At Peace (11 page)

She did need to go, he needed her to get the
fuck out of there but he still didn’t loosen his arms.

Then she tipped it.

“Do you want to come over for dinner
tonight?”

There it was.

“I’m done,” he said and watched her
blink.

“What?”

“Done,” he repeated and her head pressed into
the pillow as she tilted it to the side in confusion.

“Sorry, I don’t –”

“With this, it was good, buddy, but I’m
done.”

He felt her body lock in his arms as the
softness of sleep and sex faded from her face and shock and pain
replaced it.

His arms, not taking direction from his
brain, tightened.

“Done?” she whispered and that shock and pain
was heavy in that word.

“Buddy –” he started but she moved.

She tore out of his arms and crawled over him
so fast even if he tried, he couldn’t grab her, but he didn’t
try.

She pulled her robe on, didn’t bother with
her underwear and nightgown, didn’t even pick them up from the
floor, she left them where they were.

“Violet,” he called but she belted her robe
and he watched her run, the robe billowing out behind her as she
went.

He rolled to his back and put his hands to
his face, swiping them hard against his skin as he listened to the
sliding glass door open then shut.

It cost him to stay still, on his back, in
his bed and not go after her. It carved through his gut, the pain
acute. The only way to get rid of it was to fucking move, to follow
her, to go and get her, to drag her right back.

But he took the pain and stayed put.

Then he rolled to the side and he could smell
the scent of her fucking hair on his pillow.

The Mall

Cal barely got the door to his truck shut
when he heard his name.

His eyes went to the sidewalk and he saw
Colt, dripping with sweat and coming back from a run, slowing to a
walk as he turned up Cal’s drive.

Colt was breathing heavy but not hard, the
man was in shape, even six years older than Cal, who was
thirty-nine. Colt was built tough and stayed that way.

“Yo,” Cal greeted.

“Can we talk?”

Cal examined Colt’s face and he nodded at
what he saw and led the way to his house, not looking toward
Violet’s. It had been two weeks since that morning. He’d left the
next day and hadn’t been back.

He let them in and Cal went to the fridge in
kitchen. He took out a bottle of water and tossed it to Colt who
caught it. Then he took out a beer for himself and twisted off the
cap, flicking it into the open trash bin.

“We got a problem,” Colt announced after he
sucked back some water.

“Yeah?” Cal asked and he took a pull of his
beer.

“In the neighborhood,” Colt went on and Cal
wasn’t surprised.

Tina Blackstone had hooked up with Cory
Jones, a match made in hell. They’d been together on and off for
awhile at the same time Cory kept going back to his on and off
wife. It wasn’t pretty and it could get loud, though he wasn’t
around much to hear it. Cal wasn’t surprised it had escalated into
what Colt described as a problem. Tina was a bitch and Cory was a
fuckwad.

“What’s up?” Cal asked.

“It’s Violet,” Colt answered and Cal felt
that sharp pain carve through his gut.

“Violet?”

Colt leaned a hip against the counter, nodded
and took another slug from his water, his face set at one emotion –
unhappy.

Dropping his hand, he explained, “Got a call
from a Detective Barry Pryor, Chicago PD.”

Fuck.

He didn’t want to know but he asked all the
same, “About Violet?”

“Yeah,” Colt nodded. “Pryor was her husband’s
partner.”

Fuck!

Past tense, that was not fucking good.

“Was?” Cal asked.

“Her husband was murdered, a hit. He was
investigating a local big man, got too close, they whacked him
about a year and a half ago.”

Cal clenched his teeth and looked out his
front windows. He couldn’t see her house from his vantage point but
that was where his eyes aimed.

Cop husband. Murdered. A hit. Now she was
alone, shoveling her own goddamned snow and raising two teenage
girls.

Jesus, fucking, Christ.

“It isn’t over,” Colt told him and Cal’s eyes
went to his friend.

“Come again?”

“Pryor says that Violet caught this guy’s
eye.”

Cal’s whole body went tight. She could do
that, Violet could. She could catch anyone’s eye. He knew this
because she caught his.

“Caught his eye?” Cal asked in a low
voice.

