Chapter Eighteen
Osi
Three and a half weeks had passed and I’d heard nothing more from Ramsay. A week ago, when I had finished the assignment and found her gone, I tracked her. She’d flown through Denver to Palm Springs. Since that Wednesday, there had been no activity on her credit cards. I’d guessed that she was Ollie and Bean but I had no idea where they were.
I could have called Bean or sent an e-mail but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to chase the woman who didn’t want to be caught.
I parked in front of the house two lots down from the Alessis’. Tony had called a meeting tonight of our group. He’d also promised food and if he was going to grill then I was going to be there. I slid slowly from my seat. My left was still sore. The bullet had gone through the meat and had missed the bone but it still hurt like a bitch.
The assignment had been a whole lot more than surveillance. What Thompson had led Forde to believe was bullshit. By the time I’d touched down in Spokane the situation had gone to shit. The group was led by a crazy mother-fucker who had no problem sacrificing his people to keep his ass safe. I enjoyed a good chase. Hell I gave props to the ones who’d made it hard but this job had me climbing up a mountain and camping under the stars. It wasn’t easy but the target was neutralized. I’d spent a night in the hospital getting filled with antibiotics and fluids but I was fine.
As I neared the Alessis’ house, I saw Tye and Billie approach from the other direction. Billie hugged me. I held her an extra second. “You came for the food didn’t you?” She teased.
“No, the company…and the food.” I gave Tye a questioning look. We’d all noticed that Billie didn’t seem to be her usual self recently. Not that from time to time, she’d show up at her desk looking like she didn’t get any sleep. After witnessing first-hand one of her PTSD episodes, I understood why. They left her drained both physically and mentally. But since I’d been back, she’d seemed more subdued.
Her husband gave me the slightest of head shakes. “Any idea what’s going on?” He asked me.
“Not a clue.”
“You all gonna stand out here all night or are you going to come in. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Billie turned around to face the woman on the porch, “A surprise?” She sounded delighted.
Zoe smiled smugly, “One of many.”
We headed to the front door.
After Zoe greeted us with hugs, she led us to the backyard. There her daughter Livy was playing with a dog.
Billie broke free and headed to the little girl and the pup. “You got a dog. Livy, who’s your friend?”
Tye watched his wife, “Well we won’t hear from her all night.”
Zoe gave him a knowing smile. “Tony and I have a bet about how soon we’ll be dealing with a dog bite. Livy has been gentle with him but I know my daughter.”
“How old is he? When did you get him?” She called.
“Want to meet my newest child?” Zoe motioned for us to follow her.
“What kind of breed is that?” I asked. He was about knee high and had a smooth black coat but a huge head. He looked a little bit like a science experiment gone wrong.”
“Apparently a Newfoundland met a Rottweiler and they made sweet looooovvve.” Zoe crooned the last word.
“He’s kind of u…” Tye started to utter the last word and Zoe gave him a narrow eyed look.
“I know that you were going to say original. Right?” She went into the bitch stance.
“Christ Golden Boy, you never insult a man or woman’s dog.” I ribbed the attorney.
“Ha ha,” Tye responded sarcastically. He got down on his knees by his wife. “So Livy, what’s your new friend’s name?”
“Hunk,” Their three year old told us.
Billie looked at Zoe questioningly, “That’s different.”
“It was Hulk but she doesn’t pronounce it clearly so I guess Hunk it is.” Zoe explained with a smile.
“So what do you think?” Tony joined us. He was dressed like the rest of us in a t-shirt and jeans.
“He’s adorable,” Billie decreed.
“He pissed all over me on the drive home.” Tony grumbled.
“He was probably scared,” Billie defended.
I chuckled, “I would have liked to seen that.”
“Daddy said a bunss of bad woods.” Livy told us. Then she started to laugh.
We all laughed along with her because she was cute. Currently, she was the ringleader of the kids.
“Hey, I’ve got a very hungry woman over here.” Brian and Cress walked out on the back deck.
“I’ll get you something.” Zoe turned to head back into the house.
“No,” Billie stood. “I’ll get it.”
Zoe frowned, “I think that I can get her some cheese and fruit.”
Billie smiled, “Of course you can. I’ll just come with you to see how everything else is shaping up.”
“Jesus, just because I’m not a great cook and now nobody has any faith in me.” The two woman walked to the back door.
“She does okay,” Tony told us, “with supervision.”
Brian had helped Cress into a chair and propped her feet up. “Hey.”
“So Daddy, how you holding up?” Tye asked.
