I finally got the feel of the room and released a held breath, thankful Gray wasn’t with me because I’d have been ready to try to beat the shit outta someone if my guy was in jeopardy. I swallowed my nerves and turned to Cary. “Look, man, Drew is dead, so the assault and battery charges are moot. We know you did it, but we can’t charge you, so you’re okay on that count. Myself? I just want to know why.
“If you didn’t kill him or participate in his murder, then my questions are just routine, okay? If you know who killed him, turning yourself in for questioning would go a long way to help you from being charged as an accessory after the fact,” I told him, as I turned to look at Josh. “Right, man?”
All of the times I’d been around when Josh was at the deli and Cary was working started playing back to me like I was watching it unfold on television. Josh and David were just fuck-buddies for years, but I suspected they weren’t exactly exclusive, especially looking back and remembering the look on Josh’s face when Cary was around. I could see the desire Josh had for the younger man, who I actually believed to be straight at the time.
When Cary quickly agreed to take Drew home to his grandmother’s house, we were all thrilled, but as I remember when Craig mentioned the evening to Josh one day as we ran into them during a shift change, the look on Josh’s face wasn’t exactly happy.
Josh laughed at me, lowering the weapon when he saw I wasn't armed. He put it behind his back and rubbed his hands together. "You think you have it all figured out, don't you, Vali? You and Baxter think you’re fucking Cagney and Lacey, don’t you? Better than the rest of us, but you missed this one, didn’t you? That’s gotta be pissin’ you off."
I held up my hands in question. "Did I? What do you know that can make the picture clearer than I already have it in my head?" Cary nodded toward the back of the house, so Josh beckoned me to come with him, through the living room to an outdoor lounge area with a large, retractable awning which he quickly lowered. Cary came outside with a large, metal bowl filled with ice and soft drinks.
“Help yourself,” he told me as he placed the bowl on a cocktail table. I reached for a ginger ale and opened it, grateful it was a can so I knew it hadn’t been spiked with anything. As far as they knew, I was there by myself and if I disappeared, it would be a while before anybody cared to look for me…except my baby boy. I was guessing Josh was counting on Gray not exactly knowing what to do in the event of me going missing, so they believed they had time to get the fuck outta town if they killed me.
Finally, I decided to take the plunge because time was getting away from me. "So, convince me I'm wrong," I reminded them.
Cary glanced at Josh and he nodded. "Yes, Josh and I were seeing each other, and I was foolish enough to get waylaid by the young, virginal, Andrew Corner, as was my grandmother…though in a different way.
"Jeremy Corner, Clark Perkins, and I were already doing business out of the deli. We’d been getting away with it for about four months and I thought things were going fine. Maddie and Pres were clueless, and shit was groovy up until a point.”
He seemed to be sincere, so I nodded because we knew that much to be true, based on what Preston had told Craig and me when we went to meet with him the day he turned over the footage he’d accumulated. He then continued.
“Drew was the runner for the organization, and one night he came by to make a drop and decided he was seen by someone, so Jeremy told me the kid needed to be known around the neighborhood so nobody would think anything if they saw him at the deli when it was closed. That’s when Drew showed up, claiming to be homeless so he could be placed in the neighborhood for a legitimate reason if anyone asked.
“We were all making good money off of the arrangement, so I listened to Jeremy and went along with the kid being around to throw off suspicion. It was all fine until Jeremy, Clark, and Drew got greedy and went after my grandmother's money.
“She was going to give Drew hundreds of thousands of dollars to open a shelter for abused gay kids, or as he told her in his fucking sales pitch, 'at risk' youth. That fucking kid had sold her a bill of goods a mile long, and he was trying to take money out of my fucking pocket, so yeah, I got pissed about it. Caroline was set to sign the papers as soon as she could get her fucking lawyer to draw them up and she was trying to get me to buy into it with her. I knew it was a fucking hustle, okay? I told Drew I wouldn’t let it happen, and he laughed at me, telling me it was already happening and I might as well jump on the gravy train.”
