Lovers and Other Strangers Box Set: The Boston Stories (26 page)

"Shit, shit, shit! Joseph I need to see if they took anything. Shit! All my chisels! The hell with the cops my prints will be all over everything anyway, I'm going in."

"Evie, Don't you move! Dammit, someone is pissed at you enough they went at your door with a hatchet from the looks of it. God only knows what the hell is in there."

"You go then! Those chisels cost a fortune I've been putting together my collection over the last 20 years. They're my life's work." He couldn't stand to see her so upset. He could go in and the cops would understand.

"Okay, fine. But I need you to stay here. No matter what. Promise me."

"Fine, just go check. Please! Everything was laid out on the worktable." Cam opened the door with his gloved hand. Evie looked around him and started to cry. Her studio was trashed. If it was just a bunch of hooligans it would have been bad enough but the marble piece she had been working on had had a hammer taken to it. Somehow it looked personal. Cam didn't touch anything but it looked like there were a lot fewer tools on the worktable. He didn't want to touch the light switch in case there were prints they could lift and the glazier hadn't replaced the glass yet so some of the windows were still boarded up so it was tough to see in some spots. If he looked close he could see where there were ghost images of the missing tools from the marble dust that had settled. Shit, this was not going to be good. He really needed Delia to come up with something so he could talk to Evie sooner rather than later.

When he came out of the studio the devil was standing next to Evie.

"This is your idea of helping her? I thought you were going to be here protecting her tough guy."

"Bernard, I..." Evie started to speak and then stopped. Cam tried to will her to tell Bernie boy she had stayed at his place last night, if she wanted to add he'd given her two mind numbing orgasms too he wouldn't complain. Shit, thinking about her laid out on the table like she'd been this morning brought his erection back full force. Thank God for the pea coat.

"Evie, you obviously can't handle the situation. Someone like Rayna would bat her eyes at the cops and show a little cleavage and have them knocking on every door in the neighborhood. The guys would be fighting each other trying to catch the bad guy for her so they could fuck her. They'll never do that for you. You just don't inspire that kind of... devotion. Let me ask around. We can handle this our way, there really isn't any need to call the police."

Cam wanted to ram his fist down the guy's throat. What the hell did he know about just how sexy Evie could be. Cam cut him off before he could say anymore. "Evie, I hate to tell you this..." she looked up then and all the daring and mischief that had been in her eyes on the train coming here was gone. She was right back to square one thinking she was somehow less than what anybody needed. Right back to being the scared high school girl. His heart broke for her. Why the hell was she letting the things Bernie was saying get to her? He was an ass, couldn't she see that? "It looks like some of the chisels are missing. She tried to push past him but he grabbed her and held her, whispering in her ear till she finally settled down.

Luckily the Somerville cops showed up and Bernie didn't bother to stick around. The cops figured out whoever did it had gloves on because there weren't any prints which meant it would be harder to find out who did it but Evie could get in there and assess the damage faster. It wasn't a regular B&E though, her living space was untouched. It was like whoever fucked everything up knew the worst way to get to her was to go after her artwork and tools and not her flatscreen.

They hung around long enough to deal with the locksmith and the glaziers. Evie talked to her insurance agent about the extent of her policy. She'd had a rider to cover at least part of the value of the chisels. When she got off the phone she just sat there dazed. He felt so helpless. When he couldn't take it anymore he told her to pack a bag.

"What?"

"I want you to pack a bag, enough clothes for a week or two, you can do laundry when you need to. Are there some smaller pieces you could bring with you to work on? How do you start a new piece? Do you do sketches, do you need a model? You can take over my living room. We'll put down tarps to protect the floor or if you want we can clear out the garage. It has electricity and we could put a few heaters in so you don't freeze."

"Joseph, I appreciate what you're trying to do but... I'll just stay here."

