Chapter 11
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Cruz
I’m still kind of shocked at what came out of my mouth last week and then it dawns on me—I treated her like I would’ve if she was never assaulted.
In short, I teased her like she was ‘normal’ and not ‘broken’, which drives me crazy every time she says something along that line of thought.
As I start my forklift to begin loading one of the trailers backed into the bays, I wrinkle my nose when I see what this task entails.
It’s pet food, which is a pain in the ass to move because even though the bags are heavily wrapped, if I mess up, one of the forks could puncture a bag and create an absolute disaster area.
Mike, one of the guys I work with, did that last week and there’s still a slight odor from the burst bags despite the fact that we usually have anywhere from twenty to forty trucks waiting to either be loaded or unloaded.
Normally, dog food wouldn’t smell, but after he busted the whole pallet, I found out that in concentrated amounts, it does stink.
Maybe it’s because the temperature inside the warehouse isn’t well-controlled, who knows?
It’s why I’m wearing a hoodie as well as a beanie that I keep in my locker, since it’s always at least twenty degrees colder inside than the actual temperature outside.
With my earbuds in, I hum along to my playlist as I successfully manage to get thirty pallets of dog food loaded so the driver can head out. Hearing a beep in my ear, I realize that Mindy is calling and decide now’s as good a time as any to take my last break of the shift.
“Hey, everything okay?” I ask.
“C-c-cruz,” she sobs, her voice shuddering so much I can barely understand her.
“What’s wrong, kitten?” I question, wondering if I need to leave even though I have at least two hours left on the time clock.
“There’s some man at the door, who says he’s your parole officer. Why would he come here at night?”
“Son of a bitch!” I seethe. “Don’t let him in, Mindy. Give me a second to send Dex a text. I’m going to switch my line over and call him as well. He knows damn good and well what my schedule is and there’s no way he’s coming inside when I’m not home.”
“H-h-hurry, please,” she stammers. The anxiousness in her voice has me seeing red.
How dare he! This is outside of office hours, and even though he’s allowed to do random checks, he’s not allowed to do it at odd hours of the night.
He needs to be reported because I’m sure he’s violating all kinds of things and toeing that legal line.
“Did you answer the door?”
“N-no, I saw the alert on my phone. The only lights on are the outside one for you, and the one over the stove, like I always do,” she says. “But I can’t see his face clearly, Cruz, he has a hat on and his head is slightly down.”
“Be right back,” I reply. Right now, I’m grateful that she seems to be calming down; I can understand her more clearly than when I first answered the call.
I quickly send a text to Dex asking him to go over and see what this asshole wants considering I’m not at home and the jackass knows my schedule.
I turn it into him weekly even though it never changes.
I don’t work the swing shift. Once I get his response, I then call my parole officer, all set to light his ass on fire.
“Hello? Who’s calling at this hour?” Mr. Douglass asks.
I’m so pissed off that it takes me a minute to realize that he sounds sleepy. “Mr. Douglass? It’s Cruz Dempsey calling, and I apologize in advance for doing so at this hour, but my wife is on the other line saying that you’re standing on our porch asking to come inside.”
He immediately sounds far more alert than he did when he answered the phone.
“Cruz, I’m crashed out on my couch, for fuck’s sake.
I know I told you I’d be coming out to see your new residence in the next week, but I damn sure don’t make night visits.
I may be an asshole, and I know I give all my new parolees a lot of shit, but whoever’s at your house is not me.
Tell your wife not to open the door. Do you need me to go over there to make sure she’s okay? ”
Fear now grips me because if it isn’t him, who else could it be?
Dread courses through my body when I realize it can only be one person—Clark.
Probably wearing some sort of disguise for Mindy not to recognize him.
I’m sure his face is something she has memorized after the trauma he inflicted upon her.
“No, our friends live across the road and he’s going over there now, but I appreciate you being willing to do so.
Dammit, I’ve got two more hours on my shift before I can leave, and I know this has freaked her out. ”
“Let me call your supervisor and sort that out for you. She needs you right now,” he replies. “Expect Max to tell you you’re good to go in a few minutes.”
“Thanks. Can I ask one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“What changed your attitude concerning me? Because you’ve been a Grade A jerk since I got out,” I ask.
“Because a Ms. Butler reached out to me, said she’s your attorney and she’s investigating your wrongful conviction.
After speaking with her, I did a little searching and found out that it looks like you were the hospital’s scapegoat and the town’s fall guy for what happened with the stolen medications,” he replies.
