“Those’re my grandbabies,” she hissed.
Before Mitch could respond, the door opened and Derek was there.
Then we weren’t.
This was because Mitch rounded me and Billy, herding us, forcing us with his movements through the door, through Derek and once we were inside, he slammed the door behind us.
I saw immediately that there was a mini-cocktail extravaganza in progress. There were martini glasses in hands, decimated platters of food on the coffee table with two silver cocktail shakers, a bucket of ice and bottles of booze and mixers. I had seen this all many times before. Once she settled in, LaTanya wasn’t one to waste time sashaying into the kitchen to mix cocktails. She set up where it was comfortable and stayed there.
Bray and Brent were on the couch.
So was LaTanya’s cousin, Elvira.
Elvira.
I wasn’t certain what Mitch’s plan was. What I was certain of was that in any plan, Elvira was a wildcard.
I knew Elvira seeing as she was a staple at LaTanya’s cocktail extravaganzas. Elvira had great style, a sister and brother who worked her last nerves and she didn’t mind telling everyone about it so she did (at length). She also had an interesting job herding the cats that were a bunch of men whose business was a little hazy but my sense was they were private investigators (or the like) and, once you got to know her, she could be hilarious.
But if LaTanya Delight deserved a capital “D”, her cousin Elvira’s Attitude deserved a capital “A”. Pretty much anything came out of Elvira’s mouth and she was scary nosy. She didn’t have a filter. She said what she thought, she said it straight and she had a lot of opinions.
I liked her but I had to admit, she always scared me a little.
During another mini-cocktail extravaganza of LaTanya’s, that one sans Elvira, LaTanya shared she felt the same way about her cousin.
Now Elvira, Bray, Brent, LaTanya and Derek were all staring at us with various expressions of surprise on their faces and I didn’t blame them. We’d barged right in and there we were.
“Is everything –?” Derek started but Mitch didn’t let him get further as we heard a pounding knock on the door.
All eyes (including mine) went to it but Mitch started talking.
“The Trailer Trash Twins are in the breezeway,” he explained quietly, striding straight to Derek and LaTanya’s second bedroom that they used as a half-office/half-man cave. When I saw him on the move, I trailed taking Billy with me. So did Derek. So did LaTanya. And Bray, Brent and Elvira all got up and followed us.
Mitch kept talking as he moved, carrying the still sleeping (thankfully) Billie.
“They brought reinforcements. Billie’s Mom,” he stated as he walked into the room. Billy and I followed, so did Derek and LaTanya. Bray, Brent and Elvira huddled at the door.
I heard several sucked in breaths and I was guessing they came from LaTanya, Brent and Bray. For his part, Derek’s face got tight.
Mitch bent and I watched by the light coming through the opened door as he carefully deposited Billie on Derek’s man cave couch, arranged her comfortably and then reached out an arm to grab a throw from the back of it. He tossed it over her, twitching it so it covered her.
Then, when she was down, we all heard another pound come at the door.
Everyone’s heads twisted in that direction except Mitch’s. He moved swiftly, his movements controlled, fluid but economical like he was holding himself in check. He also didn’t hesitate and Bray, Brent and Elvira had to jump out of his way as his long legs took him out the door.
My arm still around a trembling Billy, I hurried after him, guiding Billy with me and giving him a firm squeeze.
“It’s going to be okay, honey,” I whispered as we moved and his head tipped back woodenly, his terrified eyes hit mine and my heart clenched. “Promise, Bud.” I kept whispering. “Everything’s going to be okay.” I gave him another squeeze. “Promise.”
We made it to the living room but Billy didn’t even nod and the terror didn’t leave his face. I stopped us when I heard Mitch speak and looked to the door.
He had it open, his body was blocking it and I saw Aunt Lulamae was standing on the other side.
“Five minutes,” he bit out.
“Fuck five minutes,” Aunt Lulamae returned. “We been waitin’ an hour.”
“Then you’ll wait another five minutes or you’ll find your ass in the back of a cruiser and you’ll be facing harassment charges,” Mitch fired back and I just got the chance to see her head jerk and her eyes narrow before he shut the door in her face.
Then he turned, walked directly to Billy and crouched in front of him.
One of his hands came up, curled around the side of Billy’s neck and he pulled him roughly yet tenderly away from my body and to within an inch of his face.
“I got this, Bud,” he said in a low, deeper than normal voice, his eyes locked with Billy’s.
Billy didn’t respond.
Mitch gave him a gentle shake with his hand at his neck.
“I promise you, I got this. You believe me?”
Billy didn’t move nor did he speak.
“Bud?” Mitch prompted on another gentle shake and finally Billy nodded.
My heart skipped when Mitch pulled Billy to him and rested his forehead against my cousin’s for half a second before he let him go and straightened.
Then he looked at LaTanya.
“Door closed to Billie. Shit goes down, I don’t want her hearin’ it. You gotta move her back to your room, I need you to do that. Yeah?” he asked and LaTanya nodded then rushed to the man cave.
Mitch looked to Derek.
“I don’t want those women around the kids and I don’t want them knowin’ I live across the breezeway. That’s why we’re here. In a minute, Mara and me are goin’ out there, we’re takin’ them into Mara’s apartment and we’re dealin’ with ‘em. You hear shit you don’t like, like those bitches gettin’ loud and threatening, you call Slim. He knows what’s goin’ on and he’ll know what to do. You don’t like what you hear, you call. No hesitation. Right?”
Derek nodded.
Mitch looked at Bray and Brent.
“Keep Bud company. He’s freaked.”
Bray and Brent nodded, Brent detaching from Bray and moving toward Billy.
Mitch’s eyes came to me, they moved over my face, I knew he didn’t like what he saw but he powered through it and said quietly, “Let’s go, sweetheart.”
It was my turn to nod.
“I’m goin’ with,” Elvira announced right as I started to move toward Mitch and both Mitch and my eyes went to her.
Oh boy. Here we go. Elvira was butting into Mitch’s plans.
“No,” he denied.
“Uh…yeah, hot guy, macho man, decorated, squeaky clean po-lice detective,” she shot back and there it was. The Attitude. “I spend my time around hot guy, macho men, almost all my time but even if I didn’t, it wouldn’t take a psychologist to read you are one seriously pissed off hot guy, macho man, po-lice detective. And I’ll repeat, you’re decorated and squeaky clean. You need to keep your shit and stay that way and, my read, you got about a half a millimeter left on your hold on your control.”
I figured her read was right.
She kept talking.
“You both also need a witness to whatever goes down over there. I’m not either of ya’ll’s neighbor or best friend,” she lifted a hand, finger pointed down, her well-formed nail, I distractedly noticed, painted an awesome midnight violet color. She circled her finger between Mitch and me then she dropped her hand. “So that witness is gonna be me.”
Well, one thing I knew about this, LaTanya had shared with her cousin about Mitch, me, Billy and Billie.
The other thing I knew was that Elvira didn’t just have Attitude, she was wise.