Chapter Four #2
Teagan always thought they pulled it off flawlessly. Well, until the neighbors found out and beat Teagan senseless. Then the assholes had spread the truth around the building, turning the rest of their neighbors against them.
“Call it intuition.” Liam guided him around a cooler someone had left in the middle of the path. “Plus Hayden nearly took that asshole’s head off last night when he grabbed you. That’s not roommate energy.”
Teagan’s knees threatened complete structural failure. Or maybe that was Liam’s hand still pressed against his back, warm through the thin cotton of his shirt.
“Plus, you get this look when you talk about him.”
Heat crept up Teagan’s neck. “What look?”
“Like someone describing their favorite thing in the world.”
Words failed Teagan completely. Standing this close to Liam, he could see flecks of green in those impossibly blue eyes. His body leaned forward without permission.
The music changed from classic rock to something with more bass, the kind that vibrated through the ground and up into your bones. Someone had cranked the volume, and conversations rose to match it.
“Want to grab a drink inside?” Liam had to lean closer to be heard, his breath stirring the hair near Teagan’s ear. “It’s quieter.”
Following Liam into the house meant leaving Hayden’s line of sight and being alone with this man who made his brain short-circuit. Smart money said to decline, make an excuse, find Hayden, and stick to him like industrial strength velcro.
“Sure,” Teagan said instead, because apparently his mouth had declared independence from his common sense.
The temperature dropped fifteen degrees the moment they crossed the threshold.
After the chaos outside, the kitchen felt like a sanctuary, all clean lines and gleaming surfaces that belonged in a magazine spread.
Copper pots hung from hooks above a massive island, and the refrigerator could’ve doubled as a bank vault.
“Iced tea? Soda? Water?” Liam opened the fridge, revealing shelves that looked like someone had organized them with a ruler.
“Whatever you’re having.” Teagan hoisted himself onto the counter, legs swinging slightly. From this height, he almost reached Liam’s eye level. Almost.
Two bottles of iced tea appeared, caps popping off with practiced twists. Liam handed one over, their fingers brushing in the exchange. That same electric feeling from this morning shot up Teagan’s arm.
“So.” Liam leaned against the opposite counter, which put maybe four feet between them. The distance felt simultaneously too close and too far. “You and Hayden. How long?”
“Officially? Since last summer.” Teagan picked at the label on his bottle. “Unofficially? My whole life. Just took me a while to figure it out.”
“Sometimes the best things are right in front of us.” Liam’s eyes held steady, that gaze doing something complicated to Teagan’s ability to form coherent thoughts.
Condensation from the bottle made Teagan’s palms slick. Or maybe that was nerves. “Speaking from experience?”
“More like current observation.” Liam set his bottle aside, moving closer. One step. Two. Three. Until he stood directly in front of Teagan. “Can I be direct with you?”
Teagan managed a nod, hyperaware of how his knees had spread slightly to accommodate Liam’s position between them.
“I’m interested in you.” Liam’s hands came to rest on the counter, bracketing Teagan’s hips without quite touching. “And before you say it, yes, I’m interested in Hayden too.”
His brain blue-screened completely. Teagan.exe. Files not found.
Both of them? Liam wanted both of them? That wasn’t how things... People didn’t just announce their interest in couples like they were ordering a combo meal.
“Both of you.” Liam leaned incrementally closer. “That a problem?”
“I don’t understand.” His voice came out embarrassingly breathy, completely forgetting the conversation he’d had with Hayden earlier that morning. Who could blame him? Liam was a walking sex god, and he’d just confessed to… Oh hell.
“It’s not that complicated.”
“I don’t know…” Teagan whispered, being completely honest.
“Fair enough.” Liam’s thumb brushed against Teagan’s hip, the lightest possible touch, which still somehow lit up every nerve ending. “But can I try something? You can say no.”
Saying no would be smart. Saying no would be safe. Saying no would keep his life from combusting into chaos.
“Okay,” Teagan breathed.
Liam’s hand cupped his jaw with surprising gentleness for someone who could probably use the mountains as free weights.
Every atom in Teagan’s body focused on those fingers against his skin. He should push Liam back. Should explain that this wasn’t possible, that he and Hayden were together, that adding someone else could obliterate everything.
