Page 24 of Enforcer’s Little Warrior (Little Paws Haven #3)

Romy

He followed Cosmo through Little Paws Haven towards the Little’s day care, feeling out of sorts because the last time he’d been in there, it was watching Cosmo cuddle with Bash.

“It didn’t mean anything,” Cosmo muttered, reading Romy very well.

He shrugged, not looking back at the bar where Bash was talking to Rocco and Arlo, who had come to speak to the hacker. “I know. It’s just… weird.” It was the best he could come up with when things between him and Bash were amazing.

They had spent all Bash’s down time over the last few weeks creating a playroom for him. The house was messy, but Romy didn’t care when he could already see how wonderful it was going to be when they finished. His job at the day care came with an escort, he was never left alone, and he didn’t mind at all when it made him feel safe.

Cosmo wrapped an arm around his middle and hugged him. The furry hood of the outfit he wore tickled Romy’s cheek. “I’ve got two wonderful mates. I told you when I cuddled with Bash, I already knew they were mine.”

Romy stopped at the door and quirked up a brow. “All the time?”

“Alrighhtttt,” he hissed. “Not all the time, but it was never anything more than him working with me.”

“Okay.” Romy kissed Cosmo’s cheek, showing he wasn’t worried about it. “Let’s go meet your friend. Taggart was it, that can hack things.”

“Shush, keep your voice down, no one knows he does that here, only Gabai and Asher.”

Romy blushed, looking around to check that no one was watching them too closely. “Sorry.” He wasn’t up to this spy stuff, it seemed.

“So ‘kay.” He punched in the code to the day care and pushed open the door, bringing Romy with him.

Inside most of the Littles sat on a large rug watching a movie, Cosmo skirted around them, heading to a blond-haired guy sitting on the floor who was bigger than most of the others. He had his thumb in his mouth, and he was concentrating on something in front of him. Romy squinted and saw the Winnie the Pooh book. It was one of his favorites.

He was in a full room, yet he was alone, and Romy got an odd sense he was lonely for reasons he couldn’t fathom. He’d been in day care and had been in that position with others, where no one really saw him. That was a choice, because at the time he had still been hiding. Was Taggart hiding from something?

When Taggart glanced up as they came to a stop, a hand tugged on the short strands of blond hair as he gave them a shy smile. “Hey,” he mumbled around his thumb.

“Hi Tag, been a while,” Cosmo replied as he sank down next to him, forcing Romy to follow when he didn’t let go. “This is Romy, my friend. You’ll like him.”

The thumb popped out. “I will?”

Romy could see Taggart change from being Little as his shoulders straightened, and he lost the softness of his expression. “Hi.”

“Yeah, he’s fun and…” he dropped his voice, looking at the busy rug and back to Taggart, “you can trust him.”

Taggart's head bobbed, and he wiped his thumb over the leg of his Batman shorts, giving Romy another shy smile. “Cool. Where do you wanna talk?”

“So you are happy to meet with Bash and Arlo to talk about the computers we… got that need fixin’?” Cosmo kept his words vague, but Taggart seemed to know what Cosmo was getting at.

“From what you’ve given me, I think I can help.” He lost the smile when he looked at Romy. “I want to help anyway I can. They shouldn’t get away with what they did. To you. To…” he sucked him a breath and his eyes glistened, “you and the others.”

“We won’t let them,” Romy murmured. It was why he’d come. Bash wasn’t happy that Romy wanted to be involved. But Romy wasn’t going to be satisfied until he knew the last council member got held accountable for what he had done. Only then would Romy be able to rest easy. “Are you finished in here?”

Taggart rose in one fluid movement.

He was a good foot taller than Romy when he stood next to him with Cosmo.

“I’ll go get changed and I’ll meet you at the bar?”

Cosmo giggled. “Alright. You can’t miss us, ‘cause we’ll be with the rhino daddies.”

Romy looked at Cosmo when Taggart disappeared. “Why’d you say that?”

