On the Edge of Love (Mama's Brood Book 1) (16 page)

Sabrina walked up behind him and leaned in, resting her head against his upper arm. “Thank you. On all fronts.”

He leaned his head to the side and rested it upon hers. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t here to help you.”

She was glad he hadn’t been. Randy, a mixed-martial arts fighter in his spare time, had three sisters, so he was naturally protective of women. She had no doubt her kidnappers would have fired on him first and never uttered a question or comment after.

“So…” Randy began. Zeus entered the kitchen and frowned at them before collecting more broken wood. Without speaking, he left to deposit the load in the Dumpster. “Tell me about tall, golden, and handsome.”

“Well, he’s not normal, not sane, and not housebroken,” she offered.

“I bet he can fuck like nobody’s business,” Randy said in a low, contemplative way that let her know he’d already fantasized about the possibility. Sabrina thought back to the two of them in the bedroom at Mama’s House. Yeah, she had no doubt he could.

“You demented angel,” Randy said, grabbing her shoulders and holding her at arm’s length. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”

It was a sad commentary about her life that Randy’s tone was more hopeful than accusatory. Since they’d become friends, he’d been obsessed with getting her laid. As if sex could heal all her life problems, when usually it was the thing that made them worse.

“No, Randy. The man is definitely not my lover.”

“Yet. The man is not your lover yet. You know I’m the firstborn grandson of Ma Gibbs, so my predictions are not to be ignored.”

She rolled her eyes. Being the firstborn grandson of Ma Gibbs, a Mississippi roots woman living in West Oakland for the last thirty years, was Randy’s claim to clairvoyant fame.

“Maybe I’ve been going about this love thing the wrong way. Maybe all I have to do is get knocked over the head to meet the man of my dreams.”

“More like nightmares, and I wouldn’t recommend it,” she said as she turned to see Zeus walk the garden path toward the door. His phone was pressed against his ear as he snarled something, then hung up.

“Who was that?”

“Terry wants to know where the situation stands with Bride.”

Sabrina smiled apologetically at Randy, who narrowed his eyes and took a step back, pushing his plastic-framed glasses up the bridge of his nose. Between Zeus by the back door and her blocking the doorway that led from the kitchen to the hallway, he was trapped. “Why do I have a feeling this
won’t
be good. And remember, I helped rescue you.”

She walked toward him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she pulled him into a tight hug.

“It’s that bad?” he asked.

“Yes,” Zeus said at the same time she said, “You’ve handled worse.”

“Could it at least end with him naked and me posing as your body double?”

“I guess.”

“No,” Zeus said.

Randy pulled away from her, his brown skin taut over his forehead as he leveled her with his stop-bullshitting-with-me look. “So what’s my punishment for being your friend going to be this time?”

“First of all,” she said, walking back over to the sink to drain the water, “I resent the implication that my friendship has caused you pain.”

“It’ll feel like a punishment,” Zeus told Randy.

And when the hell did he become so chatty, she wondered as she sent him a stern look. “Think of it as a project, an extension of your desire to see me safe.”

“And you’ll get paid,” Zeus added. “Well.”

“So break it down,” Randy said, looking reluctant but interested.

“As I told you, Zeus is here to protect me—”

“And do other things to her,” Zeus said, rubbing a hand over his jaw as he ogled her breasts.

“Not going to happen.”

He snorted and turned back to Randy. “Another member of the team will need to stay close.”

“I kind of let it slip you have an extra room you rent out. You’ll get a new temporary roommate, and I get the extra protection I need to end this as soon as possible.”

“So. Your idea is to pull me deeper into danger by having me house some bodyguard for as long as it takes to capture some crazy guy bent on kidnapping you?”

“Yes, please.”

“Is the person as rough-edged as this one?” he asked, waving a calloused hand toward Zeus.

“Maybe worse,” she mumbled.

“Probably alcoholic. Hard-core killer, though, won’t flinch if death comes knocking,” Zeus added. Sabrina knew Zeus thought he was being helpful, but he really wasn’t.

“You want me to allow a killer in
my home
?” Randy asked.

