Nothing Good (Gratuitous Violets #1)

19. Florida Man Yet Again Drugs, Robs Date

When Rainy was nearly finished with his soup and Adler was still picking at his full bowl, Adler’s phone rang and he stepped away to answer it.

“Had to assure Seong that I’m still alive,” he explained upon returning. “He don’t think much of you, by the way.”

“He should. I gave up a shitload of money by not killing you.”

“Sad. I didn’t kill you and still got paid. Perils of going freelance, I guess.”

“I hate you.”

Adler smirked. “No, you don’t.”

No, I don’t, Rainy thought.

“So,” he said. “Seong and Espinosa are working together now, at least tentatively. I think that means we need to renegotiate. Extend the terms of our truce.”

“Does it now?”

“Sure. If we’re going to be stuck working together on occasion, we might as well be friends.”

Adler let out that sharp, familiar rifle crack of laughter. “You wanna be friends.”

“With the most generous package of benefits.”

“There it is.” Adler rolled his eyes and started to shift away, but Rainy caught his arm. He turned it over and traced his finger up the blue stripe of vein from the delicate skin of Adler’s wrist to the IV bruise on the inside crease of his elbow.

“It would just be cruel to make me watch you prance around in your slutty little outfits without the knowledge that I can drag you into the nearest broom closet and take you out of them once you finish barking orders at everyone,” Rainy said.

Adler extricated his arm carefully. “What makes you think I’d even be interested now that it’s not breaking the rules anymore?”

Rainy faltered. In the past two weeks, he’d turned this thing between them over and over in his head a million different ways, but it had never occurred to him that, without the adrenaline rush of violence, Adler might be done with him. Now, it seemed… painfully obvious. The humiliating part was that he had never hesitated. The taboo thrill had been removed entirely, and Rainy had barely noticed. He was still as attracted to Adler as he had been the first moment he laid eyes on him.

He looked down to where Adler’s hand rested in his lap, removed from Rainy’s grip. Just the possibility of reaching out and reclaiming it was—not thrilling. Grounding. Steadying. It was the sense of calm he’d felt at the docks, kissing Adler despite the danger hanging over their heads. The first breath of peace, the delicate feather-tickle of hope. Let me keep it, he thought.

“Then I’d just keep trying to win you over,” he said. “I can be very persuasive.”

“So I recall. Maybe if I’m bored or drunk enough, it’ll even work.”

And then Adler made that expression that said he’d just won a game nobody else knew they’d been playing, and Rainy thought, Thank God, because until that moment, he hadn’t realized how afraid he’d been that he’d never see it again.

“I can work with either of those,” he said. “Just name a time and place, sweethea—”

He cut off with a wheeze when Adler drove an elbow into his stomach.

“What did I tell you about calling me that?”

Rainy smiled at him. Not a flirty grin, not a smirk—just a plain, sunny smile, because at the moment it felt hard to do anything but.

“Worth it,” he said.

Adler blinked at him, a surprised flush coloring his ears. His mouth fell open a fraction, then he snapped it closed and his eyes fell to his bowl. Rainy ducked his head to try to catch his gaze, and beamed at what he found there.

“You like me,” he accused.

“Are you for real right now?” Adler was frowning, but there was a dimple at the corner of his mouth.

“I’m onto you.” Rainy poked an interrogative finger at him. “Anyone else, you would have killed as soon as you got a clear shot. At the bar, on the roof, at the Rattrap. But you kept letting me go. Because you’re smitten with me.”

“Oh, fuck off. I just like to play with my food before I eat it.”

“Oh, no, you think I’m charming. ”

“Ha.”

“Adorable, then,” Rainy conceded.

“Delusional is what you are.”

“Deny it all you want, but you can’t fool me.” Rainy shook his head, something finally sliding into place. “Here I was, puzzling over what kind of weird mind games you were playing, having sex with me in a wine cellar instead of just killing me—and that’s all it was, wasn’t it? You just liked me.”

