He got dressed, quickly made the bed, and gathered up the rest of his belongings. He took Mister Doodles for a quick walk, and then headed home to drop her off. He had hoped he would see Cypress to say goodbye but hadn’t seen any trace of him.
After getting Mister Doodles settled back at the house and giving her breakfast, he dragged himself out to his car to drive to work. He had undoubtedly enjoyed his evening with Cypress last night, but next time, they were definitely staying at Tom’s house because those extra thirty minutes of sleep would have been wonderful.
He swung through a drive-through to get some coffee, his freshly caffeinated brain waking up and demanding answers for questions he wasn’t ready for.
Was he really going to go to this party? Was everyone there going to be naked like it was some kind of orgy? Was he being a prude about all of this or was it normal to be a little weirded out?
Cypress had said they didn’t have to participate, but Tom didn’t know if he was comfortable with even being there period. Cypress was placing so much faith in him by even inviting him to this exclusive event, and Tom didn’t want to refuse such a gift.
Shit.
Maybe he should have told Cypress the truth about Junior. He had trusted Cypress with his most intimate parts—why not this?
Because there’s still a chance he might use you like Junior did. Because there’s a chance this isn’t all a sexy game, and he still really wants to turn you in. You could go to jail, you could lose your license, you could lose everything…
Tom sighed heavily as he parked behind the funeral home, staying in his seat to sip some more coffee while he tried to get his thoughts together.
There was a knock at his window, and he nearly spilled his coffee. He grimaced when he saw it was Aaron waving at him, and he got out of his car. “Hey, good morning.”
“Good morning,” Aaron said. “You okay? It’s almost eight.”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Tom began to follow Aaron inside the funeral home. So much for having a few minutes to think.
“Did you see the news last night?” Aaron asked urgently.
“What? Uh, no. I was out.”
“Another family got robbed,” Aaron replied, keeping his voice low. “This makes eight.”
“Shit.” Tom frowned as he punched in the code for the back door. “And now it’s on the news?”
“Yup, someone called them, and they’re talking all about Crosby-Ayers, and ah, shit.” Aaron looked up to the street. “And now they’re here.”
There were two local news vans slowly pulling up to the front of the funeral home.
“Shit.” Tom saw one of the van doors opening and immediately ducked inside the funeral home with Aaron close behind.
“Great,” Aaron moaned. “There goes the whole fuckin’ business. Everybody totally thinks if we take care of your loved one, you’re gonna get a bonus burglary free of charge.”
“No, come on,” Tom soothed. “I mean, maybe it won’t be that bad. I’m sure Gerald and Mr. Crosby are on it and everything is okay.”
When they walked into the office, it was immediately obvious that absolutely nothing was okay.
“I want to know where Miss Cordelia is—” Mr. Crosby was arguing with all the insolence of an angry child.
“She died of breast cancer in 1997!” Earl howled miserably, the sound muffled as his face was firmly smothered down on the top of his desk.
“Oh, that’s a shame. Did we send a nice arrangement?”
“Listen to me, both of you,” Gerald hissed, his pale face flushed a startling shade of red. “The most important thing we can do right now is close ranks. No one is to breathe a word to the press, and we tell all our families that their privacy is of the utmost importance to every single one of us. Whatever the media is insinuating is ridiculous.”
“It’s preposterous!” Mr. Crosby agreed passionately. “No one employed in this establishment would dare forget Miss Cordelia’s funeral.”
“We didn’t!” Earl argued, lifting his head with a long-suffering sigh. “You were a pallbearer, sir.”
Gerald ignored them both, turning his beady eyes on Tom and Aaron. “You two. Sit down, shut up. And so help me God if I find out one of you are the bastards who decided to call the news—!”
“No, never—!” Aaron tried to protest.
