Fireball (Cheap Thrills 1)

I might have also filled her in on what a great guy he was. She knew him in passing, but had never had a reason to go and see him given how controlling Larry was. I wanted a good guy for her, and I was thinking that Ellis fitted that perfectly. Slowly but surely, I was going to get her to open her eyes and mind to the possibility of an Ellose, or a Joslis, however they wanted to merge their names.

And then I could tease her about him inserting his ‘machine’ into her vagina. It was a win-win for me.

“Nope. It’s been itchy, but the stuff Ellis gave me helps with it. I’ve come up with something else I want him to do on my ribs the next time, and I’m going to drag Jose and Olivia along with me when I go.” I told him, moving away to pick up my purse. “Are we ready?”

Taking the keys out of my door, he held them up and frowned at me. “What did I tell you about this?”

He had as well, shit. Because I had an opening in the middle of my door for the mailman to put post through instead of just a box outside – which I also had – he’d lectured me on how if someone wanted to break in, they’d put a wire through it and hook my keys on it, allowing them easy access to my home. The mailbox in the door was a retro idea I’d seen on Pinterest and it suited the style of my house, but I hadn’t thought about the security side of it. So, the answer was to not leave my keys in the lock on the inside – and I’d forgotten that. Oops.

“Sorry, it’s the first time it’s happened, I swear.”

Shaking his head, he led me out and then locked the door up behind us, putting the keys in his pocket instead of passing them over to me. With his hand on the base of my back like normal, we walked over to his truck and he helped me in. Once he was behind the wheel, he turned the keys and it roared to life.

“So, you want to take a baby to a tattoo shop?” he asked as he navigated toward wherever we were headed.

“Yup, I know she’s little, but she’ll sleep through it all and I’ll be there to look after her if Jose has something done. Why, is it against the law?” I hadn’t considered that.

Shifting in his seat slightly, he took the turning out of town confusing me. “I think it’s up to Mace and Ellis if they’re cool with having her in there. The law is mostly about minors under the age of eighteen having tattoos without consent from a parent.”

Nibbling my lip, I mulled this over. “Do you think they’ll mind her being in there with us?”

Snorting, he drove smoothly down the road flashing his light at a Mustang that drove past us. “Cole Townsend,” he explained. “Nah, I think Ellis would allow Olivia anything he had the power to give her. And if it meant spending time with her mama, he’d move mountains to make that happen.”

I seriously loved this guy for Jose, especially after everything she’d been through. Which reminded me I had something to tell him.

“Larry sent her some texts this morning,” I started, knowing that an outburst was coming. “I think he’s on something because in the first one he said he wanted to see ‘his kid’. Then, an hour later, he sent another that said if Jose had given her his last name, he’d take her to court to get it changed. It went on for hours.”

Growling, he shifted again, this time to pull his cell out of his pocket and he slowed down to look at the screen. “Did she reply?”

Shaking my head, I thought about how upset she’d been initially, and then it had just changed to her being pissed off at him. It had finally turned into her being numb over it all which I could understand. “Nope. She didn’t have anything to say to him about all of it. When he sent one that said he was going to take the kid and she’d never see it again, she blocked his number and made sure that her security was on in the house. I went over and she seemed normal, but she did say she felt guilty for what she’d done to Olivia, basically ‘choosing’ him as her dad.”

Laying his phone down on his lap, he hit a button on his steering wheel and the sound of a phone ringing filled the space.

It only rang twice before the person answered it. “Yeah?” Ellis clipped, sounding pissed.

“Got an issue,” Dave told him, and then laid it out for him.