Mitch bent and I watched by the light coming through the opened door as he carefully deposited Billie on Derek’s man cave couch, arranged her comfortably and then reached out an arm to grab a throw from the back of it. He tossed it over her, twitching it so it covered her.

Then, when she was down, we all heard another pound come at the door.

Everyone’s heads twisted in that direction except Mitch’s. He moved swiftly, his movements controlled, fluid but economical like he was holding himself in check. He also didn’t hesitate and Bray, Brent and Elvira had to jump out of his way as his long legs took him out the door.

My arm still around a trembling Billy, I hurried after him, guiding Billy with me and giving him a firm squeeze.

“It’s going to be okay, honey,” I whispered as we moved and his head tipped back woodenly, his terrified eyes hit mine and my heart clenched. “Promise, Bud.” I kept whispering. “Everything’s going to be okay.” I gave him another squeeze. “Promise.”

We made it to the living room but Billy didn’t even nod and the terror didn’t leave his face. I stopped us when I heard Mitch speak and looked to the door.

He had it open, his body was blocking it and I saw Aunt Lulamae was standing on the other side.

“Five minutes,” he bit out.

“Fuck five minutes,” Aunt Lulamae returned. “We been waitin’ an hour.”

“Then you’ll wait another five minutes or you’ll find your ass in the back of a cruiser and you’ll be facing harassment charges,” Mitch fired back and I just got the chance to see her head jerk and her eyes narrow before he shut the door in her face.

Then he turned, walked directly to Billy and crouched in front of him.

One of his hands came up, curled around the side of Billy’s neck and he pulled him roughly yet tenderly away from my body and to within an inch of his face.

“I got this, Bud,” he said in a low, deeper than normal voice, his eyes locked with Billy’s.

Billy didn’t respond.

Mitch gave him a gentle shake with his hand at his neck.

“I promise you, I got this. You believe me?”

Billy didn’t move nor did he speak.

“Bud?” Mitch prompted on another gentle shake and finally Billy nodded.

My heart skipped when Mitch pulled Billy to him and rested his forehead against my cousin’s for half a second before he let him go and straightened.

Then he looked at LaTanya.

“Door closed to Billie. Shit goes down, I don’t want her hearin’ it. You gotta move her back to your room, I need you to do that. Yeah?” he asked and LaTanya nodded then rushed to the man cave.

Mitch looked to Derek.

“I don’t want those women around the kids and I don’t want them knowin’ I live across the breezeway. That’s why we’re here. In a minute, Mara and me are goin’ out there, we’re takin’ them into Mara’s apartment and we’re dealin’ with ‘em. You hear shit you don’t like, like those bitches gettin’ loud and threatening, you call Slim. He knows what’s goin’ on and he’ll know what to do. You don’t like what you hear, you call. No hesitation. Right?”

Derek nodded.

Mitch looked at Bray and Brent.

“Keep Bud company. He’s freaked.”

Bray and Brent nodded, Brent detaching from Bray and moving toward Billy.

Mitch’s eyes came to me, they moved over my face, I knew he didn’t like what he saw but he powered through it and said quietly, “Let’s go, sweetheart.”

It was my turn to nod.

“I’m goin’ with,” Elvira announced right as I started to move toward Mitch and both Mitch and my eyes went to her.

Oh boy. Here we go. Elvira was butting into Mitch’s plans.

“No,” he denied.

“Uh…yeah, hot guy, macho man, decorated, squeaky clean po-lice detective,” she shot back and there it was. The Attitude. “I spend my time around hot guy, macho men, almost all my time but even if I didn’t, it wouldn’t take a psychologist to read you are one seriously pissed off hot guy, macho man, po-lice detective. And I’ll repeat, you’re decorated and squeaky clean. You need to keep your shit and stay that way and, my read, you got about a half a millimeter left on your hold on your control.”

I figured her read was right.

She kept talking.

“You both also need a witness to whatever goes down over there. I’m not either of ya’ll’s neighbor or best friend,” she lifted a hand, finger pointed down, her well-formed nail, I distractedly noticed, painted an awesome midnight violet color. She circled her finger between Mitch and me then she dropped her hand. “So that witness is gonna be me.”

Well, one thing I knew about this, LaTanya had shared with her cousin about Mitch, me, Billy and Billie.

The other thing I knew was that Elvira didn’t just have Attitude, she was wise.

Mitch came to the same conclusion because it was then he nodded and muttered, “Let’s go.”

Mitch spoke and Elvira and I moved, following him out the door and into the breezeway.

“Where’s my grandbabies?” Aunt Lulamae asked before Derek and LaTanya’s door even closed.

“We’ll talk at Mara’s place,” Mitch replied, moving directly to my door, key at the ready.

“I wanna see my grandbabies!” Aunt Lulamae was getting loud.

Mitch stopped, pivoted on his boot, stalked to Aunt Lulamae and even Aunt Lulamae, who had never been the brightest bulb in the box, was smart enough to see she’d pushed him too far. She flinched and cowered when he got in her space and leaned into her face.

I held my breath.

“We’ve been at an amusement park all day. Your granddaughter is exhausted and sleeping. Your grandson does not know you but with all your bullshit, he’s scared shitless of you. Right now, he’s in that apartment,” Mitch’s arm went up and he pointed at Derek and LaTanya’s door then dropped his arm, “shiverin’, he’s so f**kin’ scared. Now, you wanna convince anyone you give one shit about those kids, you’ll keep your f**kin’ voice down and you’ll wait the thirty f**kin’ seconds it takes to get into Mara’s place so we can talk. Your other choice is to have it out out here which means in about ten minutes your ass will be in a f**kin’ cruiser. You got a second to nod you agree or let loose. Your choice. That second starts now.”

She immediately nodded.