Adler was properly flushed now, whether from embarrassment or irritation Rainy couldn’t tell. “Your ego is truly astounding.”

“Just admit it. What was it? The pickup line? The pet name? My raw sexual magnetism alone?”

“I just figured I’d get it out of the way. I’m a practical man,” Adler said, reaching up to press his thumb against the corner of Rainy’s smile, “and that includes knowing my weaknesses. You are special, though. I’ve never met anyone else I was so equally attracted to and desperate to punch.”

Rainy laughed and held out a hand. “So, then, what do you say? Indefinite truce?”

Adler tipped his head and considered the proffered hand like the bones of Rainy’s fingers might hold hidden knives. Finally, he reached out and took it.

“Truce until further notice,” he conceded.

“I promise you won’t regret it.”

Adler’s mouth tightened. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

His gaze had gone so rapidly distant that Rainy felt like something precious had been pulled from his hands. The wear and tear of the past few weeks was painfully obvious again in the pallor of Adler’s skin and the hollows under his eyes.

“You know this business ain’t one you can make promises in. You can’t promise we won’t be at war again in a week. You can’t promise that in a month, you won’t be trying to kill me again. You know we can’t… keep them. So don’t.”

His face had taken on that strange quality Rainy recognized from their predawn heart-to-heart—the angles of his characteristic grimness softened, pensive and a little sad. It made something squeeze and flutter uncomfortably in Rainy’s chest. It was vulnerability. It was terrifying. Rainy wanted to pull a curtain shut around them to hide that look on Adler’s face from the rest of the world.

Where the frown lines on his face softened, youth collected and pooled. Rainy ached to reach up with a thumb and smooth it all away. He wondered again what it would have been like if they’d met in a different life, one where they didn’t lead the lives they did. Maybe he would have asked Adler out on a date, and Adler would’ve said yes. Maybe they would’ve fallen in love, gotten married, adopted two kids and lived in the suburbs.

But then they would’ve been different people, wouldn’t they?

Hesitantly, Rainy took Adler’s hand in both of his. He looked down, traced over the scars and freckles on his knuckles. He imagined them smooth and unblemished, but found the image didn’t suit.

“You’re right,” he said. “I can’t make many promises. And maybe it’s sad that this might be all we could ever have, but there is one promise I can be certain of, if you’ll promise the same to me.”

Adler half met his eyes, cautious. Rainy swallowed.

“No matter what happens, who does it or how, even if I’m the one who kills you, I won’t let you go alone. No matter what, on the day you die, I’ll be there to hold you.”

“That’s not a small promise,” Adler murmured.

“No.”

Adler looked down at where Rainy’s hands covered his. His lashes brushed the freckles on his cheekbones, and his hair was drying soft and wavy around his ears, and he was so lovely it hurt to look at him.

“If I ask you a question, will you answer it honestly?” he asked.

Nerves fluttered in Rainy’s stomach. “Okay.”

“If your Espinosa friend hadn’t cut in, would you have done it?”

Rainy didn’t need to ask what he meant. He could still feel the grip of the Colt in his hand, warm and slippery with blood. He could still see the tip of it pressed between Adler’s eyes, wavering slightly back and forth.

Like a metronome.

“No,” he whispered. “No, I don’t think so.”

Adler looked up at him, eyes dark enough to curl up and sleep in. “That’s the wrong answer.”

“I know,” Rainy said, and kissed him.

Adler sank into it. His lips were chapped but warm, and the hair at the nape of his neck was downy-soft under Rainy’s fingers. When he tried to push forward, Rainy kept it slow and languid. For once, there was no rush.

They made out pressed up against the kitchen counter until Rainy grabbed Adler by the waist and lifted him up onto it. He huffed with pain, but Rainy was already mouthing soothing kisses down the side of his neck. He sucked on the pulse point under Adler’s jaw and reveled in the feeling of him, close and warm and smelling of lemon soap and aftershave, with no ultimatum hanging over their heads.

