Indulgence (326 page)

“Didn’t know you had a son,” Kyle added as he walked over to
pick up the barbell Armando had thrown.

Gunny chuckled, which turned into a full-on hacking cough.
“Well I knew the odds were 50-50 there’d be a son. He found me on Facebook
through the gym. I sure as hell enjoyed knocking up all their mothers, and I
understand I’m a virile son of a bitch.” He spit again into a tissue. “Just
never met any of them.”

“Well, timing’s good. We got a few days off before we go on
the training mission.”

“Yeah? Where to?”

“I figure Alaska, Mexico or Vegas, baby. But they don’t tell
us until just before. Sucks, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re always ready.”

“Right you are,” Gunny said as he wiped down his rusty old
equipment.

“So what day is it, and we’ll come back you up.”

“Wednesday. Probably scare the shit outta the kid, a bunch
of SEALs showing up at the airport.”

“Yup. That would be scary as hell. Not like meeting his
crusty old dad for the first time. Nah, that would be a piece of cake compared
to meeting the likes of us.” Kyle winked at the retiree.

That got a snicker out of Gunny. “Not nearly as scary as the
time I showed up with his mother in the wedding cart. First time most of her
relatives met me, and I’m not so sure I left a good impression. Kinda happened
real fast-like.”

“Love has a way of doing that to a man, doesn’t it?”

“You’ve never taken the plunge, even got close, have you,
Armani?”

“I’ve had relationships that have lasted longer than your
marriages, Gunny.”

“That’s not sayin’ much.”

Armando knew in his heart that he wasn’t the marrying kind.
He loved women and all the exciting sex play, but he wasn’t a good one for
commitment, since he was really married to the Navy and his SEAL brothers. But
Kyle and Cooper had found theirs, so perhaps…no, he had to change his train of
thought right now or he’d fuck up his day.

“So Gunny, your wife was Thai?”

“Yes. Beautiful girl. Only knew her for about a month before
we shipped out.”

“Time enough to get married. Get her pregnant.”

“Always time to get married. But then, I don’t believe in
divorce.” He slapped Armando on the back as the dumbbells hit the mat again. “I
just figured it out the other day. I’ve been married six times, but never
divorced.”

A few days later, Gina met Mia at the coffee shop around the
corner from Mia’s house. She noticed her charge looked unusually weary.
Something was bothering her. The baby was sleeping in his stroller.

“You been out for a run, Mia?”

The girl stared back at Gina looking annoyed “No. You know I
don’t do that.”

“I hear you. Don’t much like the exercise either,” Gina
lied.

“Girl, I know when I’m being sold a story. Your arms are as
buff as I’ve ever seen on a girl. You mean to tell me you don’t bust your buns
at some gym somewhere?”

Gina blushed. Confusion and the sense of
Uh-Oh
descended like a blanket, wrapping itself stubbornly around her. She shivered.
It had been a stupid remark, and she should have known her physical
conditioning wouldn’t be lost on Mia. She’d almost crossed the line again and
revealed too much. The girl noticed everything, and Gina’s cover depended on no
slip-ups.

Gina masked her fear as best she could. “Had a friend once
who was a body builder. Now
that’s
what
I
call working out.”

She got a sneer in response. “Nah, that’s some freaky shit.
I mean, getting man titties and having your unit climb up into your belly, and
then look like some hairless baked potato dude in your 40s. No thanks.”

The baby began to stir. Mia picked the fat toddler up and
nuzzled him.

“Lunch is on me,” Gina said, happy to change the subject.
She loved the way little Ricardo’s fat hands reached for Mia’s hair, her
jewelry and anything else he could grab. Despite Mia’s poor choices in men, the
baby looked well cared for.

Mia turned Ricardo facing out. He gave Gina a big smile. Mia
eyed the menu absent-mindedly while the baby’s arms moved through the air,
looking for something he could grab. “You sure you can afford all this
breakfast and lunch stuff, Gina? For a girl who works in an office, you sure
spend a lot of money eating out.”

Gina noted Mia’s observation as another crack in her
disguise. Was she questioning their relationship? “Just trying to be nice.
You’ve had a pretty rough couple of days. I can start meeting you at
McDonald’s, or just show up at your house, but I know how you like your
privacy.”

