A Valentine's Quest (The Valentine's Trilogy)

by Sam E. Kraemer

  “He’s asked Derek to be in the wedding, which is very considerate, but we aren’t allowed to give away the fact we’re in a relationship…to the point we’re to stay at another motel away from all of the other guests so as not to embarrass his parents and their society snobs? That’s a hill too high for me to want to climb. Look, if you love him and he’s it for you? Fine. Derek and I can stay away from his family, but don’t count on your brother being happy about hiding himself. I won’t be too happy about it either, but we’ll do as you wish because we love you.

  "At the end of the day, you, my dear sister, need to talk to your fiancé and make your desires known when it comes to your wedding. Don't allow him the upper hand in everything in your life, Cara. Marriage isn’t one person controlling another; it’s a blending of lives. You have a say in this shit, you know? The only way a life together can work is when it's an equal partnership," I offered as my two cents.

  She gave me a sad smile. "Come on, Gray. Do you really get a say with Derek about anything? I know for a fact how pigheaded he can be because he's just like Momma. I'm more like Daddy…I learned to knuckle under a long time ago and go with the flow, which is what I'm doing with Grant. This wedding is a big deal to his family, Gray. They're loaded. Hell, I don't have a say in any of it, and when it comes to Derek, you know in your heart you don’t either," she stated.

  I gently placed her on the bed and walked to the door, opening it and stepping into the hall to lean over the railing. "Derek, could I speak with you, please?" I called down.

  "Be right there," I heard him respond. I turned to Cara and tried not to lose my temper over her judgmental comments. She was pregnant and upset, likely taking out her anger on anyone within earshot. I just happened to be the unlucky fucker with whom she was speaking at the moment.

  "I get a say, Cara. Actually, I get more than a say because your brother loves me and he wants me to be happy, just as I want for him. Can you say the same about Grant? Does he have your best interests at heart with all his plans to please his parents and keep Derek and me hidden like the Valentines’ dirty little secret? He seems to have a bit of a controlling side, and he’s dictating how your wedding is going to take place. After the wedding, what else is he going to dictate?

  “Are we all just expected to go along with his edicts without comment? You’re going to pretend you’re happy about all of this shit? You know your family better than me, honey, and I’d guess none of that is going to fly," I offered my two cents.

  Derek knocked on the door frame and stood there waiting as he glanced between the two of us. "Come in and sit down. Close the door maybe?" I suggested.

  He did as I asked, taking Cara's hand once he was on the bed next to her. "What's wrong, Sissy?"

  Cara exhaled loudly and leaned into Derek’s body, a sad smile on her face. "I'm in over my head, Derek. I think I love him, but I damn sure didn't mean to get pregnant. He's a decent man, I believe, but he has distinct ideas regarding the way in which our life is going to proceed, and I know if I tell Momma and Daddy about his plans for the future, it'll be a big fight. The other thing is I don't know if I'm ready to be a mother. Fuck, he's not even divorced yet. He's planning a wedding for February, and that woman he's married to refuses to sign the papers," she complained.

  Derek looked at me, and I shrugged. I knew the guy was still married, but that was just because he was grasping at straws for any support when he met Rick and Addy, and I was the only straw available at the time.

  "Cara Lee Valentine. What the hell were you…" Derek began as he rose from the bed and began pacing. I could see he was churning up into a tantrum, and I’d seen Derek pissed off on an occasion where he’d hurt several people. Grant Keyes wouldn’t stand a chance against him if he got too torqued up about things.

  I held up my hand to the both of them. "It's too late to relive the past. We need to plan for the future. Cara’s engaged and she’s pregnant. We don’t have a time machine to undo it, so let’s look forward." As if I knew what the fuck that even meant, but it seemed like the right thing to say at the time.

  Derek turned to her with a serious look on his face. "Does he have other children? Is this his first baby?"

