Page 40 of Our Tricks

Not needing to be told twice, I headed for the couch and sat next to Wes. He bent down and gave me a good morning kiss on my cheek before licking his thumb and rubbing the side of my mouth. “Only you could look cute with dried drool on your face.”

I gaped at him and snapped my head in Sprocket’s direction. “Seriously?”

He shrugged and sipped his coffee.

“Men,” I muttered as Cam set a tray with my breakfast on it.

They’d gotten me chocolate pancakes with chocolate chips added to it, topped off with whipped cream. Eyeing it all, I looked up at my men. “Now what?”

“What’s wrong?” Void asked, looking confused. “Westy-boy told us it was your favorite.”

“Yeah, when I’ve had a bad day or he had bad news to tell me,” I explained. “So which is it? Or could it be a doubleheader, and there’s bad news, meaning I’m going to have a bad day?”

Wes grabbed the back of my neck and turned me to face him. “You had a rough night, so I was trying to start your day off with something I knew you really enjoyed. Also, since when do I make these for you when I have to tell you bad news?”

“Really? Are you telling me you had no idea the only time you ever made these coincided with shit days and shit news?” It took everything in me not to smile or laugh at the utter confusion on his face.

“No,” he answered with a shake of his head. “Look, I know the fastest way to get you out of a funk is with food. So I just picked the one I knew we always have the ingredients for and can make fast. Pancakes require things you can find just about anywhere, and they cook fast. It’s not meant to be a doomsday meal.”

Now I laughed. The look on his face told me he was thinking back through our whole life together and connecting the dots on how I viewed it. Grabbing his face, I pulled him to me and kissed him soundly. “God, I love you.”

“I say we change it up, and you only get pancakes when you’re being good, so maybe I can reinforce this habit,” Wes teased as he swiped some whipped cream and plopped it on my nose. “You’re kind of cute when you laugh, even if it’s at my expense.”

Wiping the cream off my nose, I licked it off my finger nice and slow, humming as I pulled my finger from my mouth. His eyes dilated, and I could see the hunger in them at my actions.

“Yum,” I announced and turned to dig into my meal, leaving Wes to growl at me.

“So much for the good behavior,” Picasso chuckled.

This had all the guys laughing, and for as shitty as my night was, this morning was turning out to be pretty awesome. Let’s just hope no one dared to fuck with it, or I wasn’t going to make their death as quick as our previous guest.

Halfway through my pancakes, I took a breather to drink some coffee and get the day going. “Do we have any plans for the day?”

“No solid plans since you and Sprocket were still sleeping, more like lists of things that need to get done,” Cam informed me. “High on the list is speaking to Mariana. I’ve checked in with her doctors, and they feel she’s well enough for us to come by for a visit.”

“We also found out that one of Diego’s sons worked as an intern for the company and had some interesting paperwork stashed in his desk,” Wes shared. “I’ve been working on locating him since he didn’t live in the house with his parents. My guess is they have a similar setup for him like they did for Axel, with an apartment under a dummy corporate name. If Mariana possibly gives us a clue, that will make this all the easier.”

Cam shifted uneasily, seeming to disagree with Wes.

“Do you have thoughts on that, Cam?” I asked.

He let out a sigh. “None of you really met or spoke to that woman. She’s broken, and whatever they did to her shattered her spirit to the point where she was upset I wouldn’t kill her. I feel like we need to focus on just getting her to tell us about Marco. No matter what, she’s still their mother who’s as much of a victim in all this.”

He brought up a fair point. Mariana had suffered a whole life of being at the mercy of someone else. First, it was her father, then her brother, and finally her husband, a man I’m fairly sure she didn’t love.

“Let’s plan to do all we can to find the guy on our own and use his mother as a last resort,” I agreed.

“There’s also the matter of handing off the Diego situation to Tommaso,” Sprocket added. “Part of the reason we keep getting turned around is there are two problems that are converging. The more we dig, we find bits and pieces of both, adding to the challenge of what belongs where.”

“Can you tell what relates and what doesn’t?” I questioned.

Sprocket gestured that he was iffy on it, but that also told me he was close.

“Personally, I think the bomber is part of the Diego issue. It was rash, amateur, and way too quick for Marco to pull off, even with connections in the States. Tommaso wants to prove he’s the big dog who doesn’t just follow at your heels. Have him use whoever this is as an example,” Sprocket said, showing me just how right I was to have him take a bigger role.

“Solid… I like what we’ve got going on so far. Where are we at with Dante and the triplets joining us?”

Void grinned like he was super excited about something. “Ghost and I talked this morning. It seems they’re all in. Oh, and Harper wanted me to tell you they’re back in their apartment.”