Damaged Goods

by Dane, Cynthia

  While it was good to know that Verónica would think of any child of Joseph’s as her own grandchild, this wasn’t what he was in the mood for right now. “I’ll be sure to pass the message on to Sylvia.” Yeah, right. Sylvia hadn’t said anything against having children, but Joseph was under the impression that she wouldn’t be game for trying for a few years yet… and she’d want a ring first. Mrs. Sylvia Montoya demands it. Not sure about Mrs. Sylvia Quinto, though….

  “Good! Because if you start acting soon, you can have a daughter, and that little girl can grow up with Angelica’s son and then true love will bloom!” Verónica said this with such conviction that not only did a nurse try to shush her, but two balloons made their grand escape to the ceiling. Joseph caught them in time and handed them back to his stepmother.

  “I’ll keep that in mind. By the way,” speaking of daughters, “how’s Reina doing?” His sister had made it to the hospital to see Angelica, but that didn’t mean she was fully recovered from what happened three months ago.

  Verónica adopted a more serious demeanor that coincided with the balloons settling down. “She’s doing better, but the therapist says she might need to take next semester off too. I don’t even know what to think right now. She’s so quiet! She won’t even go out with her friends like she used to. Only sits around and watches TV and listens to her music.”

  “She was kidnapped and…” No, Joseph didn’t need to remind his stepmother what Reina had been through. She had gotten out with only a few scratches and dehydration, but the mental effects settled in almost immediately. After connecting with a therapist, Reina dropped out of school for the semester and now considered taking the next one off as well. The only times she apparently left the house was when she went to visit Joseph for afternoons here and there. She and Sylvia got on well enough now, but Reina no longer went home by herself afterward. Either Joseph drove her back to Lake Oswego or Sylvia accompanied her on the bus. Horatio often spoke of hiring an extra driver for his daughter. And a bodyguard. A big, armed one. “It’s going to take time for her to get back to her old self. If she does much at all.” A nineteen-year-old going through something like that? Reina was already on the precipice of going through major mental changes. This would accelerate it.

  “Ah, I know. I worry about her, you know? All of that was so terrible!”

  Joseph checked his watch. “I actually have to get going. See you this weekend?”

  “Yes, yes, make sure you bring the beer. Last time you forgot and we were so dry.”

  “I won’t forget.” He only forgot last time because Sylvia held him up trying to get out of the apartment. I somehow ended up in bed more than once. Who knew a couple could have two, three quickies on their way to a family dinner? “Adios, tia.”

  “Ay, adios.” Verónica turned, and with a current of balloons following her, scurried toward Angelica’s room.

  Joseph thought he was free. Which would have been a very good thing since he was running late for a special occasion… except one last person got her way by sitting down in the waiting room of some department or other.

  “Oh, look who it is.” Stella dropped her phone in her lap and attempted to stretch lackadaisically. Too bad her shoulder injury snapped her back into her original position and made her hiss between her teeth. “The man I took a bullet for.”

  “That’s not how I recall it.” Joseph pulled out his cell phone and read a text from Sylvia. “Where are you???” He replied that he was running a few minutes behind. “I recall you jumping right into the action like some junior agent. What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think I’m doing at the doctor’s? Getting my shoulder looked at.” Stella attempted to flex it. That did not go over well.

  “Would you stop that?” Joseph hovered near her seat. Is she trying to show off to me? What an idiot. Besides her beauty and sense of adventure, what had he ever seen in this woman? Oh, right, her beauty and sense of adventure. Joseph wouldn’t pretend that they were anything but fun memories, but they weren’t the best moments of judgment in his life. Sylvia was the best of both worlds between Angelica and Stella. The love and stability he craved, as well as the fun that kept things interesting. A man sometimes wanted to have his cake and eat it too! “You’re going to make your injury worse.”

  “Please. It doesn’t hurt that bad.” Stella was such a terrible liar. She said the whole thing through gritted teeth. “Didn’t even hurt that badly when I got shot!”

