The Bull Rider Wears Pink (19 page)

“It's all written down?” John asked
slowly.

“Like I said,” Kevin explained. “I
just don't have the back story.”

“John and I were a couple in L.A.
living to—” Cassidy started.

Kevin put his hands up in the air. “And
there's really no need to tell me about the kissy, kissy stuff,” he interrupted
with a cringe, “I don't write romance.”

“You know everything,” Cassidy
suggested with regret. “Don’t you?”

Kevin smiled smugly. “I even know
you weren't a prostitute or a porn star.” He shook his head. “That rehab story
was for Logan
so you could work without him worrying about you.”

“Oh, Kevin,” Cassidy started, “I'm
sorry you had to learn all this through—” It took her a moment to come up with
the word, “hearsay.” She glanced at John. The man's face was unreadable. She
returned her attention to
Kevin,
she would deal with
the former undercover cop later. After this screw-up, John would never work in
a Criminal Investigation Unit again and that reality was probably crashing down
on him right now.

“No worries,” Kevin told Cassidy.
“I watched enough of that murder/mystery show Castle to understand why you
couldn’t tell me.” He added, “You
know the actor from Castle is the same guy who played Mal Reynolds on Firefly.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Cassidy
whispered. On second thought maybe she wouldn’t try to cut back his television
watching. “Thank you for understanding why I couldn’t tell you,” she added.

“And now I'm going to say something
no normal teenager says to his mother,” Kevin announced, he glanced at John who
was staring at his laptop. “And I'm only going to say it once so listen up.”
Kevin patted John on the knee and when he got the cop’s attention he pointed at
Cassidy. “I'm proud of the work my mother did in L.A. even
though she abandoned me with Logan and
Caleb,
it was
the right thing to do.”

Cassidy could feel herself blush
and she couldn't control the smile breaking across her face. She jumped out of
her chair and wrapped her arms around her son's neck. Then she kissed his head.
“I'm proud of you too,” she cried pulling his head against her breasts.

As Cassidy wiped the tears from her
eyes, John started saying, “We've got to secure that laptop.” He reached for it
but Kevin pulled it back. “Look, kid,” John continued, “you may have something
here that can help me get Mike Shannon on more than a domestic abuse charge.”

Kevin's eyes got wide,
then
he smiled a mischievous smile. “I've got a video,” he
offered.
“Mike Shannon passing something to Mrs. Goodwin.”
He started pounding on the keyboard. “Maybe she knows who the kingpin is.”

“You've got to be kidding me.” John
leaned over and gave Kevin his own kiss on the head. “Can you find it? Show it
to me?” John pulled a chair up to the table and sat next to Kevin. “I don’t
think the pious registration lady is involved in any of this but maybe she’ll
have a lead for me.”

Just as fast as he started typing
Kevin stopped. He leaned back in his seat and placed his foot on his knee. The
same pose John had assumed a few minutes ago. “I will show you my video,” he
told both of them sounding much older than his thirteen years. With his hands
folded across his chest like Don Corleone he continued speaking. “But you have
to tell Uncle Logan and Rachel this preacher thing is
fake
.”
He turned to Cassidy. “You need to also tell them all that stuff you did in L.A.
was part of the job.”

“No,” John snapped. “I have a
chance to salvage this operation.” He leaned forward, elbows on the table,
energy flowing from every limb of his body.

Kevin shook his head slowly. He
wasn't going to be rattled by John. “Rachel hates you. She thinks you're even
worse than Bret
Bodner
and she really hates him.”
Kevin smiled a little. “She'll probably make you sleep in the barn tonight if
she doesn’t know the truth.”

While John digested those words
about the sleeping arrangements, Kevin pointed at Cassidy. “And Logan's
really broken up about you.” He jabbed his finger in the air. “When he gets
drunk, he starts crying about his baby sister being a whore.”

Oh jeez, now that broke Cassidy's
heart.

