The Fix Is In (Torus Intercession 4)

“Eww,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

I snickered, because yeah, Jared Colter, being a very handsome older man, all rugged and sincere, staring into the camera with genuine concern, telling people to email their stories to him so he could help, turned out to be, in many people’s minds, a siren call for porn.

“Oh God,” Rais groaned.

Nash shook his head. “I told Owen to stop sending them to me because it was way over my kink quota.”

“Eww,” Ella repeated, louder the second time, with more disgust.

“How many free jobs have you guys done?” Rais asked, picking up his knife and fork.

“The hell are you doing?” I snapped at him.

He scowled at me. “You cut pizza like a civilized person.”

“The hell you do,” Cooper replied, aghast.

“You always cut it,” Nash chimed in.

“No,” I told him, picking mine up even though it was hot.

“I agree with Shaw,” Ella told them. “I’m waiting until mine cools a bit, but yeah, you pick up pizza unless you’re a pretty, pretty princess.”

“Heathens,” Rais passed judgment, gesturing at Cooper with his fork. “Go on.”

“Okay, so six months ago, me and Loc had to follow around Mario ‘The Torch’ Riotta and his crew from one strip joint to the next while you and Nash babysat that nice young couple with the kid, remember?”

“That’s what that was?” Rais asked him. “I figured that was a paid job.”

Cooper shook his head. “No, that was a freebie.”

“What happened with that?”

“Riotta went after the couple the next night, and we caught him. He went to jail, and since the whole thing was that he was shaking them down for protection—like he was with everyone in their neighborhood—when Jared met with his father, Mario Senior said the couple was in the clear. His son was going away for attempted murder and some other stuff the state’s attorney piled on, so the Riotta crime family washed its hands of the nice young couple.”

“So it all worked out, then.”

“Yeah.” Cooper nodded.

“Didn’t Loc leave in the middle of that?” Rais seemed to be working out the timeline in his head.

“He did. He got pulled for the Nick Madison job, so Jared took over.”

“Has it crossed anybody else’s mind that Jared Colter loses a lot of fixers to love?” Ella asked the group.

We all nodded.

“I mean, I understand that Brann—what was his last name?”

“Calder,” Nash chimed in.

“Brann Calder fell in love and moved to Montana, Croy is in Vegas now, and Loc is in Santa Barbara. And they’re all married.”

Cooper sighed. “Yeah.”

“That’s crazy,” she stated with a grin.

“And before them too,” Nash let her know. “It happens a lot.”

“Although I never expected it with Loc,” Cooper announced to the table. “Who saw that shit coming?”

“Yeah, no,” I agreed. “Loc was the poster boy for assholes. I honestly didn’t think he had it in him.”

“Well, I didn’t know him as well as the rest of you guys, but still, I had no idea he could smile,” Rais said with a snicker.

“Right?” Nash chuckled. “Loc could be a real piece of work, though I feel bad saying that now since he’s so different. And alluva sudden I miss him.”

I missed him to, though less than the others, because we talked all the time. “To Loc,” I said, raising my glass of ice water. If it had been after work, I would’ve had a beer, but since we had to go back to the office, water was the option. I wasn’t a soda drinker. “We miss both the backup and the brooding.”

“The brooding I get,” Ella agreed, laughing. “But backup?”

“Oh, yeah,” I told her, “you could always count on Loc to be there.”

“Without question,” Nash agreed, sighing. “So, Shaw, where ya going?”

Instantly, I was scowling. “You’re not gonna believe me, and then you’re gonna make fun, so fuck you, you don’t get to know.”

“Oh man, that was mad crazy defensive,” Rais commented, shaking his head.

“Make fun?” Cooper said while chewing. “We would never do that.”

I flipped him off.

“Don’t be a baby,” Ella baited me. “Where the hell’re you going?”

When I glanced around the table, they were all waiting.

I was right. Of course I was right. The second I explained, they all howled.

“You’re all assholes,” I groused at them.

Cooper crossed himself and thanked God it wasn’t him, and Ella’s eyes grew big and round even as she succumbed to more giggling.

“Oh, you poor, poor bastard,” Rais whispered sympathetically, the only one who understood the true gravity of the situation.

Lunch be damned, I should have started drinking then.

The next morning, Friday, I drove into the tiny town in my rental car that I’d picked up at the airport in Portland. I had tried to fly into Seaside or Gearhart, anything closer, but there were no commercial flights flying into anywhere with a rental car counter but Portland. I had taken the red-eye in, so I was already in a crappy mood by the time we landed, and even more so when I went straight to pick up my car and the one in the parking spot waiting for me was not going to work. Of course, there was nothing anyone could do about it there, so I had to return to the terminal, which did nothing for my overall state of mind. Having to stand in line didn’t help either, but when I was finally in front of a real person, I reined in my irritation because yelling at people never accomplished anything.