Games of the Heart

by Kristen Ashley

  That was a lot and because it was, this did not make Mike feel good.

  “You think he’s that big of a problem?” Mike asked quietly.

  “No. But I think I was a cop in Dallas for ten years and I saw shit that you, also bein’ a cop, are probably one of the few who would believe. Safe is a fuckuva lot better than sorry.”

  “I’m with you, man,” Mike muttered then spoke louder when he asked, “How was she when you left her?”

  “Pissed as all hell,” Rivera answered immediately. “Luckily it’s boot camp day so she can go with Jerra and work it out doin’ lunges and squats and whatever-the-fuck they do.”

  Mike blinked. Then he asked, “Boot camp?”

  “You don’t got those up there in the Hoosier state?”

  “Yeah, we do. Just that Dusty does not have an ass that says she goes to boot camps.”

  Thankfully.

  “Uh…neither does Jerra. Lucky for you and me, bro, we got our hooks into the whole package. A handful and I mean that literally and thank God for it daily. But under all that soft she’s got power which means she can grip tight. You get what I’m sayin’?”

  He got it. Saturday and Sunday, he got it a number of times.

  “Oh yeah,” he muttered.

  “Yeah, I know it, bro. Only one reason a man’s up in a woman’s business after a funeral hook up and that reason ain’t because he’s nostalgic about his ex-girlfriend’s kid sister who he fucked on the good Samaritan errand of takin’ her mind off her loss.”

  Mike started chuckling. Dusty was a straight shooter and it appeared she surrounded herself with the same thing.

  “Right,” Rivera went on. “I got calls to make to cover the ass you’re tappin’. Gotta go.”

  “Thanks, Rivera.”

  “I’d say you’re welcome but I think you get I’m not doin’ this for you.”

  “I get that. Thanks all the same.”

  “Still, donuts, bro.”

  “Look forward to it.”

  “Later.”

  “Later.”

  Mike hit the button on his phone, turned back to his desk, looked across the expanse and the expanse of the desk pushed up against it, front-to-front, and caught his partner, Garrett “Merry” Merrick’s eyes on him.

  “You gonna talk?” Merry prompted.

  He’d been listening. Mike wasn’t surprised. That’s what partners did.

  He hadn’t shared. Not yet. Then again, it had only been a day.

  But Merry was his partner. So he shared.

  “Remember Dusty Holliday?”

  Merry tipped his head to the side and said, “Yeah. Vaguely.”

  “She was in town for her brother’s funeral this weekend.”

  Merry’s face grew understanding even as his lips twitched and he repeated, this time in a question, “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” was all Mike said.

  Merry’s mouth stopped twitching and started grinning.

  “You hit that?” he asked.

  Mike stared at him.

  Merry pressed his lips together before he unpressed them to mumble, “You hit it.” Then he said straight out, “Good for you, man.”

  “Better,” Mike said shortly and Merry’s eyebrows drew together.

  “Better?”

  “The One,” Mike declared and Merry’s brows shot up.

  “The One?” Merry asked.

  “The One,” Mike confirmed.

  “In a weekend?” Merry asked.

  “In a weekend,” Mike confirmed.

  “No shit?” Merry whispered.

  “Absolutely no fuckin’ shit,” Mike answered.

  Merry whistled. Then he smiled.

  Then he repeated, “Good for you, man.”

  “Oh yeah,” Mike muttered.

  Merry tipped his head to Mike’s phone. “She got issues?”

  “An ex who isn’t comfortable with that title.”

  “Fuck,” Merry murmured.

  “Yeah,” Mike replied. “She’s got a friend who’s a cop. He’s takin’ her back and reporting in.”

  “She down with that?”

  “It was her idea.”

  Merry smiled again. “Least that’s good.”

  “Yeah,” Mike repeated then grabbed his phone. “They had an incident. Gotta call her, see if she’s okay then we’ll hit the road.”

