No Boundaries

by SE Jakes

  “I wait down here for the same reason.” Law’s smirk was a little twisted but his eyes held the sincerity that Cole had probably missed all these times. “It’s a gift, you know, being able to spot our kind.”

  Cole gripped the back of the kitchen chair tightly, his eyes clouded for a moment with tears he wouldn’t let fall, and his throat felt tight. “At first, I thought…”

  “I know,” Law said softly. “You remind me of someone from my past. It’s not a good someone, but it’s just a physical resemblance, and I had to get over it. But the recognizing our kind—that had nothing to do with it. Sorry if you thought I was judging you.”

  All this time, Cole had thought that Law was the toughest of all of them, the most hard-assed, hard-shelled. In reality, he was the softest, and therefore he needed that rough exterior to keep out the hurt of the world.

  And Cole opened his mouth to say something, maybe all of that or maybe not, but nothing came out except a small sob. He tried to choke it back, but it didn’t matter. Because Law was next to him, his arm around him, letting Cole bury his face in his shoulder. It was probably one of the only nonsexual times he could remember hugging another man, and that probably made him cry a little bit harder. Because although he’d told Marcus this and Marcus had been good about everything, there was just something about sharing it with somebody who’d obviously been there in some way or another.

  And when Cole pulled back a little, he saw that Law’s eyes were wet with tears as well. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  “’S’okay, Cole. I needed that too. We try not to let it overwhelm us, but sometimes…” Law smiled. “You must be hungry—make your sandwich.”

  Cole watched Law move to the other side of the table a little stiffly, almost with a slight limp. “Are you okay?”

  For a long moment, he was pretty sure Law wasn’t going to answer him, but then finally he said, “The rain, the snow…childhood injuries.”

  “Anything I can get you?”

  “Four Advil. Top cabinet.” Law pointed and Cole got him the tablets, some milk, as Law requested, and then made them both sandwiches. They ate in comfortable silence, listening as the rain began to slam against the house again.

  Cole wondered if Law would go back out there, or if he’d had enough of the storm. “Do you think he’s out there?”

  “I do. This is a game to him. We just have to learn how to play it better.” Law sounded confident, but he looked troubled.

  “Do you think it’s someone from my past?”

  “Unfortunately, yeah, it’s gotta be. Guys like us, we tend to attract people we don’t even realize are attracted to us.” Law motioned to the bread. “Can you make me another one? That was good.”

  And Cole did. And the two men sat there together, and Cole listened to Law’s story. At first, it appeared that Law was going to leave some parts out, but he didn’t, and when Cole heard the whole thing, he understood why Law had thought about not sharing his whole background. But it seemed to be as cathartic for Law as it was for Cole.

  “It sounds like you really found the right guys. I was pretty envious of you three, because I never thought I’d find one guy and here you had two who couldn’t take their eyes off of you.”

  Law grinned. “You’ve definitely got a guy who can’t take his eyes off you.”

  “You think?”

  “Sometimes it’s okay to let your guard down, Cole. If you don’t, you’ll miss the best things in life.”

  “When did you realize how alike we were?”

  “The first day I met you at the garage,” Law admitted. “Come on, let’s get you back to Marcus before he gets even more worried.”

  “He’s sleeping.”

  Law rolled his eyes. “He’s already checked on you five times.”

  Indeed, when Cole went back into his room, Marcus was awake, flipping through TV channels absently.

  “Sorry—didn’t mean to worry you,” Cole said.

  The smile on Marcus’s face let Cole know that Marcus was well aware of his nightly trips downstairs and his interactions with Law. “Glad you guys got things figured out.”

  “Yeah, me too.” He wanted to ask Marcus about all the stuff they had to figure out, and he thought about things that he’d left unsaid. Was it time to talk about it? Because as much as he wanted to, something in his gut told him that it wouldn’t go over well. Ever. And maybe, just maybe, it was something he could keep hidden for long enough that it wouldn’t matter.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Seth

  Seth watched the man now known as Cole walk through the hospital with the tall man who should be dead. Seth had put the bomb inside Law’s bike as a test for Cole. He’d told himself that Cole was only with these men because they were holding him, forcing him, the way Cole’s former boss had forced him to sell himself.

