Chapter Eighteen #3
Mitch wiped his eyes, making sure to keep his back to his daughter, who was walking around the pub as she was seating customers.
“Wait.”
They both paused.
“What?” Gene asked.
“I did say something to her once about us, and she hated calling me her boyfriend. She told me that men couldn’t be trusted.”
Gene lifted a brow.
“I figured it was some douchey boyfriend who knocked her around that made her feel like that. That’s why I was protective of her, too.”
Ethan was making notes.
“Thanks for your honesty,” Gene admitted. “We appreciate it.”
He needed to know.
“She didn’t have family. Is there a way I can get her body so I can give her a burial and that wake I mentioned?”
Ethan slipped him his business card.
“Give us a few days to handle this, and we’ll notify our ME that you’re the point of contact to claim her.”
He took the card and nodded.
Then, he wiped his eyes and found some strength to go back to his job.
“Can I get back to work?” he asked. “Any longer, and my kid is going to be suspicious.”
Together, they nodded.
“I meant what I said. If you need my DNA, you can have it.”
What he needed was to do that, but he didn’t have a kit in his pocket. Oh, but he had something that would work.
Gene slid a napkin toward him.
“Put your gum on that napkin and fold it in half,” he said, giving the man the opportunity to prove he was on the up and up. So far, he wasn’t detecting any lies, but he wanted to make sure.
Mitch didn’t hesitate.
When he finished, Gene slipped the napkin with the DNA-ridden gum into his other pocket.
“Thanks.”
He was to the point.
“Find who hurt her,” he said. “She mattered to all of us. She was family.”
Yeah, they could see that.
The man headed off, but toward the back of the restaurant. When he left, a waitress came over, and they ordered their food.
They asked her a few questions regarding Megan, but it wasn’t eventful. Kiki hadn’t noticed anything that night, or anything any other night.
Well, at least they knocked that interview off the list.
When they were getting their food, Ethan shared what he was thinking.
“I’m going to run Megan,” he admitted. “When we get back to the hotel.”
Gene cut into his steak and started eating it.
“Okay, what are you looking for? We ran everyone, and nothing popped. Her social media was clean. Clearly, she wanted to keep her relationship with the older man on the DL.”
Ethan was to the point.
“Her hesitancy with men, and being gay, triggered something for me. I want to run police reports to see if her name pops up. It’s covering our bases.”
Gene was curious.
“It would make sense if someone in her past hurt her, and she’s scared, but how does it tie to the other women?”
Ethan was tapping his finger on the table.
“I don’t know. We do have all three women being tied to this place, but Phylis because of the husband.
That’s the second connection they have. They all went to the same school, and now they seem to have all been here.
On top of that. Ivey was younger than her boss.
Maybe there’s some daddy issues lurking,” he admitted.
Gene was to the point.
“Possibly, but Mitch runs a successful business, and that could be a lure to a woman.”
Ethan shrugged.
“Yeah, except they were banging each other in secret for six years? That’s someone afraid of commitment, and it might not have been Mitch who had cold feet.”
That was a good point.
Ethan sighed.
“This person is good at playing hide-and-seek.”
Yeah, he really was.
Unfortunately for them.
“All we need is that one thread that we can tug, and it’ll unravel,” Ethan admitted. “We need that one incriminating piece of evidence.”
That they did.
“As soon as we see the ME, I’ll get him all the DNA evidence for the team to run. I have the condoms and now the gum. Something might pop.”
Ethan hoped so.
As they continued to eat, Gene knew he wanted to shut down work and focus on his man.
“Want a drink?” Gene asked, meaning an alcoholic beverage.
Ethan went there.
“Trying to get me drunk while we’re on duty?” he joked.
Gene rubbed his hands together.
“Mr. Blackhawk, always. You’re fun when you’re tipsy. I won’t be drinking, because I’m going to pop a pain pill, but we can both be tipsy on different things.”
Ethan put his hand over Gene’s casted one.
“Hurts, huh?”
Gene shrugged.
“I’ve been in worse pain. This is more annoying and a dull ache,” he stated.
Ethan was honest.
He knew how Mitch felt.
He had regrets, too.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to you quicker,” he admitted. “I regret that you had to experience that pain.”
He reassured him.
“My love, you got there. That’s all that matters. What’s a few screws in bone between lovers?” he joked.
Ethan still hated it.
“How about something to mellow you out. I’ll live vicariously through you,” Gene admitted.
He relented.
“Yeah, I’ll have a drink,” Ethan admitted. “It’s been a week,” he offered.
Yeah, that it had.
Since it was getting busy, Gene didn’t want to wait for their waitress.
