Code Blue (The Sierra View Series Book 3)

by Max Walker

  He turned the shower on, setting the temperature knob to the farthest it would go. He waited naked outside the shower until steam started to fog up the glass door. He reached in and lowered the setting, making the water a little cooler. He stepped in and let the hot water fall down on his back, feeling a good kind of sore from the massage. He washed his hair, feeling the warmth engulf from, letting the steam coat him. He felt good, safe.

  He started to cry.

  Ethan rarely cried. He felt as though he could count the times he had cried on two hands. These weren’t the kind of tears that came from a sad movie or a minor disappointment. These tears meant serious business. They were evacuating the emptiness that had formed inside him, consuming him over the past years. He kept picturing Adam smiling, beaming. His face lit like the sun during the midday afternoon. So bright and happy, and why wouldn’t he be? It was their wedding day. They were set to spend the rest of their lives together, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

  Until death do they part.

  13 Crow Kensworth

  Three Days Later

  The tour bus was parked in an almost empty theatre parking lot. Crow looked out at the window, watching the security guards Angela hired turn away a few disappointed looking fans. He wished he could run out and gave them a surprise appearance, but Angela had them currently meeting for something she said was ‘incredibly important’. She had texted the entire crew about fifteen minutes ago, asking for them all to gather at the table. Crow stayed on the couch until he saw Ethan come out from the bathroom and take a seat at the table. That was Crow’s cue. He got up and grabbed the empty seat next to Ethan.

  It had been an excruciatingly long three days, prior. Every waking second, Crow felt like he spent thinking about Ethan’s body under his. He couldn’t get the thought of them together out of his head. He walked around with a permanent chub between his legs, which had to be taken care of multiple times a day, triggered by rampant fantasies of the two men rolling around naked with each other. Crow would have considered trying something again, but they had checked out of the hotel that same day and were on the road a few hours later, making it harder to find alone time together. Crow felt awkward asking Ethan to his room while everyone sat around on the bus, knowing exactly what was going on. If something was more established between them, he wouldn’t have really given a fuck, but since this still was all really new and vulnerable, Crow held off on the bedroom invites.

  “Alright, is everyone here?” Angela said, looking around. Ethan was sitting by the window, Crow across from him at the table. Troy was sitting cross-legged on the couch nearby, Caeri playfully resting on his chest, her legs crossed up on the couch. She wasn’t opening for Crow at every location since she couldn’t travel with them, but she was able to make it to a few and Denver was one of those. Her and Troy having an open relationship seemed to have helped them with their time apart.

  “Pretty much,” Frankie said, leaning on the marble counter, biting into a bright green apple.

  “So what’s going on?” Crow asked, getting impatient. Angela never called group meetings like this. The afternoon sun was shining in from between the half-closed window blinds, causing Crow to squint in Angela’s direction.

  “We have to cancel tonight’s show.”

  An immediate uproar from the group. No one understood where this was suddenly coming from.

  “What do you mean we have to cancel the show tonight?” Crow was angry. He could already see the faces of all his disappointed fans, finding out that the show they were all looking forward to was cancelled at the last minute. And they were supposed to leave the next day to make their next stop, so it wasn’t like they could rain check the performance. Once it was cancelled, it was done. People were going to be sad and pissed and they were going to blame Crow.

  “I’m sorry, Crow, but it’s for your own safety.” Angela spoke in a tone that told Crow there was no room for negotiations. This was serious. “It was the venue. They called me and told me they had received a threat. Multiple threats.”

  Crow felt a cold chill crawl down his neck. He shivered it off. “What kind of threats?”

  Angela chewed her lips, clearly debating whether it was worth sharing or not. “I don’t want to freak you out, Crow. The police are already looking into it, that’s what’s important.”

  “Why didn’t anyone ask me?” Crow shook his head. “This is my show. My fans. They’re going to be crushed. Tonight was sold out. A thousand tickets, all of them worthless.”

