Chasing the Story

by Shira Anthony

  “Yeah.” Brand cleared his throat.

  Zach gestured to the couch and they both sat, thighs touching. Brand appeared to steel himself, his back straight against the pillows. “Hey.” Zach took Brand’s hand. “This isn’t an interrogation. I want you to tell me what you were thinking, but if you’re not ready, that’s fine.”

  Brand blew air from between tensed lips. “It’s okay. I want you to know.” He relaxed a bit and leaned back against the pillows. “I wasn’t scared of dying. But they almost killed you right in front of me.

  “I’m sorry, that sounded cheesy, didn’t it?” Brand’s sheepish grin was adorable.

  “I like that about you.” Zach didn’t add it also terrified him. He liked Brand. A lot. But love and forever had never figured into his plans for the future.

  Brand kissed him and Zach half relaxed, half collapsed into his arms. He felt safe this way. He didn’t need someone to fight for him, but it was good to know Brand was there anyhow.

  “My turn to ask if you’re okay,” Zach said.

  “Better than.” Brand hugged him, then stood. “Let’s kick some ass.”

  Zach laughed, but he liked the idea. It was time to get back to doing what they both loved.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  THEY STARTED with the only thing new they’d learned from Jesse: that an inspector had been badly injured on a jobsite a few weeks before. Brand ran a quick check of news stories and found no other cases like it; the only injuries involved construction workers.

  “There may be no connection to the story,” Brand pointed out.

  “I know. But other than getting back on the computer—which I intend to do—this is the most promising piece of low-hanging fruit.”

  “I like computer research.” He didn’t mind taking up more of the slack from Zach. He knew he didn’t need to, but he wanted to prove he wasn’t a slouch.

  “Okay. You can do the digging, as long as you don’t need to get back to the studio.”

  “Don’t feel guilty about putting me to work. Kendra’s been asking me about the story at least a few times a day.” Brand grinned. “I’m a little jealous.” He wasn’t jealous of the attention, but he didn’t like the idea that there were others out there competing for Zach’s attention.

  “At least I get my own groupies,” Zach shot back.

  “No kidding. The way Ronny fawned over you the other day….”

  “The autograph was for his wife,” Zach pointed out.

  Brand had never been very good at that sort of thing. “I think you’re exaggerating.”

  “Suit yourself. You may not like the attention, but it’s an asset to your career.”

  Brand sighed.

  “I hated it too.” Zach glanced briefly at the floor.

  The sound of the pencil in his hand snapping brought Brand back to the present. He tossed it in the nearest wastebasket, then did his best to breathe through the wave of anger that shot through him like fire. His rage died down to a low simmer. He needed to let it go, for Zach’s sake. The last thing Zach wanted was pity.

  “Hey.” Zach put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” Brand nodded. “Are we calling Ronny?”

  “We are.” Zach smirked. “I thought you might do the honors.”

  Brand snorted and tapped the speakerphone option. “You dial.”

  “You’re way too demanding.” Zach dialed Ronny’s number.

  “Ronny? This is Brand. We met a few weeks—”

  “Brand, so good to hear from you. Reminds me that my wife just about hit the roof when she found out I asked for Zach’s autograph but not yours.”

  Brand’s face heated. “No worries. I’ll make sure to get her one. Don’t want you permanently in the doghouse.”

  “You’re cute when you’re embarrassed,” Zach whispered.

  Brand flipped him the bird. “So, Ronny,” he said, “I was hoping maybe you could help me a little more with the story.”

  “Of course. How can I help?”

  “I heard there was some sort of accident on a jobsite recently and one of the inspectors”—he checked his notes—“Robert Carver, ended up in the hospital. Do you know anything about that?”

  “Only what I heard. Rob’s a good guy. I’ve worked with him on a few jobs. A bunch of pipes fell off a skid loader.” Ronny shook his head. “Could’a killed ’im. He ended up with a few broken bones. He was lucky.”

  Brand met Zach’s gaze. He didn’t look all that surprised either.

  “Do you know anything else about it?” Brand asked.