  Merry tipped up his chin and turned to his computer. Mike tagged his phone and called Dusty. It was the third time that day. None of which he’d connected. This wasn’t surprising, she’d told him the day before she had to get down to it in order to get ready for her showing.

  His call went to voicemail.

  This time, he was surprised especially after she’d had an incident.

  Maybe she was at boot camp.

  He left a message. “Hey Angel, it’s me. Checkin’ in. Rivera called. Call me back. Let me know you’re good. Later.”

  Then he hit the button to disconnect, caught Merry’s eyes, Merry hit a few keys on his keyboard and Mike pushed out his chair. He grabbed his jacket then they hit the road.

  * * * * *

  Tuesday afternoon…

  Dusty’s phone rang a-fucking-gain. Beau swiped it off his coffee table and stared at the display.

  Mike Calling.

  Fourth time that day.

  Well, fuck Mike.

  He dropped the phone on his floor, lifted his foot and slammed the heel of his cowboy boot down on it.

  The phone crushed instantly to pieces.

  He kicked the pieces across the living room of his shitty-ass new apartment that was more of a mess than Dusty could create.

  This was because he hadn’t cleaned it in four months and he no longer had Yolanda.

  Pulling his eyes from the scattered phone debris, he stomped to his kitchen to get a beer.

  * * * * *

  Wednesday afternoon…

  Clarisse was in the kitchen to grab some corn chips when her Dad’s phone rang.

  She jumped and stared at it guiltily. This was because it was after school. No was at some girl’s house supposedly studying. Her Dad was at work. And she was supposed to be doing her homework but she was watching TV. This was reiterated ten minutes ago when her Dad came home unexpectedly to get something, caught her watching TV and reminded her she should be doing her homework.

  His phone was sitting on the counter. That was weird. He’d gone to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and he must have put it down and forgotten it.

  She moved to it and saw the screen said, “Dusty Calling”.

  Dusty.

  Was that a boy’s name or a hot babe’s name?

  Before her mind told her hand to do it, she did what she knew she shouldn’t do. She did what she knew her Dad would get totally ticked at her doing because he got work calls on his phone. She did what she’d catch it for if her Dad ever knew she did it.

  Heart hammering and hands suddenly sweating, she hit the button to take the call and put her phone to her ear.

  “Uh…hello, um…Dad’s phone.”

  This was met with silence then a very pretty, adult female voice asking, “Clarisse?”

  It was the hot babe.

  And she knew Clarisse’s name.

  Clarisse didn’t know what to think of this.

  “Uh…yeah,” Clarisse confirmed.

  “Hey, honey. This is Dusty. Is your Dad around?”

  “Uh…no. He, uh…forgot his phone.”

  “Oh,” the woman called Dusty mumbled then she said, “Right, okay, can you do me a favor and tell him I called? Tell him I lost my cell, can’t find it anywhere and if he needs to call, he should call the house or the shed. Can you do that?”

  “Um…sure.”

  “Thanks, Clarisse.”

  “Uh…you’re welcome.”

  “Okay, you take care. You hear?”

  “Um…you too.”

  “Bye, honey.”

  “Bye.”

  Clarisse listened as the woman
called Dusty disconnected.

  She called Clarisse honey just like her Dad called her honey. It came easy, natural but, even never meeting her, it sounded weirdly real.

  She didn’t know what to think of that either.

  Then, before her mind told her fingers to do it, before she even knew why she did it, her thumb started hitting buttons. Like any child born in the technical age, she didn’t know her father’s phone but without delay or effort she found what she needed to find. Then she deleted the woman called Dusty’s call from her father’s history.

  Then she licked her lips and put the phone down on the counter hoping she placed it exactly where her Dad left it and she was careful with this. He noticed stuff. She didn’t know if this was because he was a cop or a Dad. She had no idea in reality it was both.

  And as she stood there, she began to wonder why she’d deleted the woman called Dusty’s history from her Dad’s phone. Then she began to wish she hadn’t. Then she really wished she hadn’t.

