(Dream Man 03) Law Man (41 page)

Now it was.

He slept in my bed. He showered in my shower. We were a team taking care of our kids. And he’d just fucked me hard, I was off to do my thing, he was off to do his thing and he didn’t want to let me go.

“What?” I heard Mitch ask gently and I realized my eyes were on him but I wasn’t seeing him even though my thoughts were also on him. His hands slid from my bottom to become arms wrapped around me and before I could answer, he asked, “Baby, what’re you thinkin’?”

“You know how you said you were into me since you saw me four years ago?” I asked back.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Well, I was into you too,” I told him and he grinned.

“I know.”

I shook my head. “No, what I mean is, I was so into you, I convinced myself I was in love with you. So, when you first came in here to change my washer and I was such a dork, it was a form of torture because I was such a dork. And at the same time I wanted nothing more than to see you move through my house like you moved through my house every day and now… well… you do. Uh…” I hesitated, “move through my house every day that is.”

“You weren’t a dork,” Mitch said softly.

“I totally was,” I replied just as softly and he grinned again.

“Okay, you were but you were a cute one.”

I rolled my eyes.

Mitch’s arms gave me a squeeze and when I rolled my eyes back to him I saw he wasn’t grinning anymore.

“Best thing that ever happened to me, that shredded washer,” he whispered.

“Too bad I didn’t know what a washer was or I would have shredded it myself,” I whispered back and he burst out laughing.

Then he rolled, shifted, moved and we were both on our feet with Mitch yanking down my skirt.

“Clean up, honey,” he muttered. “And I’ll take you to your girls.” He dipped his head and touched my lips with his before he turned and walked out of the room.

I nabbed my panties and walked into the bathroom to clean up and, while there, I ascertained I did, in fact, have sex hair. I left it like it was. So Roberta, LaTanya and Elvira cottoned on and gave me stick.

Whatever.

I had a hot guy, police detective who couldn’t keep his hands off me. I could go to drinks with the girls with sex hair. I could go anywhere with sex hair. I should be shouting it from the rooftops,
Look at me! I have sex hair given to me by Detective Mitch Lawson!

I grinned to myself as I did my business, retraced my steps, grabbed my forgotten bag and walked to Mitch who was back at his file at the bar. I made it to him, my eyes going down to the file and my eyebrows snapping together at what I saw right before his arm slid along my waist and he shut the folder.

“Right,” he muttered, his arm tensing to move us, “let’s hit the road.”

My body locked and I looked up at him.

“Why do you have a sketch of Otis?”

His head tilted slightly to the side and he asked, “What?”

“In that folder,” I tipped my head to the folder. “Why do you have a sketch of Mr. Pierson’s cousin Otis?”

It was then Mitch’s brows knitted and he studied me closely. He looked down the folder, flipped it open and flipped through papers until he reached the sketch of Otis.

“Are you talking about that?” he asked, tapping the sketch with his finger but his words were strange, cautious.

“Yeah,” I answered, looking at the sketch then I looked at Mitch. “That’s Otis Pierson. Mr. Pierson’s cousin. He works at the store.”

Mitch stared at me, his arm suddenly very tight but he didn’t say a word.

Crap!

I knew what that meant seeing as he was a police detective that was a folder probably from work and in it was a sketch of Otis.

It was me who was talking cautiously when I asked, “Is Otis in trouble?”

“Mara –” Mitch started but I kept talking.

“I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised. Otis is kind of like Mr. Pierson’s Bill except, I thought, without the felonious aspects.”

“Mara –” Mitch began again but I kept right on talking.

“Still, that would stink, you investigating a member of Mr. Pierson’s family.”

“Mara, baby,” his arm gave me a squeeze, his voice coming at me carefully, gently, “that sketch is the sketch the artist drew from the description Bud gave him of the man that came to their house.”

My body locked.

Then I whispered, “What?”

“Fuck,” Mitch whispered back and his eyes drifted over my head.

“Mitch,” I called, putting my hand on his chest and pushing in lightly. “Are you serious? That’s the bad man Billie was talking about?”

“Fuck, fuck,
fuck!
” Mitch clipped then lifted a hand, tore his fingers through his hair and looked down at the sketch.

“Mitch!” I cried, beginning to get freaked. “Talk to me!”

He looked at me and declared strangely, “The mattresses.”

I shook my head. “Honey, you aren’t making sense.”

His head dipped closer to mine and his other arm curled around me. “You say that man works for Bob Pierson?”

I nodded my head. “Yes. In the warehouse. He does a lot of the ordering, or he did until he kept messing it up.”

“Jesus, shit,” Mitch muttered, looking over my head again.

“Mitch!” I exclaimed, pressing into his chest again and his eyes came back to me.

“Sweetheart, when your place was tossed, it was
tossed.
But there was special attention paid to the mattresses. They were decimated, all the beds were.”

Oh God.

He was right. They were.

“Has this Otis guy been in your space at work? Giving you extra attention? Giving you any attention
at all?
” Mitch asked and I shook my head.

“No,” I added my negative answer verbally. “He doesn’t come to the showroom. Mr. Pierson doesn’t let him. He turns off the customers because he’s creepy.”

And he was.

Totally creepy.

Probably even creepier to two little kids.

God, how was this happening?

Mitch told me.

“He’s into something. He hid something in the mattresses. Made a mistake, lost it, whatever it was. Yours got delivered, he thought it was in them and he came looking for it. It either was or it wasn’t. My guess is it wasn’t seeing as he started with the mattresses, thought you found it and moved through the house to try to find where you hid it. If he hasn’t been in your space, he’s probably since found it. Would he have access to your home address either in employee databases or deliver records?”

