Finishing the order form, Craig hit the confirm button and closed out of the site. Standing, he valiantly tried to ignore Synn’s arm brushing against his body. “Let’s go find you a couple of shirts,” he said. His plan was to continue to talk nonstop and hope Synn would cooperate and keep things impersonal. In a professional tone of voice, Craig started getting Synn familiar with their department. “Of course we are in what we call the bullpen. All the desks have interconnected computers. The investigators have their own, while the deputies kind of find one and stick with it. The storage closet is this way.” Craig was relieved when Synn followed him and hadn’t said anything more about them needing to talk.
They ended up being stopped by each deputy who proceeded to introduced themselves to Synn. Craig was impressed. Synn remembered each officer’s name and treated them with respect. Craig had heard stories of Chief Deputies in other counties letting the position go to their heads and treating their underlings like personal slaves. Those counties ended up having a high turnover rate.
Finally they made it to the storage closet. The second Craig entered the decent-size room, the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. Tension radiated through the air and Craig instinctively knew he was in deep trouble.
Hands enclosed around his shoulders and forcibly turned him to face an angry Synn.
“Why did you leave last night?” Synn demanded, leaning over until their faces were only inches apart.
“Why would I stick around so you could give me the brush off,” Craig countered.
“I did no such thing. I bought you a beer,” Synn said.
“You wouldn’t look me in the eye. When I asked if you had been in town long, you gave me some vague bullshit answer. There was no way I was going to stay around and listen to you give me the, it’s been fun but, speech,” Craig replied angrily.
Craig’s head snapped back when Synn gave him a little shake. “I was watching what I perceived was a drug deal taking place behind you next to the dance floor. I was not brushing you off. In fact I was going to ask you to come back to my hotel room for the night.”
Okay, that changed things in Craig’s mind. Except now they had a different problem. “I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t go with you, as you’re my superior now.” Craig pushed away the stupid pain he felt when he said that statement.
Synn’s dark brown eyes studied him so intently Craig couldn’t stop his feet from shifting around. Finally Synn said, “Come on.”
With his hand caught in the trap of Synn’s large hand, Craig was pulled out the closet, and into Steve’s office suite before he could put up any kind of objection.
Synn ignored a stunned Jane, Steve’s loyal secretary, who watched wide-eyed as Synn stalked past her right into Steve’s office.
“Sorry to disturb you,” Synn said, pulling Craig up to stand next to him.
“What’s up, guys?” Steve asked, looking up from a pile of papers on his desk...
For a second, Craig though he saw the sheriff smile. But he must have been imaging things.
“Is there any county or departmental rule concerning law enforcement officers dating each other or being involved in a relationship?” Synn asked.
“What?” Craig exclaimed. Was the guy nuts? A blow job did not mean they were dating or in any of this relationship thing Synn was talking about.
“Quiet, baby,” Synn ordered.
Craig could feel his blood pressure rise and his face flushing in embarrassment. The man had called him baby in front of the sheriff.
The sheriff cleared his throat and said, “Um, no. There are no rules about relationships between employees, although I would appreciate it if you kept it somewhat professional during work hours.”
Biting his lips together, Craig’s irritation ratcheted up a notch. The sheriff was definitely holding back laughter. “Well, that won’t be a problem, sheriff, since there is no relationship to be concerned about,” he firmly stated.
Breaking free, Craig left the sheriff’s office and headed back to the storage closet. Grabbing a couple of shirts in Synn’s size, Craig shut the cabinet and turned to leave, only to be shoved back against its hard surface.
Lips covered his and a tongue forced its way into Craig’s mouth. A hand delved into his hair, pulling out the rubber band that secured it away from his face. Synn’s big body pressed tightly against his, trapping Craig so he couldn’t move.
