14. Phoenix
CHAPTER 14
PHOENIX
An unfamiliar ring tone interrupted my exquisite dream involving spreading mango whipped cream on Luka’s cock before fighting off Burton to get a taste.
I assigned both of my men with their own ring tone, and thinking about it as the fog of sleep dissipated, I’d done the same with Arthur, Jude, Charlotte, Drew, Luka’s parents, Burton’s too, along with Gio, and now Fergus, so I didn’t think it was my phone ringing, interrupting my delicious dream.
B grunted and rolled over. Of course, he was no help at all, but Luka’s arm squeezed my waist and I smiled as I felt his entire body pressed against the back of mine before he dropped the bad news.
“The ringing is coming from your phone, Sunshine.”
With painful slowness, I opened my eyes and lifted my head off the pillow to see the time, and gasped.
“Who the fuck is calling me at one in the morning?”
Luka, sensing my panic, rolled over and snagged the offending device from the nightstand and handed it to me. Not recognizing the number, I swiped before I answered with a croak.
“Hello?”
“Is this Mr. Phoenix Aalto, owner of Phoenix Rising?”
The authority in the voice shot fear down my spine, and I sat up and cleared my throat.
“Yes, I’m Phoenix. Is anyone hurt?”
There was a pause, enough to make my heart squeeze hard in my chest, making my fingers numb and tingly. Wondering who would be at the bakery on New Year’s Eve, picturing each of my friends and my employees, sent a panic through me.
The authoritative voice brought my focus back to the man on the other end of the line until he dropped the news that sent me off kilter.
“Well, Mr. Aalto. I’m Detective Sandoval, and I can assure you no injuries are associated with this crime. Someone set off your silent alarm and when we arrived, we found most of your windows broken out and the place ransacked, but no one at the scene. We need you to come down here and speak with us.”
Without waiting for him to finish, I crawled off the bed and went to the closet, searching for my clothes. My breaths were sawing in and out of my chest, making my vision blurry, but I pushed down as much of the panic threatening to surface.
Or at least I tried.
Warm, familiar hands clamped down on my shoulders and squeezed, pulling me back against a wide, hairy chest, allowing me to inhale a deep breath.
“Yes, Detective Sandoval, we’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
I hung up, and I turned into Luka’s hold and gasped out a sob, unable to hold my emotions together any longer.
“He couldn’t leave things alone. That motherfucker trashed my bakery. He couldn’t just leave me alone and live his fucking life! Well, if he wanted a war, he’s going to get one now.”
Burton, who was leaning against the doorjamb, smiled and said, “Is it wrong I find an angry Phoenix a tremendous turn on?”
Surprised, I laughed through my tears as I wiped them away.
“No matter what happened, we can fix it. We’ll save what we can, but it’s all restorable,” Luka promised.
I nodded, tears welling in my eyes and spilling over, “I know, but it’s a shock, getting the call early in the morning. I’m grateful no one was there.”
Burton wiped at my tears as Luka kept an arm around my waist. Both men kissed me, comforting me, allowing me several minutes to breathe and get my equilibrium back before we separated in order to dress.
For the life of me, I didn’t remember walking downstairs or getting into the truck, much less the drive to my bakery, but when the red and blue lights flashed against the broken glass on the sidewalk, anger welled inside me and my mind snapped into sharp focus.
Stepping out of the truck, I walked up to the man dressed in a suit, looking tired yet determined, and I asked, “Detective Sandoval?”
When he nodded, I held out my hand, and he shook it.
“I’m Phoenix Aalto and this is my bakery. These two men are Luka Kavka and Burton Horváth, my partners.”
Although all our friends knew about our relationship, pride surged through me as I introduced them as mine to a complete stranger for the first time. And I already liked the detective when this information didn’t even cause an eyebrow raise or a follow up question asking to clarify our relationship.
It was a thrilling realization.
Luka and Burton kept a hand on my back, protecting me and sending me a silent message that I wasn’t alone.
“Follow me,” Detective Sandoval said.
I blinked away the tears that formed when I walked into a disaster.
While the sizable plants remained untouched, the potted ones on the tables lay broken on the floor. But the prime target was the counter.
Every afternoon, I removed the cash and made a deposit, but it didn’t stop whoever did this from pushing the heavy antique off the counter and denting the wooden floor. My heart skipped a beat when I turned and found the entire bakery case smashed, including the stands inside. All the lights lay in shards, but with a quick assessment of the damage, the glass and lights were the only things that needed replaced.
But my kitchen was the center of the damage.
The ovens were intact, but my heart dropped to see the thick glass shattered. Bowls were strewn about, the glass ones broken and anything plastic dropped in the oven or on top of my gas stove, which melted, and the stench in the kitchen made my eyes water. My three industrial mixers, the refrigerators, and everything stainless steel tagged with spray paint, adding to the lovely scent, making me want to retch.
“He’s outdone himself this time.”
“Who?” Detective Sandoval inquired.
“That would be my father, Hale Aalto.” I watched the man’s eyes widened. “Yes, the real estate developer, with his stupid, ugly face plastered on every advertising surface he could find in the city.”
“Why would he do that?”
For the next half hour, I explained Hale’s every intention to shut down the block and his plans for a strip mall or whatever neighborhood wrecking idea he’d drummed up. I didn’t forget about his confrontation with Burton and Luka at their place of business. All to break us up and ruin my life.
Luka cleared his throat and when the detective glanced up, he said, “I installed security cameras covering all angles of the bakery and most of the block because I was worried about this exact thing. They include audio.”
“What? When did you do this?” I asked.
By the look on his face, I realized I snapped at him, and I relaxed. No one was to blame other than my father.