“I’ll get it from the bar. Be right back, sexy Native man. Don’t miss me too much.”
Ethan laughed.
“Oh, I absolutely will miss you. Who is going to give all the people around me dirty looks when you think they’re trying to steal me?”
He snorted.
Well, he nailed that.
The possessiveness was there, and it was never going away. Gene couldn’t help it. Like he’d said, it had been a week.
“I have good eyesight. I can watch from the bar,” he said, getting up from the booth. Before he left, he wanted to kiss his man, and he did just that.
Screw it.
Now, they were off duty.
Leaning into the booth, he found his mouth and kissed him. That kiss said it all.
When he broke it, Ethan blinked, and his body reacted.
Holy.
Shit.
The man’s mouth was lethal.
“Now, don’t forget me,” Gene said, heading toward the bar to get his man some wine. It was definitely not a Jack kind of a night. There was work to do.
At the bar, he kept an eye on his man, who was sitting with his back to him. Ethan was staring at the TV on the adjacent wall, watching the news that was talking about the victims.
“Hey, what do you need?” Jimmy asked.
Gene went there.
“Can I get a glass of red, and I need a favor,” he said, as Jimmy started pouring, and Molly was right there. “Maybe you can both help me.”
He had their attention.
“Yes, we’re Feds, but he’s my boyfriend. I want to propose tonight. I have two rings in my pocket. Is there any way you can pack me some chocolate cake to go, and stick the two rings on the cake? I’m going to propose back at our hotel room.”
Molly grinned.
“Say less. Give me the rings, and I’ll intercept Kiki when she goes to get the cake packed up.”
Gene was grateful.
Pulling the box out, he carefully pulled both rings out and slipped them to Molly for safekeeping.
Then, he went to pay for the wine.
Jimmy waved his money away.
“It’s on us. Congrats,” he said. “We’re big into the romance thing here. I wish it would happen to me. Got any brothers?” he asked Gene.
That made him laugh.
“Uh, I do, but they’re homophobic as fuck. Trust and believe you don’t want to deal with them. I don’t want to deal with them,” he admitted.
Jimmy sighed.
“Shit. I have terrible luck.”
“Before Ethan, he felt the same way.
While they couldn’t get married for a while, they could wear their rings as a vow.
That was the plan.
After nearly dying, Gene wanted to start living. They both deserved that.
Taking the wine, he headed back to the table, where Ethan was making notes.
“Profile?” Gene asked as he saw Ethan staring off into space. “Or are you really watching the media make a spectacle?”
Blackhawk nodded.
“Definitely profile. In fact, I’m tweaking it. I’m trying to give us a better percentage when it comes to the gender of this person. I just know that he or she has that DID issue. I can feel it in my balls.”
Gene pushed the wine toward his man.
“Sure that’s not lust?” he asked.
It caught Blackhawk off guard, and Ethan laughed.
“It’s definitely lust. Maybe I should have said gut,” he admitted.
Gene just grinned.
His gut had butterflies whenever he saw this man.
When Gene felt Ethan’s feet tangle with his own under the table, those butterflies kicked up.
It was cozy in their booth, eating their steaks as the world went by around them. There was no place he’d rather be than with Ethan.
“Do you think the Crotch Goblin is staying out of trouble?” Gene asked Ethan.
The man snorted.
“Well, that we haven’t gotten a call from the Puerto Rico police, or him, I’m going to say he’s taking in the sights and watching dolphins.”
Oh, probably.
“Think he got back on the horse?” he asked, eating the rest of Ethan’s onion rings that he didn’t finish with his steak.
His man contemplated it.
“Knowing Corbin? Absolutely not. I’m sure he’s taking baby steps back to the norm. I fully expect him to be terrified for a good few months yet. He’s not that far off the assault. I know if someone did that to me, it would take me a long time to feel safe again.”
Gene didn’t want to think about it.
David Neives had done his damage, and if there was a God in heaven, the man would be found dead in a ditch somewhere. He took care of the man who made Corbin’s assault possible, but he couldn’t get his revenge for Ethan.
Not yet.
One day, he would.
“Do you think he’s staying on our couch?”
Blackhawk laughed.
“No, because I know you. You’re absolutely kicking him out to go home with his husband. Working with him all day, and then staring at him on our couch…one of you will get chucked off the balcony, and I know your patience level.”
He snorted.
“You got me there. I love the goblin, but I miss having incredibly kinky, dirty, and borderline foul sex with my man in our condo. I haven’t been able to bend you over the kitchen counter in a few weeks. A guy likes a pre-coffee workout.”
Well, there were no lies there.
Gene absolutely did like that, and so did Ethan.
When Kiki came back to the table, Gene ordered cake.
To go.