  Angela ran a hand through her shoulder-length brown hair. “I wish there was another option. I really do. But it’s out of our hands now.”

  “The threats. What were they?”

  Angela looked out the window. “The venue said they received two calls. The first was to verify you were playing tonight, and the second was to say that no one else except you and them were walking out of there alive.”

  “Shit,” Frankie said, chomping into the crisp green skin.

  A few hours had passed since the bad news broke, and the toxic mood still hung in the air, making the tour bus feel more like a swampy prison than the lux travel home it was, the smog of fear and disappointment dimming the overhead lights and stainless steel accents. Crow was bummed, and he was scared, and he was pissed. He felt like so many people were robbed of a good time all because of one unhinged loon. He understood that it was for the safety of everyone else around, but it still sucked and it made Crow feel real shitty.

  He was laying down on the couch in his gray sweats and an old college t-shirt, the back of his arm thrown over his eyes, when he felt the other end of the couch sink. He moved his arm and looked to see Ethan sitting there, smiling.

  “You’re beaming,” Crow said, a little sarcastically. In truth, Ethan’s wide smile was contagious. It helped put a smile on Crow’s face, who moved to sit up on the couch so that Ethan had more room. Ethan was looking much more put together, in a navy shirt and white shorts.

  “I am,” he said, “and now you are too.”

  “It’s hard not to match that smile of yours.” Crow felt his cheeks grow warm. There weren’t many people who had the power to make him blush, even if he was in a crummy mood. “What’s going on?” Crow asked.

  “Well, I know how shitty things have been so I hopped on the internet and found something cool I wanted to do with you today.”

  Crow arched a playful eyebrow. “The internet?” he asked.

  Ethan gave him a look and ignored his comment, continuing to talk with that devastating smile of his. “So I need you to get ready You’ve got five minutes.”

  “Five minutes?” Crow got up from the couch, looking down at what he was wearing.

  “Fine, I’ll give you ten.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Give me a hint!” Crow called as he ran to the bedroom for some jeans.

  “I think you’ll like it.”

  “That’s not a hint.”

  Ethan laughed from the other room. “It’s all you’re getting.”

  Crow tossed off his sweats and hopped into a pair of light jeans. He kept his orange and blue university shirt and grabbed a blue LA Dodgers cap that was hanging off a hook on the wall. As he was exiting the bedroom, Angela was walking in from a smoke break.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, sensing the flurry of activity.

  “Ethan’s surprising me. Either that or abducting me.”

  Ethan chuckled and said, “Too soon.” Angela didn’t seem to find the humor. She crossed her arms, her face flushed from being outside.

  “I don’t know, Crow,” she said, her tone beginning to sound more like an overbearing mother. “With what happened at the ven—“

  “That’s the thing, Angela, nothing happened at the venue. I get it, the threat was bad and obviously someone wants to freak me out, but I can’t let that stop me from actually living my life. Being scared of my own s
hadow isn’t the way to handle this. That just ensures that whoever is sending those weird notes ends up winning in the end, and I don’t want that.” Crow felt bad. He hadn’t raised his voice, but it was clear that he was done talking about the threats. At least for the day. He was going to try and enjoy the rest of his time in Denver, especially since it was Ethan who seemed to be the most excited he’d been in a while. Crow knew it wasn’t because the show had been cancelled, so what could he have been so happy about?

  Could it be just because we’re doing something alone together?

  Is this a date?

  Holy shit, I think this is a date.

  Realization was dawning on him as Angela was shaking her head. She seemed disappointed but what was Crow going to do, especially now that he realized what this was? No way in hell was he going to tell Ethan no.

  “Fine, I can’t stop you.” She stepped aside. Ethan looked between her and Crow. “I’m sending the security with you though.”

  “Sounds good,” Crow said as he walked past. He didn’t really care if he had an entire entourage following them. He knew his world was about to funnel in on one person, and one person only.

