13. Zero
13
ZERO
T wo days had passed without making much progress on the Dr. Baasch front. Chase and Zero alternated surveillance methods, and thanks to Chase’s fancy new toys, Zero didn’t have to spend all his time sitting in his car watching the man outside his home.
It was just after eleven p.m., and Zero was busy scanning through surveillance video on his laptop—thanks to Chase’s new remote wireless setup—while Diesel and the guys were in the kitchen, setting up for a game of poker.
Zero had placed a hidden camera across the street from Dr. Baasch’s house so that he could monitor his activities from the comfort of the living room couch. Right now, there wasn’t much going on. The light to his bedroom was on, and he appeared to be getting ready for bed. Hopefully, that meant that Zero would be off duty soon.
In the kitchen, Jared laughed at something Diesel had said while Chase opened a bag of chips and poured them into a bowl.
He wondered how often they did this. Hang out together, shooting the shit. They seemed to be a close-knit group of friends.
Watching Diesel at the table, he seemed a lot more relaxed. His hoodie was down, and he barely seemed to check his phone.
Zero had started to notice that whenever Diesel was uncomfortable or didn’t like the situation, he raised his hoodie over his head and seemed to retreat into himself.
His hoodie seemed to be his safe place.
“Okay, I’ll deal,” Diesel announced, picking up the deck of cards and beginning to shuffle.
Someone’s phone rang.
“Oh, that’s Levi. I gotta take this,” Chase announced, grabbing his phone and jumping up from his seat. They all watched as Chase scurried off to the basement, presumably to have a private conversation with his fiancé.
“Guess it’s just you and me,” Diesel said with a nod to Jared.
“Guess so. Deal ’em.”
Zero watched as the two began playing, each doing their best to fuck over the other. It was nice seeing Diesel smiling so much. From what Zero had gathered, the two were best friends, having worked at their magic sex wonderland longer than most of the guys there.
When he wasn’t shooting daggers his way, Diesel didn’t seem like such a terrible guy. Perhaps they just got off on the wrong foot… or the wrong knee, in his case.
Diesel and Jared were just about to finish their first game when Jared’s phone dinged. The guy’s face lit up like it was Christmas morning.
“Isaac says he’s got a boner. Time for some sexy times!” Jared announced, all excited and jumping up from the table.
He started moving toward the basement door, then stopped. He must have just realized that sexy times in his bedroom would involve Chase sitting right next to him, FaceTiming with his own boyfriend.
Head swiveling back and forth, Jared looked like he was trying to complete complex math in his head.
“Umm, hope nobody needs to use the bathroom for the next… umm… forty-five minutes. Later, dudes,” Jared stammered, bounding up the stairs like a sex-starved inmate who just got out of prison.
“But… it’s your…” Diesel began, pointing toward the deck of cards, before watching his friend disappear up the stairs.
Zero couldn’t help but notice the wave of disappointment that spread across Diesel’s face. He stared at the remaining cards he held before placing them down on the table and raising his hoodie back over his head.
Silence fell across the kitchen.
Perhaps one of the guys would end their call early and rejoin their buddy at the table for some cards.
As the minutes ticked by, it became clear that no one was returning to their card game anytime soon.
Lifting his laptop, Zero headed into the kitchen to join Diesel and his abandoned card game.
“Mind if I join?”
Diesel lifted his head and groaned when he realized who the speaker was.
“Honestly, it’s getting kind of late. I’m just gonna head to bed. Help yourself to the snacks.” He picked up his beer, then headed up the stairs.
Even though the man could be a selfish prick, Zero still didn’t like seeing him so dejected. Something was going on.
On his laptop, nothing was happening. It looked like it was going to be another quiet night for the doc.
Somewhere above him, the haunting lyrics of “Bullets with Butterfly Wings” by the Smashing Pumpkins began to play.
Grabbing the bowl of chips and the remaining four-pack of beer from the fridge, Zero headed up the stairs to join his new housemate.