  She jumped nearly out of her skin when she heard the front door open. Layla, who’d been hanging out in the kitchen with Clarisse wondering if Clarisse was feeling generous, dashed to the door. Clarisse whirled toward it and saw her Dad walking in, Layla at his heels.

  He smiled at her and said a soft, “Hey, honey.”

  “Hey, Dad.”

  “Left my cell,” he muttered and moved to the counter while Clarisse watched.

  Now what did she do? First, she’d taken the call and her Dad would get ticked at that. Then she’d deleted the call from his history and she didn’t know why she did it so she couldn’t explain it to him. And since she had, she couldn’t give him the woman called Dusty’s message.

  Her Dad tagged his phone and turned to her.

  “You hittin’ the homework?” he asked.

  “Just gettin’ brain food,” she lied.

  He grinned at her before he tagged her with a hand behind her head and yanked her so she did a face plant into his chest. She felt his body bow as he bent and kissed the top of her head.

  She loved it when he did that. Mom never did anything like that. No kept telling Clarisse that Mom loved them just as much as Dad, she just wasn’t as good at showing it. Clarisse didn’t believe that. If you loved someone, you found a way to show it so the person you loved knew it.

  Her Dad let her go and started to move away, murmuring, “Be back around quarter after five, five thirty.”

  “Dad,” she called, he stopped in the kitchen door and looked at her.

  She didn’t know what to say. If she said what she should, he’d get angry. She liked her Dad loving on her, not angry at her.

  “Reesee, honey, I gotta go. You got somethin’ to say?” he prompted.

  “Uh…what do you want for dinner?”

  His head tipped to the side and his brows drew together.

  “You cookin’?”

  She hated to cook. No loved it but made a mess that she had to clean up if he cooked so she hated No to cook too.

  Still, if you loved someone, you found ways to show it and her Dad worked hard. She knew he took overtime a lot because they needed the money seeing as he was raising two kids on his own. But he’d always done that. Before they broke up, she heard her Mom and Dad fighting about it more than once. Mom up in his face about never being home, Dad reminding Mom that he took the overtime the other detectives didn’t want because he had to pay Mom’s bills. She wasn’t supposed to hear this but she did because she left her room and sat in the hall outside theirs and listened. It wasn’t hard to hear her Mom, even all the way back in Clarisse’s room. Mom was loud anyway but she also shouted a lot. But if Clarisse wanted to hear Dad, she had to sit outside their room since he talked quiet.

  He still took overtime. Not as much but he took it. He shouldn’t have to come home and cook most nights.

  “Uh…sure,” she told Dad.

  He grinned.

  She’d done good.

  “Me and No’ll eat whatever you make, sweetheart.”

  “Mac and cheese and hot dogs?” she asked.

  “Sounds perfect,” he said softly.

  She smiled at him.

  “Homework, Reesee,” he reminded her then, “See you soon.”

  “Bye, Dad.”

  “Bye, beautiful.”

  He left. She grabbed brain food and a pop and went directly to her Dad’s office to switch on the computer. Then she went to her room to get her books and drag them to the office. Layla followed her throughout her movements and then settled on her side by the desk chair in the office while Clarisse got down to work.

  She was done with her homework and had the pasta in the water by the time he got home.

  * * * * *

  Thursday late evening…

  Mike listened to the phone ring but didn’t have a lot of hope.

  This was his ninth call since Tuesday morning. He hadn’t called any of her other numbers because he knew she was busy and if she was in her shed or at the gallery, he’d disturb her. He’d only called her cell.

  Now it was ten his time, nine hers and he’d just got no answer on her cell so was trying her house.

  And he was trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction and think she was playing games. Since divorcing Audrey, he’d found that bullshit missed calls and ignoring voicemails were games women liked to play. Games of the heart. Games he’d learned the hard way not to play.

  “Hello?”

  She answered.

  He made an effort to control his temper.

  “Dusty,” he replied.

  “Finally!”