  Ethan Winter.

  14 Ethan Winter

  Crow read the words printed out on a big white banner out loud, trying to hold back a laugh, “The Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys.” They were standing in front of a two-story colonial type house, a few white columns holding up the green-bricked roof. It looked much more like someone’s home than a museum.

  Crow loved it.

  “Yup,” Ethan said. “Excited?”

  Crow looked from the white banner to Ethan, who was smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

  “Let’s do this,” Crow said, clapping his hands together and seeming to catch some of the excitement. Ethan had hated seeing him mopping around and upset that his show had been canceled, so being the one to bring that smile back to Crow’s face made Ethan’s heart flutter a little harder. He also couldn’t deny that this entire thing was very ‘date-like’ and Ethan was finding himself completely ok with that. He was excited to see how it would go, and wasn’t as thrown off as he had been when Angela walked in on them. Over the past three days, Ethan had time to sit down and really think about what, or rather who, was holding him back from seeing all the possibilities with Crow in his life. He had to come to a place in his life where he wasn’t feeling guilty about feeling happy, and he felt like today was a huge step in the right direction.

  A blacked out sedan was parked on the street, two suited men standing outside of it and staring eagle-eyed at the museum, there fists hanging loosely in front of their silver belt buckles. Crow convinced them that they would be ok going in alone. The last thing he wanted was two men in black cock-blocking this, date or not. There was nothing— not even a neauralyzer— that could ever make Crow forget about that kind of missed opportunity. The crisp summer afternoon air was blown away by a rush of cool air-conditioning as Ethan opened the door for Crow. He got a whiff of Crow’s scent as he walked by and was suddenly wishing this was a hotel room tour instead of a museum of unintentionally creepy toys tour. Ethan followed Crow in, entering a small lobby of sorts. The room was separated from the rest of the museum by a wall, with doors on either side leading into the museum. In front of the wall was the front desk, where an older woman placed her bookmark and set her book on the table, cover down.

  “Welcome!” she said, her white curls bobbing as she greeted them. “Is this your first time visiting us?”

  “Yes,” Ethan asked, feeling like he wanted to run around the table and give the lady a huge hug. He had really woken up on the right side of the bed that day.

  Or, maybe that’s just what being with Crow does to me.

  “Ooh, fun! Well, we have a collection of more than ten-thousand figurines and toys, some dating back to the 1600s. It’s not a large museum, so no maps or anything, but you’ll find yourself wanting to get lost amongst those dolls for a while.” She smiled, softening the creepy factor of her statement. Ethan was starting to feel like he entered the Twilight Zone.

  He was so fucking excited. He loved these weird little finds and he could tell Crow genuinely did too. Things were already off to a great start.

  “Thank you,” Crow said, pointing to either door. “Choose your own adventure?”

  The little lady, Martha, according to her nametag, laughed as though Crow had just performed a killer stand-up set. “Both lead into the same room,” she said, when her giggles died down.

  “Perfect,” Crow said with a wide grin. He looked to Ethan, who gave a tiny shrug. Crow nodded toward the right and started walking. Ethan followed, admiring for a moment how good Crow looked in a simple t-shirt and a pair of nice jeans. He definitely looked the part of a celebrity, with his blue cap tucked low on his head to give him some sort of cover from getting recognized and mobbed by a group of fans. Although, Ethan was pretty positive that most of Crow’s fan base wouldn’t be in a museum like this in the first place.

  As they opened the door to the rest of the museum, Ethan realized that not only were Crow’s fans missing, but so was everyone else. It looked like they had the entire museum to themselves.

  And, boy, what a museum it was.

  Right off the bat, they were greeted by life-sized porcelain dolls with cracked foreheads and chipped fingers, once bright red and blond hair, now faded by the years that passed on by. They were standing in front of a tall, all-glass cabinet that held a menagerie of tiny figurines.

  “Holy shit,” Crow said. “I love this place.”

