Happy May everyone!

Can't believe we are almost half-way through the year, as well as half-way through the book (page wise - not really sure chapter-wise).

So excited to share the rest of it. For now, enjoy this new chapter!

XOXO

-L



"Rosie, everything is going to be fine. Why don't you have some tea with me?" Maria held my arms to stop my pacing, feeling my body tremble underneath her hands.

"Everything is going to be fine," she repeated. "Xavier and Damon handled worse. Garrett isn't going to hurt you or any of us. We're safe, we're all freshened up, and now we can have tea to settle the rest of our nerves."

I twisted my fingers tightly in my hair as Maria led me to her kitchen table, where everything was already set.

"I'm sorry. I'm still new to all this and Detective Benson freaked me out. I just need a distraction from everything." I told her softly. I picked up a teacup for a sip, but my hand was shaking too much. Tea started to spill out so I quickly put it back on the table. Maria grabbed a napkin and cleaned up my mess.

She sat next to me and gently started playing with my hair. I melted and Maria laughed.

"Your hair is your weakness. It's like a soft spot. I wonder if Damon takes advantage of it." Maria wiggled her eyebrows and I looked at her in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"You know..." Maria trailed off, waiting for me to understand whatever she was implying.

"Know...?" I drew out.

Maria rolled her eyes at me, sending me a teasing smile as she sipped her tea. "Sex, Rosaline. During sex."

All my nervous thoughts came to a screeching halt. My face turned tomato red.

"W-what? M-me and Damon are– what?"

Maria coughed, choking on her tea as she cackled.

"Y-your face! I'm going to pee my pants!" Maria wheezed.

I pressed my hands on my cheeks to cool them. I waited for Maria to calm down, sending her my best glare.

"S-sorry. Was that distracting enough?" Maria asked and I shook my head at her.

"That's not what I meant, but it did temporarily," I covered my face in embarrassment. "Out of everything you could've talked about, you chose my sex life!"

"You wanted to be preoccupied, and I'm bringing out my best material!" Maria defended, but she couldn't hide her wide smile.

I wish the ground would swallow me whole.

Maria continued as if I wasn't mortified by the turn of conversation.

"Isn't it weird that you guys have been together for over a month already? Remember in the beginning when I said he was all dominant and possessive in the beginning– not that he isn't, but he definitely toned it down for you. I really thought in the beginning he would put you over his lap and–"

"Lalalalalala!" I covered my ears and stood up to put some distance between us.

"And remember when he got jealous and threw you on the bed? I mean, if I didn't have Xavier, I totally would've dick punched him, but I am pretty sure my panties would be–"

"Maria!" I squealed.

"But you know, he really shoved aside the 'I am a man, I can throw a woman over my shoulder' mentality. I think you're training Damon really well in the sweet boyfriend department. I remember when Xavier used to tell me what to do. Now he calls it 'advising'. Don't worry, I do take charge when I do this trick in bed–"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," I groaned, feeling angsty all of the sudden. I reached for my cup and chugged down the tea before slamming it down on the table.

"It's tea, Rosie, not a shot."

"I need one. We found the chip and nothing has changed. Add in the fact that not only was the detective already suspicious of me coming to New York, they suspect Angelo was murdered by you guys. And now, the cherry on top, we are talking about my nonexistent sex life!" I rambled, the hysteria clear in my voice.

"Whoa. Slow your roll!" Maria got up as I started pacing again.

"Distraction not working anymore. Stress. So much stress!" I threw my hands up in the hair.

Maria took in my frantic state.

"All right, how about we get you to rest? You are going to trigger another panic attack if you can't calm down."

I started breathing faster. "I don't think I can!"

~*~

I grumbled as someone shook me softly.

"Rosaline? Are you okay? Maria told me you were having a hard time earlier and I wanted to check on you."

I recognize that voice.

"Hey, partnerrr, my main man," I slurred. I tried to get up, but my arms turned into jello and I face-planted into my pillow. "Mah wee taswed muney."

"What?" Damon asked as he adjusted me so I didn't suffocate.

"I said my tea tasted funny." I giggled, unable to open my eyes. My eyelids were too heavy.

"Is that right?" Damon asked in a tone I couldn't identify.