  He blinked at his cocked knees. He was sitting in nothing but pajama bottoms, back to the headboard in his bed.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “That’s what I’ve been wanting to know from you for three days.”

  “What?”

  “Dusty, I’ve called nine times and left four voicemails.”

  “Oh, honey, God. I’m sorry. I lost my cell phone. Didn’t Clarisse tell you?”

  His neck got tight.

  “Clarisse?” he asked quietly.

  “Yeah. I lost my cell and didn’t have any of your numbers memorized. Hunter only has your cell. So I called it yesterday. Clarisse answered and I gave her a message. Told her to ask you to call me on the home phone or at the shed.”

  “Reesee answered my cell?”

  Dusty was silent.

  “Dusty,” he called. “My daughter answered my cell?”

  “If I say yes, are you gonna get pissed at your girl?”

  “Uh…yeah.”

  “Then I decline to answer.”

  Fuck.

  His eyes went from his knees to the closed door of his bedroom. Why would Clarisse take a call? And if she did, why wouldn’t she give him a message?

  Fuck.

  “Mike?”

  “I use my cell for work. She knows she’s not supposed to touch it,” he explained.

  “Maybe it was a mistake.”

  “Right, then, if it was, why did she not give me your message?”

  “Well,” she said slowly, “I don’t have an answer to that.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “So, you’re a super gorgeous hot guy. My guess, you didn’t practice celibacy since you divorced your ex. How was she with the other women in your life?”

  “She wasn’t any way since I never connected with any of them in a way where I felt the kids would need to go through that shit,” Mike told her.

  Her voice was vibrating with humor when she asked, “Any of them?”

  Mike lost some of his anger and answered, “Yeah.”

  “How many of them were there?”

  He grinned and replied, “You don’t wanna know.”

  “Oh yes, yes I do. I need a detailed list with addresses and phone numbers so I can personally thank each one of them for topping up your experience so I get the ultimate one every time.”

  Mike burst out laughing.


  Through his laughter he heard, “Though, not Debbie’s. I know her contact info and I’m not gonna go there. If she knew I left her off that list, I think she’d thank me.”

  He kept laughing but this time Dusty stayed silent and let him sober.

  Then he explained, “Hunter told me LeBrec came calling.”

  “He did. Get this, he did this to inform me he was done with our separation. Separation!” she hooted the last word. “Told you he was clueless.”

  Clueless. Definitely. Psycho was also a possibility.

  “You have any more problems with him?” Mike asked.

  “Not so far but seeing as I’m entertaining half of the local PD and the Sheriff’s police, handing out cups of my expensive, exclusive, only available on the internet and in some countries it’s so revered it’s used as currency coffee even Beau’s not stupid enough to go there.”

  “Good,” Mike muttered thinking Rivera’s donut payback went from a dozen to about ten of them.

  “Been crazy busy but since I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it, I’m giving up the ghost and going to the mall tomorrow and getting a new cell. I’ll text you with the number.”

  “Right.”

  “This sucks,” she went on. “I need this like a hole in the head. Totally behind already and the closest mall is half an hour away in the city. Not to mention, my life was in that phone. I lost everything.”

  “You got it backed up on computer?”

  “Yeah, seeing as I’m so organized, I think the last time I did that was 1997. So it’s all good.”

  Mike chuckled through his, “Sorry Angel.”

  “Me too,” she muttered.

  Mike moved the conversation into territory he needed to take her pulse on just to get it over with. He got confirmations on what he guessed was that Dusty had not yet called Debbie to broker their deal, Rhonda was still in a state and her parents had decided that the initial one week would be three.

  “Good news is,” she finished, “my schedule I did keep on my computer and after the show, I’m pretty clear. So I hope to head back up.”

  That was good news.

  “Look forward to that, darlin’,” he said softly.

  “Want a preview of things to come?” she asked softly back.

  “And those would be?”

  She told him. She did it in detail. He listened to her come while she did it and then she kept doing it until she gave him the same.