"The hell you will! First, I won't be able to think, from worrying about you all the time. Second, I want you in my bed. I'm not going to lie to you, part of me wants to be chivalrous but most of me wants, no, needs to have you close, as in skin to skin close. I wasn't lying to you this morning." He was right up in her face now. "Remember this morning? Not about any of it. Come on little bird, just till I can get this place alarmed and a few cameras put in. Unless you decide you can't get enough of me in which case you can stay as long as you'd like. Evie, go pack."

She stood up but hadn't moved away from the kitchen area. He moved in front of her, she was still dazed. He pulled her hand down and she just about fell on top of him. He held her against him and gave her a tender kiss. She barely kissed him back. He took her chin in his hand and tilted her head so she had to look directly into his eyes.

"Evie, I'm not leaving here without you. So you are either coming with me or I'm gonna be sharing that playground of a bedroom with you upstairs but I've gotta warn you if that is what you choose, I am going to have you so often and in so many different ways our bodies may just fuse together, like when they pull glass out of a volcano." She dragged air into her lungs. Finally that seemed to get her attention. She stood there another minute, not quite herself still. He remembered about Saturday with Michael and Violet.

"We are going to go out with Violet and Michael next Saturday, you may want to bring something nice. They have much deeper pockets than I do so they'll pick someplace a little more chichi than I would left on my own. You'll like them, you'll see." She gave him a weak smile and walked to the elevator to go pack.

While she was upstairs Cam called the Somerville cops and gave them his address to send the police reports to. When that was done he called Michael and left a message about getting together on Sat. Sooner than he'd expected Evie came downstairs with her bag.

"What did you want to bring as far as your supplies?"

"For now I won't bring much, just some clay, I don't usually work with it but right now the fact that it is so fluid seems like a plus. I can't work on any of my real pieces so I will just be killing time as it is." They grabbed the box of clay and some plastic tarps and old towels she said she needed. Everything got loaded into an old Subaru and they started back to Jamaica Plains. She was driving and they made it in pretty good time. For now Cam dumped all the art stuff in the kitchen while she brought her clothes and stuff up to the bedroom. When he joined her upstairs he was surprised to find she had put everything in Sal's room. After earlier today he figure she dump everything in his. He didn't want it to bother him but it did. She noticed that he'd noticed where she put her stuff.

"If you don't mind I'll sleep here tonight, actually, I'd like to be by myself for a while if you don't mind." She gave him a peck on the forehead like they were old friends, except they weren't, not really. She did look worn out, maybe a nap was what she needed.

"That's fine, why don't you try to get some rest. I've got some work to do anyway. She closed the door behind him. He sat there for a little while till he heard her crying. Living with two women had taught him if she wanted him to comfort her she'd ask but for now she needed to cry herself out.

Delia showed up around four o'clock, mad a a wet hen.

"Uncle Cam, I swear that man..."

"Look you can't think of Jonah as a man, he's more like a boy in man's clothing. He doesn't mean to hurt people he just is an idiot when it come to people's feelings."

"Yeah but..."

"Look, I know it doesn't help but under all that bullshit is a really decent guy. I know he is a love 'em and leave 'em type but he'll find some girl that will set his world on fire and... He's kind of like the bad boy types in your mother's novels, The badder the boy the harder he falls."

Delia grinned at him. "So does that mean I'm gonna need a bridesmaid's dress then?"

"Yeah well, I don't think she feels the same way about me that I do about her."

"But she's upstairs right? She must want to be here on some level. It doesn't sound like money is desperate for her. She could have just gone to a hotel or called another friend but she didn't, she came here with you."

"Whatever, did you find anything to confirm my hunch."

"Cam, she wants to be here, even if she doesn't understand why herself yet. As far as your hunch goes, yeah I found some interesting stuff. He had a run in with the law when he was in college. Was accused of date rape. They couldn't get it to stick. Not an ideal case for the prosecution though. The girl didn't come forward for almost a month so it became a 'he said she said' If it was just that I could almost overlook it. Almost. But there was a classmate of his when he was getting his MFA that had a restraining order put out against him. Said he was stalking her, destroying her stuff, evidently the cops found photos he'd taken of her. Creepy long lens shit. That was back in New York. He's been in the Boston area for about seven years now and stayed out of trouble."

