Page 21 of Mimosa (Murphy's Pub #2)

Chapter Twenty-One

Sonny showed up just before eight that night. Mims flew into his arms, and Sonny hugged him, though Mims felt his stiff body. “What happened?”

“What I said. I’m out.”

Mims got into gear. There were no patrons except for Mick and his buddy, Joe, so Mims pulled him through to the back and got Haze on the phone. “Get everyone that’s home and get them to the basement.”

“Sure. Be right there.”

Mims pulled him along to the basement stairs and the whole way down, Sonny asked, “If they come looking, Mims, hiding me in some closet isn’t going to work.”

“Not a closet, Sonny. Trust me, will ya?”

“I trust you, Mims, but this is serious shit.”

Mims wanted to punch him, but there wasn’t time for that.

In the basement, Mims pulled him into the workout room. It was actually the main part of the basement, but Goldie and Cosmo had filled it with workout machines and weights. He pointed to the right, through the open archway, “If you ever need a drink, that is the storage for the bar. There are pretzels and stuff too.”

Sonny looked confused. “Okay…why do I need to know that?”

Mims smiled and let go of his hand, walking to the bookcase. “There are a lot of books in here too, if you are in the mood to read.”

“Nice. Same question, though. Why do I need to know that?”

Mims moved the book, The Fall of the House of Usher from the case and watched Sonny’s face as the case swung open to reveal the hidden room.

He went from annoyed to laughing in the space of a second. “What the hell?”

“You know we’re a criminal enterprise. We have to do that somewhere.”

He walked into the secret room and laughed more. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Mims followed him and explained, “And this isn’t in the plans for the place. No permit, either, Officer.”

“I’ll cite you all later. This is fucking amazing.”

“But long term, it will get old. Cabin fever and all that, but we’re working on the rest.”

“What is the rest?”

“That, you’ll have to wait and see,” he said as he went to Sonny and kissed him. “It’s about time you let someone take care of you.”

“Well, if I have to, I guess you would be the best one.”

After he walked into the computer room, he laughed again, only louder and accused, “This is yours.”

“It is.”

“This setup, Jesus! We should have been working for you!”

“You might yet,” Mims said, laughing.

The others were filing into the room and Mims grabbed Sonny’s hand to take him into the meeting room. They all shook Sonny’s hand before everyone sat and Murphy stood at the head. “Okay, now, Mims told us, Cosmo and Goldie, you all told us this was happening, so we are ready. We have an extra bed to bring down, and there’s a small fridge here, under the table there.”

Mims pointed to it. “I’ll stock it with water and stuff.”

“So you all want me to hide in here. Well, I can’t say it’s not a good idea, but what if they find me?”

“You can lock the case from the inside,” Murphy explained. “It’s a panic room as well as where we plan our jobs. It has to be able to be locked down tight. Lead lined, so no X-ray can get in, no ground penetrating radar, none of that shit. It’s usually packed with enough food to last for a couple weeks, but Eazy changes it out now and then.”

“Okay, great, and then what?”

“Then, well, we’re going to break a few more laws to do someone some good in the neighborhood and still cover our asses with that help. When they get their help, so will you.”

Sonny stared around at all the faces, more confused than ever. “If I know about it, me being a cop, you’re afraid I’ll bust you. Eventually.”

Mims giggled a little and informed him, “If I decide to dump you and you’re horribly depressed and upset about it, you might want retribution.”

Sonny smirked at him. “You’re stuck with me.”

“Well, just in case. Paps likes to cover his bases.”

Sonny nodded to Murphy and said, “Got it. I’ll do what I need to, as long as you can assure that you all will be safe too, especially Mims.”

“My boys here come only after my young children.”

“As it should be. Well, I guess this is home for a while.”

Mims was over the moon happy about that. “We’ll be living in sin.”

“On separate floors. Besides, we’ve already sinned a few times. I don’t think living under the same roof will send us to hell.”

They got the bed into the basement, setting it up for Sonny, and then they brought him enough food for a month. Mims showed him the computer room, how to access the security cameras next. “This covers the front door, the bar, the back room, all around the main floor.” He switched the cameras and suddenly all the screens changed. “This is the second floor. All the rooms except Murphy’s living area and the bedrooms. The third floor is the same.”

Sonny nodded and said, “I never spotted one camera.”

“They’re hidden well. Murphy used a lot of money setting this place up for all of us and his family.”

“Why do I need this?”

