by Jamie Hill
She wondered if that was how Jack treated every woman. He probably didn’t realize what he was doing, because he was tender-hearted and would never hurt a woman intentionally. Crystal sighed. She might as well admit it: she was in love with Jack Dunlevy, her first real and true love.
But she remembered how he'd spoken about his two wives, especially the second, whom he married after just two weeks. He seemed to fall in love—or something like it—rather easily. So Crystal needed to face reality. What they had together was good and fun for now, but probably not a long-term thing. The thought of that pained her like a knife through her belly. She tossed and turned and prayed for sleep.
Chapter Ten
Crystal woke up alone the next morning. She yawned and stretched, and stopped in the bathroom before she donned Jack’s robe and headed out of the room.
She found the boys in the front of the TV, and gave each of them a kiss on the top of the head. “Good morning. You guys sleep okay?”
“Yeah,” Mark replied.
Devon smiled sweetly and announced, “Jack made waffles.”
She smiled back and ruffled his hair. “Waffles, huh? That sounds good. Guess I’ll go check it out.” She went into the kitchen, where Jack read the paper and drank coffee. “Good morning.” She got a cup from the cabinet and poured herself some coffee. Looking at him warily, Crystal tried to judge his mood. “You get any sleep?” She sipped, watching him over the rim of her cup.
“Not much,” he admitted.
She saw desire in his eyes as he looked back at her, and that was something she couldn’t resist. She put her cup on the table and stepped in front of him. “Got room on that lap for me?”
“Always.” He held out his arms and she sat sideways on his lap.
“Be careful,” she warned him. “I’m naked under this robe.”
“Now you’ve done it,” he teased and opened it. He wrapped his arms around her bare stomach and brought her closer to him. “You smell so good,” he said softly into her neck.
“Mmm,” she moaned and squirmed as he kissed his way around her neck and up her jaw line. “You should have come back to bed.”
“I definitely sleep better with you in my arms.” He pulled back from her slightly and looked at her. “It just felt like we needed some space.”
“Nah, we’re good.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be so serious. We’re not talking about forever, here. We just need to relax and enjoy what we have now.” She rubbed her hands over his head and pulled him toward her, but he held back, the confused look on his face again.
“All of a sudden you talk like you’re going somewhere.”
She smiled and shrugged again. “Eventually I suppose I will be. But let’s don’t think about that.” She arched back so her bare breasts pointed up at him, but he ignored them.
“What happened to make you talk this way, Crys? I don’t like it.”
She gave a throaty chuckle. “There’s not a lot to like about this whole situation. Dead bodies, stolen money, drug dealers, and now people chasing us. I’m just trying to find a little comfort wherever I can.” She jiggled her breasts at him.
Jack closed the robe over her and peered into her eyes. “Let’s try to keep the business separate from the pleasure if we can. I’m talking about you and me—woman and man, not cop.”
She chuckled again. “We haven’t been able to keep it separate yet. But as for the woman and man part, well, it is what it is, Jack. We’ve known each other less than three weeks. That may be long enough for you to decide to marry someone, but I’m being realistic.” She flung the robe open again. “It’s basically hot sex. We enjoy each other. We’re having fun.” She squeezed her breasts against him. “And I’d like to keep having fun until one of us decides it’s not fun anymore.” She pressed her mouth against his and kissed him hard.
He resisted until he couldn’t any longer, and soon opened his mouth to her plundering tongue. They kissed hungrily, his hands roaming over her body as she moaned and pressed into him. “I want you, Jack,” she whimpered.
“Later, I promise,” he mumbled, his mouth pressed to hers. “We have responsibilities now. And I have something I want to say to you.” He leaned back and looked in her eyes. “I don’t know why you’re pulling away from me, but I don’t like it. And I have to tell you, it’s too late. I love you, Crystal, and no spin you put on it is going to change that.”
“You seem to fall in love pretty easily, Dunlevy.”