I found it hard to believe Drew Corner was smart enough to devise this tangled web of lies and fool the Caroline Saunders I’d met, but in truth, I didn’t know her very well, only having had a few discussions with her. I found it hard to believe she wouldn’t see a scam of the sort coming at her. She’d been able to maintain her fortune over the years without being conned, so a sixteen-year-old kid coming at her for money seemed ridiculous, but I continued to listen because Cary seemed to have developed diarrhea of the mouth.
"Clark Perkins showed up at Gran's house to see what kind of person Caroline was…you know, was she easily duped and was she a good target to rip off. I figured it out when I saw him show up for dinner and Drew told Caroline that Clark, too, was living on the streets. My gran fell for that shit because she’s a generous person with a kind heart, and I knew I had to step in before things got out of hand and she ended up giving them the keys to the goddamn house.
"I had Drew meet me at the deli late the night before he died to try to talk him out of the shit he was trying to pull with Caroline. We talked about it and he said he was going to stop it and he’d get Jeremy and Clark to back off as well, and then we had sex, just like we did at Gran's house a few times. I didn't love the kid, really. It was just my fascination with him being a virgin, but I guess you can relate to that because of Gray’s lack of experience.
"After we fucked, Drew told me I was a naïve asshole if I believed he’d stop going after Caroline’s money. He said there was enough to go around to all of us and I should help him cut the other two out so we could keep the money for ourselves.
“He almost had me convinced he was sincere until Clark showed up because Drew had apparently called him for back-up, telling him there was a problem. I got pissed because I believed Clark was there to kill me, okay? I went after the kid and beat his ass before Clark could get me off of him, but Drew was conscious when I left the deli.
“I told Clark the kid intended to cut him and Jeremy out of whatever money he got outta my grandmother and he’d been skimming off the deliveries and selling it on the side, cutting all of us out. I told the idiot to get the kid outta there in case somebody heard the two of us fighting, and I went inside the deli to clean up from the fight.
“Perkins dragged him down the alley and shot him because that crazy fuck didn't trust anybody, but somehow, he believed what I told him. When Jeremy found out Drew was dead, he strangled Perkins. I had nothing to do with Drew’s death, Derek.
"That's my involvement in this clusterfuck, but I'll give myself up and agree to testify against Corner. Yes, I cheated on Josh, but I still love him very much and I regret what I did," Cary finished as he looked at Josh. Josh pecked him on the lips and turned to look at me, waiting for my next move.
Josh Moore had been my friend and colleague, and I always thought he had a good head on his shoulders, but if he was willing to buy the cock-and-bullshit story Cary was spouting, he was a lot dumber than I ever thought.
Drew Corner was a sixteen-year-old kid who didn't have the street smarts or the finesse to pull off what Cary had described. Besides, my fiancé was a good judge of character, and he trusted the kid and became his friend. I trusted Gray's judgment.
"Okay. I'm going to call my FBI friend to take you into custody because there's an outstanding warrant for you as a person-of-interest in another case, and Josh, if you get your ass outta here right now, you don't have to be involved," I baited as I plucked my phone from my pocket and put it to my ear.
&
nbsp; "Thanks, Vali," Josh said as he kissed Cary on the lips again before leaving the room.
A few minutes later, the front bell rang and I walked to the door and let in Cabot and Offer. When Offer started to walk by me, I stopped him. "Did you get it all? You recorded it, right? Did you let Cabot hear it?"
He nodded. "Yep, and he wants a copy of it. I saved it all on my phone, Vali."
We both watched as Cabot read Cary his rights and took him into custody to take back to Miami until the extradition back to Texas could arranged.
I sent Offer outside again with instructions to have Cary’s confession transcribed. It wouldn’t be admissible in court, but maybe we could use it to get a warrant for Jeremy Corner out of it and hopefully, the FBI could use it to secure Cary’s cooperation.
When they were gone, I went down the hallway toward the back of the house to find Josh sitting on the bed, head in his hands. "You need to get you and all your shit out of here before the FBI comes back to search the place. You know they're coming as soon as they get their warrant and they’ll bring a big fucking forensic team with them. I’m not sure how we keep you out of this, Josh, if you’ve been staying here with Cary. Your prints and DNA will be all over the place. Why the fuck…God, Josh, this could ruin your fucking career," I complained.
