Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Only think?”
A moment of confusion lingered in Archer’s hazy hazels before he seemed to recognize the teasing in Elton’s tone. And teased back. “You’re the one who said it first.”
He had, and in thirty-second retrospect, realized it was a silly qualification. But one worth teasing the delectable man beneath him over. He reached up and unbound Archer’s wrists, rubbing more blood flow back into them. “How do I get you to know?”
Playing the drama queen, Archer scrunched up his features and hmm’ed like it was the hardest question he’d ever been asked. In return for the sass, Elton used his tongue to smear come around his nipple. Which apparently gave Archer ideas. “Maybe wear the chain and clamps next time.”
Next time, when Elton could remove any qualifications around his future with this man who’d reentered his life and helped alter the course of it—for good, in every sense of the word.
Elton opened his mouth to ask if next time, if the future could start tomorrow, but then a high-pitch alarm cut through their peaceful post-orgasmic bubble.
Archer scrambled onto his knees and lunged for his discarded pants, digging in the pockets. “Shit.”
“What’s going on?”
“SOS from Ezra.” He yanked his phone out and silenced the alarm, but whatever he read on the screen chased away all the color in his face.
“What is it?”
Archer handed him the phone on the way to his feet, and Elton read the four-digit text.
1023.
Police on scene.
He scrambled to his feet, hustling to get dressed as fast as Archer, who was already halfway to the door in his pants and shoes.
Elton caught up in his pants, shoes, and unbuttoned dress shirt, and they ran up the pathway to the main house, cresting the hill just as the police cruiser killed its flashing lights, two officers climbing out of the car.
Elton grabbed Archer’s wrist and diverted him toward the patio. “We can’t rush up behind them,” he said. “That’s how one of us gets shot.”
Him, mostly likely, as a Black man and as the larger of the two. But mostly the first.
Maybe that’s what Archer realized too, not arguing in the slightest.
They entered the kitchen through the same patio door Noah had used earlier, and immediately, Elton could see from clear across the adjacent living room that the typically cool, calm chef was about two seconds from exploding.
His massive frame was puffed up and filling the doorway, partially blocking—and protecting—Ezra from whomever was on the other side.
In the living room, Rocky and James were calmly directing others toward the kitchen and out of view.
Like they’d been through this before.
“Officer Chakkut?” Archer asked them, like he’d been through this before too.
“Who else?” Rocky said with enough indignation to strip the paint off the walls.
Voices at the door grew louder, and Elton tugged Archer forward.
Until Archer tugged back.
Elton whipped his head around. “We need—”
“You don’t have to do this. He’s a local cop. We can handle him.”
“You shouldn’t have too.” Elton expected the fear that had kept him in the closet for half his life—and felt none of it. Only his usual confidence plus an extra boost courtesy of Archer Scott. “You’re on Ezra,” he said, moving them forward again. “I’ve got Noah.”
They approached carefully, Elton shuffling his feet and clearing his throat, making his presence known before laying a hand on Noah’s shoulder and shifting him enough to see the two officers on the other side of the threshold. “Is there a problem, officers?”
The uniformed one standing in front, a beanpole of a white man, barely spared him a glance. “We’ve had a complaint that this place is operating as a brothel.”
“A brothel?”
He finally deigned to look at him, and the chin-lifted glare was the textbook definition of haughty. “I can provide the legal definition.”
“I don’t need it.” He dug in his pocket for his keys and squeezed Noah’s shoulder, waiting for the big man’s gray eyes to swing toward him. “Can you go get my work wallet out of the Defender?” He waited for Noah’s nod, his understanding, then handed him the keys. “It’s in the glove compartment.”
Noah closed his fist around the keys, his protective instincts channeled for purpose, then shoved past Chakkut and the other uniformed man behind him, both officers tracking his movements.