  Ethan laughed, finding that he couldn’t look at the dolls for too long before he got that weird tingly feeling down his back. And not the good kind. These were the kind you got when you heard the story about the babysitter asking the parents about the clown statue in their backyard and them answering that they don’t own a clown statue.

  Oh, you’ve never heard that story?

  You’re welcome.

  “How did you even find this place?”

  “Google,” Ethan answered, leaning over a glass display that had caught Crow’s attention. There was an extremely intricate and detailed town looking up at them. Ethan admired all the time that must have gone into creating it. From the tiny red bricked houses to the small football stadium outside of the local high school to the octopus man that walked the street.

  “Wait, what?” Ethan looked closer. “Do you see that?”

  Crow went ‘whoa’ when he saw the man wearing the suit and also sporting eight octopus tentacles as hands. On closer inspection, there were weird things placed around all over the town. A rainbow cat that was chasing after a duck with horns. A baby pushing a stroller holding his mom. A car with cheese for wheels.

  “This is nuts,” Crow said, pointing out more things. Ethan loved playing this I-Spy type game, but he loved that he was doing it with Crow more than anything else. This felt good. Laughing and exploring new things, making new memories that Ethan could look back on and smile. He hadn’t done that in so long. His heart felt light as they made their way through the museum, his laughs coming easy and his smile never wearing out.

  “You know,” Crow said as they walked through a doorway and into a room full of toy trains, “I don’t think I’ve seen you smile this much since we’ve met.” Crow looked up from a railroad and locked in on Ethan’s eyes. “I really like your smile.”

  “Thanks,” Ethan said, feeling himself flush with warmth. “I don’t think I’ve been this happy for a while now.”

  Crow gave a toying smirk. “Do trains make you really happy?”

  “No, no I don’t think it’s the trains.”

  “Oh?”

  “Could be the dolls. The porcelain ones.”

  “Yeah,” Crow nodded. “Those do it for me, too.”

  Ethan chuckled, not even realizing that they had been moving closer to each other, like two planets pulled off track, on a slow but sure gravitational collision course.
r />   “And you,” Ethan said, feeling himself opening up on a new level. “You make me happy.”

  “Good,” Crow said. They were inches apart now. “Because you make me really happy.”

  “More than the porcelain dolls?”

  Crow cocked his head, the smirk playing wider. “Just about,” he said with a sexy as sin laugh.

  Ethan licked his lips. The air between them sparked with feeling. Both of them went in, their lips meeting slow and tender at first. Ethan reacquainted himself with Crow’s taste—fuck, he missed that taste.

  Ethan brought his hands up, encasing Crow’s head. He moved up higher, digging his fingers through Crow’s hair, gently tugging as the kiss grew deeper, harder, more passionate as their lips parted and their tongues danced. With every soft moan, Ethan felt his more of his walls come tumbling down. His body felt like it was floating on a cloud of pure ecstasy, made even sweeter when Crow pushed his body up against Ethan’s, making his arousal no secret. Ethan returned the favor, rubbing his hard bulge against Crow’s, their tongues sparring, their body heat rising up through the ceiling, filling the tiny room of railroad replicas.

  “I’ve been waiting for this,” Crow said during a moment both of them were catching a breath. “I would have waited forever. You’re incredible.” His voice was low, but hit Ethan like a demolition crew tearing through the husk of an abandoned high-rise, only to build something bigger and better in its place.

  “From the second you sat across from me at the bar, I wanted to do this.” Ethan licked his lips, looking deep down into Crow’s light brown eyes. “I shouldn’t have fought it for so long. This bliss.”

  “It’s ok,” Crow said. “We all have a history that affects our present. I get it. And I hope that you’ll be able to talk about it with me soon.”

  “I will,” Ethan said, meaning it. He’d talk about it right then and there, but before he could spill his guts, voices drifted in from the next room. Now wasn’t the time or the place.