Taggart stared at him, then reluctantly nodded. “Okay.”
Chuck nodded and kissed Charlene on the lips softly before saying, “I’ll be home really late.”
“I know. I’m heading into the station in a bit.”
He nodded and left. Rhodes rubbed Taggart’s thigh through the sheet. Taggart touched his hand and fumed. He didn’t want to be home now. But he knew Chuck was right. With the list of people involved, this was now going to be very political. The media would be all over the story. He’d be patient for now.
HOURS LATER, he was walking up the steps to Rhodes’s house. Taggart had lost the little patience he had. The hospital hadn’t wanted to release him. Finally he’d made a compromise with Philip—Theron’s brother, who had taken over his case—to let Theron check on him if needed. He knew Philip hadn’t liked it, but Taggart needed out. The news had already broken on Billy and the child prostitution ring. The press had known about him and his unit being part of uncovering it and the connection to Billy. The media had descended on the hospital. They all had to get out of there. Del had pulled his magic, and they all left the hospital without detection. Since the agreement Taggart made had extended to his team too, they, as well as their significant others, had all been brought out to Westlake and were staying at Bur and Ramirez’s place. It was a good thing they had a big house. Taggart had gone to see that everyone was okay before coming here with Rhodes.
“I was planning to give you that and something else today.” Rhodes gave him a key and pulled out another. He opened the door.
Taggart looked at the key, then at Rhodes. He walked into the house. Taggart climbed the stairs and heard Rhodes coming up with him. In the bedroom, he looked at the bed but went to the bathroom. He placed the key on the dresser.
“You n—”
“I have things I can’t name from the scene of the bomb and hospital. I need to get clean.” He entered the bathroom.
“I know. I was about to suggest that you go in the tub.” Rhodes gestured.
Taggart nodded. Rhodes drew him a bath while he undressed. They had lent him scrubs at the hospital.
“Where is the bag with my suit?”
“I left it downstairs. It’s ruined.”
“I need the bag.” Taggart went to the tub. He looked at it, aching and not sure how he would get in.
“Let me,” Rhodes said.
He nodded again. With Rhodes’s help, he sank into the hot water. He hissed, then moaned as the heat seeped into his skin.
“I’ll get the bag.” Rhodes left before he could stop him.
Taggart leaned back in the tub, putting his arms on the rim. He closed his eyes, rolling his shoulders and starting to feel like himself.
“Here.”
He opened his eyes and saw Rhodes with the bag. “In my left inside suit pocket. Please get me the paper there.”
Rhodes got the paper out and handed it to him. Taggart took it. Rhodes placed the suit back in the bag and set it down.
“I left you some reading.” He gestured by the tub. “The other thing I had planned on giving you.” He smiled wryly. “But not with you all banged up.”
Taggart looked at where he pointed and saw the big folder on the small bench right by the tub. It hadn’t been there when he got into tub earlier. He glanced to Rhodes, but he was gone. Curious, Taggart sat up, put the note down on the bench, and reached for folder. It was heavy. He set it back on the bench and loosened the string. Taggart reached in and pulled out the first paper. His eyes widened as he realized what it was. He stuck it back in the file, closed it, and put it back. Taggart leaned back in tub, then remembered the note. He picked it up from where he had put it next to the folder. He opened it and read what it said.
RHODES GRABBED a bottle of water for himself and one for Taggart and headed back up the steps. He went to his bedroom and paused outside the bathroom door before he went in. Taggart was resting back in the tub with his eyes closed. Rhodes looked at the folder and couldn’t tell if he’d looked at it.
“Read the note.” Taggart didn’t open his eyes.
Rhodes walked to the bench, put down the bottles of water, and picked up the note. He looked at him curiously but Taggart’s eyes were still closed. Rhodes sat on the floor by the side of the tub, leaning against his arm, and flipped open the note. He stiffened.
I don’t think Rhodes would want you blown to bits. Tell Rhodes my debt has been paid. I won’t know you when we next meet, Taggart Monroe.
