Puppy Love - 13. Chapter 13

The next week seemed to drag by as Blaine and Levi waited for any sign that Christian was watching them. With each day that passed, they got more and more nervous, sure that Christian was just biding his time. Neither one of them was foolish enough to believe that Christian had given up, he just was not the type to give up when there was something that he wanted. A knock on the front door made Blaine’s hair stand on edge, the same way it had every time someone showed up at the house. He was just waiting for the day that he opened the door to find Christian standing there. Looking through the peephole he was both relieved and nervous when he saw Officer Harris standing on the stoop.

“Officer Harris, to what do I owe this visit?” Blaine asked as he opened the door and ushered the officer inside.

“Well, we need to have a talk, is Mr. Turner at home?”

“No, he had to go into the clinic today; he should be home any time.” Blaine hated that Levi was back at work, he had been able to convince him to take a couple days off, but Levi had finally had enough of it and had been determined that he wasn’t going to let Christian rule his life.

“Could you call and have him come home?”

“Yeah, I can do that, is everything okay?”

“Well, that depends on your definition of fine. I just need to speak to the both of you and it would be easier to do it if you are together.”

“Sure, give me a sec,” Blaine said, grabbing the phone and making his way quickly into the kitchen. Within minutes he was back, setting the phone in the cradle he sat down on the couch and motioned for the officer to do the same. “He was already closing up the clinic so he should be home in about five or ten minutes. Can I get you something to drink while we wait?” Blaine asked, nervousness taking over as different scenarios flashed through his brain on what the officer had to say to him and Levi.

“A glass of water would be great,” Harris said, before adding, “If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Blaine replied as he climbed to his feet and made his way into the kitchen. He had a hard time believing how at home he felt after such a short time. He would never have figured that he’d settle in quite as quickly as he had. Grabbing a couple of glasses out of the cupboard, Blaine quickly filled both glasses with ice and water before making his way back into the living room. “Here ya go,” he said, handing one of the glasses to the officer.

The silence in the room was deafening as Blaine waited to hear the front door turn, signaling that Levi had made it home. When the sound finally came, Blaine got up off the couch and went to meet Levi at the front door. Pressing his lips lightly against Levi’s, Blaine whispered a greeting. He had forgotten that Levi had taken Ruff with him to the clinic but was quickly reminded of that fact when he felt Ruff push against his legs. Reluctantly pulling away from Levi, Blaine reached down and ruffled the dog’s fur covered head. He was still amazed at how much the pup had filled out and couldn’t believe how much bigger he was now that he had some meat on his bones.

“He’s getting big,” Officer Harris observed, climbing to his own feet and extending his hand towards Levi. After the two men shook, they all sat down on the couch, Levi reaching over and taking a sip from Blaine’s glass. Just that small motion made happiness flare inside of Blaine’s chest. His happiness was rapidly doused when Officer Harris began to speak.

“Well, we have some good news and some bad news,” he began. “The good news is that there haven’t been any sightings of Mr. Carmichael since the day at the café.”

“And what’s the bad news?” Blaine asked as he thought back to the day that Christian had taken Levi. He still had a hard time believing that Christian had been in the café watching them and no one had noticed. Or rather, the other officer had noticed, but didn’t know that it was the guy that had them all on edge. Blaine remembered when Officer Harris had told them that Officer Lanning had seen Christian in the far corner of the café, but hadn’t known that’s who it was until they got a picture from Christian’s house. Everything could have ended there had Blaine only been more aware of his surroundings, but he had been to wrapped up in making sure that Levi was okay that he hadn’t bothered. Plus, he hadn’t figured that Christian would be stupid enough to be so close when there were cops surrounding them.

“Well, there are a few things actually. We’ve ran Mr. Carmichael’s picture through the system and we’ve come up with a match.”

“That would be a good thing, right?” Levi asked.

“Normally it would be, but this is a different situation. The picture matches with a guy by the name of Michael Robinson.”

“So that would mean that Christian,” Blaine started, only to be interrupted.