“I was so glad when Marco told me you were okay,” he admitted into the secret space behind Adler’s ear. “Nobody drives me crazy like you do.”

“Mm.”

“With your stupid giraffe neck and your smart mouth and—”

He cut off with a yelp when Adler pinched him on the ass, hard. Adler laughed at him, sharp and cruel, and Rainy’s clothes were suddenly chafing and dragging everywhere. He curled his fingers into the waist of Adler’s sweatpants and tugged them down. Adler frowned at him, affronted.

“That’s disgusting. This is a kitchen; I prepare food here. Didn’t your parents teach you manners?”

“Didn’t the army teach you to shut up?” Rainy countered, and took Adler in hand. He was already flushed and hard, and his skin slid so smoothly under Rainy’s palm. Adler tilted his head back with a groan, already dripping precome.

Rainy laughed. “Two weeks with no conjugal visits allowed?”

“That’s prison, not the hospital, idiot.”

“Mm, am I hearing a little prison roleplay? What are you in for? No, let me guess—tax evasion?”

“I hate you so—”

Adler cut off with a hiss when Rainy bent down and sucked him into his mouth.

It had been a while since he’d given a blowjob, so he let himself play around with it. He stroked his tongue up and down the shaft, slid down slowly until the blunt head nudged his throat. Adler was long, and trying to take him in all the way made Rainy’s eyes water.

It was worth it when Adler’s hand came down to play with his hair, petting his bangs back. When his fingers found the stiffness of styling mousse, he paused.

“Got all dolled up to see me, huh?”

He gave a throaty chuckle, affectionate and condescending, and Rainy’s dick jumped in his pants. It was all he could do not to grind his hips against the cabinet for friction. He started to bob his head more eagerly, sucking Adler in deeper until his eyes were stinging and he could swallow around the tip. With each stroke, Adler rewarded him by absently trailing his fingers through his hair, teasing out the product until it was a mess.

He kept going until his throat felt raw and Adler was panting, his lip caught between his teeth and his head tipped up to the ceiling. Rainy pulled off a particularly masterful swirl of his tongue and saw the muscles in Adler’s stomach tense up.

Adler grunted in pain. “Fuck. Damn.”

“Relax,” Rainy murmured into the crease of his hip. He ran a soothing hand up Adler’s shirt. “Just sit back and relax, and I’ll take care of you.”

He ducked his head back down and kept going until Adler’s thighs were trembling under his hands and it became impossible to ignore his own desperate need for friction, for heat and movement and release. He pulled off with a wet slurp and found Adler already looking down at him with a strangely soft expression. His hand came down to cradle Rainy’s jaw, a calloused thumb swiping a drop of spit from his bottom lip.

“Should we move this to the bedroom?” Rainy asked.

Adler wrinkled his nose, rueful. “I don’t think you can fuck me tonight. My insides aren’t feeling particularly hospitable at the moment.”

“That’s not what I had in mind.” Rainy looked up through his lashes, the way he had when seducing Parish. But this time, it felt right. “I’ve been thinking about Parish’s.”

“Oh?”

“When he was inside me, all I could think about was you.”

“I know.” Adler’s voice was hoarse and dangerous.

“So, here’s my proposal: I take you to bed, and you lie back and relax while I ride you, and then I load you up with oxycodone and rub your shoulders until you fall asleep. How’s that sound?”

Not breaking eye contact, Adler slid off the counter. Without bothering to pull his pants up, he led Rainy out of the kitchen and down the hall.

The dogs followed in a clatter of claws on hardwood. They leaped up onto the bed and settled on the blanket, until Adler ordered, “Privacy,” and they both somberly retreated to the living room.