  “I know. I also visited you in the hospital.” That was a conversation Joseph never wanted to have with his ex again. Stella had been so bloated on morphine that everything was a TMI festival. “How much does it hurt?” “Remember the one time I had to use my safe word with you? It hurts more than that.”

  Stella pursed her lips before readjusting herself in her chair. “You make a habit of visiting your exes in the hospital?”

  “How dare I care. Besides, I hear you’re not doing too badly for yourself in the romance department these days.” Gossip traveled quickly between the FBI and Joseph’s department. Not that anyone believed him when he said that Stella was in the FBI now.

  “It is pretty great!”

  “You have a boyfriend?”

  “Hell no. You know me, loverboy, I can’t be contained. Between you and me, I’m being sent undercover up in Seattle soon. Some sex club they think is dealing in seedier things, if you get my drift. My new partner is so hot, we’ve already done it twice!”

  Speaking of TMI… “I hope he’s able to keep up with you.”

  “Who said it was a he?” Stella waggled her eyebrows. “That turn you on?”

  Kinda. Sorta. Yes. “No.”

  “Liar. You always said I would be hottest with another woman on top of me.”

  Joseph figured this was his cue to leave. “Did not.”

  “Did tooooo.”

  He was careful to not hurt her shoulder when he touched her arm a moment later. “I’ll see you around, Stell. Good luck on your assignment. Don’t get shot again.”

  “I sure won’t if you’re not around.”

  He languidly waved at her as he finally made his way out of the hospital. Who else was going to come out of the woodwork today? The man had plans. Romantic plans, and none of them included his exes – or his damned family.

  ***

  “Hi Sylvie!” Danny Rogers came onto the phone shortly after his sister spoke with their mother. “You comin’ home soon?”

  “Hey, Danny!” Rain pattered on the windows of Joseph’s sedan. Sylvia, who had been sitting there since he went in to see his ex and her new baby (because that wasn’t a weird thing to say,) was colder than a Boston girl had any right to be. Yet here she was, huddled in both her sweater and her boyfriend’s jacket. The one that smelled like his cologne. Perfect for snuggling in the passenger seat while she called her family. “How ya doin’? I’ll be home before Christmas, don’t you worry.” Joseph had already bought them First Class tickets to Boston. He had two weeks of vacation time at the end of the year, and Sylvia was making him work for it! One week in Boston visiting her family, and then one week at his family’s beachfront vacation home in Oaxaca. I’ve never been to Mexico before. She had been brushing up on her Spanish. Except Joseph was a terrible tutor. Every time he started talking in that sexy-ass accent, Sylvia jumped him and promptly forgot how to say things like How do I take the bus from the library to the city hall? More like how to take the Joseph Express to Orgasmville.

  Her little brother was more excited than anyone else that she was heading back east. I haven’t seen him since before I moved to Portland. The separation had been hard on him, as their mother constantly reminded her. But, as her mother further said over multiple phone conversations, it was worth it if she was really sure she had bagged herself a rich hottie this time. Sylvia had reassured her mother more than once that Joseph was the real deal, and that she would love him. She better. We’ve already bought her half a new kitchen for Christmas. Maxwell ne
ver offered to buy her parents anything.

  When her mother got back on the line, Sylvia saw her boyfriend coming out of the hospital with a look of sheer disbelief on his otherwise fine face. Is there any other man in this world that makes my heart beat from one look… like he does? Ha! No. Joseph was his own kind of sexual ridiculousness. The man was also a PNW thoroughbred who could walk through a rainy December day in nothing but jeans and a black T-shirt that clung to his chiseled body. I mean, I stole his jacket, so… She was going to steal more than that from him today. If that man kept this shit up? She’d be riding his lap in that driver’s seat before they even left the parking lot!

  “Yes, we’ll be in toward the evening,” Sylvia confirmed with her mother. Joseph got in the car, started it, and let it idle while warmth from the heater filled it. Oh, no. He got out his sunglasses. Sure, there was some glare from the rain, but he was doing it to turn his girlfriend on, wasn’t he? Even with that dry look on his face… Come on, Mom, hurry this up so I can attack my boyfriend! “Yup. For Christmas. Nope. His family doesn’t care.” She had spent Dia de los Muertos with the Montoyas and Thanksgiving with Genevieve. The whole Portland clan could wait while Sylvia took her boyfriend back east to meet her family. “All right. I’ll call you before we’re set to leave. Bye.” She hung up, tossed her phone into her bag, and flung herself across the middle seat.

