felineflash
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Toujours dans mon coeur, Maman.
Posts: 197
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Being
Sept 17, 2011 20:53:27 GMT -5
Post by felineflash on Sept 17, 2011 20:53:27 GMT -5
Chapter 14 - Billiards and Business
He had told Steve everything. Everything from start to finish, soup to nuts. Everything about Hollingsworth, John Black, the drugs, the fire, everything, on the way to The Cheatin’ Heart. Steve had listened intently, nodding his head at times, at others, taking his eye off the road to glare at Philip. OK. The ball’s in your court. What now?
“You’ve gotten yourself into quite a pickle, huh dude? What makes you so sure this is John’s work?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Philip asked as they walked into the bar.
“Just seems pretty amateur for John. A handwritten note? A veiled threat? I mean, the dude’s changed…a lot…but it just doesn’t seem his style,” Steve answered as he slid onto a stool and ordered them both beers.
“Yeah, well…it’s not the first note.” Oops. Forgot that part.
“I said everything, dude.”
“And I told you everything. I just forgot about the note. I got it the day I got shot,” Philip told him defensively.
“What’d it say? You still got it?” Steve asked excitedly.
“No, it was destroyed. It said, ‘I know your secret’.”
“You’re not supposed to destroy evidence, dummy. We could’ve analyzed it. So what’s the secret?”
“Well, obviously, it was John taunting me,” Philip replied matter-of-factly, sipping his beer.
“Dude, you presume too much. Alright, let’s get this one analyzed,” he pulled out his phone and dialed. “Bo! Meet me at the Heart. Yeah, right now. ‘K.”
Philip stared at him slack jawed. “Bo? No. No, no, no. You can’t get Bo involved in this any more than he is. And…”
“Don’t worry about it, kid, what you told me in the car stays between us,” he shook his head. “You oughta know better. You’ve been playing a very dangerous game. But…we’ve got to get this analyzed, and Bo’s the man to get it done. Now,” he stood, “Let’s talk about my fee. You win this game,” he handed Philip a pool cue, “I won’t charge you a thing. You lose, I charge you double.”
“What makes you think I’ll lose?” What the hell am I doing playing pool when I should be beside myself over Tyler?
“Never met a rich kid who could hustle me. Look, I know you’re worried about Pocket. What did Ruth say when you called last?” Philip had checked in with her a half hour ago.
“The detail’s in place and everything’s perfectly normal,” he puffed out his cheeks. “I just feel like I should be doing something else. Something other than…kicking your butt,” he smirked as he chalked up.
“You’ve done everything you can. Now we wait, find out what we can from the note, and when we know more, we move on,” Steve told him as he racked. “Wanna break?” He chuckled under his breath.
“Sure,” Philip grinned and the game was on.
“Unbelievable…” Steve shook his head. “Bo, man, over here.”
“Hey…” Bo gave Philip a quizzical look, “Hey. What’s going on, man?”
“I need to have this analyzed,” Steve gave him the zip locked bag. “Prints, DNA, the works.”
“What…is…this? Is this…Philip, isn’t this Tyler?”
“Yes. That was left on my doorstep this morning. I’ve got Tyler covered, I just got off the phone with Ruth and everything’s still good there,” he glanced at Steve.
“So far, so good. Can you do that for me, dude?”
“Of…course. Philip, what the hell is going on here?” Bo asked.
“John has threatened Tyler, I thought that was pretty obvious,” Philip answered curtly.
“Or maybe not. It’s pretty amateur, Bo. Can you rush the job? If we could prints off of it--”
“John’s not going to leave fingerprints!” Philip cried impatiently.
“Dude, would you let go of John for a minute here? Have you ever thought that it might be Hollingsworth? He is out on bail, isn’t he?” Steve argued.
Paul? Morgan did say…
“I’m on it. Give you a call as soon as I know anything,” Bo nodded and headed out of the door.
“Alright, Phil, how about a beer?” Steve asked in an innocent tone.
