Page 47 of Tenderfoot

I knew to whom they were referring. “Alvarez” was Jorge Alvarez, Phoenix Chief of Police. We’d had occasion to cross paths with him on our last mission.

He was not the Angels’ biggest fan.

The two men shared a look that was clearly a meeting of the minds, then both the police officers stared at me like I had all my screws loose, this before they walked out.

Hang on a second.

Keeping a firm hold on my chicken bites, I stood, calling, “Hey, wait.”

They turned back to me.

“Don’t I need to make a statement or something?” I asked.

Their attention moved to Javi.

“I already made your statement,” Javi explained.

It might have been an explanation, but I was confused. More than confused. I was mad he thought he could speak for me. And I was confused about whether I should be more confused than mad, or vice versa.

Since I couldn’t come up with an answer to this dilemma, I pushed another bite into my mouth and chewed angrily.

The cops left.

The door was closing behind them, but then it didn’t, because Martha, Linda, Patsy, and worse, Jessie, Luna, Raye, Shanti and Willow were all of a sudden in Jacob’s apartment.

I loved Jacob and Alexis together (and separately). We’d all watched as they’d circled each other for-what-seemed-like-ever. Thus, it was a long time coming. Now, they were very together and cute as all heck.

But I didn’t know how she handled his pad.

There was an oversized black leather sofa, an equally oversized gray leather chair, and about fifteen guitars on stands (okay, only five, but that was a lot, wasn’t it?). The TV was humongous and totally didn’t work with the space. A fancy treadmill was scrunched in with all of this, and every surface seemed littered with mail, fliers, and what appeared to be laundry that was either clean and had yet to be folded and put away, or dirty and hadn’t made it to the hamper.

Alexis was really into Jacob, and he was really into her, as well as being nice, protective and gorgeous, so I could see maybe dealing with the massive TV that far from worked in that room. And maybe the leather furniture, which I would never say out loud, but even so, not speaking it openly didn’t negate the fact it was ugly.

But the treadmill, the mess and the laundry?

No.

They’d been together for months. They both had places at the Oasis. Alexis lived next door to Martha, who wasn’t thrilled with their sex-a-thons, which Martha shared with all and sundry could get loud, so they were usually at Jacob’s. As such, with all that time in, it was my philosophy it was high time for her to instigate a woman’s touch.

But at that moment, there were twelve people jammed in and sharing space with all this stuff.

And this was impossible.

“Why were the cops here?” Jessie demanded to know, her gaze pinging from me to Javi to Alexis to Jacob, back to me and Javi. “And why are you guys in Jacob’s apartment?”

Martha, with difficulty due to the zero space allotted her, pushed center stage.

“To hell with that!” she yelled. “I’m contacting Bill and Zach. We’re having an Oasis-wide meeting.” She jabbed a finger at me, then to Jess, Raye and Luna. “Reporters clogging the entrances to the parking lot wanting to talk to Raye, Jessie being kidnapped, Harlow having her home broken into. Once and for all, we wanna know what you girls are up to.” She homed in on me. “I looked in your door when Javi came out with the cops. Your pad is a disaster!”

“Your place is a disaster?” Willow breathed, the color draining from her face.

“It’s been tossed,” Javi grunted.

“It has? For heaven’s sake, why?” Luna asked.

“I don’t know, woman,” Javi drawled. “Maybe because she was out on a date with an asshole who got his throat slit last night?”

“Oh my goodness!” Linda cried.

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