“Yeah, bad news, this guy. Thinks he’s
untouchable. Apparently, while Vi’s husband was investigating him,
he was investigating her husband. Found out about her, liked what
he saw, took to her. Pryor thinks that could even be why this guy
moved on her husband.”

“You are fuckin’ shittin’ me.”

Colt shook his head. “No,” he said. “Got in
her business after the hit, if you can believe that shit, made it
clear he was interested after he ordered the hit that killed her
fuckin’ husband. Made it so clear, it got unhealthy and she packed
up her girls and moved away.”

Cal didn’t take his eyes from Colt as he took
another pull of beer and he suspected he now looked unhappy too,
not unhappy like Colt, a lot more fucking unhappy.

When he dropped his hand, he asked, “He been
to town?”

“Nope, but Pryor is close to her, her family.
She told her brother a cop lived across the street, her brother
talked to Pryor, told him to call us and give us a head’s up so we
could keep an eye out. Says she hasn’t had a visit here but the
brother and Pryor think he’s not done with her.”

Cal ran his tongue along his lower lip and
then clenched his teeth again.

Colt kept talking. “We need to keep an eye
out, Cal. You should go over, talk to her. I know she’s got an
alarm but it was installed before she moved in. You should give it
a once over.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Cal replied and
Colt stared at him.

“What?”

“She’s not gonna let me look at her
system.”

“Cal, she’s cool, she’ll probably be
grateful.”

“She’s not my biggest fan.”

Colt’s eyes narrowed with surprise. “Why
not?”

Cal didn’t answer and he didn’t take his eyes
from Colt.

He watched Colt’s body go on alert. “Christ,
you fucked her?”

Cal still didn’t answer.

“You fucked a cop’s widow?” Colt sounded
disbelieving and pissed, then again he was a cop, he’d feel that
like no one else.

“Didn’t know she was a cop’s widow.”

“Fuck, Cal, loss is written all over her,”
Colt clipped, definitely pissed.

“Not in your business, Colt, don’t see that
shit like you do.”

“Bullshit.”

It was. It was bullshit. He’d seen it in
Violet’s eyes, her face, the way she held her body, the dead in her
voice when she spoke and, just like fucking Bonnie, he’d wanted to
fix it. Bonnie’s shit was different, life started bad for her but
in the end Bonnie’s shit was of her own making, not a tragedy
forced on her, one she created. He couldn’t fix Bonnie. He’d tried,
he’d failed. He wasn’t going to go there again.

“Get her out,” Cal told Colt. “You and Feb
ask her and her girls over, let me know when she’s gone, I’ll recon
her house and report to you. You can work something out for her
with Chip.”

Colt didn’t answer this time, just stared at
him.

“And I’ll keep an eye out,” Cal finished.

Colt returned to their earlier subject. “It’s
done with her?”

“What?”

“You done with her? You finished it?” Colt
pushed.

“Yeah.”

Colt stared at him again then shook his head
and took a drink of water.

Then he looked back at Cal. “Not my business
but, man, are you fuckin’ crazy?”

Cal’s body got tight again.

“Yeah, it’s not your business, Colt.”

“Known you awhile, Cal.”

“Still, not your business.”

“She’s sweet, she can be funny when she
forgets to be sad. She’s good to her girls, a great Mom and fuckin’
gorgeous. Her ass is nearly as fine as Feb’s.”

He was wrong about that. Violet’s ass was far
superior to Feb’s. Feb had a sweet ass but Violet’s entire body was
built to make a man want to fuck her, want it so much, made it hard
to think of anything else.

No, it wasn’t only that, it was built to make
a man want to fuck her and it was built to be fucked. Her tits, her
ass, her cunt, pure fuckin’ heaven.

“Noticed that,” Cal remarked.

“And still, you fucked her and moved on?”

Cal was getting angry. “Like I said, not your
business.”

It was then Colt made a mistake.

“She’s not Bonnie.”

Cal straightened and his body got even
tighter.

“We’re not talkin’ about this.”

Colt disagreed. “Bonnie was a long fuckin’
time ago.”

“Colt, stand down, this isn’t your goddamned
business,” Cal warned, his control slipping.