“You can't tell them,” John said in
a low voice. “I know they're family but this case is officially off life
support. With Mike Shannon in jail and unable to rat me out maybe I can find
who I'm looking for after the authorities have a talk with Mrs. Goodwin.” John
put his hands out flat on the table and rolled his shoulders. “Can you give me
three days?”

Kevin shook his head. “You've got
to tell Logan,”
he said to Cassidy again, “because in three days—”

* * * *

The kitchen door kicked open
interrupting Kevin. Logan walked in holding
the baby in one of those portable car
seats,
Rachel was
on his heels carrying a black diaper bag with red trim. “Tell me what?” he asked.

Holy shit, this was John's chance
to redeem
himself
after all the lousy work he'd done
on this case and Logan Cooper was going to mess it up. Logan Cooper always
screwed things up with that larger than life personality of his. John eyed the
guy suspiciously as Logan gave his sister a
hug and ruffled Kevin's hair.

“Our own personal petri dish,” Logan
announced as he pounded on his nephew's back.
“How you
feeling, boy?”

After Kevin said he was fine Logan
turned to John. “For God's sake,” he cried out. “What's he doing here?” he
asked Cassidy. His jaw got firm as he made meaningful eye contact with Rachel.
She didn't look happy either.

John had been socially rejected
many times before and in many different ways. It came with the job. But for
some reason Logan and Rachel's shunning hurt. He could feel his face getting
red and his heart beating faster.

“He helped me get Kevin home,”
Cassidy explained. “He did most of the driving so I could take care of my son.”
She put a hand on Logan's forearm. “He needs
a place to stay.”

After taking off her sweater Rachel
picked the baby up. While juggling little Storm on her shoulder she crossed the
kitchen. She lifted the tea kettle off the burner and filled it with water from
the sink. She was unwilling to look at any of them as she returned to the stove
and turned on the flame.

John stood up and smiled. He'd try
civility. “Good to see you, Logan,” he said. “Thanks for welcoming me into your
home.” Not that the man had welcomed him, but John assumed it was going to happen.
He put his hand out.

With Rachel steaming just as much
as that kettle, Logan wasn't sure
what to do about John's hand but finally he gave John a quick shake. For a
moment John thought about offering Rachel his hand, but she furrowed her brow
and delivered another dirty look his way. Holy shit, those looks could make a
man feel bad, real bad. Now, John was getting a better idea of why Kevin wanted
full disclosure.

But Jesus H. Christ, the woman had
no right to still be mad at John for a few things he said to her a year ago.
Rachel Fox Cooper had to realize she did run naked in front of ten thousand
people and she was going to be on the receiving end of a little harassment
after doing something like that. Yes, John may have gone overboard when he
called her a harlot and implied she was a prostitute. But he had just arrived
at the rodeo and was trying to establish his credentials as the preacher. He
hadn't planned to do it on her back except she was an easy target.

And the funny thing about it all,
he agreed with her cause. At the time, chaffing was a real problem with the
bull ropes. John had seen many red and raw animals. Rachel's work put an end to
that.

Logan
picked up the empty spaghetti bowl. “Hey,” he said, “I was going to have this
for dinner.” He smiled at Kevin. “Rachel,” he called to his wife. “The
bottomless pit is back.”

“When I want to be eaten out of
house and home, Kevin is my
favorite
man for the job,”
Rachel announced. She turned around, leaned over and gave the boy a kiss on the
head. John decided the woman could be warm when she wanted but only if she
wanted.

John glanced at Cassidy. She smiled
at her son too. “Even though he's sick,” she told the group. “He still ate a
plate of eggs plus
french
toast for breakfast.”
Cassidy reached over and gave her son's pox marked arm a squeeze. After using the
calamine lotion for a day the marks were starting to dry up, most of them
forming into scabs.

“Now that you've gotten some food
in your belly,” Logan suggested to Kevin. “Why
don't you go fire up the
PS3.
There's a new Grand
Theft Auto game with your name on it in the cabinet.”

