by Peter Styles
“Yeah, quit your bullshit. I only told you where she was so you’d give it a rest. She’s not the only Nina Thurston in Gaton. You’re not going to be able to find her and even if you do, how are you going to get her to answer your questions. She doesn’t have any reason to talk to you if she doesn’t want to.”
“I’ll find her,” I assured him. “Don’t worry about that. And as far as why she would talk to me, I’ll just explain the situation.”
“You’re missing the point. You know damn well that you’re a civilian and that you shouldn’t be investigating anything. How are you going to use any of that in court?”
I thought for a little bit before I licked my lips and shrugged.
“Maybe if it weren’t a civilian who asked her?” I suggested. Case scoffed again, but I was too close to give up. “It’s not a little weird that she wasn’t ever deposed? It seems like a pretty big oversight. Maybe not such a crazy lead after all?” I asked, throwing his own words back at him.
Landon looked at me, skeptical as ever. Again, he said nothing for a long time. He shook his head occasionally as he sat there in silence, and I was just about to give up hope again when he rubbed his eyes and grabbed the bridge of his nose.
“Fine. Only so you don’t go all vigilante on poor Ms. Thurston.”
My face must have shown my relief at that, because no sooner than I realized I still had a prayer in all this, Case piped up again.
“Nope. Down.”
I felt blood start pooling in inconvenient places at that commanding tone, but Case continued.
“Don’t get your hopes up. We’ll see.”
6
The road between Gaton and Worthington is full of nothing. Fields spread out in all directions, flat and hot. As the crow flew, it took nearly a half hour to get there. The terrible traffic stretched the drive out, though, and we’d just passed our forty-fifth minute on the road. At first, Nico sat in the passenger seat, ramrod straight, like he was tensing for a fight. I stole a glance over at him, his full bottom lip pursed out as if attempting to seal his mouth shut. The first part of the drive was smooth sailing, but somehow, out of all these fields of nothing came hordes of cars. The road was suddenly choked with them. By that time, Nico was relaxed, leaning back in his seat, long legs spread wide, which was worse than tense silence. Apparently, once Nico got comfortable he started talking--more specifically--asking questions.
“You learn how to pin someone like that from the sheriff’s department? They teach that?”
“No, they teach that in the army.”
“You were in the army?” He asked.
“I was. The Army Rangers.”
“Why did you stop? The army, I mean.”
“I got shot.”
“Oh, shit.”
I couldn’t help laughing. Most of the time people tried to act like I hadn’t said anything at all out of the ordinary, like it was the most usual thing in the world to get shot with a sniper rifle.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too, at the time,” I answered.
“Where were you shot?”
“My back. Only reason I’m not dead is the flak jacket. Only managed to crack the vertebra. I was lucky.”
“Doesn’t sound like it…. So, when did you start with the sheriff’s department?”
“‘Bout six years ago,” I answered shortly. There was a truck in front of me trying to nudge itself into my lane, and I would have rather focused on that than answering questions.
We were getting close to the city limits now. Gaton was like a different planet compared to Worthington. It was a little rougher around the edges, but definitely had a more diverse make up. As a gay man in Texas, the benefits of that couldn’t be overstated. It was easier to find hookups, if you weren’t associated with the law.
Well… in theory anyway. After I’d gotten out of the army, I’d tried to have relationships, but they’d all been fucking disasters. As my last boyfriend had put it, ‘no one is ever going to be up to your standards, Landon.’ He wasn’t wrong. Maybe after too long on my own in the military, I’d gotten used to having things my way. But honestly, so what? That had been five years ago, and it was fine. Relationships just weren’t for me. Better not to waste time on something that was just going to end up in a letdown.
Still, my friends used to talk about all the wild shit they got up to in Gaton, but that wasn’t really my scene, either. I’d never really understood the point of casual sex. A lot of work for not enough pay off, if you asked me. And if I was being really honest, casual sex wasn’t ever going to give me what I wanted most from it.
