Mystery Man

  My belly got squishy.

  “Are you asking me out on a date?” I asked just to confirm.

  “Sweet Pea, I’ve been fuckin’ you for a year and a half.”

  My belly stopped being squishy.

  “I know.”

  “So no, I’m not askin’. I’m tellin’ you, dress, heels, I’ll be there at seven thirty.”

  Uh… what?

  “So, you’re not asking me out on a date, you’re telling me we’re going out on a date,” I guessed though I knew it was accurately.

  “That’s about it,” he replied.

  “You can’t tell me we’re going on a date!” I snapped.

  “Just did, babe.”

  “Con,” I muttered because that was a serious con.

  He chuckled his deep, manly, amused chuckle, then he ordered, “Get work done, I want your focus on me, not work.”

  “I don’t think I’ll have time for a date. I’m buried.” This was a lie. With the work I got done last night and today, I was catching up. I totally had time for a date and I had a life creed that stated that any opportunity to wear a little black dress was to be taken up, no ifs, ands, or buts. However, I was making an exception.

  “Was made pretty clear last night even before I fought a fire side-by-side with your old man that I had their blessing, Gwen, don’t think they’d step in if I dressed you myself and carried you kicking and screaming to my car.”

  This was, unfortunately, true.

  I shifted focus to something else annoying.

  “Did you program yourself into my phone?” I demanded to know.

  “Yeah,” he answered.

  “When?”

  “Before I handed it off to Fang.”

  “Fang?”

  “My boy who brought you your shit.”

  Jeez. That guy’s name was Fang? I could see it, I’d noticed his eyeteeth were somewhat prominent but I couldn’t imagine he’d be okay with that nickname considering it seemed to be making fun of this unfortunate dental anomaly and he looked like he could hammer a human body through cement with his fist if he thought someone was making fun of him.

  “Why?” I continued.

  “Why what?” Hawk asked.

  “Why did you program yourself into my phone?”

  Silence then, “Babe.”

  As usual, there was no more.

  “Babe what? We’ve had a non-relationship for months, now we’ve shifted and I’ve explained I’m uncertain about this shift and our future.”

  “You can be as uncertain as you want, Sweet Pea, I’m certain enough for both of us. Dress. Heels. Focus. Seven thirty.”

  I opened my mouth to say something but I had dead air.

  I flipped my phone shut. Then I stared at it.

  Then I tossed it on my desk and snapped, “God, he’s so infuriating.”

  But even as I said it, I knew deep down that firstly, I was happy I had the opportunity to don one of my little black dresses and secondly, I was just a wee bit excited that I finally, finally had a date with Cabe “Hawk” Delgado.

  I went back to work pretending that I wasn’t thinking that I hoped I got to ride in his Camaro.

  * * * * *

  It was nearly seven thirty, Dad was home and in my office watching television while Meredith was pottering around, likely rearranging all the stuff in my drawers and cupboards in the kitchen and I was in the bathroom freaking out about my date with Hawk.

  This freaking out business was partly due to the fact that I was getting ready for my date with Hawk and not sticking to my guns about not going on a date with Hawk and the fact that again, I was likely making stupid choices about all things Hawk.

  It was also partly due to the fact that I really, really hoped he liked my dress.

  The commandos were done with my security system and I knew this because Smoke had given Meredith and me a rather long lesson on how to use it.

  It seemed complicated. I’d never had an alarm system but I figured usually you punched in some numbers and presto! – security. But mine included panic buttons in my office, my bedroom, kitchen, living room and, overkill, the bathroom. It also included different codes for different types of alarms, say, windows and doors only or to activate the sensors in the house. There was also a different code that sent the message to “base” that there might be an unknown situation and they should come in “soft” whatever the hell that meant.

  Neither Meredith nor I were good with remembering numbers and when Meredith ran to get a piece of paper to write them down, Smoke looked at his feet, a muscle clenched in his jaw then he herded Meredith and I into my kitchen. There, he sat us at my big, battered farm table and quizzed us on the three different codes until we memorized them.

