“I know, dear, but I also know how caring you are, and you would never ever want someone who has been shot to go hungry, would you?” my mother said with a saccharin sweet smile. Of course my dad couldn’t say anything to that. One point for Mom, she had to have been planning how to get even with him for his behavior the entire time.
“Thanks, Mom.” I took the tray from her, and she winked. I moved out of Alex’s way so he could start walking toward the door. “You need any help?”
“Nope, I’ve got it. You forget I’ve been on my own for a long time.”
I turned back to my family once more. “I love you, I just want you all to know that, and I appreciate that I still have a family even if not all of you accept my truths.”
“Truth? I’m not the one who is lying, am I?” my dad said as he stared at me. “And this will always be your home.”
I helped Alex back out to the car and secured the ham in the back seat, last thing I needed were some of the juices dripping everywhere and baking in the Florida sun. I almost gagged just thinking about the odor.
“Do you mind if we go by my apartment? I want to grab a few things and pick up the mail. Bills for the restaurant go there.”
“Tell me the way,” I instructed and then put my truck in gear.
Ringo
“Get up, fucker, I have to take a piss.” If Chiquita could talk that is exactly what she said. Instead, she licked me to wake me up.
I locked eyes with my adorable bitch of a dog. “Don’t lie, Felicity Huffman, you know you do shit to get your way, you’d fucking spend a million dollars just to get your way.” She tilted her little apple head from left to right acting all innocent and wiggling her tail. “Exactly why did I train you not to jump off things? Oh, yeah, you have spindly legs, and I’d rather spend my money on shoes and not your vet appointments. Okay, let’s go.” I heaved myself out of bed, shocked at how old I felt. I’d broken my arm, I’d had a concussion from slipping on ice and hitting my head, but this, right here, had aged me more than anything else.
Slowly, it was always slowly, since it took at least an hour for my body to warm up and get in gear. I made my way to the glass sliding door and let the little furry bastard out, then made my way to the Keurig and slipped a K-Cup in. While it perked, I got Chiquita’s breakfast ready.
I glanced at the clock on the microwave, a little after eight, ugh. With my mug in hand, I let Chiquita back in to eat and grabbed the bag of mail I’d picked up yesterday before moving into the living room.
Cooper was working today, so I had twenty-four hours to chill and watch television or . . . try to persuade someone to pick my ass up and get me out of here. I sipped my coffee and then opened a letter, read it, and tossed it onto the coffee table, determining it was junk. It was almost always junk since my bills were done online and most places emailed everything. But taking all of that into consideration, I still got a lot of friggin’ mail.
I pulled out the next letter and stared at it instantly loosening my grip and holding it as if it were a bomb ready to go off. This one wasn’t metered mail but an actual stamp. There was no see-through window that showed my name inside.
No, someone had personally addressed it to “Ringo the Fag” in plain block letters, and my blood curdled. I froze, not wanting to open it, then picked up my phone needing to send Calliope a text.
I stared at the home screen, eight fifty-five. Biting the bullet and hoping she was up, I opened my messages.
Me: Fucking scary ass letter in my mail, afraid to open it, help.
Calliope: If you haven’t opened it, how do you know it is scary?
Me: It’s addressed to Ringo the Fag.
Calliope: Wait, I’m coming.
I sent one more text, this one to someone I utterly trusted and could help.
Me: I need you, not as Piper but as Deputy Dupont.
Piper: What’s wrong?
Me: I’m holding a letter that was sent to my home, it isn’t right. Something is wrong.
Piper: The shooter?
Me: Don’t know.
Piper: On my way, touch it as little as possible until I get there.
My knees were knocking as I paced back and forth several times with shitface on my heels. I let her out again and then resumed pacing. I slid my hands into my pockets, but that was uncomfortable because my hands wanted to move. Gathering all of the true junk mail, I tossed it into the garbage, but I still needed to do more. Shit, should I call Cooper? Tell him about what happened?