“Taggart is a meerkat.”

“Okay.” He frowned, not sure what Cosmo was getting at.

“His animal is small next to his human side. Some folks find it off-putting. Taggart loves big daddies. Like really big.”

“Bash is mine,” Romy made sure to point out.

“I know that.” Cosmo’s curls bounced around his face. “But Arlo is single, isn’t he? No one mentioned he had a boy, did they? So it wouldn’t hurt to introduce them, now would it?”

Romy grinned, liking Cosmo for wanting his friend to find a Daddy who fit him. “You’re right. I don’t think it would hurt at all.”

Bash

They’d picked the perfect time to come. The place was practically dead, and no one was seated near the part of the bar they’d claimed. From that vantage point in the corner, he and Arlo could see everyone who approached, and if the only seat Bash had left open was the last seat of the bar, directly to his left where he could put his arm around Romy when he joined them, well, who could fault him for wanting to hug his mate.

“I see why you were always in a better mood when you came back from here,” Arlo grunted over the drinks Rocco had just set on the bar in front of them. The eagle shifter moving along swiftly to serve another customer at the other end of the bar.

“It was only ever about gathering the Intel we needed.”

Arlo rolled his eyes. “Next, you’ll try to tell me that you never got any gratification at all out of your time here.”

“I’m not saying that,” Bash insisted. “I’m saying it wasn’t the focus of my mission. It’s different when you come with the intent to play. Yes, I played, but it was all part of the facade I needed to keep up so I could meet with the shifters I needed to speak to in a place where they’d feel safe.”

Arlo gave a curt nod. “No, I get it. I just envy you is all.”

“How, after all the ways I put the mission and my mate in jeopardy?” Bash was quick to add, not seeing how.

“Because you found someone to love enough that you put them before our training,” Arlo pointed out.

Bash just grunted at that and let out a little snort.

“Hear me out on this,” Arlo insisted. “Think back to the way we came up through the ranks, and even before then, all the training that we received when other rhinos our age were free to meet and mate. Start their lives and families that we were training, then protecting. We sacrificed a huge chunk of our lives for our people, and because of it, we’ve seen a lot of shit, man. A lot of shit.”

“Too much, after what was in that cave.” Bash didn’t think he’d ever rid himself of the images of the small, broken bodies.

“My point exactly. I will spearhead this final portion of the mission, but afterwards, I’m gonna step away from the bloodshed for a while. Patrol locally, as you do now, help settle the stupid, petty, everyday disputes that too many take for granted. Hell, I wouldn’t mind engaging in a few myself, just to get to the fun of the makeup sex,” Arlo admitted, looking wistful.

Snorting, Bash wondered if he knew just how much apologizing and groveling went into making things right when you accidentally put a scowl on his mate's face.

Bash had learned that lesson just last week, when he’d gotten a bit overbearing in his efforts to protect Romy from, well, the dust bunnies up on the high shelf that Romy had been attempting to reach by standing on a chair.

Bash’s offer to get it for him and attempt to take the duster away had been met with the lecture to end all lectures, and resulted in Romy sitting on Bash’s shoulders and Bash getting to carry him around the house so Romy could dust, since he was so worried about Romy falling off something. “There, problem solved. Now you get to stop worrying and I still get to do my work,” Romy scolded, seconds before breaking into giggles when Bash tickled his toes.

Definitely required work, for sure.

“It’s been more than five years since I’ve had a boy in my life,” Arlo admitted. “And that look you’ve got on your face right now while you think of yours is exactly what’s made the time feel twice as long. You should see yourself. Badass enforcer staring off into space with a bit of drool about to drip off your lip.”

“I’m not drooling, and you just came dangerously close to cracking a joke.” Bash slapped Arlo’s shoulder, laughing. “Who are you and what have you done to Arlo?”