As I navigated through the streets of Gaton, Nico kept talking.
“That’s… well, that explains a lot actually.”
“What do you mean?” I looked over again at Nico and caught him gnawing on his lip before I refocused on the road ahead of me.
“No, just, like, you really seem to know what you’re doing. Explains that whole shouting out orders thing you’ve got going on.” That didn’t seem like the whole answer.
“No, no. You don’t get to play twenty questions with me and then not tell the truth. What do you really mean?”
I could see Nico’s head turn toward me, watching.
“It was fucking hot,” he said bluntly. “If I’m honest.”
It was only years of training that kept me from slamming on the breaks. That wasn’t at all what the hell I was expecting him to say.
“What?” I blurted.
“You, pinning me to the ground like that, all in control and angry. It was hot. In the moment, I mean.”
I felt my cock fattening in my jeans from his description. It frustrated me how close that admission was to my own thoughts. Part of the reason I don’t go out with the boys and try to pick up any random guy and take him home to fuck him into the mattress. When I said I wanted more from sex than that, I wanted something close to what Nico was describing. No way in hell I was telling him that, though.
Nico said nothing else, and I let the silence sit. I was trying, more than anything to forget how hard I had come last night in the hot spray of my shower, remembering Nico’s panting breath and the grind of his plump ass against my crotch. I thought now about all that defiance mixed with those moments when he blushed or bit his lip or restrained himself.
My brain supplied a number of scenarios where all of that could be an advantage. I wasn’t blind. Nico Suarez was hot as hell, way too fucking young for me, and bound to be a wildcat in bed. Just my type. With the right motivation…my imagination was running away with me.
I put the car into park and looked over at him and met his eyes.
“Look, Suarez, there is absolutely nothing sexy about some punk taking a swing at you, all right? Whatever fuck fantasy you’re coming up with, or whatever you’re hoping is going to come out of that, squash it. No way in fucking hell that’s happening.”
I’d expected him to looked crushed or embarrassed or shocked or something. Instead, I watched his pink lips twist into a taunting smirk.
“Sure, papi. Whatever you say. That’s what you’d like to hear, right?”
Fuck. Goddamnit. Nico was a lot of things, but apparently, he wasn’t an idiot.
“I don’t want to hear a damn thing. Now, let’s get this wild goose chase over with.” I slammed the car door, walking down the street without looking back. After a few seconds, I heard quick footsteps behind me. I looked straight ahead until we arrived at the address.
It was inside a high rise, and I tried the door before realizing that it was locked and noticing the buzzers to the left. I located the right one and pressed the button. After a few minutes, a man’s voice answered.
“Yeah?”
“My name is Landon Case. I’m with the Worthington Sheriff’s Department. I have some questions for you about Nina Thurston. May I come up?”
“Do I have a choice?” the voice asked. I could hear the smart-mouthed tone. I rolled my eyes.
“For now.”
<
br /> “Ugh, fine. Whatever. I don’t have anything to hide.”
The line went dead, and the door buzzed for us to enter. I looked over at Nico, assessing.
“You should stay down here,” I said.
“Get fucked, Case,” he snapped. “Like hell I came all this way for you to go up there and play county mountie half-assed.” My brain was working overtime producing lots of distracting ways in which that kind of mouthiness could be dealt with. Images of pulling him over my knee and spanking his firm ass until it glowed flashed through. He needed the discipline, probably craved it, got hard thinking about it. But now wasn’t the time for that…. No time was the time for that.
He didn’t wait for me to step into the elevator first, instead, pushing himself inside and looking at me, just daring me to do something about it. And, I could have. Again, however, thoughts of hitting the emergency stop button and fucking my cock down his throat weren’t where my head needed to be right now.
Nina’s apartment was near the top floor, meaning I had plenty of time to stand awkwardly in this elevator with Nico. God, it was like him admitting that he liked that sort of shit made that part of myself that liked the same overtake the rest of my brain.
