Chapter Nine #4
“Gene, get ready to do one hell of a deep dive on the recent burial list. I mentioned that Tora and Mac were on it, but I need you to dig too. This is why I wanted all of us covering our bases. Something feels off. I need more information—in fact, I need everything we can find on the people. Break down that list for me.”
There was no hesitation.
“Copy,” he said back over the com. Honestly, he didn’t mind, since he was already working that angle for his partner.
Elizabeth glanced back at the pile of dirt that was Lory’s grave, and what Ethan had said. She was starting to put it together, and she didn’t like what it was coming out to be.
Not.
At.
All.
Jeffrey moved closer.
“What are you saying?” he asked. “What list?”
Elizabeth had to be careful, because she didn’t want to alarm or irritate the man. As of that moment, she wasn’t sure where to place him in all of this.
He was the caretaker, and the most obvious suspect. He patrolled the grounds, but he was one man, and sleeping wasn’t a sin.
She had to figure this out.
“Jeffrey, we think that those times the graves were opened is tied to a case we’re working. We think someone is opening more graves and stealing things,” she said, trying to get him to understand without pissing him off.
In fact, Elizabeth thought what she said was calm. She thought she phrased that in the best possible way.
But she didn’t.
Clearly.
Jeffrey exploded, and he swung out with both arms, hitting both her and Ethan with them.
And he sent them flying.
That’s when all Hell broke loose.
Jeffrey, the flower grower, didn’t pull a punch.
Not one bit.
* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *
The Hotel
Same Time
Check-in
Together, Corbin and Alex got the key to the hotel room, and headed up.
Luckily for them, it was close by where they’d finished interviewing, and was a decent place.
Bless the Blackhawks for not pulling a dirty dive roach coach. The place was actually nice. It didn’t smell like rage and regret, and the chances were there were no bedbugs to snuggle up to them all night.
That was always the highlight of a trip.
The walk to the room was pleasant too. The carpet was fun colors and shapes, and there was art on the walls instead of innocuous smears of god knew what.
It looked like they won the hotel lottery once more.
Once in the room, both men dropped their bags, gear, and shoes at the door. It was cool inside, and they knew they’d sleep well.
If.
They.
Slept.
When you worked with Elizabeth, she ran around the clock more times than not.
There were two king beds, and a magnificent view of another building.
So much for seeing the mountains.
Thank God they lived in Utah now, and could do that on a day off.
“I’ll write up the notes and get the preliminary report ready for Elizabeth to let her know that we’re done with the homeless interview. She’s going to be excited to find out what we learned about Johnathan being offered money, and then losing his kidney.”
Corbin laid on the bed and closed his eyes.
He told himself it was going to just be for a second, but he was beat, and needed a way to hide to regroup.
It sucked they didn’t have separate rooms. Before, he didn’t mind. Now, he really wanted his own space.
Far from Alex and his scent.
All the way back to the hotel, it had been hell on his heart, his body, and his libido. It was a bad time for him to start feeling again.
And with a straight man.
The exhaustion was real. Both he and Alex had just closed a case, so he might just get away with taking a nap to avoid dealing with the problem he was facing.
His.
Partner.
The last thing he wanted was to have a conversation.
Oh, and Alex was going to want to do just that as he tried to figure out what was wrong with him.
What wasn’t wrong?
That was the question.
“Don’t forget to put in that he heard shit upstairs when he was in the building,” Corbin said, yawning.
Oh, he had already put that into a voice note to add to the report for the drive.
“I’ve got it, partner. You look tired. Are you going to crash until dinner? Or do you want to talk?” he asked, hinting at the fact he knew something was wrong.
Definitely.
Yeah, Corbin was NOT doing that. How was he supposed to articulate that Alex turned him on, when nothing did anymore? Or that he reminded him of his dead husband?
Oh, that was chaos in the making.
Instead, he took the chicken shit way out.
“I need a nap,” he admitted. “It was a long one last week. Wake me for dinner.”
And that was all he said.
It told Alex all he wanted to know. Someone was not having a conversation with him. He was going to need to talk to Elizabeth then, since Corbin was definitely off.
Maybe he needed a break.
“I’ll be working here at the table after a shower,” Alex admitted. “I’ll wake you up. You know how unpredictable Elizabeth can be.”
Oh, he did.
All.
The.
Time.
