“Daisy’s a new addition, she’s only been around the last few weeks.”
I gasped at this piece of news. It was almost as unbelievable as knowing her husband was a crime lord.
“But, I thought you’d al known her for ages.”
“She took to watchin’ out for Jet when she had her problems and she stuck. Marcus isn’t a part of it and somehow it works.”
Boy, these people were nuts.
“What’s the deal with Marcus and Eddie?” I asked.
“Eddie wants Marcus in prison and has been workin’ to make that happen for a long time. Marcus doesn’t want to go to prison. They hate each other.”
That did not sound good.
“I don’t see this working for long,” I said. “What happens when Eddie puts Marcus in jail?”
“Daisy knows the score, so does Marcus. It’s not your problem and it isn’t mine. When that happens, we’l al deal.”
For Hank, it was simple as that. There was something very cool about that.
Even so.
“I don’t think it’s that simple,” I told him.
He sighed and turned to me (but, I noted, he stil didn’t touch me). “Roxanne, I like Daisy, hard not to like her. But she’s made her choice. Something happens to Marcus, and she reaches out her hand to ‘the clan’ as you cal it, I expect everyone wil take hold.”
“Including you?” I asked, needing to know the answer to that as much as I needed oxygen.
“Includin’ me.”
I felt something settle in me. It wasn’t in my bel y, my heart or my mind. It was everywhere. It was in my soul.
Hank got up and walked through the dark room and turned off Springsteen in the middle of “Jungleland”.
He lay down beside me and again didn’t touch me.
“Whisky?”
“Yeah?”
“Nothing.”
I was stymied; I wanted Hank to touch me. I didn’t want to admit it but there it was.
I’d never touched him. I had but I’d never made the first move.
I lay there some more.
Oh, f**k it. I thought and then rol ed into him.
My hands went to his chest and my lips went to his col arbone. His arm curled around my waist, Shamus got the hint, jumped off the bed and meandered out of the room.
“Thought you were never gonna do that,” he muttered and I could swear he sounded relieved.
I didn’t answer, I was busy, or at least my mouth was.
I explored his col arbone and neck with my mouth and tongue then I kissed him. He let me taste him, even tease him, al owing me control of the kiss and it was heady stuff.