You Know Who by Robin L. Deeter (best free e book reader .txt) 📕

a light punch on the arm and got out.
As they walked back into the kitchen, Ray explained how he’d started hitting on the single women around the division, setting the stage for their breakup. Jessie tried not to let it show but both men could tell that she was relieved.
“I do have a favor to ask you, well there are two favors,” Ray said.
Jessie cocked her head at him. “I won’t promise anything, but I’m listening.”
“Fair enough. Uh, I know we’re gonna break up and everything but maybe we could still be friends?”
Jessie couldn’t help but like this Ray. He was different in many ways than her Ray and that was a good thing. He was funny, possessing an offbeat sense of humor and amused her with his hyperactivity.
“I think that would be ok. Besides, you can never have too many friends, right?”
“Right. Ok, so that brings us to favor number two.”
“Which is?”
“Will you still bring me- I mean us,” he pointed at Fraser, “coffee in the mornings?”
Her burst of laughter surprised both of them. It was a welcome sound to Fraser since it was the first real laugh he’d heard from her since he’d come back from vacation.
“Yes, I’ll bring you coffee,” she agreed. “I thought you were going to ask for something a lot harder than that.”
Soon after this exchange Ray headed home. Fraser and Jessie turned in, each lost in their own thoughts. Jessie tried to prepare herself for her return to work the next morning. As hard as she tried, however, she couldn’t keep the memories at bay as she lay in the bed where she and Ray had spent so much time in each other’s arms. She took to sleeping on his side of the bed, holding his pillow because it still held his scent. Falling to sleep that night she clung to it and dreamed that he was there.

Chapter Ten

Far away in Los Vegas, Armando Langoustine lay in a huge king-sized bed with a mattress that molded to his lean frame like a glove. The nine thousand square foot adobe mansion was spectacular, the servants attentive and he had anything he wanted at the snap of his fingers. The one thing he wanted most in the world was not at his disposal, however.
“Jessie,” he whispered to the room. His mission was going very successfully due to a combination of his intimate knowledge of how mob families operated and the channeling of his pain and anger into his work.
He missed Ray Vecchio, missed his family and Fraser. Ray felt so awful about having to leave Benny without really explaining things but at least he’d been able to sneak that postcard to the Mountie. He knew that Benny would get the message. Hell, Ray even missed the junk food crazy wolf. Ray wondered about how his family was doing and what they had been up to since he’d left. He imagined that Frannie was most likely still pursuing Fraser, especially since the guy had been away on vacation. What was Ma cooking for supper? In an odd way, he missed the fight with his sisters for the bathroom in the mornings. It was so quiet here. It was unnerving for a man who had spent his entire life in the midst of a noisy family and a noisy workplace to have so much silence.
Jessie. How he missed her. His thoughts of her were always threaded with guilt. Knowing she had to be devastated, he prayed that Fraser was taking care of her and she him. I wonder what my stand-in is like. He’d better treat everyone well, I know that much. God, I wish I was back home. I wish Jessie could be here with me in this big bed. What fun we could have in it.
He laughed out loud at that particular thought but when the sound echoed off the walls of the big room, his smile faded. No, he’d rather be in a much smaller bed in Chicago, Jessie curled up against him. Unable to bear this line of thinking any longer, Ray got out of bed, threw on a robe and descended one side of the double staircase to his office. He had work that could be done and keeping busy was better than enduring the torturous thoughts.
Ray did well distracting himself until it came time to type something. He grinned, thinking about Fraser typing his reports for him much of the time. “I could sure use your help here, too.” Picturing Fraser in the casinos in Vegas brought on a major laughing jag. “He’d never get done opening doors for little old ladies,” Ray said to himself.
Ray made a decision; it was time he grieved for his old life. Maybe then he would be able to move forward a little more each day and get the job finished. It was something to shoot for anyway. That night was one of the longest Ray had ever experienced. He stayed in his office until the sun started rising over the horizon line, remembering all that he’d left behind. Tears and laughter mingled as they would with him never trying to stop either of them.
By morning, he thought he felt a little better. Though he knew the lonely night would come again, he would worry about it when he had to and not before. His life and career depended on it. How could he get back to everyone if he were dead? Armando Langoustine left his office, able to box Ray Vecchio’s life back up inside and focus on what the day ahead required.