“Oh really? Funny you should think that. I don’t believe I’ve ever discussed love with you. I’ve told you about some of my relationships, but did you ever hear me use the ‘L’ word?”
“No, but I heard you say you were married twice. I don’t see you as the type to get married if you didn’t think you were in love.” She caressed his face. “What we have here is great, Jack. It’s wonderful, really. The best sex I’ve ever had. But that’s all it is.”
He interrupted. “I don’t confuse sex and love, Crystal. And I don’t take love lightly. Sex with you is better than it’s ever been for me, too. But that’s because I love you, Crys. I love you.” He pushed her lightly off his lap, forcing her to stand up, and closed her robe. “You need to get dressed. We have children to take care of.”
Crystal watched him go to the boys and headed off to take a shower, mulling over what he'd said. Maybe she would have to tell him the real reason she couldn’t be with him. He was an honorable, decent, middle-class guy, and she was poor white trash from the wrong side of the tracks.
She dressed in jeans and one of his sweatshirts with the sleeves rolled up. She joined everyone in the front room where they were playing video games. She suspected Jack was still angry with her. “Who’s winning?” she asked timidly.
“Mark,” Devon answered. “He’s the best race car driver.”
Jack gripped his controller as he tried to force his car to go faster to the finish line. Mark won again, and Jack slapped his controller down on the sofa. “Damn it! I thought I had you that time.”
Mark grinned as he stepped in front of Jack. He said in a sing-song voice, “Be a good loser, and watch your language!”
Jack grabbed him around the waist and tickled him. “I’ll watch the language, if you try to be a good winner. Someone with less self-control than me is going to deck you when you come around dancing in his face like that.”
Crystal snorted. “Is there someone with less self-control than you? Poor sap.”
Jack shot her an irritated look, but it changed to his devilishly handsome grin when he saw the teasing light in her eyes. “I think you need a lesson in good-sportsmanship…a lesson that involves snowballs.”
“I don’t do snowballs,” she insisted, but he grabbed her and pushed her toward the back door.
“Yeah, yeah, we know, we know. Coat and gloves are up to you. I might suggest them, it’s damn—I mean darn cold outside.” He smiled at the boys and tossed them their coats.
They grinned like pirates as Crystal reluctantly got into her coat and went out with them. The morning was bright and sunny. The snow crunched under their feet.
“Perfect day for a snowball fight.” Jack formed a snowball in his hands and chucked it lightly at her. “What do you say? You and Mark against me and Dev?”
“You’re crazy.” She just stood there and looked at him as he started making more snowballs and stacking them up.
“I told you, it’s been said before. You better get started. We’re going to vanquish you.”
Crystal lit a cigarette. “How about we just surrender now? I have a feeling I’ll stay a lot drier that way.”
He grinned at the boys and shook his head. “Nope, sorry. Someone needs to teach you a little bit of a lesson.”
“Well, hell.” She muttered out of the corner of her mouth as her cigarette hung there, and grudgingly began making snowballs. “Come on, Mark. I don’t want to get all wet.”
“Hate to break it to you,” Jack grabbed her cigarette and too
k a drag from it, “but you’re going to get soaked.”
“Hit me with your best shot, detective.” She grabbed an armful of snowballs and ran from him.
He ground out the cigarette and called, “Let’s go, Dev. She asked for it.”
The snowballs flew fast and furiously after that. Everyone got soaked as the sun warmed things up just enough to make the snow slushy. Zeus ran among them, barking and jumping to get into the action. The boys laughed and rolled until they looked like miniature snowmen. Jack cornered Crystal with a handful of snow and she held her hands out. “Stop! Please! Don’t even think about it!”
He gave her a challenging look, but gave in and dropped the snow to the ground. “So you admit I’m the snowball king, and you’re no match for me?”
She dusted off her jeans and took a step back. “Hell, no, I’m just taking a breather.” She lit up a cigarette and leaned against the deck railing.