Liam’s lips touched his, soft at first, testing. Then Teagan’s mouth parted on a gasp.
Pull away! Man down!
Instead, god help him, he melted forward, hands finding Liam’s shoulders for balance as the kiss deepened. Liam tasted like iced tea and something darker, richer. His other hand settled on Teagan’s waist, thumb stroking along his ribs through the thin fabric.
Time contracted to this single point of contact, the world narrowing to Liam’s mouth moving against his, the solid warmth of that broad frame between his legs, the way his body responded like it had been waiting for exactly this.
Memories flickered through Teagan’s mind. Hayden at ten, defending him against playground bullies. At seventeen, teaching him to drive in an empty parking lot. At twenty-two, holding him through his father’s funeral.
Hayden saving him the last slice of pizza without being asked.
The way Hayden’s eyes had softened the first time they’d kissed.
Twenty years of having someone who saw all of him and stayed anyway.
Teagan yanked backward so fast he nearly tumbled off the counter. “I can’t… Shit. I have to go.”
Scrambling down, he bolted for the door, Liam’s voice calling after him.
The transition from indoor cool to outdoor heat hit like a physical wall.
Teagan stumbled through the crowd, searching frantically until he spotted Hayden near the dessert table, laughing at something one of the shorter guys had said.
Their eyes met across the yard. Hayden’s expression shifted from amusement to concern in an instant, but Teagan couldn’t face those questions. Not yet. Not with Liam’s kiss still burning on his mouth and guilt eating him alive from the inside.
The car. He needed the car.
Teagan ran, nearly face-planting as he reached the sedan. Locked. Because Hayden had the keys, because they’d driven here together, because Teagan couldn’t even properly flee his own catastrophic decisions.
Instead, he slumped against the driver’s door, legs finally giving out as he slid down to sit on the ground, pulling his knees to his chin.
What have I done?
* * * *
“You sure this is the right place?” Edwin asked as they drove slowly by the house with peeling yellow paint. It didn’t look like much for two guys shacking up together.
“Yep. Jeff at the post office said this was the address they used for their forwarding mail,” Ramos replied.
They circled the place three times, shoes sinking into muddy patches where the grass had died. No lights inside, no music, not so much as a flicker from a phone screen. Even the mailbox was empty when Ramos checked.
Edwin crouched low and tapped the window again. Nothing.
“If they’re home, they gotta be sleep,” Ramos said.
Edwin’s lip curled. “Got us arrested because he can’t take a punch.”
A dog barked four houses down then nothing but silence. Dead leaves crunched under their boots as they quietly made their way along the side of the house until they found the back door.
Ramos fished a pick set from his pocket. In less than ten seconds, the latch popped. No security system, not even a sticker threatening one. Edwin rolled his eyes. “People these days. Always screaming about how unsafe they are but can’t be bothered to lock up.”
They slid inside, careful not to slam the door. A clock ticked faintly from the wall, irritating Edwin. It reminded him of the clock in the cafeteria in prison, the one he’d always sat under to eat the slop he was served.
The kitchen was small, like the inside of a cell. A desperate little place with the bare minimum on display. Each drawer opened and shut with a squeak. Edwin found nothing but some loose change and a coupon booklet.
Ramos pocketed the coins.
Old furniture filled the living room. Probably came with the place. They’d tried to cover the worst stains with blankets, but Edwin could still see the ancient burns on the armrests. On two cushions sat a stack of folded laundry, so clean it made his teeth ache.
The two were blissfully living their lives like they hadn’t ruined someone else’s. They’d probably forgotten about what happened as soon as the case was over. Edwin hadn’t. He’d been stewing in his cell for six months, waiting for the day he could make those two pay.
He drifted toward the bedroom. In here, another dose of normal. Flattened boxes stacked under the bed, some with kitchen labels, some just marked “Teagan” or “Hayden” in scratchy handwriting.
They thumbed through dresser drawers, careful not to leave evidence of their visit. Every so often, Ramos’s hand disappeared into his pocket with something shiny.
Sickening, the way those two played house.
Pajamas draped together across the bed. Lotion bottles, talcum powder, and deodorant lined up neatly on the dresser.