  “Hello,” Joseph said, catching his girlfriend in his lap. “Someone’s frisky.”

  “How can I help myself when you’re this damn fine, baby?” Sylvia squeezed his abdomen. Nothing but rock-hard muscles! I’m gonna straddle this lap and ride him until I’m all out of breath later! Joseph had been on desk duty with the occasional one-day field investigation in the aftermath of the Great Alexander Sheen Standoff. His choice, for once. But that meant he spent half his days in the gym or out running. The man didn’t have a drop of body fat on him these days. Oh, and he hadn’t shaved that morning. Joseph was going to spend his vacation in true casual style. Sylvia would reap all the benefits! “How’d it go in there?”

  “About what you’d expect. Go in to see Angelica, come out seeing half my family and the other ex-girlfriend.”

  “Whoa, really?”

  “It’s a small world.”

  Sylvia nearly had her hand down his pants when she pulled it away again. Uh, check yourself, girl. Hospital parking lot. Don’t get the dick hard unless you plan on following through. This wasn’t Northwest Portland at midnight in front of her house. Blowjobs on the street were okay there. “Ready to go home?” She had things to do. Like him.

  “Not quite yet.” Joseph opened the glove compartment and pulled out one of his spare ties he kept there for field work that required something better than Portland formal. “I have a surprise for you. I think you’ll like it.”

  “Uh.” Sylvia sat still while her boyfriend blindfolded her with his tie. “Is this some kink we’re dealing with here? Because I’m down.”

  Joseph took his sweet time answering. Oops. Caught him off-guard. “No. We can do that later, though.” She could practically hear the grin on his face.

  “So what’s up?”

  The sound of his seatbelt fastening only upped the tension. “You’ll see. Hang tight for about ten or fifteen minutes. I can’t wait to show you, Sylv.”

  “This is so kinky. You taking me to a new sex dungeon?” They had already been to the establishment that Nala and Vincent frequented. We went with them, no less. Joseph was friendlier with the couple than Sylvia was, but she was ready to carve out her own haunts with her boyfriend. It wasn’t enough for him to take her to rooftop restaurants on romantic dates. She needed some sex in there!

  “Calm down, or I’ll put on ‘80s music.”

  “Oh, no, not the ‘80s music.” Sylvia was down for ‘80s music… of the American and British (sometimes Swedish!) variety. But Joseph specifically meant the music of his father’s youth. A girl could only take so much mariachi before her brain started to melt. “That’s an unfair punishment, sir.”

  “Don’t call me that while I’m driving,” Joseph growled.

  Ooh, tingles! “And don’t sound like that unless you plan on delivering some orgasms over here.”

  “Hang tight. Traffic’s a bit messed up right now.”

  Sylvia gripped the handle near her head while they rolled down streets she could not keep track of. She had no idea where they were. What part of Portland it was. The name of the artist playing on the radio. What the square root of 67 was. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier that year… What? My mind wanders! What was the square root of 67, anyway? Gee, if she weren’t blindfolded, she could figure it out on her phone!

  The car came to a stop. It had come to many stops on the journey, but now Joseph shifted it into park and hurried to get out. “Wait here, Sylv. I’ll be right over.” She waited. Heat dissipated from the car, leaving her shivering while the rain finally let up outside. Her door opened. Sylvia undid her seatbelt in time for Joseph to take her by the hand and help her out – still blindfolded.

  He led her through a few rain droplets before stopping her firmly on what felt like a sidewalk. Cars sloshed through mud puddles behind her. The scent of dinners cooking in warm kitchens lent Sylvia a cozy feeling she had missed. “What’s going on?” she asked for the hundredth time. “C’mon, baby, I’m dying here!”