Mims sat on his lap in the computer chair, wrapping his arms around Sonny’s neck and staring into eyes that just rocked him. Those dark eyes, so dark he could see himself in them. See himself as Sonny saw him. “If you feel lonely, it might help. And, if they come and do the search, like you think they will, you can watch and make sure they’re not getting close. There are cameras down here too, just not in the secret rooms.”

“One pointed at the door, I’m sure.”

“Yeah. We installed that when Cosmo accidentally found the bookcase door before we were ready for him to do that.”

Sonny kissed him and argued again, “I should take off. Or you should come in here with me.”

“I’ll need to put on the act that I haven’t seen you, that you broke my heart or whatever. You’re not leaving. I want to know that you’re safe.”

Finally relenting, Sonny said, “Okay. But can you at least stay with me down here now and then, you know, at night,” he said and added a pinch to Mims’s ass.

“Try to keep me away.”

Taran came to the pub the following day and Cosmo and Mims took him down to the basement to meet with Sonny, sitting in on the conversation.

“I’m glad you got out when you did. They killed Rex as soon as he bailed out. They made it look like a suicide.”

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Sonny quipped. “All the captives?”

“Safe,” Taran said and they all heard Sonny’s sigh of relief. “They’re being cared for at a local hospital, but the only ones that they could identify were Jacob, Rex and you. They were blindfolded when they came in, as you know. Jacob is in hiding and the rest are laying low, but they have reached out to certain people that we have ears with. They’re looking for you. It’s pretty obvious that you were the one that told the location of that party.”

“We figured that.”

“Well, we have the place being watched and Tally took the kids for the time being. Everything is set for them to come, but without a court order allowing them access, Murphy will refuse them entry. That will make them suspicious, of course, but it might make them more suspicious if he just let them in.”

“Right. Franklyn would know I’m here, or that they would know where I am. Better to have him combative.”

Mims said, “Whoa! I don’t get that at all!”

“Murphy is a criminal, Mims,” Taran explained. “Most criminals know their rights. They’re not letting anyone search their places without a piece of paper pushing it. With them? Who the fuck is going to let them in here? They’re not even from the same precincts, so no matter what they could say, it’s going to be rough. Not impossible, though. Each and every time they leave you in here, Sonny, you lock that door. Who knows, someone posing as a patron could come snooping.”

“I always do. Mims won’t leave the other side until I do.”

“Good job, Mims.”

He preened. “I take care of my man.”

“Yes, you do.”

Taran smiled and gazed lovingly at Cosmo. “I have one of those.”

“I’m way meaner than Mims,” Cosmo teased.

Sonny said, “Okay, well, if they come, and they will, everyone needs to look after Mims. Don’t leave him alone with Franklyn if you can help it. Franklyn prides himself on being able to see lies.”

That night, Mims entered the secret room after knocking. Sonny opened his arms and Mims stepped right into them. He was held, and he felt the brush of lips on his hair. “How is it I can be so close to you and yet…still miss you so much?” Mims asked in a small voice.

“I feel the same. You’ve turned my world upside down, Mims, in the best way possible.”

“Same here. Before I met you, I was chasing old men.”

“No more of that. At least not until I get a few more grays.”

Mims pulled him to the bed on the western wall of the meeting room and pulled him down, lying with him closely. “Even when you’re old and gray, you’re going to be beautiful.”

“Will I?”

“Yes. I just really hope I still know you then.”

Sonny took his hand and kissed over each knuckle, and the feeling of those warm lips on his hand made him sleepy and content. “I want to know you until I die.”

Mims smiled against Sonny’s chest as he turned his head. Giddy, he was. That was the only way to describe what he felt when he was with Sonny.

“You know that love at first sight shit? I never bought into that. The guys I’ve been with, it took me a long time to so much as like them. You changed me, Mims.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one that changed.”

Sonny pulled him up and kissed him, moving slowly over him as his bare cock rubbed against Mims’s sweat pants. “Why are you still dressed?”

“My man didn’t undress me.”

“Oh. I see. I have to do all the damn work around here.”

Mims giggled and pushed Sonny off him, then got out of the bed and stared down, heated right through. Sonny threw off the blanket to expose himself. Mims’s mouth filled with saliva as he let his eyes slowly move over Sonny’s gorgeous body, the lean muscles, furry chest, long legs, and of course, that beautiful dick.

“Damn. I am so lucky.”

“You’re not going to be if you’re not undressed in thirty seconds.”

“Hey! I was going to do a whole striptease for you!”

“Do it really fast or you’re not getting any dick.”