He glanced up at me and walked to a closet, pulling out his suitcase. "Don't get so high and mighty, Vali. I have evidence your boyfriend was in on this shit as well, so you better say I was involved in your investigation and I was undercover. You’re the golden boy at the Precinct, and you can give me fucking cover on this. Cary won’t say a fucking word about my involvement in any of this, I promise you.
“Unless you agree to cover for me, I promise you I can come up with enough proof Gray was involved with drugs to get Cary immunity to testify against them all, and I’ve already planted enough of Gray’s DNA around this place, he won’t see the light of day for a very long time. Maybe Gray was the mastermind of the whole operation and hooking up with your stupid ass was part of the plan to keep the operation off the radar? Who'd suspect him of being so devious? Obviously, not you, Derek. You fell for his shit without question,” Josh taunted.
I knew what he was doing, and I wasn't going to allow it. Fucker wasn't going to threaten Gray or me. "Okay, hot shot. Prove it."
He held up his phone and smirked at me. "I have pictures on here that look like Gray was meeting with Jeremy Corner to pick up the stash at 'Pop's' when he worked there, and that's long before Drew got involved. Why do you think Gray was so eager to take Drew into the fold after you got him the job at Wayne's? Wasn’t it a huge coincidence the kid showed up claiming to be homeless when he did? Gray didn't want to be holdin' the stash, what with him dating a cop and all. Trust me, he was selling pot and a lot more shit long before you met him," Josh suggested, making shit up as he went along.
I took a breath to calm down and keep from beating Josh to death, knowing I was out of my jurisdiction. That wasn’t going to stop me from taking the fucker in. Hopefully, I could catch Cabot before he left with Saunders. "Detective Joshua Moore, you have the right to remain silent. Should you…" I began as I approached Josh. He started laughing because he knew I couldn't legally affect an arrest. Just then, Cabot and Offer came in with guns drawn and badges in plain sight. They were both FBI, unbeknownst to me.
"Moore, on the floor, now. I damn well don't want to shoot you on accident," Offer stated. Apparently, he hadn't disconnected our phones, and he heard the threats Josh issued. I don't know how he knew they were bullshit, but I appreciated the back-up.
Within seconds, the place was swarming with agents. Apparently, there were a bunch of guys assigned to the sting, and taking down a cop was much more fun than just some amateur like Cary Saunders.
After Moore was in custody in the backseat of a black, government-issued SUV, I walked outside with the other two agents. "So, what do I need to do? I'm getting married tomorrow, so what? I need to come with you and give my statement as an interested party?" I asked hoping that wouldn’t be the case.
Cabot and Offer made me promise we'd stop in Miami at the FBI field office to offer my statement regarding the case, and I gave my word I'd be there before we went back to Texas…after we were married.
Twenty-Five
Gray
Derek and I walked into the kitchen after our escapades out by the pool. He had something to tell me, and the fact it had to do with Cary Saunders left me uneasy. “We have vodka, right? I think I’ll have a vodka tonic. You want something?” he asked. If he was drinking vodka, he was upset and that immediately had me on edge. He’d had a meeting with someone he knew from his days in the police academy, or so I was able to drag out of him before he sent me off to plan the wedding by myself.
“Uh, I’ll just have wine. Have you…is there something you need to tell me?” I asked, feeling my stomach churn at the idea he might have changed his mind about our wedding the next evening. He’d said it had to do with Cary, but I wasn’t sure what made him think of Cary while we were in Key West.
Derek mixed himself a drink and sucked it down pretty much in one gulp before he mixed himself another. He poured me a glass of wine and then took my hand. “Let’s get back in the pool. I’m still burning alive,” he told me as he took our drinks outside without waiting for me.
I had turned on the potatoes to boil for a salad I was going to make us for dinner, but suddenly, I wasn’t hungry any longer. I pulled the towel tighter around my waist and followed the same path he’d taken outside.