He grinned and leaned in for a hit off her smoke. “For a little gal, you have a stubborn streak in you a mile wide. Where’d you get that from? Your mama? Your daddy? Hmm?”
She chuckled. “Well, my mama is a drunken doormat, so probably not from her. My real daddy walked out when I was three months old, so I guess he gave me the gift of knowing when to cut your losses and take off.”
Jack winced. “Sorry I brought it up.”
She shrugged. “You told me once that you wanted to know. So, let’s see…Stepfather Number One taught me that life is best managed with pills and alcohol. And when things get to be too much, the right combination of said items will make it all go away.”
She could see she was making Jack uncomfortable, but she couldn’t seem to stop talking. “And then Stepfather Number Two taught me that when mama’s screaming got really bad, I should call 911 and hide under my bed. It was shallow enough that he couldn’t reach me if I scooted all the way back to the wall.”
“Crys…” Jack touched her arm but she took a step away from him.
“Now Stepfather Number Three, he was something. He didn’t get the chance to teach me what he wanted. See Jack, he wanted to teach me how to become a woman. I managed to avoid him for a while, but the night I couldn’t anymore I ended up smacking the crap out of him with my clock radio and climbing out the window. When I went home the next day, my mother was furious with me for making up such a story. I was fourteen years old. I left that day and haven’t been back. As far as I know she’s still married to the pervert.”
Jack winced again and looked at the boys, who were playing with Zeus nearby. “Uh, gee, Crys. Maybe we should save this conversation for another time.”
She smiled over at the boys and then asked Jack, “What? You think they’re too little to know about this stuff? You’d be amazed what they’ve learned in their short years. You see, we’re the same, them and me. We come from the same kind of people. People you don’t know anything about.”
“I’ve been a cop for eighteen years. You think I haven’t seen my share of abusive households?”
She took a drag on her cigarette and looked at him. “But have you ever lived in one? See, that’s the difference between us, Jack, and it’s a biggie. I’m not sure we can overcome it.”
“I disagree. You got out of there, and you’ve turned your life around. Now you have the opportunity to do the same thing for them.” He nodded at the two kids. “It sounds like you’ve got every right to be angry, Crys, and bitter as hell. But if you can get past that—just let it go—don’t you see how much you have to offer these guys?”
She snorted and took another hit on her cigarette before grinding it out under her shoe. “I’ve got nothing to offer them,” she muttered and shook her head.
Jack reached out and touched her cheek. “You are wrong. You’ve got everything to offer them. Everything they want, and everything they need.” He glanced at the boys and back at her. “They want you, Crys. They love you. I can see it in their faces. Why can’t you?”
She shrugged off his touch and walked over to where the boys tossed a ball to the dog. “You guys look frozen. Think we should go in and get dry clothes?”
“I’m not cold!” Mark insisted, but his nose was red and cheeks flushed.
“I know, I know.” She put an arm around each of them and led them to the house. “Humor me, I’m cold. Come inside with me?”
“Sure Crystal.” Devon hugged her leg.
She looked back at Jack, who still leaned against the deck and watched them thoughtfully. “You coming?” she asked.
“Right behind you.” He stopped to towel off the wet dog and then helped her get the boys changed into dry clothes.
Inside Jack’s room, Crystal looked through his closet for another sweatshirt. “I need to do some laundry. Things are getting desperate here.” She found a shirt and pulled it over her head, and then watched him grab the hamper and shove his wet clothes in it.
“Let’s gather it all up and we’ll do it now.”
She gave him a small smile. “Yeah?” She had never met a man willing to help with the laundry. Sure, Jack had done it once, but that was before. Crystal generally found relationships changed after ‘the deed’ was done.
He looked at her and shrugged. “What? It’s just laundry.”
She shrugged back and tossed her towel into the hamper. She glanced out to where the boys were and then back at him quickly. “So you really think I have what they need?”
He smiled slowly at her and replied, “I know you have what they need. You just have to convince yourself of that fact.” He carried the hamper out the door in front of her and added in an offhand tone, “I also know you have what I need. I guess it’s up to me to convince you of that.”