Nah, he has enough stress with work, I didn’t want to be the final straw.
“Fuck.” I jumped at the sound of the doorbell. I let Chiquita back in before moving to the front and peering through the peephole.
“Ringo, it’s me, let me in. I’m sweating like a whore in church out here. June in Florida, no thank you.”
That was why Calliope and I would always be friends. She had a way of making me smile even if I was on the verge of a breakdown.
I opened the door, and she—whoa, he—barged in. Calliope wasn’t dressed as Calliope.
One hand in the air to stop me, “I don’t want to hear it. You texted. I came. I didn’t have time to put on my face. So, today I’m Todd. Where’s the letter?” Todd looked down at Chiquita. “Oh, my little Hunty, come here.” He picked her up and snuggled her.
Chiquita was proof positive that you could call a dog anything, you could change their name to anything, the secret was all in the tone. Since she had never heard a harsh word, she probably would have no idea how to act if someone were mean to her.
“Piper asked me not to touch it until she got here so I figured I better listen.”
“Damn, I’m dying to know what it says. Are you scared? Of course you’re scared. I’d be shitting bricks.”
“I’m worried. What if it’s the guy who shot me? This means he knows where I live. Has he been following me? Did he follow me here? Is Cooper in danger or what about you and the others?”
There was a knock on the door and then it opened. “Everyone decent?” Piper hollered.
“No, I took my clothes off and decided to have wild monkey sex while holding a letter that might be from a gunman who tried to kill me.”
“I’ll take that as fully clothed.” She pushed the door open.
“Owww!” Todd yelled and covered himself.
“Ha ha, very funny.” Piper stepped in, and behind her was Detective Lieutenant Callum McGuire. “Hope you don’t mind, I asked Callum to come. He has a strong hand on the Bananas case and I thought he should be here too.”
“Hey, Callum. This is Todd, he works at Bananas with me and is one of my best friends.” This simple announcement made Todd stand a little straighter. Hadn’t I ever told him before how much I valued our friendship?
I gave a second for everyone to get out their greetings before pointing to the coffee table. “That’s it.”
Callum slipped on latex gloves and gingerly picked it up. He pulled out a knife and slid it under the flap. I held my breath as he dropped the envelope into a plastic evidence bag that Piper held, then unfolded the letter.
“It’s blank. Nothing,” Callum stated.
“Can I see it?” I held out one hand.
“No, I want the lab to examine it and make sure it isn’t covered in a chemical or drug of some type. It wouldn’t be the first letter laced with Anthrax.”
“Anthrax?” I jumped up—okay, more like stood slowly. “Be right back, got to wash my hands.” I headed to the bathroom and seriously second-guessed my decision to let Cooper take me in while I healed.
“Hey, Callum, what are the odds the shooter is following me?” I asked as I made my way back to the couch.
“I don’t see signs of a stalker but if this is one and the same and my guess would be it is, then you have someone with a vendetta.” Callum wrote on the evidence bag and then pulled out a notepad. “Is there anyone you can think of that has a reason to hate you, be mad at you, someone who wants revenge? Have you fired a
nyone recently?”
Todd laughed. I shook my head. “I’ve never fired anyone. I’ve had a few people quit but only because they were moving, but believe me, we threw them one hell of a going away party.”
“What address for Bananas do you have on file with SunBiz?” Callum tapped his pen against his pad of paper. The tap, tap, tap, was ricocheted around in my head, making it harder to concentrate. Shoving my hands into my hair, I yelled, “Stop! Please. That pen tapping is driving me crazy, with all of this going on it sounds like the time clock for me walking the green mile. I used my home address when I filed the name because I hadn’t chosen a location yet.”
“Okay, there you go. They probably got your address from the SunBiz website,” Callum said as a way to reassure me.
“But that means the guy has my home address. I’m about ready to go back home.”
