Nine Cocktails

by J. V. Speyer

  At the same time, her bar stool felt oddly vulnerable, especially now that she didn’t have her vest.

  She showed her phone to Paige, just as Paige delivered the drink she’d been mixing. Abby had never had so many cocktails in her life. She’d always been the type to drink her liquor straight, but she wasn’t complaining either.

  Paige lost all color in her face. She covered her mouth with both hands and backed away. “It’s him.” She shook her head, sending her purple-tipped hair into her eyes. “He’s after you now. This has to make the judge see reason, right?”

  Abby sighed. Paige knew the answer, and she knew it without Abby having to say anything. It was in her tone. “No, Paige. It’s the same MO as the previous texts. It doesn’t matter that he’s texting a cop now. The only thing that matters is proof, and if I can’t prove it was Jack that was texting Austin, I won’t be able to prove it was Jack that’s texting me now.”

  She tasted her drink. God, the sweet blackberry and sour lemon were the most intense flavor combination she’d tried in a long time. Paige had a gift.

  “But he’s going to kill you, Abby.” Paige leaned over the bar and dropped her voice to a hiss. “It doesn’t matter that we’re not dating. It doesn’t matter that you’re a cop. He’s just going to put a bullet in your head.”

  A jolt ran through Abby, bringing an idea with it. “Then we’ll date.”

  Paige stared at her, no expression on her face. “Come again?”

  Abby’s face burned for a quick second. She knew she didn’t have a whole lot to offer, but Paige should know better than to assume she was just hitting on her at a time like this. “No, no—I mean this is an opportunity to draw him out. I ordinarily wouldn’t want to put you any more in his sights than you have to be, but it looks like he’s pretty much got his eyes glued to you, right?”

  Paige shuddered. “Yeah. It does seem that way.” Then she glared at Abby. “That doesn’t mean you need to go putting yourself in harm’s way. Can’t you just…assign a whole troop of cops to follow me around or something?”

  Abby bit the inside of her cheek. “I mean we could, possibly, for a week or so. But then we’d start to run into budget concerns—not that your safety isn’t a priority, but we didn’t do that the last time the President came here. We can’t. And a guy like this, he’ll wait it out. I want to say he’s stupid, but he’s not. He can be goaded, though. And if he can be goaded, he’ll make a mistake.”

  Paige looked down at the ground. “Okay, yeah. He always was that way. But Abby, I’m serious. I don’t want to put you in a position where my obviously lunatic ex is trying to kill you. You’re awesome. You’re the only cop I’ve ever met who’s taken the time to explain things, and to get involved with the victim or the people who knew the victim, you know? You’re the only one who’s cared.”

  Abby made herself smile, just a little. Most cops didn’t want to let on they cared. They might have to bust that same person tomorrow. “I’m willing to take the risk, Paige. You’re worth the risk. You’re amazing, and this Jack guy needs to be taken off the street. I knew the job had its risks when I signed up for it, you know? We’re trained to protect ourselves, I’m better equipped to do that than anyone else you know.” She took another sip from her drink. “And it’s not like I’m asking you to actually start up a relationship with me. I still need to run this by my partner and my superiors, but all we’re doing is drawing a killer out into the open.”

  Paige bit her lip and looked away for a second. “I’m going to have to think about it, you know? I don’t have words, in any language, to say how much I hate the idea of someone else getting hurt because of my drama. Austin was bad enough, but I can’t do anything about what happened to him. If I can stop it from happening again…”

  “That’s what we’ll be doing.” Abby gave her most reassuring smile and finished her drink. “Let me know what you decide. I don’t want to pressure you. Obviously, you know what I think the best choice is, but we’ll find another way if you’d be more comfortable.”

  “I’ll let you know.” Paige managed a weak grin.

  Abby paid for her drink, even though Paige never asked her to, and left. She called Mark to update him on the threat, and he insisted on interrupting family dinner to come get her. His baby came along with him, sleeping happily in the back seat.