  Until Seth had freed him.

  Until Cole had left without warning. Now that, Seth hadn’t anticipated. Cole had looked at him so warmly, and he’d figured that Cole was on his wavelength. That they were soul mates. That Cole would understand that he was supposed to go home and wait while Seth did what he had to. Which was, of course, take revenge on the man who had hurt Cole in the first place, the one who’d forced him to get naked and sell his body to strange men for money, the one who’d forced him to steal.

  He’d known that Cole needed to be cleansed. Seth had experience in that. And now that he had Cole back in his line of sight, Seth realized it was a losing battle. That Cole had already been lost to him, too far gone. Perhaps he’d misinterpreted Cole’s signals.

  All he knew for sure was that the new, young boy in the hospital bed was waiting for Seth’s help. And even though Cole would be of no use to him, that didn’t mean he would be allowed to live. He would cleanse Cole the only way he knew how, and then he would help the new boy.

  He would never let either of them go. He’d been told his next steps, and he always listened to his dreams.

  They’d started three days after his last tour, occurring only at night, which was when—and why—Seth had stopped sleeping. He’d been discharged from the hospital for minor contusions after a land mine exploded in front of him, totaling the unlucky supply truck and all the men who had been riding in it. His ears still rang, a persistent, tinny buzz he couldn’t rid himself of. At times it drove him crazy enough that he would box his own ears in so the pain would override the constant, deafening sound.

  Yes, the Army had let him go. They taught him things, made him a machine and then they expected him to forget all that knowledge. But he knew he could be needed at any time, had to keep himself strong, able to do what he’d been doing in the sandbox. And he had been asked back, to the CIA, for a special joint task force that he’d served on for three years.

  The ringing in his ears never stopped. It was only made better when he visited his boys. He fed them. Gave them love. And then he absolved them and was able to go back to work in peace. But when he no longer had work to go back to, he’d realized he had a higher mission to complete.

  He’d still visited his boys, always new ones, but he needed a sign—an angel—and when he’d happened upon Cole, the light had shined and he’d known he’d finally gotten his wish. The incessant ringing in his ears had ceased for just a second when Cole smiled. That couldn’t be coincidence.

  But his angel had been called Jax, not Cole, and he’d felt deceived when he discovered that, but he’d been willing to forgive Cole. Until Cole betrayed him. He’d often watched the garage where Cole worked, to keep an eye on him. Normally, he’d see Cole talking with other mechanics, but that one day in particular, when the man looked him up and down and Cole hadn’t walked away, Seth knew something had happened. Cole had been left alone for too long. He thought he could fix it, until those other meddling men got in the way.

  Now, he’d show them just how serious his mission really was.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  It was after midnight, four nights later, w
hen Law called his name. Cole looked up from the book he’d been attempting to read, but really he was too damn restless to do much at all. “What’s up?”

  Marcus and Styx were outside doing their surveillance again. Paolo was monitoring the perimeter cameras in case they missed anything, but after night after night of the same silence, it was pretty obvious that the guy knew they were on to him.

  “I’ve got to go to the hospital,” Law told him now.

  “Are you all right?” Cole asked, looking him up and down.

  Law gave a tight smile. “No, I’m not all right at all. But I’m not the one who’s hurt.”

  And even without any more information, Cole was up putting his boots on, grabbing his jacket. Law was talking into his earpiece, telling Marcus he was going to take Cole with him. Marcus must’ve not objected, which relieved Cole. Because he wanted to do something for Marcus, for all of them, and sitting around being protected just made him feel guiltier. He knew Marcus would worry…but he also knew Marcus would understand. And so Cole followed Law out the back.

