Disclaimer: I own nothing. I was going to write this in Latin but for the life of me I could not remember the word for own. That and the phrase Quid pro quo kept popping up in the head and I'm not in the mood for Silence of the Lambs.

Yeah I know I have severe problems.

I opened the door letting Angel and Bobby in. Bobby took a look at me and groaned. "I swear it's a good thing your brother's not here because he's kill me about now."

I rolled my eyes and shut the door behind him. "So what's the emergency?"

Angel sat down hard in one of the arm chairs. "No emergency."

I walked into the kitchen to take the mugs from Jack who was pouring out coffee. "Bullshit Angel. Remember I can tell when you're lying."

Jack slid his hands down my waist. We had found some of his emergency clothes in Rob's old room. "And I can tell when you want to go back upstairs," he whispered.

I walked out of his grasp with a smile on my face and handed out the coffee. "Fine it's not an emergency, but you found out something."

"You know anything Jerry's redevelopment project?"

I looked at Angel in confusion. "Jerry's project? That got cut off like a month ago."

Bobby sat up straight. "What?"

Angel swore. "Damn it. I found out his dream's dead. Jerry got involved with some bad people. City got on him about fraud and whatnot. Cut his loans off a month ago like Lucia said."

Jack walked in. "Why'd he lie to us?"

I looked up at him. "Maybe he didn't want you guys to bust him about it or worry." I glanced at Bobby. "Or try to help him out."

Bobby glared at me. "Funny." He looked over at Angel. "So technically, Jerry's really broke. You think this had something to do with what happened to Mom?"

Angel shrugged. "Dunno. I didn't want to say anything until I heard if Luce knew anything." He shook his head. "I'm saying that it's something that we should look into. I need y'all to go down and visit this city official named Douglas. He'll know who Jerry got mixed up with. I'm gonna go check on some other shit."

Bobby held up a hand. "Whoa, what other shit? Angel what'd you find out?"

Angel shook his head. "Nothing Bobby, I'm just checking some things. Stuff that requires some finesse that sure as hell you don't have."

Before Bobby got the chance to protest Angel made his way out the door. "Why is everyone acting so fucking crazy?" He shook his head. "Jack lets go. Time to go visit the councilman."

Jack stretched and wrapped his arms around my waist. "I'll be back later, okay?"

I nodded and gave him a short kiss.

Bobby groaned. "Please can we get a move on? I'm still not happy about this whole situation. And I don't want to see any of this."

I laughed and licked Jack's cheek while Bobby looked over. Bobby grabbed Jack and pushed him out the door. "You two are really fucking sick."

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I looked at the calendar and noticed a red dot next to today's date. I pouted. My period was changing again. Every once in a while my schedule still got fucked up and drove me nuts. If my period was coming soon it meant Lucia and Jack time was limited. I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders glaring at the evil calendar. I needed to hang out with the same friends again. At least then I had friends who knew my cycle better than I did.

My phone rang and I went to pick it up. "Yes?"

"Hey sexy," a voice breathed.

I laughed. "What do you need Jack?"

"We have a slight problem."

"What's that?"

"Sofi's on the look for Angel and he's doing some stuff. He called us in a panic and asked us if we could pick her up, but-"

I knew where it was going. Jack and Bobby were out gathering information and Bobby and Sofi would probably try killing each other anyway. "Just tell me where she is."

"She's still at the house, just keep her company. Do something fun." There was a pause. "Stay out of trouble."

I smiled. "I'll do my best."

We said our goodbyes and hung up. I pulled on my jacket and made my way next door. Sofi opened the door before I knocked and threw herself into my arms sobbing. I nervously stoked her hair and got her back inside. "Sofi, what's wrong?"

She looked at me, mascara running down her cheeks. "We need to go to the store." She shoved her keys into my hand and forced me out the door.

I drove her to the nearest corner store and she dragged me with her. Something had to be very wrong. Sofi and I got along well enough be we had never been very buddy buddy.

Sofi was muttering something in Spanish. I caught ever other word. I think she was saying something about Angel and latex? "Um Sofi. Why are we standing in front of pregnancy tests?"

