Page 217 of Tenderfoot

“Let me guess, it’s not to be absolutely certain the bill is paid,” I said hesitantly.

“No,” Javi grunted.

Eek.

“They told me he sits with her, sometimes for hours,” Javi said.

Oh God!

“That isn’t about me,” he stated.

“It isn’t,” I carefully agreed.

It seemed the man did love her, or at the very least cared for her deeply.

Whether it was because she was his son’s mother, or just because she was Ximena, we might never know.

Whatever it was, it was sweet.

I wondered if Julia and Cath knew about this. Though, I wondered, unless they shared they did, we wouldn’t know, since that was definitely Atherton’s to give them if he wished to.

“Fuck me,” Javi muttered.

“Your decision. Your peace of mind,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, baby,” he agreed.

I pushed across the cab to kiss his jaw.

When I sat back, he was looking at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Proudest day of my life, introducing my ma to you.”

Oh em gee!

He was the greatest!

I pushed forward that time to kiss his jaw a lot harder, I added a touch of my tongue and my hand squeezing really high up on his hard thigh.

This commenced Javi pulling over so we could make out.

Sadly, that had to end.

Not sadly, when it did, Javi guided us to Freddy’s.

Javi reported the NI&S boys cut Kev loose a few days after Trev’s case was solved.

He also shared that they’d had a few more words with him in those few days, and I was correct with where my deductive powers led me.

Kevin not only knew what was on that laptop, Kevin knew where Trevor hid the laptop.

Kevin had then hid it. However, he hadn’t expected anyone to find where he did. This was because he intended to go back and get it.

Kevin had lied about saying he thought Trev deleted the videos, he knew he did not.

And Kevin had guarded this intel carefully, even under interrogation by the Hottie Squad, because he was such a lamebrain, his bestest bestie gets dead in all that crazy, he didn’t take this as the cautionary note it was. Instead, he saw his opening for an easy life filled with new Mazdas and his rent paid without actually having to hold down a job or exerting any effort in conning chicks on dating apps so he could filch their wallets or designer bags.

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