Mending Spirits: (M/M/M Poly Romance) The Bartender Mage Book Three

Chapter Four

”Got everything?” Rahul asked, his hand on the top of his car”s raised trunk. He watched Leif pat a couple of pockets of his fluffy lounge pants, then nod.

”Yup!” he said, smiling brightly up at him in the yellow light of their garage. He laughed excitedly, then came in for a hug after Rahul closed the trunk. ”Three whole days, almost!This is going to be great.”

”I hope so, cub. Let”s get going.”

Rahul climbed into the driver”s seat of his four-door Ford Taurus and waited while Leif circled around and took the passenger”s seat. While Leif fiddled with the seat controls—usually Tucker had the passenger seat when the three of them went somewhere—Rahul opened their garage door and backed out into their driveway, then set out in the rosy light of the early morning. After a quick pit-stop at a nearby gas station to fill his tank and purchase drinks and snacks, they started out on their six-hour journey.

”So, itinerary,” Rahul began.

”Yay, itinerary!”

”We”ll stop for lunch along the way, and should arrive just in time for check-in at our hotel.Angie won”t get off of work until after four at the earliest, so I figure that gives us time to either check out the city, or nap for a couple of hours before we meet her for dinner.”

”I vote nap.”

”I figured you would, but thought I”d at least bring it up.”

Leif reached over, laying a hand on his thigh, and he growled playfully at him.

”A lot depends on how forthcoming with help Angie is.In an ideal scenario, we”re treated like hired consultants, sign a few papers, and she walks us through the latest crime scene so we can pass on a first-hand account to Tucker. If not, the back-up plan is to do what legal investigating we can do ourselves. We”ll talk to the museum”s security guards, maybe sweet-talk some administrators.How are you at seduction?”

He heard Leif clear his throat, before saying in a comically deep tone, ”Hey, handsome.”

Rahul spared a glance at Leif, then guffawed. ”What in all the hells is that face, cub? I”m pretty sure you”re not supposed to bite your top lip. And you look more like you”re having a seizure than batting your eyelashes.”

”Really? Oh, no! I guess we”ll just have to leave all the seducing to you, while I watch.”

Rahul rumbled, then covered Leif”s hand with his own, squeezing it. ”You”d like that, huh? We”ll talk. But seriously, that”s what”s planned for today and tomorrow. If we can”t get much traction with Angie, we might also drive north another hour or so, check out the second crime scene where a personal library was hit.”

”The back-up plan to the back-up plan.”

”Exactly. Then on Thursday, we”ll have a few hours in the morning before leaving around ten, which gets me back in time for my evening dance class.”

”Ooh, I getcha. If you want me to, I”ll drive us on the way back so you can be more rested for your dancing.”

”I probably won”t need it, but thank you.”

Leif rubbed his thigh affectionately, then settled himself into his seat and closed his eyes. Rahul turned the car”s music down a touch, letting Leif catch up on his sleep since he”d only gotten four or so hours the night before.

The long drive was fairly monotonous, and Rahul kept his mind occupied by working through old case details and planning how he”d approach the issue with Angie. A lot could change in two years, and he might not have the same rapport with her that he used to.

Leif woke up after a couple of hours, giving him a smile and keeping him company through their fast-food lunch and remainder of the drive. When Rahul pulled up into their hotel, he was glad to finally stretch his legs for good.

”Come on, cub, let”s get ourselves settled.”

They carried in their respective bags—a rolling suitcase of clothes apiece, then a computer bag for Rahul and the alchemy bag for Leif—checked in at the front desk, then made their way to their room. It was the most spacious one that Rahul could find within 50 miles in any direction, outside of the mythic-based resorts. Good view, an in-room jacuzzi, and a tolerably-sized bed.

Leif was already stripping down, so it looked like their free-time decision had been made.

”Ha, alright.” Rahul took out a few toiletries and made sure he had his phone charger available. ”I”m going to rinse off first, then join you.”

”Okay!”

Rahul made a short visit to the shower, used the blow dryer on his hair, then carefully took out his many piercings. He plugged his phone in his charger, took off most of the pillows on his side of the bed, then climbed into it and joined a waiting Leif.

Rahul grunted, kicking at the blankets. Hotel beds weren”t made for guys like him, and his heels were nearly hanging off the foot of the bed. Then again, he was probably a bit spoiled with the Wyoming King bed in his home.

Leif rolled into him, hugging him from behind as the big spoon. Rahul put his hand on top of Leif”s, running his hand over his knuckles. Leif didn”t take long to fall asleep, but his own mind was churning too much to give him more than a few fitful minutes at a time.

After the first hour, Rahul got out of bed carefully, pulled the blankets up to Leif”s neck, then started quietly setting up his laptop with an external mouse and keyboard, idly reading through local reports over the recent thefts, and exchanging a few texts with Angie.