Synn’s kiss demanded Craig’s submission. A hard thigh moved between Craig’s legs and pressed against his cock. The plastic-covered shirts landed on the tiled floor with a plop when Synn’s thigh started rubbing unmercifully against Craig’s dick. A red haze of desire clouded Craig’s mind pushing away his irritation. He could only cling to the soft fabric of Synn’s blazer as Synn’s tongue fucked his mouth and his unrelenting thigh brought Craig to the point of no return.
Struggling to breathe, Craig pulled his mouth away, leaving some strands of his hair painfully tangled around Synn’s fingers in the process.
“Synn, please,” he pleaded. “Don’t make me come here.”
Relentless, Synn’s kept moving his tool of bitter sweet magic against Craig’s poor cock. Squirming, desperately trying to not come, Craig tried again. “Please, Synn, please. It’ll show through my pants.”
Synn stopped moving his leg, but kept it pressed tight. Craig froze, hoping against hope that he could control his balls that were threatening to pull up and unload.
“Have dinner with me tonight,” Synn demanded.
“Ah, I have plans,” Craig answered. Seeing Synn’s face harden, he rushed to say, “But I can easily change them. They weren’t important anyway.”
“Are you sure you can change them?” Synn asked.
“Yeah, no problem,” Craig answered quickly.
Slowly Synn’s thigh eased away and Craig’s head was pulled against Synn’s shoulder.
“Take deep easy breaths, baby. From now on you won’t come until I say you can.”
Craig tried to lift his head, but the hand buried in his hair held him securely. The guy had to be joking. Craig would not have blue balls for anyone. Whether he had a partner in his life or not he averaged two orgasms a day.
Glancing up, Craig could see that Synn was serious. Craig decided it might be best to go along with the crazy man’s preposterous idea. The way Craig figured it, what he did when he was alone was his own business.
Breathing in through his nose and letting the air out of his mouth calmed him enough to get some control back. Except once he was calm, Synn’s clean fresh scent tantalized him and made his cock start plumping up again.
“You need to change your shirt so we can tour the building,” he murmured, managing to slightly tip his head up.
“I suppose if we stay here much longer, it will be noticed,” Synn conceded.
Synn dropped a warm kiss on Craig’s lips one more time before he was released. Craig watched as the big man shrugged the charcoal-gray dress jacket off and carefully set it on one of the shelves. Reaching down Synn took ahold of the bottom of his black T-shirt and pulled it over his head, his long ponytail swinging.
Standing in front of him, Synn paused and let Craig look his fill. The man was gorgeous with his long blue-black hair combined with acres of dark skin that covered wide shoulders, a muscled chest and tight six-pack abs. A colorful tattoo covered one shoulder and ran down his entire arm. Craig had a weakness for tattoos and always thought that someday he would like one, or three.
Craig studied the brightly colored tattoo for a few seconds until Synn’s large dark brown nipples drew his attention. He longed to draw one into his mouth and suck it deeply. Then he noticed one nipple was almost bisected completely with a freshly healed wound.
Frowning Craig saw still pink, thick raised scars, decorating Synn’s chest and belly. By the look of them these injuries were made to cause pain, but not death. Synn shifted, drawing Craig’s gaze away from the scars.
Craig’s eyebrows ros
e when he took in the strap around Synn’s wrist holding a knife in place. When Synn bent down and picked up one of the packaged tan uniform shirts from the floor, another knife sat in the small of Synn’s back. Craig looked at the dress jacket on the shelf and wondered what secrets it held.
Forgetting the weapons Craig enjoyed the play of muscles dancing under dark tan skin as Synn shoved one arm into the sleeve of the dress shirt.
The closet door loudly rattled next to Craig, making him jump when someone pounded on it.
Troy’s urgent voice called, “Craig, Chief Deputy, dispatch just reported someone called 911 and told them they found a dead body in one of the dumpsters behind the church on Melborn Street.”
Chapter Four
Leonel Heartland lay back against the high quality leather sofa cushion, and enjoyed the soreness of his muscles and slightly swollen hands. Playing with and killing the twink last night had been one of the most delightful experiences he’d had since getting out of prison.
