Past Hurts (Sizzling Miami Book 1)

by Jessie G

  Davin

  “What do you want?” Davin growled when his phone rang just as he was walking into the restaurant to meet Alaric.

  After Sanibel, he literally ran into Sully in the garage, and though he swore otherwise, he was back on the job instead of heading home. When he finally made it back to his apartment, it was after two in the morning, and he expected to find it empty. Instead, he found Alaric in his bed, waiting to share a sleepy kiss before they both passed out. They shared another one a few hours later when Alaric had to leave and somehow, that had become their routine.

  Ten nights of fleeting glimpses later, he came home, and Alaric wasn’t there. So, when he got a text with an address and a message that read, ‘be there at noon or else,’ all he felt was relief and Sully was not going to ruin it for him.

  “Where’d you disappear to? I’ve got Juan working the computers we found in that flophouse and the uniforms—”

  “Grabbing lunch.” And since Sully had all that under control, there was no reason to call him. “I’ll be back before Juan is done doing what he does.”

  “Grabbing lunch? Where? I’ll meet—”

  Davin stopped listening as soon as he spotted Alaric waiting in a booth by the door and clicked off the phone while Sully was still talking. He liked his partner, but he wasn’t invited to lunch.

  “Was that work?”

  “Yeah.” And since Alaric’s phone was sitting on the table, the screen still lit up, it was safe to assume he just got off a call too. They were so bad at stepping away for even the minimal amount of time. “You?”

  Following his gaze, Alaric tapped through the settings until it was muted and then turned it over. “Not anymore. Did you catch a big case?”

  “If it’s all the same, I don’t want to talk about work.” He didn’t want to talk in these clipped sentences either. They only had one hour to fix what they broke when they came back.

  Alaric rested his arm on the table and offered his hand, smiling for the first time since Davin sat down. “That’s perfect with me.”

  “Ric.” Davin worried at the wide band Alaric wore on his middle finger. “Can I say something?”

  “You never have to ask permission for that.”

  “I afraid I’m slipping away. I know we only had a few days together and I shouldn’t be this attached this soon, but I miss being with you. The few fleeting hours we get sleeping together aren’t enough and fuck—” Davin scrubbed at his face in embarrassment— “it’s too soon for me to be this needy.”

  “No, it’s not too soon. It can’t be because I feel the same way,” Alaric admitted, but Davin wasn’t listening.

  “I know why you didn’t come last night. You have a life, family and friends, and your own place. Why are you coming to my dump every night, waiting around on the hope that I might make it there? I get it. It’s just… I don’t always work around the clock. Sometimes my caseload is pretty routine, and I actually get a day off. Sometimes I’m home for dinner and can linger over breakfast and get a full night’s sleep. But I never know when those times will be.”

  “Move in with me.”

  “Other cops have partners and families and make time every day for those relationships. I’ve spent so many years being the guy who is always available, who rarely goes home, that I’m struggling to figure out how I can make time too, and I need your… What did you say?”

  “Move in with me,” Alaric repeated. “Then when those times come, we’ll be in the same space at the same time to enjoy them together.”

  “Really? You want that?”

  “Yes, of course, I want that!” Alaric looked at him like he was crazy. “I don’t have a problem with your schedule, but I can’t work at your place and I really needed to catch up on some projects. That’s why I didn’t come last night. Not because I didn’t want to be there when you got home, but because I needed my space to work.”

  The right answer was yes, Ric. The problem was Alaric was offering to rearrange his life and he wasn’t. “How is that fair to you?”

  “Fair in what way? I need more time with you and our current configuration makes that difficult. Schedules aside, I think if you have a reason, you’ll make the time, and you’ll no longer be the guy who is always available and rarely goes home. Let me be the reason.”

  “How do you always say just the right thing?”

  “I’m not trying to say the right thing. I’m telling you I need you just as much as you need me and I’m asking you to help me make that happen.”

