Finding You

by Max Hudson

Chapter Six

  Adrian Crow

  Simon was quiet as they once more climbed into the car and set off, taking familiar roads back toward Minnie’s place. Familiar mostly because it really was the only way to get there, otherwise Adrian would have been tempted to weave through some side streets.

  He really wasn’t convinced that they were the only people interested in Minnie’s suspicious absence.

  Adrian glanced sidelong at his silent companion as they reached an open stretch of road. Simon wasn’t really looking at anything, as far as he could tell, his brow leaned up against the glass of the window, eyes rather vague and unfocused.

  It had been difficult before not to let his mind wander with Simon. Less so over the last forty-eight hours, considering the more-than-a-little stressful circumstances. Adrian had to admit he spent more time than really should have been necessary dragging himself out of. He was going to go with risqué ponderings whenever he was alone with Minnie’s childhood best friend.

  Now that he actually knew what that experience could be like, his mind wandered a little.

  He quickly tried to school his imagination back under control, rolling his shoulders back in an effort to ease some tension and clearing his throat. “Right, so. We can probably just get in through the back, like we did yesterday “I locked the door behind us when we left but it wasn’t too hard to pick.”

  He frowned even as he said that. Minnie really should invest in some sort of alarm system, he had been telling her that for years.

  Of course, that fact that she hadn’t listened to him did make their job a little easier, at least for now.

  “Okay,” Simon replied in a low rumble. Adrian glanced over at him again and saw that he had lifted his shoulders up toward his ears a bit, as though he was trying to go back to that “shrink down and hope people think I’m smaller than I am” thing.

  His heart sort of twinged guiltily. He got the very distinct feeling that he was at least partially responsible for that posture.

  He knew Simon wanted to talk about what had happened back at his apartment. He knew that they probably should talk about it. Just not right now. There was too much going on, and he had known they were both stressed and worried and really just on edge in every sense of the term, and that had been an almost unavoidable culmination of it all, a sense of release from the building pressure.

  He also knew that eventually—in a few minutes, a few hours, maybe a few days—Simon was going to point all that out. Politely, of course, because even when Adrian was annoying the shit out of him, he knew the other man struggled to be polite. He would point all that out and then say it was nice, thank you very much, but it really hadn’t meant anything.

  “I’ve been hate-flirting with you for years! If you thought that’s what I was doing with Mina but you can’t pick it up when it’s directed at you. God help you, I guess.”

  “You what?”

  “Oh my God. You heard me. I know you’re not stupid, Simon.”

  Adrian winced and blew through the next yellow light a bit faster than maybe he really should have. Speaking of things I should have done—not said that is pretty damn high on the list right now.

  “Jesus.” He heard Simon’s mutter from the passenger seat and glanced over again to see him pressed back against the seat of the car next to him.

  A tiny smirk curved at his lips as he turned the corner onto Minnie’s street. “Not much for breaking the speed limit? Don’t worry about it, I know the traffic cops’ routes around here inside and out.”

  Simon shook his head, a motion Adrian just barely caught out of the corner of his eye.

  “Not that,” he murmured softly. “Guess I just forgot. You can go a little too fast for me.”

  That pretty effective shut Adrian up until they came to Minnie’s house. He’d slowed down a bit. They were in a residential area after all, he wasn’t a complete madman. Then he kept driving to bring them around to the end of the street.

  Simon frowned—the puzzled frown, not the “what in all hell are you doing why are you so irritating, Crow” frown—and opened his mouth. Adrian was prepared to rebut whatever he was about to say. However, before he could Simon snapped his mouth closed again with a sharp click of his teeth.

  “You think someone might notice us pulling up to her house?” he asked after a moment.

  Adrian, trying to find as inconspicuous a place to park as he could manage, tilting his head slightly toward the other man and shot him a quick, lopsided smile. “Hey, look at you. You’re learning,” he praised.

  Simon shifted and grumbled in his seat, but for just a second Adrian thought he caught a glimpse of a pleased smile flicker across his face.