Adler sat on the bed and kicked off his sweatpants, but left his shirt on over the bandages. Rainy floundered out of his own shirt and fumbled at the zipper of his jeans until his dick was free of its denim prison and he groaned in relief. Adler reached for him, but Rainy swatted him away.

“Bedrest. Doctor’s orders.”

Adler glared at him but laid flat on the bed. Rainy crawled onto the duvet and submitted himself to Adler’s curious hands. They slid up the ridges of his abs to trace over his tattoos, coming to rest lightly on the patch of violets over his heart. The pressure sent a throb through the still-healing knife scar there, a line of pink new skin that cut through the flowers. Adler’s fingers were gentle now. Rainy tried to hide the stutter in his breath.

“Like what you see?” he asked.

“Eh. I’ve seen better.”

Before Rainy could protest, Adler slid his hands down to his ass and squeezed, earning a stutter of his hips.

Rainy fumbled for the nightstand, pushing aside the Glock to find a condom and lube. Adler raised his eyebrows.

“Snooping, were we?”

“Shut up.” Rainy struggled with the cap of the bottle until Adler took it from him and slicked up his own fingers.

“Scoot up,” he ordered, and Rainy obediently shuffled forward until his knees were on either side of Adler’s chest.

“Brace your hands on the headboard.”

“Fuck, okay, yeah.” Rainy tipped forward until his fingers were splayed on the cool, dark-lacquered oak, his elbows locked and triceps straining. Adler’s breath was hot on the inside of Rainy’s thigh. His tongue traced over the tattoo there, and Rainy shuddered.

Adler didn’t waste any time pushing one slippery finger up into him. Rainy hissed, a full-body clench rolling through him until he forced himself to relax. Adler worked him gently with that one finger, stroking until he was sighing and pushing back into it. He’d forgotten how good it felt to be the one filled up and fucked, letting himself surrender.

Adler added another finger, starting to stretch him open. Lazy flares of lust popped low in Rainy’s abdomen, little landslides that shook loose stones and tugged like gravity. Long fingers curled inside him, calloused pads finding his prostate and pressing in, rubbing hard. The first twitches of pleasure morphed into a spasm of it, a quake that grabbed Rainy by the hips and yanked him down into warmth and heat. He dropped his head down to rest on his shaking arms. Adler pressed another wet kiss against the tattoo on the inside of his thigh while his fingers kept working him.

Finally, Adler let his fingers slide out. Rainy felt himself clench around the loss. The slick of the lube felt cold in the empty air, tingling against the burning hot of his muscle. He pushed off the headboard and scrambled backward. In his haste, he jostled Adler’s bandaged stomach, earning a grunt of pain.

“Sorry, sorry.” Rainy hunted for the condom among the dunes of the rumpled duvet and ripped it open. He didn’t have the patience to be gentle as he rolled it onto Adler. “God, okay, are you ready?”

He positioned his hips, braced up on his knees, and lined them up. A burst of nerves flared in his stomach when the head of Adler’s cock nudged his entrance, but he swallowed hard and sank down.

Adler’s clever fingers had done their job, and he took it more easily than he’d expected, feeling himself stretch pleasantly as he lowered himself down. In fact, he took it a little too easily. Adler wasn’t particularly thick, and with the added weight of his hands on Rainy’s hips, he slid in fast. Rainy’s thighs were bent at an awkward angle, so he couldn’t slow himself as he slid all the way down until their hips were flush, letting out a startled gasp.

They were in the center of the bed, which meant there was nothing for him to hold on to except the sheets. He fisted his hands in them until his knuckles went white. What Adler lacked in girth, he made up for in length, and the pressure pushed so far inside so suddenly that Rainy was overwhelmed. He’d never been filled and stretched so deep before. It made him whine, the pleasure lapping up over his head and threatening to pull him under. He tried to focus on Adler’s thumbs rubbing soothing circles into his hip bones.