“All right, so here’s the deal,” I said, snapping orders. Anything to distract myself from my rebelling cock. “No speaking, no questions, no moving, no touching. You stay behind me. Got it?”
Nico cocked his head, arrogant smirk back in place. “Not exactly how I imagined it, but I’m flexible,” he considered.
“You little--” the elevator doors opened, and Nico slipped past me looking satisfied with himself. He paused though, waiting for me.
“After you, papi,” he gestured in front of him. Jesus. I was going to kill him. Or, kill myself. Or, this man. Someone. Anyone. I took a breath and stopped in the elevator doorway, meeting his dark brown eyes.
“I’m serious, Suarez. If what you’re saying is true, this could be dangerous. Listen to me.” My voice was low, firm, but nearly a whisper.
The victory slipped from Nico’s face and he nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do whatever you say,” he agreed. Finally. Thank fuck.
I stepped out into the hallway, Nico behind me. Once at the right door, I knocked, and a forty-something dude in a ratty t-shirt opened the door.
“Hi, Mr.…” I paused, looking at him, expectantly.
“Mr. Walker,” he supplied tersely. He seemed exasperated that we were here, but he didn’t seem nervous.
“Mr. Walker, we’re looking for Nina Thurston. Does she live here?”
Mr. Walker crossed his arms. “Why should I talk to you?” He asked.
I wanted to ask him why the hell he would have invited us up if he wasn’t going to cooperate, but that wasn’t going to get us what we wanted, what Nico needed.
“Well,” I said, putting my hands on my waist. “Way I see it, you can tell me now and we can go from there or I can come back later with a warrant from a Gaton magistrate and you can do it cuffed to a table. Which one you going with? It doesn’t make a bit of difference to me.”
Mr. Walker deflated, his shoulders slouching. “Look, I don’t want any trouble,” he said looking at me and over, presumably at Nico.
“Well, then, start talking, all right? We’re just trying to find Nina.”
“Nina was the person who lived here before me. I still get some of her mail sometimes. I moved in about two weeks ago, and the landlord said she’d moved out about a week before I came. Broke her lease and just up and left. That’s all I know, okay?”
I shot him a hard look for a few moments, studying him. Still, I didn’t see anything to make me think he was lying. A quick call to the leasing office would confirm what he was saying or tell me if he was.
“No idea where she went?” I asked.
“I don’t know, man. I think somewhere west, from what the landlord said. Warton County somewhere, maybe? I wasn’t asking many questions. I got a hell of a deal when she left.”
I thanked him for his time and pulled to the side so Nico could walk beside me.
“Well, that’s a dead end,” I said.
“Three weeks ago,” Nico responded, shaking his head. “That’s convenient timing. Why would she write a letter and move?”
What Nico was doing right then was breaking one of the first things they teach you in terms of investigation in the academy. You have to be careful to not see things just because you desperately want to see things. That kind of wishful thinking leads you to bark up all kinds of wrong tress and can really burn you out with disappointment. There’s lots of reasons why somebody might have ‘written a letter then moved,’ as Nico was putting it. New job, new boyfriend, lost her job, lost her boyfriend, the letter might have had absolutely nothing to do with her decision. Anyway, I had no business going to Warton in the first place. I wasn’t supposed to be following leads on this case at all, let alone to a county where the local officers got touchy when folks from my department did have a reason to be investigating there. On the other hand, I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t feel a tickle at the bottom of my gut that suggested that maybe there was something to her leaving so suddenly. More than anything, I think it was the fact she’d broken the lease that made it seem like maybe Nico was onto something.
Regardless, I wasn’t looking forward to the tantrum that I assume Nico was going to throw once he realized we weren’t going anywhere but I also wasn’t trying to start an argument about his amateur-detective skills, either.
“You might have a point,” I finally settled on saying as noncommittally as I could. I figured the longer I could drive before he realized we weren’t going, the better. “Maybe.”
7
“We’re not going to Warton,” Case declared when I asked why weren’t dead anywhere towards Warton.