Crystal followed him, not really aware she was smiling until she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the boys’ room as she picked up their laundry. “Hell’s bells,” she muttered to herself, and wondered why she felt so happy.
* * * *
The phone rang after dinner and Jack answered, “Dunlevy.”
“Hey Dunlevy, this is Brady Marshall. I was going over the file and had a couple questions. Is this a bad time?”
“No, it’s fine. Shoot.”
“This Ralph Prescott, the homeless guy, did you question him after that first day?”
“I’ve spoken with him several times. After the Erickson apartment was vandalized I questioned him, but he didn’t see anything.”
“He hangs around by the front door all day, and didn’t see anyone unusual come or go?”
“He’s pretty simple, Marshall. I’m not sure how much he understands. And he does leave occasionally, usually to eat at Sister Theresa’s shelter a couple blocks south.”
Jack heard Marshall shuffling papers. “According to Ms. Cartwright’s statement, Manny was the regular homeless guy at her building. He dies and Ralph takes over, is that what I’m hearing?”
“I suppose it works that way,” Jack granted. “Some of those homeless people can be pretty territorial.”
“Nobody thinks it’s odd that Ralph showed up with the dead body and has stayed ever since?”
“Not really. What are you getting at, Marshall?”
“Just trying to figure out who’s a suspect and who’s an innocent bystander. It seems to me Ralph may know more than he’s saying. You wrote that Ms. Cartwright gave him sandwiches and food. Maybe somebody else is giving him something, too.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Maybe. Honestly, I never thought too much about Ralph. Like I said, he’s a pretty simple guy.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here, buddy boy, to provide a fresh set of eyes and perhaps some objectivity. Reeder tells me you’re involved with the Cartwright woman.”
“Reeder is an ignorant, arrogant stooge,” Jack replied.
Marshall chuckled. “He didn’t use those exact words about you, but the sentiment was similar.”
“I’m sure. Well, you’re just going to have to figure out for yourself whom to trust. I’m not the most
popular guy in the department these days, but at least I know my ass from a hole in the ground. I’m not sure Reeder does anymore, unless there’s a captain or some media personality watching.”
“I’ve already got Reeder pegged,” Marshall conceded. “I think you’re the man to trust, unless I get into this and discover you’ve lost all impartiality.”
“I don’t think I have. It is very important to me to keep this family safe, though, that’s my priority. But you can trust me.”
“I thought so. A word to the wise, if I may be so bold. Watch your back where Melanie Curtis is concerned. I’m not sure what bug she’s got up her butt—she and Reeder were talking about you, and not favorably. I think she’d like for you to be yanked so she could have this case.”
“Not going to happen. She’s welcome to help, but this is my case.”
“Damn shame she’s so two-faced. She’s got the most bodacious set of ta-ta’s I’ve seen in a long time.”
Jack rubbed his face and laughed. “You are welcome to them, Marshall. But like you said, watch yourself.”
Marshall snickered. “I guess you’ve got your hands on your own bodacious set of ta-ta’s. That Ms. Cartwright is not only an enigma, but quite a looker.”
“Gee, and I wondered why Crystal didn’t like you.” Jack inhaled and exhaled slowly. “She’s not a suspect, Marshall. She’s a victim of circumstance.”
“Possibly, but something’s fishy there. I can almost smell it.” Marshall sniffed loudly to prove his point. “The relationship between her and Erickson—”
Jack started to interrupt, but Marshall cut him off. “Don’t get your shorts in a knot. I’m not talking sexual, here. It’s just a strange relationship. I know they weren’t married, but they have a couple kids, so they were as good as married. Tell me, would you like to live next door to your ex-wife, so she could monitor your every move?”
“Which one?” Jack asked dryly.
Marshall laughed. “You’re pathetic, Dunlevy. Okay, I guess that’s it for now. But I intend to do a little more sniffing around, and try to track down that smell that’s nagging at me.”