“Oh,” Morgan whispered as the truth of that statement rang in his ears. He was so grateful for this man and what he had done to save Noah. And even though Niles had supplied the hired muscle to Jacob in the first place, he’d more than made up for that fact with his actions, so Morgan owed the man, they all did.
“What do you need from me?”
“I need to know if I am turning him over to the authorities or if I am simply making him disappear. Either scenario is fine with me, I just need to know which one.”
“How certain are you that he won’t be able to beat the charges that will be brought against him?” Luther said.
Niles glanced down at his hands, “If both of your men testify against him,” he held his hand up when Morgan turned to glare at him, “and, yes, I have done my research and I know the gist of what Jacob did to both of them and I know how difficult it will be for both of them when this gets out for the entire world to hear but, if they both testify to what an abomination Jacob Knight truly is then I see zero chance of him ever seeing the light of day in the free world again.”
Morgan glanced down at Luther and then back at Niles, “I need to see if they are willing to do that.”
Niles pushed to his feet, not only his huge, muscular body but also the aura of strength around him instantly dominating the room, “Twenty-four hours,” he said.
“Understood,” Morgan replied and then he watched the man disappear just as quietly as he had appeared, which was weird. A man that large shouldn’t have the ability to move that silently, it was unnatural.
“He is something, isn’t he?” Luther said as he too stared at the door.
“I feel like I should be awed and terrified at the same time.”
A soft chuckle rumbled from Luther’s chest, “You should be.”
Nurse Bailey chose that moment to walk in, “Good morning you two handsome devils! How are you feeling today, Luther?”
“Better. Any possibility I could get some decent food today?”
“Oh, is someone’s appetite coming back?”
“Yes. And someone is very hungry,” Luther said with a growl.
Bailey chuckled as he walked over to the monitors to check them, “Put the claws away, growly bear. I’ll see what I can do.”
While Bailey messed with the equipment, Luther said, “Go, babe. Talk to them.”
Morgan knew he was talking about Noah and Jesse but he was reluctant to leave Luther. “Are you sure? I could just call them.”
“No. This is more important than that. They need to know that you will be there to support them no matter what and you can’t convey that over the phone.”
Morgan slowly climbed from the bed, lifting the rail and locking it in place as he stared down at his husband, “Okay. But I will be back soon, I promise. And no sponge baths while I’m gone, Nurse Bailey!”
“Moi? I would never,” he said with a gasp.
“Liar.”
Bailey laughed, “Fine, I’ll wait until you’re back and you can help. But,” he said as he pulled a sterile packet from his pocket, “Luther does need to be cleaned around his catheter so he doesn’t get an infection. Do you want to stay for that? Maybe help?”
“I can’t do it for you?” Morgan said as he frowned.
Bailey shook his head, “No can do, boo. Hospital policy. But you can hold his penis for me so my touching of him remains at a minimum.”
“Fine,” Morgan said with a harrumph.
Bailey handed a pair of gloves to Morgan and they both snapped them on after Morgan had carefully lifted the blankets and moved Luther’s hospital gown above his pelvis. “You were able to save his piercing?” Morgan whispered as he stared down at the gleaming piece of silver that made him shiver every time he thought about it.
“Yes, thanks to me. When he was brought in after his surgery, the doctor on duty took one look at it and demanded it be removed but I stepped in and showed the man how the catheter could still be inserted without removing it. The doc was still a little huffy that I showed him up but, fuck him, he’s an arrogant asshole anyways.”
“Thank you,” Morgan whispered as he gently wrapped his fingers around Luther’s limp cock. “What do you need me to do?”
“Take your other hand and grasp around the head, spreading him open for me so I can check inside for any signs of infection and clean around the tube.”
Bailey looked up at Luther, “Try not to get hard, love. It would be extremely uncomfortable if you did.”
“For who? You or me?” Luther said with a grunt.
Bailey snorted a laugh, “Definitely not for me,” he said and then he got serious as he nodded at Morgan.
