15. Everett
CHAPTER 15
EVERETT
I was in the hospital a lot when I was a kid.
Not, like, a lot lot. It wasn’t like I had a chronic illness or was being abused, but I was a clumsy kid. At least once a year I ended up in the emergency room thanks to a broken finger or a dislocated collarbone or, on one notable camping trip in the backyard where I accidentally set my tent up on top of an anthill, an allergic reaction to their bites that led to anaphylaxis. Not fun.
For a while there it tapered off, then increased a lot in the last year of my mom’s life, when she was in and out for cancer treatments and the shit that came with it. It had been a decade since I was in the ER regularly, but I wasn’t surprised to see that I knew the charge nurse sitting at the desk. “Hey, Nurse Eshun.”
The slender Black woman behind the counter peered at me over her spectacles with a raised eyebrow. “Well, if it isn’t Everett Mulligan.” She glanced over to Kyle, who was holding himself gingerly beside me. “It seems like you’re not here for yourself tonight, hmm?”
“Nope. Stunner, I know.” That got a little smile out of her.
I let Kyle explain the circumstances—which he phrased as a work accident, not going into details. I couldn’t blame him, even though I kind of wished he’d be more specific. Doctors needed specifics to do their job right, and he was clearly in pain.
“You’re lucky tonight,” Nurse Eshun said after a moment of tapping at her computer. “There’s no line, for once. I can get you a private room to wait for the doctor.”
I smirked. Private room, ha. “You mean there’s a curtain and everything?”
“It goes all the way around the bed,” she said with a real smile this time. “Everett, you can wait out here while?—”
“I’d like him to stay with me,” Kyle blurted.
Oh, thank goodness he went ahead and said it first, because I totally wasn’t too dignified to beg.
“Whatever you want,” Nurse Eshun agreed. “Here, let’s get you signed in, and I’ll need to make a copy of your insurance card.”
Ugh. Paperwork. The worst part about coming to the ER, bar none. I took the clipboard and handled as much of it myself as I could, because Kyle seriously looked one bad minute away from losing his lunch on the floor and focusing on a lot of tiny words wasn’t going to make him feel any better.
Eventually we ended up in his private room, which was just a bed sharing a central triage area. It was separated from the rest of the room by, yep, a flimsy blue curtain that could be pulled all the way around the bed to make a little enclosure of sorts. There was a stool for me, but once Kyle lay down on his stomach, he tugged me over to sit on it next to him. I went immediately, ignoring the sounds of the other patients in the room—crying in at least two cases, cursing in one—to focus on Kyle.
“You’re going to be okay,” I said. It might have had the air of an order to it, but that was just because I couldn’t imagine any other outcome.
“Yeah, I’m sure I will.” He did look a little less like sour milk now that he was prone, but his brow was furrowed. “I just…” He ran a hand down his face. “I think I actually could have died today.”
I shivered and leaned in a little closer to him in reaction. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in a piece of machinery like that while someone threatened to turn it on. “That must have been terrifying.”
“It’s fine. I mean,” he amended, “it’s not fine, but I’ll get over it. But we’re both being threatened now—that guy knew more than just my job, he knew where I was working at the time. Someone must have been tailing me, or reporting from the medical examiner’s office to whoever assaulted me. And for Reardon to know about your family’s business and be able to threaten it like they did, it means they’ve got a lot of pull.”
I nodded. “People in the police department, people in the M.E.’s office, someone in the permit office at City Hall…”
“It’s a conspiracy,” Kyle said grimly. “The kind of conspiracy that’s gotten at least one person killed so far. We’ve got some circumstantial evidence and one name, but I have no doubt Detective Reardon’s got an alibi for everything we might try to pin on him.”
Fuck. Kyle was right. This was a lot bigger than I’d thought when I first noticed something was amiss back in Ricky’s trailer. “What do you want to do?” I asked. “Do you want to…stop?” I couldn’t blame him if he did. Shit, we were in the hospital because somebody had decided to deliver a warning with their foot. Had it been Reardon? Or even Leon? How many people in this town were wearing black Air Force 1s?
Kyle shook his head, and I let out a breath of…it might have been relief, but it felt more like concern. I was in this with him, but I hated seeing him injured. It made my skin crawl. “We should be careful, though,” he said. “I think we need to talk to my brother again, and call Leon and warn him, just in case.”
