Text Message—Wed, Dec 14, 8:58 p.m.
Zane: Hey pretty girl
Well, this was something new. I hadn’t expected Zane to contact me again since the booty call query.
Text Message—Wed, Dec 14, 9:22 p.m.
Me: Hi handsome ;)
Hey, I could be flirty when I wanted to. And I was actually getting used to him, so I felt maybe I should open up a little bit more.
Zane: What’re you doing?
Me: Painting my toenails
Zane: Nice. Color?
Me: Um…
Zane: What?
Me: I kinda don’t wanna tell you
Zane: Why?
Me: It’s weird
Zane: And?
Me: It’s kind of a yucky name
Zane: Yucky…?
Me: Are you making fun of me, Zane Powers, newly appointed detective? -_-
Zane: Me? Never. ;) Saw the article, did ya?
Me: I did. Congratulations!
Zane: Thanks
Me: So do you have to wear one of those Sherlock Holmes hats now? Carry a magnifying glass? Wear a trench coat? :P
Zane: Only on Wednesdays
Me: Nice! I’ll be sure to drop by the station on Wednesdays. So is Robocop sad he lost his partner?
Zane: Robocop? Pope?
Me: Yeah. The one who tried arresting me on public intox O_o
Zane: He wasn’t my partner. I was training him. And he’s a rookie so he’s just eager
Me: Ya think? Also, who’s Scout Powers?
Zane: Cousin’s wife.
Me: Gotcha
Zane: So color?
Me: Of?
Zane: Your toenail polish
Me: Oh…
Zane: C’mon, Syrena. Spill
Me: Don’t say I didn’t warn you
Zane: Hit me
Me: It’s embarrassing
Zane: Do I need to do a drive-by to see it?
Oohh. I couldn’t say I was opposed to seeing him.
Me: It’s really not a big deal
Zane: Then tell me
Me: Ugh
Zane: Does someone need coaxing here ‘cause as a middle child I’ve perfected the art of making anyone do my bidding
I just bet he had, and I knew it wouldn’t take a lot for him to get me into bed again. God. I was such a slut. But his mentioning his middle child status intrigued me.
Me: You’re a middle child, huh?
Zane: Yes, ma’am. Two older and three younger brothers, all within a year or so apart
Me: Holy crap. Is your mom in the nuthouse after raising six boys?
Zane: ha She’s as sane as they come, believe it or not
Me: You’d better be especially nice to her because raising that many boys, she deserves a medal. Or at least a lifetime supply of black tie mousse cake from Olive Garden
Zane: We take care of her, honest
Me: Good :D
Zane: So, once again, I need to know the color
Me: Color?
Zane: Babe. Don’t make me handcuff you to the bed while I coax it out of you
Oh, damn. Womb dip and butterflies at full force as I sucked in a breath, and my stupid horny fingers typed out a reply before I could even think about it.
Me: Ooohhh, I triple dog dare you ;)
Zane: Jillian…
Instead of going with it and flirting like hell with him, I became nervous. Annnnd here came the blurting of dumb things.
Me: A Unicorn Farted in My Polish!
Zane: Uh what?
Me: My nail polish. That’s what it’s called. And it’s so cute! It has green & pink & blue & yellow & red & white glitter! In all kinds of shapes like stars & moons & hearts!
Zane: I need to see this shit to believe it
Me: Did you know nail polish was used in 3000 BC in China?
Ergh.
Zane: Is that so? You know it has guncotton in it which is an explosive
Me: Well, I feel really safe now o.O
Zane: Don’t worry. Something happens, we’ll blame the unicorn
God. I really liked him.
Zane: So, when CAN I see it?
He wanted to see me. But I had to know what this was.
Me: Look, Zane. If all you’re looking for is a booty call, I’m sure there are plenty of—
I didn’t finish my text because my phone rang.
Zane.
Eek!
“Hello?”
“Let’s get something straight here, Jillian,” he said in a stern voice.
Yikes.
He continued. “If all I wanted was a fucking booty call, I wouldn’t bother talking to you.”
“Oh, well, that’s so generous of you to spare me your time.”
“You know what I mean.” He let out a breath like he was annoyed and was now switching gears, trying to hold his aggravation in. “I want to get to know you. You good with that?”
I bit my lip to keep from letting out one of Izzy’s squeals. “Yes. I’m good with that.”
“Good. Now that we got that settled, what’re you doing Saturday night?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You’re sure now. I’ll pick you up at seven. Ivar’s and we’ll go see more Christmas lights afterward.”
He said that as if daring me to defy him. Like the date was going to happen whether I liked it or not. But I loved Ivar’s Acres of Clams! When Mom and Dad had come to visit two years ago, we’d eaten there and their food was to die for.
Oh, and Christmas lights? Heck yes! Ivar’s was situated on Elliott Bay of Puget Sound, and the lights were gorgeous being reflected in the water.
My brain was so busy processing all these thoughts and thinking about what I’d wear and that I really needed to tell him how bossy he was being, that I forgot he was still on the line. Whoops.