Jessie’s first day back was a lesson in torment. She had delivered Ray’s coffee and Fraser’s tea as promised but it was still hard to see Ray’s desk. She almost forgot and reached for the sticky notes out of habit. Jessie stopped short of touching them. No more sticky notes would be written. While she was happy that Fraser and the new Ray seemed to be getting along, it also bothered her that this man had slipped so quickly into Ray’s life.
Soon they were able to stage the breakup between her and Ray and this pleased Jessie because it was hard to act as though she were in love with this Ray. She spent time with Fraser and Ray. The Mountie and she resumed their chess matches, an easy thing to do since they were roomies now. Having Fraser for a roommate was an education into the inner workings of Fraser’s mind. He was extremely neat and she never had to clean his room.
He insisted on cooking at least once a week and was not untalented in the kitchen. Dief was a great source of entertainment and comfort. Jessie talked at length to the wolf about what she was feeling even though Dief was deaf. He watched her face attentively and responded at appropriate places with a whine, yip or grumble.
One saving grace at the station was Frannie being hired to replace Elaine Vespres as a Civilian Aid. It gave Jessie moral support and also acted as a diversion because she got to watch Fraser dodge Frannie’s advances. Jessie kept trying to tell Frannie that her approach wasn’t working but Ray’s sister just couldn’t seem to help herself. The two women also helped each other deal with missing Ray. They found it hard at first to get used to the “new” Ray but worked hard on it.
The end of May came around and Jessie felt as though she was starting to walk on more solid ground emotionally. The ache in her heart had eased a tiny fraction. She was living alone in her house once more since Fraser had been given permission to live at the Consulate. It was a good deal for him and extremely convenient since he didn’t have to go anywhere in order to report in to work.
On a warm Saturday afternoon her doorbell rang. She knew that it wasn’t Ben or Ray because they always came in through the breezeway and rarely knocked. Opening the door she encountered a floral delivery man holding a huge box. Jessie tipped the gentleman and shut the door.
“Who the hell sent these?” Her birthday was a few days away but there weren’t that many people who knew that fact. She set the box on the kitchen table and lifted the lid away. Twenty-four gorgeous red roses were nestled under gold tissue paper. A gold gilded card lay on top. She opened it.
Happy Birthday, sexy. All my love, You Know Who.
Jessie sat down abruptly as her legs threatened to buckle. Hugging the card to her chest she cried and laughed at once. Somehow Ray had been able to send these to her. He hadn’t forgotten her birthday. Though it made her incredibly happy it also made her fear for his safety.
She called the Consulate hoping that Ben was there. Constable Turnbull answered and Jessie finally had to yell at him to get Ben to the phone. The man was as dumb as a box of rocks and Jessie was in no mood to deal with him. She was relieved when Ben picked up the line.
“Ben, can you come over? I have something to show you. It’s very important.”
“Yes. Certainly. I’ll be there shortly.”
Ever dependable, Fraser showed up half an hour later. As he entered the kitchen, Fraser spied the huge flower box on the table. Jessie sat beside it. Wordlessly she handed him the card. Ben read it, looked at her in surprise and read it again. He knew who “you know who” was. He’d delivered enough of their sticky notes to remember.
He sat down with Jessie, a grin spreading across his face. “I’ll be damned.”
It was one of the few times Jessie had ever heard Ben swear and it spoke to the strong emotion he felt. This reminded him of the postcard Ray had sent him as a sign that all was well with him.
“I know. I feel the same way, but is it safe? I hope he didn’t jeopardize anything by sending these.” Concern clouded her amber eyes.
Ben shook his head. “No. He would have been extremely careful. He knew what he was doing.”
His words reassured her. “If you say it’s so then it is.”
They decided not to say anything to anyone about the flowers. It was safer that way.
“I miss him so much, Ben. I still don’t understand why they would do this. I mean, I know that he was a great candidate for the job but from his letter to me it seems like he was railroaded into going.”
Ben saw anger take over her features and felt a storm brewing.
“They expect way too much, the Feds, you know. They just take a man from his home, away from everything and everyone he knows and loves. It isn’t right, Ben, it’s not. And I have to pretend to be in love with this Ray. I’m so glad that’s over, Ben. I