The emblem of the hawk flying over a lion was one he knew well. Rhodes folded the note.
“He could have killed us. I saw him standing right there. But from this it seems like he saved us.” Taggart’s gaze was steady. “He didn’t plan on killing Billy.”
“If he did, he’d be dead.” Rhodes would have to thank his old friend. That is, if he could find him.
“I love you too.” Taggart touched the side of his face.
Rhodes stared at him.
“Yeah, I figured with you giving me your file that you loved me.” Taggart gestured to the folder. “I don’t want to read it.”
“You don’t want to know the man you’re with?”
“I already know all I need to. And what I need to find out, I will in the future.” Taggart inclined his head at the folder. “That is your past. Put it where you had it. I don’t need it.” Taggart pulled him closer. “All I need is you.”
“You’re everything I could ever want.” Rhodes pressed a kiss to Taggart’s forearm, meeting his gaze. “I love you, Taggart.”
“I know.” He gave him the cool look. “I’m extremely lovable.” He winked.
Rhodes laughed. Taggart tugged him. Rhodes stood and removed his clothing and joined him in the tub. When Taggart was settled, leaning back against him, Rhodes ran the cloth over his chest. Rhodes was grateful for him being here. The bomb could have taken Taggart from him. And although he had planned to give him the file today and tell him how he felt, if he’d died it would have been too late. Thankfully that was not the case.
RHODES LIFTED his beer to his lips as he watched Taggart chatting with Chuck. They had kept their plans for the voting party. And they were celebrating, since the candidate they’d backed had won. Rhodes imagined Russell was somewhere, pissed and shocked he had lost. He gave an imaginary salute to his losing.
“He’s quite a man.” A man spoke behind him with a deep baritone.
Rhodes didn’t stiffen, although he hadn’t heard him approach. “What have I told you about coming into my house uninvited?”
“That I always had an invitation if I can get in and you not know,” he retorted.
Rhodes laughed and turned. The other man looked as he usually did. Too handsome for his own good and deceptively like an angel. Well, an archangel. Rhodes glanced down his muscular frame, marking where he thought he might have a weapon, but he didn’t see them under his T-shirt and jeans.
“Only you, Leon, would come to a party with the chief of police and a few other cops present and be armed to a tee.” Rhodes shook his head.
“I feel naked otherwise.” Leon Hawke shrugged, a lazy rise and fall of his shoulders. “I heard you were having a party.” He looked around, then back to Rhodes. “I didn’t get an invitation. So I invited myself.”
“You’re going to come work for my company, Leon.” Rhodes glared. “Only you could get in without being detected.”
“Your man did,” Leon said.
“You’ve been watching us.” Rhodes frowned. “It was you I saw when we went hiking.”
“It was. I was watching my mark, and I was curious about this cop he was so afraid of. I didn’t know you were involved until later.” Leon’s expression was unfathomable. “Once I did, I didn’t fulfill the contract.”
Rhodes knew that was very unlike him. “Then that is a yes to working for me. I’ll let my partners know.”
“I don’t like people.” Leon grimaced.
“I know that. We’ll use your talents to be unsee
n. You won’t have to be around people unless you want to. Although I want you to help me train when we get new employees for security.” Rhodes picked up a beer and offered it to him. “Thanks for what you did with Taggart.”
“He’d have seen it eventually but would have died trying to get all his team out first.” Leon accepted the beer.
That would have been exactly what Taggart would do. He would not leave his team behind. Rhodes looked toward Taggart. He was watching them, a frown on his face. Taggart said something to Chuck and headed toward them. He stopped to speak with people along the way.
“I see you and the chef we met are still friends,” Leon said.
Rhodes glanced away from Taggart to Kenton Provenza.
“Yeah.”
“He looks much better than he did in Europe,” Leon said.
