“I stil haven’t made certain –” Roam began again.

I leaned in. “You know better than that. It doesn’t matter.

Any lead needs to be fol owed.”

He looked at me a beat, nodded then yanked out his phone, took two steps away and hit a button. I watched him put the phone to his ear and then he started mumbling into it.

“That boy,” May said and she sounded both proud and exasperated.

“Yeah,” I agreed and both May and I kept our eyes on Roam.

I felt my ass vibrate just as I felt my stomach churn.

I was looking forward to having Vance’s baby, really looking forward to it. Because once I had our baby then I wouldn’t be sick al the f**king time (amongst other reasons).

I pul ed the phone out of my back pocket and swal owed my nausea.

The display said, “Sniff cal ing”.

My eyes flew to May, I flipped open the phone and put it to my ear.

“Talk to me,” I demanded and I heard panting but no words. “Sniff?” I cal ed sharply, saw May’s eyes go narrow and felt Roam’s slice to me.

“Law?” Sniff said through the panting.

I started moving to the door. “Keys,” I snapped at May and her body jerked then she started running toward the kitchen where she kept her purse.

Into the phone, I asked, “Where are you?”

“Runnin’ from the building. Tex is with me. It… fuck, Law, he blew it up,” Sniff told me.

I stopped moving. “What?”

More panting but he talked (Sniff talked a lot, it would take more than running from an exploded building to get him to shut up). “Tex blew up the f**king building. It was insane.”

“Give me that f**kin’ thing,” I heard Tex boom through his own panting and then I heard him in my ear. “Jules?” At the sound of his voice, my hand went to my throat, tears hit the backs of my eyes and I shifted my body until it was close to a chair. I was sinking into the chair when I asked, “Are you okay?”

“Fuckers conked me a good one. I got a splittin’ fuckin’

headache,” he answered. “We need a ride,” he said this last like he’d been at a party and the designated driver ditched him and he was partial y annoyed but stil enjoying the party.

In other words, Tex was al right.

May was running up to me.

I turned to her and shook my head.

“Where are you?” I asked Tex.

I heard scraping on the mouthpiece then, “Where are we, kid?”

“Commerce City,” Sniff replied and then I heard him

“Commerce City,” Sniff replied and then I heard him giving some streets and cross streets. My eyes moved to Roam who’d come close and I snapped my fingers for his phone.

“Hang on, Tex,” I said and then snatched Roam’s phone out of his hand and put it to my other ear. “Vance?”

“You got me, Princess,” he said.

“I’ve got Tex on my phone. He’s fine. He’s with Sniff.” I gave him al the info I had.

Vance repeated the streets in my ear, likely he did this for the benefit of whoever he was with. Then he clipped,

“Roger that, Jules. You stil got him on the line?”

“Yeah. He’s on Sniff’s phone.”

“Get off. Darius is closest. He’l cal Sniff.”

“Okay.”

“You said he blew up a building?”

“That’s what Sniff said.”

Silence for several beats then, “Christ, we got it on police band now.”

Then he started laughing.

“Crowe! There isn’t anything f**king funny about this!” I yel ed and everyone turned to listen.

“You’re right.” He was stil laughing then he said, “Out.” Disconnect.

I flipped Roam’s phone shut and went back to mine.

“Tex, you there?”

“Where the f**k else would I be?” Tex boomed and even though this was rude, it was Tex and he was alive and wel enough to be rude so I could have shouted with joy.

“Vance knows where you are. Darius is in the area.

You’l have a pick up soon. Keep the line open for Darius’s cal .”

“Gotcha.”

Disconnect.

I looked at May but it was Roam who said, “Law, you shouldn’t say f**k.”

I growled.

Then I felt it coming, ran to the bathroom and puked.

* * * * *

About an hour later, Bobby came to get me and Roam. Stel a and Ava were already in his Explorer.

We al went to Fortnum’s.

Tex was behind the espresso counter when we got there. Roxie was close by his side. Jet, Indy and Al y were al behind the counter with them. Lee, Eddie, Hank, Sniff and Darius were al standing in front of the counter. Duke and Jane were standing at the end. There were no customers, Fortnum’s was official y closed.

Tex swung a portafilter at us the minute we entered the store. It was stil ful of used coffee grounds. The grounds flew across the room and splattered next to a table.

“If you girls get near me, I swear to God, I’m gonna rip someone’s head off!” he boomed. “I’m al right. No more f**king hugging! ”

We al reared back and Ava even put her hands up.

“Al right, al right. No hugging,” Ava said and we cautiously moved into the store.

Roam went to Sniff. They didn’t hug either, just did some complicated handshake and then moved away from the complicated handshake and then moved away from the adults.

“Tex, I’m happy you’re alive and al but I kid you not, you toss a portafilter fil ed with grounds around one more time, I’m gonna rip your head off,” Indy snapped.

This made Tex lose his scowl and grin at Indy.

“What happened?” I asked when I got close to the counter.

“He hasn’t said,” Al y informed me.

“I’m gonna tel the story once. Daisy and Shirleen ain’t here. If I told it to Indy and Jet when I got here, I would have had to tel Al y when she got here and then Roxie when she got here. Now you. Then Daisy and then Shirleen. You’re gonna have to f**kin’ wait,” Tex boomed.

“He blew up a building!” Sniff shouted, deciding he liked the adult conversation better than the teenage one.

Ava and Stel a both gasped. Obviously, they hadn’t had the ful brief yet.

“You blew up a building?” Stel a stared wide-eyed at Tex.

“Morons took me to a building with chemicals,” Tex explained.

“He built a bomb!” Sniff shouted, coming to the group at the front of the counter.