Ah. Looked like he hadn’t recognized Leon’s voice as his attacker. “We can do that,” I assured him. “Just, later. I’d have to leave to use my cell phone, and?—”
He gripped my hand so tight I felt his nails dig into my palm. “Don’t leave.”
I leaned over and kissed him gently. “I won’t.”
The doctor came before we could do more than reassure each other, which was probably for the best. I waited on the sidelines while the guy asked Kyle some questions, palpated his ribs, and then sent him for a quick X-ray, which I went along for. It didn’t turn up anything, but the chest MRI did. The final diagnosis was?—
“Bruised ribs and intercostals on the right side. You should be able to manage the pain with Advil, but I can give you a script for something stronger for the first few days if you’d like,” the doctor offered. “You should definitely take some time off work. I know you have a physical job, but now’s not the time to push it.”
Kyle’s mouth flattened with distaste, but he didn’t outright object. “I don’t need the prescription,” he said instead.
“That’s fine.” The doctor went over the rest of the treatment plan—mostly ice, rest, and careful movement for a while—then let us go.
“Thanks for doing that,” I said, feeling a little abashed after the fact. “I didn’t mean to nag you. I just wanted to make sure you were going to be all right.”
To my surprise, Kyle smiled at me. “I don’t mind. It’s kind of…nice to have someone care.”
I was sure his family cared…or at least his brother would care, but we hadn’t called them yet and Kyle didn’t suggest it, so blissful ignorance it was. I pivoted to a less fraught subject. “Want to come home with me tonight?”
Kyle blinked at me in confusion, like I was speaking in tongues. “Why? I’m fine, we just established that.”
“You’re not that fine,” I pointed out. “Bruised ribs are no joke—I’ve had them a few times myself.” I’d tried to jump from the top of the slide to the parallel bar at the playground and…yeah, I’d missed. “I could get you stuff, help make sure you’re comfortable. My bed is huge, you’d have plenty of space, and…” And I really don’t want to let you out of my sight if I don’t have to right now, and I know that’s kind of stalkerish but it’s true. “It would make me really happy,” I finished.
“Oh.” Jeez, why did he look surprised at the idea of me being happy around him? What the hell kind of family did he even have, other than one brother who wasn’t an asshole? “That’s…all right, sure, but we’ve got to go to my place first and take care of the animals.”
“Sold,” I said. “Are you kidding me? I would pay you to let me feed Steve.”
“Steve is an asshole,” Kyle grumped as he got into my car—we’d left his at Waffles? for the time being. “He took a chunk out of me this morning, see?” He held up his bandaged hand.
Steve was an asshole, but that was part of his appeal. “I’ll handle everything,” I assured Kyle. “You just get a bag of stuff to take to my place while I take care of your pets.”
Caring for said pets took longer than I’d thought—apart from Kyle needing to put a bag together and Patches dogging him the whole way, Jeff was apparently desperate for pets and literally climbed my leg at one point so I would hold him. It was cute but also ouch , those claws—but we made it into my car and, from there, back home to Mulligan’s Mortuary.
Kyle stared at the neon sign as we drove around the parking lot to the back. “Wow. I never stopped to think about it before now, but you actually live in a mortuary. ”
“Only kind of. The ground floor and basement are the business, but the top floors are for the family.” I parked in my usual space and pointed to the top of the A-frame. “My room is up there.” And I’d totally cleaned it up, kind of. Enough that there was a path from the door to my bed and the bathroom, which was pretty good for me.
Shit. If I was going to make a habit of this, I was going to have to do better when it came to keeping my space user-friendly.
“Come on.” I led the way inside—no lights on other than the one in the hall, like usual, which meant everyone was asleep. That was good. I didn’t want to have to explain having someone sleep over at holy hell o’clock in the morning. Which, speaking of…
I was about to have Kyle in my room. Kyle, gorgeous and snarky and so with-it I almost couldn’t stand it. He was going to be in my room, in my bed . And I…was going to do absolutely nothing about it. Well, maybe a goodnight kiss, but other than that, nothing. A little snuggling, maybe. Or not, if his ribs couldn’t take it. Maybe I should?—
“Wow.”
I’d opened my door on autopilot, and now Kyle was seeing the chaos. “The sheets are clean,” I assured him.
“Yeah, but what would I find if I pulled up the carpet?”
