Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
S loan walked into the house and went to crank the AC up.
Jesus, what a lousy fucking day. The worst part about law enforcement in the west in general was the long drive to anywhere. But today he had driven all over half of East Texas trying to interview three witnesses, and they’d been avoiding his ass, so it had taken hours.
And then the AC in his cruiser had gone out when he was as far away from the office and garage as he could be. So he’d had to do his rounds without any fucking air.
In Texas. In September.
He hit the bathroom, stripping out of his clothes as he went. God, he stank. He really did. Right at this very moment Sloan wanted to grab Lance and kidnap him off to the mountains.
He’d checked. The low in Santa Fe tonight was going to be forty-five. Just— No fair.
He would never say that to Lance. Not when his lover was improving in leaps and bounds all of a sudden. Lance was making huge progress according to both Will and Brick, and Sloan wasn’t going to do a damn thing to jeopardize that.
His phone rang right as he turned on the water. He glanced at it and groaned. “Not work, at least,” he grumbled. Well, at least not the one he was working at present. It was Lina Martinez, one of his fellow officers back home.
He thought about letting it go to voicemail, but what if it was something important?
“Hey, Lina. What’s up?”
“Hey, vato. Just checking in. How’s it going down there?”
“Oh, Lord. It’s a whole tale. Look, can I call you back in thirty? I need a shower. No AC all day in ninety-eight with ninety-eight humidity.”
“God. Okay, call me back.”
“I will.” He hung up with her, then texted Lance.
Hitting the shower. Shit day, but nothing dangerous. Talk to you soon
He got a
KK
back, and he stepped into the shower stall, turning on the water at just lukewarm, which was always kind of shockingly cold to begin with.
He shivered, but he held out, and then he gradually got it warmer as he cooled off so he could get some lather in the shampoo and get the stink off him.
By the time he got bathed and dressed in a pair of PT shorts and had a beer, he felt way better.
Possibly even human, although that might be a stretch.
He grabbed his phone and called Lina back, tickled to note that it was right at twenty-nine minutes, since she had called. Perfect .
“Hey, man! How you doing?” It was good to hear her voice, to hear that fascinating sing-song New Mexico lilt that was so different from the Texas drawl.
“It’s going. It’s hot. It’s humid. I kind of hate it.”
She chuckled. “Of course you do. No one likes humidity, do they?”
Sloan rolled his eyes. “Well, obviously somebody does. They all live here.”
“Which is good because if they didn’t live there, they would live here, and we don’t want them, remember?” Lina had a point.
“Exactly. I hear you. Everything’s cool there?” Do you guys miss me?
“Yeah, I was just checking in. I saw your sister today. We had coffee. She’s doing good, taking care of all your critters.”
“Okay. Wait, all my critters?” He frowned. He didn’t have critters. He had three goats. He’d been very firm about not having multiple critters because he was coming here to get Lance. “Did Grace happen to mention which critters she was taking care of?”
Lena paused. “Oh. Oh…”
“Yeah, oh . Spill woman. What critters?”
“Apparently now you have goats, fancy goats, and alpacas. For yarn.”
“I’m going to kick her ass. I mean, at least it wasn’t horses.” Or cattle. Grace couldn’t make yarn out of cattle.
“Well, don’t tell her I told you, please.”
He was very careful not to point out he was sure that the reason his sister had told Lina was because, if she knew, it would get back to him. Lina was amazing, a great investigator, one hell of a cop, but she could not keep a secret for love nor money.
“So seriously, what else is going on?”
“Same shit, different day man. It’s good though. It’ s been quiet, you know, normal stuff. Couple of B&Es, mostly just easy like, so-and-so stole my bikes. Somebody broke into my shed. Somebody had a dog bite. I kind of love that.”
“Yeah.” Yeah, when someone lived in a place that was as desperately poor as New Mexico could be, crime happened. But they were working at their jobs, and they were trying to make the most beautiful place on earth the greatest place to live.
“I miss my mountains, man. I miss them bad.” Sloan wanted to come home, have a green chile cheeseburger from Blake’s, sit on his back porch, and watch the moon come out over the mountains.
“They miss you.” Lina got it. She was a native New Mexican like him. “So, spill. What about the guy? Is he, like, real? Is he still into you?”
“He is, and he is. He’s been spending the night with me most every night, even.” And Sloan loved it. It was enough to make him shiver.
Maybe that was the refrigerated air.
“Oh wow. That’s cool. How bad is it?”
“What?” He didn’t follow Lina’s thought track at all.
“Your sister said he’s all broken…”
“He’s not ‘all broken’. He’s blind. He’s got a bad leg.” Lance was figuring life out. “That’s it. He’s got a dog. He’s learning.”
“You coming home with him?”
“I’m working on that.” Sloan thought so. Sloan really thought so, but he also thought that Lance wasn’t ready and that it was a scary thought. Sloan got it. He couldn’t imagine closing his eyes and trying to get around his house or navigating a whole new life.
One where Sloan was going to be at work, and Lance was going to be at the house and not have any way to get anywhere. It was a thing .
It was a real thing and they were going to have to figure it out.
Even if figuring it out meant selling everything he had in New Mexico and coming here and learning to not hate the humidity.
Which might be easier said than done, because damn.
“Well, come on soon. We miss you. And I have Lotaburger with your name on it.”
“Yum. I also want Frito pie from the pharmacy.”
“O-o-o.” She made that up and down sound that was home to him. “Yes. Man, I miss you being here.”
“Me too, but Lance is my one true thing, Lina. He thinks I need an emotional support dog.”
“Well, you have goats.”
“Lina, I have three— had three goats. Not exactly snugglers.”
“True that. They’re fun, though.” Lina loved to play with his guys.
“They’re a hoot. Send me some green chile.”
“What kind? Fresh? I can send a case.”
“That’ll work.” She had his address already, so it would get to him.
“Will do.” She sighed. “Send me a selfie with your dude.”
“I will. Promise.” He wanted to show Lance off, dammit.
“Good deal. I’ll ship you chiles. Take care of you.”
He hung up the phone, sitting on his sofa, taking a deep breath. Damn, that was hard. It had been so good to hear from her, sure, but it hurt a little, hearing home.
Seriously.
Speaking of home.
He dialed his sister’s number, not even waiting for her to say hi before he said, “What is this I hear about alpacas?”
“They’re llamas…”