With the speed of lightning, Mims started yanking off his clothes, getting tripped up twice while taking off his pants and underwear, as he’d forgotten to take off his shoes.

Once he was breathing heavily and naked, Sonny was the one letting his eyes roam. “There. That’s better.”

“I’m too skinny.”

“I’ll fatten you up. How’s about I add a few pounds right now,” he said as he sat up fast and grabbed Mims’s hand, pulling him down on the bed and moving over him, holding him down.

“How many pounds do you think is hanging between those legs?”

“That’s not the pounds I’m talking about,” he said with a wicked grin that made his eyes twinkle. They made out for a good ten minutes, their bodies entangled, grunts and groans making a soundtrack to their love making. Somehow, Sonny got on a condom and lubed himself while all that was happening, and Mims thought crazily that he must have two or three extra hands.

When Sonny was inside him, Mims realized the pounds Sonny meant was the action, not the noun. He was pounded like a piece of raw meat under the blunt end of a meat tenderizer mallet.

Taking that hard of a fucking rocked him, jarred his very fucking bones, but god, he loved it. Holding onto Sonny for dear life, he felt his body being used, being assaulted and he keened with no words coming to him at all.

Sonny’s face went from intense to in love. He changed expressions nearly as quickly as he was fucking into Mims’s ass. It was a struggle for him, Mims knew. Since meeting Mims, life had been a struggle.

Before, he was all about his job, and after, he fell in love. Mims had gone through a similar struggle. Searching for a daddy and finding the love of a lifetime.

But when Sonny was inside him, the only struggle for either of them was when to let the orgasm, that seemed to always be on the verge, release.

Their lives together made no sense. A police officer and a criminal. An upstanding man, with principles and integrity, and a man who shook his ass on the weekends and hacked into secure websites the rest of the week for his crew of thieves.

But they were perfect for one another on some scope of existence that made little sense but made love the brightest.

When they let their orgasms have their way, Sonny’s neck corded hard, and his eyes rolled back in his head. Mims was shaking after his, and they both took a few minutes to recover.

He was sweaty, tired, pleased and ready to drop off to sleep, but that wasn’t to be. The alarm buzzed, making them both jump, and Mims got up on jelly-legs to rush to the computer room and turn on the cameras.

“It was Murphy,” he told Sonny. “The cops are here!”

“Looks like you’re stuck,” Sonny said, sounding relieved.

“No, I’m not,” Mims said. “You stay here and watch the cameras.”

“You cannot get out there in time!”

“Yeah. If I can get undressed in less than thirty seconds, I can dress as fast.”

And he did. He got dressed fast and got out of the secret room, yelling for Sonny to lock it behind him.

Running up the stairs to his floor, he got to his room and yanked off his shirt again, getting under the covers, as if he’d been sleeping.

Before five minutes had passed, there was a hard knocking on his door and he got out of bed and made his way to the door, hollering out, sleepily, “Coming! God!”

When he opened the door, a man was there, shoving a badge in his face. “We have a warrant to search the property. Stand aside.”

“What the fuck are you searching for?”

“We have evidence you are harboring a fugitive.”

As three officers filed in the room, a third came and asked him to go downstairs with the others. As he rushed down the stairs, passing five more cops, his stomach was tied in knots.

With the rest of those in the pub, including the two very sleepy kids in Eazy’s and Murphy’s arms, Haze pulled him aside. “Did you see Hippy?”

The only one missing. “No! Is he here?”

“We don’t know. It’s not like we sign in and out.”

Then Mims freaked out, thinking about the paintings in Haze’s room. “Are they going to find the reproductions?”

“No. I took them all out when Sonny came to stay. We were expecting this, remember?”

Murphy handed Katie to Cosmo, who sat with her on his lap. “I have the warrant. It says that Sonny has been indicted for human trafficking.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Deadly. They pushed their shit onto him.”

“With no fucking proof!”

“Exactly. But, well, we have some problems to deal with. They’ll want to talk to you. It’s in the warrant.”

Mims’s stomach knots were tighter, and he thought he’d puke. “Jesus.”

Then Mims saw Marion Brenner coming toward him. It was already time. He had to be interviewed.

“Mr. Bajwa, may we speak with you a moment?”

The strength in him was building as he thought about Sonny. What would Sonny do for him? How would Sonny care for him?

Since he was ten and realized he was gay, he’d had to lie to his parents and he was terrible at it. He didn’t like to lie, and wasn’t great doing it, but this was different. This was a man’s life, and not just any man. He was the man he loved.

Lifting his head, he said, “Yes. Sure.”

