Shatter (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 2)

by Jocelynn Drake

  Those hands of the cop’s were telling as he slowly rolled his palms around the wheel. “You think he’d go out with me?”

  “You also don’t strike me as someone who suffers from self-doubt. Cut the crap, Holly, and tell me what’s holding you back.”

  Hollis threw him a glance. “You’re right. I’m not the type to listen to what you called ‘good advice’ and I don’t usually hesitate to go after what I want. And I do. Want him. He’s so damned gorgeous, he takes away my breath. But he’s also…kind of fancy. And sweet. I’m not used to sweet and I honestly feel a little like a bull in a china shop around him.”

  “Don’t let that sweetness fool you. He’s tough.”

  “I can tell. But I’m a big guy and for some reason, he has three other big men hovering around him like he’s something fragile. There’s a story there. And before you say anything, no I don’t want to hear it from you or anyone other than Ian. If he ever wants to share. But now that I know he was somehow involved with…Jagger—” He cursed, his cheeks flushing with obvious anger.

  Snow didn’t say anything. Jagger’s activities were no secret and the only reason he wasn’t in prison was he had fantastic security hiding most of his activities, and the best lawyers money could corrupt on his payroll. He stared at the cop and felt a sort of grudging respect for him. He paid attention and he cared. A lot.

  That was something they shared in common.

  He turned away, watched the passing homes with their tiny, brown front yards and sagging chain link fences. The auto body shop was up on the west side in an older, blue-collar neighborhood that had struggled through the recession. More than a few had their windows boarded up and foreclosure notices. Cincinnati had lost several manufacturing plants in the past few years and these people were still looking for a way to make ends meet.

  The silence felt thick, nearly as thick as the smell of stale French fries. He knew he should let the man know it was okay for him to ask Ian out. He did want his friend to be happy and for some reason his yeah, kind of fancy friend, liked this raggedy-edged detective. Snow sighed.

  “You should ask him out. It might help take his mind off the fact that he lived and Melissa didn’t.” Even just saying that aloud caused Snow to rub his chest. If he found Gratton, it would take everything he had not to beat his face all the way in this time.

  “There’s the place,” Hollis murmured as he squinted through the snow hampering their view.

  “Fuck,” Snow growled when they pulled up to the place. This wasn’t a rinky-dink hole-in-the-wall body shop. The place had doors for at least four bays and there was a massive fenced off parking lot filled with an assortment of cars, trucks, and vans. The truck wasn’t sitting out front in the open like Snow had been hoping.

  Hollis swore beside him, shifting in his seat one way and then another, trying to see as many of the vehicles in the lot as possible. “Damn it, Frost. I don’t see it and without probable cause, I’m not going to get a warrant to go mucking around in there.”

  A wicked grin slid across Snow’s lips as he looked at the detective. “What the hell do we need a warrant for? My car was dropped off here and I’ve got to get my badge out of it for work. You’re just a friend giving me a ride and helping me find my car.”

  Hollis closed his eyes and sighed heavily, but Snow could see the answering smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “And if we should just happen to see a truck that matches the one we’re looking for…”

  “Well, that’s just luck, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Fuck, Frost. I can see you’re going to get me fired eventually.”

  Chuckling and shaking his head, Snow pulled a black wool hat out of his pocket. He’d shoved this one in his coat this morning since Ian still had the one he usually kept there. Climbing out of the car, Snow led the way to the office. The cramped, dingy area smelled strongly of motor oil, exhaust fumes, and burned coffee. There were two heavily worn seats patched with silver duct tape and a small table covered in ratty magazines that looked to be years old.

  A young man with several days’ growth on his cheeks and blood-shot eyes lounged behind a counter, typing slowly on a computer that looked as if it were at least two decades old. Even from across the room, Snow could smell the pot fumes wafting from his clothes.

  Slumping his shoulders and slowing his gait, Snow walked up to the counter, his hands shoved into the pockets of his coat, while Hollis remained just a step behind him. “Hey man, can you help me out?”

  “Umm… sure. What can I do for you?” the stoner inquired, lifting his eyes from the tiny computer screen to look from Snow to Hollis and then back to Snow.