“Randy, since I’ve known you, you’ve had one cranked-out Russian student, one bipolar French guy, and one dude from Portugal who claimed to be a medium and spiritual savior who stiffed you on three month’s rent. A killer for hire would be a step up from a
lot
of your renters.”

“But they were all sexy as fuck.”

“Bride is sexy,” she said, not adding that the other woman was probably sexy to a Goth, BDSM crowd.

“She’s like silent death,” Zeus said. Because of course that would be what he thought was important.

“Not very social, but that’s the part where you can work your magic,” Sabrina said.

“Can drink anyone under the table.”

She really wished Zeus would stop trying to help.

After two minutes of looking at them with wary eyes, Randy gave a short nod. “Okay, when does my new project arrive?”

“Within the hour,” Zeus said as he sent a text message on his phone.

“Thank you, Randy. I owe you.”

“Well, if this Bride guy is as sexy as you say he is, maybe it’ll be worth it.”

She frowned. “He? He’s a she. Bride’s a woman.”

“Tranny?”

“Straight woman.”

“Of course. Because that’s just the kind of luck I seem to attract since bringing you into my life.” He turned to Zeus. “You know she was only half-civilized when she moved in here. It took a lot of patience, medicinal marijuana, and abuse to my ego to create the two-thirds civilized creature standing before you.”

“You’re both odd,” Zeus said, slipping past Sabrina and exiting the kitchen to make his way down the hall toward the front room.

“
You
are odd,” Sabrina said to Randy once they were alone.

“No, you’re odd.”

“We need to get a TV in here,” Zeus called out from the front room.

“I
have
a TV,” she yelled back.

“No, you have a picture box,” he muttered.

Randy looked at her in that superior I-told-you-so way. Every time movie night was at her apartment, he hassled her. She didn’t even like watching television. The only reason she kept it was so she could watch DVDs.

“See, that attitude just stopped me from telling you something that would have had you quivering with pleasure,” she informed Randy.

“Holy fuck. She doesn’t even have cable,” was the next statement from the other room.

She held a finger up at Randy. “Don’t say
anything
.”

“There won’t be anything to say if you tell me your important information.” He said it offhandedly, but she knew she had his interest.

She walked over and looked through her empty fridge.

“I gotta go shopping.”

“That’s not an important fact, Bree.”

She closed the refrigerator door. “I’ll go get burritos tonight and go shopping tomorrow.”

“But here’s the spoiler: if you buy the food, you have to cook the food. Not let it spoil or get freezer burn and then throw it away.”

It was kind of a sad routine. It was even sadder that it had happened often enough to be appropriately labeled a routine.

“You do some communal cooking twice this week, and I’ll buy the necessaries. Plus, I’ll give you a hint about the secret. It has something to do with candy.”

“I’m off sugar for at least the next two months.”

“I didn’t say sugar; I said candy.”

“Sugarless candy is an evilness I don’t have time for.”

She rolled her eyes and let her head fall back in complete surrender. Why had she despaired over never seeing him again?

She frowned, squinting at her ceiling. There were dark speckles on her cream-colored kitchen ceiling. Damn. She’d have to get the stepladder and clean the ceiling too. Bringing her head forward, she looked Randy square in the eye and assumed her don’t-push-me attitude. “Cook or remain ignorant. You have three seconds.”

“Blackmail is illegal.”

“Is that your final answer?”

“Cook.”

“Smart man. Two words. Eye candy. There will be a lot of it around here soon. Almost-as-sexy-as-Zeus kind of eye candy, in all sorts of tantalizing tonalities.”

Her words could have been a near impossible math equation, he contemplated them so hard. She knew he was jumping up and down and squealing like an excited pig on the inside.

“For me?”

“For you to look at.”

“Flirt with?”

“As if you could stop yourself.”

Zeus stomped into the kitchen, his jaw clenched in anger. He waved Randy in the direction of the door. “Leave,” he ordered before grabbing Sabrina’s hand and dragging her toward the same back door Randy was moving through.

“What is your problem?” she asked as she tried to pry herself free.

“Need to buy a television and get Big Country to come and install one of his special boxes so I can watch an actual station.”

“A few days without television won’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, but I will end up hurting someone else. Is that how you want me to spend my time here?”

