Boosted Pt. 06

He released her, kissing her softly before watching her eyes. She had such beautiful eyes. Now that the words were out there, he felt relaxed, like saying them were the most normal thing in the world. He hadn't been an idiot... he'd been a damned idiot.

"I love you," he said again, smiling at how easily the words came off his tongue.

She smiled back at him, her eyes full of humor. "And I love you right back. It's about time you said something."

His smile spread. "You could have said something, you know."

"And risk being seen as the needy woman and scaring you away? I knew, but I could wait until you were sure."

"I was sure months ago."

"So why didn't you say something?"

"Stupid."

"Yes, you were, but I forgive you."

They kissed again, a slow, lingering kiss. "How did you know?" he asked.

"There's more to being in love than the words. I could tell by how you looked at me, how you acted around me. I wasn't sure you were in love," she said, making air quotes around the words with her fingers, "but I could tell I was more than a bedmate and a friend."

"You're more than that, Maggie. Much more."

"That's good because I wasn't willing to be a friend with benefits forever."

"You were never that," he murmured as he kissed her softly.

"Neither were you," she whispered as their lips slowly parted.

He pulled her into another embrace, needing to feel her closeness. They stood together, saying nothing for a long moment as he soaked up the feelings of love and support like a parched desert soaked up the life-giving rain. That's what she was becoming to him, life-giving rain to the desert that had been his life.

"Let's go out," he said, relaxing his embrace. "I feel like celebrating. Celebrating us... and Marmalade's memory."

She pulled back and drew her hand along his face in an unhurried caress. "I'd like that. I can be ready in a half-hour."

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SIXTEEN

Sean's phone dragged him up from the depths of sleep. He grabbed the cell and swiped the screen to stop the fast-paced trumpets, drums, and organ from the Hawaii Five-0 theme, the ringtone he'd set for work, before it woke Maggie. Once the phone stopped ringing, he lay still for a couple of heartbeats to make sure he was awake. "Sean," he said quietly, slowly rising from the bed and walking out of the bedroom.

"Sorry to wake you, chief. This is Greg. You said you wanted to be called if we saw anything happening at BIGS?"

"Greg?" He couldn't place the name.

"Yes, sir. Greg Crispin."

"Right. Sorry Greg." Greg was one of the new officers he'd hired to help fill the ranks when they began patrolling Tilley. "I'm not awake yet. What've you got?"

"Nothing, only the lights are on in the shop. I was supposed to call you, wasn't I?"

"Yeah," he grunted as he rubbed his eyes.

"Anything else you want me to do?"

"No. Go back to your regular patrol. I don't want them to see you hanging around watching them."

"Got it. Anything else?"

"No. I'll take it from here."

"Okay. If you need backup or anything..."

"I know I can depend on you. Thanks, Greg."

He hung up the phone and crept back into the bedroom. "What?" Maggie muttered as he quietly began to dress.

"I need to go to work," he said as he shrugged into his shirt.

"It's almost midnight!"

"I know. I'm sorry." She grunted in a way that worried him. "You okay?"

She rolled over to blink at him, her eyes heavy with sleep. "Yeah. It's just the bed is cold when you're not in it."

He kissed her softly. "I'll try not to wake you when I get back."

"How long?"

"Don't know. Not long, I hope."

She sighed heavily. "Give me another kiss before you leave."

He complied and then picked up his shoes to put on in the living room. Leaving Maggie alone in the bed didn't seem like as good an idea now as it had when he'd left word to call him. After he finished tying his shoes, he snuck out of the house, trying to be as quiet as possible, though stumbling into one of the dining area chairs and banging it into the table with a hearty thump probably invalidated all his other attempts at silence.

In his car he hurried to Tilley, running part of the way with his strobes flashing, but then went dark as he approached Highway 210. He drove past BIGS at a normal pace, and without slowing, wanting to appear like just another car passing on the highway. He turned onto Juniper and then turned around, parking on the side of the road and killing his headlights. The shop was lit, but he had no idea if the cars to be chopped had already arrived. It didn't matter. Tonight he intended to follow one of the rollbacks to its destination. He'd checked on salvage yards and had been spoiled for choice. There were twelve within thirty miles, and more than twenty within an hour's drive.

He settled in to watch, his thoughts returning to Maggie. Last night, at Loch and Castle, he'd felt like a high school kid who'd just asked the most popular girl in school out on a date, and she'd said yes. Even Marmalade's passing couldn't bring him down. Because it had been a Tuesday, the pub wasn't crowded, so they'd taken their time and enjoyed the evening, first ordering from the menu, and then sitting and talking over their drinks. He'd told her a few stories about Marmalade and the mischief the cat had occasionally gotten into. Maggie had laughed heartily at his story of the cat playing with a plastic grocery sack that had fallen onto the floor while he and Stephanie, his wife at the time, put away groceries. Everything had been fine... until Marmalade got his head stuck through the handle. The cat had panicked, tearing around the house with the evil bag nipping at his heels the entire time. It had taken himself, Stephanie, and McKenzie, working together as a team, several tries to catch Marmalade and rescue him from the bag, mostly because they were laughing themselves to tears as they tried. He hadn't thought about that incident in years. He didn't know if Maggie was laughing at his telling of the account, or at his own laughing while trying to tell the story, but he'd enjoyed listening to her all the same.