  He wasn’t really patient with this endeavor, especially when Meredith leaned into me and whispered, “I don’t understand what the big deal is, sweetie, I mean, I don’t want to embarrass you but your Dad and I, we do know you and Hawk are…” her voice dropped, “intimate.” I avoided Smoke’s eyes as Meredith went on. “I mean, it isn’t like he isn’t here looking out for you.”

  I bit my lip and shrugged. I didn’t know what else to do. She thought Hawk and I were an item because Hawk was making her think we were an item and I wasn’t helping matters by playing his game. Clearly, she thought I was safe under his care. I didn’t want to mess with that. Especially not the day after her home had been firebombed because of one of her daughter’s shit.

  I also didn’t want to talk with my stepmom about being intimate with anyone. Meredith was cool, she’d always been cool but she was also the only Mom I knew and she was definitely a Mom and she had been from the very beginning. You didn’t discuss sex with hot guys with your Mom, especially not super-multiple-orgasm sex.

  Dad, by the way, learned the codes in about two seconds. He’d always been good with numbers. It was his way.

  The doorbell chimed then clunked as I was staring into the mirror lining my lips and suddenly I felt butterflies in my stomach. The kind I felt when I first saw Hawk and the kind I’d denied feeling every time since when he visited me.

  “I’ll get it!” Meredith yelled from downstairs and I sucked in breath and finished with my liner, filling in with lipstick.

  Trust Hawk to press my doorbell for the first time now. I probably wouldn’t get butterflies in my stomach if he suddenly materialized in the bathroom. I’d probably get annoyed.

  I ran to my room, grabbed my clutch and wrap then ran to the door and closed it a bit so I could look in the full-length mirror on the back.

  Little black dress, check. In fact, it was my numero uno little black dress. The best of the lot. Sleeveless and it had a deep vee in front that showed cleavage, a way deeper one in the back and it had a blousy drape around the middle but clung like a second skin to my hips and the tops of my thighs were it stopped. It was way short. So short, it was almost Darla-slash-Ginger mini-jeans-skirt-short except without the skank component. And it was made of an awesome material that even on the blousy parts it caught at flesh and revealed things it was pretending it conceal. It was fabulous.

  High heels, check. In fact, they were strappy sandals, black, sexy spiked heel. They made my legs look brilliant. Killer.

  Hair out to there, smoky makeup.

  The whole thing, the be all you could be of date apparel.

  I hoped.

  I rushed out of my room shouting, “See you later, Dad!”

  “Have a good time, honey!” Dad shouted back. “Tell Hawk not to worry about the doorbell, I’ll fix it this weekend!”

  Bonus to Dad being evacuated to my house due to smoke and fire damage. Resident handyman.

  “Will do!” I yelled, though I seriously doubted Hawk was losing sleep about my clunking doorbell.

  Then I rushed down the stairs to see the living room dark but a light and voices were coming from the kitchen. Meredith was probably offering Hawk a beer. When Meredith was in my house, I gave up the position of Head Hostess. I??
?d learned it was the best way to go. She could probably go to the White House for a State Dinner and the First Lady would step aside and let Meredith take over.

  I hustled to the kitchen and stopped dead in the doorway when I saw Meredith chatting with Detective Mitch Lawson.

  I was freaked out last night, what with the fire and Dad and Hawk battling the flames with fire extinguishers, I hadn’t taken the time to admire yet again how hot he was. Now that he was in my kitchen and I was in a little black dress with hair out to there, when his eyes turned to me and he froze, I had the opportunity to process yet again how hot he was.

  So I took it.

  He recovered first.

  “Gwendolyn.”

  God, I liked it that he always said my full name.

  “Hey, Detective Lawson.”

  He did his small smile then he invited, “You can call me Mitch.”

  “Um… okay.”

  Lawson’s eyes swept me then he looked at Meredith.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Kidd, but could you give Gwendolyn and me a moment?”

