Taking It Slow (Code of Honor Book 4)

by Reese Knightley

  “We have a warrant for your arrest, Captain.” The cop looked sorry as hell.

  What the fuck? “The hell you do,” he snarled. If Spencer said he didn’t keep a weapon at his parents’ house, then he didn’t keep a weapon there.

  “Liam.” Spencer put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. Do me a favor. Keep Wesley safe for me.”

  “What’s this about?” he snarled at the cop closest to them and the man wisely backed away, his hand on the butt of his holstered weapon.

  “It’s probably just more questions.” Spencer looked back toward the house.

  “Give him a chance to say goodbye to his brother,” Liam said tightly.

  “I’m sorry, sir.” The cop snapped cuffs on Spencer’s wrists behind his back. “His brother can come to the station.”

  “Keep Wesley away from this, Liam.” Spencer’s eyes were dead and his lips firm. “Promise me.”

  “I promise.” He held Spencer’s gaze.

  Another car pulled into the driveway, this was a luxury vehicle, and he growled with frustration when it came to a stop. The driver wearing a cap stepped out and opened the back door. His ex-wife stepped out dressed in a slinky, bright red dress. She stepped forward with an exaggerated sway of her hips and sniffed at the cops in the driveway.

  “Consorting with the help, Liam?”

  “Don’t be catty, Marly. You used to be nice,” he snapped.

  She turned as red as her dress and gave a scathing glare at Spencer and then a waspish smile. “I’ll take care of him,” she taunted with a throaty purr and sashayed closer.

  Spencer threw him a hurt look that gutted him.

  “Don’t worry,” he called to Spencer as the cops guided him around his ex-wife.

  Liam gnashed his teeth and watched as Spencer was loaded into the car and the cops left his driveway.

  “Are you going to invite me in?”

  He turned on her. “No, I’m not. You better hope Spencer didn’t take your little charade personally.”

  “So what if he did?” she said, looking bored.

  “I’m done being nice. Don’t come here again without calling first.”

  He could only imagine what Spencer was thinking. Fuck!

  “Liam!” She stamped her foot.

  “Jason?” He ignored her manipulation. He would have caved a month ago, but not now.

  “Yes, sir?” The guard stepped up.

  “See that these people leave my property immediately. They are no longer welcome here.” All sense of decorum gone, he didn’t have time for her bullshit.

  “Yes, sir.” Jason turned on the driver and Marly.

  Liam didn’t wait, he hurried back into the house. Pulling his cell phone out, he called one of the world’s top attorneys.

  “Branson,” his best friend’s deep voice rang over the line.

  “Ryan?”

  “Liam?”

  “I need your help.”

  “Name it.”

  In a few moments, Ryan Branson assured him he’d take Spencer’s case and call him back ASAP.

  Liam called Maddox next. “Are you with the unit?”

  “Not all of them. River, Dillon, and Zane. Why?”

  Liam filled Maddox in on what he knew.

  “Fuck. What do you need?”

  “Just stay where you are,” he advised. “I have my attorney on it. I’ll call you with an update.”

  “Will do.”

  He ended the call.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Spencer?”

  He closed his eyes and turned to Wesley. “Come sit down.”

  Liam

  For three long hours, he waited.

  He’d calmed Wesley down enough for the boy to take a nap in one of the loungers beneath the awning at the back of the house.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Adam asked from the chair beside him.

  “Yeah,” he said, but he didn’t really know.

  “He’s not going back to that house, is he?”

  “No,” he told his cousin gruffly.

  “Good. He fucking hates it there.”

  “Watch your language.”

  “Sorry, but he was dying there. It was sucking the life out of him.” Adam sounded so much like his mother that it brought a smile to his lips, but hurt his heart.

  “His mother was killed. Wesley will stay with Spencer now,” he promised his young cousin.

  The doorbell rang and then someone laid hard on the bell. A few moments later, he heard voices. That of Anna and then Logan’s deep voice brought a lump to his throat.

  “Liam?”

