A couple of weeks passed by silently. Pleasantly, even. I’d known before I left that Sallisaw had been run underground by the Feds, but I’d still feared him finding me. Ramsey had put the rental agreement in his name and while the property manager and Mack knew that it was me staying there, no one else did. It wasn’t a huge precaution, but it was one he made me take since I refused to be followed around by anyone.
With the connection between the victims from my cases and the glass shards, the Feds had gone after Sallisaw hard. He was a known criminal and they’d been tracking him and trying to get him with something solid for years. I was their first stroke of luck. My escape from him let them build a fool-proof case.
Except when they went after him, he vanished. I’d never heard of him before that day I was looking for Carver. He’d managed to avoid the attention of Dallas PD until I stepped in it with him. After, he hadn’t shown his face around Dallas, either. If the murders hadn’t been connected to him, no one would’ve thought he’d stuck around.
With the production of several large raids, the Feds managed to make him go underground. No one had seen or heard from him since the last murder. No crimes popped up that felt like him, his money laundering business was frozen, and the FBI had even seized six different massive deliveries of drugs from his ring. All of his normal crimes were silent.
It’d been over a month and I was starting to feel slightly normal again. I still had shit that I was trying to work through, but I hadn’t had a panic attack since leaving Dallas. I hadn’t taken anymore Xanax after the last bottle I’d bought. As stressful as it was to think about, the moment I’d turned in my badge, I’d felt better.
Not to say that I wasn’t stressed or anxious, still. I was. I just operated on a low-level of anxiety those days. My career was potentially over and I didn’t know if I even cared. I’d never wanted to be anything other than a cop, though. I didn’t know what else I could do, what else I’d want to do.
Like he somehow always did when I was getting more anxious than usual, Biscuit whimpered and licked the top of my foot.
I looked down at the little monster and felt my heart rate even out as my thoughts turned from work to him. He was a little ball of stress, himself, but he was cute enough that it didn’t matter. He ate my one pair of flip-flops and had chewed holes in the crotch of two pairs of my panties. Considering that I’d only brought four pairs, things were getting dicey. He also pooped so much and, even though I’d put him on an expensive dog food, it stunk to high heaven.
Mack had known what he was doing when he pawned the puppy off on me. Not that I could be mad at him for it. I couldn’t imagine what his daughter had been thinking, giving a puppy as energetic as Biscuit to him. Plus, I was already falling in love with the puppy.
I heard movement from the bedroom and glanced back to see Kevin coming out with just a towel wrapped around his waist. We’d been dating for over a year, and for some reason, we kept pushing for it to work, although it was more of a burden for both of us most days.
“Hey. You’re up.”
He came around and sat on the coffee table in front of me. “Yeah, I’ve got to head back to the city soon.”
I nodded. My running from Dallas wasn’t exactly the best thing for our relationship. Him having to sneak away to see me wasn’t ideal, either. He’d never been praised for his patience before, but somehow he’d managed to stick it out with me, even when I was withdrawn and didn’t want to be touched. As much as I wanted to be thankful for it, I felt a sense of obligation to him for it, instead.
“Thanks for coming to see me. I had fun.”
He sighed and then nodded. “Of course.”
I bit back a sigh of my own and forced a smile. “I’m sorry that Biscuit ate your shoes.”
He gave Biscuit a dark look and shook his head. “I don’t know what you were thinking, taking this dog. When you come back to Dallas, you’re not going to be able to find an apartment with him and you work twelve-hour shifts, Rain. You won’t be able to take care of him.”
I went rigid. “I will be able to take care of him and I’m going to. Sorry about your shoes, but I’m keeping him, Kevin.”
He scowled as he leaned forward and snatched a pair of boxers off the floor. Holding them up, it was clear the crotch was eaten out. “What the fuck?”
I shrugged. “Puppies, right?”
Frowning, he strode back into the bedroom and shut the door.
I let out the sigh I’d been holding and let my head fall back on the couch. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about Kevin. I did. I just felt like I wasn’t moving fast enough for him. Everything I did seemed to annoy him. I honestly didn’t know why he stayed with me. We’d never even said we loved each other and I wasn’t sure either of us did love the other.
I turned back to Biscuit and sighed again. “Well, that went well.”
Kevin came out of the bedroom a few minutes later and put his bag down on the other side of room, as far away from Biscuit as possible. He came back to the couch and pulled me to my feet. “I’ve got to go. I have a big day of appointments tomorrow.”
I hugged him around the waist and smiled up at him. “Thanks for coming to see me.”
He stroked his thumb down the side of my face, down my scar. “I wish you’d let me fix this. A couple of treatments and it would be completely faded, Rain.”
I pulled away from him and sat back down. “Drive safe, okay?”
He frowned. “Sure. See you soon.”
I watched as he left and ignored the bitter feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was a dermatologist and was determined to get me to let him repair the scar at the side of my face, but I wasn’t interested in it.
I’d had enough doctors poking around me to last a lifetime. After I’d escaped Sallisaw, I’d been in a hospital for almost a month. The scar was fine.