Morgan pinched his thumb and finger around the flared head of his husband’s dick and spread his slit open. Bailey leaned down close to look inside, “Okay, looks good so far,” he said and then he used the sterile wipe to clean around the tube.
“Good job, Morgan,” he said when he stood back up.
“When can I get the fucking thing out of my dick and piss like a normal man again?” Luther growled.
“Soon, love, soon. Once the doc thinks you’re ready to stand and maybe walk around again, that puppy will be out.”
Morgan slipped his shoes on and leaned down to press a gentle kiss to Luther’s lips, “I’ll be back soon, love. I promise.”
Luther nodded at him and then stared as Morgan grabbed his phone and keys and walked out of the room.
Twenty-Nine
Noah’s hand was wet. It was warm and wet. A smile spread on his face as he realized that Charlie was lying on the deck next to the lounger and he was licking Noah’s hand. “Hey, boy,” he whispered as he ruffled the fur on Charlie’s head.
“What did I tell you about calling me, boy?”
Noah’s smile grew as he opened his eyes to find Morgan in a chair staring at Noah. But then he frowned, “How’s Luther?” he said.
“Healing. Still in the ICU but might be moved to a regular room soon.”
“And you’re here because?”
“I need to talk to you, to both of you.”
That was the moment that Noah remembered why he was sleeping in the lounger, or more specifically, why he was so warm. Jesse was plastered to his back, keeping him warm, keeping him safe from his nightmares, and they had made love….right there…..on Morgan’s comfortable deck chair.
“Um….”
Morgan rolled his eyes, “Please, Noah. Do you really think that Luther and I haven’t already fucked on every surface of this house, including the one you’re currently occupying?”
Noah glanced down at the chair because….ugh.
“This is important, Noah.”
Noah’s eyes snapped back to Morgan’s and he tensed. He’d seen that look from Morgan before and it usually meant that Noah wasn’t going to like what the man was about to say.
Noah slid his hand over Jesse’s hip and squeezed gently, “You awake, babe?”
“Yeah, I’m listening.”
Noah looked back at Morgan, “Just spit it out.”
Morgan’s head turned and he gazed out at the mountains, watching a hawk circle lazily as it searched for food, “You have two choices.”
“And they are?”
“The man who currently has Jacob in his custody can make him disappear,” he said as he looked back at Noah and Jesse to make sure they both knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Or?” Noah said.
“Or, he can turn him over to the police.”
Noah stared at Morgan for a full minute because….could it really be that easy?
“What’s the catch?” he finally said. He knew there was a catch. There was always a fucking catch.
“You’d have to testify. Both of you.”
“No……” Noah began to say but he stopped short when he heard, “Okay,” fall from Jesse’s lips.
He turned to his back so he could look into Jesse’s eyes, “Babe, it will be brutal. The prosecution will try to filet
you alive.”
“Let them. I want to do this, Noah. I want them to hear what kind of man, what kind of monster, Jacob Knight really is, I want everyone to hear.”
Noah squeezed his eyes shut. He wished he could be as strong as the man next to him, he wanted to be that strong but….
“Babe,” Jesse whispered as he cupped Noah’s cheek, “we can’t let him get away with this. But we also can’t let him die. Death is too good for a man like Jacob Knight. He deserves to spend the rest of his days in prison with only the knowledge that the horrible things he did to you and me? They didn’t break us. They only made us stronger.”
Tears slid from Noah’s eyes, “You’re right, babe, I know you’re right. But I’m so fucking scared.”
“I know. I am too. But I know I can do this, do you want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I have you there to hold me when it’s all over.”
Noah’s arms grabbed Jesse and pulled him into his chest, squeezing him so tight it was as if he were trying to forge the two of them into one person, because in that moment it felt like they were. Noah’s heart refused to beat without Jesse nearby, his lungs refused to suck in air. Noah Pierce didn’t exist without Jesse Miller by his side.