  “Okay, but you’re not supporting me. I’ll pay my share just like before.” When Alaric opened his mouth, Davin assumed he was going to argue and held up a hand. “I do have a really good job, you know, and I make a decent salary.”

  “I’m not discounting what you do or how much you make. I was just going to say our living expenses are minimal. I own my condo outright. Do you really want to waste time working out a split on utilities? Cause I don’t. Save your money for the things you want, surprise me with a vacation, or invest it in property, and let me handle the rest.”

  “My agreement is conditional on seeing those utilities bills.” He didn’t have to see the place to know Alaric lived in the lap of luxury. His condo probably cost as much as a small village and the utilities would match. “And I’ll—”

  “Here’s your lunch, gentlemen.” The waitress interrupted them to put down their plates and he eyed the hot open-faced turkey sandwich in surprise.

  “What’s this?”

  “I ordered before you got here.” When Davin continued to watch him, he said, “Our time was limited, and I figured you probably haven’t had a decent meal since you caught the case.”

  “Can’t argue with that.” He could, but why would he when Alaric was once again doing everything in his power to take care of him? Their time was better spent working out the details so he could say yes. “There will be some complications.”

  “Like?”

  “Well, no one at work knows I’m gay.”

  “Will it be a problem? I mean, I’m not in the closet. If you move in with me, most people will assume we’re lovers.” Alaric’s frown made his stomach knot. “Do you want to hide it?”

  “No!” He never wanted to hide who they were together. He never believed they would be together again and now that they were, he wanted everyone to know. More importantly, he didn’t want Alaric to think he would ever deny him. “It was never a big deal, right? We didn’t come out before, we just lived our life and let people draw their own conclusions.”

  “Why don’t I think that will work with the MPD?”

  “Or it may be just that easy.” Alaric didn’t look convinced and truth be told, he wasn’t sure himself, but they weren’t hiding. “I’ll make it work.”

  “And you’ll tell me if it’s a problem?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t think it would come to that, but he didn’t want secrets between them, so it was easy to agree. “With the case taking up my time, I don’t know when I’ll be able to move.”

  “Let me take care of that for you.”

  He was going to have to start keeping a list of all the times Alaric used those words, but again, it was easy to agree. “Okay, yes, it’ll be faster that way.”

  If he wasn’t mistaken, Alaric looked surprised by his easy agreements. Had he expected Davin to say no? “You know, I was going to ask you to move in with me when we left Sanibel.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t want to pressure you.”

  “There you go, being cautious again. How will you ever catch up that way?”

  Alaric smiled and picked at his meal, voicing another concern. “I don’t like seeing you this way.”

  “What way?”

  “Barely eating, barely sleeping, stressed out. For a few days you looked relaxed and happy. I’d love to see you like that all the time.”

  “I know.” Alaric still didn’t ask him to quit though, and Davin appreciated the space to make his own
decision.

  “Will you come tonight?” Alaric didn’t say ‘will you let me take care of you,’ but Davin heard it anyway and there was no way he would say no. “If you give me a list of things you need, I can swing by your place on my way back to the office and pick them up.”

  “Yes, I can do that.”

  “Good. Are you okay with me having the rest moved into a storage unit?” Though Alaric said it with a straight face, Davin found himself grinning. The rest? Was Alaric referring to his non-existent furniture or his mismatched plates and cutlery? “Then you can go through it when you have more time.”

  “It’ll be a small storage unit, but sure.” He always lived a very minimal life, first because the money wasn’t there to buy things and later because he didn’t see the need to spend the money on things he would never use. In contrast, Alaric grew up in a mansion and their first apartment together was better than anything John Monroe could have provided. Now he was the CEO of a major tech company. Nothing Davin had, except himself, belonged in that world.

  “Text me the details of your lease. I can probably get that handled too.”

  “No, the super’s always been good to me. I’ll make the time to tell him directly.” It would be tight, but the guy deserved that from him.