Colt stared at him, his mouth tight, his eyes
angry. Then he shook his head in a way that made the point he
thought Cal was an asshole and an idiot. This pissed Cal off but he
let it alone. He liked Colt, respected him, lived across from him a
long time, knew him before Colt moved across the street. Colt had
even been there during Cal’s nightmare. Cal had always liked and
respected him.

“I’ll let you know when you can slip in and
I’d appreciate it, you stay alert,” Colt was letting it alone
too.

Cal nodded.

Colt nodded back, lifted the water in a
gesture of gratitude and said, “Later.”

Then he left.

Cal put his beer to the counter and walked to
his second bedroom. It was practically empty. His Dad’s old medical
bed was in there from when his Dad was sick, not much else.

He opened the curtains and looked out the
window at Violet’s house.

Her Mustang wasn’t there, her daughter’s
Fiesta was. It was four thirty, Violet was probably at work but her
daughters were home from school, likely alone and he hoped to
Christ her alarm was programmed for doors and windows and her girls
armed it when they got home.

As he stared at her house, thoughts crowded
his head.

Violet had a dead husband, an asshole
obsessing about her and a neighbor who fucked her over.

Christ, but he was a dick. He should never
have touched her.

He walked back through his house, opened the
side kitchen door nabbing the key off the hook as he went. He
opened the garage door and moved behind his ‘Stang to the back and
started digging through his boxes of equipment. It was all shit,
that was why it was back there and not in use somewhere.

He went back to the house, locked the kitchen
door and went out the front door, locking that.

He walked to his truck, swung in and headed
to Indianapolis.

* * * * *

It was the next day and Cal was standing in
Colt’s yard by Colt’s GMC, talking to Colt.

“You bought the shit?” Colt asked, his
eyebrows up.

“New system, Chip can pick it up, put it in,”
Cal answered. “Coupla things on order but they’ll be in soon.”

“You haven’t reconned the house.”

“Been in that house before, Colt, a fuckin’
million times when the Williamses lived there. I know what she
needs.”

Colt stared at him a second before he nodded
and asked, “Is Chip gonna be able to install your system?”

This was a good question. Cal knew Chip, only
boy in town who installed security and his work was good. But Cal
had bought some serious equipment for Violet’s house, the like your
normal suburban folk couldn’t afford and didn’t even know existed
but the people who paid for his services not only knew it existed,
they demanded it and they needed it with the sick fucks who invaded
their lives. Chip might not be able to work with it.

“I’ll go through it with him, what he doesn’t
know, you get Violet out and I’ll install it.”

“She isn’t Kenzie Elise, Cal, you got her top
of the line, it’s doubtful she’ll be able to pay for it,” Colt
pointed out.

“I’ll work that out with Chip.”

In other words, words he wasn’t going to give
Colt, she wasn’t paying shit.

Colt studied him and Cal let him then Colt
nodded again.

“I’ll talk to Vi, then I’ll talk to Chip,”
Colt said.

“Let me know,” Cal replied. “I’ve got a job I
can’t postpone means I’ll be outta town again in a few days. He
needs to put her top of his list and come and get the equipment. If
I need to go in, it needs to be soon.”

“
Got it,” Colt opened the door to his GMC
and explained, “Gotta get to the Station.”

“Yeah.”

“Later.”

Cal lifted his chin and turned while Colt
climbed into his truck. He walked across Colt’s yard but his eyes
were on Violet’s house. This was because her daughter was standing
in the drive, her butt to the door of the Mustang which was parked
behind the Fiesta, her eyes were on him.

Fucking great.

He crossed the street, walked passed Tina’s
house and was halfway passed Violet’s when her daughter skipped to
the end of the drive and called, “Hey, Mr. Callahan.”

Jesus. She called him Mr. Callahan.

He lifted his chin.

“We’re goin’ to the mall,” she informed him
and since she was speaking to him and she was Violet’s kid, instead
of walking right by her like he would normally do, he stopped.

Even though he didn’t respond, she took his
continued presence as indication she should keep talking. “Then
we’re goin’ to dinner and then a movie. Mom’s gonna spend Uncle
Sam’s money that he gave her when he was here.”

Cal had no response to this and he wanted to
be the fuck out of there by the time Violet got out of the
house.