And for him, Noah would do anything, absolutely anything, including this.
“Okay,” he whispered into Jesse’s neck, sealing his fate.
If he thought living with Jacob for four years and enduring his never-ending torture was bad, it was going to be nothing compared to rehashing it all as the prosecution tried to tear him down. He really wasn’t sure they would survive this unscathed. But as long as they had each other, they could get through anything.
Thirty
Tenley ‘Ten’ Pinkerton sat at his kitchen table, his two Colt Delta Elite 10mm pistols in pieces on two separate cloths as he carefully cleaned them. They didn’t need to be cleaned. He had cleaned them just the night before. But he needed to do something, anything, to keep his dark thoughts at bay. He was feeling twitchy, really twitchy, because he hadn’t had an assignment in a while. And boredom wasn’t good for a man like Ten. In fact, boredom is almost what got him a life sentence behind bars. If not for the interference of one man, a man who stepped into Ten’s life seemingly from nowhere and pulled him back from that dark abyss that he was about to tumble over. If not for Morgan Doyle, Ten would be rotting away in a jailcell right now.
Morgan had stepped into Ten’s life, literally, just as he was about to pull that trigger and end fucking Stanley Thompson’s life. The asshole deserved it. He deserved to have his brains splattered all over that wall behind his head in that alley where he was currently fucking some twink in the mouth with his pathetic dick. The fucking homophobic, gay-bashing son of a bitch was into dudes. He didn’t deserve to breathe the same air that Tenley’s beloved Sawyer had breathed, the same air that had fled Sawyer’s lungs forever when Stanley Thompson had pressed his boot to Sawyer’s neck and crushed his windpipe. All because Sawyer was gay. He was gay and he had been nice to Stanley, he had been friendly, and Stanley had taken it as Sawyer flirting with him….and that pissed had him off.
Sawyer was a bartender for fuck’s sake, of course he was going to be nice! Or at least he had been, until Stanley and his asshole friends had ambushed Sawyer when he left work for the night. They’d dragged him into the alley behind the bar, beat him so bad his face was almost unrecognizable, crushed his windpipe and then left him there as he bled out and starved for air. Air that Stanley Thompson was currently sucking into his lungs as he got close to blowing his nut.
Ten moved his finger from the trigger guard to the trigger. He breathed out as he prepared to squeeze and then…..
“Not today, my friend,” a voice said as a huge, muscular man stepped right in front of the barrel of Ten’s gun.
“What the fuck?” Ten said on a gasp as he jerked his arm to the right and took a chunk out of the brick wall when the bullet shot out, the sound reverberating into the night, scaring away anyone in the area….including the two men currently engaged in oral copulation in the alley. Ten glanced over the hulk’s shoulder and saw Stanley darting out of the alley as he tried to tuck away his still hard dick.
Good, at least the fucker didn’t get off, Ten thought with a sadistic grin. But then he glared at the man in front of him, “He’s getting away, you motherfucker,” he growled.
“Don’t worry, he’s not going far,” the man said and sure enough, a siren pierced the air as blue lights lit up the dark and then the cop in the passenger seat jumped from the car, ran down Stanley Thompson and tackled him onto the ground.
“But…..”
“He’s going to die in prison for what he did to Sawyer, Ten. They’ve got DNA, they’ve got his boot print, they’ve got his fingerprints lifted from Sawyer’s neck and they’ve got the video.”
Ten’s eyes snapped to the stranger, “The, the, the video? But I….”
“Never turned it over? Yeah, I know. But that video that Sawyer managed to capture as he was being beaten and then lay there dying? The one that you’ve held onto so you could track this asshole down and administer justice by your own hand? That video is going to end Stanley’s life as he knows it and it’s going to allow you to continue living yours.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Ten hissed at the man.
“Then you will have failed Sawyer and you know it. He could never love the cold, heartless shell of the man that you’ve become.”