“I wouldn’t. Let’s give it a few more weeks if you can, and let’s watch you address closely. I’ll talk with your apartment complex about video surveillance just to see if anyone has been sniffing around. Who checks your mail for you?”
“I do.”
“Would you mind if I did? I’d like to grab it before too many other hands are on it, because god only knows how many in the post office have touched it. I can drop the rest off here since you don’t live far.”
“Yeah, sure, okay.” I paused for a second. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Callum raised a brow. “What do you mean?”
“You said it isn’t a stalker, just some person who is probably pissed. They got my address off a website, but I still shouldn’t go home. You, personally, a Detective Lieutenant, want to check my mail and deliver it to me. Oh, and you want to check security surveillance. What am I missing here?”
Callum trailed an index finger and thumb at the corners of his mouth and swiped down, almost as if it were a nervous gesture.
“Don’t get worked up, I’m just being cautious. I told you what I truly believe, and that is that he isn’t a stalker, it’s someone with a vendetta. He’s pissed about something or on an anti-gay journey and the start of Pride Month set him off. But believing something and betting a friend’s life on it are two totally different things. I’m still going to be thorough just in case I’m wrong, I don’t want you to pay the price.” Callum had true sincerity in his expression.
“Thank you, I appreciate it more than you know.” I glanced to Piper. “Can you grab my keys off the counter behind you?”
“These?” She laughed, holding my signature cream dipped banana keychain in her hands.
“Yep, those.”
Callum tilted his head to get a better look at my keychain. Once he did, he shook his head. “Not saying a word.”
“Let me give you this,” I said as I wound my mailbox key through the fuck-tight metal overlapping rings. “I have another one in my apartment should I need it.”
“Perfect. Here’s my card with my cell number. If anything else happens, call me—not Piper, or god forbid, any of the other girls.”
I chuckled. “Promise.”
Callum left but Piper stayed, Todd remained quiet and holding Chiquita.
Piper held up her phone. “This has been going off the entire time I’ve been here.”
“So?” I asked.
“So? There is a text from Bridget, Sadie, Kat, and Harley then there is a small break before Stella starts followed by Ariel, Sophie, you get the idea, right?”
“Yeah, I get the idea, but how do they know?”
Piper stared at me as though I had lost my mind. “Well, Callum came out on official business, so dispatch knew where he was and the call went on record. I’m here on duty, so I had to report in. It didn’t take long for the others to—”
The door slammed, rattling windows and vibrating the closet door in the foyer. It sounded like a small explosion. Piper stopped talking and drew her gun. She put it away when Cooper rounded the corner, he was beautiful. Okay, I knew guys weren’t beautiful they were gorgeous, but he was beautiful with the muscles in his body all taught, a flush painted across every inch of him, his eyes wide and bright.
“I’ll take this as my cue to leave,” Piper said. “What do you want me to tell the girls?”
“The truth,” I replied, as Cooper huffed while mumbling something soto voce.
Todd stood and plopped Chiquita in my lap. “I’ll be going as well. Does this mean we’re off for Saturday?”
“No. I’m going to Pride Fest, Cooper is off that day as well, maybe he’ll come with.”
“Take it easy on him,” Todd said.
“I will.” I smiled.
“I wasn’t talking to you.” Todd slid past Cooper, who didn’t even move out of the archway to the living room.
Once we were alone, Cooper dropped his hands from his hips and then raised his voice like I’d not heard before.
Dash
“Did you not think about calling me? Maybe telling me what the fuck was going on? Yesterday, we took a step forward, we . . .”
“Kissed?” Alex filled in for me.
“Yes. And you said things. I thought maybe we were . . . never mind. Care to tell me why I heard it from a coworker, who heard it from a friend, who heard it from another friend, who heard it from you that you received a threatening letter? That is a ton of people talking, and you never once called or texted me.”
Alex rearranged his legs, and Chiquita fell to the floor in a thud. “Don’t be mad at me for calling the cops before I called you. I was freaked, and I’m used to handling things a certain way. You were at work, and the last thing I would ever want to do is add more stress on you.”