  He had the distinct feeling he still wasn’t going to listen to him.

  ***

  After finding a place to park. Adrian was fairly confident it was far enough away not to draw attention. It was also close enough that they could make a run for it if need be. They wound up wrapping back up around to the top of the street and approaching Minnie’s house from the opposite direction.

  To Adrian’s slight surprise, Simon hadn’t even complained about the circuitous route. Maybe he’d figured out and accepted by now why Adrian was—admittedly—a little paranoid about these things. Or maybe it was just that same, general silence from the car ride here.

  “Okay, you’re the lookout, yeah?” Adrian muttered, forcing himself back to the present, to focus, as they once again slipped in through the back gate to Minnie’s yard and approached the house.

  “Got it,” Simon murmured in reply, planting himself by the back door while Adrian got to work. Since he’d brought his work bag, he had an actual set of lock picks this time, which made the whole process much smoother.

  Simon noticed. Adrian could feel his gaze flicker over to him every so often as he worked.

  “No bobby pins?”

  “No dance recital today,” he replied flippantly, just as he managed to click the door open. He blew out a sharp breath through pursed lips, a bit pleased with himself, then straightened up to take a step inside the house. “Okay. One of us should take upstairs, one downstairs, then switch. We might notice things the other didn’t, and we were in a bit of a rush last time—”

  His voice cut off sharply as the distinct thud thud thud of a heavy, booted tread sounded above his head.

  Almost at the same moment, heard Simon swear under his breath, voice bordering on panicky, and the other man quickly slipped into the house behind him and gave his shoulders a shove, hissing, “Someone at the gate, didn’t get a good look but I don’t like this.”

  “Someone’s upstairs,” Adrian hissed back, eyes wide as they flickered rapidly around the room.

  Hide. They had to hide, had to find a place to hide.

  The footsteps upstairs sounded again. Simon’s eyes went even rounder. They both just stared at each other for a moment, hardly daring to breathe, minds racing.

  Adrian’s gaze lit on the door to the hall closet and he nodded toward it meaningfully.

  Simon shook his head, mouthing, “No way out.” He glanced back over his shoulder, probably searching for the intruder at the gate, trying to see if they had made it into the yard yet.

  Adrian grabbed his arm and all but dragged him into the hallway and then into the closet, turning around to quickly, quietly pull the door closed behind them. His heart was racing, breathing rapid and shallow. He tried to force it to even out, quiet down.

  Adrian thought he managed it, but pressed back against Simon’s chest in the tiny space he was suddenly surrounded by the near thunderous sound of the larger man’s own panicked breaths and stuttered heartbeat. He couldn’t risk speaking at all, couldn’t tell him that he had to calm down, couldn’t do anything.

  Impulsively, he reached back and grabbed Simon’s hand, holding tight. For a moment, there was no reaction. Then Simon squeezed back, lacing their fingers together firmly, and wrapped his arm forward around Adrian’s chest to pull the smaller man
back against him.

  They stood there in the dark, pressed so tightly together it was honestly hard to tell whose heartbeat was whose, and both stared at the door in utter, terrified silence.

  The footsteps again from above. This time moving toward the stairs. Then growing louder as they descended.

  Another sound, a sharp knock at the back door. A muffled curse from the hallway just beyond their flimsy barrier of protection. Then footsteps moving toward the back door and a low, irritated voice muttering, “Told him to wait back at the car.”

  The voice faded slightly, too difficult to make out no matter how Adrian strained to hear. He was fairly sure that the loudest sound in that closet was his own heartbeat.

  Simon’s too loud breaths had been replaced with no breathing at all as they both just stood and stared at the door. Adrian though it was entirely possible that he might just break to pieces at the slightest touch.

  Two voices now, the first from the intruder that had been upstairs and the second unfamiliar—well, both were unfamiliar. That was sort of the terrifying part.

