Ty looked to his friend and summed it up. “So we’re good.”

Julius caught Ty’s eyes, smiled and nodded. “We’re good.”

This meant CPD were scrambling.

This was good and it was bad. He liked that they were scared, he liked that they were so scared the plays they were making were huge and stupid and he couldn’t say, after thinking on it, that he didn’t get something out of watching them turn on their own.

But he didn’t like to think of where that scared would take them if they set their sights outside the inner circle.

Ty looked back at the two women who had been standing at the railing, drinking, talking and looking at the view. Now they were folding their long bodies into the loveseat to focus on drinking and talking.

As he watched, suddenly they both burst out laughing.

Ty smiled then, without taking his eyes off the women, said to Julius, “And the phone call that took you away at dinner?”

Julius replied immediately.

“I say this and I say this so you know I do not mind it. Colorado ain’t a hard place to be, Anana’s lovin’ this trip and I’d go down for you. But I cannot risk a trip to Dallas after haulin’ my ass out here twice.”

“Understandable,” Ty muttered.

“Not done,” Julius said and, hearing his tone, Ty looked to him then Ty read him. He’d seen that look before, not often, but he’d seen it and when he’d seen it was any time Julius spoke about the man he killed, a man who he did not pray to God for forgiveness for killing, a man he was not only glad was dead but glad he got to make him that way and he felt this because he loved his sister. And what he said next was because he loved Ty.

“Made a couple of calls. Lexie is not unknown after her time with Rodriguez. What she was known as was untouchable. The minute her foot stepped over the Dallas city limits, Shift got word, thought you got shot of her and she was fair game. He was dickin’ with her and bidin’ his time. Since Rodriguez hit the cement without his face, Shift knew what he was gonna do with Lexie and he figured at her return the time was right.” Julius’s eyes started to burn when he said low, “So, no. You mistake me, Walk. I am done with him which means he is done.”

Ty pushed away from the counter, turned to his brother and murmured, “Champ –”

Julius shook his head. “Got a man on it already.”

“He ordered the hit on Rodriguez,” Ty told him something he had not shared and Julius blinked.

“They were brothers,” Julius whispered, shocked and now even more pissed because Julius had a number of rules he lived by and the one at the top, right under taking care of your family, was never turning on a brother.

“You been gone from Dallas awhile but that’s what Peña says is on the street. Shift has already mentioned my name to a cop. I do not need his dead body found. What I need is for that motherfucker to be incapacitated. And I figure, as payback for his efforts, Peña should get whatever cops get when they take down a drug dealing pimp who’d order a hit on his brother. You got connections in Dallas; you rally them not to make Shift stop breathin’ but to make him stop breathin’ free.”

Julius’s eyes were wide and he replied, “You tellin’ me you want me to get word to my boys to ask them to work with pigs?”

Ty leaned toward him. “He killed his brother and he moved to pimp my f**kin’ wife. I already kicked his ass and that didn’t make me feel any better. If I got a choice to dispense punishment, I do not choose for him to buy a bullet. I choose for him to keep breathin’ while… he… rots.”

Julius held his eyes and Ty knew that his now were burning because Julius replied quietly, “I get you.”

“He goes down; they give Peña enough to make him stay down. He manages to live a long life without gettin’ shanked, he lives it never f**kin’ breathin’ free. They do this, they do it for me, they do it for Lexie, they do it for Rodriguez and if that isn’t enough, they can have every bill left in my safe and they can do it for that.”

“Keep your cash, Walk, I’ll state your case.”

Ty held his friend’s eyes.

Then he whispered, “All you’re doin’, all you’ve done and all you’re gonna do, no way I can pay you.”

“I ask for compensation?”

He hadn’t. He wouldn’t.

And knowing that in that moment, Ty Walker was overwhelmed.

“No way I can pay you,” he repeated on a whisper.

“You’re my brother and family don’t pay shit.”

Ty didn’t respond.

Julius kept talking. “Though, just so you know, you just dropped a shitload of cash on a car for your wife I coulda boosted for you and had delivered in a week.”

At that, Ty burst out laughing. When he quit, he felt eyes, looked to the deck and saw his woman grinning at him. He smiled back. Then he looked at Julius.

“Heat is on in Carnal, Champ, not sure I should have a hot ride in my garage and definitely unsure I want my wife’s sweet ass in that hot ride.”

“Probably a good decision,” Julius muttered through a grin.

Ty grinned back.

Then his grin faded and words he’d said earlier that day came back to him.

And he was not about to make the same mistake twice.

Therefore he asked quietly, “Remember I told you about Tuku?” Julius nodded. Ty went on, “Got good friends, a lot of them, feel deep for them all. Only three people in my life got more from me, one of ‘em’s in the ground, one of ‘em’s sittin’ on the deck and the last is standin’ right in front of me.”

Julius said not a word but held his eyes.

Then Ty whispered, “Gratitude, brother.”

Julius kept his eyes locked with Ty’s and whispered back, “Debt paid.”

* * * * *

Lexie’s lips brushed his neck as her h*ps moved up and he lost the hot, wet silk of her pu**y as she pulled off his cock. Then she moved down and her lips brushed the inside of his left pectoral over his heart. Then she moved down and they brushed across his abs. Then she fell to a hip in the bed, swung her leg from around him and rolled off the bed.

Ty watched her move to the bathroom. Then he rolled to turn off his light then shifted to pull the covers from under him to over him. Then he flipped Lexie’s side of the covers back. Then his eyes went back toward the door to the bathroom as the light went out and she wandered out. She stopped and tagged her panties from the floor. An indication she was done and she would be. He’d made her sit on his face until she came then he’d fingered her cunt and cl*t until she came again then he let her suck him until he almost came then she rode him until they both came.