After the tales of Marmalade, they'd spoken quietly about themselves. Now that their feelings were out in the open, they had a lot to talk about, and he couldn't stop reaching for her hands across the table. After a couple of hours, they'd returned home and watched the Netflix rom-com, To All the Boys I Loved Before. He'd been pleasantly surprised at how charming the lead characters were, and it was a movie Maggie hadn't seen before, which made for an even more enjoyable viewing experience. She never complained, but they often watched a movie she'd already seen because she thought he needed to see it. As enjoyable as the movie was, it paled in comparison to having her snuggled up in his side. Their positions were little different than when they normally watched a movie, but tonight was better, much better, than normal.

He smiled. Afterwards had been pretty good too. Being able to whisper his love to her, and have her whisper hers in return, had added a new dimension to their love-making. Afterwards, he'd fallen into a deep and peaceful sleep... until his damn phone had started ringing. Of all the nights for BIGS to do whatever they were doing at night, why did it have to be tonight? He should be at home--he smiled to himself when he realized he thought of Maggie's house as home--snuggled up with Maggie in bed, not sitting here in his damn car, surveilling a damn business, in the middle of the damn night. He sniffed in mock annoyance. Even this couldn't bring him down. His feet hadn't touched the ground since he told her how he felt, and she'd admitted her love in return. He settled further down in the seat and got comfortable. If tonight was like the last time he spent the night watching BIGS, he had a good long wait ahead of him before the rollbacks showed up.

He'd been sitting for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, when a dark grey or black Porsche Panamera showed up. The car had barely stopped rolling before the gate was opened and the car was whisked through. He grimaced. Thinking about such a nice car going under the knife hurt. He sat up abruptly. The lights were blinking out in the shop already. He glanced at the clock. It wasn't even one yet. Less than two minutes after the shop went dark, the gate opened and the Ford Explorer he'd seen the last time he staked out BIGS appeared. The gate was locked and the Ford drove away.

"What the hell?" he muttered as he started his car.

This wasn't what he expected at all. He pulled away from his parking spot, flicking on his headlights as he did. He didn't charge the Explorer, but he drove slightly above the speed limit to slowly close the distance on the Ford. He'd caught up with the SUV by the time they reached the southside of Brunswick and drove past, glancing into the other vehicle as he slowly overtook them. There were two people in the car. He couldn't get a good look at the passenger in the darkness, but he didn't recognize the driver from the brief glimpse he got as they passed under a streetlamp. He continued past, praying for a light to catch them so he'd have a chance to get another look, but luck was against him. He did slow slightly so he wouldn't get too far ahead, and when he guessed wrong on which way the Ford would go, he quickly pulled a U-turn in the street and backtracked to follow. The Explorer drove to the interstate and merged onto I-95 going north. Sean followed until the vehicle exited onto Highway 70 just north of Brunswick. They were probably headed to Raleigh.

He continued on to the next exit and overpass where he could turn around and return to Brunswick, but before he did, he pulled onto the shoulder of the onramp and ran the Explorer's plate. The vehicle was registered to Raymond and Lilly Fassbender, in Raleigh. He rubbed his mouth vigorously in thought. He wished he'd been able to see the plate on the Porsche to determine who it was registered to. The Fassbender's didn't own it, but it was still possible the car was legitimately being dropped off for repair, but why so late at night? That didn't make any sense. It also didn't make sense that whatever happened tonight was completely different than what happened the last time BIGS was doing something suspicious. Criminal activities tended to follow patterns, and so far, BIGS wasn't doing that.

Something didn't add up. He quickly checked for a reported theft of a Porsche Panamera, but none had been reported stolen recently. The last one stolen was in Charlotte over a year ago, and that one had been silver, not dark like this one.

Huffing out a breath in frustration, he drove back to Brunswick. He wasn't sleepy and if he went back to Maggie's now, he'd just toss and turn for a couple of hours and keep her awake. He decided to stop by his apartment to check his mail and see if his dipstick neighbor had heeded his warning about parking in his reserved spot.

He stopped at the cluster mailbox that served his building and retrieved his mail before driving the rest of the way to his apartment, smiling to himself that his spot was available. He spotted the car that normally was in his place parked farther out, in one of the visitor spots. The neighbor might be a little slow, but he, or she, did learn. After claiming his parking place, he walked to his apartment, squinting and blinking after flicking on the bright kitchen light. He quickly shuffled through his mail. It was all junk and he fed it to the shredder. He looked around. The apartment seemed empty without Marmalade, his lips tightening with the thought of his former pet. He was here, so he might as well take care of cleaning out Marmalade's stuff. That would take his mind off BIGS and give him a chance to start getting sleepy.