  The voices moved closer, it sounded like they were arguing. Adrian pressed even more firmly back against Simon. He felt the other man shift behind him, then quite suddenly he was shuffled back to be pressed against the wall of the closet. One of Simon’s arms braced beside his head while his body curved undeniably protectively around Adrian, the other arm circling his waist tightly.

  They both held their breath as the voices became clear enough to make out individual words again.

  “Well, I’m not seeing anything around here.”

  “You really think she’d be that sloppy? If we’re right…”

  The voices faded again, moving back upstairs. Adrian could feel his whole body vibrating with the tension as he tried to remain still. She. Minnie. They really were after Minnie.

  He didn’t realize until that moment that, despite everything he’d been saying over the last two days, there had been a part of him that didn’t even believe himself. That thought—hoped—that this really all would turn out to be some sort of weird, irritating misunderstanding.

  The voices and footsteps gradually faded further, until Adrian and Simon could hear them moving around overhead. Adrian took a breath and straightened his spine. It was now or never.

  “What are you doing?” Simon hissed in a desperate whisper as he ducked out from under his arm and crept carefully toward the closet door. Adrian waved a hand at him to silence him, pausing just as he reached the door and pressing his ear against it.

  All he could hear was his own racing heart. Exhaling a long, slow breath, he pressed gently against the door until he could peer out through a tiny slit into the hall. The coast was clear, but who knew how long that would last.

  Barely tilting his head to whisper back over his shoulder, he ordered, “We’re making a run for the back door. When I start moving, follow and stay close.”

  Simon didn’t even bother to argue, he gave a sharp nod that Adrian could only barely see in the sliver of light now streaming into their hiding place.

  He took another breath, forced down a threatening wave of panic, then pushed the door open and darted back down the hall toward the rear of the house. To his near blinding relief, Simon followed on his heels. He thought they managed to keep near silent. At that moment though, adrenaline had taken over his brain so much that he was not entirely sure how close what he heard was to reality.

  They reached the back door and hurried out, Simon just barely turning to click it shut behind them before they were darting for the gate and back out of the yard.

  “Okay.” Adrian abruptly slowed down and grabbed Simon’s hand as he started to rush passed him once they hit the sidewalk behind Minnie’s house. “Shhhh. Slow down. If we run, we look suspicious.”

  He didn’t think anyone had seen them, but they couldn’t risk it. They had to be careful. Even if every instinct was screaming at him to book it to the car. He had the feeling Simon felt similarly, judging by the very slight trembling of his hand in his.

  “Either way, if someone saw us we’ll just be leading them back to the car,” the other man hissed out of the corner of his mouth. His grip on Adrian’s hand tightened fractionally.

  Adrian winced almost imperceptibly and muttered a curse under his breath. He was right.

  “Okay,” he muttered, thinking aloud. “Okay, so we lie low somewhere close, just for an hour maybe—”

  “My place,” Simon replied quickly.

  Adrian nodded and allowed him to begin leading them as they both had to make a conscious effort not to break into a sprint. Adrian’s shoulders were so tense he was fairly sure he wouldn’t be able to detach them from his earlobes if he tried.

  Simon’s house was close, almost too close for Adrian’s comfort. However, they really did not seem to have any better options. It only took them about five minutes to reach the front door, even at their carefully maintained, sedate pace.

  Simon’s hand shook as he fished his keys out of his pocket. Despite everything, Adrian found himself silently thanking God that neither of them had had the foresight to grab Simon a proper change of clothes before crashing at his place. Simon was wearing the same pants he had been Wednesday night.

  “It’s okay,” he murmured, forcing a casual smile and reaching up one hand to rub up and down Simon’s back, trying to keep the contact light and casual, as though this sort of thing happened every day. Hopefully, anyone who happened to see them wouldn’t get suspicious about anything. “It’s gonna be okay, Simon.”

  Simon let out a shaky breath and nodded once, sharply, before he managed to get the key in the lock and shouldered the door open. “Right. Okay. Right.”