Even after supplying the little blond with cocaine and slipping a little something into his drink, the guy had enough fight left in him to make it one hell of a good time for Leonel. He had been so hard by the time he finished using a straight razor on the man, he had pounded the guy’s ass for hours. In the shape the guy was in by that time, Leonel could easily pretend the guy was his Craig.
Leonel had ended the night, at least for the blond, by beating him with his fists until he was dead. Leonel’s own night ended, covered in blood, and ordering one of his lower-level drug dealers to ride his dick until he shot his wad into him. He could still hear the man’s lovely high-pitched pleadings between grunts of pain, begging Leonel to use a condom.
The guy shouldn’t have worried about it. Leonel took care of him by slashing his throat with his favorite switchblade and let him roll around the floor until he died.
He instructed the trusty Luis to dispose of the bodies, and Leonel left the bloody low rent apartment behind for good. One of his associates from Saint Louis had paid cash for that apartment when he left prison to give him a place to set all their plans into motion. Now that everything had come together regarding the drugs and gun running, he moved his operation to an apartment that Luis had obtained to fit his new wealth.
Smiling, Leonel flicked the switch blade open and closed. This was just the beginning, and no one was stopping him.
* * * *
Synn sat in the passenger seat while Craig drove one of the extra sheriff department SUV’s to the scene of the dead body. There hadn’t been time to fill out the required paperwork so he couldn’t drive the department’s vehicle. He had to admit there hadn’t been a dull moment since he arrived in Granite County. Between meeting Craig, accepting the position of chief deputy, and now a dead body turning up, the place was quite exciting. Not to mention all of the body-on-body contact he’d had with the sexy blond sitting next to him.
He hadn’t missed that wherever Craig went, ninety-nine percent of the room watched him. Synn was going to have his hands full keeping the wannabes from trying to get Craig’s attention. That was okay, Synn liked a challenge, it made his blood burn. He would make sure Craig enjoyed helping him work it off.
Craig pulled the SUV into the parking lot of an older cream-colored brick church, complete with a towering steeple containing a bell. As they drove around behind the church, he was pleased to see the deputies had yellow caution tape roping off a large section around a square, green, metal dumpster.
After he and Craig managed to leave the closet, they found the bullpen in a whirlwind of activity. Synn quickly became familiar with department procedures. Apparently two of their investigators had left for the scene as soon as the call came in. Craig stuck his head into Steve’s office and then went to his desk to make some phone calls. By the time Steve was standing in the doorway of his office, Synn had stepped in and was dispatching more deputies to help keep the public from contaminating the scene.
“I see Galen and Job are here,” Craig observed.
These were the first words Craig had spoken directly to Synn since they had gotten into the car. For now Synn would let him get away with that. The man was good-looking and sexy, and from what Synn had observed, Craig knew it. There were no doubts in Synn’s mind that Craig twisted every man he’d been with around his little finger. Synn may end up as whipped as those other guys, but he vowed that Craig would be completely under his thumb at the same time.
Synn looked over at the taped off scene and saw two men looking into the dumpster. One was a blond, in his late twenties or early thirties. The other was tall, in his late thirties, and had short dark hair. From his position in the truck, Synn couldn’t see what they were doing.
“Who are they?” he asked.
“The taller man is Galen Rue. He is Granite County’s coroner. Job Nicolson is the Medical Examiner,” Craig explained. “They’re also partners of the medical clinic attached to the hospital in town.”
After Craig parked the vehicle, they made their way through the growing crowd toward the dumpster. Behind them Synn observed the sheriff’s SUV pulling into the parking lot. Synn also noticed many eyes were drawn to Craig’s smooth gait and striking figure. Synn realized he was going to have to come to terms with that or his possessiveness was going to cause trouble.