“Is an alias,” Harris finished for him. “We’re dealing with a lot more than we originally thought. Michael Robinson is wanted in connection with a series of murders and rapes in at least five different states. As far as we’ve been able to ascertain, the last murder that he’s a prime suspect in happened about a year ago in Colorado.”

“And nobody knew that it was him?” Levi asked in disbelief.

“No, he had a lot of help in covering up. We’re still not sure exactly what brought him here; all we can figure is that he had decided to lay low for a bit. I have to be honest with you guys, we had planned on pulling in the surveillance team, but knowing now that Mr. Carmichael is in fact Michael Robinson, we have to change things a bit. We’re going to keep surveillance on you, but we’re not going to be the ones handling the case from now on. The FBI has been searching for this guy for years and as soon as we realized who we were dealing with we contacted them. They’re flying a couple of agents in tomorrow. There are a few things that you guys need to understand.”

“We’re listening,” Blaine said, reaching over and grasping Levi’s hand. He didn’t realize how tense he was until he looked over to see a look of pain cross Levi’s features. Feeling instantly remorseful, Blaine loosened his grip on Levi’s hand and ran his thumb idly over where his grip had been the strongest.

“Once the FBI gets here, things are going to shift. The surveillance on you is going to be composed of both federal agents as well as some officers from the department. Every call that comes into your house will be recorded and you will be discouraged from answering any calls on your cell phone that you don’t recognize the number.”

“Okay, all of this is stuff that I can easily handle,” Levi said, turning to Blaine, “what about you babe?”

“I can handle it, but I have the feeling that we’re not being told everything,” Blaine said, his gaze riveted on Officer Harris. “What more is there that we are not going to like.”

“Well, we know that the two of you, as well as Mr. Branson are Mr. Robinson’s prime targets. The agents that come in tomorrow will discuss this further with you, but what they want to do is place some agents into the home for a short time. The story could be friends from college, or whatever, that’s something that you guys would decide.”

“Officer Harris,” Blaine said, climbing to his feet and pacing around the room, “I’m not sure how well that would work. The lifestyle we live is hardly what some would consider as acceptable. How do we know that we aren’t going to get some bigot in the house?”

“I understand your concern, but rest assured that the agents would go through an intense screening process.”

“And if we were to refuse?” Blaine asked, anger showing in his voice.

“Blaine? This might be what’s best,” Levi said, getting to his feet and moving over to Blaine, placing a hand on his forearm. “Christian… err... Michael... whatever his name is, is dangerous,” Levi started, only to be interrupted by Blaine.

“I’m not saying that he isn’t, nor am I undermining the situation that we are in at the moment, but I am having a hard time with the fact that someone that we have never met will be living in this house with us. How long would the agent be here?” Blaine asked, turning towards the officer.

“As I’ve said before, I’m not sure on all the details, you would have to discuss that with the agent in charge,” Officer Harris said, getting to his feet. “That’s really all I can tell you at this point.”

“Well isn’t life just grand,” Blaine muttered before turning and walking through the kitchen and out the back door. He was furious, more with himself than anyone else. How could he have lived with Christian and not known that he wasn’t who he pretended to be. To make matters even worse, Levi was in more danger than he could have ever imagined, and all because he’d gotten involved with him.

“I’m sorry,” Levi apologized as he led the officer towards the door. “I know that he understands what you are doing, but you have to understand where he is coming from as well.”

“I do, trust me I do, but there’s nothing else that we can do. We’ll keep surveillance teams on you, but you might want to hang out around the house for the rest of the day.”

“We will,” Levi answered, trying to usher Officer Harris out the door so that he could go check on Blaine. He had no idea what was going through Blaine’s mind at the moment and he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to know, but he did need to understand.

“I’ll leave you guys alone to talk. When the agents get here tomorrow I’ll bring them over so that you can discuss with them what is going to happen.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Levi said softly before ushering the officer out the front door with a mumbled apology. As soon as he had shut the door behind Officer Harris he went in search of Blaine. Grabbing the glasses off of the table, Levi made his way into the kitchen and set them on the counter before opening the back door. His heart nearly tore in two when he found Blaine leaning against the side of the house, his shoulders sagging. Walking up behind him, Levi wrapped his arms around Blaine’s waist and rested his head against Blaine’s broad back.