At six p.m., he looked back at the bed, took a picture of a drooling Leif to send to Tucker—he got several hearts in return—then nudged his boyfriend awake.

”Rise and shine.”

Leif wiped at his face, yawned and stretched, then gave him a squinty smile as he went to the shower to get ready. Watching the cub”s shapely ass disappear behind a partially-closed bathroom door, Rahul regretted not waking him sooner so he could take advantage of it. Hindsight, he supposed.

Rahul and Leif dressed in nicer clothes, a purple dress shirt for Rahul with a dark blazer that was growing a little loose in the front, evidence that his months of cardio efforts were paying off, and Leif in a white dress shirt with a wine-colored paisley vest. After styling their hair and donning their respective jewelry, they paused to take a quick selfie to send to Tucker, which resulted in a slight delay when Leif saw the earlier picture in their group chat. The mock argument was soon settled by Rahul pinning Leif to the wall and giving him deep kisses by way of apology, another minute to fix Leif”s clothes which had come unbuttoned, unbelted, and unzipped, and then they headed for the restaurant.

Simply and succinctly called Anna”s, the place was a moderately upscale steakhouse that specialized in an all-you-can-eat of higher quality cuts. He parked near a familiar beat-up truck, then got out of his car alongside Leif.

”Rahul, you devilish lunk,” Angie said, grinning ear to ear as she stepped out of her truck. ”Did you dress up for little ol” me? You shouldn”t have.”

”I know, what was I thinking? You”d probably prefer that I didn”t wear anything at all, but they wouldn”t let me in the restaurant if I did that.” Rahul laughed. ”Come here, bring it in.”

His long-time friend took off her stetson—never just a simple ”hat”, no—and set it on her truck, freeing her long blond ponytail, then came in for a hug. She squeezed him tightly with both arms, giving no indication that they”d ever had to be surgically reattached.

”Angie, I”d like you to meet Leif, my boyfriend.”

Leif held out a hand, but Angie crossed her arms, staring him down. Leif looked up at Rahul, his smile frozen, and Rahul gave him a reassuring ”okay” sign. ”It”s fine,” he mouthed.

”Hmm. He”s the mage one?”

”Yes.”

”The one that kicked some sense into you and Tucker so I didn”t have to?”

”Yes.”

”That one that saved your life?”

”Twice, yes.”

”You said he was cute.”

”I did.”

”Mm. You”re right, he is. Alright, he looks trustworthy.C”mere, Leif, a handshake ain”t gonna cut it, not if you”re a friend of Big Boy Basu, here.”

Angie strode forward, wrapping her firm arms around Leif, giving him just as tight of a hug as she had Rahul. She was a couple inches taller than Leif”s five foot four, but possessed a much smaller frame. Leif hugged her back too gently at first, but swiftly corrected his mistake after she whispered words to him in a threatening tone. Going by Leif”s face, Rahul figured it involved something along the lines of hunting him for sport or feeding him to her pigs.

”Are we ready for dinner?” Angie asked, grabbing her stetson and putting it on her head. ”I skipped lunch to make sure I had enough room.”

”Absolutely! Ladies first, so… after me?”

Rahul strode up to the restaurant, leading the way, then opened the door for Leif and Angie.

”Basu, party of three,” he told the ma?tre d”, who nodded after checking a small computer screen.

”This way, please.”

Rahul sat next to Leif at their corner table, Angie taking the seat across from him and laying her stetson in the chair next to her.

”So how”s the last couple of years been treating you?” Rahul asked.

She shrugged. ”Ain”t the worst. North Dakota isn”t half as busy as Minnesota, so there”s lots of down time at work.And my stable”s up to eight horses, good stock.”

Rahul leaned over to Leif. ”She”s wanted horses since she was a child.”

Angie nodded. ”I have, and now I got me enough land to house them properly.”

”That”s so cool,” Leif said, leaning forward with his head propped up on his hands. ”What are their names?”

”Killer, Bloodbath, Murder, Mayhem, Evisceration, Decapitation, Skullcrusher, and Byford.”

”Oh! Um, those sound like wonderful names…”

Angie held a straight face a moment longer, then started laughing, slapping the table. ”The look on your face, ha!Had you going, huh? You”re too sweet, Leif. Actually, my biggest is Goliath, and the rest got good, sensible horse names, like Beauty. No, I save the special names for my knives.”

”Hold that thought,” Rahul said as their waiter approached, followed closely by the gaucho and his skewers of meat. Their server skillfully sliced off indicated cuts of meat onto their plates, then moved on to the next table.