  “Oh!” Meredith cried at the same time she jumped. She’d been processing how hot he was too. “Sure. Of course. I’ll just…” she rushed to the fridge and grabbed two beers, “get Bax and I a drink.” She closed the fridge then rushed to the door of kitchen saying, “Nice to see you again, Detective Lawson.”

  “Mitch,” he corrected.

  “Mitch,” Meredith called as she continued escaping.

  Oh boy. Alone in my kitchen with Mitch. No eight cops in the living room. No Hawk… yet. He was late.

  I walked a bit into the kitchen. “Uh… is everything okay?”

  His head tipped to the side. “Yeah, why?”

  “Uh… you’re here and… uh… you’re an officer of the law and there’s the small fact my sister is in some serious trouble so…” I trailed off.

  “I’m here because of your sister but not because anything is wrong.”

  “Oh. Okay,” I replied.

  “Or, anything else is wrong,” he amended.

  “Oh. Okay,” I said again.

  “I just wanted to ask a favor of you.”

  I took a breath and then repeated, “Oh. Okay.”

  And, by the way, I felt like an idiot repeating those two words but what could I say? I was in a little black dress waiting for Hawk and Lawson was hot and I knew he was into me and he was there to ask a favor. I didn’t know what to do. The situation seemed uncertain, not in a good way or a bad way, just in an unpredictable way.

  He studied me a second then, his voice dipping quiet, he ordered, “Gwendolyn, come here.”

  Without delay my feet moved me closer to him because I was a woman and when a hot guy told you in a quiet, deep, attractive voice to come to him, you just did it.

  I forced my feet to stop when I was a foot away from him.

  When I stopped, he said softly, “You look pretty.”

  He told me I looked pretty.

  Nice.

  “Thanks,” I whispered.

  “Goin’ out with Hawk?”

  I pressed my lips together. Then I nodded.

  He smiled.

  Then he straightened and moved into me so the foot that separated us became more like six inches.

  Or less.

  Then his hand came up and he rested it on my waist and before I could say anything or move, he started talking.

  “I don’t want to offend you when I say this but after last night, I need to say it.”

  Uh-oh.

  I’d tipped my head to look up in his soulful eyes and they seemed more soulful than ever.

  “What?” I asked before I could get lost in his soulful eyes.

  He hesitated then stated, “Your sister, Ginger, she’s not too smart.”

  Oh. Well, I’d expected something else. I didn’t know what but, seeing as his hand was on my waist and he was in my space, it wasn’t Ginger.

  “I kind of know that,” I replied.

  “You probably know this too and if you didn’t before the last coupla nights, then you do now, but she doesn’t think about who she’s draggin’ into this.”

  “Yes, the last couple of nights I’ve learned that.”

  He nodded. Then he said, “So, the favor I’m askin’, if you see her again, I want you to call me.”

  My body got tight but it was only automatically, nevertheless, he felt it and he got closer, his hand gripping my waist, his other hand lifting to do the same on the other side.

  “I can’t say what’s gonna happen to her. If she plays it smart, if we can cut a deal, if we can protect her. There are no promises here, Gwendolyn. What I can say is, whatever happens, she’s safer with us than she is on the street and you are definitely safer if she’s with us and not on the street.”

  I could see this.

  He kept going. “And, for you, we get her in custody, I’ll do what I can for her.”

  Oh. Wow.

  “Thanks,” I whispered.

  His fingers dug in, giving me a squeeze as his mouth gave me a smile.

  “Just want to be clear, I don’t want you to try to detain her. But if you see her, she shows, she gets in contact with you, you won’t be helpin’ her out, even if she tells you you are, by keepin’ it from us. Just call me, tell me what she said, where you saw her and if you know where she intends to go.”

  “You want me to inform on my sister,” I surmised.

  “Yeah,” he replied, no hesitation, no bullshit.

  “Okay,” I agreed, no hesitation either.

  He smiled again.

  Then his fingers gave me another squeeze and he asked, “How’re you handlin’ this?”

  God, he was nice.

  “Well, there are life lessons I’d prefer to learn, say, how to make the perfect soufflé, not that I can keep my head in a crisis that involves fiery destruction but I’m doing okay.”