  “Nah. Only that the construction company that was runnin’ the operation got real lucky. It can take weeks to get an inspector to come out, but Terry Warfield just happened to be free. Came by that same afternoon.”

  “Really.” Brand looked over to Zach, who scribbled something in his own notes and tilted the page so Brand could see what he’d written there. It was only one word: bingo.

  “Do you remember the name of the company working that site?” Brand circled Terry Warfield’s name in his notes.

  “Ah, let me see… I think that was DQL. Don’t know much about ’em, though,” Ronny added.

  “No worries. What you’ve given me is great.” Brand wrote the name down. “I’ve got one more favor to ask.”

  “Sure. You know I want to help.”

  “Do you have time to meet us at a site in Wrightsville Beach sometime next week?” Brand asked. “We’d like you to look at a house that collapsed. Give us your thoughts.”

  “I’d be happy to. Why don’t y’all give me a call a day or two before, and I’ll make time,” Ronny replied.

  After finally managing to get off the phone five minutes later—he didn’t want to rush Ronny off, but he’d babbled on about his wife and seeing Brand’s segment the night before—Brand grinned at Zach. “Convenient, huh?”

  “Very.”

  Brand playfully shoved Zach away from the computer. “You did say you wanted me to handle this part, didn’t you?” he said when Zach raised his eyebrows in mock surprise.

  “Yes. I did.” Zach walked over to the coffee machine. “Want anything?”

  “Sure. I’ll take a double shot with a sugar cube.”

  “So demanding.”

  “Always.” Brand grinned as he ran a search for DQL. There wasn’t much once he restricted the search to North Carolina—just an ad for the company.

  “What d’you see?” Zach asked.

  “Nada. Just advertising. Not even any ratings or reviews from consumers.” He typed the address for the Secretary of State’s corporation search and ran the company’s name. “Company was formed in 2017. Not much here. I don’t recognize the names of the people on the incorporation documents. You said you’d done some digging before. Haynes is the agent for service of process on this one too.” Brand clicked a button and the printer whirred to life. “What about the company on the build with the zombie loader?”

  “Zombie?”

  Brand shrugged. “No one ever figured out who was driving it. Why not?”

  Zach grunted. “The company working on the construction is Coastally Yours.”

  “Sounds like a souvenir store.”

  “Yep. Classy, huh?” Zach grinned.

  Brand cleared the search screen.

  “Anything else?”

  “Three other companies.” Brand clicked through a few links. “All dissolved for failing to pay taxes and file annual reports.” He looked up at Zach. “All of them have their primary business listed as construction. All of them have Mr. Haynes listed.”

  Zach looked through the pages Brand printed and nodded. “Can you locate any developments these companies worked on?”

  “Working on it.” Brand dropped electronic pins on a North Carolina state map. It took him nearly half an hour, but a clear pattern emerged. “They’re all coastal.” He turned the monitor so Zach could see.

  Zach gave Brand a gentle nudge off the desk chair and sat in fron
t of the monitor. “I need to check something.”

  Brand stood behind him as he logged into LexisNexis and typed the name of the law firm into the search engine. “Yep,” he said as he clicked on an article.

  Brand read the article over Zach’s shoulder, then whistled. “A federal money-laundering investigation?”

  “Seems Haynes’s firm did some work for a few companies with offshore holdings and the feds got suspicious.” Zach clicked around a little more, then shook his head. “This was in 2016, but I’m not finding anything else about the investigation.”

  “Probably because the feds couldn’t find anything either.”

  “Let’s take another look at these guys.” Zach found another article. “Richard Stevens, an associate with the Haynes Law Firm, was indicted on three counts related to money laundering.” The article was just a few months old. Way too soon to be resolved.

  “Fall guy?”

  “Probably.” Zach scrolled through a few more articles, but none of them were particularly helpful.

  “Gives us what we need, though. A strong connection between the players.” Brand rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. “I’m beat. How about some dinner?”

  Zach nodded. He looked as exhausted as Brand felt. “Shuckin’ Shack?”