“Sorry, lover, I?—”
“No, nothing about this is fair. I know you feel out of control, but we are here and we’ll figure it out.”
He looped his arm around my waist. I sagged against him, all the tension leaving my body with his touch. I reached over and gripped Burton’s hand, needing both men next to me.
The detective glanced between us, and the corner of his mouth tilted up. “You were saying, Mr. Kavka?”
“Please, call me Luka. Mr. Aalto, Phoenix’s father, has made it known to the businesses on this block that he’s out to destroy them, all because his son is a successful entrepreneur despite him. Mr. Aalto made his plan known to us, Phoenix’s employees, both my and Burton’s parents, all the business owners on the block, and our personal assistant, Drew. After he visited our landscaping offices on December Seventeenth, demanding we break up with Phoenix and help him destroy the bakery and his son, I bought the surveillance equipment and installed in the same day.”
I lifted my hands and cupped his face, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “Thank you.”
“Can we go review it?” Detective Sandoval asked.
“Yep.”
We all followed Luka to the office Arthur used, and I couldn’t remember how long it’d been since I stepped inside the bright pink office with the aloe vera plant I’d raised since I was sixteen sitting on the windowsill, healthy and thriving.
Before I moved in with my two men, I used to sit cross-legged on the floor upstairs in my apartment and worked on the accounting and inventory on my coffee table, hating the bland office I’d never gotten around to decorating.
But now, on top of the colorful walls which brightened the space, there were six monitors taking up the entire back wall with Arthur’s desk tucked closer to the window.
“Where are the filing cabinets?”
“We moved them across the hall to the storage room after we cleaned it out,” Burton said.
Luka sat at the monitors and asked, “What time do you think this happened?”
“According to the patrol officers, everything was normal at eleven when they drove by, so I’m thinking we start there,” Detective Sandoval said.
The video was surprisingly sharp. I could read the plates of the cars that drove by.
There was no movement or sound for a few moments, so Luka forwarded the video until a shadow appeared across the street. As Luka slowed it to normal speed, three men walked into view. Two of them held baseball bats, and the other held a tire iron.
“You think we’ll be lucky enough that the little faggot will be home? We can take turns with the boss’ son. A little treat on top of the generous paycheck.”
Three distinct curses erupted from the men around me and I shivered at the thought of what they would’ve done to me had I been home. In the end, I was absolutely furious knowing that my dad had sent them. I may not have been in physical danger, but there are so many what if’s that if Hale stood in front of me, rage led me to believe I could kill him with my bare hands.
“Shut the fuck up, Tommy. You’re such a fucking idiot.”
“What? It’s fucking New Year’s Eve, Sammy, and since I’m doing this and not getting some pussy, I might as well take advantage. He’s gay. A dick is a dick. He’d enjoy it.”
“Don’t say my fucking name, you stupid motherfucker.”
“Would you two shut the fuck up? Let’s get this over with!”
“Jesus, Lance, chill the fuck out. It’s a smash and smash. Nobody’s around. It’ll be fucking easy.”
A giggle escaped me when a fist found the man’s face, and he screeched at the crack of his nose.
The three of them froze at the loud outburst before they scurried across to my bakery and stood under the awning for a long moment, glancing around, seeing if they attracted any attention.
“For fuck’s sake, the fucking Three Stooges’ dumber than shit cousins bashed up my place. If the fucker ever comes by again, I have a boning knife I’ve been dying to try out.”
“Ignoring that,” Detective Sandoval said, “but if I heard it, I’d say you don’t want to be in the same room with that slimy fuck. When he goes to prison, I’ll start a rumor he’s a predator and likes it rough and see how he fucking likes it. But again, I didn’t hear or say anything.”
We smiled at the detective.
“Well, someone is getting a dozen gingerbread cookies, along with Snickerdoodles, and my mango cheesecake, and?—”
“Are you trying to make me fat?”
“It’s how he shows his appreciation,” Burton said.
Luka laughed and said, “And I’m sure he’ll invite you over for dinner after this is all over and claim you as a friend from now on.”
“You cook, too?” the detective asked.
“Nope, that’s Luka. I only bake.”
For the next fifteen minutes, we watched as they trashed the entire place, making me flinch when my rolling pin splintered and burned. But I shot out several expletives when they found my stash of international spices and dumped them or broke the jars.
“How do you think they know your father?”
I blinked at the detective before answering, “Hale Aalto is best at exploiting a weakness, and he sees nothing but in people. If I were to guess, they work at a construction company where Hale’s employed them or they’ve either done business with my father in the past as thugs for hire, which doesn’t seem likely considering we know all their first names, or he offered them a lot of money and has leverage on them. I’m guessing the latter.”
“So you’ve never seen them before? They haven’t been in your bakery?”
Luka grunted, and I shook my head.
“Our customers are older folks from the neighborhood, college kids, or corporate types. We’re a queer safe space. Trust me, I would remember if they came in.”
The criminals seemed to tire out after they smashed the remaining glass bowls and fell into step without a word, exiting out of the obliterated front window and took off into the night.
Suddenly tired from the ongoing pushback from my father and knowing how much work we had ahead of us, I sagged against Burton as we finished with the detective. I wanted to go home, bury myself in our darkened bedroom and throw my mobile out the window, ignoring the world for as long as I could get away with it.
Instead, a plan started forming in my mind.
“The three won’t be too hard to find. But I’m not going after Hale Aalto yet, because I’ll get a confession from each of the three before I confront your father. The security footage will be a great help.”
I rubbed my metaphorical hands together, thrilled at the thought of the destruction of my father.