Taken into the back by himself, Marion Brenner and two other officers sat at one of the tables across from him, and he shoved his clammy hands between his knees.

“You were in a relationship with Santiago Aguilar, were you not?” Marion asked.

“Santiago? Who’s that?”

Her smirk made her thin lips even thinner. “Sonny, Mr. Bajwa.”

“Oh, Sonny. Right. I wouldn’t exactly call it a relationship.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“No. We went on a couple of dates and…”

“And?”

Mims felt his body ease. It was for Sonny, the lies, the deceit. Everything he did was for Sonny. “And we had sex a couple times.”

“And tonight?” she asked while she made a loud sniff. “Did you have sex with him tonight?”

She was implying he smelled of sex. And he was sure he did. He had to cover, but suddenly, his hands began to shake and he broke out in a sheen of sweat. “What about tonight?” he asked to stall while he thought of something, anything, that would help him.

Then, like a hero riding in on a white horse, Hippy strolled across the floor and hollered, “I was fucking him. Is that any of your business?”

Mims’s head swung around and saw Hippy, shirtless, button of his jeans undone before he came to the table and placed both hands on the surface. “We were fucking since this afternoon. Want the condoms I used?”

Marion’s face was priceless. She was furious, and she spat, “If you’re lying…”

“What? Aren’t you all supposed to serve and protect? The question is, who are you protecting?”

Hippy grabbed Mims’s hand. “Come on, baby. We have some lawyers to call.”

“No need of that,” Marion said as she stood. “We were obviously mistaken.”

“Yeah. You were.”

The search went on for another half an hour, and when they left, they left a mess. Tally ran in as soon as the cops left and hurried over to Eazy and Cosmo. “How are they?”

“They’re fine, sis,” Murphy told her. “But it’s time. You take them.”

“Murphy!”

Murphy told Eazy, “Take the kids up and put them in our bed. I’m going to take the guys to talk to them.”

Whispering to Mims, Murphy said, “Call Sonny on the landline. Make sure he didn’t see them placing cameras or other listening devices in the basement.”

Mims nodded and got on the bar phone. Once Sonny answered, Mims said, “Are we clear to go see you?”

“Yeah. I was watching.”

“Good.”

After he hung up, he nodded to the others and everyone filed down the stairs and to the basement, getting into the secret room before any of them said another word.

Once the door was closed, Sonny waved them to the computers. He rewound the video for the basement and said, “Nothing here. I think they truly believed it was just a gym and storage, but look at this,” he said while he rewound the tape for the second floor, the one outside the bedrooms of Goldie, Mims and Hippy. “See that?”

They all watched as one of the officers placed something tiny under the table near the doors for the bathrooms.

“That can’t be a camera. They’re just listening.”

“It would be hard to set up a camera in that short of time,” Mims said. “But not impossible.”

“We just have to pretend they have eyes and ears everywhere,” Murphy said. “And Sonny, sorry, but not even leaving the basement to get a little air.”

“I miss the sun already,” he said with a sigh. “This is too much. I have to get out of here.”

“Not yet. If you can handle it here for a little longer, we’ll have a place for you soon.”

“I can handle just about anything, obviously. I am more worried about all of you.”

Murphy called them all to the table in the meeting room and after they were all seated, Murphy announced, “I’m sending the kids, my father, and Ryan with Tally. They’ll be going on a little vacation.”

“Damn,” Hippy said. “Sorry, Murph.”

“No. It’s fine, because we’re getting this over with once and for all.” He tossed the warrant on the table and slid it to Sonny. “Do you know this judge?”

Sonny took the warrant and opened it, looking it over. “Yeah, sure, he’s one of jurists in the criminal courts. He takes care of the dirty cops busted from IA. Why?”

“How are his convictions?”

Sonny shrugged. “I don’t testify. I know that most get off with a slap on the wrist, but it’s that way all through the country.”

Muphy turned his attention to Mims. “Look it up. I have a feeling that certain cops get off with less than the slap. You and Sonny match the cops in the BBC to those having come under this judge’s review.”

“You think this judge is in with the cartel?” Sonny asked.

“How else do you figure they’ve gotten you indicted already?”

Sonny sat back in the chair. “I’ll be fucked.”

“I’d bet money this judge is as dirty as they are.”

Hippy said, “Well, they now think Mims and me are a thing, so is it really necessary that we send the kids away?”

“Yeah. I don’t want them touched by this again. Until we take down the BBC, with the help of you, IA, and the feds, we’re all going to watch our backs.”