  “Fair enough.” Alaric grinned down at his nearly empty plate and asked, “When was the last time you ate?”

  Mouth full and uncaring, he admitted, “Don’t know.”

  “Am I going to have to start packing your lunch?”

  “I thought we exhausted your kitchen skills.”

  “We did. I have a girl who delivers meals for me.”

  “A girl who delivers meals for you,” he parroted with a laugh. “You really are the big, important corporate man now, aren’t you?”

  Alaric tried to glare, but his eyes were bright with amusement when he said, “Fuck you.”

  And just like that he went from amused to wanting. “The sooner the better, Ric. The sooner the better.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Davin

  “What is that?” It had been a week since Davin moved in and they celebrated by fucking on every available surface of the apartment. He may not have memorized which drawer held the silverware—or what the hell was making that annoying noise so early in the morning—but he knew exactly how the kitchen table felt under his back.

  “Building security.” Alaric eased his arm out from under Davin’s head and reached for the phone. “Bennett.”

  Building security. “At five am?”

  “Apparently it’s for you. A Juan Montoya. He’s showing a badge.” Alaric looked over when he didn’t answer. “Dav, yes or no? I can have him turned away.”

  “I guess? Juan? At five am?” There’d been no lingering over the change of address forms, so he wasn’t surprised that Juan could find him. But in all the years of working together, they never socialized outside of the job and for him to show up like this didn’t bode well for future socializations.

  “Your pants are behind the lounge chair.” Alaric called helpfully from the bed as he watched Davin fumble around in the dark for something to wear.

  “How did they get there?”

  “I’d remind you, but you have company coming up.”

  “Are you going back to sleep?”

  “I’d like to say that I could, but no, I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  “Can’t find my shirt.”

  “I’ll bring it out. Go start the coffee.”

  “Yeah, coffee.” By the time the buzzer rang at the door, the coffee was brewing, and he was pulling the t-shirt over his head. Figuring they were as presentable as anyone could expect, Davin opened the door, the rude comment slipping out before he could think better of it. “Christ, you look like shit.”

  It wasn’t an exaggeration, Juan looked like a man who hadn’t slept in weeks and if he’d looked like that the last time they spoke, Davin had probably been too busy to notice. “Yeah, haven’t really been sleeping all that well. I know it’s early but trying to find you outside of work isn’t easy.”

  “Come on in. The coffee’s on.” He led the way to the living room where Alaric slouched on the loveseat. “Juan, this is Ric Bennett, my partner.”

  Sounded better than boyfriend, right? Older, like them. More permanent, also like them.

  “Nice to meet you. Sorry for the hour.” Juan fumbled with the messenger bag he had clutched in his arms and reached out to shake Alaric’s hand. “The whole department’s been in a gossip frenzy since you told your partner that you were having lunch with your lover.”

  “Those weren’t my exact words.” Davin sighed, avoiding Alaric’s curious gaze.

  “Well, he deserved it after demanding to know where you were and what you were doing. As if he doesn’t go off and meet his wife for a nooner on a regular basis. He got used to you picking up his slack.” Juan frowned at him, then laughed again. “It was pretty priceless though.”

  “Yeah, you didn’t get me out of bed for this, did you?” Because Sully hadn’t been attacking him for being gay. No, his partner was pissed that he missed lunch and confused because they usually ate together. And when all was said and done, Sully was happy that he was happy, but still pissed that he missed lunch. None of that was a problem Alaric needed to fix. It was just Sully’s unhealthy relationship with food.

  “No, no.” Juan sat kind of abruptly in the side chair, like his legs couldn’t carry him anymore. “I’ve been sitting on something since the Elias case and… Look, you know I never liked the rules, but… I thought, for the sake of not seeing anyone get hurt, I could let it go, but I can’t.”

  The coffee pot beeped, and Alaric rose before Davin could move. “Sit, I’ll get the coffee. Juan?”

  “Black, two sugars, thanks.”