When he could marshal control of his limbs again, he flexed his thighs to rise up and sink back down, and groaned at the pure sensation of slide and push inside him. Adler’s eyes were locked on his, hazy and liquid. He bit down on his lip when Rainy moved his hips again, and that was all the encouragement Rainy needed to start gliding up and down in earnest. He watched every thrust play out on Adler’s face, each roll of his hips, and then he had to pause a moment because little spasms of sensation kept making him clench down and feel how tight they fit, how deep and slick, and he was going to come right now if he went too fast.

He found his rhythm, alternately riding hard and then languid. One hand stayed on Adler’s sternum to remind him not to clench his abs again and hurt himself. Rainy didn’t make it easy on him, though. He worked his hips until Adler was panting, until he brought a hand up to lace with Rainy’s, squeezing so tight that the small bones of Rainy’s hand popped.

Rainy thought of the dog tags hanging in the wardrobe and grinned.

“You like that, Sergeant?” he asked. “You going to teach me how to follow orders?”

Adler rolled his eyes, which Rainy found rather impressive considering how hard Rainy was riding him. “You’re doing it wrong.”

Rainy scoffed. “I’m doing it wrong? ”

“Yes, you’re doing it wrong.” Adler’s voice shifted, turning deeper and more authoritative. “Slow down. Take it deeper.”

Despite his irritation, Rainy found himself obeying, sinking down further until his stomach muscles jumped and a bead of sweat rolled between his shoulder blades.

“Good. Now, what do you say?”

“What? Yes?”

“Yes, what? ”

“Yes, sir,” Rainy bit out, annoyed.

“Good. But I want it slower.”

Rainy slowed the rocking of his hips. Adler raised an eyebrow and slapped him on the ass, hard.

“Yes, sir,” Rainy hissed. He was definitely not going to be turned on by this. He refused to be.

Adler made a lazy, approving noise that went straight to Rainy’s dick. He tilted his chin down, shamelessly watching where he slipped up into Rainy.

“Speed up,” he ordered.

Rainy ratcheted his hips and hissed, “Yes, sir,” and, fuck, he was turned on by it. His own neglected cock was throbbing now, precome beading at the tip, begging for friction. He ground down harder onto Adler, chasing the sharp tug of pleasure in his belly. “Fuck, God.”

“Did I give you permission to speak freely?”

“No, sir,” Rainy gasped. He was moving at a frantic pace now, plunging himself down with abandon, eyes screwed shut. He reached for himself, desperate for sensation.

“Hands off,” Adler’s voice told him sharply.

“Yes, sir,” Rainy whined.

There was a vibration under his thighs and against his palm where it was pressed to Adler’s sternum. When he opened his eyes, foggy with arousal, he found that Adler was laughing at him.

“ That’s how it’s done,” Adler said.

Rainy’s intense, tingling high was washed away in indignance. He swatted Adler on his still-clothed chest, drawing out a wince.

“Why do you have to be like this? You’re the worst fucking person I’ve ever met.”

Adler just batted his lashes. “I’m the worst fucking person you ever met, sir. ”

Okay, fine. Two could play at that game. Rainy set his jaw and moved his hips in a new rhythm. Adler’s lips parted involuntarily at the motion.

He reached for Rainy’s hips again, but Rainy grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the bed at his sides. Adler struggled, but they didn’t budge as Rainy kept working him, chasing each new rhythm based on the way it made Adler gasp and squeeze his eyes shut. He kept at it mercilessly until Adler’s nose scrunched in an expression endearingly reminiscent of his thinking face, and Rainy leaned in to kiss him and ordered him to come, and he did, gasping into Rainy’s mouth while he pulsed deep inside him in a way Rainy would be feeling for hours.

As his orgasm faded, Adler went loose and syrupy, brown hair rumpled on the bedspread and body lax, and Rainy desperately, desperately needed to come. He reached down and started stroking himself, thrusting back onto Adler’s cock before it could start to soften. He was right on the edge; it would only take a second to get himself off.

