Blood & Water

Chapter 3

Sleepily rubbing his eyes, Angel bumbled out of his bedroom in his boxer briefs, looking for Carrie. He found her on the couch, in one of his T-shirts, feeding Joey his first bottle of the day.

"Sorry," she said while stifling a yawn. "Did we wake you?"

"Nah," he grunted and cleared his throat. "I rolled over and you weren't there." Angel snapped his fingers, "Then I was just up."

"That sucks, sorry," she laughed.

Angel shrugged and dragged his feet into the kitchen. "You made coffee."

"I did, I was dying," she explained. "Do you have to be out early?"

"I got some time," he said, sitting by her with a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. "You gonna go home?"

"I have to," she huffed.

"What are you gonna do?" Angel asked her with a more serious tone.

Carrie chewed on the inside of her lip. "What do you mean?"

"Are ya gonna leave him?" Angel asked bluntly. "Ya ain't exactly happily married, Carrie."

"It'll get better," she said quickly.

Angel looked at her and laughed. "Even when it was you were still coming around."

"I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted. "Right now work is suffocating him. He closes this case and maybe we'll get our own stuff together, I don't really know."

He nodded, slightly somber, and quietly shoveled his cereal into his mouth. Carrie watched him, Joey having fallen back to sleep in her arms, until her eyelids grew heavy.

"Go back to bed," Angel said, gently scooping the baby out of her arms and placing him back in the pack and play.

—

On his way out the door that morning Felipe's found Kevin on his porch, awake but incredibly drunk, still sipping from a bottle.

"Breakfast of champions," Felipe grumbled. "Going into work like that?"

"I took a few days," he slurred.

"Come on," Felipe waved him into the house. "Your wife know where you are?"

"No," he huffed. "She kicked me out."

"And you came here, I'll have to thank her for that," Felipe joked dryly.

Kevin passed out on the sofa within minutes so Felipe went about his daily business after calling his weekend worker in to open that day.

While Felipe waited for Kevin to sober up, his eldest son pined for Kevin's wife as she snored softly into his pillows. EZ pulled up out front, startling Angel, and knocked on the door.

"Imma be right out," Angel hollered to EZ.

"Let me in," EZ replied, pulling at the door. He saw Carrie's SUV, he knew she was there, and Angel's behavior only made it more obvious.

"Nah man," he opened the door an inch. "Unless you wanna see my dick gimmie a minute."

EZ sighed heavily once Angel shut the door again. He wasn't nervous, he trusted Carrie and knew even if she were to tell Angel he wouldn't go to Bishop, at least not without talking to him first.

"I gotta go, mi dulce," he whispered into her hair after pulling his clothes on quickly.

"Mmm," she smiled sleepily at him. "Have a good day, be careful."

Angel smiled and kissed her cheek before slipping out the house. "Sorry, long night."

"Yeah," EZ laughed. "I'm sure." He glanced back at the house before shaking the thought from his head. He had other things to focus on until he could call Carrie.