  “I’m in.” Some clams, oysters, and fried shrimp, all washed down with a cold beer or two, sounded perfect.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  THEY WALKED back to the apartment a few hours later, holding hands. Zach fed Arlo, then grabbed a few beers from the fridge and handed one to Brand. “I know I should be falling over, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to fall asleep. Nearly getting killed has a way of revving you up, doesn’t it?”

  Brand nodded. “I hate to admit it, but it’s exciting in a twisted sort of way. I feel like I could run a marathon.”

  Zach took a long swig from the bottle, then walked over to Brand. “Better?”

  “Getting there.”

  Zach sat next to Brand, who slipped his arm around Zach’s shoulders. They’d been dancing around each other since they’d met—mostly because he’d pushed Brand away—but now Zach craved the contact. The adrenaline rush wasn’t only because of his brush with death. He wanted Brand. Sure, he’d wanted him before, but he hadn’t been ready. Now….

  Zach finished his beer and set it on the table before leaning into Brand’s warmth. “This is nice.”

  “Yeah.”

  Zach inhaled and exhaled, but it did nothing to slow his racing heart. “Brand?”

  “Yes?”

  “Stay tonight?” Zach’s throat constricted and he added. “I… I don’t mean just sleeping this time.”

  Brand’s eyes grew wide and a gentle smile lit his face. “You… are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.” He returned Brand’s smile. “Absolutely sure.” He appreciated Brand’s caution, but he was ready. He took Brand’s bottle and set it beside his own, then pulled Brand’s face closer and kissed him, claiming his mouth so there was no doubt of his intention.

  Brand’s lips were soft and welcoming. Zach ran his tongue over smooth teeth as he inhaled the familiar scent that lingered on Brand’s skin. Back when they’d first met, Zach dismissed Brand as just a pretty face—the most attractive man in the room. But as he’d come to know the gentle and passionate man beneath the pretty face, that fleeting attraction had grown into a hunger he’d never felt before. Working side by side with Brand was exciting, not only because they understood each other, but because for the first time in years, Zach shared his love of the business with someone who loved it at least as much. That was the hottest thing of all.

  “I felt that in my toes,” Brand said as the kiss ended.

  Zach stood and offered Brand a hand up. “Only your toes?”

  Brand’s cheeks flushed in reply. “Other parts too.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He pulled Brand to his feet, then started to work the buttons of his shirt free.

  “Zach… really… I….”

  Zach traced fingers over Brand’s lips. “I know you want to give me time. It’s part of the reason I’m ready for this. It… it means a lot to me that you’re worried about me. But I really am ready.” He sighed. “So ready.”

  Brand smiled as Zach pushed his shirt off his shoulders and began to kiss his way over the smooth skin of Brand’s abdomen. Brand shivered as Zach lifted his undershirt to lave a line from the sensitive spot under his ear down his neck, pushing away the fabric of Brand’s shirt so he could reach his shoulder. “Mind if I take this off?”

  Brand nodded. A moment later Zach ran eager hands over Brand’s chest. Brand watched him, his face serene, his blue eyes in the dim light reminding Zach of the color of the ocean. Zach wanted to say so many things—how beautiful Brand was, how he loved Brand’s powerful body, and how he’d wanted for so long to touch Brand like this—but he couldn’t bring himself to put the thoughts into words. Instead, he let his hands express what he was unable to say.

  He ghosted fingers over Brand’s shoulders and down the outside of his arms, following the planes and dips of muscle beneath the smooth skin, pausing to explore the contours of Brand’s body as he might consider the words of a poem. Each touch unveiled something new about Brand.

  Brand reached for Zach’s shirt, unbuttoning it slowly as if savoring the effort and longing to reveal the hidden prize beneath. He glanced up and met Zach’s gaze as he pushed the shirt off. “I’ve been wanting to do this ever since we met,” Brand admitted with a sly grin.

  “I’m glad.” Zach hadn’t expected he’d feel so self-conscious.

  Brand leaned in to suck on one nipple, then the other.

