Page 24 of Worship Me (Men of Inked 7)
James’s mother came walking out of the kitchen with her purse already over her shoulder. “I’ll take them, dear. Sit and have a cup of coffee. You need to learn to relax a little more.”
From her lips to God’s ears.
“Thank you, Mama.”
“Yay,” Rocco yelled and ran out the front door. “Shotgun.”
“Darn it,” Mello grumbled and followed him.
Trace looked at me and shrugged. “I like the back seat. I don’t understand the big deal.”
“That’s good, baby.” I blew him a kiss. “Be good.”
“You got it, doll.” He winked and ran out the front door.
I stood there shocked. All I’d wanted was one girl. But, no. God had to punish me for being such an asshole most of my life. Instead, he gave me three boys who would probably be the death of me someday. If not that, they’d at least make me gray before my time.
I didn’t even want to think about what was to come. Besides the girls, there were going to be parties, drinking, driving, and probably an arrest or two before they hit adulthood. I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to any of it.
“We may be gone by the time you get home. We’re going back to Miami, but we’ll be back in about a month to check on the house.”
I hugged Mama Caldo tightly. “Thank you,” I told her before kissing her face. “I couldn’t have gotten through the week without you.”
“I loved spending time with you and the boys.”
I knew she was including James along with the grandkids, and it made me smile. “They loved it too.”
“Go have your coffee and give my son a kiss goodbye for me.”
I waved as she walked down the driveway toward the car with the boys already fighting inside. “I will.”
I closed the door, pressing my back against it. I took in the silence because I knew it was my last few moments of quiet before I headed to work and a very long day training a new girl in the way of Mike’s crazy.
James
I walked into the office just after eight and Angel had already set a cup of coffee in my office, but she was nowhere to be found. The hallways weren’t buzzing with activity, but I was too tired to even care.
I collapsed in my chair, turned on my computer, and sipped the still warm coffee as I waited for the old piece of shit to start. The door to the conference room down the hall from me opened and closed before Thomas appeared in my doorway.
“Feds are here.” He tipped his head. “They want to talk to both of us.”
“Is it bad?” I asked as I stood from my chair, leaving my coffee behind.
“They wouldn’t say. They wanted to talk about Matías.”
I growled slightly as I followed Thomas to the conference room at the end of the hallway. We were only hired to find the man. After that was done, we should’ve been finished. Being at ALFA a little after eight in the morning on a Monday didn’t sit well with me.
“We’re both here,” Thomas said as I walked in behind him and closed the door.
I sat down across from a female agent in a pressed black pinstripe suit and looking nothing like the sexy ones in the movies. I still hadn’t found a single one who looked like Jennifer Garner or Angelina Jolie, but it didn’t stop me from hoping.
“Thank you for joining us, Mr. Caldo.”
“You showed up unannounced, and I own this company along with Mr. Gallo. You’re lucky I’m here at all.”
I don’t know what it was about her statement, but it didn’t sound like she was giving me a compliment. I hated fuckers who acted like you owed them something just because they carried a badge.
“What can we help you with?” Thomas asked, giving me the side-eye.
“We wanted to fill you in on Matías and hand-deliver the reward.”
“Is something wrong with Matías?”
She shook her head and cracked a smile. “Amazingly, he’s spilling his guts.”
I laughed. The fucker said he’d never talk. “Interesting.”
“We found out he isn’t really the head of the operation. He’s only the face, and there’s someone more important that we need to catch.”
“Need help?”
They weren’t able to do what we did with Matías because they had to get warrants and wait for bureaucratic red tape; whereas we could follow a lead and use any means necessary to find the man.
“We may. We’ll see how far we get with him in custody. Hopefully, he’ll give us everything we need to find the real culprit and put him behind bars.”
“You’re not going to let him off, are you?” Thomas asked the first thing that popped into my mind as she finished speaking.
“No. Matías will spend the rest of his life in prison. His cooperation will determine if he’s given a posh facility or goes to supermax.”
He shouldn’t even have that option. The man deserved to be ass-raped every day, repeatedly, by a group of men that made him call them “Daddy.” The government always did bullshit things like this to get people to cooperate. While I understood it, I didn’t like it.
The agent slid an envelope across the table and tapped on it with her fingernail. “As promised. There’s a check for one million dollars made out to ALFA to cover your expenses and as a reward.”
“Thank you.” I smiled and pulled the small, nondescript white envelope in front of me. “We appreciated the chance to serve our country again.”
It was nice to work on something other than cheating wives or business partners who stole money from each other. But I didn’t think I wanted to get involved in another case like Matías’s. The government should learn to handle their own shit without looking to outsiders to help.
“We won’t keep you. I’m sure you have important things to do today.”
“We do, but we appreciate you delivering the check personally,” Thomas said, standing to shake the hand of the agents.
“The pleasure was mine.” The woman nodded, releasing his hand and expecting the same from me.
“Thanks for this,” I said, waving the check in the air, but not bothering to stand and thank her for it.
I was in a pissy mood, and she was taking the brunt of it. I didn’t know if it was because it was Monday or that I had to leave Izzy after such a clusterfuck of a weekend.
After Angel escorted the agents out, Thomas closed the door and smiled. An emotion he didn’t always do so easily. “Open the fucker.”
I tore open the envelope, pulling out the million-dollar check. “It looks real.”
“Dude, that’s a lot of bank for a case we basically worked on for a week. What are
we going to do with it?”
“You can do whatever you want with your part, but with mine, I’m taking a lot of time off this summer. So, I’ll use it to hire a new person and cover their payroll for a while.”
He knocked on the table, his knuckles crushing into the wood. “Why?”
“I need to spend time with Izzy and the boys. I promised Izzy we’d do things this summer before time got away from us. You should think about doing the same.”
He sat down across from me and folded his hands together. “Angel and I have been talking about it too.”
I wasn’t surprised. All we did was work. Izzy, at least, had slightly different hours at Inked, which gave us some leeway. But with Thomas and Angel both working at ALFA, they didn’t have that luxury.
“Let’s throw the whole thing in the company kitty and hire some new people so we can enjoy our families a little more.”
I rubbed my chin and suddenly felt a headache coming on. “Who are we going to leave in charge when we’re not here?”
“Bear or Morgan. They know the business best.”
“Bear?” I almost choked. He was the most senior, but the man fucked around so much, I wondered if he’d take the job seriously enough.
“What’s going to work better? Morgan telling Bear what to do, or Bear telling Morgan what to do?” Thomas quirked an eyebrow.
“Frisco, it is,” I said and started to laugh.
“It’s a shame Flash isn’t going to be around. I would’ve had him handle shit in our absence.”
“Yeah,” I said and found I actually missed the little pissant.
He’d only been gone a few days, and his absence had already been felt. Skyping him and email conversations weren’t the same as seeing his face around the office and having someone to argue with. But I understood why he was home and supported him one hundred percent.
“Frisco will be a great middleman.”
I nodded my agreement. “When do you want to tell them?”
“Not until we have to. I don’t want to listen to Bear’s mouth for the next two months.”
“Good idea.”
“And if the Feds come back?”
“Fuck them. I’m done doing their dirty work.”
“I’m with ya, buddy.”
As long as we were both on board with turning down any further assignments the government had to offer, I was down for whatever cases came rolling in between now and summer. I’d cut my hours and do exactly as I’d promised Izzy. I’d spend more time with the people I loved most.