  “My girlfriend dropped her car off here the other day. She did a total fucking number on it this time. Trashed the entire driver’s side when she sideswiped a cop car and then clipped a telephone pole.”

  Hollis snickered behind him while the stoner on the other side of the counter winced. “Your girlfriend is a total idiot,” Hollis teased.

  Snow spun around and gave Hollis a hard shove in the shoulder, causing him to rock back a step. “Fuck you!”

  “Why the hell you still with her, bro?” Hollis said. There was so much laughter sparkling in the detective’s eyes that Snow was having trouble keeping a straight face. “You can do better than her.”

  “Hell. Nobody gives head as good as my girl.”

  Both Hollis and the stoner laughed loudly, and some of the tension left Snow’s frame.

  “Dude, that’s a pretty good reason,” the stoner admitted, shaking his head. “Why don’t you tell me your girl’s name? I’ll look up to see if they started on her car.”

  “Nah, she said you won’t be able to get to it for another couple days. Parts or something,” Snow said with an absent wave of his hand. “I just need to get in the glove compartment and get my damn badge for work or my boss is gonna have my nuts.”

  “Oh fuck man!” the stoner groaned.

  “Look, I got her spare key.” Snow held up his own keys in his hand, being careful to hide the Lexus fob in his fist. “You mind if I just go in your lot and find the car? It’ll just take me a minute.”

  “Yeah, sure man. Go for it.”

  Snow grinned and gave Hollis a playful shove back toward the door. He wasn’t surprised the guy was willing to let Snow and Hollis wander around the lot. They both seemed harmless and it meant he didn’t have to haul his own ass out into the cold.

  “Why do I feel like that was the first time you ever uttered the word ‘girlfriend’?” Hollis mocked as soon as they were away from the office.

  Snow snorted, shoving his hands back into his pockets to keep them warm. “Because that was. You?”

  “What?” Hollis nearly stumbled to a stop, his blond eyebrows jumping to his hairline.

  “Ever had a girlfriend?” Snow prodded.

  The cop shrugged and continued into the large lot filled with cars, trucks, and minivans — all in various stages of repair. Fat snowflakes were steadily covering them, painting them all a speckled white, while the wind swirled around little drifts across the broken blacktop. “Ehh… tried in high school a bit. Didn’t really work for me. Haven’t gone back.”

  They walked around the lot in silence for a couple of minutes, searching for the black delivery truck that witnesses had described, but they weren’t seeing it. Snow huffed in frustration, standing in what felt like the center of the lot and turning in place. The truck had to be there. No way Gidget was wrong.

  “Hey!” Hollis shouted, jerking Snow’s attention to him. He found the detective pointing to the far corner where a tall black delivery van was half hidden beside a truck and a large van that looked like it had escaped from the eighties.

  Snow quickly started moving toward it and Hollis was at his side in a couple of steps. His heart pounded in his chest, hope squeezing his lungs so that he could hardly draw a breath. As they cleared the last row of cars, they could easily see the extensive damage done to the front passenger side
and the black paint scraped across the front fender. The exact same damage that would have been caused if the driver had come up alongside of Melissa and rammed her SUV into the on-ramp.

  Hollis circled back and forth in front of the truck, and then squatted by the front bumper. He didn’t touch anything, but he did snap a few pictures on his phone.

  Snow walked around to the driver’s side and reached for the handle.

  “Hey now,” Hollis called out. “I know you know better than to touch. I want to call out a team to go over it because I’m sure you’re right. This is it.”

  Snow stood on his toes and stared into the driver’s window. Gratton had sat in that fucking seat and deliberately ran his friends off the road. He was pretty sure that Rowe had been the intended target and his gut twisted in fury. He wanted to get inside and look the seat and floorboard over himself, wanted proof.

  Growling, he wished he’d not caved and called the cop—but he’d felt like maybe they owed him one after he let them off the hook the night before. He thought again about Geoffrey and that micro cam on the choker. He was pretty sure the dirty-minded little guy had gone home with that camera.

  And speaking of camera…he looked up and at first didn’t spot any, but a small thrill of success shot through him when he spotted the half-hidden lenses. He pointed. “Looks like they might have video.”