The comment worked. Mia chuckled as she tried to keep the
menu from Ricardo’s stubby fingers. She fanned herself, which made the baby
reach for it. “Privacy. My fuckin’ brother won’t leave me alone,” Mia said.

I wish that were my problem.

“I think Armando is a good guy, Mia. Maybe he’s just trying
to protect you. I can understand it.”

“Well, why doesn’t he get his own woman, then? He could
order
her
around and have a hissy fit, and judge all
her
fuckin’
friends. Not me. I’m his sister. I don’t want
or
need it.”

The thought of Armando ordering Gina around and being
possessive was actually very enticing. She remembered the feel of his kisses on
her flesh. She hadn’t been able to get enough of him. The man was pure sexual
eye candy. The fact that he cared about how she’d felt afterwards made her miss
him terribly. More than she should.

How the hell am I going to complete my mission while I’m
melting like a schoolgirl for the wrong guy?

Gina decided to do some digging. “He doesn’t have a girl?
I’d think a guy like that would have his pick. Ladies in San Diego throw
themselves at SEALs every day. He must be some kind of celibate priest.”

Mia spit out her coke. “Excuse me while I barf.”

Ricardo started giggling, sounding like a kid in the back
yard who’d found a sprinkler.

The waitress brought a rag over and cast a critical eye at
Mia, who appeared to be oblivious of the effect her outburst had on anyone
else.

“Armando had a girl he really liked in high school,” Mia
started. “He was the goalkeeper the year we went to the soccer State
Championships. He could kick the ball downfield, or pass and dribble and then
run like hell, and he used to score, leaving the box open, he was so confident.
He had some moves.”

You’re telling me?

“Ginger. I think her name was Ginger. Her dad was an Irish
cop, and she had the red hair and a temper to go with it, just like her dad.
God, Armando loved that girl, and she treated him like shit. I mean, she got
with other guys on the side, and he was the last to know. Get my drift?”

“I do.”

“They broke up. He had to. She was making a fool of him. He
sulked for weeks. And then, she was killed in a car accident, along with a
couple of others. They’d been drinking. Armando began the dark period again.”

“Again?”

“You think Caesar and his guys are bad dudes? You should
have seen the guys Armando used to hang out with when we first came here from
Puerto Rico. Only difference, he wouldn’t let them touch me. I was eight or
nine at the time.”

“But he changed.”

“He fell in love with soccer. It was like he was married to
it.”

“Bet your mom was pleased.”

“Answer to prayer,” she said. “Mom prays about everything.
Obsessed with it.”

Gina wanted to ask more about Armando’s second “dark
period,” after the death of the girl, but thought it wasn’t safe.

“So Gina, your big friend Sam stopping by tonight?”

Gina cringed at the thought. “I don’t trust him.”

“Why don’t you let
me
be the judge of that, or do you
still have some flame for him?”

More like the fires of Hell.
“Mia, we’re done. But
he’s not a very good dude. I wish you wouldn’t get mixed up with him.” She
recalled Sam and how much he loved bondage sex. She knew he had to work very
hard to control his temper, keeping it within what she thought would be
acceptable parameters befitting a cop, but under the right circumstances it could
explode. Part of her had found it exciting. The other part wished she’d never
met him. That was what she and Mia had in common. Both had hooked up with the
wrong kind of guy

“Who said anything about not liking bad dudes or getting
mixed up? Just want some good times. Dancing. Make them spend money on me. I
like that. I like to tease the shit out of them and then look for the next one
before I drop this one for that one. The badder they are, the more fun for me.”

Gina forced herself to laugh at Mia’s dangerous posture.
Inside, she was sad for the beautiful woman sitting across from her and
wondered how she could possibly be Armando’s sister. It didn’t fit. Armando was
such a decent guy. He willingly protected his mother and his sister, and
without complaint.

“You got something you hate about good guys?” Gina asked.

Mia looked away immediately. When she drilled back at Gina,
her eyes were cold, black, and filled with malice. “There are no good guys.”

And there it was. Mia had a dark period too, except, unlike
her brother, she was still living it.