"Oh yeah. Maria said it will calm the nerves. And guess what...it...did," I mumbled with a grin on my face. "My eyelids are glued shut."

"That's fine, Flower. You can go back to sleep. We can talk in the morning." I felt some slight pressure on my forehead.

"Don't go!" I whined and blindly tried to grab him.

"Fuck! Flower, that's my ear! Let go!" Damon yelped. I giggled again as I pictured his face.

"Not unless you stay here." I dragged out, pinching his ear harder. I laughed as he cursed.

"All right, I will stay. Now please let go of my ear." Damon said, surrendering.

With a gleeful smile I released his ear and the bed moved under his weight. Without opening my eyes, I wrapped myself around him in a viselike grip.

"You're like a hard mattress." I muttered and Damon chuckled, his body shaking with his laughter.

"My condolences, Flower. I'll just let my cooking fill me up." Damon said mockingly.

"No," I whined. "I like your body. It's big and...muscly."

I let my hands massage him, trying to prove my point.

Very very muscly. I'll lick that area later.

Damon couldn't answer. He was laughing too hard.

I whacked him. "I'm trying to sleep with you. And I mean sleep sleep, you weirdo."

"I didn't say anything."

"Maria keeps talking about you rolling and pounding with me. Pounding has to hurt and I bruise easily. Definitely don't want to go to pound town with you. And I mean, what kind of rolling? Down a hill? Rolling in the sheets?"

I shot up on the bed. "Wait, that makes WAY more sense," I cackled and went to lie back only for Damon to catch me.

"Hey I was going to lay down, Darcy!"

Damon let out an annoyed sigh and muttered to himself. "It's just a fictional character Damon. Pull yourself together," then he turned to address me. "And you and Maria are talking about us having sex?"

"Mhmm. She thinks it will be hot." I let out a hiss to emphasize the 'hot'.

Damon let out a curse and I furrowed my brows in confusion. I blindly patted at his face, hoping it would make him feel better, but he gently swatted me away.

"Damn it. This is not a conversation to have when you are drugged up. We can talk about this in the morning if you remember."

I groaned and struggled to get up once more, but Damon pinned me down onto the bed. All those muscles made him too heavy.

"It's the perfect time! All my courage has elevated to levels I never dreamed of. Sex is a perfect discussion to talk about!"

"Flower, I am trying to be a gentleman, and I am only so strong–"

"Super strong." I agreed, caressing his arms.

"–I am begging you, please go to sleep." Damon pleaded. I grumbled but complied.

"Wimp." I scolded and Damon scoffed.

"Flower, you don't want to know half the things that go through my head."

I couldn't comment, sleep beckoning me back. I was able to mumble something before going back to sleep.



"Damon, pay attention to me!"

I jolted in my seat. I scowled at Xavier.

"Is there a reason you're begging for my attention?"

"I'm not begging, Asshole. You just aren't paying attention to me. Erik has decoded Angelo's software and is ready to show it to us. Let's go."

Xavier ushered me out of the office and into one of the main meeting rooms. "You've been off all morning. What's the matter with you?"

"Your wife gave my girlfriend sleeping medication."

Rosaline had slept the rest of the night, but I hardly did. I discovered that Rosaline had a tendency to sleep talk under heavy medication. She would mutter about sex, something that I naively thought she wouldn't know anything about.

I knew Flower loved to read romance novels, but what the hell was she reading? She would describe erotic positions and use dialogue that made my imagination go wild and all my blood run south. Whatever sex dreams she was having, I hope that I was one of the stars participating.

It was the longest night of my fucking life as I laid there aroused and wide awake, not able to move to adjust myself in fear Rosaline would wake up. It also didn't help that she wrapped herself around me, all her soft curves against me. I wasn't sure if I was in heaven or hell.

Probably both.

When she woke up earlier this morning, she didn't remember anything, which was both a relief and a disappointment. I wisely kept my mouth shut, knowing she would only get red and embarrassed if she found out. I didn't need her to be flustered around me.

Well, that's a lie. I would love to see her flustered under different and more dirty circumstances.

So I went to work, frustrated and tired as I tried to forget the whispers Flower sent to my ears and imagination.