Adler’s hand closed around his wrist and pulled it away. Rainy whimpered in frustration.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” Adler said. “I just took my first real shower in weeks. I am not letting you come all over me.”

He grabbed Rainy by the hips and dragged him forward. Rainy protested as Adler slipped out of him, but he was appeased quickly when he was pulled up the bed until his knees framed Adler’s shoulders and his cock was buried in Adler’s mouth.

He braced his hands back on the headboard and fought the animal instinct to thrust into Adler’s throat as hard as he could. His mouth was so wet and hot and talented, just like it had been that night in the wine cellar, and the only thing missing was the way Rainy’s body was now clenching down around the empty space inside him. Then Adler’s fingers came up, slipped in and filled him and went straight for his prostate. The pleasure hit Rainy like a punch in the gut and he came with a shuddering gasp.

Instead of releasing, the white-hot wave of it seemed to crest and crest as Adler’s fingers kept working him through his orgasm, until Rainy was a shaking mess with his sweaty cheek pressed against the cool wood of the headboard, whimpering nonsense. Finally, the sensation settled evenly like fallen snow, and Adler let him go.

Rainy sprawled out on the sheets next to him, everything feeling melty and liquid. His bones and muscles had given way to warm honey. He lay there and let everything slowly swirl back into place, listening to the sound of Adler’s breath in the close air of the bedroom.

When he got his arms under control again, he propped one under his head to look at Adler, whose chin was tipped back. The tendons in his neck made strong lines from the soft crook of his jaw to his scarred collarbone, and his Adam’s apple stood out sharply.

“On a scale of one to ten,” Rainy started.

“Give me the fucking drugs.”

Laughing, Rainy tapped out two tablets from the bottle on the nightstand and passed them to Adler, who swallowed them dry. He dropped his head back onto the pillow with a grunt.

“I believe I promised you a shoulder rub.”

“Hmm.” Adler closed his eyes and wrinkled his nose.

Rainy laughed again, then hesitated a split second before leaning in to kiss him.

“I’ll be right back.” He hopped out of bed, wobbling a little as his legs deliberated over whether to support him.

In the bathroom, he found a washcloth and cleaned himself up. He sucked in a breath as the textured fabric dragged over his sensitive, swollen skin. Gleaming eyes regarded him from the living room, where Dolly and Martina reclined on their beds. Rainy grabbed a fresh washcloth and shuffled back toward the bedroom.

“I think your dogs might be perverts,” he said, ducking inside.

Adler was already asleep, limp as a rag doll on his back among the rumpled sheets. His head was tipped away from the light, mouth hanging slightly open and a bead of drool gathering at the corner of his lip.

“Jesus Christ,” Rainy said. “Why couldn’t you have knocked out this fast the first time I drugged you?”

He wiped Adler clean with the washcloth and manhandled him into his pants. Adler only snorted and twitched a little in his sleep. Gently, Rainy tugged his T-shirt down to cover his stomach and shook out the sheets and duvet, pulling them up to his neck.

He settled on the edge of the bed, admiring his work. He’d always thought Adler’s face looked softer in sleep, but here, in an old T-shirt and familiar, homey sheets, the effect was magnified. He looked so soft you could almost love him.

Rainy’s earlier thought had been wrong; Adler didn’t look younger this way, not exactly. He didn’t look like the picture of his younger self Rainy had seen, at least. Instead, it was that he looked gentled, softened by kindness. At peace.

Rainy wondered if, one day, he’d see that look on Adler’s face when they were both awake.

With a careful thumb, he swiped away the drool that was about to fall down Adler’s cheek. I watched over you while you were sleeping, he thought. It brought a sense of déjà vu so strong it made him reach up to touch his damaged ear just to make sure he hadn’t dreamed it all. The skin had healed back completely, smoothing the ragged edge of missing cartilage.

