Always Room for Cupcakes (Cupcakes 1)

He was losing it.

“All right, Moose, shit, calm down.”

“Calm down? I’ll fucking calm down when you do the job I hired you to do,” he screeched over the phone, and I worried for a moment that he was going to give himself a heart attack, raising his blood pressure that way.

“Okay.”

“She’s at the nail salon in twenty minutes. I want you on her like flies on shit. She moves, you move. She meets with anyone, I want it on film. She gives Hector a blow job, I want to see the fucking cum on her lips.”

Ewww…

“You got me, Delilah? We need to shut this one down.”

“Yeah, I got you, Moose, don’t worry.”

“We need this, Lila,” he said strangely, and I wondered if he was talking about the money, or something else.

As soon as I hung up with him, I called the mom of one of Elin’s friends and set up a sleepover for him too. It sucked that I’d have both kids gone when it was my weekend to have them, but I needed to get this job done and over with, so I could get Moose off my back and let the Coke Club become a less-than-fond memory.

My phone pinged, signaling a text, and I looked down to see Cade had messaged me.

Something came up. Rain check.

Even though I knew it was for the best, since I needed to get to work, I still felt a pang of sadness that I wouldn’t be seeing Cade today. Then I realized that both my kids would be gone tonight and replied.

No problem. I have to work. But maybe later tonight? My kids have plans.

I walked back in to the bakery, told Amy May goodbye, and grabbed the rest of my cupcake to eat on the way.

Maybe. Contact me when you’re free and I’ll let you know.

Vague, but it was something.

I tried to remember what state we’d left the apartment in, when the last time I’d shaved was, and whether or not I had any beer in the house, as I made my way to the salon.

Keeping my eyes peeled for Hector, I drove around the back of the salon. I didn’t see the Camaro, so I kept driving and parked down the alley. I got out of the van and was just about to turn from the alley into the back parking lot when a voice filtered toward me, causing me to pause behind the dumpster.

“Yeah, babe, I got a line on a couple new sellers … Yeah, I’m gonna head out there now, get a feel for the place, and for them. You got it, baby, you know me, I’ll make it work.”

I rose slightly to peer over the top of the dumpster, my adrenaline spiking when I saw it was my perp on the phone. It looked like I was finally going to catch a break.

She slid behind the wheel of a pretty little Beemer, and as soon as she shut the door, I took off toward my van.

I caught her turning onto Main Street, keeping a few car lengths behind as I tailed her out of town. I doubted she had any reason to suspect she was being followed, but although she seemed like an idiot to me, I didn’t want to make assumptions and screw this up. So I was hanging back.

We were about twenty miles out of town when I began to wonder where the hell we were heading, thirty when I wondered if this even had to do with the drugs, and forty when I thought about just turning around and heading back.

Then she turned right.

When I got to the road she turned on, I saw a sign that read, Custom Motorcycles and Service. Seeing her taillights just before they went out of view, I turned to follow.

She was parking in a lot and exiting her car, so I backed up behind the tree line, hoping it was enough to cover the car long enough for me to get a closer look. My only hope was that no one else came down the empty road anytime soon, although if they did, I’d pretend to be lost.

I stayed along the trees, watching through the branches as the perp walked through the lot, gravel crunching under her high-heeled boots, and I fleetingly thought she looked like a fish out of water walking up to the motorcycle shop.

Then I stopped thinking at all, as I watched Cade come out of the double steel doors and head straight for the buxom blonde, his hands circling her tiny waist as she looked up at him.

On autopilot, I took pictures as I walked through the trees, rounding the bend and getting closer to the couple in front of me.