Chapter 1 #3
After college, I decided to become a soldier, like my father.
I enrolled in officer school, after which I served two tours in the Sommet province.
When shrapnel hit my spine, almost crippling me, I had to consider other career options.
My commanding officer suggested law enforcement, which sounded like a good idea.
To say that my career took a strange turn when I ended up in the LD would be putting it mildly.
Adam “The Scarface” Markland was a jerk to me from the start.
Truth be told, he was a jerk to everyone, but he would become extra mean when I was concerned.
At first, I was just taking it and kept my mouth shut, but after a while, he started getting under my skin.
On a few occasions when he made me lose it, punches were exchanged.
I wasn’t proud of it, but he was getting on my last nerve.
Funnily enough, I didn’t even dislike him.
In fact, when I first met him, I thought he was the most interesting person I’d ever met.
He was grumpy and ill-humored, but in a cuddly sort of way, like a large, huggable bear.
To be honest, I couldn’t stop staring at him in those early days.
Everything about him fascinated me... from the way his dark hair would fall over his forehead, hiding his sky-blue eyes, to the way he would smirk after getting lost in thought.
Those smirks became my obsession, consuming my every thought, because.
.. what could make that surly man smile?
So, yeah, he fascinated me from the start, but then he spoke, and things went downhill after that.
I tried not to hate him because I was better than that, but he was wearing me down with his “weirdo, this” and “weirdo, that” shit.
I tried to ignore him, which was equally impossible.
Every word out of his mouth, every gaze directed at me, made me feel elated, no matter how rude he would get.
Nevertheless, things would be fairly simple if it weren’t for one little, or maybe not so little, fact.
The first time his sky-blue eyes found mine, Adam Markland gave me an erection.
It came as a surprise for two reasons. First, I’d never gotten aroused by a man before.
I had two long-term girlfriends in the past, but I never looked at a man twice.
Second, my erections were so rare that I considered myself asexual.
My sex drive was nonexistent for most of the time.
Porn didn’t do it for me. My hectic lifestyle didn’t allow me to date or even meet women so that I could test this asexual theory.
Things changed after I met Scarshit. After the first erection came the second, the third, and so on.
I spent days, weeks, and months ruminating on how, why, and now what?
Admittedly, I was obsessed with the guy, but I wasn’t gay.
I wasn’t even bi. I was barely sexual until I met him, and he behaved like an ass to me, so it made no sense.
I didn’t know what was happening to me until one day I had an epiphany.
It made me breathe a sigh of relief because I realized those were anger boners.
Scarshit made me so angry that my body got confused, misinterpreting rage for lust. It had nothing to do with sex or attraction and everything to do with anger.
My theory was a bit woo-woo, but it still made me feel better.
A knock on the car window snapped me back to reality and made me reach for my gun.
“Fuck!” I breathed as Adam scrambled into the passenger seat. “You scared me. I got lost in thought.”
He fastened his seatbelt without looking at me. So, it was one of those days when he decided to ignore me? Lucky me. Usually, it was either that or blatant staring.
“Did you get statements from everyone at the crime scene?” I asked him.
The muscle in his jaw was twitching visibly. Not a good sign.
“Yeah,” he replied, scrolling through his phone. “What about that name that I gave you?”
“He’s serving a 5-year sentence for armed robbery in the Smitsville Penitentiary, so he’s not our guy.”
After a few moments of silence, Adam looked up from his phone, and his sky-blue eyes met mine.
“Why aren’t we moving?”
I shifted in my seat, hesitating. “Um… I was thinking maybe we could stop by Pete’s before going home. I could use a drink or two.”
Adam blinked. “Have you lost your mind, weirdo? Why on earth would I want to spend more time with you than I have to?”
I was trying to come up with a dignified reply when I spotted a nervous-looking guy across the street. He was eyeing the liquor store with a hand tucked in his pocket in a way that told me it wasn’t a wallet he was holding.
