Burner Phones

Dean was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Allison was draped over his chest.

"Boo Bear?" she asked.

"Yes, Alison."

"How many times have I told you to please call me Alli."

Dean continued to stare at the ceiling. The last thing he wanted to do was call this woman Alli.

"I like the name Allison. I like how it flows off the tongue," he said.

"I like how your tongue flows over me."

Dear God, don't remind me that I do that.

"So, what's up, Allison?"

"I was just wondering; we've been together for a few months now, and I wanted to know, well, do you love me? Even a little bit?"

A shiver went down Dean's spine. He did not love Alison, nor could he ever love her. He sat up, and she slid off him.

"Well, we haven't been together for that long, and I'm not a big believer in love at first sight. I am a huge believer in lust at first sight," he said.

You are like a car; you lost your value as soon as I drove you off the lot.

God, did he want to say that out loud.

"Oh, oh, like the night we met, that was an amazing night. I'm so happy it wasn't just a one-night-only thing, well, I think I…"

Her voice trailed off in his mind. He could hear Allie's voice. This is a good-for-one-night-only offer. That night turned into days, which turned into weeks, into months, and then into an engagement. Where was he now? All coked up in bed with the second biggest mistake of his life. The first is taking this fucking assignment.

"Did you hear me, Mikey? What do you think?"

"Yeah, sure." He was not listening to what he was being asked.

"Oh my God, really! I knew you will one day, Boo Bear!

Dear God, I hate that fucking name. And exactly what the hell did I agree to?

Dean sat on the side of the bed. He picked up a small mirror and a rolled $100 bill off the side table and snorted two large white lines.

"Do you want any of this?" he asked her.

"No that's OK I have something better. Come on lay back down with me."

Dean rolled his eyes and laid back down. She cuddled up against his chest. God, what wouldn't he do to be home right now with Allie? What he wouldn't do to be sober or take back sleeping with 28 pieces of ass.

I don't regret getting the blow jobs. I could go for one of those right now. Allie had such a talent for that.

This assignment was turning into a nightmare. He had developed a severe sex and cocaine addiction. He drank more than ever. He could give Allie a run for her money. He did stop with the body shots. That's what got him here in the first place. He wondered if Alvarez was doing any off Allie at this very moment. The mere thought of it made him angry. It made him want to hate her. But that would be hypocrisy on his part.

He was naked, having drug-induced sexual escapades almost every night of the week whenever the opportunity would present itself. Which was any night he wanted it. He even took that mother and daughter up on the three-way at Frankie's urging. That one took a shit load of booze and cocaine. He wished he had Allie's propensity for blacking out.

He wondered if Allie had moved on and begun to date Alvarez. He wanted to know what his life would be like when he finally got to go home. Allie was right. This whole experience has changed him, and not for the better.

He looked at himself in the mirror each morning. He had slowly morphed into someone he didn't recognize. He had two faces: the typical side and the side so damaged he couldn't even recognize himself.

The only time he was Dean Stapleton was when he thought of his family and his Allie. Every other moment of every day, he was Mikey DeLuca. He barely worked out anymore; he ate like crap, and he would drink upwards of five or six bottles of two-hundred bottles of wine most nights. His behavior can best be described as committing the seven deadly sins simultaneously.

He was going to hell. He went out four times a week. He didn't stay faithful to Allie. He couldn't even stay faithful to his faux girlfriend. He turned into the very thing he secretly resented Allie for doing before they were together. He couldn't figure out how Frankie and Richie had kept up this lifestyle for so long, but he was becoming a quick learner.

"Hey, Boo bear?"

"What, Allison?"

"Can we make love again?" she asked.

"I have already told you this is sex, not love. Remember, that was the deal."

"Yeah, I remember. But I just thought maybe..."

He rolled over to her and kissed her. He just wanted to shut her up. An hour later, he lay there, sweating and panting and regretting.

"This is the best sex I have ever had," Allison said. "How about you, Mikey? Is this the best sex you've ever had?"

"I've had better, but you'll be the only Allison I will ever sleep with. I promise."

"Awe, Boo Bear. That's so sweet."

Holy shit, how can one person be so fucking obtuse.

God, how would he tell Kent that he has done thousands of dollars worth of blow every week for the past 4 months? Natalie is going to be devastated. She looked up to her Big Brother her whole life, and now here he is, a cokehead and a manwhore.. How was he going to admit this behavior to his parents, brass, David, Scott, and Brad? How embarrassing it's going to be. They will never be able to look at and respect him the same way, even if this is his job right now.

Alvarez is going to have a fucking field day with it.