He was glad, he realized, that it was there. He was glad that there was a physical marker of the change in him since he and Adler had met, the way his magnetic poles had flipped. A mark on the outside to prove what had happened on the inside. An empty space where Adler had taken a bite out of him.

Adler twitched in his sleep, wrinkled his nose, and muttered. Rainy smoothed his hair back from his forehead.

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” he said.

He wasn’t really sure what the etiquette here was, but he didn’t think he should pump the man full of opioids and then leave him unmonitored. Also, he wasn’t in any particular hurry to clear out. He went to the living room and selected a random thriller from the shelf, then returned to bed with his prize. The dogs followed him and jumped up onto their blanket, and Rainy let them stay because he couldn’t really see any reason not to. He turned off all the lights except a floor lamp near the bed and settled in.

The book was, as expected, nothing special. But it kept him occupied as he sat propped against the pillows next to Adler, occasionally glancing over to watch him twitch and mumble in his sleep. By the time the alarm clock read one, Rainy was almost finished with the book. Next to him, Adler shuddered in his sleep and made a low noise. Rainy looked over, amused, only to find that Adler’s face was pinched, his chin jerking. His eyelashes were damp.

“Adler, hey.”

Adler’s leg darted out and struck him in the shin. The contact seemed to alarm him, and he started to roll away. Rainy dropped the book and leaned over to stop him, grasping him by both shoulders.

“Adler.”

He stirred, relaxing under Rainy’s hands and staring up at him, half-comprehending. His eyes were still glassy with the pain meds, pupils dilated.

“You were having a nightmare,” Rainy told him. “You’re okay.”

He sat back. Adler just blinked up at him, still looking confused. There was a pillow mark on his face. His eyes came to rest on the book in Rainy’s lap.

“Just wanted to keep an eye on you,” Rainy said, feeling awkward. “I can head out soon, if…”

“Stay,” Adler murmured, already falling back asleep. Except a heavy dose of painkillers and several layers of unconsciousness had turned his accent near-incomprehensibly molasses-thick, so it came out more as Shhttyyyy.

Rainy set his book aside and turned off the lamp. He sank beneath the covers into the soft and dark made warm by their shared body heat. The mattress was memory foam and the pillows were that awesome self-cooling kind. He wouldn’t have pegged Adler as someone willing to splurge on comfort, but maybe spending a few months in a dank Syrian jail cell made you more invested in good sleeping arrangements.

The minutes stretched. Each slow blink gathered the cottony dark in closer. When he was certain Adler was asleep, Rainy slipped his hand into the space between them and linked their fingers together.

He woke at five in the morning to the violent beeping of the alarm clock. Cursing, he threw an elbow over his eyes, but Adler just grumbled and rolled over, so he sat up and turned it off, then figured he might as well get up.

Fifteen minutes later, he was in love. He was in love with Adler’s coffee maker. It was shiny chrome and had all kinds of fancy settings and probably cost a million dollars. It made the most delicious coffee Rainy had ever had. He could have sworn there was a hint of cinnamon in it. It was so good that he made himself a second cup, and then a third for the road in a swiped travel mug.

The dogs were sitting by the door staring at him expectantly, so he shrugged and found a leash. He took them downstairs one at a time to do their business. When they came back inside, they went straight to a neatly organized mat near the kitchen with bowls and a tall canister of food, so Rainy gave them each a scoop and called it good. This pet ownership thing wasn’t so hard.

Once that was accomplished, he lingered in the kitchen. Adler was still dead to the world and probably would be for some time. Rainy wasn’t sure if he should leave a note or something. It was in that moment that he realized that he didn’t have Adler’s phone number. The thought was oddly jarring. He knew so little about Adler that he might as well have been a stranger, and, at the same time, he felt like he knew him better than he’d known anyone in years. He leaned against the counter, thoughtful.

