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Beth was not in the mood for this.
She had just gotten in after spending the day cleaning, collecting and storing over a million dollars in cash for Rio. She was exhausted and hungry and just really wanted to find a spot where she could curl up into a ball and never get up.
Instead, she got an eager-faced Jane standing before her with a dazzling smile and a boxful of overpriced chocolate bars.
Well fuck.
Jane seemed to have read her face, because her smile dropped, and a small frown appeared in its place.
“I’m sorry kiddo, it totally slipped my mind,” Beth explained, rubbing the throbbing muscle at the base of her neck.
“That’s okay, mom,” Jane replied, setting the box down looking dejected.
It broke Beth’s heart. She straightened herself out and pushed aside the pain in her neck, “Why don’t we go around the block? See if we can make a few sales before the day is through?”
Jane seemed to perk up at that, nodding her head quickly and reaching for the once discarded box.
* * *
“What do you mean you’ve already bought three chocolate bars?” Beth asked, feeling flustered. This was the tenth house they had been to and they had gotten the same response every time. Everyone had already purchased some chocolate from someone else.
“I’m sorry Beth,” Alison explained gently, partially hidden behind the door, “A man and his son came around earlier this afternoon, and well, he was very…charming.”
Beth felt the blood in her veins turn to ice. No.
She cleared her throat and politely asked, “What did this man look like?”
“Tall, Latino,” Alison replied dreamily, “He had a lovely smile and such a sexy, gravelly voice.”
“Gross,” Jane retorted, nose scrunched up.
“Gross is right,” Beth repeated, taking her daughter by the hand and pulling her away. The audacity of that man. Beth pulled out her burner phone called the only number that was programmed onto it.
A sexy, gravelly voice answered, “Elizabeth.”
“How dare you,” Beth whisper-shouted into the phone.
“Gotta be a little clearer than that, darlin’,” He drawled out leisurely.
“You can’t just come onto my turf and peddle your chocolate to my potential buyers.”
“I mean,” Rio mused, “I did, and they were receptive to it. Not a lot of loyalty there if you ask me.”
Beth huffed, “Well I guess I’ll just have to sell my chocolate on your turf.”
She hung up the phone and threw it into her bag. She felt it start to vibrate, but she ignored it, ushering Jane up the driveway and into the van. She had an idea.
* * *
It may not have been her best idea, especially with Jane being there as well, but as stupid as it might have been, it was working.
Beth had driven them to a rougher part of town, bordering on the city limits where Beth had only ever been on Rio’s instructions. This was where some of the shadier deals went down, but it also happened to be the neighborhood closest to where they lived with a reputable dispensary.
Especially now that it was legal in Michigan.
Where there was weed, there were usually a hell of a lot of hungry people. Jane had already sold out of an entire box to chocolate in the twenty minutes they had set up shop just outside the doors of the place.
Beth stood close to Jane, eyes scoping the area as the young girl worked her magic and pitched her little heart out. Beth had noticed a man standing not too far from them, smoking a cigarette and watching them quite blatantly.
“A few more minutes, and then we should get going,” Beth announced, eyes still on the man who stared back.
“But mom,” Jane moaned, “We just got here, and we could probably sell both of the boxes if we stay a little longer. Please.”
Beth was immune to the puppy dog eyes, but the kid had made a good point. Another thirty minutes or so, they could sell out of the chocolate. But safety came first, and Beth didn’t feel safe with that man watching them.
A car door was loudly slammed shut, and on instinct, Beth glanced over. Part of her was not even the least bit surprised to see Rio stalking over, looking murderous. His eyes were hard and on fire and they were directed straight at her.
He closed the gap in seconds, stopping a few feet away. “Elizabeth.”
“Rio.”
He turned his head slightly to look at the creepy smoker dude and just nodded his head. The guy nodded back and walked away.
Of course. He was one of Rio’s guys. No wonder he had been watching them like it was his job. It probably was.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He asked, lowering his voice so that Jane wouldn’t overhear him.
“Selling chocolate,” Beth retorted, waving over at the whole operation going on about three feet away.
Rio looked at Beth and then over at Jane and back again. She was anticipating another barbed remark, but none came. Instead, Rio took a few steps back and leaned against the wall behind Jane, eyeing the incredibly high, but mostly harmless patrons of the fine cannabis establishment they were piggybacking off of.
There was definitely a note of recognition in some of their eyes. A new nervous energy that hadn’t existed before. Rio appeared to be well known around these parts, and from the hasty glances and lowered eyes, none of it was for anything good.
She would never admit it out loud, but she was grateful for Rio’s presence. Not for her, but for Jane of course. It added a new layer of security. Jane would be perfectly safe as long as Rio was around. Beth would bet her life on it.
Reaching up to the spot where her neck met her shoulder, she tried to massage out the soreness. Her hand was swatted away in moments, replaced by bigger, calloused hands that dug in deep and it all just felt so good. She couldn’t help it when her head fell back and her eyes closed of their own volition. She barely held back a moan. A soft chuckle emerged from Rio as he continued to work his fingers into the sensitive tissue.
Was there anything he couldn’t do? She was genuinely starting to get frustrated at his never-ending skill-set. One that now included orgasmic massages. Her mind snagged on that wording for a moment and brought fourth some very graphic mental images that were very reminiscent of some videos she came across while browsing one night.
“Sorry folks,” Jane’s voice announced happily, bringing Beth back to the moment and away from a train of thought that she wasn’t prepared to deal with in depth at the current moment. “We’re all sold out.”
There were some mutters of annoyance, which had the fine hairs on the back of Beth’s neck rising in alarm, but Rio was there in a moment, whisking Jane up and over his shoulder and passing Beth the envelope with all the money in it.
“Nicely done, kid,” Rio said to a partially upside-down Jane who giggled happily as she was carried away. Beth hid a smile, not wanting Rio to see how much she adored the way he handled children. Rio set her down once they were back at the van. He waited until Beth and Jane were both in the car and buckled in before he head back over to his own.
As they drove, Beth could see him following at a leisurely distance, waiting until they were back into Beth’s neighborhood before he peeled off in a different direction.
“It was nice of your boyfriend to come with us,” Jane dropped casually, causing Beth to almost swerve into oncoming traffic.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Beth spluttered, looking at Jane and then back at the road with a mildly shell-shocked expression.
“Are you sure?” Jane asked, looking unconvinced, “He’s around a lot, and he’s always standing so close to you, and you guys touch a lot. Kenny, Danny, Emma and I all had a meeting about it. I don’t think Emma really understood much though.”
Beth blinked. Her children were having meetings about her. And Rio. Together. What?!
“We thought you were keeping it a secret,” Jane continued, sounding well beyond years, “But we all agreed that it’s okay. We like him.”
With a shrug, Jane moved on to a different topic, completely unaware of the millions of things running through her mother’s mind in that moment. Mainly: What?!
* * *
A week later, the fundraiser results were posted on the school website, and Jane Boland had sold the most chocolate and raised the most money giving her the top spot.
Beth smirked into her coffee as she printed out the result and stuck it into the bag with the money for the next drop.