  “Oh. Whoa.” Other men had touched him there before, but watching Brand lick him, using his tongue to tweak the nubs, made him painfully hard and gasping for breath. Brand’s mouth on him felt so good. Better than in his recent fantasies, all of which involved Brand.

  Brand looked up at him and grinned again. “Glad I have your attention.” He rolled one nipple between tongue and teeth.

  Zach shuddered. “You… ah… shit, that’s so good… definitely do have my… ah… attention.”

  Brand took a break and glanced up at Zach. “What do you want?”

  “You.” He kissed Brand’s head and shivered.

  “Done.” Brand grinned. “What else?”

  “I want to be inside you.” I want to feel what it’s like to be with someone I care about. He wanted to move beyond his fear.

  Brand responded by taking Zach into his arms and nearly lifting him off his feet. The kiss was hot and charged with emotion.

  Zach’s body vibrated with pleasure and need. He’d mostly pushed other men away since New York, but with Brand, his physical need didn’t war with his fear of getting close. He wanted Brand, and not just next to him in bed. He wanted all of him.

  Zach gently pushed Brand onto the couch and tossed the throw pillows onto the floor. In the dim light of the room, shadows danced over Brand’s chest. Zach leaned over and tasted the soft skin, noting the pale hair that tickled his upper lip as he worked his way down to Brand’s abdomen.

  Brand sighed contentedly and closed his eyes as Zach pulled his pants off to reveal the outline of his cock visible beneath his boxer briefs. Zach traced a line around it with his lips, working it as he continued to kiss his way over Brand’s skin.

  “Hmmm….” Brand smiled and opened his eyes, watching with obvious pleasure as Zach explored his body.

  “Be right back.” Zach snagged a condom and some lube from his bedroom. He wouldn’t tell Brand, but he’d bought them both the day before since the condoms he’d stashed in his bedside table had expired a year ago and the lube was just as old. The realization that it had been years since he’d been with another man made him more than a little nervous.

  “Where were we?” he asked Brand as he set the supplies on the coffee table.

  “You were ravishing me and promising to fuck me thoroughly.” Brand’s playful
smirk was all Zach needed for reassurance.

  “Right.” Zach shimmied out of his pants and underwear, forcing himself to meet Brand’s loving gaze in spite of his embarrassment. Brand’s audible intake of breath told Zach what he needed to know, and the last of his discomfort fled at the genuine appreciation in Brand’s eyes.

  Brand pulled off his briefs and waited on the couch. For a long moment, Zach took in his beautiful body. He’d imagined what Brand’s cock might look like, and he wasn’t disappointed. Long and hard and thick with its smooth, cut tip. Zach wanted nothing more than to take it in his mouth and taste the precome oozing from its slit.

  Brand moaned as Zach kneeled in front of the couch and mouthed the glans, then swirled his tongue over the top to taste the saltiness there. “Fuck, that feels amazing.”

  Zach smiled and continued to work his way downward, sucking and pulling, taking a moment from time to time to caress Brand’s balls and enjoy the rewarding gasps that accompanied his ministrations. A heady sense of control mingled with his genuine affection for the man who inhabited the tempting body, leaving him as hard as Brand and feeling warm all over in spite of his nakedness. He brought Brand to the edge and back again before releasing him.

  “Turn over.” Zach climbed onto the couch with lube and condom in hand.

  Brand did as he was told. Faced with Brand’s tempting ass, Zach indulged himself in a little exploration here as well. He nipped and kissed Brand’s buttocks, using his hands to clasp and knead the powerful muscles. Finally Zach slicked his fingers and traced a line behind Brand’s balls to find his hole and circle it with a single finger.

  “Torture.” Brand groaned as Zach continued to tease him with his slippery hands.

  Zach grinned and slipped one finger, then another, inside, gently opening Brand’s tight muscles. Brand watched over his shoulder as Zach worked in another third finger and then a fourth, all the while tracing circles with his tongue over Brand’s skin.

  “You ready for me?” Zach slipped on the condom and added a little more lube to Brand’s opening.