“Fuck it, I’m going to go over and make sure she’s okay myself. I can call Max on the way.”
The whole drive home, my heart is in my throat, not knowing how much of a setback this will be for Mindy.
Despite my fear, I still obey the traffic laws, because the last thing I want is to be pulled over for a speeding ticket.
Finally, finally I’m pulling into our driveway, where I see two men sitting on our porch. Dex and Mr. Douglass.
Parking, I quickly grab my insulated lunch bag and walk toward the two men who stand when they see me coming. “So, hopefully y’all introduced yourselves,” I say once I’m on the porch.
“We did,” Dex replies. “As far as who was here, it was someone named Clark. The reason Mindy didn’t know who he was is because he had his head down so she couldn’t see him clearly.
I got over here while he was still knocking on the door and flat out asked him who the fuck he was and in what universe did he think it was okay to bang on someone’s front door at this hour.
Mindy heard the conversation through the app and called the police since she’s got a restraining order against him, and they got here quick enough and arrested him for violating it. ”
“So, why are you both outside then?” I question, although I bet it has to do with Mindy not being willing to open the door.
Dex gives me a look and says, “I didn’t think it was a good idea to stress her out any more than she already was, but Mr. Douglass here talked to her through the app and let her know that he would never be making night visits, plus he made sure that he looked into the camera itself so she knows what he looks like now. ”
I look back at the driveway and don’t see any other vehicle so I ask, “What happened to his car?”
Mr. Douglass chuckles then replies, “The cops towed it. Now that you’re home, I’m taking off. You need to go check on your wife, Cruz.”
Shaking each of their hands, I state, “I appreciate what both of y’all did more than you know. Dex, I’m sure she’ll need Jolie in the morning.”
“I’ll fill her in when I get back home.” I glance across our road and can make out Jolie sitting on their porch, with a blanket wrapped around her. He chuckles and says, “She’s been there this whole time, man.”
Humorously, I shake my head then release a quick bark of laughter. “Yeah, she needs to go in because it’s definitely too chilly for her to be outside. She doesn’t need to pick up a cold while she’s pregnant, she’ll end up being absolutely miserable.”
“Truth,” Dex replies.
Once both men leave, I unlock the front door, shut off the alarm, then after locking back up, I re-arm it before I go in search of my wife. “Mindy? Kitten? Where are you?” I call out as I move through the house.
“In our room,” she hollers down the hallway.
When I breach our doorway, she launches herself at me, and starts crying again.
“I was s-s-so scared, Cruz,” she murmurs against my chest, which is quickly getting soaked by her tears.
“E-e-especially when I found out it was him. How did he find out I moved? What did he think he could accomplish by coming here?”
As I soothe her, my arms wrapped around her shaking body, I tell her, “I have no idea what he was thinking, but we’re going to find out, kitten. Did you let the police know you were pressing charges?”
She nods as I lead her to the huge chaise lounge that’s in the corner of our room.
Sitting down, I pull her onto my lap and continue whispering nonsensical things as I work to calm her down.
Granted, my own heart rate is still accelerated at all the what ifs that could’ve happened.
Jolie and she go back and forth all day long, but never at night.
“Mr. Douglass made sure I knew what he looked like, and he said that he doesn’t have to do surprise inspections on you any longer. Said you’re a model parolee,” she says.
I snicker since I know where his attitude adjustment concerning me came from. Ms. Butler was nice to the two of us when we saw her, but from what Dex has found out, she’s a shark in the courtroom and deadly to her opponents.
“Kitten, before the shitshow happened, I was a law-abiding citizen. Hell, I’m still one even now,” I tease. “Are you good now? I definitely need a shower and I think we need a snack. Our daughter just nudged me.”
She giggles, which was my intent, then says, “You go and shower while I get us slices of cheesecake. We’ll meet in bed.”
“Works for me. Now up, kitten, so I can wash the warehouse from my body.”
“Aye, aye, captain.”
“I kinda like how that sounds,” I muse as I gather clean sleep pants.
Someday, I’ll be able to sleep nude again, but for the time being, boxers and sleep pants are necessary.
At least until our daughter is old enough to toddle into our room by herself.
Then I’ll have them close by to slip on.
Visions of her, as well as our future children, crawling into our bed for a movie night have me smiling as I turn the shower on.
“Goals,” I mutter to myself as I step inside the stall.