“Her feet are swelling,” he reported.
We all turned to look at his pregnant wife.
Cress waved and smiled.
“She looks good,” I observed.
“We are good.” Brian told us with a proud smile.
“I’m going back to the grille.” Tony announced, “Beer and drinks are in the coolers.”
“What are we having?” Tye asked. The guy ate constantly.
“You name it and I’m cooking it.” Tony’s grin was cocky.
“Sweet,” Brian knelt down to greet Livy and was currently getting licked by Hunk.
“Lucy, walk honey,” Lucas Forde followed his daughter out onto the patio deck.
His daughter looked so much like his wife, Laya. “Lulu,” she called as she rushed to her friend.
“Whoa little monster,” Tye caught the toddler and swung her around while she gave shouts of joy.
That got the dogs attention and he started barking and jumping.
Livy wasn’t going to be left out so she held her arms out to me, “Up, up.” She demanded.
I couldn’t say no so I swung her in the air and then tossed her up and down a few times while she giggled.
“Don’t you drop one of them. I’m not spending the night in the E.R.” Layla called from the deck. She held the now five month old Eric in her arms.
Uncle Tye had put Lucy down, so I returned Livy to her feet. The two girls ran so that the dog would chase them.
“He’s getting big,” I kissed Layla’s cheek and I tickled the baby’s belly. He smiled at me and made giggling sounds.
“He’s missed you.”
I held out my arms and she placed Eric into them. He made more happy baby noises. He had lighter brown hair like his mother but his facial features were all Forde’s. “How’s it going little man?”
“He’s got it so good. He only cries when he poops, otherwise he’s a happy guy.” Layla told me.
“Sounds like a good life.” I told him.
“How’s your leg?” Layla glanced at my thigh.
“It’s fine.” I told her. I didn’t like to discuss it. It made me feel weak.
“You know that if you need anything, just ask.” She said quietly. We both knew that she was talking about my relationship that was not working. “I mean, if you want to spend an evening covered in baby drool and listening to sing along with her favorite DVD, you know where to go?”
“I think that last time I was asked to babysit it was with you.” I reminded her.
“I’m not asking for a babysitter, I’m saying if you want to hang out, you’re always welcome, Osi.” She gave me a small smile.
“I might do that.”
“Good.” She held out her arms. “I can take him.”
I turned a little away from her, “Nah, he’s fine.”
“Okay.” She turned and walked back to Cress.
I joined the guys who had congregated around the grill. “Gotta learn to hang with the boys, Eric.” I told the baby who was now sleeping with his head on my shoulder.
“So we’re talking about a mile square. Right now there’s an old farmhouse with a bunch of barns and fields.” Tony was standing in front of a chart that was on a stand in their living room.
“Won’t it look a little bit like some kind of commune?” Rick asked as looked at the aerial view and then back at Tony.
“I’m thinking that Forde’s finally getting his compound.” Billie was sitting on the floor leaning back against Tye’s legs.
“It’s intriguing,” Forde told us all.
Tony took that as a positive. “When Clem brought it up, I sort of laughed it off but then I thought a little more about it and I started to see some options. The kids are going to be school age before long and honestly, we aren’t too pleased with the schools around here and private school is expensive.”
“What school system would they be in?” Cress asked.
“Eastern Gray,” Zoe answered. “No, it isn’t the most fancy, but their test scores are in the upper ten per cent of the state.”
“Are you thinking about getting involved with the schools?” Layla asked.
“I don’t know. Right now, we’ve been scrambling to get the information. I know this, no school system is going to turn down a donation. If we decided to buy the land and move out there, we could look at ways to improve the schools or maybe home school?.”
“You’d know,” Brian nodded at Zoe who had been a head master at some ritzy private school in Denver.
Parts of this plan appealed to me. “We’ve talked about starting a training center. It seems like there would be room out there.” I was running the idea and coming up with different ideas.
“Actually there’s more land for sale across the road on the southern side.” Tony pointed at the aerial view.
Layla looked at her husband, “We are going to need more space…soon.”
“Is that an announcement?” Billie asked looking from Layla to Forde.
The boss man flashed a smile, “Well I guess so.”
“Layla!” Zoe scooted closer to her friend. “Number three.”
“No it’s four,” Cress corrected Zoe.
“Right,” Zoe’s head shook affirmatively, “Four with Ryan.”
Layla gave us all a huge smile. “Forde asked me one night, how many kids I wanted and I answered four.” She rolled her eyes at her husband and he shifted his hand from her thigh to wrap his arms around her shoulders. “It was way too early to be talking about kids but he said we’d have them and now we will.”