While Corbin hadn’t worked with her long, he knew that she could pop in at any second, or make a call. You were at her beck and call if you were working with her.
“Great. Let me know what I’ve missed,” Corbin said.
Alex knew what he meant.
They had access to her drive, and on it, there was her checking in with Jeffery Von Gunter. Elizabeth would be heading to the hotel shortly, because she didn’t play around, even on day one of the investigation.
As soon as she got that DNA, she was hitting the ground running hard.
“I’ll wake you up,” Alex admitted, sniffing himself. “and get this shirt laundered. Later, though, I’m going to sleep like the dead tonight,” Alex admitted.
Corbin didn’t laugh, and that worried Alex.
He didn’t understand why Corbin was pulling away from their partnership, but he’d seen it happen before.
All.
Too.
Many.
Times.
Instead, Corbin was to the point.
“Wake me if something comes up.”
That’s when he felt something being thrown over him to cover his body.
When he opened his eyes, Alex was standing there, and he actually tucked him in.
Jesus.
Christ.
That made his heart skip in his chest.
Corbin was a mess, because he’d actually enjoyed someone taking care of him again, and he couldn’t fall down that rabbit hole of heartbreak.
It was a death sentence.
“You can use the spare blanket,” Alex said, covering his partner and then heading into the shower.
“Thanks,” he said wanting to desperately say more, but he didn’t.
When he was gone, Corbin laid there.
He was thinking about Will, and he was thinking about Alex.
Oh, he was thinking about a lot.
And he didn’t like it.
The similarities were way too familiar for his own good, and he wasn’t enjoying it.
Not.
At.
All.
Normally, Will was kept in a sacred space in his heart and head—allowing nothing to taint it.
It was like a temple, of sorts.
It wasn’t trampled on, or invaded, but now, he was struggling because the walls surrounding that sacred moment in his life were crumbling. Until now, he’d never felt anything about anyone else. Yeah, he had random sex, but that was just to get off. What he was feeling…it terrified him.
The man…he smelled like his husband, and he was kind like him too. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was attracted to his smile, and his boy-next-door good looks.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to him.
One of the things he loved most about Will had been his compassion and gentleness, but he’d always thought he was so goddamn handsome.
Now, the lines were being blurred.
Uncomfortably.
Those same traits were popping up in his partner, and he wasn’t sure why it was upsetting him so much. By now, he should be accustomed to being alone.
At first, when he’d met Alex, he got the opposite impression of the man. Alex came across like a tough investigator who buried his problems with sex and booze. That was opposite of what he found sexy.
As the two weeks progressed, with two cases under their belts, he was seeing a different side of the man, and that was the side he was worried about.
Alex was attractive to him, and that was all kinds of ridiculous.
Of course, the universe would make him feel something for a straight man, to torture him even more.
That he was even thinking about the man in that way was problematic. There was no room in his world for a relationship with anyone. He couldn’t get tangled up with a man, especially a non-gay man who was his partner.
It would be disastrous.
His partner didn’t even know he was gay. No one he worked with now at the FBI did, minus the Blackhawks.
This wasn’t going to work out.
Not.
At.
All.
He was going to have to do something drastic to avoid the feelings he had about the man.
Goddamn it, but this sucked.
Later, he was going to pull Elizabeth aside, and ask her to put him with someone else before he did something stupid like fall for a guy he couldn’t have, and who wouldn’t ever fit into his world thanks to his past.
Elizabeth had to save him from this.
Put him with Duke.
With Axl.
Hell!
Put him with the Devil himself.
Anyone but this man.
He didn’t like the feelings there, and he knew they would only be one-sided.
There was no point. He’d made a vow to Will about how he’d never love anyone but him. If anything, he had to keep that vow since he’d not kept Will safe.
As he listened to the water from the bathroom, since the door was left open, Corbin thought about the man he loved and lost.
“Will, I still miss you. When does this hurt stop?” he asked. “When will it end? It’s been more than fifteen years, and I still hurt.”
As usual, there was no reply, and instead of saying anything else, Corbin let sleep win.
He slipped under.
And like he had for the countless times, he prayed he’d simply not wake up alone.
Again.
* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *
The Cemetery
Monday
Afternoon
Well, that sucked.
Someone packed one hell of a punch.
The hit to her body sent her, and Ethan flying. Fortunately, she was able to move enough that she landed behind him, so he didn’t slam into the tombstone when they landed.
Oh, but she did.