“You think they’d think I’d let anyone in that house die?”
I crossed my arms on my chest and stared at him. “I know you’re a step down from superhero, Hawk, but seriously?”
He grinned. “You think I’m a step down from superhero?”
Oh shit! Time to cover.
“I was being facetious,” I informed him.
His grin got bigger. “No, you think I’m a step down from superhero.”
“Don’t you have good news to tell me?” I prompted in order to change the subject.
“Probably it was that night I gave you the triple orgasm,” he stayed on the current subject and my mouth dropped open.
Then I snapped it shut to ask, “What?”
“That night when I did that thing with my mouth and fingers and you –”
“I didn’t have a triple orgasm, Hawk,” I snapped but the truth was, I did.
“Babe, you did, I counted.”
“No, it was just really long,” I lied.
“Gwen, don’t you think I know when you stop comin’ and start again?”
“No, I don’t think you know,” I retorted.
“It happens enough,” he observed and he was right.
There was one for the con side of the Should I Explore Things with Cabe “Hawk” Delgado List. Hawk was arrogant.
“Hello?” I called. “Good news? Or, maybe you can tell me why Ginger getting away is bad news.”
He grinned at me then finally changed the subject.
“Ginger getting away is bad news because, I had Ginger under my thumb, I could hand her to Lawson. I didn’t get Ginger under my thumb. Instead, I tackled the inferno in your Dad’s livin’ room.”
I felt my brows draw together. “Hand her to Lawson?”
“Only safe place for her to be is with the police. She cuts a deal, they cut her jail time or, if she’s got half the shit they think she’s got, they hand her to the Feds who give her a new identity, Ginger Kidd testifies then she disappears but she does it breathin’.”
“The Feds?” I whispered.
At my whisper and possibly the terrified look on my face, Hawk’s face gentled. “Babe, you know she’s in serious shit.”
“Yes,” I confirmed, “but the Feds?”
“Her shit is serious,” he repeated with variation.
I looked at my lap and whispered, “Damn.”
Hawk lifted my head with his thumb and finger at my chin until my eyes met his, he dropped his hand and went on. “I had her under my thumb, they wouldn’t have made a play for her. They wanted to smoke her out and get me occupied. They succeeded in that.”
“She was only there a few minutes. Did they have enough time to conceive and execute this dire plan?”
“They’re resourceful.”