Hell and Back

by Dirk Greyson

“How?” Coleridge asked with avid interest. Gage gave him the passcode they’d used. “Okay. Hold on.” Coleridge put down the phone, and Gage heard him on a different call to someone else. Then he came back. “That seemed to be the phrase to decrypt the files on the laptop as well.”

  “Then you have access to what we have,” Gage said with relief.

  “It appears so. I’m on my way in to see what we have. I’ll meet you and Forge at the house tomorrow as planned so we can discuss next steps.”

  “Very good. We’ll see you then.” Gage hung up and felt somewhat better. The police had the files and the information that Granger had collected. There was nothing else they could do now.

  “What did he say?” Forge asked with a jittery tone in his voice.

  “That he’ll see us in the morning. They decrypted the laptop, and he’s on his way in to examine the files.” Gage returned to his computer and verified that all the files had been downloaded. Then he paused the synching and separated from the application to make his copies of the files independent.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Just an insurance policy. I don’t know how far the reach of the Lucci family extends, but once they find out this information exists and the police have it, they are going to try their best to make it disappear. But this copy is separate now. They could delete the master files and these will still remain.”

  “You don’t trust Coleridge?”

  “I do. He’s a good man. But I don’t trust everyone in the department. It only takes one person with access to wipe out everything.” Gage felt better now that he had secure copies, but he went further and transferred the files to an encrypted jump drive, making sure Forge knew the passcode. “There isn’t anything more we can do tonight. The police have the information, and now we have to give them a chance to do their jobs.”

  Forge nodded, sitting back once again. “This is never going to end. They’ll arrest people, and then there will be trials and God knows what. I’m never going to be safe and be able to go back to….” Forge leaned forward, his head in his hands. “I wasn’t expecting my life to be the way it’s been. Granger is always going to be dead and… well… I found you again.” Forge blindly reached out, and Gage took his hand. “My life was going to be different, but I’d hoped that it would settle down to where we could have a quiet life. Well, reasonably quiet anyway.”

  “Is that what you really want?” Gage tugged Forge to his feet and into his embrace. “Do you want to go back to the same quiet life you had with Granger? Because life with me won’t be like that. You’ve seen the hours I work and what I do. I don’t go into an office, unless it’s this one, and I usually don’t spend a lot of time here.” Gage lifted Forge’s chin slightly. “I want you in my life. I want to go to sleep next to you, and wake up in the morning and make love to you, for the rest of my life. If you asked me to, I’d shut down the agency and try to find a different job.” Gage held his breath, waiting for Forge’s answer. This would tell a lot about whether they could have a practical life together.

  “No,” Forge whispered. “I don’t want you to do that.”

  “Then you have to know that if we’re together, then things will change, for both of us. My clients hire me to protect them from people who want to hurt them, and by extension they’ll want to get to me. The easiest way to do that is going to be through you.” A chill raced up Gage’s spine. “I don’t want that to happen.”

  Forge rolled his eyes in that patented way he had whenever Gage said something he thought was stupid. “I can take care of myself. I’m not helpless and I’m not scared. I’m not going to live my life alone because I’m afraid of what might happen.” He put his forehead against Gage’s. “God, I want you in my life, and I’ll do anything to have you. If that means I have to be on guard and vigilant, then I will.” Forge blinked rapidly. “I can’t be without you. I was sitting in the back seat of that damn car today, wondering if I was going to live, and all I could think was that I wasn’t going to see you again, hold you, be able to roll over at night and curl up to you when things got cold or hard or frightening. And I was scared to death.” He shook, and Gage closed his eyes, unable to bear the fear he saw welling in Forge’s—fear that shouldn’t be there if he’d have been doing his job.

  “Forge, I—”

  “Stop feeling guilty. There will be plenty of time for me to be scared, and I’m sure I’ll relive what happened in my dreams.” Forge pulled him closer, and damned if Gage didn’t get hard in an instant when Forge’s gaze bored deeply into his. “I want to forget. I want you to make me feel alive and wanted… I want….”