The grin Arlo was sporting disappeared as he ran a hand through his cropped hair. “Wrapping those little bodies nearly broke me,” he admitted in a strangled voice. “I’m pretty sure I left most of the Arlo you know back in the cave. The faster we wrap up the business with the computer and wrangle the final council member, I’m out. I’m serious. I can’t walk into another room like that.”

“I hear ya, brother,” Bash murmured, hating seeing his friend look so upset.

“You know that I would have taken care of Romy and those boys in a heartbeat if you hadn’t been able to fight off the poison from those owls, but I’m eternally grateful to the Goddess that you were. That’s all it would have been, you know, taking care of them. Filling in for a fallen brother. That little rhino loves you. He’d have gored the hell out of me if I’d even thought about doing more than putting a roof over their heads.”

Chuckling, Bash nodded. “I hear ya, and I appreciate it, but wouldn’t you rather find your own mate once things settle down with the hunt?”

Arlo shook his head, shoulders slumping a little. “I truly don’t believe they exist anymore, not after everything we’ve discovered. I figure they were one of those we couldn’t save, and it will haunt me for the rest of my days. Why couldn’t we put it together sooner? Gotten to those little ones before they slaughtered them and left them to rot in that damned place.”

“All you can do is remember what you said to me,” Bash assured him. “There is only so much damage we could mitigate when faced with so much deception. In the end, the only ones who should bear the weight of those losses are the ones who chose to betray us.”

“Was much easier to say it than it is to hear it.”

Hearing Arlo, of all of his fellow enforcers, upped the feelings Bash had been struggling with for the past few weeks and made him feel a hell of a lot less alone.

Before he could say anymore, his Little Bumper came skipping along with Cosmo, joined hands swinging until Romy spotted him and pulled away, rushing to him so Bash could pick him up and kiss the tip of his nose before setting him on the seat next to him. Cosmo took the one beside Arlo, folded his hands beneath his chin, and batted his eyes at Rocco who returned to their end of the bar and placed strawberry milk shakes on it in front of Cosmo and Romy.

“Is Taggart going to join us?” Arlo asked, his head twisting to look back at the day care.

“As soon as he’s changed,” Cosmo said before taking a dainty little sip from his shake. Romy did the same, pressed to Bash’s side as he kept an arm around Romy.

A platter of crispy golden chicken chunks and cheese and bacon covered crinkle fries were placed on the bar, along with a third shake, this one vanilla as Bash spotted Taggart coming from the changing area. His jean-clad legs ate up the distance between them in long strides and, without ceremony, he plopped down on the stool beside Cosmo.

He didn’t so much as acknowledge anyone. His focus on the milkshake as he reached for it and took a long slurp from his straw, sighing contently, then letting out a little burp.

“Where is your home training?” Arlo immediately asked in a voice that was all Daddy.

Bash got the immediate sense there was something about Taggart that set off his friend. A tension radiated from him as Taggart finally looked at Arlo.

“In the dumpster behind the pizza shop on Mulberry Lane,” Taggart snarked before slurping on his straw again.

The collective pause that followed, shrouded in silence, was abruptly broken when Arlo grunted, then let out a long series of loud, rumbly shorts and chuckles. It was so unlike him, Bash’s jaw dropped.

“Whoa… I didn’t know you could laugh,” Cosmo said, looking like he was struggling to hold his giggles back.

When Arlo muffled his laughter and shot him a look, Cosmo just shrugged, fluttering his eyelashes and feigning an innocent look.

“Alright guys,” Arlo said, though his lips quirked several times and holy shit, the typically unflappable Arlo looked like he was struggling to keep his composure, especially when Taggart smirked at him, in a cute and sassy fashion that was adorable.

Bash filed those observations away from later, though he was certain he'd caught more than a flash of interest in his fellow enforcer's eyes.

“Let’s get down to business,” Arlo grumbled, though Bash noted the way the harsh edge that typically left his voice sounding cold and emotionless had softened a little. Enough so Bash, who’d spent many long hours in the grumpy bastard's company, got the feeling things were about to get interesting for his friend. Real interesting!