Covering Levi’s hands with his own, Blaine willed his body to relax and accept the comfort that his love was offering him. He still couldn’t understand exactly how things had gotten so confusing, but he was grateful that he had Levi with him, despite the fact that he felt guilty for pulling Levi into danger.

“I’m sorry babe,” Blaine whispered.

“For what babe?”

“You wouldn’t even be in this mess if it weren’t for me. Chr… Michael would have never come after you, you wouldn’t have to have cops and federal agents watch your every move, and you wouldn’t have to have your house invaded by the feds.”

“You’re forgetting something babe,” Levi said lightly.

“What’s that?”

“What else you brought into my life,” Levi said, pulling away and stepping around so that he could look Blaine in the eyes. “You brought love into my life as well. Blaine, I will stand by you through this, no matter what happens. Do you have any idea how much happier I’ve been since I met you? I actually look forward to waking up each morning because I know that when I open my eyes, you will be there. It was getting pretty lonely around here. Before you came along it was just me and the dogs, and yeah, they’re good companions, but they can’t keep me warm at night the way you do.”

“I don’t deserve you,” Blaine said, reading the truth of what Levi said in his eyes.

“Yes you do, plus a whole lot more. We can’t sit and focus on the bad Blaine; it will tear us apart if we do. I refuse to let that happen. It would mean that Christian, or whatever the hell his name is, wins.”

“I just don’t want to lose you,” Blaine whispered so quietly that Levi had to strain to hear him.

Blaine’s words tore at Levi’s heart strings and he vowed to himself that he would show Blaine all the love that he possibly could. He would do anything he could to chase the fears that plagued Blaine away and replace those fears with the wonder of living and loving. Wrapping his arms around Blaine’s neck, Levi stood on tip toe, pressing his body tightly against Blaine’s as he placed the gentlest of kisses against his lips. He was rewarded when Blaine’s arms wrapped around him and crushed him even closer against his body. It wasn’t until Levi pulled his head back from the kiss that he seen the tears rolling silently down Blaine’s face.

Unwinding his hands from around Blaine’s neck, Levi reached up and used the pad of his thumb to wipe the tears away. “We’ll be okay Blaine, I promise,” Levi whispered, praying that he had made a promise that he could keep.

***

The next morning, Levi climbed out of bed and threw on a pair of old gym short, being careful not to disturb Blaine. After relieving himself he made his way into the kitchen and let the dogs out before grabbing a cup of coffee from the automatic coffee maker. Taking his coffee, Levi walked out the back door and sat in one of the lawn chairs. He watched the dogs romp and play in the backyard and smiled as he enjoyed the crispness of the morning. Levi remained in that position until his coffee cup was empty and the chill morning air began to penetrate his bones. Making his way back into the house he looked in the fridge to see what he could possibly fix for breakfast.

Noticing that he had everything to make western omelets, Levi pulled a pan out of the drawer underneath the stove. Grabbing the sausage out of the fridge he dropped it in the frying pan on medium heat. As the sausage slowly cooked he grabbed everything else he needed and set to work chopping up green peppers, onions, and mushrooms. As soon as the sausage was done he drained it and put it into a separate bowl before mixing the vegetable with some egg and pouring it into the pan. Just as he was getting ready to add the sausage, he felt arms wrap around his waist from behind.

“Smells good babe,” Blaine whispered, pressing a light kiss to the tender area just below Levi’s ear.

The feel of Blaine’s breath and lips send shivers down Levi’s spine as he turned in Blaine’s arms and gave him a tender morning kiss. “Good morning, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s okay, it was time to get up anyways,” Blaine answered before grabbing a coffee cup and getting his own morning cup of coffee. The events of the night before all but forgotten, Blaine leaned against the countertop and watched as Levi added the sausage and folded the egg mixture over top. Needing to do something, Blaine set his coffee on the counter and got a couple of plates out of the cupboard. After grabbing a couple of forks from the utensil drawer he walked over and set them on the table before grabbing a couple of glasses and filling them with orange juice.