“Yeah, well, I became this monster when Sawyer was ripped right out of my heart!” he shouted as his unwanted tears sprung from the corners of his eyes.
“I know, Ten, I know. But you can live again, you can even love again,” the man said softly and those words hurt more than any he could’ve said.
“No,” Ten whispered, “no. I could never love again, I never want to love again,” then he frowned at the man, “Who the fuck are you, anyways and how do you know my name?”
The man stuck out his beefy hand, “Morgan Doyle.”
Ten glared at the man’s outstretched hand, “Am I supposed to know who the fuck you are? Because right now all I see is the man who took away my best chance of ending Stanley Thompson.”
Morgan turned, stepping up next to Ten as he lifted his chin at the scene playing out in the street at the end of the alley, “No, what I did is give you your best shot of ending Stanley Thompson and still living your life.”
“Who says I want to live my life?”
“Sawyer.”
Tenley bristled at hearing the name of the love of his life coming from this stranger’s lips, “Don’t you fucking say his name,” he growled.
Morgan chuckled, “Oh, Ten, you and I are going to be great friends just like Sawyer said we would.”
Ten’s eyebrows shot up, “Did, did you know him?”
Morgan’s chin dipped in a slight nod, “We served together.”
Ten’s eyes went wide, “You’re, you, you were his CO, weren’t you?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Holy fucking shit, you’re real.”
“Last time I checked I was.”
Ten shook his head, “No, I mean, fuck,” he huffed out in frustration as too many thoughts bombarded his brain. He blew out a breath, “I mean, Sawyer always told me how you had this amazing ability to calm things, to make everyone and everything not seem so…..hopeless. He said you were the only reason he and the other men made it through all the shit you guys went through. I thought he was inventing some mythical being with the way he almost worshiped the ground you walked on but, but, now I see why. You knew exactly where I was, you knew what I was about to do, you knew you might get shot and yet it didn’t stop you – just like Sawyer described you. Holy shit, you’re real,” he said once again.
Morgan turned and looked Ten in the eye, “I want you to come work for me, Ten.”
“Doing what?”
“Security mostly, high profile stuff, protecting big name assets.�
��
“You mean like rock stars? I don’t want a glorified babysitting job, no thanks,” he said with a snort.
“Rock stars, politicians, actors, you name it, we get it. But it’s not just that. There’s more to what we do, Ten. Just give it a try, please?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s what Sawyer wanted.”
Ten sucked in a sharp breath, “What?” he whispered.
“Sawyer and I talked frequently. He told me all about you. You were the love of his life. But he also worried, constantly.”
“Why?”
“Because you were two openly gay men living in a not gay-friendly area. He didn’t want to move but he’d never ask you to hide in the closet, so he worried. He made me make a promise to him.”
Ten’s heart pounded in his chest as he fought the urge to ask but at the same time, he needed to know, “What promise?” he finally whispered.
“That I’d come find you if anything ever happened to him. That I’d take you under my wing and keep you safe. Do you want to know why?”
Ten swallowed hard as he dipped his chin.
“He said, ‘Ten is the strongest man I know but he’ll break if something happens to me, he’ll lose his way and that would haunt me forever, Morgan. Find him, guide him, help him know that he is still needed in this world.’ I’m here tonight because I’m keeping that promise, Ten.”
Ten’s adams apple felt twenty sizes too big in his throat as he tried to swallow, tried to keep his tears at bay as he stared into eyes that, even in the dark of night, were so intense and yet caring at the same time. He finally lost his fight and collapsed onto Morgan’s chest as the sobs finally came, tears that he hadn’t cried since Sawyer was taken from him, feelings that he locked away when he buried his love. They poured forth like a river whose dam had shattered. His fingers clutched into Morgan’s shirt as he cried and Morgan’s strong arms wrapped around him as he whispered, “Come on, Ten. It’s time to go home.”
Blackbird Fly Home (Doyle Global Securities Book 1) Page 17