She looked over at me. "I'm late. Later than usual."

"Sofi, don't you and Angel use protection?"

She shook her head furiously. "I'm allergic to latex. I know that there are others but they break too easily and I trust Angel."

"Oh." I looked around for something to say. "Well how late are you? I'm just asking because to take a pregnancy test you have to be at least five days late."

She looked at me. "Well my period has been changing and I'm nervous because I should have gotten it this week."

I grinned. "Maybe the excitement is just changing yours."

She flipped me off with a perfectly manicured finger. "See how it feels when it happens to you."

I shrugged. "It has. I'm late, but I'm always late. My schedule is always fucked up. I'd go on the pill to regulate it but I have a shitty history of clots and such. So pretty much if I took it, I have better chances of dying than anyone else."

Sofi made an O shape with her mouth. "I swear if I have Angel's baby in me I am making him change his ways."

I laughed, imagining little Angel's running around in the world. "Good luck with that." I looked at all the boxes. "So what happens if you buy one that gives you the wrong answer?"

She looked at me. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Did you and Jack use a condom?"

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We had twenty boxes between the two of us. The poor kid behind the counter looked at us in utter confusion and horror. We smiled calmly and explained it was a bachelorett party joke. As soon as we paid we ran out of the door home.

I ushered Sofi to the bathroom door and put on the TV. I was slightly calmer. I weighed the odds in my head. The chances of me being pregnant were extremely slim. Or that's what I was telling myself.

I heard the front door bang open and Sofi stuck her head out of the bathroom door. She had taken a bunch of boxes in with her and was waiting for simultaneous results. We both agreed this was not to be mentioned to the guys. The boxes that were sitting next to me were hurriedly stuffed under the couch as Bobby punched the wall walking in. It was dark out and all three of them looked very pissed off.

Jack sat down next to me pulling me close to him. "We have a problem."

Angel looked over at me. "Luce how much stuff do you hear?"

I looked at all of them. "I hear enough, sometimes more than I should. But I've told you everything of importance that I know of."

Bobby looked at me. "What do you know about Evander Peterson?"

I thought searching for the name in my head. "Oh, he goes by Evan now. Used to be big in the unions. Probably knew Jerry." I searched deeper but didn't come up with anything else. "That's all I've got. I can try to find out something else."

Jack shook his head and laced my fingers with his. "No. This is getter deeper than even what we thought."

Sofi came out of the bathroom giving me the thumbs up. Everything was fine. That was good. That meant I didn't have to test one of the kits to make sure her results were okay. She sat on Angel's lap, her hands disappearing behind her now and then.

Bobby rubbed his forehead. "We found Jerry at the bowling alley talking to Evander. He gave him and envelope." Bobby took the envelope out of his pocket and threw it too me.

I opened the envelope and peered inside letting out a whistle. "How much is inside?" I stopped. "Wait why is Jerry paying Evander?"

Jack took the envelope. "Jerry cashed ma's insurance check for $40,000. Evander works for a guy named Victor."

I could feel my eyes bug out. "Victor Sweet? Shit. That means he's the one who shut Jerry down."

Angel sighed pressing his face into Sofi's back. "Which means he was the one who called a hit on mom when Jerry's payments never came."

I felt the tension around me. "Did you walk to Jerry?"

Bobby growled low in his throat. "He's coming over tomorrow. I'm going to bash his fucking head in."

We all sat in silence. I rested my head on Jack's chest listening to his steady heartbeat. If Jerry really did have something to do with Evelyn's death there was going to be more than hell to pay. This was more than a regular killing. This was more personal than any killing that I'd ever seen.

A/N:

Shorter chapter sorry kiddies.

I know chapter 8 was weird. It was my first fluffy smut chapter I've written in many moons. I'm a bit rusty.

Also if you remember the timeline you know what's coming up. And you'll see my verdict.

But not until then. Mwahahaha.

sadvirture: Yes Jack the Sex god is everyone's favorite.

xNegAttentionx: If you are having any appropriate thoughts about rock star/cowboy/tango dancer/sex god Jack then I am obviously doing my job wrong.

:) Happy Journey's :)