“Babe,” Forde muttered and kissed her cheek.
“Congratulations,” Tye told his brother and sister-in-law.
“So is this it?” Billie asked.
“For me yes,” Layla announced, “if he wants more then he’s going to have find me a sister wife.”
“Like that’s gonna happen,” Rick chuckled.
“I think that we should explore this,” I pointed at the aerial photograph. “It would give us room and yet we’d still be close together.”
“Bri, what do you think?” Cress looked at her husband.
“I can tell that you like the idea.” Brian kissed the back of his wife’s hand.
“They’re our family,” Cress told him as she rested her other hand on her baby bump.
“Plenty of built in babysitters,” Billie offered.
“For all of us, when the time comes,” Zoe said diplomatically. I’d heard through Ramsay that the women were wondering why Billie and Tye weren’t pregnant yet. God knew, they fucked all of the time. Billie would meet Tye for a private lunch and come back to her desk with a huge smile on her face and her lips swollen.
“Why don’t you and Brian pay a visit to your friend and then do some checking in the county records.” Forde was giving his approval.
“He’s not really a friend. I mean, my brother did some work for him and I did some freelance jobs but our relationship isn’t that close.” Tony corrected.
“So we can treat this as a business negotiation?” Brian asked. I could see his razor sharp mind already running the numbers. He was a double-threat, he’d passed the Bar and the C.P.A. exams.
“All right,” Tony looked very happy.
“Who wants dessert?” Zoe asked.
I groaned. I was stuffed.
The meeting was over and some were eating the pie while chatting. Tye motioned me over to where he was standing. “Can you meet Billie and I for a drink?”
“When?” I worked out with Tye and of course I saw Billie at work but we didn’t socialize regularly.
“After we leave here.”
“Uh sure. Where?” My pans were to go out an patrol so the timing was perfect.
“Corner Bar?” He named a place about eight blocks away that was upscale but still quiet.
“Okay.”
“I’ll get Billie.” He headed to the kitchen where his wife was cleaning up.
I got to the bar first and I sat down at a booth in the back where I had a good sightline on the rest of the room. Billie and Tye walked in soon after. He looked around and I raised my hand in a small salute.
Tye told Billie where I was sitting and I watched as her searched for me. Once she saw her destination, she headed in my direction.
When they got to the table she started talking immediately. “Thank you for meeting us,”
“I figure that Golden Boy will pick up the tab,” I teased the successful attorney.
“Oh yeah, it’s not like I took an unplanned five month vacation.” Tye countered.
Billie frowned for a quick moment. Then she recovered and smiled again.
We placed our orders, Billie and I tonic water with lime, Tye ordered another beer.
Billie looked at Tye, who was playing with the coaster in front of him.
“So?” I thought I needed to get the ball rolling.
Billie gave her husband another sideways look. “Have you heard from Ramsay?” She spoke quickly.
“I got a text twenty five days ago, that said, ‘I’m sorry’ That’s it.”
Tye asked, “Did you guys fight? Is that why she took off?”
I must have taken too long to respond, because Billie spoke. “Look, I know that it probably seems intrusive, us asking questions. I mean from the start, Tye made me promise that I wouldn’t bug you two.”
I met Tye’s eyes and he gave a small nod.
“I know I said a few things on New Year’s Eve but I’m going to blame it on the champagne.” She gave me a cheeky grin that was so cute that I was certain that she got away with all kinds of shit when she used it.
“You were trying to help and you said some things that helped. They helped me understand her family better.” I told her.
She nodded a few times quickly. “Then I got mad at her and I wrote her a note. I slid it under her door.”
“She wasn’t answering Billie’s calls. She went radio-silent.” Tye explained.
Yeah, I knew how that felt.
“When I saw her with her suitcase that morning, you know, I was so surprised. I mean, suddenly we were face to face and she had to talk to me.” Billie worried her lower lip.
“She didn’t give any explanations.” Tye told me.
“Yeah, you told me all of this.” I really didn’t feel like rehashing all of this.
“I’m so mad at her.” Billie gripped the edge of the table. “I mean, it’s wrong that she knows that we need to talk and she’s avoiding me.” She bit down so hard on her lip that for a second I worried that she’d draw blood.
“Babe,” Tye leaned his head down and whispered something in her ear.
She bent her head and shook it a few times as she listened to her husband.
I took a drink and then studied my glass.