  Hollis stood with a creak of leather and walked to stand beside him. “I’ve investigated Dwight Gratton and he’s not stupid enough to have parked this vehicle where cameras could see him. This had to have been moved already.” He walked around to look at the pavement. “Yeah, I can tell from the snow that it has been.”

  “He is smart. I’ve had dealings with him. But he might not have noticed that camera across the street at that mom and pop store. I bet they wouldn’t mind letting a cop take a look.”

  Banner had a wicked laugh. “I’d bet you’re right. I’m going inside this place to tell them not to touch this truck and to call my people out.” Banner started to walk away and stopped, swinging back to Snow. “Thanks for calling me. We’re going to get this fucker. I swear it.”

  There was no denying the warmth that spread through Snow at Hollis’s heartfelt words. Snow and his friends had incredibly personal reasons for wanting to get Gratton, but seeing the fierceness in Banner’s eyes, Snow had to admit that the case had become incredibly personal for him as well.

  ###

  Snow was due to meet Jude in fifteen minutes, but here he sat, naked, on Lucas’s guest bed. He still had to shower, pick out something to wear for his date, but all he could do was stare at Rowe’s face on his phone. Months ago, Rowe had passed out on Lucas’s couch with Ian’s sock-clad foot on his face. Snow had snapped the shot of him drooling and set it as his contact photo. Cracked him up every time Rowe called.

  But Rowe no longer called.

  He didn’t answer his goddamned phone whenever his friends called either. It had been only days, but it felt like months.

  Snow flipped over to Jude so he could text him that he was running late and his shoulders jerked in surprise when he saw a picture came up. He hadn’t assigned one. Jude, his hair a mess, with the sexiest, sleepiest grin stretching those pretty lips stared up at him from the screen. And next to him, Snow, with his face buried in Jude’s neck. Sleeping. Actually snuggling. He didn’t remember plastering himself to the man like that.

  From the look on his face, Jude liked it. He liked it a lot.

  Something stirred in Snow’s chest. There was a level of trust in the image that didn’t compute with a first night together. He stared at the way Jude cupped the back of his neck with his free hand. Possession. There was so much proprietorship in that hold, like the man was claiming him and taking pictorial proof of the moment. Heart beating hard, Snow narrowed his eyes, unable to remove his gaze from that hand in the picture. He faintly remembered Jude’s fingers stroking over his skin there. He hadn’t been all the way asleep.

  He suddenly wanted to take this as far as it would go. He wanted it—wanted Jude. Needed to see if this wild electricity between them could translate into something bigger. It made his palms sweat and made his heart beat with something more than lust—something a lot like terror and excitement. He also knew what he wanted to give the man that night—again—so he hurriedly typed out the late text and took a very thorough shower. He was going to be ready for anything this time.

  When he came out, he wrapped a towel around his waist, sat on the bed, and dialed Rowe.

  “Hey,” he said softly into the phone. “I miss you.” He paused, took a deep breath. “I know you need this time and I understand. I can’t even imagine losing Lucas, Ian or you but to lose a…mate. I’m so sorry, Rowe. Sorry I wasn’t there. At UC.” His voice broke this time. He stopped to clear his throat and try to stop the tears burning his eyes.

  “Remember that time I went home with that guy and misjudged what he wanted. Got my ass beaten pretty badly. I knew Lucas would be livid, so I called you. You scraped me up off the sidewalk and took care of me, then proceeded to fuck that guy’s life up. He couldn’t get a loan for a damn couch when you were done with him.” He laughed. “I didn’t ask you to do that, but you know what it told me? You love me. Like Lucas does. The four of us and maybe more now…we’re family. So, I want you to forgive me for not being at the hospital that night. I need you to forgive me. I’m not going to be needing you to scrape me off anyone’s sidewalk again.” He lowered his voice because it was shaking. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  He buried his fingers in the soft towel on his lap. “I want something more than that now.” He took another deep breath. “There’s something else. Dwight Gratton is back. That car accident wasn’t an accident. He killed our Mel and he’s not done, Rowe. Come home.”

