✔Vengeful Valentine

One: Adam

The roses were dead, and if I didn't watch my back I would be too.

I opened the red envelope someone left on my police cruiser windshield this morning and glared at the card of a squirrel holding a heart. It had I'm nuts about you printed across the top. I flipped it open to read the god-awful handwriting from some nut job who claimed to be my secret admirer.

Chewing on my cream cheese danish, I looked up at the old fella who tended to wait on me at my favorite diner. Harlan had more wrinkles than I could count, and he had a few bald patches in his shaggy gray hair. He was a retired cop who worked at his daughter's diner to keep the Black Vipers gang off her back. Harlan didn't let those bastards threaten his little girl or start fights in their family oriented restaurant. He kept his Smith and Wesson .22 Magnum concealed under his brown apron, loaded and ready to defend his family and customers.

I ate there every morning. Nowhere else in New Syracuse had coffee like theirs. I just wish they didn't go so fucking overboard with the Valentine decorations. As if I wanted to eat my breakfast with Cupid's ass in my face. I even considered popping the heart-shaped balloon on my table.

"Is everything to your liking today, detective Lindel? Can I get you anything else?" Harlan asked.

"Perfect as always," I told him. "You think I could get another one of these danishes?"

"Of course."

As he stepped around back to get my order, an irritable mother struggled to get her wailing kid out the door. Little shit had more balls than I did at that age, and the poor woman had more patience than my own mother. If my brothers or I had pulled a stunt like that, she would have whooped our asses in front of everyone in the diner. But apparently discipline had become a form of abuse. No wonder the snot-nosed brats acted out like that.

I became a police officer in hopes of making our home safer and less screwed up than it already was. It was also because of a certain officer who helped me when I was seven years old and got lost in K-mart. There I was, wearing my favorite Dinosaur t-shirt, wandering around the department store looking all over for my momma. I stopped to look at some toy and got split up from her and my brothers.

To be fair, keeping up with triplets was stressful. I was surprised she didn't lose one of us more often.

Somehow, I ended up in the men's underwear section. I got scared and started crying since I thought she abandoned me there. While bawling my eyes out, a nice police officer came up to me and helped me find my family. I'd never forget the mortified expression my dear mother showed when I happily hugged the officer and referred to him as daddy.

Fast forward a few years later, and that nice cop ended up becoming my sergeant. Talk about an awkward situation, but Davidson had a good sense of humor. Every now and then he teased me for that day, but what he didn't know back then was that I grew up without a father. To this day, I've never met him and I never planned to.

Harlan slid the danish over to me. "You have any plans for Valentine's day?"

"On duty," I replied. "Love makes people do crazy shit."

"Tell me about it. Fucking holidays are the worst." He poured me another cup of coffee, noticing the stupid card. "Whatcha got there? A love letter?"

"Yeah. It's probably from some lunatic addict," I muttered. "Or, maybe it's just one of the guys pulling some prank."

"When I was your age, I had the ladies swooning too. They love a man in uniform, you know?" he said.

I crumbled up the Valentine card and shoved it down in my pocket. "I'm sure you did."