  Mark saw the direction of her glance. “Sarah had plans so I was alone with the little rug rat.” He shrugged. “It is what it is. He won’t eat your brains, I promise. As long as we stay in the car, he’ll be sleeping.”

  “He’s still like that?” Abby buckled her seat belt.

  “Oh, yeah. Sarah’s niece is still like that and she’s ten now.” He pulled out onto the street again. “So you got a threatening text. Sounds like someone thinks you’re spending too much time around his girl.”

  Abby grimaced. “She’s not his girl, goofball. She’s a lesbian. But yeah, I do seem to have tripped our boy’s jealousy switch. It gave me an idea, though.” She outlined her plan to fake a relationship with Paige.

  Mark chuckled. “It’s genius. Except the part where you’re only-pretend dating her. Only, don’t they make a ton of rom-coms about that kind of thing?”

  Abby rolled her eyes. “Sure they do. They don’t typically involve stalkers, murder, or cops though. Do you think it’s a good plan?”

  “Of course. We can’t get the judge to work with us any other way.” He turned his face away in disgust. “Which is pissing the whole department off, let me tell you. But Abby, you’re pretty into Paige. Don’t you think you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot here?”

  Abby turned her head and looked out the window. “I don’t.” She thought about lying, but she and Mark had known each other too long for her to pull it off. “She’s amazing, but I’d never have made a move anyway. It’s fine.”

  “Oh come on, Abby. Why not? You like her, she likes you, and you’re both hot. Why wouldn’t you make a move?” Mark smacked his hand on the wheel.

  Abby leaned her head on the cool glass window. “Dude, she has no interest in screwing around with a cop ten years older than her. Nor should she. I don’t have a ton of money, and all cops bring a bunch of baggage into their relationships. No one’s going to take that on voluntarily, especially not when she’s dealing with a psycho who stalked her, and killed people when she had the unmitigated gall to tell him no.”

  Mark scoffed. “I don’t know. Plenty of us find someone who’s willing to take the chance. You mean to tell me your baggage is somehow more special than ours?”

  Abby faced forward. “You know better than that. I don’t have anything to offer her, and it feels kind of creepy to want her to attach herself when she can do so much better.”

  Mark didn’t respond, and they soon made it to the station.

  * * * *

  Paige shivered in the office while she took her break. It was warm back here, almost disturbingly warm, but it was the only place she could go that was out of prying eyes. She did have some concerns that she might be opening Mike up to a dangerous situation by holing up in his office, but could she afford to live her entire life by what Jack wanted?

  Could she afford not to? More to the point, could the people around her afford for her not to keep Jack’s needs firmly in mind?

  She tugged at her hair. Mike gently disengaged her hands and sat back. “You want to talk about it?”

  Paige knew she should lie. Bosses didn’t want to hear about your problems. They wanted just enough information to get rid of you. Mike was different, though. At least, he had been so far. “It’s the stalker. The killer.” She ran her hands over her bare arms, trying to chase away the chill.

  “Austin’s stalker.” Mike stared at her for a second. “This has you pretty spooked, huh?”

  How was it possible for Mike to just not know this? “Austin wasn’t killed by his own stalker. He was killed by mine.” She took a deep breath and explained what had happened. “I’ll completely under
stand if you want to fire me. It’s not right to put you or anyone else in this position. I mean he’s already killed Austin—”

  Mike put a hand on hers. “Paige, please stop. I’m not firing you. I’m not even going to ask you to stay home. It’s not on you to bend over backwards to placate this guy who decided back in high school that he owns you. Did I mention the whole high school thing? Because that seems significant. I mean the guy’s served in the military, he’s been out of the country, he should have grown up between seventeen and twenty-three, right? But here he is killing people over this girl he knew in high school who will never, ever love him.” He raised his eyebrows and shook his head a little. “I’ll tell you what, the dude has a screw or two loose.”

  “Just a couple.” Paige lifted her nose into the air and rolled her eyes. “He’s an artist, don’t you know. He doesn’t feel he needs to pay attention to society’s rules.”