  He shut off his phone, looked up and saw Jude standing in the doorway, eyes narrowed on Snow.

  Snow knew Jude had heard too much, but he couldn’t stop the smile. A real one because he was happy to see him.

  Brown eyes flared wide and in the next instant Jude was through the door, shutting it firmly behind him. He strode to the bed, reached for Snow’s chin and held his face up to his. “You make my heart stop. I’ve gotta kiss you but don’t you dare lose that smile.”

  “You’ll be kissing my teeth.”

  “Don’t care.” Jude pressed mouth to Snow’s and instead of the plundering, head-swirling kisses they’d shared before, he pressed his lips to Snow’s upper lip, softly. This kiss, so much like that first, soft, stolen one in the hospital, scrambled Snow’s brain entirely. He reached up to thread his fingers in Jude’s hair, loving the way it curled around his knuckles. Jude slipped his hand around Snow’s throat and around to cup the back of his neck and he remembered the image on his phone.

  All his blood ran south and he started to tug Jude down onto the bed, but the man pulled back.

  He straightened, pupils blown wide with lust, breaths coming fast and hard, yet he backed up. “No. We don’t have time for what I want to do to you right now. We have a date to get to.”

  Snow stood and let the towel drop to the floor. “Let’s start the date now.” He smiled again.

  Jude groaned and shut his eyes. “No fair. No fair with the naked and the smile.”

  “I never said I played fair.” Snow’s voice was barely more than a rumble in his throat.

  Eyes still closed, Jude ran his hands through his hair, tugging on it in obvious frustration. “Trust me, I want inside your body more than I want just about anything, but I promised my mana.”

  “Come on,” Snow coaxed, then lost his smile. “Mana? That’s Greek for mom. Did you say mom?”

  Jude opened his eyes, his gaze raking over Snow’s nude form. “Absolutely fucking gorgeous. Please, you have to get dressed.”

  “Not until you explain the mom comment.”

  “Family dinner night. You’re going with me.”

  “Oh, no. Hell no even. It’s a little early to be meet
ing the parents and besides, I’m not ‘meet the mom’ material.”

  “Oh, you’re wrong there.” Jude walked to him, slid one hand down his chest. “Will it make you feel better to know Rebecca is coming, too? I do this all the time. No biggie. It’ll just be me, bringing two of my good friends.” He slid his hand lower, curled his fingers around Snow’s hard dick. “Can’t help myself.”

  “Is Rebecca here?”

  “No.”

  “So she’s not a part of our date?”

  “Of course not.”

  “How’d you get in?”

  “Andrei let me in. He wasn’t staying long.”

  “And I’m just a good friend?” Snow looked down. “None of my usual good friends are comfortable holding my dick like that.”

  Jude tightened his hand. “None of them better be holding it even if it’s uncomfortably.”

  Snow narrowed his eyes. “The only person touching my cock lately is you.”

  Brown eyes locked with his and they stared at each other as Jude ran his thumb over the head of Snow’s dick. When Jude grinned, Snow wasn’t sure how he kept himself from coming—just from that.

  “Come on, General,” he whispered. “I wanna introduce you to my family.”

  Snow stared for the longest time. He wanted more. He’d told Rowe’s phone he wanted more. But this would be the first time he’d met anyone’s family and he had no idea how he would get through this.

  ###

  Anna Torres handed Snow a plate and pointed at the stove. “Hope you aren’t one of those people who stays away from carbs.” She stepped behind Snow and waggled her eyebrows at Jude and gave him a thumbs up. She had her black hair pulled up into a high ponytail and her still youthful face made her look ten years younger than her fifty years. He could have done without the rainbow shirt with the two male unicorns. Unicorns dueling with their horns. Worst shirt he’d ever seen. Where the hell did she find these?

  He just shook his head and watched Snow eyeballing the huge pans of food covering the stove. His mother never did anything traditionally. She didn’t offer one main dish and two sides. No, she served choices and there were always at least three carb-laden selections. She also loved mixing up her own Greek dishes with those she’d learned to make for his Spanish father. When Jude had lived at home, he’d had to work hard to resist picking them all. Plus, he’d worked out twice as often as he did now.