Kevin jumped up. “You bought me
Grand Theft Auto Five,” he yelled. Then he did some kind of fancy hand shake,
high-five with his uncle that ended in both of them spinning around. Another
time in his life John would have found the entire thing ridiculous but not
today. He was actually smiling.

“Logan,”
Cassidy said. “He hasn't played a video game in four weeks.” John knew Cassidy
had worked hard to break Kevin's addiction to the controller. Her plan had been
to work on television next. But he didn't think she'd be as successful
especially since the kid wanted to make a career of it.

“I want to talk to John without the
kid around,” Logan
told her.

After putting the sleeping baby back
into his seat and offering Cassidy a cup of tea, Rachel sat at the table. Her
brows were still furrowed and jaw tight. John decided it was deliberate on her
part to not offer him anything to drink. Rachel Fox wasn't a fool. She knew
trouble was sitting at her kitchen table.

“Look, I'll be honest with you,” Logan
started, “I'm not happy with this.” He studied John first and then Cassidy. “When
you two got together, at first I was shocked,
then
I
thought it was a joke and now I'm just damn confused.” He shook his head. “This
is not the natural order of things.”

“Well, we're not really—” Cassidy
started.

“You're together,” Logan
interrupted. “Don't give me that crap,” the cowboy told his sister. “The guy
drove you and your contaminated kid home over five hundred miles. No fellow
does that unless they are feeling something pretty damn close to love for a
woman.”

“I love—” John started.

“I get it,” Logan
pointed at John as he interrupted him. “My sister is a good looking woman
besides being a nice person.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “But there's
something funny about you and I can't figure it out.” He leaned back in his
chair, fingers
steepled
under his chin.

“He's not—” Cassidy started to tell
her brother.

“Cassidy doesn’t usually go for
funny or strange,” Logan observed as he cut
his sister off again. “Alpha male is your type,” he told her.

“John really is—” Cassidy started
to explain again.

But John cut her off this time. “Let
the man finish,” he suggested. He bowed his head toward Logan. “He's
got something to say.” Now that John had a chance to save his investigation,
he'd let Logan
think of him however he wanted. Except funny wasn’t one he’d heard before.

“Bringing funny into my house makes
me uncomfortable,” Logan continued. He looked
at Rachel. She nodded.

Then again, maybe John didn’t like
funny so much either. If it got in the way of him sleeping next to Cassidy,
he’d fight funny. “Is there something I can do to make myself less funny?” he
asked.

“Yes,” Logan
replied quickly. “No calling my wife names. Harlot and whore were particularity
hurtful.” Then the cowboy with the sensitivity training shifted his shoulders
and leaned in closer to John. “And, I don't want any of that Bible thumping
stuff around here. We're good people but we're,” he turned to Rachel as he
snapped his fingers beside his head, “what do you call it?”

“Agnostic,” she said still eying
John suspiciously. “We're spiritual but not religious,” she explained
acknowledging the confused expression he was sure appeared on his face.

“That's okay,” John told them. Then
he nodded, probably too eagerly but he wanted to be accepted by these people
and he wanted a room alone with Cassidy. “I believe God is in the flowers
outside your door, the endless blue sky, and a red sunset.” He was pretty sure
he sounded like a tree hugger but that was how he felt and it wasn’t just Preacher
John talking.

“We need to clarify a few things
with you,” Cassidy started again. “John isn't who he says he is.” She put a
hand on John's shoulder.

Wait, hold up a moment. He thought
she'd continued to play along. “Yes,” John said panic in his voice. “I am.” He
loved Cassidy Cooper and he would totally fess up to being who he was, but not
yet. He was so close to finding the kingpin if only he could get a little more
time. Especially after he looked at that video and talked to Mrs. Goodwin.

The more he thought about it, the
more he hoped the registration lady wasn't involved in any of this. But, she
did have a motive. She needed money and she had a sick husband at home. Plus, she
had access to a number of different doctors during her travels willing to write
prescriptions for a number of different narcotics.