“What? You said yourself that I had a point about Nina breaking her lease before she wrote the letter! If I had a point, why aren’t we going? Like, what’s your problem now?” I asked, confusedly.
“My problem is that I don’t work in Warton. This is already iffy to begin with in my own county, in my jurisdiction. Warton is not in my jurisdiction. So, we’re not going,” Case explained.
It didn’t help my annoyance that Case was explaining his reasoning as though he were talking to a five-year-old. On top of that, he was both acknowledging that I was right in thinking that we weren’t at a dead end, he was just refusing to move his ass to investigate that dead end. Well, that was fine. Fucking frustrating but fine. If I was learning anything on this trip, it was that sometimes Landon Case could be persuaded into moving his lines in the sand, and, maybe, maybe, I didn’t mind running into his hard lines as much as I might have thought. Regardless, we were going to have to talk about it before we got in the car and he picked a direction.
“If it’s true that I have a point about Nina moving, then why wouldn’t we go to Warton after her?” I said, taking the opportunity that we had to stop for gas.
As soon as I said anything, Case was back to being a hardass and wasn’t shy about showing how frustrated he was with my question. Regardless, the drive to Gaton had taught me a thing or two about how to approach things with Case if I wanted them done, and I was willing to see it through if it meant getting my way.
“How did I know that you were going to fight me on this?”
“I don’t know,” I shot back. “I’ve been fighting you on everything else, so, why didn’t you know? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it?”
“Mostly, I’m going to tell you that Warton might as well be fifty thousand miles away for all the good it does us because Warton is out of my jurisdiction. End of story.”
“Oh. Yeah. Warton is out of your jurisdiction…” I left trailed off, leaving the statement sort of hanging there.
Case sat there in silence for a while. We both did. Eventually, though, he couldn’t avoid answering any more.
“What? Yes, it’s outside of my jurisdiction. It’s
obvious you want to say something about it, so just say it and be done with it.”
“Well, it seems like you haven’t cared about anything like jurisdictions up until now….” I said, again, kind of trailing off.
Case wrinkled his eyebrows together, like he was trying to decide whether he was angry or not.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to be going along with this, and you know it. I think that’s why you were so stubborn about coming, and I sure as shit know that this goes a little beyond your average ride-along.” I shrugged suggestively as I finished my statement. “You’ve been angry about it, but you haven’t really minded, or you wouldn’t be here. If your boss is anything like you describe—you know, not caring about keeping innocent men in prison and all— it doesn’t seem like he’d like the fact that you were out here with me.”
Case crossed his arms at that and apparently decided that all of this did make him angry.
“You know, Suarez, if I didn’t know better, I’d think that you were threatening me.” Case locked eyes with me and raised both eyebrows as if he was daring me to admit that I was casually dropping a threat to that promotion of his. He even stepped a little bit closer, emphasizing how tall he was in comparison to me. “But you’re not. Threatening me, that is,” he said, sarcastically, like he’d never believe that of me, even though that was clearly what we were both talking about. “Are you? Suarez?” He finished, cocking his head at me.
For a split second, I thought things were about go very differently than they did. Case had reached out an arm and had curled it around my bicep. Instead of anything that I had anticipated, however, he instead, just yanked me up to my feet until I was standing straight and then pulled me even closer until he was looming over me.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Suarez. I know exactly what you want, and I know exactly what you think you’re doing to try to get it. This, though?” He punctuated the question by letting his eyes run up and down me. “All that just now? That’s not going to work. All your little threats are nothing because, if you tried to get me in trouble over this, I’m going to explain to the sheriff that I was investigating a lead, which is what I am doing, and I’m going to come out smelling like roses.” Case paused to shrug. “Sure, he might not love it, but, ultimately, I’m just going to be a good cop trying to do a good job even when it meant doing some punk a favor. So, let’s just cut that shit out because it doesn’t get you anywhere. Second of all, the other thing you’re trying? This whole papi thing? Well, you sure must think very highly of yourself, but I can promise it’s as dead an end as the first thing you tried.”