“Do you know where she is?” Tye asked.
“No.” I answered.
“But you could find her, if you wanted.” He was fishing.
I spread my hand flat on the table and studied the spacing between my fingers. “Here’s the deal. I put it all out there for Ramsay.”
I felt their surprise. I don’t know if it was what I said or that I’d shared.
“I thought that she was with me but I got called away and then she took off.” I looked up at them.
“I hate her,” Billie said quietly.
“You don’t babe.” I told her.
She closed her eyes for a moment, when she got her composure back, she told me. “I hate this part of her.” She took in a deep breath. “I’ve made excuses for her but now…” She shrugged. “I’ve run out of them.”
“B.” I reached my hand out, palm up. She put her hand in mine. “She isn’t gone because of anything you did or said. I know that.”
The look the blonde gave me told me that she didn’t believe me.
“Ramsay told me some things while we were together both in St. Barts and this last trip. Things that I don’t think she’s ever shared.”
“What?” Billie’s hand tightened around mine.
“I can’t tell you.”
“No, you can’t,” Tye agreed.
“She’s my best friend and I know that she is hurting and I…I can’t help her.” Billie’s eyes were shining with tears.
“She’s,” I frowned. I honestly didn’t know how much to say. “She’s carrying something and the pain, it’s tearing her apart.”
Billie pulled her hand from mine and braced her head in her palm.
She was crying and that hurt me.
“Billie’s going through some stuff.” He watched his wife for a few beats. “She’s going to take some time off from Limited.”
She raised her head slowly and met my eyes. “I don’t want to make any stupid mistakes, you know when I’m in my zombie state.” She tried to joke but I could see the fear and the defeat in her eyes.
“You’ve had a busy eight months. Maybe a break will do you some good.” I told her. Between the wedding plans, Tye getting shot and almost dying, his intense rehabilitation, their annual party, she had been pushed.
“I hope so,” she said quietly.
“You know you’re welcome to come around.” Tye was watching his wife closely. “That is if you don’t mind dog hair and slobber.”
Billie slapped his forearm, “It’s not that bad.”
“Babe, it is.” Tye told her with a smile.
“I’ll be by.” I told them.
That made Billie smile, a real smile that made her eyes sparkle. I realized that it had been a while since I’d seen her smile like that.
“So you’re going to miss Sly’s first couple of weeks.” The man was starting next Wednesday. Because of my assignment, he’d met with Rick, Tony and Forde.
“I was there the day he interviewed.” She said with a giggle.
“Tell me that he didn’t wear a t-shirt.” I chuckled.
“No a suit, no tie. If memory serves, it was a nice suit. But Osi, he was wearing these obnoxious boots. They were some kind of snake maybe? They were black and white and I’ve never seen anything quite like them.” Billie recounted.
“Don’t let his slow way of talking lull you into thinking that he isn’t fierce.” I advised them.
“Well he didn’t impress Jenn. She now refers to him as ‘The Hick.’”
“He’ll let her see that side of him until he decides that he’s had enough and then, he’ll handle her.”
Billie dropped her chin a little and looked at me from underneath her lashes, “I’d really like to see that.”
Tye drew his eyebrows together. “I thought you said that things were ‘better between the two of you’?”
“They are. I mean she apologized and then we sort of avoided one another, now she talks to me a little more. I’m over the whole Holly fiasco.” She gave Tye a small frown. “Jenn and I, we don’t have a lot in common. I don’t know very much about the gaming world and now that she’s dating that guy…well it’s all she talks about.” Billie gave a one shoulder shrug.
“Jenn’s great at her job but she’s different and fine with being that way.” I shared my opinion. “After all of that Holly bullshit, she didn’t really try to get back in you ladies’ good graces. She sort of flaunted her ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude.”
“Holly was my mistake.” Tye admitted. “You have to stick for your cousin don’t you?”
“But if you hadn’t been with Holly, you might not have noticed me.” She stroked Tye’s forearm.
That made us laugh.
I spoke first, “Believe me Billie, we all noticed you.”
She turned her head and gave me a surprised look.
“Forde warned us all off.” Tye told her.
“Oh,” she said quietly.
“I think it worked out for the best.” I watched her link her hand with her husbands.
“Yeah, I agree.” She sighed.
Tye covered the tab. He’d put Billie into his Jag and he said quietly, “If you hear from Ramsay, can you give me a heads up first, before you tell Billie?”
“Is she all right?” I tilted my head toward Billie in the car.
“She will be.” Tye told me.
I hoped so.