  He stood and walked into Logan’s outstretched arms and hung on for a long moment.

  “Why are you here? How did you find out?” He hadn’t called Logan because he didn’t want his brother fretting. Logan had enough on his plate with running the offices in both California and Colorado.

  “Zane told Diesel, who called Elijah, who called me. I used the family jet.”

  He’d forgotten how closely Infinity was linked, but fuck if he wasn’t grateful. He huffed out a choked laugh, but it came out closer to a sob. He clenched his teeth.

  Adam jumped to his feet. When he drew back from Logan, Adam ran into Logan’s arms.

  “Go order some pizza and give us a few minutes, okay?” Logan told Adam after a long squeeze.

  “Wait, they just had pizza last weekend.” He didn’t let them order pie but once a month.

  “So?” Logan squinted at him.

  Liam gave up and nodded to Adam, who whooped and ran over to wake up Wesley.

  Logan drew him into his arms again and held him tightly. After a long moment, his brother eased him back to arm’s length.

  “Where can we talk?”

  Since the teenagers were now inside, Liam stepped off the patio and walked toward the pool. He stood there with Logan at his side for a long time.

  “Talk to me. You’re scaring me.” Logan took his arm and guided him to one of the glass patio tables and he sank down into the chair with Logan sitting next to him.

  “How much did Elijah tell you?”

  “He only knew that Spencer was arrested.”

  “He was,” Liam said and filled in Logan about the missing gun, the mother’s murder, and the boyfriend being shot.

  “We’re lovers,” he concluded, turning to gaze at Logan. “I love him. I had to do something.”

  “It’ll be okay. None of this is your fault.”

  He shook his head. “I called Ryan,” he said and guilt welled up. “That was almost four hours ago and I’m still waiting.”

  Logan frowned at him and pulled out his cell phone. His brother’s fingers flew over the keypad before he placed it on the table.

  “So, you and Spencer…” Logan smiled, easing back in the chair.

  “Yeah.” He couldn’t smile back even though Spencer made him so damned happy.

  “We’ll have him out in no time.”

  “Logan.”

  “What?”

  “I have to be careful about how I approach this.”

  “Why?”

  Swearing his brother to secrecy, he told his twin of Spencer’s history and of his assurance that he would never use his money to buy Spencer.

  “Hiring an attorney could fuck it all up,” he admitted.

  “This is different,” Logan disagreed. “This is to protect him.”

  “He won’t see it that way.”

  “Let’s see what Ryan says. If Spencer refuses your attorney, then we’ll worry about what to do next.” Logan fired off another text.

  “All right.”

  It was another five texts and forty-five minutes before Ryan finally called back. And the call came to Logan’s phone instead of his.

  Logan put it on speaker before he answered the call.

  “Damn, Cobalt, can’t you cool your jets for two damn seconds?” Ryan bitched, his voice coming over the speaker.

  Logan laughed. “Nope.”

  “Prick.”


  “Love you too,” Logan told one of their oldest and dearest friends. From the speaker came the sound of a baby crying in the background.

  “Hold on, you ass,” Ryan said and then they heard his voice softly cooing to the baby before a masculine voice drifted over the line.

  “Come here, baby girl, while daddy talks foul language to your uncle Liam and Logan.”

  “Hi, Matt!” Liam called out to Ryan’s brother.

  “Hi, Liam. Love you!” Matt called back.

  There was a shuffle and a door closed, and then Ryan was back on the phone.

  “How’s the baby?” he asked before Ryan could speak.

  “She’s beautiful. Matt is helping me with her until I find a nanny.”

  “That’s great, Ryan.”

  “So, I got the story on your man,” Ryan said.

  “You saw him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Spencer told me he doesn’t have a weapon at the house, nor do his parents or little brother,” Liam cut in.

  “This isn’t about the incident at the house,” Ryan responded.

  “What?” His heart stopped along with his breathing.

  “Spencer was arrested on assault charges.”

  “Assault?” he said numbly.

