathing. “Fine,” he finally ground out. “Moving on, I have other news for you.”
“Uh-huh. Go on.”
“About the guy you mutilated at Davina,” he began. “J.J. called me last night, about an hour after you were done working him over. Said he wants to make sure everything is kosher between you two.” I could tell he was trying to keep things vague with Sasha around. She was on the edge of Riot activities, but Taylor worked hard to keep her out of mob business.
I knew he was talking about the asshole who roughed up Becca. It was a little surprising J.J. called that quickly. He was smarter than his father and predecessor when it came to avoiding me. Generally speaking, he and his guys kept their heads down and didn’t piss me off. Until now, anyway. “Yeah? Why wouldn’t we be?”
Taylor sighed. “He just wanted to make sure the bill was settled. Seems like things have been hectic over at the Twisted Sixes with some shit going down, they’ve been real hush-hushabout it. Jerel and I ruled them out for shooting up Masked Merrow at least.”
“Oh yeah? Did J.J. have a sleepover in backrooms, too?”
“No, but he gave us full access to his and his underbosses’ phones to check for anything suspicious. Even the deleted messages were clean. And the phone calls checked out. They have some internal squabbling after one of his underbosses died from a heart attack, so there’s a little power struggle going on. But nothing that involves us.”