Knocking once, he turned the knob on the door and let himself into Diesel’s bedroom.
“Dude!” a pissed-off Diesel barked as Zero walked in uninvited.
“Calm your knickers. I just need some help with something.” He was lying through his teeth, but the angry wasp on the bed didn’t have to know that.
Diesel’s room was just as he would have imagined. Dirty clothes were thrown over every possible surface, with empty glasses and half-eaten bags of chips left on the floor next to the bed.
Ignore the mess . Ignore the mess.
“Still, you could have waited until I asked you to come in.”
“And would you have asked?”
“Probably not.”
“Okay, now that that’s cleared up, shove a butt.” Zero huffed, tapping a less pissed-off version of the angry wasp on the shoulder. Diesel slid over on his bed—but just barely enough to fit a bite-sized twink and perhaps his touch-up bag.
There was something fun and exciting about Diesel’s need to challenge everything. He never just did what he was told and always did things the hardest way possible. It was as if he needed to remind people that he had an opinion as well and that his views mattered.
Fine. Have it your way.
Deciding to teach the boy a lesson, Zero flopped down on the bed next to Diesel, his ass half sitting on the side of Diesel’s thigh while his shoulder pressed firmly against his chest.
“Well, this is cozy.” Zero leaned in toward Diesel and inhaled his scent. “Mmm, you smell good too. Like angry douche meets horse-hung stoner.”
He let out a chuckle when Diesel shoved him in his arm with the hand that wasn’t trapped under his body.
“Okay, okay. Geeze. You can’t even compliment a guy anymore these days.” The stubborn hornet shifted under his body. “Here, hold this.” Zero passed Diesel the bowl of chips and chilled cans of beer.
“You really came prepared,” Diesel noted in that sarcastic tone of his.
“Yeah, well, I figured this might take a while.” Shifting, he pressed his body further into Diesel’s, not totally disliking the feel of their bodies pressed up against each other’s.
Diesel’s body was lean—not gym muscle lean, but rather, keeping active lean. Without Diesel’s sweater on, it was much easier to feel the contours of his body pressed up against him. He could definitely understand why people would like to see him dancing onstage.
Settling down but still refusing to move over on the bed, Diesel looked over Zero’s shoulder at the laptop he was holding.
“Let’s get this over with, washed-up CK model,” Diesel huffed out.
“CK model? It’s because of my cut obliques, right? They would look killer in a Calvin Klein underwear ad.” Was it odd that he kind of liked the half-ass compliment he got from the guy?
Zero was poked in his side by the annoyed young wasp.
“Hey, I work hard for these cum gutters. You should see me when I’m in my bulking stage at the gym. I’m a total beast.”
Zero was proud of his body and all the hard work he put into it. He hated to admit it, but it was easier to pull scams when you were good-looking and in shape. People liked that you were giving them attention and just wanted to do whatever it was that you asked of them.
That was a sad truth about our society as a whole. If you were good-looking, the world was your oyster. Take a look at salespeople and bartenders. The good-looking ones always made much higher sales and received better tips.
Feeling Diesel’s breath on the back of his neck, his body began to tingle.
This was nice. This closeness and somewhat intimate connection. Plus, it wasn’t so bad verbally sparing with the angry little ray of sunshine currently squirming under his weight. Diesel adjusted himself, sinking his back into the man’s side and positioning the laptop so that they could both view the screen properly.
Zero could only imagine what they looked like. Two grown-ass men, both over six feet, pressed up against each other, balancing a laptop, beers and chips on a bed made for a daddy and two twinks at best.
“So, what do we got?” Diesel asked, appearing to have accepted his fate as Zero’s captive body pillow for the night.
Opening a folder, he pulled up some old video footage from last week and began going through some of Dr. Baasch's daily activities. There wasn’t much there, and Zero had already analyzed the footage, but hey, there was nothing wrong with a second pair of eyes taking a look. Plus, that wasn’t the purpose of this little impromptu “hang out and chill” session.