  “I called a cab to come pick us up on the next block so no one would follow us. The patient we’re going to see doesn’t need any more problems than he already has,” Law explained.

  Cole’s stomach twisted, because he had some idea of what Law was talking about. Marcus and then Law had both told him that they all did community outreach work, mainly centering on kids in need. Having been one of those kids in need, he could only imagine what was waiting for them at the hospital.

  When the cab pulled up outside the ER doors, Cole asked, “Do you know this kid?”

  “I didn’t say it was a kid.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Cole got out of the cab and shut the door. Law paid, and together they walked through the open doors that sucked them into the noisy waiting room.

  “I don’t know him. One of the social workers called me in. From what she said, he’s in pretty bad shape but he won’t talk about what happened. Says he fell down some stairs. He’s seventeen, emancipated from his parents. No job on record.”

  Cole knew what that meant. The kid had to be doing something to earn cash. “Drugs?”

  “Social worker said he wasn’t high and the police didn’t find any drugs on him.” Law wanted to say something else—Cole could tell—and then Law told him, “You don’t have to come in, Cole. You really don’t. I know this is a lot to throw at you, and really I just needed somebody to be here for me, for afterwards. I know that sounds pretty selfish.”

  Cole stared up at Law, surprised that the big man would admit that. “I don’t think that’s selfish at all.” And then he followed Law into the private room.

  Initially the bed was blocked by two policemen in suits. Detectives. They were talking to the kid in the bed, and Cole could hear the muffled angry curses the boy was throwing at them.

  “It’s important that you talk to us, Julian,” one of the detectives was saying. “It’s not the first time Kingston’s done this, and it’s not going to be the last. He murdered the last one. Is that how you want to end up?”

  Cole winced at the question, mainly because he knew it would have zero effect on the boy, or at least the opposite one the detectives were going for.

  “Maybe if you left me alone with him for a while,” Cole suggested softly to Law, who looked at him like that was simultaneously the best and worst idea ever. “I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t think I’d be okay.”

  “I always think I’m going to be okay at this stage,” Law admitted. Cole knew he was probably right, but he was already here and he was the best one to help Julian deal with this. He let Law talk to the detectives, who obviously knew him. They looked at Cole, and one of them looked familiar, maybe from the garage or the diner or around town. He figured that Phoenix, Inc. had let the police know about his stalker as well.

  Finally, he was alone with Julian. “Great, another fucking do-gooder. Here for college credit?”

  Cole laughed—he couldn’t help it. “I’m pretty much the farthest thing from a college boy or a do-gooder that you can get.”

  “You’re friends with someone who knows the police.” In Julian’s world, that was as good as being the police. Then again, Julian didn’t look or seem all that comfortable in the world he’d been thrown into. In fact, Cole’s radar pegged him as a beginner, which meant he could stop him before he got really stuck.

  “Does he beat you when you don’t bring home enough money or is it just whenever he feels like it?” Cole asked bluntly. Julian started but quickly recovered, saying “fuck you” under his breath.

  “No thanks. I gave that up a couple years ago. Five years was enough time to waste.” Julian was looking at him suspiciously, like he didn’t know if Cole was just putting on an act or if he could really be trusted. So Cole continued, “I worked the streets for maybe two years. Buddy of mine, as much as I could be buddies with anyone, invited me to come work with this guy who ran a service. He said it would be safer, that it paid better. And hell, I was tired of giving blowjobs in back alleys. It was fucking cold in New York.”

  “Did that guy beat you?”

  “No, he didn’t. He used me just the same. But I got rolled on the streets quite a few times before I decided to start fighting back. Taught myself some self-defense moves by watching a class at the Y. If I was gonna be alone with johns, locked in a motel room, I was gonna know how to get them off of me.”

  Julian looked a lot smaller and younger than seventeen lying in the hospital bed, his face bruised and his ego shot. “I’ve only been working for two months.”