“Did you want salsa?” Blaine asked as he put the juice back in the fridge.

“Sure, sounds good,” Levi answered as he took the spatula and cut the omelet in half. Taking the pan off the stove he walked over and placed a half of omelet on each of their plates before setting the pan in the sink with the other dishes.

They ate the meal in relative silence, both just enjoying that they could have time in the morning to be together. Once they had finished and loaded the dishes in the dishwasher, Blaine grabbed both coffee cups and filled them with the steaming brew before carrying them into the living room and setting them on the coffee table.

Levi sat down and grabbed the remote, turning it onto the news and smiling when Blaine lay down on the couch and placed his head in his lap. Without even realizing what he was doing, Levi started combing his fingers through Blaine’s hair, the silky strands sliding effortlessly through his fingers.

“What are your plans today?” Levi asked softly as he smiled down at Blaine.

“I was figuring that I should probably go and talk to Phil; let him know what is going on. I have the feeling that I won’t be working my full hours at work until this is settled. Nothing like a couple cops or FBI guys following you around on the job.”

“Yeah, you might want to call Officer Harris and see what he recommends as far as what to tell Phil. I seriously doubt that the FBI wants it well known that they’re in town.”

“Yeah, probably, I’ll give him a call on the way out there. What about you? Any plans for the day?”

“Nah, I called in another vet to work at the office today. I figured it would probably be a good idea to stay at home until we know what is going on.”

“Yeah… maybe I should just call Phil, rather than go out there.”

“That’s up to you babe, do whatever you feel comfortable with,” Levi answered, reaching over Blaine’s head to grab his coffee and take a sip.

“I wonder if we should call Mark,” Blaine said after a few minutes of companionable silence.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, he’s kind of a part of all this, so I’m sure the agents coming in today would like to talk to him too. May as well just do it all together.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. It’s almost unreal though, to have all of this happening. You always hear about this kind of stuff, but never figure that it will happen to you or involve you.”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have happened to you if it wasn’t for me,” Blaine started, only to be quieted by Levi.

“We’ve already been through this Blaine, so quit worrying about it.”

“I can’t help but worry about it,” Blaine said, climbing to his feet and walking over to the window. “He’s out there somewhere Levi, just watching and waiting.”

“Yeah, he is,” Levi said as he walked over to stand behind Blaine, “but, whenever he does, we’ll be ready for him.”

“That sounds so cliché,” Blaine said, a slight smile curving his lips.

“Yeah, it is, but it’s the truth,” Levi answered, a small chuckle escaping his lips. “When you going to call Mark?”

“I’ll call him shortly, see if he wants to come and spend the day while we wait for the agents to get here. Did Officer Harris give you any idea when they’d be here?”

“No, he just told me that they’d be here sometime today and that he’d be with them when they showed up.”

“So, what do you think is going to happen?” Blaine said as he laced his fingers with Levi’s and led him back towards the couch.

“I don’t know Blaine, to be completely honest. It’s going to be weird to have someone that we don’t even know living in the house with us, but we’ll deal with it. To be honest, I never expected everything to even get to this point and I’m not going to let anything stop us from taking things even further,” Levi said as they sat back down.

“It’s a good thing that you don’t give up easily,” Blaine commented, leaning back so that his back was in the corner of the couch with Levi leaning back against him.

“Babe, something that you’ll learn about me is that I go for what I want, and I want you,” Levi said as he closed his eyes and just relaxed into Blaine’s arms.

***

“So,” Agent Ean Capri said, “what the plan is, is for us to put an agent in both of your homes. They will be here under the guise of being friends, visiting from college and looking to move to the area.”

“That could work, but normally people who were friends in college have some kind of familiarity with each other. That will make it kind of hard to pull off if we are in fact being watched.”

“Not if you act like you normally would. Don’t do anything different than you would if you were alone in the house. On top of the agents in the house, there will be another one placed in your office,” Agent Capri said, turning his attention completely on Levi.