  “Yes, he was in an altercation in the parking lot outside of the base.”

  “Altercation?” He sounded like a fucking robot.

  “Yeah. One of the CPS workers assigned to Wesley said that he went by the base to update Spencer on Wesley’s case when Spencer attacked him.”

  “That’s a damned lie! Spencer wouldn’t do that,” he snapped.

  “Spencer told me that this Donald Wheeler attacked him first,” Ryan agreed.

  “Were there witnesses?”

  “Several.”

  “Can you get him out?”

  “Bail hearing is set for tomorrow.”

  “Ryan?” Liam said thickly.

  “Yeah?”

  “Did Spencer accept you defending him?”

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t he?”

  “Did you tell him who you were? He doesn’t think you are the city’s appointed attorney, does he?”

  “Um, no. Not after he asked me who the hell I was and who the hell had sent me,” Ryan chuckled.

  Liam so wanted to know if Spencer had been pissed, but figured he’d find that out when he next saw the man.

  That would be tomorrow when Spencer came to pick up Wesley. If he ruined things between them, then he could at least know Spencer would be a free man.

  It was worth it.

  Wasn’t it?

  Spencer

  The bench was hard and pressed into his back, and he closed his eyes, draping an arm over his face, but all he could see was Liam.

  Liam stretched over him making love, shoving so deep he’d come without touching himself. Liam wet in the shower as Spencer trailed kisses down Liam’s spine until he was open and pressed his dick between the man’s cheeks.

  Fuck. If he didn’t love Liam so much, he’d be mad. Love? Who would have thought? He certainly wouldn’t have. Liam had wormed his way into his heart from their very first meeting, way before he’d fucked it up and Liam had asked him to be friends.

  They’d been skirting around each other for two years. Spencer had been aware of Liam like no other man he’d met before. Of course, with Liam being a colonel, that had put a damper on his fantasies. But when he found out Liam Cobalt was a billionaire, it had ended his interest.

  Bullshit.

  He sighed and vividly remembered the first time they’d met more than in passing.

  He’d been invited to join some of his buddies at the local military bar and he’d arrived to find Liam there, dressed in civilian clothes, nursing a beer. He couldn’t quite remember how it happened, but he’d gotten into a discussion about the latest Denzel Washington movie with Liam and they’d really hit it off.

  A few hours later, he’d discovered that Liam Cobalt was the co-owner of Cobalt Industries, and that had pretty much crushed his dreams.

  In order to escape the wealthy man, Spencer had headed to the latrine. Washing his hands, he’d come back out the door and found Liam in the hallway.

  He gave the colonel a quick smile and went to move past when his way was blocked. Liam’s hands were on him, sliding through his hair, and Spencer’s back was against the wall, their mouths were pressed hard, hot and open, clinging to each other until he’d needed air.

  After a moment, he’d shoved Liam away and glared. “No. I don’t want this.”

  Spinning back toward the main part of the bar, he’d left a stunned and disappointed Liam behind.

  It gutted him, but back then he’d thought it for the best.

  Then Christmas time in Crumpet had happened and Liam had made another pass. Just as his hands were fisting in Liam’s shirt to drag him closer and deepen the kiss, Spencer had put the brakes on.

  He and Liam came from completely different worlds. No fucking way was he going to let a rich man control him ever again. That time, he’d shut Liam down so hard it left a bitter taste in his mouth after such a sweet kiss.

  “This can’t happen again,” he’d growled.

  “You’re driving me fucking crazy.” Liam’s voice had sounded harsh.

  He’d glared at Liam with a hot retort on his lips, but he’d been prevented from responding with the sudden appearance of Elijah and Justin.

  Spencer had taken the easy way out and booked it the hell out of there.

  He’d been completely taken aback when Liam suggested they be friends. Spencer finally admitted to himself that it was the opening he’d been waiting for. He’d put the brakes on and then pined for the guy. He knew it had been only a matter of time before he sought the man out and that email had been his opening.