  Gage didn’t need to be told twice. He kissed Forge hard, holding him as tightly as he could. “I thought I was going to lose you forever.” He backed Forge away from the table and toward the bedroom. They fumbled together, both wanting the same thing and neither willing to let go long enough to make it to the other room. Gage bumped into the doorframe, but he didn’t care for an instant. All that mattered was Forge’s lips on his and the way Forge’s hands, those amazing hands, worked their way under his shirt.

  They reached the bed, falling onto it. Gage ended up under Forge’s weight, and he loved it, holding him, continuing to kiss while trying his best to get rid of the clothes between them.

  “Dammit,” Forge gasped, and Gage sat up. His shirt wasn’t going to survive if he didn’t help. Forge’s frustration was palpable, his hands shaking.

  Gage rolled Forge onto his back and stood at the foot of the bed, shedding his clothes and divesting Forge of his. “You take my breath away.” Forge lay naked and exposed to Gage’s heated gaze. He swallowed and licked his lips to keep from drooling at the sight.

  “I’m old….”

  “You’re beautiful and you always will be.” Gage leaned over Forge to prowl up the bed until their lips were inches apart. “You will always be the man who sat next to me in the hospital all those days, and the one who came to me before we were separated and gave me the night of passion I’ve never been able to forget.” Gage circled one of Forge’s nipples with his thumb, loving the quiver that went through Forge with the simplest touch—his touch. A shiver went through him at the way Forge responded to him.

  “I remember that night too.” Forge drew him closer. “I know you weren’t very strong at that point, but you were all the man I could ever want then, and you still are now.” He pulled Gage into a kiss and down on top of him, wrapping his legs around Gage’s waist. “I want you to repeat what you did that night. Make me feel that same way.”

  Gage pulled Forge as tight to him as possible, cradling his back and head in his arms. “You were a dream come true when I saw you again.” He knew he sounded corny, but it was how he felt. Seventeen years of hoping and dreaming, living in the past, were over. He had the man he’d always wanted.

  “Then make me yours.” Forge arched his back as Gage ran his hands down the silky smoothness of Forge’s sides and over his hips to his hard butt. He continued deeper, teasing Forge’s skin, running his fingers down the cleft as Forge shook under him.

  “I waited for you for years, so I know you’re wound up, but I want to take my time.” Gage captured Forge’s lips. “I’m going to drive you crazy.” He skimmed his fingers over the tender flesh of Forge’s opening. “I’m going to drive you wild until your eyes roll back in your head, and once you can’t stand it anymore and you think you’re going to fly apart, then and only then am I going to slide inside you and take you all the way to heaven. I love you, Forge Reynolds, I have for years, but I love you even more now, because you’re right here. The memory of you was precious. The reality of you, with me right now, is completely divine, and I will do anything to make you happy.”

  And Gage did just that, eliciting a chorus of groans, whines, and whimpers that filled the room and grew louder and more urgent as he used his tongue and mouth on continually more sensitive areas. Forge shook like a leaf, making the entire bed vibrate, and damned if that wasn’t as hot
as the pleading for Gage to either stop or give him just a little more.

  “Keeping me on the edge is mean….”

  “No. It’s beautiful.” And it was. Forge’s eyes were dark blue, edging toward black. “Your skin flushed, eyes wide and dark, your mouth hanging open. And your hands—you don’t know what to do with your hands.” Damn, the man had amazing hands, and he’d been using them, desperately, to try to pull away Gage’s control. It hadn’t worked up until now. Gage’s own control was near the breaking point. He spread Forge’s saliva-slicked thighs, exposing him, wet skin glistening in the light spilling in from the other room. Forge damn near sparkled with sweat, and his rich musky aroma hung in the air like the world’s most amazingly intoxicating perfume. Gage hurriedly slicked himself and slid into Forge, slowly, steadily, to high-pitched calls for more.

  When he reached bottom, Forge thumped him on the chest. “Don’t you dare fucking stop.”

  “I wasn’t….”

