Chapter 15
Four days, and I was still no closer to knowing what I should do with Tex. I wanted Tex under me at all times, but my wants weren’t exactly reality. I knew that more than anyone.
I blew out a puff of air as I leaned against a light pole across the street of the fourth bar Tex had been to. In the time we’d been apart, he hadn’t visited Blu once or shown up at my place. I know I told him to never come back but a part of me hoped he wouldn’t listen.
The night was nearly over, and the early morning was creeping up.
It was two forty-five, and the last bar was already emptying.
I kept my gaze fixed across the street, waiting for a certain cop to exit.
Four o’clock struck, and my stomach twisted.
The bouncer who’d been lounging outside went in.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was halfway across the street.
“Wait,” I said.
He stopped and glanced my way. “Sorry, we’re closed. Go drink at home.”
“Emerson, come here,” someone inside shouted.
“I’m not here to drink. I'm here to pick up my…” My what? Toy? My chest tightened, but the person inside called the bouncer again.
“I have to go. Maybe you missed whoever you’re looking for.” He attempted to close the door.
I cut the distance between us in two easy strides. With my hand on the door and foot on the ledge, I stopped it from closing.
“I highly doubt that.”
He blew out a breath. “It’s been a good night. Don’t fuck it up. Get out.” He stood taller and puffed out his chest.
If he thought he was intimidating me, that was hardly the case. If anything, it was annoying me. The more time he wasted stood between Tex and me.
“Emerson, I’ve been calling you. We have some guy passed out in the men’s bathroom again,” a woman said. She turned, and her green eyes widened.
“We’re closed. Sorry, come back tonight.” She popped a hand on her hip and looked at Emerson.
“I’ve been trying—”
“The man in the bathroom. I’m here to get him.”
Both of them turned to look my way. The burly bouncer’s gruff eyebrows dipped. “How would you know it’s who you’re looking for?”
“Did he text you or something?” the woman asked.
No. I wish he had.
“Black hair, blue eyes, chiseled jaw. His license number zero one two four four four six three one.”
She shrugged. “Fucking good enough for me. Come get him.” She turned on her heels but stopped just as the bouncer let me in.
“His tab.” She eyed me from head to toe.
I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know she’d picked out the designer clothes.
I bypassed my gun and pulled out a roll of money. “This should more than cover it. “
Her eyes widened only for a second before she took it. “Yeah, third door down that hall.” She pointed and I was already halfway across the small bar. Only two others were cleaning up. They glanced my way but paid me little attention, no doubt rushing to get out of there and back home.
I pushed the door open. Soft snores accompanied the hum of the lights above.
The floor was black and covered in unknown substances as I headed toward the last stall.
The door wasn’t locked as I pushed it open with my toe.
There on the floor next to the toilet was Tex.
His head hung between his arms, his back pressed against the wall.
The stench of alcohol had nothing to do with being in a bar and everything to do with Tex. The closer I got the stronger the smell wafted off of him. I didn’t want to touch anything here.
I kicked Tex’s foot. One of his legs slid down, jerking him awake.
“Uh, fuck off.” His words slurred as he leaned over. I caught him before he crashed to the floor.
The muscle in my jaw ticked with how hard I was holding it. “Get up, Tex.”
He groaned and attempted to wrestle free. “No.”
Now he wants to be difficult? I snatched up a handful of black hair and jerked his head back against the wall. “I wasn’t asking.”
Tex’s eyelids fluttered as if he was having a hard time opening them. He groaned as he slowly blinked. I was met with watery blue eyes that captured my soul the moment they focused on me.
His mouth turned down in a frown. “The fuck?” Tex’s gaze hardened the longer he looked up at me. I preferred the desire and fear in his eyes more, but I could work with anger.
“Why are you here?”
“Let’s go.”
Tex knocked my hand away, and his strands slipped through my fingers. He righted himself the best he could but was still leaning heavily to the right. A single breeze would knock him over.
A knock on the door interrupted us. “Hey, I want to go home. Hurry it up.”
Tex pushed himself up off the floor, every movement shaky at best.
“Hey, did you hear me?” A guy stuck his head into the stall.
I stood in front of Tex. “Get out.”
He took a step back. “Look, I just want to go home.”
“And you will, but if you keep coming back here, you won’t.”
He audibly swallowed before turning back around.
“Wow, you’re just an all-around gangster, huh?” Tex asked, laughing.