  “Well he’s wrong.” Mike waved a hand. “So if we know who, and we know why, and he’s someone who’s not very subtle about where he is, why is it that we don’t have him in a nice single room occupancy down at the Nashua Street Jail?”

  Paige glared at the door. “Apparently the judge who’s dealing with this case doesn’t think stalking is an actual crime. He won’t sign the warrant. Abby, the detective, is beyond frustrated. She’s got a plan, but it’s so risky it borders on insane.” She threw her hands up. “There’s no other way to get things done, but somehow I just can’t see where anyone would green light this outside of a bad movie.”

  “This would be the same detective who keeps coming in here once a week at least, in her off hours, just to give you an update.” Mike gave her a lazy Cheshire-cat smile, a twinkle in his eyes.

  Paige blushed and looked down. “Oh come on, I’m just a witness—a victim, as far as she’s concerned. She’d never be interested in someone like me. Not for real.”

  Mike rolled his eyes. “Paige, anyone with a pulse who’s even mildly attracted to women is interested in you, okay? What’s this not for real stuff?”

  “She wants to provoke Jack into doing something stupid enough to make the judge sign a warrant. She got a threatening text from him thinking we’re together so she wants to just go with it.” She pulled into herself again, drawing her knees up into her chest. “Can you imagine?”

  “I’m sure she can imagine just fine.” His tone was dry, but his eyes never lost their twinkle. “Where’s the problem? It seems like a good solution.”

  “Other than the part where a beautiful, smart, brave cop gets shot because she was trying to protect me.” Paige unfolded herself and tossed her hair out of her eyes. “Jack’s a nut. I know I shouldn’t judge but he is killing people. He’s not going to stop because she’s a woman, or because she’s a cop. He’s a nut, and he’s dangerous. I can’t put her in danger because of me.”

  Mike’s face softened. “So you are into her.”

  “Who wouldn’t be? She’s a real-life knight in shining armor.” Now Paige unfurled her body, sprawling in the chair. “I don’t even like cops, Mike, but Abby’s not like the rest of them. She tries, you know? She’s got a job to do, but she gets that her job is working to protect people, not trying to mess with minorities.”

  Mike huffed a little laugh. “Yeah. I wonder how she is with people who aren’t attractive bartenders of her preferred gender. But to tell you the truth, she has been great when she’s been around.” He shrugged. “The question is, are you planning to do anything about it?”

  “Brilliant. I’ll just go dating people while my ex goes around killing anyone he sees as infringing on his rights.” She let her head loll back until it hit the wall. “I can’t let her set herself up as bait. That’s ridiculous.”

  “Okay.” Mike clapped his hands together and leaned forward. “So what’s your alternative? I agree—it’s a pretty risky, super dangerous solution. I want to know what else you think can be done to solve the problem. They need to convince the judge it’s this particular guy, who has stalked and hurt you in the past, who is doing the job now. Jack’s a lot of bad things, but stupid isn’t on that list, so they have to convince him to screw up. This is the best way to do it.”

  “Not at the expense of her life.” Paige crossed her arms over her chest. “One person has already been killed because of me.”

  Mike gave her a soft smile. “Paige, sweetheart, it’s not your fault Austin died. It’s Jack’s and Jack’s alone. You have no responsibility, okay? It’s all him. And Austin was a civilian, who had no idea what was happening. Abby Morgan is an experienced detective, who has an entire big-city police department at her back. She knows how to keep herself safe. I think there’s no better plan in the works and we need to do something about this guy fast. It’s the best way to keep everyone safe.”

  “I don’t know. We’ll see.” Paige straightened up. She hated the idea, but she might not have objected quite so strongly if the sacrificial lamb had been some other cop. Maybe she needed to examine her motives a little more closely. She headed back out into the main room to finish out her shift. The bar was packed tonight, and Paige couldn’t focus too much on her discomfort with Abby’s plan. She had customers to take care of, and that was a good thing.