“You okay with one of those big electronic stores?” she asked.

He shrugged.

“Call me when you return with the groceries, Bree, and I’ll come down and cook dinner.” Randy had the devil in his eyes as he walked up the stairs that led to the second floor of the building.

Zeus’s nostrils flared, and his jaw clenched down so hard she was sure his molars were turning to dust in his mouth. “We’re not going grocery shopping.”

“We are if you want to eat.”

He grumbled something and walked away.

“Okay, I’ll let you have him,” Randy said from above. “His disturbance is a bit much. Even for me.”

From the backyard Sabrina could hear Zeus on the street gunning his engine. It sounded like the hooves of a hundred Pegasuses thundering across the heavens.

“He’s going to get me evicted from the neighborhood,” she muttered.

“Probably,” Randy called down from his perch halfway up the side stairs to his apartment. “Call me when you get back.”

She hoped Randy was evicted right along with her. For consorting. They’d be homeless together, and that was better than being homeless alone.

Walking toward the front of the building, Sabrina acknowledged she was going to have to manage Zeus better if this was going to work. Just keep him appeased, she thought. How hard can it be?

Opening the car door to Zeus’s Charger, Sabrina slid into the passenger seat, prepared to ignore him as much as she could to keep her sanity.

“So…you think I’m sexy?

“Stop being delusional,” she said, but she did. She really, unhealthily, honestly did.

“Coward. Heard you tell Randy I was. Sexy?”

The curious sound in his voice made her smile. “Yes, unfortunately you are.”

“Sexy?”

“Yes, Zeus. Sexy.”

“You think sexy is better than cute?”

She couldn’t believe he was still bothered by the fact that she’d called Detective Cassidy cute. And she wasn’t a coward. “The only men I let into my body have to be sexy
to me
. Cute just isn’t enough.”

Let him obsess about that.

He sat motionless for almost a minute before reaching down and adjusting himself in his jeans.

“All right. I’ll take you shopping”

As they drove along the freeway, she noticed he drove more erratically, speeding up and slowing down for no reason. Eventually he came to a stoplight and grunted.

“What?”

“Just wondering why a guy you claim not to know is working so hard to get you back.”

Her heart rate increased. “What?”

“Two cars were parked near your building. One was OPD; they stayed when we left, but the other is following us.” Zeus grabbed his cell phone, pressed two buttons, and hit Speaker.

“What’s up?” Big Country said.

“I’m a mutant,” Zeus said.

“As if that were ever in question.” Big Country muttered something away from the receiver; then someone chuckled in the background.

“I’ve grown a tail. And cops are parked outside of Sabrina’s place. Sweep it when you bring that magic box. And get Bride up to the Randy boy upstairs soon. May need protecting.”

Randy would need protecting, because everything she cared about was in danger.

“It’ll be taken care of. We might come close to neutering you, we’ll be cutting tails so quickly.”

Zeus hit the End button while Big Country laughed at his own lame joke.

* * * *

Even though he could feel Sabrina’s agitation, Zeus took his time looking for what he wanted, partly because he didn’t want a crap TV and partly because he wanted to put a face to the two guys tailing them.

“Why don’t you just choose one already? We’ve been looking at TVs for the last forty minutes.” She was putting him on edge.

He pointed to the forty-eight-inch flat screen. The clerk, who’d continuously glanced at Sabrina’s battered face, nodded and walked away, as if he knew a fight was coming and didn’t want to be close enough to be caught up in it.

Zeus navigated them toward the middle of the store and picked up a video game console and a handful of games. As they went to the checkout, Zeus got visual details of one man wearing faded jeans, a dark-blue tie, pale-green shirt, and dark-blue vest. He was a tall, thin white guy with white-blond hair who obviously didn’t have a lot of experience staying hidden. His partner was better. If Zeus had only been using his training he wouldn’t have picked him up, but Zeus knew he was an instinctual predator. He’d stalked and spotted the bulky black guy. There is a hardened killer, Zeus thought as he tried to steer Sabrina out of the other man’s range of vision. Sabrina must have had some kind of instinctual awareness because she tensed at his side when she looked in the direction of Kragen’s killer.