It sounded off as I turned back to face him. He was standing up, but he hadn’t moved off the wall.
“You knew that when you met me.”
His blue eyes focused on me. “Just like you knew who I was.”
It wasn’t a question, but I nodded all the same. His head fell forward, and his hair hid his eyes away from me.
“Tex...”
“Don’t you mean officer Caster?” He shook his head and lifted it once more. “You shouldn’t be here.” His eyes seemed to water as his teeth dug into his bottom lip.
I moved toward him and pulled it free. He was slow to react, raising his hand to knock mine away but this time I stayed unmoving. “I’m here.”
“You shouldn’t be. We’re enemies.”
When it came to public opinion or even Benito’s opinion, yes, we were. What did it say about me that I still wanted him? “Do you want me?”
Tex’s mouth opened, but he clamped it shut and shook his head. My chest felt as if a blade had pierced through me.
“I shouldn’t, but you make my fucking head hurt.”
Doesn’t he know he does the same to me? I pulled him toward me and draped his arm over my shoulder.
“You’re filthy.”
“Yeah, well, now I’m getting you dirty.” Tex leaned heavily against me as we moved out of the bathroom. I kept him upright to my car a block away. The walk seemed to have sobered him up slightly as he looked around once I had him seated in the car.
“Where are you taking me?”
I closed the door and rounded the car. Slipping behind the wheel, I still didn’t have an answer for him.
“Penelope has food?”
Tex nodded, his head bobbing before he grabbed it with both hands and groaned. “Bought those automatic feeders after my first overnight shift.”
I nodded and pulled off, merging into traffic. Even at nearly five in the morning, New York was bumper to bumper. I caught Tex shivering in the passenger seat and turned the heat on as we rode in silence.
Before I knew it, we were pulling up to my apartment. Tex had dozed off on the drive, and I was reluctant to wake him. Lines creased the corner of his eyes as he groaned in his sleep.
I parked in my reserved spot and turned the car off. We sat there for another minute before I woke him.
“Tex.”
He jumped, his eyes bugging out as he looked around. He slowly settled down once our eyes met.
“Come on.”
Tex didn’t argue as I helped him to my floor and into my place. He took a step toward the stairs, and I grabbed him before he could walk any further.
“What?”
“Clothes off,” I demanded.
Tex sighed as he yanked his shirt off and shoved his pants and boxer down his legs.
“Socks as well,” I said, pointing to them.
“Fuck, you’re so anal.” He crashed against the wall as he attempted to balance on one leg. He finally pulled them off and tossed them onto the pile.
“Do you need help showering?”
“No!”
“Go get cleaned up.”
Tex flipped me off but headed for the steps. I watched transfixed as his firm ass flexed with each step. That stupid tattoo was even pleasing to look at.
I shook my head and went about cleaning up before joining him upstairs. I showered in the guest bedroom, giving Tex some space, although all I wanted to do was go in there and chain him to my bed and tell him he was stuck with me now.
As appealing as that was, it wouldn’t be easy making a cop’s son disappear. There would be too many questions.
I headed for my bedroom and found Tex sitting on my bed with nothing but a towel around his waist. His upper body was on full display as he sat there staring at his hands.
“I tossed your clothes.”
“What the fuck for?” Tex growled.
“You were sitting on that disgusting floor.”
“That’s what washers and dryers are for.”
I shook my head, walking further into the room. “No amount of disinfecting could have gotten them clean enough to my liking.”
“What the hell do you do when you spill blood on your clothes?” Tex’s shoulders tensed as if he’d just realized what he’d asked.
The tension in the room thickened to a choking level, and I forced myself to continue to the closet. “I get rid of them.”
“What?” Tex turned on the bed as I stepped out with a black pair of sweats for him and my blue pajama bottoms. I tossed him the pants as I slipped mine on.
“Keeping them is like asking to be caught. There is a lot of evidence in DNA. Even if I were to clean them, would it be enough?”
Tex’s mouth hung open as he stared at me. “Are you seriously telling me this?”
I shrugged. “Put some pants on.” My gaze traveled from top to bottom of Tex. Heat swirled in the pit of my stomach, and my cock hardened. Even now, I want him.
“Or what?” Tex shot back.
My head tilted slightly to the right as I tried to understand if Tex was testing me on purpose or if he was trying to elicit some kind of reaction from me.
“I will fuck you until you can’t walk away from me ever again.”