Page 82 of Constantly Cotton
In a clatter, he started pulling out his deep fryer, the oil, which he bought by the gallon, and the big industrial mixer that Burton had mounted to the end of the counter for him. He was going to make afucktonof donuts.
“You can bring some of them to Jason,” he said, seeing Burton’s CO in his mind’s eye. Jason… wasn’t eating well right now. He was restless, moving his hand over his stomach like he was developing an ulcer. Oh no. Another one had disappeared. “Jason’s going to call with another name for you to run down,” Ernie said. “Wait for me to finish the first batch before you leave town.”
Lee groaned and stood, his hot body aligning itself with Ernie’s as he kissed the back of Ernie’s neck. His hands, battered, dark, and capable, slid around Ernie’s waist, and Ernie closed his eyes and accepted all of Burton’s calm, steely-eyed power wrapped around him like a cloak.
“You sure you don’t want to do something else while we wait for that call?” Burton asked.
Ernie turned in his arms and tasted him… ah! So sweet! “You loved me real good last night,” he whispered. “We’ve got to take care of your guy now, okay? And….” He shivered. “There’s something brewing, Burton. A perfect storm. Lots of lightning strikes. We’ve got to start the day off with donuts.”
Lee pulled away and cupped his face. “You’ll stay with Ace and Sonny at night?” he asked, to make sure.
Ernie smiled a little. “And feed the cats during the day, I promise.” He swallowed. “Hey—you know that batch of kittens bunkered down with the black cat in the garage?”
Lee struggled not to cross his eyes. “Yeah?”
“Jackson and Ellery will be ready for one of them soon. Don’t worry. It’ll all work out.”
Burton dropped his head against Ernie’s shoulder. “Baby, you do realize that talking to you is like talking to a runaway ceiling fan?”
Ernie chuckled at the image and then sobered. “And there’s going to be a boom.”
Burton’s eyes got big and at that moment, his phone—sitting on the table, where Burton had been using it to scroll through his feeds—buzzed. Burton closed his eyes and walked toward it, grimacing when he got close enough to see who was calling.
“Burton,” he said tersely. He listened to the answer with narrowed eyes, and Ernie turned back to the donuts. “Yessir. I hear you. Long op. I’ll head out within the next two hours.”
Constance said something that made him grunt.
“Why two hours? Well, sir, because my boyfriend says you have to have donuts before I go.”
Ernie could not imagine what Jason Constance would say to that, but it must have been something encouraging.
“Yes, sir,” Burton replied. “I will thank him for you. And yes, sir, I will do my best to keep him safe.”
Ernie gave him a relieved smile. “Thank you,” he mouthed.
Burton signed off and set the phone on the table. “Baby, I hope you know what you’re doing, because I am all sorts of worried.”
Ernie gave his lover his best smile. “Don’t worry about me, Burton. I’m just powdered sugar on the wind.”
Grumbling to himself, Burton headed to the bedroom to shower and probably pack his go-bag, and Ernie set about assembling his ingredients. In his mind’s eye, he had four different action-adventure movie films going, all of them featuring different people who he knew personally, over an overlapping time period.
One of them featured him and Sonny, and a really bad guy, and a gun being fired.
Part 2
“YOU SWEARthey’ll be okay?” Sonny asked, fractious-like.
Ernie chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I swear,” he said weakly. “Honest, Sonny—I’ve got nothing bad about them at all.”
Okay, so that was sort of a lie.
He saw lots ofviolenceabout Ace and Jai—it was swirling around them, like a sirocco, hot dry wind and sand that had been heaved up in a choking wave. But through it all, Ace and Jai continued to walk, eyes squinted against the sand, bandanas covering their mouths and noses—it wasn’t that they were unaffected, it was that they were unthreatened by it. Not this time.
But even mentioning that there was violence could be the trigger that sent Sonny Daye off into the wild blue.
But sometimes, Sonny surprised Ernie.
“You think them kids’ll be okay?” he asked fretfully, leaning against the car he’d just finished repairing and gazing off into the direction in which Ace and Jai had disappeared. The sun was starting to lower, and the eastern sky was already purpling in the August gold.