He can't go back to Allie in this condition. He stood up and walked to the bathroom. He looked back at Allison. She was on her side with her back to him. Sometimes, if he tried hard enough, he could swear it was his Princess Buttercup.

He turned on the shower and waited for it to get hot. The entire time, he prayed she wouldn't come in there. His hand was propped up on the wall, bearing his weight as the water ran down onto his head.

He didn't want to move. He just wanted to stay there until this was all over. He washed himself and watched as the soap slipped down the drain. He thought about that morning after he proposed, the love he and Allie shared in the shower.

He slowly slid down the wall until he sat on the shower floor. He cried silently, not sure if he was crying for himself, for his behavior, or for Allie.

He stayed until the hot water was gone. He toweled off and wrapped it around his ever-growing waist.

Steam filled the room. Dean opened the lid on top of the toilet and took out a plastic zip bag containing a cell phone. He flipped open the phone and pressed the only number available.

It was one o'clock in the morning in Cleveland. Alex and Allie were on the couch watching a John Wick marathon. Her phone began to buzz on the coffee table.

Allie handed him the large bowl of popcorn.

"DO NOT eat all of that," she said.

"In the 10 seconds, I will be holding it?"

"Bruh, I could." She picked up the phone.

"I wonder who that could possibly be at this hour," Alex said.

"Yeah, especially since I'm not a cop anymore. I hope everybody is okay."

She picked up the phone and looked at the caller ID number.

"It's this one of those weird numbers again. I have gotten so many calls from these weird numbers. It changes every week, but it's always the same when I answer it. It's just dead air. Nobody talks."

Dean bought the burner phones a few weeks ago and switched them out every week. He couldn't stand not hearing her voice anymore, so he never said a word. When she answers, he will listen to hello, hello. Usually, she says something like,

"Look, I don't know if this is somebody or a robot call, but I'm not interested. I'd appreciate it if you stopped calling."

If she doesn't answer, he gets her voicemail. Hey there, this is Allie and Peanut. I can't come to the phone right now. If you leave your message, I might call you back, but if you text me. I will actually text you back faster. So, make your choice, but choose wisely.

The first time he heard it, he was baffled

Peanut? Who the heck is Peanut? Did she get a cat?

"How often do you get these calls?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. It's about four times a week, the days very. I've noticed that they usually don't call on Fridays and Saturdays, but there have been a couple of times sometimes. I swear I can hear someone on the other end.

"I answer because if, by some miracle, it's Dean telling me he's coming home, I don't want to miss it. After the first two calls from the same number, I stop answering."

"Give me the phone," Alex said. He motioned towards her to hand him the phone.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to answer it," he said. Alex answered the phone. "Hello?"

Dean was taken aback by the male voice on the other end. He pulled the phone away from his ear and double-checked the number. There was no way it could be wrong. It was the only number in the phone

"Hey, I don't know if there's a person on the other end, but you gotta stop calling my wife. She's getting annoyed, and so am I. So, stop calling, or I'm going to find you, and I will shove the phone you are calling from up your ass so far when it rings. You could hear it ringing out of your mouth."

He listened to the voice.

I would know that voice anywhere. It is Alvarez. What's he doing there at 1:00 a.m.? I think I know exactly what he's doing there at 1:00 a.m. And what does he mean, my wife? What the hell has been going on since I've been gone? I have got the fuck out of here.

"I know I said I don't want her to be lonely, even if she was with Alverez. I might have been wrong about that."

Before Dean hung up, he heard Allie's voice in the background.

"Give me that fucking phone Alex," she said.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes. Alexander Alvarez, give me the phone, or I'm going to rip your nuts off and shove them so far up your ass you're going to have to sneeze to have an orgasm."

There she is. My Princess Buttercup.

"OK, here! Damn girl."

Oh my God, that is one of the best ones you've ever come up with!

"Hey, I don't know who this is, but I would like to apologize to my friend, who is, in fact, not my husband. He will not be hunting anyone down and shoving anything up anywhere because if he keeps doing this because the phone will already be in his ass. However, I would appreciate it if you stopped calling. If this is a robot call, I'm telling you I'm not interested. You need to stop calling me, too."

Allie put the phone down on the couch next to her. She thought she had hit the red button, but her fingers were full of butter.

"Give me the popcorn."

"Do you realize that if that really was a Robo call, no one is on the other line to hear you?"

"You know what? If you were my husband, you would know not to comment on your wife's borderline stupid comments," she said.

I'm about to make another one," he said. "Can you imagine if that was Dean?"

"Why would you think that could be him? I would think he would know better. Then again, maybe he doesn't."

"Allie, the phone changes once a week. No one talks. You thought maybe you had heard something on the other end," he explained.

"Alex, don't be a moron. Now, my feet are killing me. Rub them. A husband would do it."