Helping himself to the kitchen before dipping out was pretty typical fare for him after a one-night stand. Except it didn’t feel the same. Rainy was looking around this near-stranger’s apartment with the deep, comfortable certainty that he would be back. He would figure out a way to get back, even if he had to stand outside Adler’s window and throw pebbles.

The other unusual thing was that, this time, he was actually looking forward to going home. Before Malia had shown up yesterday, he’d bought an enormous haul of cat stuff from the pet store, and he was planning on spending the morning assembling the cat tree and then trying to lure Patoso inside for good.

He was looking forward to the day so much that he was whistling.

In the fridge, he found a carton of eggs and whipped up a scramble. He doused it in sriracha, because that was the only hot sauce Adler appeared to own, and covered it with an upside-down plate to keep it warm. Then he hunted down a pen and pad of sticky notes and stood poised over the island, considering what to write.

He found himself glancing consideringly at the coffee maker.

Twenty minutes later, he was in his car, working his way through pre-rush traffic. He had a message from Emilio on his phone, with a target’s name and a simple directive. Time to start proving to me that you can still keep a promise. Rainy forwarded it to Malia, along with the assurance that he’d be back to work tomorrow.

The next message was from his mother. He called back as he drove, but she didn’t pick up.

“Hey,” he said after the voicemail tone. “Sorry it’s been a while. I’m ready to talk about Thanksgiving now, though.”

He tipped his head back, feeling the warm breeze through his hair, and let out a breath.

“See, I was thinking, why stay in Miami at all? Why don’t I buy us all tickets to go somewhere for the weekend? Anywhere in the world you want to go; it’s my treat. Anyway, ah, call me back later. Love you.”

When he reached home, he ascended the stairs with his newest household acquisition cradled in his arms. Inside his apartment, which was so full of things that he nearly tripped on his way through the door, he nudged aside a stack of books and a standing mixer on the kitchen counter to make space for his new coffee maker.

It fit like a dream. He started to brew himself a celebratory cup.

In the now-empty spot on Adler’s counter, he’d left a note which read:

Now we’re even on the tires. Eggs not poisoned. Promise.

And then, after a telling space:

See you around.

In the bottom corner, he’d left his phone number.

Sipping his cinnamon-flavored coffee from a colorful homemade mug he’d found at a flea market, he crossed to the alcove by the door. In it, his mother’s bowl still stood, its treasured picture at the bottom. Miguel was half-covered by Rainy’s keys. Little Rafa beamed out into the future. Rainy wondered if it was possible to track with perfect accuracy the exact hour and minute and second he’d lost that. But the crack in his chest when he looked down at the photograph wasn’t only despair.

It felt a little bit like hope.

It certainly wouldn’t be today, or probably anytime soon. But one day, in the not-too-distant future, maybe Rainy would be ready to be Rafael again.

The feeling in his chest was still unfamiliar, but he was getting used to it. Rearranging himself around the weight of it. A fledgling hope, a tentative peace.

The stillness he felt when Adler was in his arms, smiling his whip-crack smile.

He wondered at that—that Adler could bring so much chaos and upheaval into his life and, at the same time, bring him peace for the first time in nearly a decade. Perhaps it wasn’t so strange, though. Rainy was a Miami kid, after all. He knew hurricanes. He knew that there were things in this world that could bring all the violence and destruction of God’s wrath, and also the small heart of peaceful tranquility at their center. Maybe Adler had dragged him through the wind and floods to bring him to the eye of the storm, where all was calm, if only for a moment.

Maybe if he played his cards right, he could stay there for a little while.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the second item he’d stolen from Adler’s apartment. The dog tags were cool in the palm of his hand. He squeezed them until they went warm, then let the chain slide through his fingers. They clinked into the bottom of the bowl.

Rainy looked at the name Adler, Nathaniel T. Jr., jumbled in next to his apartment keys and his childhood and a ticket stub from a basketball game he’d found in his pocket yesterday, and he smiled.

For the first time in a long time, it felt like the start of something.