I grinned. “Not bloodstains!”
That got a smile out of him. “Good enough.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “God, I’m so tired.”
Of course he was. He’d been threatened with death by industrial mixer, or lathe, or whatever that thing was the guy had threatened to turn on while he was cleaning it. “C’mon, I’ll show you the bathroom.”
Ten minutes and one quick check of my calendar later—no funerals until the afternoon, excellent—we settled into bed. I gave him plenty of space, scooting over until my back hit the wall. I figured that would make him feel better, since I’d be less likely to squash him in the night.
Kyle sighed. “Okay, this is going to sound stupid, but…”
“It won’t.”
“I haven’t even said it yet.”
“You don’t say stupid things.”
He smirked. “Flatterer. No, but seriously, it’s—okay, can I just, um, hold your hand or something?”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You want to what?”
“It’s just, I’m used to sleeping with cats,” he muttered. If the lights had been all the way up, I was sure I’d be able to see him blushing. “I’m used to sleeping on my back, so I don’t think my ribs will bother me all that much, but I need some sort of heat, or pressure, or just movement to make my mind quiet down. If that’s weird, I can?—”
“No, it’s totally fine.” And I was going to take total advantage of it. “Yeah, I can be your kitty.” I leaned over and poked his shoulder with my nose. “Should I purr? Maybe lick you a few times?”
“Not yet , if you don’t want this to be a very frustrating night,” Kyle replied, and that was a plan I could get behind. I slid my hand down until it met his, and Kyle wound our fingers together. It felt sweet, almost innocent. Like the sort of thing I wouldn’t expect two grown men who were into each other to do, and yet I was thrilled to be doing it. “Good night,” he said with a little squeeze.
“Sleep sweet,” I told him. I was pretty sure I would.
Morning, of course, was another matter entirely. The second my siblings saw us, anything sweet was out of the question.
“Dude, what?” My brother stared at me with his spoonful of cereal halfway to his mouth as Kyle and I, fully clothed because I wasn’t a complete idiot, walked into the kitchen. “What?”
“What what?” I asked as I went to the coffee machine. “Cream and three sugars, right?” I confirmed with Kyle.
He smiled. “You remember my coffee order.” He was doing a lot better today; his ribcage was still black and blue along his right side, but not so bad that he’d needed help getting dressed. Which was kind of too bad, since I was hungry for more ways to put my hands all over him—platonically—after a night of hand-holding and cuddling up against his arm.
“Sixty-one percent of men prefer their coffee with cream,” I informed him as I poured out a cup. “It’s something like eighty-one percent of women, I think. And almost half of people like a sweetener with their coffee as well, but I actually remember you like it with sugar because you laid the empty packets out side-by-side on the table at Waffles.”
“How do you know these statistics?” he asked.
“Who is this guy?” Stuart asked.
I went with the more important question first. “Coffee consumption is actually really well-researched in America. Over three quarters of Americans drink coffee at least once a week, and since I’m kind of hard to deal with on the best days, I sometimes bring a variety of coffees to a scene while I’m waiting to retrieve a body so that the people working it are in a better mood.” Nothing smoothed over an uncomfortable situation like fresh coffee.
“ Who is this guy ?” Stuart insisted, staring between us for a long second before—ah, there it was. “Wait, this is the guy you were trying to make up with?”
Kyle put him out of his misery and introduced himself. Stuart got up to shake his hand. “The pleasure is all mine,” he assured him. “I never thought I’d meet someone who’d willingly seek out Everett more than once outside the family.”
I glared at him. “Ouch.” Forget me being compassionate about him and Penny, my brother could fuck right off.
“Sorry, but?—”
“Everett is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met,” Kyle said calmly as he sipped the coffee I made him. Yeah, suck it, Stuart. “And he’s really hot and he likes my piranhas, so from where I’m standing he’s the catch.”
Stuart looked a little stunned. “You…have piranhas.”
“Yeah. Want to know how fast they can strip the meat from a bone?”
“Oh, I know that!” I chimed in, because I’d done some research after the first time I’d fed Steve and the others. “It’s actually?—”
“Everett?” My dad walked in, phone in one hand, donut in another. He was wearing his blue suit, which meant he was going out. Black suits were for the funerals, while the blue one was for business outside the mortuary. “And. Uh.”