Synn tore his attention off the man who was oblivious to the sticky web of attraction he was trapping Synn with. It was time to go to work. Synn would deal with his growing infatuation later.
Using skills he had learned from his father and honed by the government, Synn let his eyes drift over the crowd around him, taking in every face, their body language, and position to the dumpster. As he ducked under the caution tape, Synn observed the ground around the area. The parking lot was made of concrete so distinct foot prints were out of the question, unless the prints were left after stepping in fluids. Synn was glad to see a young deputy with curly blond hair and thick black glasses, taking pictures of the crime scene. He was even more impressed when the man lifted a video camera and proceeded to film the entire area. Give Synn a computer and he could work with that kind of information.
With Craig as his side, Synn walked up behind the men still peering over the rim of the open metal box. The unmistakable rancid sweet smell of rotting garbage was shadowed by the stink of bodily fluids drifting his way on the slight breeze.
The smaller man turned. He was quite handsome in an almost pretty way, with blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes.
Smiling at the man at Synn’s side, he said, “Hey Craig, it’s good to see you back on duty. Too bad it’s in these circumstances.”
“Hey Job, I’d like to introduce you and Galen to our new chief deputy, Synn Romeo,” Craig said.
“Nice to meet you.” Galen held up his latex-covered hands. “We’d shake hands, but we wouldn’t like to compromise the scene.”
Job laughed. “Yeah, like the garbage in the dumpster hasn’t already done that.”
Synn acknowledged both men with a nod. “What do we have here?” he asked, looking into the dumpster.
“Holy shit, what the hell happened to him?” Craig exclaimed.
Synn put his hand on the small of Craig’s back in comfort. The poor guy was clearly trying to hold back from barfing all over.
Steve came up and stood next to Synn and peered over the rim. “My, my, look at that. Has anyone been able to identify him yet?”
“Once I get him back to the morgue, I should have a better chance at figuring out who he is,” Job said. “Right now, with all the blood, I can’t even tell what color his hair is.”
“His skin is gone.” Craig’s eyes were wide and his face was the color of chalk.
“I’d say almost fifty percent of the top layer is,” Galen agreed.
Synn had seen enough. “Let’s go,” he said, and turned away from the gruesome sight.
His fast pace gave Synn a few moments to regain his composure before Craig and Steve caught up to him. Leaning against the SUV, S
ynn took a deep breath of fresh air and looked off into the distance.
“Are you okay?” Craig asked.
“Yeah,” Synn answered.
“Flashback?” Steve asked.
Synn glanced over at Steve, seeing a look of understanding on his face. “Sometimes little things trigger images I’d rather not remember,” he confessed.
“We’ll know more after Job submits his autopsy report, but have you come to any conclusions from what you observed?” Steve asked.
Synn wasn’t fooled by the sheriff’s seemingly innocent question. The man was clearly testing him. Synn heard Craig inhale sharply when he figured out what was going on beneath the surface of the conversation. The little man would learn soon enough not to worry. Synn knew what he was doing.
“The victim was alive when he was thrown in the dumpster,” Synn stated.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Craig exclaimed.
“Why do you think that?” Steve questioned.
“He was still bleeding heavy enough that when whoever dumped him into the box, they left half of a shoeprint on the concrete next to the dumpster. I have a pair of Nike tennis shoes with those same rows of squares on the sole.” Synn looked over at the sheriff. “The man’s bowels let loose in the dumpster when he died.”
“Is there anything else?” Steve asked.
“Even with all that blood, I’d say the guy was beaten pretty bad, and raped,” Synn responded.
The sheriff’s nostrils flared and his eyes widened. “What led you to believe he was raped?”
“You asked what conclusions I came to after observing the scene. Well, for one, I would bet my next paycheck that when the toxicology report comes back, it reveals that the victim’s system is full of drugs,” Synn said. “He’d have to be. His wrists still had skin on them and it didn’t show any restrain marks.
Adjusting to the Situation [Granite County 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Page 4