  Cara looked at the floor and sighed. "He has two other children. A boy of thirteen and a girl of ten. He and his wife are fighting over visitation and child support, which is what's stalled the divorce, or so he tells me. Thus far, I haven’t seen any papers, nor have I seen anything on the court docket regarding a hearing for their divorce proceedings."

  Cara dried her eyes and looked at us. "I don't love him like you and Gray love each other. I have no idea how I allowed myself to get in this deep, you know? I worked for him on a case of his, providing him with legal research. He took me to dinner one night and we got caught up in discussing the precedents I’d found to get the case dismissed. He was very excited about it and we ordered champagne to celebrate.

  “One thing led to another and we ended up back at my apartment. I hadn’t had sex in a while, so I didn’t have condoms, and he didn’t have any either. He told me he'd had a vasectomy several years ago and he was clean because he’d just had a physical. I made the mistake of trusting him, even knowing I’d recently fucked up my pills.

  “I’m not sure why I did it, but I thought my chances of getting pregnant were about ten percent, factoring in everything, I swear. After I found out I was pregnant, he comes clean that he never went back for the follow-up with his urologist so maybe he was still potent? I’m at a loss of what the fuck to do," Cara whispered as she broke down again.

  Derek held her and smoothed her long, brown hair from her beautiful face. I kissed his cheek and left them together to talk. They were close and supported each other from what I’d learned, and I knew Derek would be there for her as much as she needed him. What to do about Grant Keyes? Yeah, that was one for the books.

  Nine

  Gray

  I walked into my Contemporary American History class on Monday after the Thanksgiving break, and I was still sort of dumbfounded from the holiday. The facts of the matter were...

  The wedding was canceled after Grant's wife called him regarding a family emergency. His son was in a sledding accident, and Grant had to fly to Connecticut where she and the children lived because the boy was set to have surgery on his broken arm.

  At the news he was going home to be with his estranged wife because she needed his support, he demanded Cara was to pack up and get ready to leave as well. Cara, in turn, told him she couldn't live the life he'd planned for the two of them, and he basically told her he wanted a paternity test because he wasn't sure the baby was his after all.

  Derek had to physically hold back Rick Valentine because the man stated he was going to beat Grant’s arrogant, preppy ass into the ground for insinuating his little girl was a slut. Myself, I’d have loved to have seen that fight.

  Addy Valentine packed up a load of leftovers for Derek and me to take back to Houston, and she kissed my cheek, thanking me for being a listening ear over the holidays. I gave her my cell number and told her I'd be there for her anytime she needed to talk. Derek and Cara both told me I was out of my damn mind for giving her carte blanche to call me, but I felt it was the right thing to do, so I did it.

  Before Cara left to go back to Dallas, she told the family she was considering giving up her baby for adoption, which had Addy mad as hell. Thankfully, Rick convinced his wife to give Cara time to think things through before the shouting started and surprisingly, Addy agreed. It was a new dynamic to all of us, Adsila agreeing to let Cara have the time to consider things, but we all agreed quick decisions weren't particularly smart at that juncture, so we decided to regroup and stay in touch before we all left Waco.

  I took a seat in the lecture hall of my history class, pulling out my textbook and notebook to review the notes I’d taken during the lectures before the break. The original professor had been replaced with an adjunct on loan from Howard University in DC. We were star
ting with the civil rights movement for the last half of the class, and the large, black man who was teaching had been rumored to be a very engaging speaker.

  At the end of that first lecture, I knew the second half of the class would be incredible. That first class ended up being one of the best lectures I'd ever attended. Dr. Payne was everything his reputation had promised, and I found myself hating for the time to end.

  I was scheduled to work that afternoon at the deli, and I was happy to see Ty behind the counter when I arrived because I’d missed him while we were in Waco. He was slicing a smoked turkey breast and bopping his head to the music playing over the sound system, oblivious to people coming and going in the deli. "Hey, Ty," I greeted as I made my way back to the employee lounge area. I changed into my uniform and hurried out front.