Alex got up and moved around the coffee table, he was headed for his room, but I had no intention of letting him pass.
“If you were going to call people, why not me? You called whoever that guy was and one of your cop friends. Sorry, can’t remember if she’s Bridget or Piper.”
“Piper. And that guy was Todd, you know him as Calliope.” I probably looked like a fish at that moment, my mouth smacking. “I know, right? He feels safer in drag, but yeah, he is one fine looking guy.” Alex smiled, thinking he was going to change the subject, but I wasn’t ready, not yet.
“I don’t want to talk about Calliope or Piper. I want to know what is going on with you.” I took hold of Alex’s hand and pulled him back to the couch. “Start at the beginning and why you didn’t bother to call me.”
“Like I said already, I didn’t call you because you were on shift. I didn’t go through my mail last night, so this morning I decided to tackle it. Most of it was junk, but one was a letter, I didn’t even open it because just the address freaked me the fuck out. It was addressed to ‘Ringo the Fag.’”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Do you have any clue who sent it, was it the man who shot you? What if he’s following you and knows that you’re here?” I got up, wanting nothing more than to check the windows and doors. I needed to know my house was safe that Alex was safe.
“Sit down. No, we don’t know who sent it. They’re assuming it was the same guy who shot me, and that he’s just someone I pissed off, not a stalker or anything like that.”
“But he knows where you live.”
“If he was looking up Bananas’ mailing address, my home address is listed as the corporate address. So it wouldn’t be too hard and besides the letter was mailed. Piper brought Callum over because he’s the detective in charge of the case at Bananas.”
“Has Detective McGuire assigned your case to anyone yet? Who’s handling it?”
“He is handling it himself,” Alex said.
I couldn’t believe it; Detective Lieutenant Callum McGuire oversaw the detectives handling cases. He didn’t handle cases. “You’ve got some mad connections. I mean, I knew you had some after your get well party, but this is saying something.” I leaned in to Alex and cupped his face. “You’re special, don’t you understand that? But more importantly, you’re special to me. After you called the police, I w
ould have liked to have been your next call. You have no clue how it felt to be left out of something so important. It had to wind through a phone tree before I heard a single word. I was hurt.”
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” Alex paused for several seconds. “Cooper . . .”
“What?” I had this desire to wrap him in my arms and protect him.
“Where do you see this going, I mean, can we go anywhere? You want me to turn to you for things, but are you even in a position to want a relationship?”
“I want one, I do. Somewhere in the back of my head, I always knew that I wanted that one special person forever.”
“But you aren’t out of the closet, do you have any intention of coming out? If not, it isn’t exactly like we can be together unless you think you can keep me a secret. Help me understand, I’m trying to wrap my head around this. I’m not a glass slipper kind of person but more of a shatter-the-glass-ceiling type.”
“I’ve noticed.” I smiled.
“Can we try something?” Alex asked. I raised one brow encouraging him to go on.
“I own a drag queen restaurant, I’m an entertainer. I love being center stage for the gay community. As such, it is important for me to make some appearances at Pride events. Will you go with me? I want you to see the community that is out there for us. There are lots more people like Stella and Everly who don’t care who you love.”
I was already shaking my head. “I’m sorry, but several of the cops and EMTs I know pick up overtime by working these events, I’m bound to run into some of them. I can’t, I’m sorry.”
“I thought about that already. Since I’m not ready to walk around the festival or stand outside for the parade, what if I get a wheelchair and you push me? If anyone sees us, you can say we’re friends.”
“I’ll think about it, okay? But I’m not promising anything.” I stared into Alex’s eyes, which were hypnotic, and at that moment, I would have agreed with anything.
I tried to clear away the haze that surrounded me whenever I was near Alex. “Now, can we go back to talking about Callum, what else did he say?”
Ringo, Slippery Banana: A Beautiful Love Story (Iron Orchids Book 7) Page 6