Sliding his finger across the laptop, Zero tried to ignore the warm breath gently blowing against his neck.
God, how long had it been since he cuddled up with someone? Probably ten years?
Not since he caught his ex-girlfriend shacking up with the neighbor down the hall. That had been one fucked-up encounter. He nearly tossed the asshole over the balcony but thought better of it at the last minute. His ass was too sexy to go to prison.
Ever since that bitch cut out his heart, he’d been anti-love and feelings ever since.
Still, it was nice to feel another warm body pressed up against his own. Even if it did belong to a selfish prick who only ever thought about himself.
As they worked through the footage, Diesel asked questions and provided some thoughts that were actually worth taking a look into. It was interesting to see how the man looked at things from a totally different perspective. He seemed to always want to know why things were occurring.
“Everyone does things for a reason. If you can understand the purpose behind someone’s actions, that might give you a clue as to their larger agenda. Take me as an example. When I was younger, I liked to take walks at night. It wasn’t because I loved the fresh air; it was because I needed to escape my stepfather’s home for a few hours. I hated being there, and going for a walk late at night also helped to avoid any arguments or judgments passed by the parental units.”
“Hmm, that’s an interesting point.”
“You said that the doc likes to go for a walk through Grand Park every night after dinner?” Diesel asked, his cheek just inches from Zero’s.
“Yeah, usually around nine before heading to bed at eleven.”
“He goes to Grand Park every night except for Thursdays, when he takes a walk through Allistair Park instead.” Zero nodded. “Why the change?”
Zero had always assumed it was because Allistair Park had street performers performing every Thursday night, but now Diesel had him wondering if his assumptions might be off. It might be worth taking another look into.
“Pass the chips,” Diesel asked, reaching across his body toward the bowl that was just out of his reach. Zero lifted the bowl and passed it to him.
“Night, D.” Jared’s voice boomed through the other side of the bedroom door, causing them both to jump.
They glanced at the time on the laptop. They had been at this for almost an hour. Where had the time gone?
“Night, Jare,” Diesel called back before settling back into his position as Zero’s human man-pillow.
Leaning into each other wasn’t feeling as awkward as it was when he first barged into Diesel’s room.
“You guys have been best buds for a while, huh?” Zero asked, not sure if he would receive an actual response.
“Yeah, he and I were some of the first guys to join Matteo’s cock palace .” Zero couldn’t help but chuckle-snort. “We’ve both been through some heavy shit, and it’s nice to have someone around who understands the crap going on inside your head. With Jare, there’s no judgment. He’s always there when I need him, and he reminds me when I’m being an ass.”
“So, he’s your Jiminy Cricket.”
“My what?” Diesel asked with a chuckle of his own.
“Your grasshopper. Your conscience. That little voice inside your head that tells you what you’re doing is asshole adjacent.”
“No, that little voice inside my head is usually telling me how worthless I am and that people are better off without me.”
Well, that wasn’t what he was expecting.
There was something cold and unsettling about the words that Diesel used. Did he really feel so worthless and think so little of himself?
It was in that moment that Zero realized he really didn’t know much about Diesel at all. Only what he did for a living and that he had a really nice dick. Perhaps there was more to the man trapped beneath him than a hot body and prickly attitude.
His eyes fell on the black watch that was strapped to Diesel’s wrist. The same watch that he never took off and was apparently his parting gift when he left for this trip. Now was probably not the right time to ask him about it. He needed to earn the man’s trust if he expected him to share his darkest secrets and perhaps open up about the demons of his past.
It was time for some lighter conversation. He opened a web browser and began searching for useless trending videos.
“You got to see this video. Pass the chips.”
They watched pointless, trash videos and demolished the last of their snacks over the next two hours. It was sometime after two a.m. when Zero finally slipped back into his own bedroom, leaving a drooling, tattooed stoner boy asleep in his bed.
Overall, the evening hadn’t been that painful to endure.