“Not twice in one day,” I said with a sigh, opening the car door. “Six o’clock, Markland. Baldie across the street has a gun and a lot of bad intentions.”
“I’ll follow you by car. Don’t lose his ass.”
When the bald dude spotted me with a detective badge hanging from my neck, he bolted. I ran after him, trying not to get run over by the cars that were whooshing past me.
“Police!” I shouted, following him into a grimy alley and pulling out my gun. “Stop!”
When he turned with his weapon raised, I took cover behind a dumpster before a bullet flew over my head. The pigeons shot off the nearest rooftop as I cursed under my breath. Why, oh why, do they always have to shoot?
I peeked over the dumpster, only to see Adam getting out of the car at the other end of the alley.
I left my hiding place, approaching the perp from my side.
His gun trembled next to his thigh, but when he turned, he flung something in my face.
I groaned when pain shot through my eye, and blood gushed out of my nose.
“Drop your weapon!” Adam shouted, running toward the guy with his gun raised. “Now!”
Baldie threw away his gun and raised his hands, but it was too little too late.
When Adam’s fist hit his face, it was lights out for him, and he went unconscious before hitting the floor.
Adam cuffed him to the fire escape stairs before rushing toward me, just as my vision cleared.
When he cupped my face with both hands and his panicked eyes found mine, I froze on the spot.
“Did he shoot you?” he said, as his startled gaze darted over me. “Are you okay?”
He was touching me, so I was speechless, but otherwise hunky-dory.
“Fucking talk to me, Jordan,” Adam growled, snapping me out of it. “I heard a gunshot.”
“I’m fine,” I said, wiping the blood that dripped from my nose. “I think that punk threw a brick in my face.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
His hands let go of my face, but they kept sweeping across my body, searching for injuries.
They moved with urgency, brushing the curve of my neck, the length of my arms, the ridges of my ribs, only to end up on my pecs, almost…
groping me. When Adam hastily took off his shirt, he almost gave me a heart attack. Thank God he wore a T-shirt underneath.
“Here,” he said, bringing the shirt to my nose. “Use this to stop the bleeding and hold your head high.”
When my hand joined his, our fingers brushed, and it felt as if electricity shot through me.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled, avoiding his eyes.
He didn’t seem to believe me.
“I’ll call the ambulance just in case.”
“No, you won’t,” I growled, my voice muffled by the fabric. “Stop overreacting.”
Someone would find his considerate behavior surprising, but it was actually the norm.
Why? Because Adam Markland had this… I called it a sadistic whim.
He never let anyone hurt, attack, or offend me.
One wrong look headed my way would make his fists clench.
He probably broke more noses on my behalf than in his entire lifetime.
While he could pick on me as much as he wanted, no one else was allowed to insult me.
Or touch me. Or breathe in my direction.
There was only one person who could mess with me, and that person was Adam Markland.
He made it clear, and everyone knew it. And now the dude handcuffed to the fire escape stairs knew it, too.
Adam finally dropped the subject, only to walk up to the unconscious man and slam a foot in his face.
“You fucking asshole! I’ll kill you for what you did to him.”
Blood gushed out of the man’s nose and spilled onto the street, snapping me out of it. Adam was about to hit him again when I stood in his way before he could carry out his threat.
“Stop!” I said, barely able to hold him off. “Jesus… enough.”
Adam shifted his gaze to me, looking almost confused.
“I should probably read him his rights, though,” he mused. “Right?”
In different circumstances, I would have laughed.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Although we should probably wait until he regains his consciousness.”
When his gaze landed on my bloodied nose, his expression softened.
“The bleeding stopped, huh?”
“Yeah, the bleeding stopped,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s just… let’s do our job and go home.”
Adam nodded. “Good. That’s good. Yeah. Let’s arrest that stupid son of a bitch.”
He headed to the car, only to throw over his shoulder, “By the way, you owe me a shirt, weirdo.”
As I said earlier.
Ridiculous.