  The bar was still packed at ten when shattering glass filled the air. Paige screamed, just like everyone else, as thick, black smoke filled the room. She got down on the ground just as the smoke alarms went off. The sprinklers erupted just in time, but the stampede had begun.

  Paige stuck her head up over the bar. Whatever had caused the smoke had been killed by the sprinklers, but the stink lingered. “There’s an exit to the right!” She pointed toward the emergency exit near the back of the bar, over by the kitchen.

  Half of the patrons trying to flee surged toward the exit she’d mentioned, alleviating the traffic jam going for the main entrance. Paige grimaced. If there had been a real fire, this would have been a nightmare. At least she wasn’t going to have to worry about burning to death while trying to get the patrons out.

  The fire department showed up only a minute later, followed by police. “I guess there’s no question about arson when someone breaks a window to throw the firebomb into a crowded bar.” Paige looked up at the broken window.

  They had to wait half an hour for Abby and her partner, Mark, to get there. Abby looked tired, but she ran right over to Paige in spite of the water all over the ground. “What a mess. Are you okay?”

  The fire captain on the scene looked around. “I’m going to see if there are any more traps we need to worry about.” He patted Mark on the shoulder and they scurried away. Paige got the distinct impression they were trying to give them privacy.

  It made her blush.

  Abby put her hands on Paige’s shoulders and looked her over, like she was checking for injuries. “I’m serious. Was there anything other than the fire bomb or sprinklers?”

  It felt great to have Abby’s hands on her. “No.” Paige took a step back. I’m just a little wet. A couple of people were cut by flying glass, but nothing too serious. Although it’s going to be a PR nightmare trying to convince people to show up after this. Come to The Gin Barrel! Hand crafted cocktails with a chance of firebombing!”

  She laughed. She couldn’t help it. This was her life now. “He couldn’t be content with destroying my career. Now he’s trying to destroy my life too.”

  Abby stepped in closer. “Hey. He could have done more. He could have used the chaos of all the fleeing people to start taking potshots.”

  Paige fought down bile. “Oh my God. Why didn’t he?”

  Abby took her by the hand. “He didn’t see the person he wanted. Paige, he’s not looking to kill a whole bunch of people. He’s looking to claim what he sees as property. It’s a whole different mindset and a vastly different game.”

  “It’s not a game.” Page tried to glare. “It’s my life. It’s other people’s lives.”

  “And he doesn’t give a damn about any of them.” Abby
didn’t miss a beat. Her gentle tone made up for it. “We’re trying our best to get him off the streets, but there are a lot of obstacles.”

  Paige knew it wasn’t Abby’s job, or the Boston Police Department’s job, to handle her ex. It had always been Paige’s job. She’d dropped the ball so badly Jack had turned into a murderer, and now Abby had to endanger herself to clean the mess. Since the mess was there, though, Paige had no choice but to accept the help.

  She reached out and took Abby’s hand. “I’ll do it.”

  “It?” Abby blinked.

  “Your plan. The one we talked about earlier. I don’t like it. I still think it’s too risky for you. But I haven’t managed to come up with anything better, and neither has anyone else. So, let’s do this.”

  Abby met her eyes. “I promise you, you won’t regret it. No matter who the killer is, we’re going to get him this way. I guarantee it.”

  Paige didn’t know how Abby could be so sure. She lost nothing by trying. She didn’t think Abby could say the same thing, but Abby had gone in with her eyes open. Paige hoped she wouldn’t have to say that at her funeral.

  Chapter 5

  Abby had gotten a major win by convincing Paige to pretend they were dating. She wouldn’t force things by putting her own feelings into the mix, but when she put her arms around her fake girlfriend and held her close it had nothing to do with the case. She escorted Paige out to her car, still holding her, and gently tucked her into the back seat.

  “I can’t believe he firebombed the bar.” Paige shook her head and slid down on the bench seat, getting as low as she could. “He bashed a hole in the window and tossed a bomb through. Who does that?”

  “He wants attention. And it was just a smoke bomb. I’ve done it a few times myself.” Mark aimed the car back up toward Allston.