  Having been away, I wasn't sure what was going on with everyone, so I quickly looked at the schedule and the events' book to see what we had in the offing and check to see if I’d missed anything big. When I came out from the kitchen into the dining room, I donned a clean apron and turned to my dear friend. "What’d I miss?"

  Ty grinned at me as he placed the fresh, smoked turkey on a platter to put in the cold case. "Cary hasn't come back. Maddie’s down with the flu, so Preston's been here takin' care of business. How was your holiday, my friend?"

  I laughed. "The Valentines never cease to surprise me." I then told him about the holiday and all the drama which was like a bad movie. He chuckled, snarled, and cursed in all the right places, just as a good friend would do when events were related. I was happy to have him for a good friend. I had several good friends on which I could count for the first time in my life, and I considered myself a blessed man.

  After the noon rush, Preston Wayne walked out of the office with a kind look on his face as he approached me. He was rarely around when I was there, so it was nice to see him. He managed the catering business, and I'd only worked a few events with him, though I greatly respected the man because he was kind and generous of spirit from what I’d witnessed. "Gray, can you come to my office for a minute? I’d like to discuss something with you," he requested.

  Preston was a very handsome, distinguished gentleman, and he and Maddie were well suited for each other. He was a brown/grey-haired, brown-eyed guy, and when the two of them were in the same room, you could feel the electricity crackling between them. They were both in their mid-forties, and they'd never had children, though I never asked why because it was definitely too personal for idle chit-chat. They were my bosses, and I valued their privacy as much as I hoped they valued mine.

  "Sure, Preston. I'll be right there," I told him as I rinsed my hands after I took off the rubber gloves I’d been using. I'd been breaking down a smoked chicken for our pulled chicken sandwiches and the great chicken salad we served.

  We had a deli order for five pounds of the chicken salad to be delivered to an office building down the street at lunch time, and Preston had come into the deli to cook the meat himself that morning, so I was sure he just had some instructions regarding the rest of the menu. With Cary not in, things were tight regarding staff, but we were making do. That was the great thing about working at the deli…we all supported each other and pitched in when necessary without one complaint.

  I walked into the office and closed the door, taking a seat across from the desk. He was looking at something on the computer, and I could see he wasn't happy. "What's up?" I asked, prompting him to speak.

  He flipped the monitor around to me and hit a button. It was Cary on the screen, and he was kissing someone. When the other person turned around, it was a guy, and that guy was Drew. "What the hell?" I gasped.

  I looked at the time stamp, and it was the day before Drew was shot. It was five-thirty in the morning, and the two of them appeared to be very much caught up in the passion they were feeling and acting upon. I was stunned for a moment.

  "Did you know Drew and Cary were seeing each other?" Preston asked after clearing his throat. He was obviously uncomfortable at what we were seeing on the screen, and I was actually right there with him.

  I chuckled humorlessly. "No, I didn’t have a damn clue about it. Cary told me he was straight and he had a girlfriend named Lori. Hell, Drew was only sixteen-years-old, Preston. Frankly, I…I'm at a loss," I responded, holding back the urge to hit something and probably break my hand. Fucking Cary had lied to me, yet again, the bastard.

  Preston nodded before he continued. "After that boy was found dead, I began combing through the CCTV video on a hunch. We don't review it if nothing's amiss, but when Andrew…well, I decided just to check. I found several other encounters between him and Cary, but I didn't say anything because I thought it was their secret and I damn sure wasn't going to interfere.

  "I held that opinion until Cary went to Caroline's house in Spain. She hustled him out of the country pretty quickly, and it didn't set well with me. I found two pieces of footage from the alley camera I believe are of interest. I burned them onto a CD and delivered them anonymously to the police station.

  “I don't want Madeline to know I'm involved, but somebody needs to pay for that boy's murder. I don't think the police have reviewed the CD because if they did? They’d have some leads about who killed Drew, I think."

