“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 fuckin’ scared. Now, you wanna convince anyone you give one shit about those kids, you’ll keep your fuckin’ voice down and you’ll wait the thirty fuckin’ 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 fuckin’ cruiser. You got a second to nod you agree or let loose. Your choice. That second starts now.”

She immediately nodded.

I let out my breath.

Mitch stalked to my door, opened it but didn’t walk through. He stopped in it and his eyes sliced to me as his hand came out to me.

I walked directly to him, Elvira at my back and when I got to him, my hand came up. His fingers closed around it and we walked in, Elvira following, the Trailer Trash Trio bringing up the rear.

Mitch’s hand gave mine a squeeze and he ordered gently, “Hit some lights, honey, then right back at my side.”

I looked up at him, nodded and wandered the room quickly, turning on the lamps on either side of the couch. Mitch positioned himself six feet into the apartment, hands to his hips. Elvira went to sit on a stool at my bar, back to the counter, body facing the showdown. It was then I noticed her clingy, wraparound dress was pretty spectacular and if I survived this without having a mental collapse, I needed to ask where she got it. Mom, Aunt Lulamae and Jez were all standing just inside my door, looking around my apartment with astonished expressions on their faces.

I understood this. Seriously, Penny did a great job. My apartment was awesome.

Jez’s expression melted to indifference as her eyes drifted to Mitch. It was all the same to her and, vaguely, I wondered what she was even doing there. She didn’t seem a participant so much as an observer.

Mom’s and Aunt Lulamae’s gazes came to me as I made it to Mitch’s side and their expressions shifted to scorn.

“Who’s she?” Jez asked, her head tipping to Elvira but Mom spoke over her and what Mom said took precedence, at least according to Mitch.

“Knew it, always knew it.” She threw her hand out, indicating my apartment. “Slutty, little tease always had your nose in the air, thinkin’ you’re better than everybody, thinkin’ you’re somethin’ you are not.”

Obviously, she said this to me.

And, very obviously, considering the already suffocating air in the room went thick as paste, Mitch, seriously pissed, got more pissed.

A lot more.

“For this discussion, you direct any communication to me. You do not talk to Mara,” he clipped out this order and Mom looked at him.

“And why would I do that?” she snapped.

“Because you’re standin’ there thinkin’ you got the upper hand when you don’t. And if you don’t smarten up fast and play this right, I’m gonna unleash a world of hurt on you, your sister and your sister’s son. And part of playing this right is not disrespecting my woman to her face or mine,” Mitch replied, one of his hands staying at his hip, the other one sliding around my waist and pulling me close.

“That a threat?” Aunt Lulamae asked.

“Nope,” Mitch answered.

“High and mighty cop, you think you got the system on your side,” Mom stated, her lip curled. “But we got ourselves a lawyer, Lulamae, Jez and me. And he says the system likes to place kids with blood relatives, the closer, the better. Not some second cousin, but a Momma or a Grandma. And Jez here, now she’s all set to move into a trailer close to me and Lulamae so those kids got all sorts of family close by to take care ‘a them and see they got what they need.”

After she said this, her face changed and I knew that change. I knew it because I’d seen it often in my life. And I knew it heralded her doing something that was not just her normal ugly but her vastly more hideous nasty.

And I would be right because she went on to say, “And, Jez here bein’ Billie’s Mom and all, we’re happy just to have the girl. You can have the boy.”

My heart clenched so hard I feared it would rupture and Mitch’s arm spasmed tight around my waist.

They had a lawyer.

And they were happy to break up the kids.

They had a lawyer and they were happy to break up the kids.

“I see you’re not just not all that smart. You’re plain stupid,” Mitch returned quietly, his eyes locked on Mom.

“Got a lawyer who don’t think the same way,” Aunt Lulamae fired back.

“No,” Mitch replied, his gaze slicing to Lulamae. “You got a lawyer who’s happy to take your money on a case he knows he has no hope of winning.”

Mom shook her head. “See you’re not too smart. Don’t you see? We’re offerin’ you a deal. We take the girl. You want him, you can have the boy. Everyone’s happy.”

The girl.

The boy.

Why did her calling Billy and Billie that hurt so much?

I started having trouble breathing.

“You’re not taking Billie,” Mitch declared.

“Jez is her Momma,” Aunt Lulamae stated. “And my boy gets to pick who he wants to raise his kids and he picks Jez, Melba and me.”

“Bill doesn’t get to decide shit,” Mitch shot back.

That was when Aunt Lulamae’s expression went from ugly to nasty.

She had something, I could tell by the look in her eyes. She was saving her ace and was about to play it.

I braced and she played it.