Gina thought about it all afternoon and over the next couple
of days. She was supposed to get cozy with what was left of Caesar’s old gang,
the Scorpions. But both the girls would be safer with the Department guys running
backup. Sam could give them intel on the gang’s illegal activities, so Gina
could get snagged up in one to be able to testify to bring them down or make
the arrests herself. Except that plan wasn’t safe at all for Gina because she
knew Sam would have a hard time staying out of it. And the really safe guy was
one she wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with.

What a messed-up world.

Gina felt as if she was at a fork in the road. She had some
serious decisions to make about the future of the investigation and how she was
going to be able to successfully carry it out. As much as she considered it a
bad option, she had to talk to Sam. No way around it. She needed Sam’s
expertise and his informants. She just hoped she could convince him to reel
himself in.

Kozinski called her one morning to request she mend her
fences with Sam because it was getting to be a “thing” in the Department. That
meant Sam had been lobbying for position with anyone who could listen,
enlisting allies.

With a gut full of second thoughts, Gina called him.

“Hey baby, I knew you’d call me.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Sam. I’ve had a good workout today
and a couple of days to think about everything, and I need to make a truce with
you.”

“Thought you wanted me off the case.”

“I want you off
my
case.”

“But baby, we were so good together. You remember how it
was.”

“Sam. It’s not going to happen. Never. Understand?”

“Never say never, baby. Think of how much fun it would be
playing the part of my girlfriend, and all the teasing you could do. Makes my
dick hard just thinking about it.”

“Fuck you, Sam. I knew this was a mistake. Thanks for making
the decision easier for me.”

Gina hung up. God, she wished she had other options. Now she
had to try to make nice with her boss. She knew the sergeant would be pissed.

A few days later the girls met again at Babes. Carlos Compos
had taken up position near the stage like he did every night. Gina wondered if
he had a woman or a home to even go back to. Or perhaps he had an apartment
behind the stage. He noticed them immediately as they slid onto their perches
at the bar.

Though her stomach felt as if it were crawling with lice,
she managed a sultry smile in Carlos’s direction, and that was all it took. The
smooth-skinned, newly elevated gang leader with the pencil-thin beard and
well-oiled, slightly curly black hair chewed on a toothpick as he made his way
across the room towards them like a prince descending from a throne. This time
he was all over Gina. His eyes roamed, lingering on her chest and the space
under her butt where her legs had crossed. She tried to put Armando’s face on
the man to make things easier, but what little success she had was dashed when
she smelled cheap cologne that had literally been poured down the man’s chest.
The gold chains he wore were wet where it mixed with the man’s sweat.

Disgusting.

Carlos gave Gina his version of bedroom eyes while he snuck
a hand up Mia’s skirt. Mia leaned into him to smash her pubic bone against his
knuckles, cutting off his advance but giving him a good feel anyway.

The girl had balls.

“I didn’t give you permission, Carlos,” Mia whispered, but
Gina could see she was secretly excited by the attention.

“I’m not feeling you. I’m feeling your friend,” he said as
he removed his hand and continued to gaze at Gina. “Honey, can I go down on you
right here? I got a nice hundred dollar bill and something else if you want
it.”

Gina tried not to shudder, but she had to look away.

“Sugar. No need to be shy. I’m good with the ladies. I’m
not, like, this bitch’s guy.”

“I’m not Caesar’s bitch,” Mia protested.

“Except you have his kid. No one gonna touch you while
Caesar’s alive.” Carlos gave Mia a greasy grin. “He’s in a cage, but he’s still
alive.”

Mia turned to the bar, giving Carlos her disgusted shoulder.
She ordered a Margarita from the bartender, who was watching everything
carefully. He had a hopeful expression. “You gonna let guys get a touch, you
might as well dance for me, ladies,” he said.

Carlos used Mia’s distraction to zero in on his prize. Gina
could see in his eyes that he intended on having her any way he could. He put a
forefinger on her shoulder and drew it down her arm, then down her forearm to
the back of her hand. He peeled her fingers away from her drink and gave her
palm a tender kiss. Inside she shuddered at his touch, but she worked not to
let it show.