  Davin sat on the corner of the couch nearest Juan’s chair and tried to sound encouraging. “If you found something out about the Elias case, no one would expect you to let it go.”

  “It’s not about the Elias case.” Alaric came back with the tray, setting it on the low table before sinking onto the couch by Davin. “Remember that backpack full of electronics you brought me the afternoon you broke the case?”

  “Terence Bennett’s backpack.” How could he forget that?

  “Yes.” Juan looked between them. “I don’t even know the fucking protocol here. He’s your brother, right?”

  Alaric nodded. “He was, yes.”

  “Can I talk about this in front of him?”

  They were definitely wading into murky waters. “Terence is dead so anything you tell me now isn’t going to go toward convicting him of a crime.”

  “Okay.” Juan set the messenger bag on the floor and pulled out a laptop. “It’s not Terence’s. I didn’t want to fuck with chain of custody, so I backed up everything to flash drive.”

  “Juan.” Davin had never seen the tech so rattled and it was freaking him out. “Tell me.”

  “I know Terence Bennett assaulted you.” Alaric cursed low. Davin thought he might have said something equally vulgar, but Juan was talking fast and they both heard him say, “I know because he kept a diary and you’re only the first and he had a partner.”

  Davin had no idea how he held his composure. Maybe it was the man at his side. Maybe it was having come to terms with the past. But while he hated that Juan knew, there was obviously a bigger issue at stake. “He had more than one partner.”

  “No. I mean, yes, for yours there were six, if the diary is right.” Juan winced, but kept going when Davin didn’t react. “After that, there was one guy that became his regular partner. They planned, plotted, and executed together.”

  “How many times?”

  “I stopped reading at thirty.”

  Alaric grabbed the back of his shirt in a tight fist—though Davin wasn’t sure whether he was holding himself back from lunging at Juan or just needed to be grounded—and demanded, “Are you saying my brother and this other guy raped thirty men?”r />
  “Men, women, no children though. They weren’t selective by gender, race, whatever. And that’s just where I stopped. It goes on.” Juan’s gaze was full of pity when he looked at Alaric. “I’m sorry. Your brother was…”

  “A sick fucking bastard?” Alaric offered as Juan tried to choose his words.

  “Yes, in more ways than one. You see, there is a second diary. At first, I thought it was someone else’s. It speaks of guilt and shame and begging for someone—” Again he looked at Alaric. “For you to stop him. I think your brother had a split personality. I’m no psychologist, so I could be talking totally out of my ass, but that’s what I read.”

  He and Alaric had discussed Terence’s many personalities before, but he thought the bastard was acting. A split personality would make total sense and he hated that it gave Terence an excuse for being the way he was. “Juan, who’s the partner?”

  “I don’t know. In the one diary, the remorseful one, he refers to him as K. In the other diary, he refers to him as the Keeper.” Juan opened the laptop, started clicking. “There are photos, first names and dates, all the details. I started putting it in a list to cross reference with cold cases.”

  “Did you get any hits?”

  “Yeah.” Juan turned the laptop around as one file after another started popping up. “Yeah, Davin, I got a hit.”

  “Terence is dead, but his partner is still out there.” Beside him, Alaric reached for the laptop and ghosted his fingers over the screen. “That’s why you’re here, right, Juan?”

  Davin sighed. Just when he thought he could walk away from the job, another case came along. And this was one he couldn’t ignore. One Alaric wouldn’t let him ignore.

  “I have to do this.”

  “There was never any doubt.” Voice quiet and face set in determined lines, Alaric handed back the laptop, stood, and gathered their cups. “But you’re not doing it alone.”

  Juan watched him walk away and frowned again. “How did you ever let that one go?”

  Since he was now on the short list of people who knew why, Davin ignored him and went to call his Captain. They couldn’t officially open a case with him, and…it was time for him to come clean. After apologizing for the early hour and offering a vague reason for the request, the Captain agreed to see them at his home.