The meat wasn”t as good as what he could make himself, in his own modest opinion, but it was still delicious, plentiful, and varied. During dinner, he shared his most recent life news and received the same in return, filling out the details touched upon in their infrequent messages with each other since neither of them shared much online out of ingrained habit; in their line of work, it was too potentially dangerous to keep certain information public. Then it was time to recount some work stories.

”So there we were,” Angie was telling an enraptured Leif, ”finally at the source of a string of burglaries, in a filthy alleyway that smelled like someone pissed in a sweaty gym bag. Tucker had traced the scent from three neighborhood buildings, and we were about to arrest our”gnomish culprits,” according to eyewitness testimony.”

Angie paused to take a drink, fighting to keep from laughing. ”Tucker, he, hoo-doggie! He crept down to the end of the alley, while I”m playing guard at the entrance with some netting. He then throws up the lid of a dumpster, points his light and taser inside while shouting ”Freeze!” What do you think happened next?”

”Oh, wow. Um, did the thieves give up?”

”Nope! In the next second, I see Tucker fall back on his ass as first one, then two, then a dozen raccoons all climb out of the dumpster, onto Tucker, and then make a break for the alley entrance. I nearly caught one of the critters, but I was laughing too hard and it slipped my net. Anyways, I go and help Tucker to his feet, and we look inside the dumpster and find all the stolen jewelry, clothes, and wallets. It weren”t no dang gang of gnome thieves, just a dozen sneak thieves taking shiny objects out of the homes of blind, racist idiots who”d been keeping their windows open.”

Angie paused to stab another piece of steak, gesturing with it. ”And that was Tucker”s first case with DOMA.He”s done a wonderful job ever since, bless the hairs on his fluffy little head.”

”I”d nearly forgotten about that one,” Rahul said, chuckling, then sighed. ”Damn, that was what, five or six years ago now? Time flies.”

”I”d say you”re doing pretty well for yourself, though.” Angie looked at him, spinning a steak knife between her fingers. ”You won Tucker back, found yourself a second boyfriend, and you”re the boss of your own company, yeah?”

”A company of one.”

Angie shrugged, setting her utensils down. ”Maybe, but it”s a company I”ve heard of. You”ve got a reputation for solving tough cases, even here. And that”s why you came, ain”t it? Not to play catch up with little ol” me.”

”I might have come west for the case, yes, but I came to this city specifically because of you. Sometimes the universe reminds us to check on our friends.”

”No need to apologize, it ain”t no bother. I mean, it”s not like I ever made the drive back to Minnie, right?”

”Ah, but you should!” He leaned over the table, taking her hand in his and running his thumb across the back of it. She arched an eyebrow, but didn”t pull away, and he gave her one of his more charming grins. ”You could even stay with us three. I”ve got a couple of guest bedrooms, and you could see some of the old gang. Deimos, Fang Wu, and Julia?”

”What about Maxim? How”s he doing?”

Rahul sat back in his chair, shaking his head. ”You heard he moved back south, right? Yeah. I gently tried to contact him a couple of times, but I don”t think he wants to be reminded.”

”Shame, he was a good agent. Alright, thanks. Now that we”re talking work, though… I”m guessing you want some of the case info.”

Rahul shrugged. ”Sort of. Minnesota”s DOMA branch already received the files you and your department sent them. Tucker”s working to consolidate it all, checking to see if he can predict where Germaine might strike next and making game plans for bringing him in.”

”Are you privy to it?” she asked. Rahul shared a look with Leif, and she laughed. ”Oho! I thought you were unofficially blacklisted, though, after your whole ”fuck you” to the department. How”d you charm your way back in?”

Rahul grinned slyly. ”I”m not, but yet here I am. See, Tucker”s in charge of the case, and he decided to hire me to investigate. He doesn”t have to present anything to the department until Thursday afternoon, though. So…”

”Ha! Sounds like a Basu plan for sure. Act first, then talk your way out of consequences later. So you”ve got a few days to put your thick fingers in the pie before you”re caught, yeah?”

”That about sums it up.”

Angie nodded as she raised her fork to take another bite, then paused and set the utensil down.

”Hey, Rahul. You know what would be a hoot?”

◆◆◆

An hour later, after parking his car, Rahul went around to his trunk. While Leif grabbed his alchemist”s kit and hoisted it over his shoulders, Rahul grabbed a pack of investigator”s tools and belted it at his hip.

”Love the fanny pack,” Angie teased, fixing the collar of her DOMA windbreaker before putting her stetson back on.

”It”s a belt bag, thank you very much,” Rahul said, turning up his nose before sharing a laugh with Angie.

”Sure, sure. Anyways, welcome to the museum of historic something or other!” Angie gestured to the large, dimly lit, recently vandalized structure.”Ready for a tour?”