  His brows went up. “You want to learn to make the perfect soufflé?”

  “Um…” I was uncertain where to put my hands. There wasn’t enough space and I was carrying my clutch and wrap. But when his fingers gripped me again and pulled me an inch closer I had no choice but to lift them and rest them on his chest. Hmm. That was better. “Not really,” I went on. “More like, I’d like to learn to make chocolate chip cookie dough in thirty seconds or less.”

  He smiled yet again.

  “But I wouldn’t be adverse to learning to make the perfect soufflé,” I continued, “if it was chocolate.”

  His smile deepened.

  Yowza!

  Then his smile faded and his face got soft as did his voice. “Lotsa shit happenin’, Gwendolyn, scary shit. You sure you’re okay?”

  Totally nice.

  “Yeah,” I whispered then, do not ask me why, I went on to share, “but I’m a little worried about Meredith. She’s using the fire as an excuse to buy a new couch and have a few days of rest and relaxation but I can tell she’s upset; she’s just not talking about it. And I don’t want to bring it up if she doesn’t want to talk about it but, Ginger, she’s Meredith’s daughter and I think –”

  “She loves you,” he cut me off.

  “What?”

  “I could see it last night, the night before, she cares about you. Ginger is her daughter and her daughter is bringing you trouble, your Dad too. She feels responsible for that and she doesn’t know what to do with it.”

  He was probably right.

  Lawson continued. “You need to talk to her about it. Assure her you don’t hold her responsible. Take that load off her because she’s gonna be focusing on other shit too, like the trouble Ginger has made for herself. She doesn’t need to worry about how you feel about the trouble Ginger is bringing on you.”

  “You’re right,” I said quietly.

  He lifted a hand and tucked hair behind my ear while his soulful, dark brown eyes watched then he rested his hand curled around my neck, his warm palm at my throat.

  This was nice too. Too nice.
>
  His eyes came back to mine. “Yeah, I’m right.”

  “We’re not like this, Meredith, Dad and me,” I assured him quickly, not certain why I was doing it, just feeling the need to do it. “Ginger is…” I shook my head, “she’s different than the rest of us. I don’t know why, she just always has been. She’s –”

  “I know, Gwendolyn,” he said gently in a way that made me know he knew.

  I nodded, feeling relief and his fingers gave my neck a squeeze.

  Right then the backdoor opened; Lawson and my heads turned and Hawk was there.

  He was wearing much what he was wearing the first time I laid eyes on him. The tailored shirt was midnight blue this time but no less fantastic. Jeans. Boots. Great belt. Black leather jacket that was an awesome style and hung great on his broad shoulders. And a Nordstrom’s bag dangling from his hand. No, a Nordstrom’s shoe bag dangling from his hand.

  My body stiffened and Lawson’s hands gripped me tighter.

  Hawk closed the door behind him but didn’t tear his eyes from Lawson and me.

  Then he put his hands on his hips, the bag banging against his thigh.

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  “No,” I said hurriedly.

  “Yeah,” Lawson replied at the same time.

  I took a careful step back and Lawson’s hands fell away.

  This was when Lawson and Hawk went into a macho man, death match stare down.

  I stepped into the non-verbal, motionless fray before it became verbal and full of motion.

  “He just came by to ask me to call if I see or hear from Ginger,” I explained to Hawk.

  Hawk’s eyes had cut to me when I spoke but the second I finished, they cut back to Lawson.

  “Thought I made myself clear,” he growled.

  “You did,” Lawson returned. “But you’ll remember, I didn’t agree.”

  “You do not use my woman to make your career,” Hawk went on like Lawson didn’t speak.

  I pressed my lips together and got tense mainly because I felt anger, and a lot of it, rolling off Lawson then I heard it in the rumble of his quiet voice.

  “Careful,” he warned.

  “She is not in this,” Hawk continued. “Ginger doesn’t exist for her. That’s what’s in here and that’s what’s communicated on the street.”