“Hello?”
“Oh! Sorry. Yes, I’d love that, Zane. It sounds like an amazing evening. Do you need my address?”
“I’m a cop, remember? I’ll get it. You’ll stay at my place after. See you at seven Saturday.”
Before I could even protest about the sleeping arrangements, he’d hung up, but I doubted it would’ve done any good to decline since I knew he was a man used to being in control.
And I thought I might be okay with that.
~*~*~*~*~
“I can’t believe he was in your room,” Izzy said Friday at lunch.
I’d told her about Wednesday morning with Rusty and how freaking weird he’d been.
“I know. Creeped me the hell out,” I answered before eating a potato chip.
“And you really think he could be doing something illegal?”
I nodded as I bit into my club sandwich, chewed then swallowed answering, “It just sounds shady.”
“We should follow him one night!” she said, eyebrows raised expectantly.
“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” I agreed.
“Let’s go tonight!”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah!”
I didn’t know how good or bad an idea it was, but at least we’d find out if he’d been lying about his work situation.
After wiping my mouth, I announced, “We’ll have to take your car ‘cause he knows mine. But I’m driving. You’ll end up rear-ending him or something and we’ll get caught red-handed.”
She rolled her eyes. “This is only my second car.”
“In a year, Iz. You need to stop worrying about getting arrested at protests and worry about being taken in for driving with a suspended license.”
“My license isn’t suspended!”
“Yet.” I munched on some chips as I thought about what we’d do tonight. “I think you should come over around ten. They usually leave by eleven, so you’ll come in and we’ll say we’re having a girls’ night. We can bake cookies or something. Act like we’re gonna have a movie marathon. Then when they leave, we’ll follow.”
“Can we make snickerdoodles? Those sound yummy!”
“Sure.” I took a drink of my tea. “And I guess there’s one good thing about your wrecks.”
“What?”
“He won’t know your car.”
“I knew my lack of driving skills would come in handy one day.” She giggled and I snorted.
Then we cemented our plans.
~*~*~*~*~
“God, he really is creepy,” Izzy said as we followed Rusty’s black pickup truck onto the freeway.
She’d come over as planned, we’d made snickerdoodles which the guys had gobbled up, we looked at Sephora’s website for a while then I painted her nails as we waited for Chet and Rusty to leave. But Rusty had put on the charm and flirted his ass off with her. Gross. After thirty minutes of her turning him down, he finally caught on and took off. We’d quickly gone to my room and put on the black hoodies I’d kept from my emo days, then we’d run to her car and taken off to follow him. It was now midnight.
“I told you he’s weird,” I said. “Talk about not getting the hint.”
“I know! Even when I told him about Corey and how big he is because, duh, pro football player, he didn’t get it. Yuck. I feel like I need a shower the way he was looking at me.”
As he exited off the freeway, I made sure to stay at least three cars back so he wouldn’t get suspicious. And since I knew he was probably going to the market, I didn’t panic when I’d lose him temporarily at a turn.
“This place is spooky after dark,” Izzy said, looking at the buildings we were passing.
“I think a gentrification project is in order for sure,” I agreed. “Wait, what’s he doing?”
I had to pass Rusty when instead of turning into the store, he only slowed down then kept going. I saw that he was on his phone as we went by, so he was probably receiving instructions on what criminal activity to do.
“I’ll bet he’s heading to Fishermen’s Terminal since Chet said he picks up fish barrels,” I surmised, keeping my speed steady, and watching his headlights behind me as I drove.
“Maybe we should pull in somewhere and let him go by so we can follow,” Izzy said.
“Okay.” Just as I got ready to turn into a bakery, he zoomed past us. “Good thing I didn’t put my blinker on, or we would’ve look suspicious when we didn’t turn.”
“Well, to be honest, I don’t pay a lot of attention to the cars around me and where they’re going, so I doubt he would’ve even seen us.” I gave her a side glance and laughed. “Whatever. So I need to pay attention and watch where I’m going better. Big deal.”
We followed him for a couple more miles then she pointed to where he’d pulled into a parking lot.
I drove past the lot, looking for somewhere to park as she kept her eye on him the best she could. I found another lot a little farther down, where we parked and were now making our way back to where he was, hunchback jogging as we kept an eye out for bad guys. We stopped in the lot he’d pulled into, afraid to go any farther, and watched from behind a Jeep.
I regret to say we didn’t get much information that night. It was dark and all we could decipher was that Rusty had loaded about eight barrels into the back of his truck and taken off. By the time we got to Izzy’s car, he was gone. We drove back by the market and saw he’d pulled into the back, but it wasn’t like we could get close enough to find out what was in the barrels.
As we drove back to my apartment, we decided we’d follow him another night since we had an idea now of where he went. And we knew we’d have to find another way to get closer to him out on the docks to hear what was being said. We also decided this would either work great or get us caught.
“Let the case of the Creep and the Two Stupid Girls commence,” I said as I pulled her car in to the space next to mine.
We chuckled a bit nervously then called it a night.