I went through the awkward introduction phase again, made even more awkward this time for the fact that my brother at least knew I was dating Kyle, whereas my dad probably thought he was meeting a random hookup. Which, unfair, I hadn’t had random hookups with anyone for over a year now. Growth , that’s what that was. Also a crazy schedule as the business expanded, which left little time for hookups or dating.
That would have to change. I watched Kyle navigate the choppy waters of meeting the more abrasive members of my family like a pro and knew that this, what we had together…it was serious for me. Kyle deserved serious. He was worth serious. Especially given what we were doing, trying to prove a suicide was really a murder and that someone high up in the police was trying to cover it up, he deserved serious. My family had come first for a long time, but when I thought about my future, all I could see was Kyle.
Coffee hour was interrupted by Kyle getting a call. He pulled his phone out and frowned. “It’s my brother,” he said to me. “I need to?—”
“Yeah, of course.”
He went down the hallway and through the door that led to the back lot. I watched him go until a sharp “ahem!” from my father drew my attention back.
“Bringing boys around here without permission?” he snapped.
Oh my God. I rolled my eyes. “I’m twenty-five. Kyle is almost thirty, I think. Neither of us are boys, and I’m well past the age where I need to ask your permission to bring someone home.”
“You need to think about more than just yourself,” my dad replied. “Your brother and sister live here too. How do you think they feel, walking in on breakfast with a total stranger?”
I was ready to snap right back at my dad, but to my surprise Leanne spoke up from behind. “Is that how you felt every time I brought Theo over?”
He turned to her, still grouchy. “You know it’s not. We’ve known Theo since your Mom was still around. Penny’s practically family, and Theo’s got a good job.”
“Kyle has a good job,” I insisted. “He runs his own business cleaning up crime scenes. That’s how we met. He’s a good guy, not some creep I pulled off the streets for a quick fuck.”
“Watch your language, young man.”
It felt like being in high school again, except high school me would never have argued like this with Dad. I was done being pushed around, though. It was one thing to badmouth me; there was no way I was going to let my family get judgy about my boyfriend. “I’m not a kid you can order around!”
“As long as you live in my house, you obey my rules,” my father said, raising his hand and shaking a finger at me. “No mouthing off.”
“Or what, you’ll ground me?”
“Guys.” Leanne stepped forward, holding up her hands. “Let’s calm down, okay? There’s no need to fight. Dad, I know you’re stressed about the holdup with the paperwork, so why don’t you let me take care of it?” She smiled brightly at him, her “happy front” smile. “I’ve got a meeting down there at noon anyway. And yes, I will be back in time for Mr. Singh’s funeral.”
My father nodded gruffly at her, then killed all her hard work by looking back at me. “You see this? You see how your sister handles things? You need to be more like her.”
“What, forever at your beck and call and totally depressed because of it?”
I knew I’d gone too far the moment I said it. Leanne looked like she’d been kicked in the stomach, and my dad’s face was turning red. Even Stuart was staring at me like he didn’t recognize me. I wanted to apologize—to Leanne, at least—but I couldn’t stand another minute in that room. I turned on my heel and walked out after Kyle, grabbing my jacket and keys as I went. I didn’t plan on interrupting his conversation, but it turned out he was done with it by the time I got outside.
“Colin found out I went to the ER last night,” he said grimly.
I shook my head. “How?”
“A plainclothes cop in the waiting room called him.”
Ah. Shit. “Shit.”
“Yeah. He wants to talk to me. I said I’d meet him at my place.”
Well, that was convenient. “We could talk about the case with him, see if he’s learned anything,” I said. “Maybe get some information about Detective Reardon.”
Kyle nodded absently. “Maybe. Can you take me to pick up my car?”
I wanted to offer to drive him myself, but he was going to need his car and I had to be back here by the afternoon. “Sure. Can I go home with you afterward, though?” I didn’t want him to have to have that conversation on his own, and I really didn’t want to come back here before I had to.
“So you can play with my cats and feed my piranhas again?”
Kyle was trying to keep it light, but I wasn’t in the mood for light. “So I can be with you. So you don’t have to have that talk alone.” We were together when it came to figuring out this case. Plus, I just wanted to be with him right now…and maybe all the time, but that was a talk for later.
“Okay.”
Win. “Great!” I leaned in and kissed him, then lifted my keys and jangled them. “Let’s go get your car, then.”