“Yes,” I answered. “Not employee databases but he’s responsible for getting the product onto the trucks for delivery. He has access to all information pertaining to deliveries.”

“Shit, Jesus, fuck, I shoulda showed you that sketch,” Mitch muttered, looking back at the sketch.

I pressed my hand into his chest again and got his eyes back. “You couldn’t know. I didn’t know anything that was going down with Bill. How could you know this had any connection with where I worked? That’s crazy.”

“I should have shown it to you,” he kind of repeated.

“Mitch, I told you I didn’t know anything about Bill and his life but even if I didn’t tell you, you knew when you walked in his house with Bud, Billie and me. I was freaked and you notice everything. You couldn’t know I’d know who was visiting. It’s a one in a million connection.”

“Mara, honey, you dot all the i’s, you cross all the t’s. It’s basic police work. I should… have…
shown you.
”

His voice was growly and not in a good way so I decided to reply quietly, “Okay.”

“His last name is Pierson?” Mitch asked instantly and I nodded. “How long’s he been workin’ there?”

“Not as long as me. Three years. He moved to Denver from Kansas City, I think. Mr. Pierson helped him out, gave him a job. I don’t know why he moved. I just know that he didn’t have any marketable skills so Mr. Pierson took the hit of taking him on for the family.”

“Outside of him being creepy, you feel any bad vibes from this guy, see any bad guys hangin’ around him, see him actin’ strange, cagey, wrong?”

“No about the bad guys but he’s creepy because he’s always acting strange and cagey. I didn’t get bad vibes other than the sense that he’s clearly the fuck up of the family but I thought he was just kind of an idiot. Saying that, though, a while ago, he over-ordered a bunch of Spring Deluxes. Like,
a bunch.
Mr. Pierson was not pleased. They’re our highest end model. We don’t move a lot of them so it was more stupid than normal, him over-ordering Spring Deluxe. I could see him over-ordering the Dream Weaver, even the Slumber Excelsior, we move loads of those. The Spring Deluxe…?” I trailed off and shook my head.

Mitch gave me a half-smile and then noted, “You know, that doesn’t mean shit to me.”

“What I’m saying is, we
never
sell a lot of Spring Deluxe so that’s a huge fuck up. Even on sale, they’re hard to move. The others, on sale, they’re awesome bargains and affordable for a lot of people. So if you’re going to over-order something, it would never be the Spring Deluxe.” Mitch stared at me and I finished on a mutter, “Just trust me. You know mattresses, you know what I’m talking about.”

“Right, baby, how ‘bout I just trust you. I’ll also look into this Otis Pierson. I’ll also be sendin’ someone in to have a closer look at him and keep an eye on him. And I’ll also be makin’ certain my woman does not get within ten feet of him. You have reason to go to the warehouse?”

I shook my head.

Mitch nodded his once. “Good. Don’t change that. He gets near you, you get away from him. You are
never
around him in a place that’s not public and that includes the break room. You see him in the parking lot, you get in the car, lock the doors, get your car in motion and call me as soon as you can. I’ll talk to Bill.”

Oh great.

That wasn’t going to work and Mitch knew it. We knew this because Mitch already tried it after Billie had her bad night. Bill didn’t give up anything.

Still, I reminded him of this fact.

“I’m not sure that’s going to work, honey.”

“It doesn’t then Slim will talk to him. He doesn’t talk to Slim, Eddie’ll talk to him. Eddie doesn’t work, Hank will. Hank doesn’t work, I’ll call Tack.”

I blinked at a name I didn’t know.

Then I asked, “Tack?”

He nodded. “Tack, that’s his club name. He was born Kane Allen. He’s the president of the Chaos Motorcycle Club and I know he’s got a boy in lockdown right now. Tack gets a word to his boy, his boy corners Bill in lockdown, I get the info I need.”

I stared at him.

Then I whispered, “You know the president of a biker gang?”

His arms gave me a squeeze. “Baby, I’m a cop. I know a lotta people and a lot of the lotta people I know aren’t one hundred percent solid citizens.”

“Um…” I started hesitantly, “does this president of a biker gang perhaps owe you a favor?”

“No,” Mitch answered which meant if he did this, he’d owe the president of a biker gang a favor.

“Is that a good idea?” I asked quietly.

“No, owin’ Tack is not good. But I also got a woman and two kids who sleep on three almost brand new Spring Deluxes. Since she got them delivered, my ass, most nights, has been in her bed and the kids have been off school so my Mom’s been here watchin’ ‘em if you and me aren’t. The windows for another break-in have been rare and he probably knows your boyfriend is a cop so if he’s lookin’ for a chance, he’s probably bein’ cautious. I can’t know if he’s found what he was lookin’ for and I’m not takin’ any chances. Even if he has, I wanna know why he destroyed everything you owned, how he’s connected to your cousin and I want to ascertain you, Bud and Billie are under no threat. And I’ll do what I gotta do to ascertain that. Even owe a favor to the president of a biker gang.”

Well, one could say he had a point there.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Okay,” Mitch replied.

“I have to say,” I started to inform him, “this has kind of freaked
and
bummed me out and put me off a night of cosmos and women I don’t know giving me the third degree to make sure I’m good enough for you.”

Mitch smiled.

Then his arms got tight around me and he returned, “And I have to say pretty much nothing puts me off a night that’s gonna end with you drunk on cosmos and still in that dress and those shoes considering the sex was seriously fuckin’ hot when you
weren’t
drunk so I’m lookin’ forward to how much hotter it could get when you
are.
”

Suddenly, I was back in the mood for a night of cosmos and women I didn’t know giving me the third degree to make sure I was good enough for Mitch.

“Right,” I said firmly, “off we go. Time for me to commence Operation Drunk Sex Later.”