"Who stayed out of trouble?" Neither of them had seen Evie come in the kitchen. She walked over to Cam and curled up in his lap tucking her head under his chin. Delia looked at him and shook her head. He just rubbed his lips against her hair. Delia seemed to understand if Cam had wanted Evie to know what was going on he'd have said something so she covered for him.

"A perp on a case I'm working on. Guy's a scum bag, likes to make women feel like shit. I was thinking of paying him a visit and seeing if he liked having the tables turned." Cam's head snapped up and Delia gave her head a subtle shake letting him know she wouldn't actually do that no matter how much she might enjoy it.

"Hey, you guys gonna do dinner here? I'm kinda craving Carbonara."

"Yeah, I know what that means. If I cook, you do the dishes. Evie you feel up to making a salad?"

"What? Sorry I was off somewhere. Salad? Sure." She went to get up but Cam held her against him for a little longer. She was all warm from her nap, he could have held her like this forever. Maybe she was coming back around. She got up to make the salad and Cam started to make the Carbonara sauce while the pasta water boiled. He forgotten what it was like to have company at dinner. With Sal off finding herself and Delia's crazy schedule he often just grabbed something on the way home. Tonight he had Delia on her best behavior- Evie must have been right, the kid did like her, and Evie even if she was quieter than he'd seen her. He wished he could get in her head and clean house. She had all these crappy ideas about herself and that let morons like Bernard prey on her feelings. Which reminded Cam of something Bernie-boy said.

"Evie, who is Rayna?"

"How do you know about Rayna?" She looked like he'd slapped her.

"Bernard mentioned her, made her sound like a man-eater. She his girlfriend?" Evie choked on her wine.

"Not hardly! Rayna is a sexual predator, not that she goes after kids or anything but yeah, man-eater, although come to think of it, I know some lesbian couples she's broken up too."

"Any chance she would know more about Bernard than you do?"

"I suppose she might. I don't think he'd go for her type though."

"Why not, I mean if she's hot..."

"She takes up too much oxygen. When she's in the room, she's the brightest thing there. You may have noticed Bernard likes to have all eyes on him."

"I've noticed."

"Could you help me find her so I could talk to her."

"She doesn't really like me, I mean, not enough to do the damage that has been done but she always acted as if I was a lower life form, not worthy of even addressing me." Cam suddenly felt like the art world was some kind of primitive jungle where only the true bastards survived.

After she'd gotten the dishes done Delia took off which left the two of them alone again. Much as he'd love a repeat of last night, Cam suspected Evie was going to turn in early. He set the lights low and turned on the fire anyway. Maybe he'd get lucky and be wrong. She sat on the couch stared at the fire for half an hour when she said she was going upstairs. Damn, he hated being right.

"Okay, you go ahead, God knows it has been a tough day. I'll come up later, maybe watch some TV or read."

"Okay, night." She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. Dammit she was acting like a whipped dog and it was killing him. He didn't want to come on too strong and just take over but he didn't know how much longer he could see her hurting and not do something. Tomorrow he'd get the security system plans started. He tried to read and couldn't concentrate enough to follow the story. He thought about going upstairs when his cell rang.

"Michael, Violet okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine too, thanks for asking."

"You're not pregnant, that beautiful woman you trapped into marrying you is."

"Yeah, I know." Cam could hear Michael smiling even over the phone. He was happy for his friend. Poor guy never thought it could happen.

"So to what do I owe this pleasure?'

"You called me, something about taking the "girls" out. Unless you know I am having a daughter I am assuming you have a date."

"Didn't Violet tell you?"

"Violet can't remember where she parked her car half the time, the doctor said it was the hormones and she'll be better after she delivers."

"Oh, um yeah, I have a date. At least I think I do."

"That sure? This doesn't sound like you. What happened to the guy that women, including my wife, I might add, act like idiots around."

"This one is a little different. I need to go a little slower, not run so hot and heavy."