Flawless(43)

Her protest suddenly solidified his determination to help when only a moment ago he’d been wishing he’d never spoken.

“Let’s go,” he said.

A few minutes later he was driving down Broadway to Canal and planning to cut over to the West Village.





CHAPTER

EIGHT

IT WASN’T A long drive at all, but the whole time Craig kept wondering what the hell he was doing.

He wasn’t a by-the-book guy in the sense that Marty was; he was by nature careful and thoughtful. He made sure he knew what he was doing, and when he chose a direction and moved forward, he always had a reason.

This was crazy.

He wasn’t a therapist.

Or a bodyguard.

And yet he had wedged himself into the middle of a nasty divorce.

But what the hell else could he have done? As Kieran had said, any decent person would lend a hand.

He was glad that she was along for the ride, too. He was still inexplicably on edge about her after watching the surveillance tapes from the subway.

As he drove, he couldn’t stop keeping an eye out for people in hoodies. Unsurprisingly, there were lots of them.

Julie’s apartment wasn’t too far over from Kieran’s place. She and Gary had the basement of a beautiful old brownstone. Craig remembered reading that the basements of the nineteenth-century row houses had originally been servants’ quarters.

The apartment might once have been the servants’ quarters, but the servants had been given plenty of space. And Julie Benton had a flair for decoration. The walls held animation stills from her work, charming dragons and medieval fantasy sorcerers, knights in battle and more. There were collectible superhero action figures here and there, and plenty of twenty-first-century comforts. The television screen looked to be a good seventy inches; the cabinets surrounding it were filled with high-end sound equipment, controllers, remotes and more. Modernist lamps and mirrors completed the decor.

“My place is nothing like this,” Mary Kathleen said.

“Most of this is mine, but I’m not allowed to touch it. Everything is part of the divorce now,” Julie told her. “I don’t care about any of it, though, just my babies!”

Her babies, of course, were the dogs, Benji and Sally. Benji was a brindle male, Sally a cream-colored female.

Craig waited by the door while Kieran and Julie took them down the street for a walk, then accompanied them back inside so Julie could pack.

In the end, other than dog supplies, her packing consisted of nothing but a small bag of toiletries and a change of clothing. She was clearly anxious to leave.

Craig soon knew why. Just as they locked the door behind them and stepped onto the sidewalk, Gary came down the street.

He was weaving slightly, as was the blonde next to him, the two of them somehow holding each other up. When they reached the house, however, and Gary saw Craig standing there, he stopped dead, forgetting his companion. “What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.

Craig didn’t let Julie answer and he didn’t allow Gary any closer, immediately stepping between them. “Animal control,” he said drily. “We’re taking the dogs.”

“Tell him, Gary!” the woman said. “Tell him that he’d better not have touched even one of your things.”

Gary straightened his shoulders, but it was obvious he was no more eager to get into a fight now than he had been back at Finnegan’s.

“You better not have touched anything,” he warned, but he didn’t make any move to back up his words.

Julie stepped to Craig’s side and glared at his date. “And you’d better not touch anything of mine—like my bed!”

Craig had a feeling things were about to get ugly.

But Kieran grabbed Julie’s arm and looked at Gary. “We’re leaving, Gary. No more whining dogs to ruin your special moment.”

“Yes, let’s go,” Mary Kathleen urged.

“Come on, honey,” Craig said, slipping an arm around Julie’s shoulders.

That made Gary’s jaw drop. “You’re with—with him now?”

“Let’s go,” Craig insisted.

He led her down the sidewalk toward his car. Gary and the blonde stepped aside, Gary still looking stunned.

“What the hell is that?” Gary cried after him. “Your f*cking harem?”

Julie tensed as if she was about to turn and confront Gary, but Craig kept her moving and helped her into the car.

With the dogs. Two sizable greyhounds. Sweet—but big, they sat in the backseat with Mary Kathleen and Julie, but one of them kept licking his ear. He liked dogs, but that was a little too personal.

Eventually they reached Mary Kathleen’s place down by the Reed Street fire station.

“You went above and beyond,” Kieran told him as they all got out of the car. “Thanks so much for getting us here and dealing with Gary. You don’t need to give up the rest of your night, though. You should go home.”

“Are you going to stay here tonight, too?” he asked her.

“No, but I can grab a cab.”

He shook his head. “Not on my watch,” he said softly. “It’s late—there’s barely any traffic. Come on, I’ll see you home.”

She hesitated, then acquiesced. Everyone said good-night and thanked Craig for his help. Even Benji and Sally seemed happy to be there, wagging their tails nonstop.