Page 96 of Constantly Cotton
“How come once I realize it’s okay to say the words, it feels like we don’t need no others?”
“We’ll need ’em eventually,” Ace reasoned. “But right now, they’re the only ones that’re important. Say ’em again.”
He chuckled. “Love you, Ace.”
“Love you too, Sonny Daye.”
It wasn’t the name he was born with, but it was so much the man that he was.
Part 7
JAI HADnever been thrown into an op with Burton—but he’d known something was up when Burton sent Ace back down south.
Still, he knew better than to ask questions after the children were all placed in Ace’s purloined eldercare shuttle bus and taken somewhere to be reunited with their families. He just took Burton’s proffered helmet and folded himself up on the back of the motorcycle, letting Burton whisk him away from the scene with all of the police cars and the big rainbow school bus.
He was unsurprised when Burton pulled into a used car lot, walked in, then came out with the keys to a ten-year-old Crown Victoria.
Jai blinked at the car—powder blue—as Burton flipped him the keys. “I appreciate the leg room, but I hope I don’t have to outrun anything faster than an aging beagle.”
Burton’s lips twitched. “No promises, man. I get some cash to flash on ops, but we’re going to need food, so this is what we’ve got.”
Jai sobered. “Your friend, Jason—will the government be angry at you, because you came to help him today?”
Burton shook his head. “I don’t see it playing out that way,” he said grimly. “Because once somebody tries to go in and do Jason’s job…” He blew out a whistle. “Nobody wants that. Jason was like the government’s sewage worker. Everyone can crap on him until they realize he’s the only one who can make their shit go away.”
Jai frowned at him. “That is a terrible way to treat a good man,” he said, troubled.
Burton swallowed and nodded. “Well, we’re going to do him better than that, but first we need to find a place close to Henry’s. I want us close to that place until Jason’s at one hundred.”
“Da,” Jai acknowledged, and then, a little wistfully, asked, “May I call Ace when we are settled? And…” He swallowed. He knew Burton knew about George, but how many people must he be vulnerable in front of about his little nurse?
“I don’t see why not,” Burton told him. “But I’d call George first or he’ll get jealous.”
Jai pretended to roll his eyes—but inside he was appreciative. He had been alone for so very long, but being “given” to Sonny and Ace had changed his life in many ways. One of them was that he had friends who werenotSonny and Ace. Lee Burton was a good man.
“George does not get jealous,” he said. “George knows I want nobody else.”
Burton wrinkled his nose and swung one leg up over the back of the motorcycle. “That’s good to hear. But maybe you should tell him and not assume he knows. I assumed Ernie knew I would eventually come around, and then you two showed up without any eyebrows at an op you shouldn’t have touched with a barge pole, and suddenly I felt the urge to tell him.”
Jai grunted. “You are very wise. I am tired and hungry and ready to start our watch from someplace without noise. Where am I going.”
Burton gave him hurried directions to a big apartment complex on the Fair Oaks side of J street, a few blocks down on Hurley. He parked his bike in a visitor’s slot, then strode in and came out with a key and a number.
“I had the boys in the shop set us up with a safehouse we have here,” he said, handing Jai the key. “There’s a king-sized and a couch, you can go catch a nap and I’ll go talk to Jackson’s friend and get some food.” He looked Jai up and down. “And some clothes so you can shower. Jean size?”
Jai grimaced. “Thirty-eight-forty,” he said, embarrassed. Big. His waist was trim, and that was nice, but he was a tall, big man.
“Must be nice,” Burton told him. “I’m a twenty-eight-thirty-two myself.”
Jai gave a short laugh. “Sonny has a twenty-six-inch waist. I could snap him like twig.”
“Right? Ernie’s a twenty-eight, but I swear it’s a different twenty-eight.” He shook his head, and Jai realized that they had been gossiping like women, and it had been almost fun. “Anyway—I’ll be back with supplies. Sleep now while you can, and then you can shower and keep watch while I’m sleeping.” Burton sighed. “I am saying, sleeping on a helicopter is not a great way to relax.”
“Agreed.” After they’d blown up the house with all of the drugs and only a couple of mobsters in it, Burton had told them that Jason was going to need help in Sacramento in a matter of hours—as were Jackson and Ellery. To facilitatethat, he’d called in a helicopter for transportation and had a motorcycle waiting for him as well as a disposable car waiting for Ace and Jai. It was Ace’s idea to trade the disposable car in for a shuttle, so they could get Jason’s charges to safety. Burton had not been pleased, but he had to admit, it had worked out well.
“So, you find our digs, shower if you want to—I’ll be back in two hours. Deal?”
“Da.”