  His arms encircled her, strong and unbelievably warm. Sylvia went from slightly amused to full-blown in love all over again. “Before I take off your blindfold,” he muttered into her ear, “you have to promise me to stay as excited as you are now.”

  “I promise.”

  Her eyes were closed when he removed the blindfold. “All right, mi cosita. Take a look.”

  Sylvia opened her eyes. At first they struggled to focus. Then, slowly, through the fog and the Portland haze, a bright blue Victorian house with violet shutters came into view. A For Sale sign hung in the front yard, but Sylvia didn’t have time for that. All she saw were carefully crafted eaves, brand-new shingles, and brickwork that harkened to a time long, long gone. The front porch was bedecked with handcrafted wooden furniture, and a small wrought-iron fence lined the sidewalk. The garden had seen slightly better days, but the potential for rose bushes and a brand new brick walkway was there.

  Where were they? Did Sylvia care? She glanced up and down the street, recognizing other historical homes that were built between Victorian times and the 1930s. The styles somehow came beautifully together, like a time warp high up in the more wooded areas of Portland’s Forest Park area. They weren’t too far from Sylvia’s overpriced and dilapidated craftsman house at all!

  “What is this?” Sylvia clutched her boyfriend’s wrists as he slowly rocked her back and forth. “Joseph…”

  “My father is always riding my ass about getting into property investments. He’s so disgruntled that I still rent.” Joseph lightly kissed her neck. “So I thought, what better time to buy a home than when I have the perfect woman to share one with?”

  “Holy shit!” Was he kidding her? “You’re buying a house like this? But it must… it has to cost a million dollars!” Between the age, the neighborhood, and how inflated Portland properties currently were? Hell yeah it was over a million dollars!

  “Like I said. Property investments.”

  “The mortgage will kill you!”

  “Not if I pay it all up front. Ahem.”

  Oh, he was sly. Sylvia knew he had millions of dollars across various bank accounts, but she was under the impression that most of it was held hostage in investments or trust funds that wouldn’t mature until at least his forties. Not that she cared, of course. She loved him whether he had money or not…

  …But the money was oh-so-sweet!

  “It needs some updating, too. I was thinking about painting it a frostier blue. Something that stands out but not too much. We could also make the master bath a lot bigger. I’m talking to a few contractors right now about renovating it this spring.”


  “You’re killing me here, baby!”

  He squeezed her tighter, his kisses pressing harder against her skin. “Good. You deserve to be knocked senseless in all the best ways.”

  The neighboring lot, also boasting a Victorian home, accompanied its own For Sale sign. The lot was otherwise quiet… except for the front door opening and revealing a real estate agent and two classy looking buyers.

  Joseph abruptly released his girlfriend. “Mother?” His disbelief was palpable. Sylvia was also speechless to see Genevieve and Stanley descending the rickety stairs of the front porch.

  “We were wondering if we would see you two.” Genevieve approached them with her usual no-nonsense attitude. Her spring green pantsuit clashed mightily with the gray day surrounding them. “Can you believe how cheap real estate is in an area like this? Makes me wonder why we haven’t thought about buying here before.”

  “You’re… buying… next door…”

  “Don’t worry!” Stanley’s voice boomed down the street. More than one jogger – damn joggers, Sylvia would say for the rest of her life – looked in their direction. “We’re not moving in. Don’t want to crowd you and Ms. Sylvia, after all.” His hearty wink made Sylvia giggle, but she still could not understand how a relationship between Stanley and Genevieve worked.

  “Yes, I don’t have any plans on moving. But I am thinking about my own investment opportunities after you and I talked at length about such things, Joseph.” So, Sylvia’s boyfriend had colluded with his mother about this endeavor? Weird. But not as weird as the thought of them buying a neighboring property. “You know how I feel about your father not doing enough to ensure you have a hefty inheritance in a few years. I need to make up for his shortcomings.”

  “I still don’t follow.”

  “Your mother and I are getting into the bed and breakfast business, son!” Stanley clapped both Joseph and Sylvia on their shoulders. “What do you think? This area is ripe for something like this. This house has six damn bedrooms as it is! Can you believe it?”