Xavier shrugged. "Maria said she needed some help resting."

I rolled my eyes as we entered the room and sat in our seats. "When I drug people, it's wrong, but when Sugar does it, it's fine?"

"We can call it even then." Xavier dismissed my argument, recalling the time I drugged Maria in high school– for good reasons of course. Hell, I recalled that Xavier approved of the idea.

Erik and John quickly came into the room and closed the door behind them.

"I finally broke through the chip. Angelo created a special program that held his notes. It was designed so only someone with an access code could transfer the information from any device into the software. Pretty clever," Erik admitted. "I haven't looked because I thought we could all look at everything together."

"Open the files." Xavier ordered

"Yes, sir." Erik responded and shared his tablet's screen to the large TV in the room.

The monitor immediately showed a list of folders. There were hundreds of names, some I recognized. I pointed to the screen.

"I recognize that name. Sophia Rodriguez. She's the head of environmental protections for New York State. Open her file."

Her profile opened, showing a photo of herself and her background. A chart and graph appeared on the screen as well.

"According to her file, she has multiple bank accounts. Over a million dollars are stashed in a few of them. That's way more than she'll ever earn with her salary." Erik said.

Xavier whistled. "Well. Ms. Rodriguez has been busy. Show me her transactions."

"It seems that all of it is coming from Sunshine Enterprises. I can run a search on the name, but it's probably a fake," John stated plainly.

"Are there any other notes?" I asked.

Erik continued through the file.

"She's been approving plans for a pipeline in the western part of the state. There have been multiple petitions and lawmakers after her ass, but she had declined or dodged all of them with loopholes. There's nothing beneficial here for anyone except for corporations...and guess which one of them is in support of this pipeline?"

"Arms and Protection Corporation. Howard Campbell. They're all connected to each other in some way." Xavier smiled with wicked glee.

Erik pulled out of Sophia Rodriguez's profile to scan the other names. "Campbell is on here as well. All his covered tracks are revealed in this software. This? This is enough for Lorenzo to kill Angelo and go after Rosaline." Erik said grimly.

"I thought the Diablos were mostly based in California." John said as he analyzed the information.

"Key word is 'mostly'. It seems they've branched out in ways we didn't imagine," Erik said and changed the screen. "These are the different cities and towns that are in the database. There's at least one in every state."

Shit. The Diablos' influence was spreading to politicians and businessmen across the country. Just how much control did they have? How much damage have they already caused?

Xavier let out a loud laugh, holding his side in hysterics.

We all looked at him warily as he tried to calm himself down.

"Xavier, now is not the time to have a breakdown. What are you thinking?" I asked slowly.

Xavier shook his head, waving his hand to the screen filled with criminal evidence.

"This...All the work Angelo has done is going to bite the Diablos on their asses. This is fucking fantastic. The transactions, connections, names, everything. We can take them all down. Every single one of them." Xavier wheezed. "Lorenzo thought he could silence Angelo, but he has no fucking idea."

"Xavier, there are hundreds of them here. We can't do it all at once. If we start in on them right away, Lorenzo and the rest of the Diablos will get suspicious. They'll run or rebuild their network using their connections. It will never end, " I explained to him. "This has to be handled subtly or the Diablos will use their power to take us down."

"No, but this list," Xavier pointed out. "Angelo collected confirmed some of the cities and areas we had suspected them to be working in. He also gave us several people involved in their agenda. But Angelo also gave us something better– he gave us a list of suspects. Someone that might be in charge of a large criminal organization?"

I started to grin as understanding dawned.

"If we figure out and take down the leader, their whole organization will fall apart. All of their plans and fortune will come to a halt and the feds will hunt the rest of them down. We just push them in the right direction. Then they're out and Rosaline will be safe."

"Suspects?" John asked and stared at the total number. "All five hundred forty-five of them?"

"Yes, and soon the Diablos will think there will be two hundred forty-six allies at their disposal. I think it's time we personally infiltrate their little family," Xavier growled. "Lorenzo and the Diablos may know that someone has been after them, but they don't know our faces. Erik, contact our event committee. We have a gala that needs to be organized. And Damon?" Xavier looked at me with a wicked smile.

"I think it's time Ro met your parents."