  Forge did it again. “I’m just saying, you stop now and so help me I’ll….” A groan, long, low, and toe-curling, sang through the room as Gage pulled out, then slammed back into Forge. “Yes… fuck me like you’ve been denied for seventeen years.”

  Something snapped in Gage’s brain and he let go, giving in to passion, love, and everything else that made life worth living. Forge was his to love, to possess, and to make happy, just like he was Forge’s. Sweat beaded off Gage, running down his chest and his forehead into his eyes. “I’ll love on you forever.”

  “Just don’t stop,” Forge gritted between breaths, stroking himself and tensing more and more with each movement. Gage couldn’t hold back for much longer but was determined to see Forge tumble before he allowed himself to come. Seconds later Forge arched his back, crying out loudly and deeply, coming as Gage lost his last bit of control, spilling deep inside Forge.

  He didn’t dare move. Gage slowly came back to awareness and hoped to hell he hadn’t hurt Forge when he’d lost it. However, judging by the smile on his face, Forge was just as happy as Gage, and he tugged Gage down into a sweet kiss that soothed away his worries. “I know you’ll never hurt me.”

  “But I was too rough—”

  “Nope, you were perfect.” Forge gathered him into his arms, and Gage lay still, cradled in an embrace of love he’d never expected to find again, but would fight with everything he had to protect.

  Chapter 9

  FORGE WOKE, after the best night’s sleep he’d had in months, to Gage rolling over, pulling him closer, and pressing his hard cock insistently against Forge’s ass. “You’re insatiable,” Forge teased as he flexed his butt.

  “Only for you,” Gage muttered. “Are you sore?”

  “A little.” Forge grinned, feeling cheeky. “I could definitely go for another round, but we’re supposed to meet Coleridge in half an hour. And if I’m not mistaken, Margie is out in her office. Now, you might want to show off your prowess….”

  “Oh God, no.” Gage pulled the pillow over his face. “That can’t happen,” he said, voice muffled. “I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “The end of what?” Forge asked innocently.

  “She’ll say ‘I told you so’ to me every day for the rest of my life. She’s been hounding me for years to find someone and….”

  “Well, you just tell her you were picky and had to wait for perfection.” Forge smiled as beatifically as he could, and Gage grabbed him. Forge squealed like a girl until he got hold of himself, kissed Gage, then squirmed out of his grasp. “Come on. Let’s get dressed.” Forge got out of the bed and hurried to the bathroom. He cleaned up quickly and went back to dress so they wouldn’t be late. Gage was still in bed, so Forge pulled away the covers and smacked him on his butt. “Dang. Now you laze in bed.” Forge was excited to put all this behind them and move on. The sooner they talked with Coleridge and got him whatever he needed, the better off they were going to be. “Get up, or I’ll….” He leaned forward to lightly bite Gage on the buttcheek.

  “Did you turn carnivorous?” Gage fake groused as he rolled over. “No biting anything else.” He put his hands over his dick, stood, and hurried out of the room.

  Forge giggled, watching Gage’s marked ass disappear behind the bathroom door. “We have to leave in five minutes.” He left the room and gathered the things they’d brought from the house, including the box and the original jump drive. “Do you want to bring your computer?” Forge called back once he heard Gage in the bedroom area.

  “No. Leave it here. I’ll put the spare drive in the locked files, and we’ll see what happens. I’m keeping what we have as security, and we’ll let it be known that if anything happens to us, the files will be sent to the media. That will keep everyone honest.” Gage leaned around the doorframe, grinning as he flashed Forge a glimpse of chest before disappearing once again.

  Forge finished getting things together and decided to leave the jade box where it was. There was no need to carry something that valuable along with them. “Are you ready?”

  Gage appeared in jeans and a plain red T-shirt, looking delicious even in simple clothes. “Let’s go.” He led him out of the living quarters and into the office area, where Margie smiled, waving as they passed, as she talked on the phone.

  “Good luck,” she said softly, and Forge nodded as they hurried on through to the car to get into the passenger seat. He was nervous and excited, his leg bouncing while he waited for Gage.