The kind of scene one might notice in a happy home, though Edwin wouldn’t know anything about that since he’d been raised by a single, alcoholic parent.
But this cutesy, cozy display wasn’t going to fix what they’d done.
In the end, real world always caught up. Edwin smirked, thinking about how shocked Teagan would be next time the lesson got taught. Only this time, Edwin would make sure Hayden didn’t call the cops.
Ramos held up a wallet. “Driver’s license, couple credit cards. Might come in handy.”
“Put it back,” Edwin said. “Not yet. We’re not here to take. We’re here to gather intel on our enemy.” He ran his finger along the edge of a framed photo near the window. Hayden with an arm around Teagan, both grinning like idiots.
They had some nerve, making it look like they were the innocent ones. Edwin gritted his teeth. If anyone had a right to call foul, it was him and Ramos. No one ever showed up to defend them when Hayden falsely accused them of a hate crime.
It was definitely hate, but teaching Teagan a lesson hadn’t been a crime. Not in Edwin’s eyes.
He’d never figured out what was so special about Teagan anyhow. The guy was nothing. Hayden always whined about how everyone was against them, but quick to run to the authorities if he didn’t like how things played out.
It hadn’t been Edwin’s or Ramos’s fault Teagan had ended up in the hospital. Guy had probably faked most of his injuries. Seriously, they hadn’t even hit him that hard.
They left the everything exactly how they found it. Each drawer closed, shirts smoothed flat. Edwin darted into the bathroom, checked the cabinet. Nothing worth taking, not even prescription pills. Cheap shampoo and mouthwash. That was it.
He paused in the hallway, looking back at the photos on the wall. One was a snapshot of Hayden riding a bicycle. Had to be around ten years old, wearing a triumphant smile, like he’d just cured every disease on earth.
Next to it, Teagan showing off a birthday cake, the number sixteen on top of the icing. Interesting. Edwin hadn’t known they’d been boyfriends their entire lives.
It was almost enough to make him laugh. The kind of thing you saw a hundred times, until someone decided to get clever and ruin a perfectly good life just because they couldn’t take a punch.
He had to squeeze his hands into fists so he wouldn’t punch a hole in the drywall.
Let them think they were safe in this new town.
Let them believe they were finally starting over.
Sooner or later, everyone paid their debt.
Edwin, back in the kitchen, rifled through the catch-all drawer. “Bingo.” He flashed a single key, pocketing it before Ramos could blink. “See? These two are just asking for it.”
“Least now we have a way in without using tools.” Ramos grinned, his crocked nose, which had seen too many punches, making the smile appear sinister.
“We’ll come back later, when it’s dark.” Edwin used his hip to close the drawer. He’d been very careful not to leave any prints behind.
Ramos finished wiping their prints with his sleeve just in case they’d left one behind. “All done.”
They slipped out the way they’d entered, easing into the alley behind the house, looking like two dudes simply taking a stroll.
Edwin glanced back over his shoulder, Ramos wearing a scowl carved deep into his face. “They’re gonna regret the day they made us the bad guys. Next time, I promise you, the cops won’t be anywhere around.”
It was only a matter of time. The two would learn.
Back at the car, Edwin slammed the door hard enough to rattle the glass. “Flimsy lock on their back door. Pathetic.”
Ramos grunted. “Whole place is a joke. They think moving makes them untouchable. Their mistake.”
Edwin drummed his fingers against the dashboard. “We lost half a year because that little drama queen decided to sell us out. Now he gets to start over while we rotted in a cell? Not happening.”
He almost hoped they called the cops, just so Edwin could explain how those two had ruined his life. People needed to see the truth. Teagan and Hayden were the real problem.
Not him.
Not Ramos.
If anyone was owed a little payback, it was them.
Wonder if the happy couple ever considers who might come home before them.
Some people never learned. Some people needed to have the rules spelled out for them.
Soon, Teagan and Hayden were going to learn that pressing charges came with penalties. Edwin almost felt sorry for them.
Almost.
He sat in the car, plotting. He and Ramos would get their justice. This time, no one would believe a word those two losers had to say about anything.
It was hard to talk when you were buried under the side of a mountain.