He was in the pool, having picked up his clothes from the deck and tossing them on the lounger where I’d been resting earlier. He’d taken my glass of wine with him to the pool deck, so I slid into the pool and waded over to where he was standing next to the opposite side, under the shade.
Derek had his back to me, and I could tell he was upset. I swallowed my heart back down, along with a healthy gulp of wine and touched his shoulder, hoping I didn’t throw up in the pool. There was only so much a pool filter could do. “Okay, what’s going on, Derek. Just say it. Peel off the band aid quickly so it doesn’t hurt so bad,” I told him, knowing it wouldn’t hurt any less if he said he’d changed his mind.
“Cary and Josh are both under arrest. Cary confessed to his part in Drew’s death. He had a hell of a story to tell. I don’t want to believe it because it puts Drew in a bad light, but Cary was pretty fucking detailed in his confession,” he told me, shocking the shit out of me.
“Derek, where were you today?” I asked, still feeling uneasy in my stomach.
He sighed. “Craig and I have been sort of working with the FBI to try to find Cary. I knew he was involved in Drew’s death, but my hands were really tied with regard to what I could do, legally. He was selling drugs out of the deli, Gray, and he claims Drew was the runner between the supplier and Cary,” he told me. I was unable to even comment.
The story Derek proceeded to tell me had nearly knocked me on my ass, but when he finished, I felt like a fucking fool. “God, I got taken in by a teenager who told me a sad story and I fucking believed him,” I stated as I cried at my own stupidity. I had to be the most gullible fucking idiot on the face of the earth. If any of the things Derek was telling me were true, I was the biggest fool on God’s earth.
Derek put his drink down and pulled me into his body after he turned around, bracing his back against the wall of the pool. “Wrap your legs around me, baby boy,” he instructed and I did, wrapping my whole self around him for the comfort I hoped I’d find. He didn’t disappoint me.
“Listen to me, okay? You have a loving, tender heart, and I pray you never lose it. All you did was try to help a young man who you believed needed someone to care about him. If his intentions weren’t pure, that’s not on you, Gray. You were being the man I fell in love with, and if Drew and Cary took advantage of your kindness, then shame on them. Please, baby boy, don’t you dare change,” he whispered in my ear as I rested my cheek against his should
er and sobbed.
I cried for a few minutes before I remembered he’d mentioned Josh was arrested as well. I sniffled and pulled back to look into his soft brown eyes, seeing the love there I never wanted to be without. “What did Josh have to do with it?” I asked, wiping my eyes with my wet hand.
Derek chuckled as he turned us and lifted a leg to brace me on his thigh with my back against the tiled wall of the pool. He lifted his graceful, long fingers and wiped my face, including my nose, which made me giggle. “I don’t have a tissue, so bear with me,” he told me as he laughed and plunged his hands into the water. At least he was smiling at me.
“Thanks. Now, tell me what’s going on with Josh,” I demanded. After the weirdness with David O’Shane, I wasn’t ready to deal with Josh Moore. I hadn’t told Derek about David because there was no need to stir a pot of trouble if one didn’t exist. I hadn’t seen him around lately, so likely the problem took care of itself.
Derek took his drink and slugged down a big gulp before he placed it on the pool deck and wrapped his arms around me again. “He and Cary have been involved in a relationship of some kind all this time. He’s down here with Cary, and he said some shit he shouldn’t have, plain and simple. The FBI had the place bugged and he’s in a lot of trouble, but it’s going to be fine. Now, what were you making for us to eat that involved potatoes?” he asked, changing the subject.
I knew there was more to the story. “Derek…” I demanded as I arched an eyebrow at him…a freshly threaded eyebrow because there was a nice little salon next to the flower shop and I wanted to look good for the wedding pictures.
The next thing I knew, I was riding Derek’s cock in the pool and he was thrusting hard into me, chasing his orgasm as he jacked my cock to give me mine. “Fuck,” I hissed as I pulled him closer and kissed his plump lips, feeling the angle of his shaft change. He was working my prostate and my cock at the same time, and I was about to lose my mind.
A Valentine's Quest (The Valentine's Trilogy) Page 20