  Preston then cued up another piece of footage for me. “This is from the morning he was killed,” he told me. As I watched it, I was shocked. The beating Drew took had me shaken, but there was only a dim light in the background to outline their silhouettes, and the man assaulting Drew, who I could make out because of his build, had his head covered by a hood, his face obscured from the camera. Then, in another piece of footage, the gunshot to his head was right there on film, though the killer was wearing a Halloween mask over his face. I had no idea why Derek hadn't mentioned seeing it to me. Watching my friend being shot made me sick to my goddamn stomach.

  "Oh, my God, Pres," I gasped as I tried to keep my wits about me and my sweet tea down.

  "Yeah. After I saw the beating, I talked to Park Hahn, the guy who owns the Korean place, about his CCTV because he's across the alley from where that other dead guy was found. This is who killed Drew's killer," he told me as he hit the 'enter' key.

  I watched the strangulation, and it was fucking brutal. I didn't know who the man was, but I had a feeling Derek might. I turned away because I couldn't watch the viciousness on the screen, and when Pres saw my shocked face, he stopped it.

  "I'm prepared to put it all on a disc again and give it to the cops in person, but I'm worried. They should have this footage already, and why haven't they figured it out and contacted me? Why hasn't anyone been clambering at the gate for answers, Gray?" He was truly upset, and I wasn't sure why. The footage was horrific to be certain, but as far as I knew, he didn't know the people involved.

  "Preston, what aren't you telling me?"

  "Since you guys trumped up that job for him, I got to know Andrew. I come in early in the morning and do the deposits before I go to work. He was usually here emptying the trash, and we'd have coffee and donuts together. He was a bright kid, and he had plans for the future. He wanted to get a degree in psychology and start a shelter for kids like himself who'd been put out of their homes because of their sexual orientation. Hell, I was on board with it, and I offered to help out, but he told me Caroline wanted to fund it after he got out of college, so I bowed to my mother-in-law’s philanthropy.

  "When Andrew was found dead, my heart was broken and my blood boiled. Caroline told me about that guy, Clark, coming to the house for dinner, and she told me about Jeremy Corner showing up. She showed me the film from her security system at the mansion, so I got the idea to go back through what we had here at the deli. That's when I found this footage.

  "I'm afraid Caroline will do everything she can to hide this from the police. She has no idea about the cameras we have around here because she's never come into the shop. I'm worried if I turn this over to the authorities, yet again, it'll get lost at the urging
of Caroline's attorneys," Preston told me with a raised eyebrow.

  I dug out my phone to call Derek. I heard the throat clearing when the ringing stopped, and I smiled. I'd woken him because he'd been on shift until three in the morning, but I knew he'd get up for what I had to tell him. "'Lo?"

  "Hi, babe. I know you've only been home for a few hours, but can you come to the deli? You need to speak with Preston. He's here with me now," I offered.

  Derek coughed. "Uh, sure. Let me get a shower, and I'll be right down. You okay?"

  "Physically? Yeah. Do you have a copy of the file for Drew Corner's murder?" I asked.

  I heard him yawn, and I felt horrible for disturbing him when he really needed his sleep, but I knew how dedicated he was to solving Drew’s murder, and I had a feeling what Preston had to offer was important. "Not here with me, why? It's really Homicide's case, baby boy."

  "There's evidence you need…just come down, please?"

  We hung up, and I looked at Preston. "Go ahead and burn it onto a disk. He'll need a copy of it because I have a feeling Derek’s never seen it. I’m guessing he’ll need to ask around the Precinct regarding why nobody asked followed up on this footage after it was reviewed…if it was reviewed," I speculated.

  Preston sighed. "Look, I'm the only one who knows about those cameras outside. They're hidden well, trust me. I just had a feeling something was up with Cary because why the fuck would you work at a deli owned by your aunt for free? He was selling drugs out of here, Gray. The guy who was found up the street? He was the contact from whom Cary bought the drugs, I believe. It was just weed, but it was good weed. I found a stash in his locker once, but I never told Maddie. He's her nephew, and she's very protective of him."