It wasn’t even that bad. The skin had healed into a flat line that was just a bit shinier than the rest of my face. It was pink and stood out, but I didn’t feel like Frankenstein until Kevin repeatedly asked me to let him fix it. Like I was broken.
I got up and went to the bathroom to stare at my reflection. It wasn’t the monster that the men I was around seemed to think it was. I pulled my hair back and stared at the long scar. I didn’t hate it. It was a reminder that I’d beat Sallisaw once, and though I felt weak, I could do it again if I had to. Maybe I would get the treatments to make it fade once I knew Sallisaw was dead, but until then, it was staying.
I put a leash on Biscuit and went to the door. I was trying to train him to it so he’d be okay on one when we moved back to the city. If we moved back to the city. I loved Faint Island.
I shook my head. Of course I had to move back to the city.
“Am I mistaken or it that just the prettiest lady on the whole island?” Mack called over to me from his front porch. He stood there with his cane hooked under his arm and sticking out behind him, in a beautiful, if a little aged, suit.
I whistled and strolled towards him. “You’re all gussied up. Where are you off to?”
His stood taller. “Once a month there’s a murder mystery group that meets at the bar and we try to solve a new crime each week. A bunch of old cops and friends, getting drunk and acting like we’re not almost a thousand years old when you add us all up.”
I grinned. “Sounds amazing. I was going to offer to cook you dinner, but it turns out that you’re too busy for me.”
Mack tsk-ed and wagged his finger. “Nonsense. You’ll be my guest. All the guys will be jealous. Now that your man friend is gone, you can focus on having fun again.”
“And how do you know that I wasn’t having fun?”
He had the decency to look sheepish. “You keep all of your blinds open. I could see you talking to Biscuit more than the dentist.”
“Dermatologist.”
“Same difference. Boring. You need some excitement. Go put on a dress or something.”
“I don’t own dresses.”
He shook his head. “Ladies today. I don’t understand the lot of you. You’ve all got the power to destroy us men in a well-made dress, yet none of you wear them anymore.”
I rolled my eyes. “Women still wear dresses, you drama queen. I’ll find a better pair of jeans and a clean top. How’s that?”
“A dress would be better, but you’re pretty in anything, Willows.”
“You’re full of it tonight, Mack. Have you already been tasting the liquor cabinet?”
With a dramatic bow, he shrugged and grinned so wide that I could see the tops of his dentures. “You know me.”
I hooked the leash over his hand and hurried away from him. “Keep Biscuit while I change.”
The sound of grumbling wasn’t easy to miss as I hurried inside my house and into my bedroom. I opened my drawer and frowned. I didn’t own many clothes, as it was, but I’d left most of my clothing in storage. Even if I had brought everything with me, I still wouldn’t have had anything resembling a dress.
I lived in jeans and button down tops. They were at least from the women’s section. When I wasn’t in work attire, I was in jeans and t-shirts, or jeans and sweaters, depending on the weather. I owned one suit for court and it wasn’t great. There were a few tanks tops in the mix, but they were the ones with wide straps that looked more like something a guy named Bubba would wear while fishing than anything a woman in her late twenties would wear.
I changed into the nicest jeans I’d brought, the ones with just one hole in the knee, and a clean T-shirt. It would have to do. Slipping my feet back into my worn tennis shoes, I looked in the mirror and kept my eyes on my body. It was okay, I guessed. No one would give me any kind of awards for being fashionable, but I wasn’t about to get thrown on a makeover show, either. Plus, it was dinner with a bunch of older people. They wouldn’t care.
I hurried out to find Mack trying to get his cane out of Biscuit’s mouth.
“This is why I gave you away! You eat everything but the food I bought you, you rascal!”
I hurried over and scooped Biscuit up and away from Mack. “Making friends, I see?”
Mack scoffed. “He’s a demon. He can’t come with us to the bar. They have a strict no demon-dog policy.”
Laughing, I shrugged. “I’ll put him in the backyard. I’ve got some toys and stuff back there he can chew on.”
Thirty minutes later, I was seated at a long table with what looked to be ten of the original disciples. They were more wrinkle than men at that point, but they were loud and hilarious. All of them were dressed in suits, looking as sharp as possible, each with their own bottles of liquor in front of them.
There was something to be said for how much fun I had with them. They were sharp witted and quick to throw sarcasm around at each other. The mystery they’d been working on was a local one. Someone had been putting their trash in Mr. Giovani’s trashcan at night.
I came to find out that they’d set up a sting and caught Mrs. Filstein doing it. The mystery was solved before they were drunk so they thought up other ones to work on while throwing back shots.
I stuck with one beer since I’d been designated the driver for everyone, since I was the only one with a car and because I’d broken dress code. Halfway through that beer, though, my stomach flipped and I started feeling sick and more than a little dizzy.
I stood up to go to the bathroom and stumbled. Feeling more than a little ill-at-ease, I made it to the bathroom and slumped in front of one of the toilets. Dropping my head to the cold porcelain, I groaned as my stomach rolled. Before I could empty my stomach, though, my vision turned blurry and I slipped off the toilet and hit my head on the concrete floor.
The pain dulled as I passed out.