  “Runaway?”

  “Aren’t we all?” Julian shrugged then said, “I’m not going back. I can’t go back. They kicked me out.”

  “I’ve got someplace you can go.”

  “With you?”

  “It’s not a place I run. But the guy I came in here with? He was like you and me once. He and his friend both. Now they give money to open shelters—safe places. And they find ways to give you jobs, ones that actually make you some money. But the shelters? They’re designed for you to live there while you work and save money. There’s free food. Free medical care. From what Law told me, a lot of the guys who come in at fourteen and fifteen and sixteen actually stay on and do a lot of the counseling.” Cole drew a deep breath then. “Julian? Fuck, I hate to lecture. I’m the last one who should be—I stayed in the life for seven years altogether. I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my goddamned life. It’s hell on relationships. It’s ruined me in ways you can’t even imagine. I might look fine. I might sound fine. But I’m not fine. You need to get out.”

  Julian’s eyes were downcast for a few seconds after Cole’s speech, and then he admitted, “He said he owned me, that he’d kill me if I try to get away.”

  “They all say that,” Law drawled. Both Cole and Julian looked at him in surprise. “No one ever hears me coming.”

  “And what are you going to do to ensure that this guy’s not going to come after me?”

  Julian wasn’t a stupid kid. He had an education—that was apparent just by the way he talked. That probably made life on the streets worse for him.

  Law smiled at Julian’s question and then said, “You tell me where this guy lives. I’m going to pay him a visit. He’s not going to bother you or anyone again because he’s not going to stay in this town.”

  There was something so menacing in the way Law spoke, and yet Julian looked like a hundred-pound weight had been taken off his shoulders. Because Law’s anger was so obviously not directed at him and definitely an emotion anyone would want behind them.

  “Hey, Cole? Are you and he…?” Julian motioned between Cole and Law.

  Cole shook his head no. “But there’s someone. Finally.”

  “And he knows? I mean, about your past.”

  “He knows. And it’s okay.” Both men looked at the door where Styx and Marcus were coming into the room.

  “I know which one it is,” Julian said q
uietly. “The look on your face says it all.”

  “You’ll get that one day.”

  “You really believe that?”

  “I’m living fucking proof.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The next morning, Marcus got a phone call from Clint. He’d been expecting some new information, as Clint had hinted, but nothing like what he’d gotten.

  First, Clint told him that the Marine in question, their best lead for Cole’s stalker, had an airtight alibi. He’d been KIA two months earlier. And then Clint dropped another bombshell on him that left him reeling.

  “Are you sure?” Marcus heard the tightness in his own voice, could feel his chest pounding as he spoke to his friend from the CIA.

  “I am,” Clint said quietly. “And I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry about. I just wish I knew this sooner.”

  “Marcus, if you’ve fallen for this guy…”

  “I haven’t,” Marcus said firmly.

  “Which one of us are you trying to convince?” Clint asked.

  “Come on, Clint—am I supposed to make it work with the guy who sells himself and then steals from the man he worked for? We’re not talking about a small amount of money.”

  “So the stealing part bothers you more than the sex?”

  “Everything goddamned bothers me about this.” Cole had withheld important information…information that could possibly help them narrow down the profile of the stalker.

  “I know. But come on—that’s not an easy thing to admit. I might’ve admitted to jail first.”

  But it was tugging at all of Marcus’s old anger buttons—if Cole stole money from a wealthy guy—who then accused him of stealing from his clients too…

  Shit.

  He listened as Clint gave him a little bit more information so Marcus could run his own search, which he did after he hung up. And he was right back again to that first relationship, when he discovered how used he’d been then. For two years, he’d thought the man he loved had loved him back. In reality, that man had taken his money, his gifts and given them away to other men. It was only after overhearing the guy on the phone telling one of the many men he’d slept with that “Marcus is very easy to use, and he’s loaded. This is the perfect arrangement for me,” that he knew what’d been going on.