Fireball (Cheap Thrills #1)(41)

“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.

“Son of a bitch. That asshole is beyond belief,” Ellis hissed, the sound of a door closing followed by an engine starting up coming from his end. “I’m heading over there now, and if he even tries to get through that door…”

Making a sharp turn in the road, Dave started driving back into town. “Don’t do anything stupid, man. Last we knew, he was lying low in a motel, dicking around thinking he wasn’t getting a court date when he totally is. He’s probably just doing it to scare her.”

“Yeah, well, he’s gonna get a scare himself. Serious as shit, Dave. He’s been fucking everything for years and we all wondered when she was gonna scrape him off. Now that she has, he can’t even be good to his own daughter?”

He had a point, and truth be told I was in agreement with him on this. I’d wanted to cancel tonight, but Jose had insisted I come, and had even added her details to the app that showed the video feed and system alerts from her house on my phone. I could switch between the properties whenever I wanted, and it helped that I’d know if there was a problem, but…

Almost like it was an omen even thinking about having my phone connected to her security, just then my phone started going crazy. It was still in Dave’s back pocket so he had to shuffle again to get access to it. Pulling it out in front of him, he swore loudly and started to drive faster.

“Ellis, get to Jose’s. Her front door and back window have just been breached. Tab’s phone got the alert.”

The sound of screeching wheels came from Ellis’s end. “Just pulled up. There are two cars parked across the bottom of the drive, and the front door’s open.”

“Tab, call it in and tell them you’re with me and it’s Jose,” he ordered. “Ellis, keep your phone on but stick it in your back pocket. Go in carefully, and I’ll be with you in about five minutes. Tab’s calling it in, so they’ll be there soon too.”

“Gotcha,” Ellis muttered, and the sound on his end became slightly muffled momentarily.

As I called 9-1-1, I half listened to what was going on as I laid it out for the woman who’d been passed the call from dispatch, Rory. Once I had her assurance that she was sending Raoul and Logan out, I hung up and gave my sister’s house my full attention pulling up the video feed and listening to the voices coming through the speakers in Dave’s car.

“Well, I’ve changed my damn mind. Me and Rita are gonna raise her, ain’t we baby?” Larry said, making both of us cringe at the thought.

“Sure are, Laz,” Rita Slutita replied. “She even looks like me.”