  They both slipped quickly inside, Simon hesitating in the doorway for a moment, looking up and down the street, before backing into the house and closing the door sharply. The click of the lock being reinstated almost seemed to echo around them.

  Simon pressed both palms to the door and let his brow thunk against the wood, just standing there for a long, silent moment that stretched and stretched with elastic tension. Adrian stared at his back for what felt like a long while, but was probably only a handful of seconds. Then he drew in a slightly shaky breath himself and took a cautious step forward, reaching out.

  “Hey, Dove…”

  Without warning, Simon whirled and grabbed his hand, jerking him in close and wrapping his arms around him to all but crush Adrian against his chest. Adrian bit back a startled yelp, eyes wide, and his own arms came up to hug him back, a reaction that was more instinctive than conscious.

  “You—you okay?”

  “…Yeah. I just, ah…” Simon swallowed, and Adrian could practically feel the motion of it against the top of his head as he curved over him, holding him tighter. “That was terrifying.”

  Adrian nodded a quick agreement. He tilted his head back, mouth open to say something—just what exactly he had absolutely no idea, he was hoping for something encouraging.

  Before he could get anything out, Simon’s lips came crashing down on his, kissing him breathless. Adrian’s eyes widened and he was frozen, caught between stunned bafflement and desperately wanting to kiss him back.

  But, before he could exactly make up his mind about which to give in to, Simon had pulled away again, eyes downcast and mumbling, “Sorry, that was—I shouldn’t have…”

  Adrian stared up at him for a moment, mind and heart racing, though in completely opposite directions. Simon was scared, they both were, and he’d probably done that on an impulse, seeking comfort.

  “No.” Adrian reached up to curve his fingers around the back of Simon’s neck, starting to pull him down again. “You absolutely should.”

  He thought he caught a trace of a smile tugging at Simon’s lips before they were kissing again, hot and hungry and bordering on frantic. His free hand moved to the small of Simon’s back, pressing him closer, and he quickly reciprocated by wrapping both arms around Adrian’s waist
and breathtakingly easily lifting him up onto his toes so he could deepen the kiss.

  Adrian made a small, startled noise against his mouth, then chuckled a little for that. “Get you a man who can princess carry you, I guess,” he snorted to himself as he turned his attention to marching a quick path of kisses down the column of Simon’s throat.

  Simon, who’s lips were pressed to the soft skin just beneath his ear and making him shiver quite agreeably, suddenly paused. “All right.”

  Adrian’s eyes widened. “Hold on, what—?”

  Before he could get anything else out, Simon had bent slightly to place one arm behind his knees, the other supporting the back of his shoulders, and scooped him up.

  “Simon!”

  He turned his head just in time to catch the near wicked smirk that flashed across the other man’s face. “Not exactly the context I’d imagine you calling my name, but I suppose we’ll get there.”

  That sent another shiver scurrying down his spine. It wasn’t even mitigated by the flush that spread over Simon’s cheeks even as he said it. If anything, that was somewhat more enticing. It reminded him just how damned endearing he could be, even like this.

  “You sure?” Was all he managed to rasp out, looking up into those warm brown eyes, one arm automatically looping around the back of his neck.

  Simon didn’t even hesitate. He nodded once, firmly. “Yeah.” He adjusted his grip slightly to bring Adrian closer and press a soft, lingering kiss to his lips.

  If he had been standing, Adrian was pretty sure his knees would have been shaking.

  “I—I think I need this,” Simon whispered as they parted, though he was still so close Adrian could feel his breath tickling at his lips. “I need you.”

  His heart did a strange backflip that sent it rocketing to his stomach, and then leaping back up into his throat. Adrian just stared at him for a moment, knocked breathless. That didn’t sound like someone desperate for comfort, any comfort.

  “Really?”

  Simon’s lips twitched up on one side, cheeks coloring. He nodded and chuckled rather nervously, “Yeah, it surprised me, too.”