“Don’t call me Phil. How about we discuss the fact that I just whipped your butt? I seem to recall that the deal was that if I won--”
“Free of charge. Anything for a bud, Phil.” Steve shrugged. “It was just dumb luck, anyway.”
“I think not. And really, don’t call me Phil.”
Steve took a swig of beer, “Fine, Peg Leg.”
Again, he involuntarily clenched his teeth. It’s a joke, Philip. Coming from Steve. Loosen up.
“Let’s go sit,” Steve gestured to a table and they made their way over. “Look, Philip, I didn’t mean to offend you. It was just a joke,” he said sincerely once they had sat down.
“I know. Sorry. I mean, you understand more than anyone else. I just…I’m not really--”
“Used to it? You’d think it’d get easier, you’d wake up one day, and just say, “Hey, I’m OK!’ but it just never seems to happen, huh?”
“Does it? Get easier?” I never thought I’d be talking to Steve about his eye, or my leg. This is so weird. My life is getting entirely too weird.
“Eventually. It never goes away, but it gets easier. It took me a long time to get over losing my eye. I was in a real dark place, for a real long time.”
“And then you found Kayla, right?” Philip snickered. “Are you about to tell me how true love healed you?”
“She found me. Did she heal me? I don’t know. She accepted me, warts and all, and I think that helped me heal myself. So yeah, she loved me, and she made me whole again. You know, not looking in the mirror and seeing what was missing, but seeing the guy who was lucky enough to love her and be loved by her--” His phone rang, “It’s Bo,” he told him. “Yo,” he said into his phone. “You’re kidding! No way. Good stuff. I’ll let him know. Thanks, man.”
“What? What?” A break. I’ve got you, John.
“Well, it seems that just as they were getting a hit on the prints, a dude walks into the police department. He says some guy gave him 500 bucks to drop a letter off at a certain residence this morning. Now, this dude’s not the brightest crayon in the box, and it takes him all day to realize that he dropped that letter off at the Kiriakis place. And with the whole dock war stuff going on, he’s worried that he might have gotten himself into a bit of trouble--”
“Whose prints were they?” Philip demanded.
“None other than Paul Hollingsworth’s. I told you, Philip, this was amateur hour. The guy who delivered the letter picked him out of a mug shot lineup, and they’re checking security cameras in the area where they had the handoff for extra proof. Hope’s on her way to reign in Hollingsworth now.”
“Hollingsworth? Are you kidding me?”
“No--” his phone rang again, “Hey Sweet Thing.” He listened for a long while. “Good news. I’ll tell Philip.” He closed his phone and looked at Philip, “Hope’s got Paul in custody. He swears it was an empty threat, just to scare you. He bribed one of your staff to swipe the picture for him. He doesn’t even know where Tyler lives.”
Philip exhaled and felt all of his muscles relax. Over. The threat’s over. Still, he called Ruth and Wayne and told them to remain vigilant, and ordered that the security detail remain with the family for at least the week. “That bastard. That bastard!”
“Calm down. It’s over now. Come on, everything’s going to be alright.”
“If something had happened to him--”
“I know. I feel the same way,” Steve nodded gravely.
“Steve, look, I know we had…differences over Tyler…What I’m trying to say is I know you and Kayla love him, that’s why I came to you. I knew you’d do whatever had to be done.”
“Always,” Steve agreed. “You didn’t do too bad yourself.”
“I just want what’s best for him. It’s why I…gave him up.” Because I couldn’t be the family I wanted him to have.
“So did we. We all made some tough decisions,” Steve said somberly. They sat and drank in silence, each thinking of their love for the little boy that neither had known very long, but had touched both of their hearts in ways they’d never imagined possible. Finally, Steve broke the silence. “So, you asked about Kayla. And I guess that yes, I’d say that her love healed me. She saw all of me, took me as I was, and never once made me feel like I had to be more than that for her. Find that, that kind of love, and you can do anything, dude.”
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Well it's not my fault that this story is so great and leaves me impatient for more.
You have made me so very happy!