  He snorted. How the hell he’d thought he could stay away from Liam was beyond him. Self-denial was the fucking worst, he thought with a groan.

  Yet, could he live with Liam’s wealth? Could he accept that even now, Liam had sent one of the world’s best attorneys to his defense? God knows how much that would cost.

  They were lovers, so had the line become blurred? Would Liam have done this for him if they weren’t lovers? In the next instance, he realized that yes, Liam would have.

  Liam was a man worth loving, and sometime between that military bar so long ago and now, he’d fallen in love.

  Sweet hell. What was he going to do? See, that was the problem. Liam would do stuff like send an attorney that he couldn’t afford and he’d spend hours trying to figure out how the hell he was going to cover the cost of the attorney. Spencer figured with this guy Ryan defending him, he’d get out of jail more quickly. Fuck it. He could worry about the cost later. That was what Liam didn’t realize. Spencer would worry about the cost, something Liam had no concept of.

  He’d have words with Liam when he got out of there. This was just the thing he had feared.

  And why the fuck was Liam’s ex-wife showing up at his house like she owned the place? That was another thing they’d need to talk about.

  He scowled. Today had been the first time he could ever remember that he deliberately hadn’t said goodbye to Wesley and it still sat like lead in his chest.

  “Spencer Turner.”

  He lowered his arm and sat up. A man he didn’t know wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and striped tie stood outside of his cell door. Spencer frowned. Ryan had said the arraignment wasn’t until the morning.

  “Yes?”

  The guard standing next to the suit reached out and unlocked his cell door. Keys smacked metal and jangled as the door was opened.

  “Come with me please,” Suit said.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Stand up.” The guard stepped past the man and came scowling toward him.

  Spencer stood and held his wrists out. The guard clamped the cuffs on tighter than they needed to be, but Spencer kept his expression neutral.

  He was taken th
rough the lower hall of the county jail, out into the parking structure, and loaded in the back seat of a black SUV. A big, beefy man got in next to him and the suit got into the front. There was another suit behind the wheel.

  Wow. Liam really had some connections. Was he not even going to be charged? Did the Cobalts have that much power and pull? He didn’t know, but it didn’t surprise him either.

  “Where are you taking me?” He thought he better play along.

  “Be quiet,” the suit sitting in the front passenger seat told him.

  The SUV sped through the dark, wet streets of the city and then onto the freeway. He kept track of where they were, but made sure not to overly gaze around. This wasn’t the way to Liam’s estate.

  His leg bounced when the SUV took the exit to a nearby city. Once off the freeway, the vehicle pulled over.

  Before he could react, a cloth hood was pulled over his head. He lifted his cuffed hands and hit the guard next to him square in the face. The man grunted with a low cry and then a fist connected to his temple.

  “For fuck’s sake, Clifford, get a handle on this right now!” the driver snapped.

  Clifford slugged him hard in the ribs and shoved him down to the floorboards.

  Spencer angled his head so the material stayed away from his mouth and sucked in several gulps of hot air. His head and ribs throbbed from the pain. Calming his breathing, he counted when the SUV pulled back onto the road. They never took the freeway again, so they must be close.

  No matter how much he hoped to God this was Liam, he knew in his gut it wasn’t.

  Now, he needed to figure out what the fuck was going on because he needed to get home.

  He was jerked from the vehicle when it pulled to a stop and was led into a building before the hood was removed. Taken into a room with a mirror on one wall, a table and two chairs sat in the middle. His hands were released.

  “Take a seat,” a guard said and left him alone in the room.

  He took a seat and with his temple and ribs throbbing, he leaned his head down against his arms and closed his eyes.

  The click of the door opening drew his head up and he met a pair of startling blue eyes. The man was extremely good-looking with tousled blond hair, a chiseled face, and strong jaw. He was young, maybe late twenties, but the authority poured off the man as if he’d grown up fast in life and had excelled at whatever life had thrown at him. As was testimony, the impeccable suit and the badge hanging from his breast pocket said FBI Director Forest Taylor.