“Yes. Your convincing him to come back to Mapson has done him some good.” Rhodes thought of how he had met Kenton. He’d been in Europe doing a favor for Leon—one he hadn’t told Rhodes all it entailed. He looked at Leon and sipped his beer. “And the debt is not paid.”
“What? I saved your man,” Leon teased.
“My partner would have found a way to save himself and his men.” Rhodes glared at Leon. “He told me about your throwing the knife. You’re always so dramatic.”
“It’s serious, then.” Leon looked at him, nodding. “Good. Please, you shouldn’t talk about my being dramatic. At least I’m not the one who ran buck naked in a cornfield on a dare.” Leon chuckled.
“I got your sister when I did.”
“Don’t remind me you boinked my sister.” Leon grimaced.
“Leon!” Betty Anne screamed and ran toward them.
“Damn. I’ve been spotted.” Leon looked over Rhodes’s shoulder. “And just in time.” He went to his sister. “Betty mine.”
They hugged. Rhodes looked at Taggart and pulled him against his side.
“He’s Betty Anne’s brother?” Taggart stared at the siblings. “Yeah, I can see it now. The same hair color and eyes. Similar features.” Taggart looked at him. “Why didn’t you tell me who he was?”
“I didn’t know if you would ever meet him. Leon can be difficult.”
“I see a black kettle watching a pot.” Taggart looked pointedly at Leon, then at Rhodes.
“Ditto,” he whispered, and kissed him—a quick brush of lips.
“Don’t start something with all these people here,” Taggart said.
“Whose bright idea was it to invite them?”
Taggart tweaked his nose. “Someone suggested a vote party.”
“It sounded like a good idea at the time.” Rhodes looked at the party guests and then at Taggart. “Maybe we can sneak aw—”
“No running for nookie.” Ramirez walked up to them.
“I wa—”
“Don’t deny it. I know the look.” Ramirez made a lust-crazed face, then went back to normal. “If I can’t get Bur to go somewhere private with me, you’re not going to with Taggart.”
“Why did I invite you again?” Rhodes asked.
“Because I’m magnetic,” Ramirez retorted.
Rhodes looked at Taggart and they started to laugh. The words—‘I’m magnetic’—were eerily similar to what he’d previously told Taggart
“What did I say?”
“Let me tell you about magnetism.” Taggart led Ramirez away and glanced back at Rhodes.
He winked and Rhodes lifted his beer to him. The magnetism between the two of them was what brought them together.
TALIA CARMICHAEL is a romantic who believes that family, no matter if it is by blood or those you choose as family, is integral to who you are. She is an author who writes sexy stories in a variety of genres. She believes in creating stories that encompass all that falling in love or lust entails, from the highs of that first blush of attraction to the lows of not knowing if you can make your coming together as a couple work, and then finally to the acceptance of the reality of making a life together. It’s all about the journey.
Among her books you’ll find contemporary, futuristic, fantasy, and paranormal settings with M/M and ménage themes that will have a happily-ever-after. Her books are passionate, intense, and real… to fill the craving.
Website: taliacarmichael.com
Blog: taliacarmichael.com/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/talia.carmichael
Newsletter: groups.yahoo.com/group/taliacarmichael
Contact her: taliacarmichael.com/contact.htm
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Something in Common
© 2016 Talia Carmichael.
Detour previously published by Dreamspinner Press, April 2011
Sparks previously published by Dreamspinner Press, November 2011
Resonate previously published by Dreamspinner Press, July 2012
Irresistible previously published by Dreamspinner Press, August 2012
Trouble previously published by Dreamspinner Press, September 2012
Chances previously published by Dreamspinner Press, November 2012
Magnetism previously published by Dreamspinner Press, April 2013
Cover Design
© 2016 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Detour
© 2011 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Sparks
© 2011 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Resonate
© 2012 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Irresistible
© 2012 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Trouble
© 2012 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Chances
© 2012 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Magnetism
© 2013 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63477-625-7
Published October 2016
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
Something in Common (Dreamspinner Press Bundles) Page 101