"So would a massage therapist."

"Yes, but I don't have to pay you," she said.

"I'm doing this for Peanut. Not for you."

Who the fuck is Peanut?

Her phone slid from the couch and hit the floor. "You're the moron, Alexsandra. You never hang up the phone," Alex said.

The phone disconnected. That was the longest he had heard her voice in months. She sounded like she was doing well, which broke his heart. He stayed in there for several more minutes, trying to calm himself. Her voice had made him sullen.

He went back into the bedroom. He took another couple of bumps and crawled back into the bed beside Allison. She scooted her body back till it was up against his. Their naked bodies pressed together.

"You were in there a while," she said.

"Yeah, I was just running some stuff through my head."

"Oh, about the high table? I wouldn't be too concerned about it."

"The high table?" he asked.

"Yeah, aren't you going with Frankie and Richie to the high table meeting next month?"

"I guess not since I have no idea what a high table meeting is."

"Oh, I'm sure he will mention it. They did just set the date. It is super important for Frankie. I can't imagine you not being there. You've become one of his closest friends. He trusts you with his life ya know."

"Allison, what is a high table meeting exactly?" he asked.

"Well, according to Gloria-"

"Who is Gloria?"

"My friend Gloria, she has been fucking Richie for a few months now. He likes to get drunk and high and run his mouth. He hates being second place behind Frankie, so he tells Gloria that Mister Giordano is retiring. And it is partially thanks to your accounting skills, by the way. So, he's handing the business to Frankie."

"Really? What else did Richie say?"

"I guess all the biggest players in the game will be there. It's some rite of passage or some crap like that. Personally, I think it sounds like one big pissing contest to me."

"Did Gloria mention where it was going to be?"

"She did. Typically, they don't tell the smaller players where the location is until right before the person needs to leave."

"Where exactly are we going?"

"His dad lives in Henderson, right outside of Las Vegas."

"Oh, that far away, huh?"

"He likes to keep his distance from his main port."

Dean proceeded to milk every vital piece of information he could possibly get from Alison. This was the break that they had been waiting for. All the biggest fish gathered in the same barrel. He didn't have to endure this fucking hell much longer.

"You look really tense. I think you need to come down from all the snow you've been inhaling."

"I would love to get some sleep. What did you have in mind? I would do anything to be able to dream."

"Easy, you fight fire with fire," she said.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a vile and a syringe.

"Allison, what the fuck is that?"

"This is Dilaudid."

She opened the packet and took out the syringe. "This shit will bring you to a place that Vicodin or Oxy can never take you."

"I can't do that. I don't use needles."

"Oh, come on, Mikey. You need to sleep. It's not like you don't take this kind of stuff anyway. Do you really think sucking snow up your nose all day isn't worse than this? If so, you are lying to yourself."

"Allison, you won't make me do this if you love me."

She drew up the liquid. "No. If YOU loved ME, I wouldn't make you do this. Just do like 1mg. Once isn't going to kill you. Neither will 1mg. You want to sleep, don't you?"

"I do, but not like this."

"Do it, Mikey, or I'll tell Frankie you refused. He does it. He might think you're better than him or I might tell him you said you were."

"Why would you tell him that?"

"Because I'm more faithful to Frankie than to you. Like I said, it's not as bad as what you're doing now. It's just a faster delivery method. Now give me your arm."

"I can't have track marks. I'm a professional," he said.

"Oh, don't sweat it. You don't get those right away. Plus, there are other places to use."

She showed him her arms. "See? Not a track in sight. If you alternate your sites, you are ok," she said. "Just try it. Plus, the sex is amazing."

"If I do it once, won't you make me do it again? I just want to fall asleep."

She put a tourniquet on his arm. She slapped to make the vein pop to the surface.

"I don't make promises I know I'm not going to keep," she said.

She slid the needle into his vein and pushed the painkiller in.

The sudden rush that went through his body was mind-blowing. He has never had IV pain medication. He never had a reason, too. His head became heavy, and his eyes fluttered. The sensation was like the world's most intense orgasm."

"See? I told you."

She opened another syringe and drew up 2mg for herself. She slowly injected it into her foot. She fell back onto Dean's chest. He didn't even care. His thoughts were not his own. The euphoria and relaxation were incredible. He finally had released all his anxiety.

She ran her fingernail up and down his chest. "SOOO, do you love me now?"

"No, but I sure like you a whole hell of a lot more. When can I have more?" he asked.

"At least an hour Boo Bear."

"I'm only going to do this tonight, and then no more. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure you are. " She spoke with sarcasm.

"No, really," he said. So, an hour? Wanna fuck till then, Alli?"

"