“Wait a minute, we didn’t agree to that!” Levi stated. “What about the receptionist I already have? I can’t just fire her!”

“We don’t expect you to fire her; you can find another job for her at the clinic or give her paid time off.”

“And how am I supposed to do that without telling her what is going on?”

“One of our agents will be in contact with her, it would look odd if the person that is supposed to be visiting you is following you to work, especially because they’re going to be friends of Blaine’s and Mark’s. We’re going to make this as believable as possible.”

“So, when are the agents going to get here?” Blaine asked, speaking up for the first time.

”They’ll arrive in a few hours, we’ll have cleared out by then, but we have files for you on the agents that will be staying with you as the well as the one working in the clinic. Make sure that when you open the door to them you greet them by their first names. We don’t need any slip ups,” Agent Capri said as he rose to his feet and dropped a couple files on the coffee table. “Agent Derek Roberts will be staying with Mr. Riley and Mr. Turner and Agent Allen Bryant will be with Mr. Branson. The agent assigned to the clinic is Agent Renee Jeffries. All the information you need is in these files. I’m going to take my leave now, Agent Roberts and Agent Bryant should be here within two hours, and Agent Jeffries will be at the clinic first thing in the morning. We’ll be in contact gentlemen, and if you need to get a hold of me for any reason my pager number is in the files,” Agent Capri said, heading towards the front door. Within minutes the three men were alone in the house and were discussing what was going to happen.

“This is going to be so odd,” Mark spoke up.

”Trust me man, I know what you mean. I’m still not completely happy with all of this, but you can’t really argue with the feds.”

“Well, you can,” Levi said with a chuckle, “but the chance of you winning is almost nonexistent.”

“My boyfriend, the smartass,” Blaine said with a chuckle before grabbing the file on Agent Derek Roberts. He leaned back into the corner of the couch, pulling Levi back against him before opening the file. His mouth nearly dropped open at the picture before him; the guy was just a major stud.

“Close your mouth before you catch flies babe,” Levi said with a chuckle. “Should I be worried?” He then asked, trying to make his voice sound serious and failing miserably.

“You’re the only one for me,” Blaine answered, all trace of humor gone from his voice. He still had a hard time believing that he had Levi in his life and at times he was afraid that it was all a dream and that he would wake up alone.

“And you’re the only one for me,” Levi said while turning slightly in Blaine’s arms to press a light kiss to his lips. Smiling softly, he pulled back and nestled back into Blaine’s arms.

Blaine was smiling softly when he looked up to see Mark watching them with a goofy grin on his face. “What you grinning at over there?”

“Just you two, you look good together, that’s all. I’m glad to see you so happy,” Mark said, reaching over and grabbing the file on Agent Allen Bryant.

Blaine knew that there was no need to answer and just settled back to enjoy holding Levi as they paged through the file. Blaine was happy to see that the files included some of the man’s likes and dislikes; it would make it so much easier to make the whole scheme believable. “Hey babe,” Blaine said to Levi, pointing at a spot in the file, “it looks like our agent likes the outdoors, you think we’d be able to convince him that camping was a good idea?”

“Are you serious? I figured you’d have had enough of camping for right now.”

“Nah, and with our very own agent we might be able to go,” Blaine said with a chuckle.

“You guys suck, mine prefers to stay in,” Mark answered with a sigh. “You guys want to trade?”

“Nope, we get the stud, what does yours look like?” Blaine asked and then whistled as Mark turned the file around and showed them the picture of Agent Bryant. “Damn Mark, too bad you don’t bat for our team, you’d have a blast having him stay in your house.”

“And can you say blue eyes? I don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes that bright, them are definitely what you could call piercing.”

“And that wavy, shoulder length, chocolate colored hair, damn babe, why did we get stuck with Agent Roberts?”

“It’s just our lucky I suppose, at least he’s not bad to look at,” Levi said, chuckling as he turned his attention back to the file in Blaine’s hands. The files were actually fairly thick and they were only halfway through when the knock sounded on the front door.