Chapter 6
HARLOW
Iignored the looks from Gina and Erin as Archer, Boner and Cass all entered the restaurant in the middle of the dinner service.
They sat at a table in a corner, ordered their food and ate it while talking and laughing over what sounded to me like nothing in particular. Just three men out for a nice meal.
Nothing to see here.
"I'll finish up everything here and lock up," I told them when all the other customers had left. "Have an early night. Enjoy your time off."
"Okay, boss. Don't forget to get some sleep." Gina winked, grabbed up her things and slipped out the back door.
"What she said." With only her phone in her hand, Erin followed her out.
"Yeah, yeah." I locked the door behind them, then stepped over to lock the front door as well.
"Are they giving you trouble, love?" Boner asked, his eyes shining with amusement, like always.
"Nothing I can't handle. How was your dinner?" I started picking up their empty plates and bowls and stacking them on my arm.
"Amazing as always," Cass said. "Your meatballs are so good." Tentatively, like he didn't want to offend me, he said, "Did you put something different in them this time? They tasted a little different."
Boner, who'd picked up his glass to drink the last of his wine, almost choked on the mouthful. He waved Cass away when he leaned over to pat his back.
"I'm fine. Just went down the wrong hole." He covered his mouth with his fist and coughed a couple of times.
"The proximity of the esophagus to the windpipe suggests humans weren't designed very well," Archer remarked. "Other animals are designed better than we are. Like dolphins, who have a blowhole so they can breathe while swimming."
"I have a blowhole," Boner said. "It's in the head of my cock." He wiggled his eyebrows and finished off the last bit of his wine.
"You can breathe through your cock?" Archer asked as if completely serious.
"I wish." Boner sighed like he might actually see that as a serious flaw in human anatomy.
I could almost see him picturing himself lying on his back in a pool, breathing out the tip of his dick. Of course he'd think that. Anything for a laugh.
"Let me take these dishes in and I'll be right back," I said. And hoping like hell Cass didn't ask about the meatballs again. Yeah, I know I had to tell him at some point, but if I could put that off for, oh, a decade or two, I would.
Once all of the evening's dishes were in the dishwasher, and the machine was on, I made three cups of coffee and a milkshake and took them to the table.
"You're the best." Cass picked up his milkshake and sucked on the straw.
"All that milk is good for your bones," Archer said, drinking black coffee with one sugar.
Cass shrugged one shoulder. "I guess. I like the taste."
"I don't need milk; my boner is already strong enough," Boner said, drinking his coffee with extra milk and four packets of sugar.
"I was referring to actual bones," Archer said. "In spite of the name, there's no bones in the male penis."
Boner looked at him as if astounded to learn that. "There was I thinking they were made up of hundreds of tiny bones and joints that bent when my dick was soft."
"That wouldn't be much fun if one of them broke," I said. "One good, hard kick in the groin and you'd be in a cast."
Boner responded with an exaggerated wince. "That would fucking suck. Good thing there's no bones in there then."
Cass and Archer both murmured their agreement.
"On the other hand," I said slowly, "they might be fun to collect. Cock bones."
Boner gave me the side eye. "I think I just became scared of you. Or aroused. I can't tell, they're kinda the same thing." He shifted in his chair, but was holding back a smile.
"If Archer is the Heart-Renderer, Harlow could be the Cock-Boner," Cass said.
"Oi, I'm the only Boner around here," Boner protested. "I'd have to be the one to collect them. Cock-Boner has a ring to it." He looked thoughtful.
"It sounds like you're repeating yourself," Archer said. "Cock boner."
"Yeah, Hardluck is right," Boner said reluctantly. "Let's just stick with Boner."
"Hardwick," Archer said. "Now, we were going to make a phone call?" He looked over at Cass.
"Right." Cass leaned over and picked up the laptop that was leaning against the leg of his chair. He placed it on the table and pulled Fairfield's phone out of his back pocket to place beside it.
"Before we do any of this…” I began reluctantly. I quickly told them about Erin's shoes. "I know it's probably a coincidence, but I figured I should mention it."
They were silent for a moment before Cass turned on Fairfield's phone and clicked on the last photo. He slid the device over to me.
"Can you tell if they're the same size?" His long fingers lingered on the sides of the device.
I leaned forward for a better look, but shook my head. "I don't know. She has small feet and the angle makes it hard to be sure. It could be, but I could be wrong."
I wanted to be wrong.
"You said you could tell what kind of phone those photos were taken on," Boner said. "We should find that out first before we make any phone calls."