Until Elton stepped into his place over the threshold and folded his arms, nearly as large a figure as Noah. “While people do live here, it is not kept for the purpose of prostitution. And no one here is exchanging sexual acts for compensation.”
Chakkut’s brows rose. “You know the law?”
“Why would you think I didn’t? Because I’m Black, or because I’m queer, or because my boyfriend and I are kinky?
” Chakkut wrinkled his nose, and Elton figured it was both racism and homophobia that made him look like he was smelling shit.
He wasn’t going to like what else Elton had to say.
“This is a party where adults are having a good time while having consensual sexual relations, none of them for money.”
Archer moved to his side and slid a hand into the groove at his lower back, claiming him for all the world, including Chakkut, to see. “Who reported us?”
“We don’t have to tell you that,” the other officer replied.
“Let me guess,” Ezra said from Archer’s other side. “Thompson or Hughes?”
Neither name meant a thing to Elton, but the latter meant something to Chakkut. “Hughes,” he said to Archer and Ezra, then with a jut of his chin toward the officer, added, “His eye twitched when I said his name.”
“He owns the property down the hill,” Archer said.
“He’s still pissed I outbid him for this one,” Ezra further explained, then began ticking off more reasons his neighbor was disgruntled, all of them unjustifiable.
“And I’m Jewish, queer, a New Yorker, and married better than him.
Twice.” He probably would’ve kept going if Chakkut, the idiot, hadn’t stepped forward.
“We demand to be let in.”
Elton matched him just as Noah rejoined them, sliding in between Archer and Ezra, the four of them a solid wall blocking entry. “Do you have a warrant?” Elton said.
No reply; not a surprise. Dirty cops doing the work of dirty people.
“I didn’t think so.” Elton shook his head, justice ill-served once again. “Get the fuck out of here.”
“You can’t talk to us like that.”
“On the contrary.” He held out his wallet, flashing his credentials and badge.
Chakkut’s partner had the good sense to know the game was up. “Fuck, Chak, let’s go.”
Chak, however, did not. “This is local, not federal.”
“Do you really want to go to war with me?” Elton replied, channeling Mel while drawing strength from the hand on his back and the community at his side.
“These are my friends and loved ones, and the fact that you showed up here, without a warrant, based on the word of someone who holds a grudge, says to me that if I took even an hour to look into your record, I’d find more instances of you harassing upstanding, law-abiding citizens who help fuel the economy of this county.
Do you want me to do that, Officer Chakkut? ”
By the time Elton finished his threat, the already chalky white man was practically a ghost. But still with his chin held high, an attitude Elton was all too familiar with these days. “Just keep the noise down.”
Chakkut and his partner took their sweet time leaving, but once their flashing lights finally faded, clapping broke out from inside the house and a champagne bottle popped from the direction of the kitchen.
Elton couldn’t help but smile, then wider when Noah clapped him on the back with a “Nice work,” and Ezra drew him into a hug, his “Thank you for keeping us safe” a little choked up and full of appreciation.
After a hug from Noah too, the husbands disappeared inside, leaving only him and Archer on the porch, just outside the door. Elton opened his arms, and Archer stepped into them, his bare chest warm against Elton’s. “You didn’t have to do that,” Archer said.
“It’s what the badge is supposed to be about. Protecting the vulnerable. Too many people have forgotten that these days.”
“I didn’t mean that.” He kissed his pec, then glanced up. “I meant coming out.”
A stuttered chuckle escaped his lips, disbelief and relief, something he’d feared for so long and in the moment had come so easily. “I guess I did.” He pressed his lips to Archer’s forehead. “Said something about a boyfriend too.”
Archer’s lips curved into a smile. “And loved ones.”
Elton dipped his face lower, wanting to taste his boyfriend’s smile, but kept the kiss light, the moment already heavy enough. He held Archer tighter, savoring the man and the future in his arms, relishing the quiet night, the breeze through the vineyard, and a mockingbird singing nearby.
Sweet relief.
They sighed. Together.