Chapter Two

 The morning had come far too early for Negan Coldwell. It seemed as though as his drapes were slowly and quietly being pulled open for him to rouse him with the morning sun that he had just laid down and closed his eyes. The jet lag had him beat. “What time is it?” He asked of his butler sitting up in his warm satin sheet to find his glasses. “It’s 9:30, Sir. I figured since your flight got in so so late and you had nothing on your docket for this morning that I’d let you sleep awhile longer. I hope that’s ok, Sir?” His butler questioned running his hand down the drapes to smooth out any wrinkles from where they hung and turned back for the perfectly prepared tray of breakfast and yesterday’s Sunday paper to present him with. “I trust you slept well?” He followed with tucking the newspaper under his arm and tweaked the placement of each item on the silver tray so it presented to his boss just so. “Not nearly enough.” Negan answered as his butler stepped to his bedside neatly pressed in an Armani royal blue suit that brought attention to his kind eyes. “Perhaps this afternoon you could rest. That is if you find no concern with what I’ve read in yesterday’s paper, Sir.” He added raising an auburn brow to spark his boss’s curiosity as he knew that it would. Negan looked up from the thickly poured on blood berry syrup that spilled over the side of his Belgium waffles that were being placed in front of him in question. “What do you know, Tony?” He asked clearing his morning throat as Tony backed up from the tray and handed Mr. Coldwell his Sunday paper that he had missed seeing as how he had been out of town the few days before. “I know we are a day late but hopefully not a dollar short.” Tony replied knowing full well that the headline would have every bit of his concern the same as it had his. Negan pushed his tray back over his knees an inch and unfolded the sharply creased paper. The demanding headline wasn’t a hard one to miss but took up most of the front page. His butler was right to assume and present the paper in immediate concern. Negan drew in a breath, straightened his wire frame glasses and snapped the paper taunt to begin reading. Tony stood with his hands behind his lower back in silence as he watched Mr. Coldwell’s eyes shift back and forth reading each line in silence to himself and then paused to look back at the photo of the new officer in Canton momentarily to study it longer then what casually should’ve taken him. “Do you know him?” Tony asked watching the slow rise and fall of Mr. Coldwell’s chest and broke his concentration to take to the words once more. “Not yet but as of todays end, yes.” He answered with clear and evident confidence. Tony had known for sometime of what kept Mr. Coldwell secretly alone. He read the sadness in his charcoal eyes even then as he had lingered over the photo that his stare had a hard time breaking from. “He’s handsome.” Tony offered for maybe if he said something of his own interest that it would give Mr. Coldwell a safe ground to speak. Mr. Coldwell knew that his butler was an openly gay man himself but that never once had changed Mr. Coldwell’s ability to speak much less admit to himself freely. Instead he’d deny as he did just then. “What a man looks like has not a damn thing to do with what the chief has just thrown out into the line of fire with this fucking article.” He answered skipping over his butler’s comment as if were nothing of his own concern and yet, it was. Instead Negan turned the page to finish the article. Every line of that write up had all of his attention and yes, his butler was correct in his statement. The new officer in Canton wasn’t just handsome. He was captivating. However he’d suffer that attraction internally. “I suppose Mackey has reached him already.” Negan added covering over his attraction to hide from his transparency. “It’s hard telling, Sir but my guess would be that I believe we should assume so.” He replied standing at ease. Negan nodded. Mackey was no fool. He was on this article as well like a fly took to honey. The advantage that Mackey had was that he was a full day ahead of himself in this discovery. “I took the liberty of finding out where he lives and a telephone number as well for you, Sir. You may be a step behind, Sir but Mackey wouldn’t have had the ample time to sink his claws into him entirely to turn Officer Howlett past the point of no return.” His butler replied. Negan looked up from the paper to question how. “Reading between the lines his butler answered, “I had once dated a realtor and we still have remained friends and as luck would have it, he works for the broker who sold him his place.” He clarified. “You do fine work, Tony. You have yet to disappoint me.” Negan commended taking back to his paper. “Thank you, Sir.” He answered watching Mr. Coldwell fold the paper back to the front page having finished the last of the article and to discreetly, or so he thought, look at Officer Cash Howlett once more. “I suppose he bought a place in Edgewood Estates?” Negan voiced. Edgewood was a nice subdivision. Nice homes. Clean cut and manicured. A handful of Canton’s law enforcement lived there as well as other upstanding and respectable citizens of Canton as well. Judges, doctors and teachers with families of that nature. This location also would make it difficult for himself to casually drop in to pay the new officer a visit without being noticed. The tattle tale welcome wagon would have him spotted for certain. “Actually, quite  the opposite, Sir.” Tony smirked knowing that the tables were turned in their favor. “Oh?” Negan questioned in surprise now looking up from the paper to acknowledge his butler’s presence. “He bought a run down, one room hunting cabin out towards Chippewa Falls. Brett said it’s been on the market for years but it does butt up to Macky’s property. The river divides them. I doubt that Mackey would know this already but I wouldn’t necessarily put it past him either to have noticed new traffic.” He supplied. Negan tilted his head in disbelief. “An Officer with these credentials doesn’t just go buy hunting shacks for permanent homes. The officer is up to something and the chief has cherry picked him. He’s hiding from someone or some thing.” Negan answered narrowing his eyes. “Aren’t we all?” His butler asked to let that reside in his Boss’s thoughts for a brief moment before speaking again. “Shall I press a suit for you or will you be taking your morning run first?” He followed up with. “The rains have brought in the northern air and is quite crisp this morning. Damp but there certainly is a bite to the air. Perfect for a run.” He suggested. Negan looked to his cathedral windows past the branches of brightly colored oak leaves to the morning sun for a moment of debate. He did enjoy the colors and cool weather to run but finding and speaking to Officer Coldwell was far more pressing of interest. Both professionally and personally even if personally it was a dead end, he still was interested enough to want to look into that man’s eyes in his own. “I’ll run this evening. I’ve got ground work that takes presidency first.” He decided and laid the paper beside his blanketed clad thigh and reached for his coffee. “A suit it is.” His butler confirmed with a nod to excuse himself with to leave his boss to have his breakfast in silence. 

Once alone, he sipped his coffee in silence and refused to pick up the paper that lay to his side. He could see 1/2 of the officers profile for the bridge of his nose fell on the crease. He wanted to deny it. To hide from it but he knew that he hadn’t been that drawn and so swiftly at that to someone like that in a very, very long time. In fact, now that he thought hard about it, that constraint he felt gripping his gut hadn’t happened since he had first laid eyes on Emily, the mother to his one and only child. There was something incredibly alluring about Emily at first sight and Officer Cash Howlett had struck that very same cord. The problem was, that Officer  Howlett was to be treated and looked to as a clear and evident enemy and there was a great possibility, more so than not, that Officer Cash Howlett was a straight man. That was even to say that even if he himself would allow himself to be gay to be open enough to allow himself happiness even IF Officer Cash Howlett were a gay man as well. But chances were that he wasn’t. He took to his now cold waffles and ate in thought of Bob Mackey. Officer Cash Howlett was up for grabs it seemed and he wondered how far of a head start that Bob had gotten.