He had no plans to get another pet, so there was no point in keeping Marmalade's things. The cat had never been that interested in toys, and Maggie's cat, TC, was an indoor, outdoor kitty. She didn't have, or need, a litter pan or scratching post, and wouldn't want what few toys Marmalade had. He quickly gathered Marmalade's catnip stuffed mouse, the horizontal circular track with a ball inside, and his little used scratching post, and carried it all to the dumpster. He returned to the apartment and repeated the procedure with the cat's litter box and the extra litter. He'd forgotten and left his carrier at the vet's office, so he'd call their office and donate it to them. They could give it to someone that needed one. That left Marmalade's food.

Marmalade had an extensive selection of canned food, not to mention the expensive stuff he'd bought that Marmalade didn't like. It all went into a plastic grocery sack while the remainder of the cat's pills went into the garbage. He paused to look around the apartment. The cat's food and water bowls were a set of small, shallow, custard cups. He'd keep those for other uses. He remembered Marmalade's brush and added that to the plastic sack with the food. He didn't know if Maggie had, or even wanted, a brush for TC, but if she didn't want it, he could throw it away there as easily as he could here. He looked around again, pondering, but couldn't think of anything he'd missed. If he'd forgotten anything he could throw it into the dumpster or take it to Maggie's on his next trip. He picked up the sack, turned off the kitchen light, and walked to his car. It had taken less than thirty minutes to eliminate any evidence of Marmalade from his life. A faint smile touched his lips. That wasn't entirely true. He still had his memories, and pictures of Marmalade with McKenzie, and that was enough.

Dealing with Marmalade's stuff had stopped the ever-tightening whirl of thoughts about BIGS, and he could feel sleep stalking him. He started to return directly to Maggie but decided to take a drive through Tilley. He knew the chance of seeing gesture-man from the video on the street was a million to one, but he was hoping that maybe he'd see something else, something that would jog his memory to where he'd seen the man before. If he wasn't imagining the whole thing, and he'd actually seen someone make the hand gesture in person, Tilley was the most likely place he'd seen it. If he'd seen it anywhere else it was probably unconnected anyway, so it didn't matter.

He slowly cruised through Tilley as he made his way toward downtown. The lights were still on in Loch and Castle. He glanced at the clock. It was approaching two. The pub closed at one Sunday through Thursday, and two on Friday and Saturday. They were probably still cleaning up and getting ready to open again tomorrow. He cruised past, into the darker part of downtown, before turning around and slowly driving back. Nothing tickled his memory.

Giving up, and sleep tugging ever harder at him, he decided to go home. As he drove through the darkness, BIGS kept trying to creep into his thoughts, but every time it did, he shut the thoughts down by thinking about Maggie. Remembering the tenderness in her eyes as they made love, the taste of her lips, the thrill of finding out she loved him, was a terrific distraction, and that was just what he needed. He didn't want thoughts of BIGS keeping him awake tonight.

He pulled into her garage and let the big roll up door fully close before opening the kitchen door. Inside, he softly closed the door and then stood still, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Maggie's house was well out of town and set on a large lot. The only light at night was that provided by nature, and often the darkness in her house was complete. Being from Boston, that had been a hard thing for him to adjust to. There was a near full moon tonight, so as soon as his eyes completely adjusted, he'd be able to see enough to move around without having to feel his way along and worrying about bumping into something. He smiled in memory as he waited, remembering how many times he'd gotten lost or run into something in the dark, much to Maggie's amusement, until he learned his way around her house. When he could begin to distinguish the outlines of the kitchen, he carefully, and quietly, placed the bag of cat food on the counter. He'd deal with that in the morning.

He moved through the kitchen, being careful to not run into the table this time, and stepped silently into her... their room. He undressed and slowly slid into bed, snuggling up behind her, carefully sliding an arm under her pillow to wrap her in his arms. She sighed softly and took his hand in hers.

He lay still, waiting for sleep to take him. He still couldn't figure out why someone brought a Porsche to BIGS in the middle of the night and then--stop it! he commanded himself, forcing the thoughts away. He could worry about it in the morning.

"Find anything," she mumbled.

"No. Sorry I woke you," he whispered in reply.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It's okay. How're you feeling?"

He kissed her on the shoulder. "Okay."

"Good," she sighed before rolling over to snuggle into the crook of his arm, throwing a leg possessively over him as she propped on his chest. "What time is it?"

"About two." She grunted softly. "Go back to sleep," he whispered before kissing her on the head.

"Love you," she mumbled.

A smile appeared unbidden on his lips. "Love you too."

Within moments her breathing began to slow, becoming deep and regular as she slid into sleep. He held her, her slow even breathing lulling him into the darkness of slumber. A flicker of a smile played at his lips. Life was funny sometimes. It took the loss of Marmalade to break him out of his... complacency, or fear, or whatever had prevented him from telling Maggie how he felt about her. As his thoughts became sluggish, he remembered when Marmalade curled up in Maggie's lap the first time, perhaps welcoming her into his family in his own way. Marmalade had been a good companion, and he'd miss him. In the twilight of half-sleep, he imagined Marmalade waiting for him at the Rainbow Bridge, looking down on them, perhaps happy for him that he'd found Maggie and ended the loneliness he'd felt without even realizing it. With a final sigh of contentment, he slipped beneath the dark waves of sleep, the slow rise and fall of his chest falling naturally into sync with the breathing of the woman he loved.