“He didn’t when he was facin’ all them charges. He does now, seein’ as he’s talkin’ with the DA to make a deal to provide testimony in return for immunity,” Aunt Lulamae returned fire, I stopped breathing altogether and felt Mitch’s body get tight.

Mom smiled in a way I clutched Mitch’s shirt at the back.

“He’s got good stuff. So good, they’re willin’ to give into all his demands. And one a’ those demands is he gets to say where his kids’re gonna be. Now, you’re smart, you deal. We’re willin’ to give you the boy but we take the girl,” she said.

I knew Mitch was preparing to speak but he didn’t get the chance.

This was because, in a flash that lasted a nanosecond, it all came to me.

Jez didn’t care about Billie. Whether she was moving into a trailer close to them or not, she was there because she was getting something out of it. What, I had no clue. But whatever she was getting, it wasn’t her daughter that she wanted.

And I had no idea how Mom and Aunt Lulamae were paying for an attorney. They had no money and neither did Bill. Whatever it was was probably taken out in trade and I knew whatever they were giving some sleazebag lawyer to get him to take their case would lose its luster and do it quickly.

And there was no judge in the land who would take two children from a woman who gave them a stable home, food, clothes and good people in their lives and plant them in a trailer two states away to live with women of proven bad character.

And Bill knew this.

But he didn’t care.

He just wanted to fuck with me. Probably with Mitch too. But definitely with me.

And he was using his children to do it.

But that flash I had wasn’t just understanding what was happening right then in my apartment. It was understanding what Mitch had been telling me, what people who knew and cared about me had been saying and showing all my life.

I was not a Two Point Five. Behaving the way they behaved, speaking the way they spoke, making the threats they were making would not occur to me. I would never, not in a million years, do any of that.

Because that was not me.

And it never had been.

So when the reply came, it was me who gave it.

“Get out of my house,” I said quietly and all eyes turned to me.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Get out of my house. Now,” I repeated with an added directive.

Mom’s eyes narrowed. “Marabelle Jolene, have you been listenin’?”

“I have,” I told her. “And I’m not listening anymore. I’m not breathing your air anymore. I’m done. You laid it out, now I will. This is the last conversation we’ll have not through attorneys. Unless I have to see you, I will never see you again. Do your worst. Right now, we’re done.”

“You don’t get this,” Aunt Lulamae butted in, “but my Bill’s got good shit on someone. They’re kissin’ his ass to get it. You don’t take this deal, Marabelle, you could lose both those kids.”

“And you don’t get this,” I retorted. “I do not care. If you think for one second I’m allowing you…or her,” I jerked my head at Jez, “anywhere near my kids, think again. It’s not going to happen.”

“You’re wrong,” Aunt Lulamae returned.

“We’ll see,” I replied instantly. “Now, get out.”

Mom leaned a bit toward me and said with soft menace, “You need to think about this deal, girl.”

My voice was clear and strong when I shot back, “No, I don’t. And you know I don’t. And you know why I don’t. But I’ll point it out. You both have records. I don’t. You both have not had steady employment in your lives. I have. Neither of you have seen those children until ten minutes ago. You haven’t sent birthday cards or Christmas presents. They’ve lived their whole lives in Denver; they’ve never been out of state and definitely not to Iowa. Their father is a drunk, drug addict dealer with two strikes. That woman,” I jerked my head at Jez, “left her infant daughter and didn’t see her again until whatever reason brought her here. And if you think we won’t figure out what you bribed her with to get her here, seeing as my man’s a freaking decorated police detective, you’re even more stupid than I thought and I had a lifetime of evidence suggesting you’re flat out dumb.” My eyes pinpointed Mom and Aunt Lulamae in turn and my voice dipped quieter. “And I have a really good memory. A really good one. You push this, you take this to court, I’ll be calling up all sorts of stuff on both of you,” my eyes shifted and narrowed on Jez, “all of you. There is no way in hell you’re taking either of my kids from me. And yes,” I looked to Aunt Lulamae, “I said they’re my kids because they are my kids. And seeing as they’re mine, I love them and they love me, I will exhaust myself, I will run myself ragged, I will bleed myself dry and I will do this to make sure they’re safe, protected and stay with me. You’re here simply because Bill is stupid, he’s petty, he blames me for his mistakes and he wants to fuck with me. He knows he has no prayer in the world. He’s smart enough to know that. He’s using you but you’re not smart enough to know that. Now, you can take this further and endure me wiping the floor with the lot of you in a courtroom or you can crawl away and stay away. Because you are not welcome here, you are not welcome in my home, my life or my kids’ lives and you never, ever will be.”