Chapter Two #4
Dom reached forward and let her sniff his fingers before moving in to scratch her ears.
Betty fired up her engine and purred loudly.
“If I could be sure I’d get a cat as perfect as you, I’d adopt one in a heartbeat.
My ex is allergic to anything with fur, feathers, or scales, so pets were off-limits. ”
Dom had said little about his divorce, and Kerry hadn’t pushed, though he was dying to know what happened there.
Kerry had made it clear he was ready to listen anytime Dom wanted to talk and had left it at that.
This was the first time Dom had mentioned his ex since he moved back to town, and Kerry took it as a good sign that he barely detected venom in Dom’s voice.
Kerry gently turned Betty’s head so he could look into her eyes once Dom returned his attention to sorting the food.
“Can I trust you or not?” Betty narrowed her eyes as if she were on the verge of opening a can of whoop ass on him, so he released her.
She huffed away from the table, leaped onto the back of the couch again, and resumed bathing her privates.
They dropped into chairs and attacked the food as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks, so several minutes passed before either of them spoke again. Kerry settled back in his chair and sipped his beer as Dom pulled his laptop from his messenger bag.
“So, who do you need me to investigate?”
“Keith Bozeman,” Kerry replied. “He’s suing me for a botched rescue.”
Dom’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he typed. “What happened?”
“Do you remember me talking about Chuck Dahl?” Kerry asked.
Dom’s fingers stilled, and he looked up. “Not that fuck again.”
“Afraid so. Bozeman had lost control of his car and driven over the side of a ravine. I’d already answered a call and was in the field, so Chuck responded to Bozeman’s accident.
He’d radioed me with an update of the situation, and I’d instructed him to get the driver to safety first and then retrieve the vehicle. ”
Dom resumed typing. “That sounded like the sensible thing to do, but I take it Chuck disobeyed orders?”
“The idiot thought it would be working smarter to pull the car up the side of the hill with the crash victim inside it.”
“Yikes,” Dom said with a grimace.
“Yeah,” Kerry agreed. “Dozens of things could go wrong in that scenario, but you only need one to cause a major clusterfuck. The crew shimmied down the hill and hooked the cables to the car. Chuck fired up the winch and started hauling it up the hillside. About halfway up, the rigging failed, and the car plummeted back down the ravine.”
Dom flinched and sucked air through his teeth. “Oh damn.”
“Uh-huh.” Kerry tipped his bottle back but noticed it was empty. Dom hadn’t even touched his beer yet. “You going to drink that?”
Dom stopped typing long enough to scoot the bottle toward Kerry.
“You drink it. I’m on a case.” He resumed typing for a few more minutes, then turned his laptop around to show Kerry a picture of a middle-aged man with dull blue eyes and thin dark hair with a receding hairline.
His expression was pure annoyance as he stared at the camera.
Must’ve been a long wait to get his driver’s license renewed that day. “This Keith Bozeman?”
“Yep.”
Dom pushed back his chair and stood up. “Let me see what I can find out.”
Kerry stood too. “Right now?”
“Mr. Bozeman probably isn’t aware you got served tonight. I want to see how he lives before and after he knows. I’d bet money he’s desperate to live it up one last time.”
“You sound as cynical as Steven.”
Dom stowed his laptop in his messenger bag and zipped it before meeting Kerry’s gaze. “You know firsthand how deceiving and manipulative people can be.”
Kerry thought of Cynthia’s betrayal and how scared his sister must’ve been in the last moments of her life.
He fought back the rising bile in his throat.
Thoughts of losing Natalie naturally led to the tragedy that followed.
Kerry recalled the way his dad disappeared into himself, dying a little more each day until his broken heart gave out.
He didn’t want to go down that road either, so he pushed the pain away and latched onto the memory of Keegan’s gorgeous face bathed in the moonlight.
His silver lining. His horny little lamb.
“Whoa,” Dom said, snapping Kerry back to reality. “Who are you thinking about right now?”
Kerry shook his head vigorously. “It’s nothing. Just thinking about those Cinnabon Delights.”
Dom chuckled. “Well, I’ll leave you alone with them. Dim the lights and enjoy.” He hooked an arm around Kerry’s neck and hugged him again. “I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Thanks for dinner, Dom.”
His friend waved as he headed to the door.
He paused at the sofa to give Betty some love before heading out into the night.
As tempting as the donut holes were, Kerry put them in the microwave for later.
He needed to let off some steam, unwind before bed, and he really wanted to let his imagination and what-ifs run wild, preferably with his hand wrapped around his dick.