Page 28 of Heart Me Up
“My point is, you don’t have to hide your kinks from me. And I’ll understand if your puppy only wants to meet me while in his human headspace, but you should’ve told me you were dating someone.”
Fuck my life.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Charlotte.” I braced myself. “His name is Craig.” I peeked under my arm at Amy. She was focused on the road, so she didn’t turn her head, but her eyebrows popped pretty high on her face.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Yes, yes, it was. “When will you bring him around to see me? Does he like pot roast?” On the one hand, I felt bad for Craig, getting thrown to the wolf that was Aunt Charlotte so soon, but on the other hand, this was a bed of Craig’s own making. Well, to be fair, I’d asked him to make it.
Thoughts of Craig and a bed were enough to help me tune out the rest of the conversation. Mercifully, Amy pulled into the station’s parking lot so I had an excuse to get off the phone.
“Okay, spill.” Amy was smirking as we got out of the car. “I got that your Aunt Charlotte found out about Craig, but what was making you cringe so hard?”
I groaned. The sidewalk was empty, so I muttered, “My blind date told his grandmother all about the puppy play thing, and Aunt Charlotte felt it necessary to tell me she and my uncle Baxter were into BDSM.”
Amy was still laughing when we got to our desks.
“Want to let us in on the joke?” Carlos called out.
“Holy shit, yes!” Amy gasped.
I was about to shut that down when Carlos gave me a taunting grin and said, “I really hope it’s the same reason the captain wants to see Foster.”
That stopped me in my tracks. “What?”
Captain Driscoll shouted, “Walkoviac! My office!”
The captain hadn’t asked for Amy as well, which was unusual. She mouthedWhat now?and I shrugged. I had no clue. I reluctantly left, watching Amy head over to Carlos and Artie’s desks with a huge grin. Fuck me, I was going to get razzed about Aunt Charlotte’s sex life for years.
Captain Driscoll, on the other hand, was not smiling. He curtly said, “Come in and shut the door.” Shit, this couldn’t be good. The captain was a large guy in his fifties, intelligent and a fair decision-maker. I liked working for him, but if I’d done something wrong, he wouldn’t let it slide. I couldn’t think what he could be upset about though.
I closed the door behind me and sat down when he waved me to a chair. The captain rolled his head around on his shoulders, then shook out his arms. Nodding to himself, he pulled a notepad out of his desk drawer.
“Walkoviac, do you know a woman named Helen Plimstone?”
What the fuck? “Wait, Helen? Um, she’s the woman my Great Aunt Charlotte is constantly feuding with at their church.” Driscoll barked out a laugh. Dread pooled in my stomach. “Do I want to know why you’re asking me about her?”
Now Driscoll laughed for real. He leaned back in his chair and picked up the notepad. “No, you don’t, but I’m forced to tell you anyway. Ms. Plimstone called earlier and raised hell until she was able to speak to me personally. And.” He eyed me significantly. “You should be aware she wasn’t asking for me by name. She was asking for, quote,Foster Walkoviac’s boss.” Oh, shit. It wasn’t just Carlos; every cop in the building, not to mention the dispatchers and support staff, would know about the phone call by now.
Driscoll was trying not to laugh again. “Ms. Plimstone wanted to tell me personally that her grandson found out you are—let me check my notes here,” he lifted the notepad in front of his face. “Ah, yes. You are amorally depraved pervert who pretends the people he’s having sex with are animals and he probably likes to tie people up and whip them too.”
“Oh, god,” I said faintly as I put my hands over my mouth and stared at Driscoll in mortification. I choked out a semi-hysterical laugh. “Is that all?”
“Oh, well she also wanted me to fire you since police officers should be,” he made air quotes. ”Held to a higher moral standard.”
“I see.” I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. Nothing to do but wait for whatever the captain said next.
“I have to make a note about this call in your file in case she continues to make trouble for you. But she didn’t accuse you of anything against the law, so it stops here. I’ll document that we discussed it and I discovered this woman has an ax to grind with your, um, great aunt, you said?” I nodded dumbly in relief.
“Okay, good. That’s all that’ll come of that. If she calls again or otherwise harasses you in any way, let me know and I can talk to her about how a restraining order would look to her friends at church.” I chuckled weakly.
“Thank you. I’m so sorry she bothered you, Captain.”
Driscoll put his notebook to the side. “Don’t worry about it. I wish all the complaints I got were so easy to deal with.” He looked down and fiddled with his coffee mug, then glanced at me and back to his coffee again. I tensed. “Foster.” Oh, shit, he used my first name. “Your sex life is none of my business.” Please let him stop there. “But I couldn’t help noticing her accusations described someone who might be in a BDSM lifestyle.”
I froze. He must have seen my deer-in-the-headlights face. “I’m not asking you to confirm or deny anything here, Foster.” Oh, fuck, the first name again. “It’s just, I could really use someone who’s into BDSM.”
I sputtered. “What? Like a tutor?” How the fuck was I supposed to get out ofthis?
His mouth gaped open, then he almost shouted, “No, no, no! That was not what I meant.”
