Chapter 7 #2
“Yes. I have to go back to work. My shift doesn’t end for another two hours.
But Evie and I had a good training class, and she was spectacular.
” He called her, and she came right up to him.
“I’ll see you in a little while.” He left the house, locking the door, and put Evie in the back of the car before letting dispatch know that they were back on the job.
Still, he was worried about Bazel and hated that he had to leave him, but he had to get back to work. At least he was in town, not far away, and Bazel had his phone. But… the guy was alone a lot of the time.
“Hey, Chris,” he said, making a call through the car.
“You at work?” she asked.
“Yeah. Would it be possible for you to stop by the house if you’re out and about? Just so Bazel isn’t alone all the time.”
“Sure. I’ll be passing through your neighborhood in an hour. I’ll stop in and make sure he’s okay and give him some company for a while. Did something happen?”
“Not really. But he got scared by some people outside the gate. It wasn’t anyone who tried to get in, but we have had someone break into the yard as well as the house.
We’re on it. But I know he’s scared. I have cameras, and half the police force is chasing this guy down, but I want Bazel to feel safe.
” That was his top priority at the moment.
“The guy has been through so much already.”
“I’ll stop by and see him.”
“Thank you.”
Chris cleared her throat. “I need to ask you something.”
“Okay. But I’m calling through my cruiser at work, and calls can be recorded.” He wasn’t sure if that was true, but he had the feeling that things were about to go off professionally related topics.
“Good point. I’ll call you later after you’re off shift.” She ended the call, and Atlas returned his attention to work as a call came in and he and Evie headed out to a house in the Alphabet streets.
“BAZEL,” ATLAS called as he came in the house. Music drew his attention, and he followed it through the house and out to the backyard. “There you are.” He wasn’t familiar with what he was hearing, but Bazel seemed to enjoy it.
“Chris was here, and she suggested I get music.” He turned it off. “She say it make me hear everything less. I keep low so I hear if important.” He hurried over. “What think?”
The backyard was a riot of color. “Where did you get the plants?”
“Chris bring for me.” He grinned.
She must have brought flats of annuals, because they filled the garden between the other plants.
“It looks beautiful. Thank you.” The yard had not looked this good since he first bought the house.
He had been indifferent to the yard and all the plantings.
It was a lot of work, and he didn’t have the energy or the expertise.
He had thought that if he just maintained the yard, everything would be okay.
Mow, pull some weeds, and all would be well.
The garden had quickly disabused him of that notion, and it had overwhelmed him fast.
“You really like it?” Bazel asked.
“I do. You did great, and I really appreciate it.”
“Knock, knock,” Chris said from outside the back gate. Atlas hurried over to unlock and open it. “I heard you guys out here.” She came in, and he closed and locked the gate once more. “Wow.”
“Bazel said you brought him some flowers.”
“Yeah. I got them for the house and never planted them, so I thought he might be able to use them.”
“How are others?”
“They’re doing better,” Chris told Bazel. “I think they are starting to settle in a little. I found someone to interpret for them, and she is teaching them some basic English.”
“What will happen to all of them?” Atlas asked. “Will they get sent back?”
Chris shrugged. “We will do our best to contact their families. My experience is about fifty-fifty. Some families are horrified at how they were treated and want them back. Others, not so much. Those who do have supportive families often return. Others we work with to help integrate them into the local community. But first we have to make sure they are all safe.” Chris turned to Bazel.
“Do you want me to contact your family? I can.”
“No,” he said softly. “They not forgive. They cannot.” He turned away, and Atlas went to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I bring shame to them, and they cannot forgive. It impossible. I have to find my way… here. Only choice.”
“Okay. Then I’ll help you. You’ll need to apply for asylum, but that is something that I can help with. I have helped shepherd a number of people through the process.”
“But will that be enough?”
Chris nodded. “The way he came here and how we found him will work in his favor. We can use the trafficking angle to get a visa based on hardship and persecution in his home country. I’ve done it before.”
“Okay. Thank you. I want very much to stay.” He smiled, and Atlas found his expression softening.
“Can we go inside?” Chris asked softly, and Atlas pointed to the back door.
Bazel began putting away his tools. “I make tea when I done.” He went back to work, and Atlas closed the back door behind them.
“I need to say this before he comes in,” Chris said as soon as the door closed. “You like him, I can tell. And you need to be careful.”
“Chris…,” Atlas growled.
“Don’t give me that. This is a man who has been through hell, and he needs friends and people to be kind to him. The last thing he needs is to be sexed up by the person who is supposed to look after him.”
“I’m not sexing him up,” Atlas hissed. “He’s told me things, and yes, Bazel is gay.
But I am not going to do anything with him.
He asked me, and I said that he needed to figure out who he was and what he wanted.
” He sat at the kitchen table. “He as good as invited me to his bed, and I turned him down. Does that seem like what you’re accusing me of? ”
“I’m not making accusations. I saw the way he looked at you and how you got all soft and gooey around him. When you look at me, you’re Atlas the cop, the alpha male who likes to be in charge and in control of everything. But when you look at him….”
“I what?”
“You look like a kid in the candy store, staring at the biggest, best candy bar in the history of mankind. Your eyes light up and you smile. You’re gentle and kind and not at all the asshole you can be if you have to.
The one that’s just below the surface right now. ” Her features were hard as granite.
“So you want me to be a dick to him?” Atlas asked.
She leaned forward. “No. I want you to be careful. Bazel has really captured your interest in a way I didn’t think was possible, and in most cases I’d say that was an amazing thing.
But as you said, he’s in a strange country, figuring things out, and he needs a chance to do that without a bunch of emotional drama coloring everything. ”
“It’s not,” Atlas protested.
She held his gaze in a stare-down to rival the ages. “What would you say if I told you that I found a more permanent location for Bazel and that he was going to leave tomorrow?”
Atlas bit his lower lip, refusing to look away from her.
“Just what I thought. The first words that came to your mind were ‘over my dead body.’ Weren’t they?
” She sat back. “I know you, Atlas. You’re one hell of a man, but you’ve kept parts of yourself locked away for a long time, and I think Bazel has slipped under those defenses of yours with the ease of a thief in the night.
And while I’m not saying that’s bad, you need to be careful.
Him having someone who cares is a tremendous thing.
But don’t delude yourself into thinking that this is the right kind of atmosphere for the two of you to meet, fall in love, and find some sort of happy ever after.
This isn’t a romance novel. His life has been a whirlwind, and the churning isn’t going to stop. So just give him and you a break.”
“I think I just said the exact same thing but with fewer words. He already asked, and I said what you just did.”
Chris nodded. “And what will you do when he asks a second or a third time? Because he will. You represent safety to him. You care, and he can feel it. That isn’t going to stop for him.
Are you strong enough to tell that beautiful man, with eyes as dark as the night and sparkling like stars whenever he sees you, no? ”
Atlas took a deep breath and then sighed softly. “What I think is that I will do what is best for him. That’s my job. So what I want isn’t important. And yes. I do not live my life ruled by my dick, and you know that.” He gave her one of those “so there” looks.
“This is different.”
“How so?”
It was her turn to hesitate. “Because you’re talking about sex, and I’m not just talking about that, but something much more complicated.”
He rolled his eyes. “I know. You think I’m falling in love.
” Atlas swallowed hard. “You know me. Sometimes I don’t think I’m capable of that.
Not really. If I let myself feel anything for someone, they turn out to be complete assholes and not worth my time.
My history in that department is complete crap. ”
Chris smiled as she opened the back door. “Maybe. But history isn’t always a good predictor of the future.”