  It wasn’t long before they were on their way, and he grew more and more anxious the closer they got to the house he’d shared with Granger. It was funny, but it didn’t feel like home any longer. Forge wasn’t sure where home was, but that house and what it represented, combined with what had happened there, made it not feel like his home anymore.

  “I know you’re nervous.”

  “Excited.”

  “Okay, excited.” Gage smiled at him. “Just relax and we can get this over with.” He turned into the driveway, where three cars were waiting for them. Forge crouched low and turned to Gage. “It’s all right. Coleridge is getting out.”

  Forge relaxed and opened his door.

  “I’ll open the house,” Gage offered, and Forge handed him his keys. Gage went to unlock the door while Forge met Coleridge and shook his hand.

  “Who is with you?”

  “Let’s go inside and we’ll talk,” Coleridge said.

  Forge tensed and eyed the car, ready to get back inside in case they’d judged him incorrectly. After all that had happened, he was jumpy as hell.

  “It’s all right. They’re additional authorities.” Detective Coleridge motioned to the door, and Forge entered his own home, still nervous and wondering what was going to happen next. All three men followed him, then closed the door behind them. “This is Agent Shepherd with the FBI here in Milwaukee, and this is Agent Martinez with the Chicago FBI.”

  “You’ve done us a huge service,” Agent Martinez said, shaking his hand. “Our office has been investigating the Lucci family for years, but we haven’t been able to get anything concrete on them, and then you uncover the holy grail of information hauls.”

  “What are you doing with it?” Forge asked, moving into the living room.

  “We’ve had teams of people up all night analyzing what was in the files and figuring out who we could charge with what. So far our list is huge and getting bigger. We’re going to take out the heart of the entire Lucci organization. Arrest warrants are being issued as we speak, and teams of agents are flying in to execute them. We aren’t going to let anyone escape our net. Agent Shepherd here is in charge of rounding up the players in the Milwaukee area, and we have teams in St. Louis and other cities.”

  “Is one of the people being arrested Francis Peterborough?” Forge asked.

  “I can’t confirm any specific people at this time,” Agent Shepherd said.

  “Oh, you can’t?” Forge was pissed at the agent’s attitude. “Then maybe I’ll see to it that copies of all the files are sen
t to the news media.” He pulled out his phone. “All it will take is a phone call, and it hits the internet.” His temper was on a very short leash. “Hell, a text will do it.”

  “You don’t want to do that,” Coleridge said.

  “The files are mine. I inherited them from Granger, and as my property, I am free to do with them what I wish. The FBI or the government does not own them.” Forge put his foot down, insisting they were going to play it his way.

  “What do you want, Mr. Reynolds?” Agent Martinez asked coolly.

  “First, did Stanley or his men kill Granger?” Forge looked for any prevarication.

  Agent Martinez nodded. “We believe so, yes. He was trying to get possession of the information you gave to us. We’re building the case with Detective Coleridge, but it’s looking strong.”

  That was a relief. At least Granger could rest easily. His killer would be brought to justice. “Is Francis going to be arrested?” Forge asked again, taking Gage’s hand. The confidence he’d had a few moments earlier began to fade.

  The agents exchanged glances. “Yes, he is,” Agent Shepherd answered.

  “Good. I want to be there when you do it. And just so you know, I’ve been kidnapped, chased, threatened, eavesdropped on, followed, scared, nervous, frightened, and wondering if I was going to be killed… all in the last few days. So, believe me, after that, I’ll take on the entire US government to get what I want.” He squeezed Gage’s hand, and the agents conferred.

  “You know this is very irregular.”

  “Yes. But I want to be there, and I want you to do it in the office in front of everyone. I want humiliation. I can even help you make sure he’s there. I’ll send him a message to say that I’m willing to sell him Granger’s share of the firm. He’d wet himself in front of a jury for that.” They were not going to tell Forge no. This was the one thing that was nonnegotiable.

  “All right. But we’ll assign you an agent that you must stay with the entire time.”