Cass nodded and sat back, opening his laptop and tapping on the keyboard. "As I said the other day, photos have metadata. It's just a matter of…"
He frowned and kept tapping, eyes on the screen. Every so often he'd take a sip of milkshake and sigh softly at the taste.
I didn't think he was aware of doing it, but it was adorable.
I exchanged glances with Boner, who clearly noticed the same thing and also found it endearing. Maybe even arousing.
"Okay, here we go," Cass said finally. "They were all taken on the same day. The first two about thirty seconds apart. The last one a minute later. The phone was one of those cheap ones you get at Walmart."
"Not Fairfield's phone then," I said. His was an older model, but still an expensive phone.
"Definitely not," Cass agreed. "The photos were only taken a week ago."
"So someone is sending unsolicited shoe pics," Boner said. "Diabolical."
"I have another explanation," Cass said. "Whoever's phone these photos were taken on had their data hacked. It's possible they were hoping for something more…"
"Salacious?" Boner offered.
"Yeah, that," Cass said. He swallowed visibly and took a big gulp of milkshake.
"Is there any way of telling where they originated?" Archer asked. "He might have saved them from someone's social media account. We don't need research to know people sometimes do weird things."
I snorted softly. "That's for sure. If that's the case, then I guess that means there was no trap set for us. I'd like to say I'm relieved, but if they're hacking phones in the hope of finding personal photos, then they're violating the privacy of who knows how many children and young people?"
"Just when we think they couldn't get any more evil, they get more evil," Boner said darkly. "Folks should be comfortable taking dick pics, and pussy pics, without being scared they'll be shared all over the fucking place."
"Right," I said softly.
"What kind of phone does Erin have?" Archer asked.
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. Tapped on the screen in front of me and said, "A cheap Tracfone , like the kind those photos were taken on."
I opened my eyes and looked around the table. I didn't want to betray her confidence, but I could trust these men. So could she.
"There were people in her past," I said finally.
"You think they might not be in her past," Boner said, looking ready to rip off some heads and use them as bowling balls.
He might start collecting skulls. Or breaking them.
"I don't know," I said as I shook my head. "It's certainly possible they found her and either she doesn't know, or she doesn't feel comfortable telling me."
Which I understood. Fuck knew I was keeping plenty of secrets from her. I thought it was for her safety. Now I wasn't so sure.
I rubbed my temples. Thought back to Jules' accusations about Augustus’ death.
He'd blamed me for what happened to his and Cass' brother.
Told me I should have gone after Fairfield sooner.
Instead of taking the time to build my restaurant and live my life.
If anything happened to Erin because I hadn't acted sooner, Jules wouldn't be the only one who didn't forgive me. I wouldn't forgive myself.
"We'll keep an eye on her," Boner assured me. "We won't let anything happen to her. If they're after her, they'll have to come through us. And by come through, I don't mean with cum, because that would be—"
I leaned over and put a hand on his bicep. "We get it. Let's not talk about their cum."
"Let's really not." Cass' mouth twisted in disgust. "Boner is right though, we'll keep an eye on her. Whether they're after her or not. If it's not her, we need to figure out who it is."
He didn't need to add 'before they try anything.' We all knew it.
"Approximately six-point-two million pairs of shoes are sold in the country each year," Archer said. "That's about seven-point-four pairs of shoes each. Finding exactly who belongs to that pair is going to be almost impossible."
"I don't even own seven pairs of shoes," I said.
"I own enough for both of us," Boner said. "What? I like me a good pair of shoes. I have a whole section of my closet dedicated to them. I update them regularly. Usually after they get someone else's blood on them. They tend to feel icky after that." He shrugged.
"That's actually a good reason to get rid of a pair of shoes," I admitted.
"Evidence. Archer is right, it could be impossible to find whoever owns those particular ones.
I'll talk to Erin about it. Warn her that people's phones are being hacked.
She's cautious after the things that happened to her.
She won't want anything private to be compromised. "
If they were doing anything like that to her, I'd stab them in the eyeball with a fork.
Maybe that could be my thing. The signature that would lead to a cool nickname?
On the other hand, The Forker didn't sound that great. Not even The New Forker. Since I rarely had much cause to go after women, I couldn't be The Mother Forker.
No, I needed to try another angle. I had plenty of other utensils in my possession. Knives, skewers. More knives.
Wait a minute.
Chef Stabby had a ring to it. They'd have to know my profession and that was more than I wanted the police to know about me. Unless I used a strategically placed carving knife, or got myself a business card and left that behind.
I was overthinking this, but I was starting to warm up to Chef Stabby. It was cute, badass and accurate.
"Are we going to make that phone call?" Archer asked.
"Yes." Cass started to tap at his keyboard again.