With Finn, Justin vowed to act like he always did—professional and on top of his game. The need to make Oliver understand that tugged at Justin. “It will be fine. This is work.”
“I see.”
Damn, that haughty tone could be annoying sometimes. “Good.”
Oliver nodded. “You keep telling yourself that.”
Chapter 4
They were delayed three times before getting to his private quarters. The maze of tents didn’t help. The main one connected through a series of smaller tunnel hallways to three sand-colored elongated octagon-shaped tents of various sizes that housed the heart of the charity: the medical tent; the much louder field operations tent, filled with volunteers and employees sitting at long tables in front of lines of computers and phones, conducting interviews and implementing a strategic plan to get refugees fed and relocated as soon as possible; and the kitchen tent, which included a dining area and gathering section for people to meet during breaks.
Throughout the impromptu tour, they ran into human roadblocks. One staff member needed a signature. Another had questions about medical supplies. A third laid out a transportation problem in intricate detail. Justin handled each inquiry with a practical, no-nonsense response.
They’d been together for about an hour and the only time Finn had seen the other man flustered was in reaction to the offhand and admittedly borderline-inappropriate comment about making a pass. Finn had overstepped there. Justin might be older and more than capable of expressing himself, but he still worked for Drummond and Finn needed to walk a fine line.
This was the wrong place and wrong time for flirting…and the wrong guy. Justin seemed to operate on one emotion lately—fury. Fine ass or not, Finn had no right to poke around, testing his attraction. He could admire Justin from a safe and respectable distance and that’s all.
“I have a log of the transfers.” Justin crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet, to open the small safe next to his twin-sized bed.
Finn tried not to stare but quickly abandoned the attempt. Justin might be a little battle weary, but he kept his body primed for action. Long, lean legs. The outline of those sleek muscles along his shoulders and back under his black Henley tee.
Justin sprang back up and sat next to Finn on the bed as he pointed back and forth between two columns on the top page of the document in his hands. “On four separate occasions a shipment on this distribution line either came into camp only partially filled or went missing entirely.” His finger moved again. “A week later, there were reports of an influx of guns in this region.”
Even without the visual, Finn got the point. Justin had isolated the problem area for transportation and tied it to a nearby weapons hotspot. Not solid evidence but enough to raise questions. “Coincidence?”
“Maybe once, but four times in ten weeks?” Justin shook his head as he handed over the papers. “I seriously doubt it.”
“I agree, but in order to get weapons actually into our shipments at that rate, wouldn’t a series of officials and guards need to be paid off?”
“You make that sound like an impossible thing.” Justin let out a loud exhale as he stood up and paced away from the bed. “The world works differently here from how it does in your country clubs at home.”
They had turned a corner, or so Finn thought, until right there. “Any chance we could have a conversation without you making snide remarks about money…or anything?”
Justin hesitated for a few seconds. “I can try.”
“That would be appreciated.” Finn glanced at the notes one more time before dropping the papers on the mattress beside him. “And, so we’re clear, my point was that this type of illegal operation—and it would be a weapons operation—would require the assistance of a lot of people. That many people working together across several countries and no one says a word? That’s hard to imagine.”
“Or a small group of the right people. Possibly true believers or a few looking for easy money. Who knows?”
“I guess.” Finn leaned down with his elbows balanced on his thighs. The position gave him a front-row seat for Justin’s every move. The muscled legs pacing back and forth in the small space. The way his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.
They needed to talk about possible explanations and how to move forward, but Finn’s concentration broke. His gaze wandered over Justin, from the hard thud of his boots against the ground, up those impressive legs. Over his flat stomach and up higher before slipping down again.
“Are you staring at my ass?” Justin’s confused voice broke through the quiet of the tent.
“What?” Finn’s gaze skipped up to meet Justin’s then skidded away again. He scratched the side of his head and silently cursed his uncharacteristic lack of control. Blamed the flight and the nonstop action since he landed. “Damn. Sorry it’s been a long day.”
Justin crossed his arms in front of him and stopped moving. “And when you’re tired you look at men’s asses?”
Well, shit. This topic veered as far from professional as possible, but Finn wasn’t about to lie. On this particular subject, he’d stopped doing that more than a decade ago.
“Actually, I look at them quite often but I try not to be an obvious jerk about it.” He sat up straight. “I like to think I have some finesse, but apparently not. I apologize.”
For what felt like hours, Justin didn’t say anything. Silence screamed through the confined space. When he finally did pipe up, he wore a severe frown. “What are you talking about?”
The guy was thirty-seven. This could not have been the first time he’d caught someone looking at his ass. Not with an ass like that.
Finn tried to explain without getting deeper into trouble. “I thought I was pretty clear.”
When Justin continued to frown, Finn held up his hands in mock surrender. “But, really, I didn’t mean to offend. I get that you work for me. I wasn’t putting pressure on you to do—”
“But…” Justin shook his head. “You have a girlfriend.”
“Uh, no.” Finn dropped his hands. Unspent energy buzzed through him. He rubbed his palms up and down his thighs, trying to burn some of it off.
“Well, you did.”
What the hell was he talking about? The bigger question was why they were talking about this? “When?”
“When we first met.”
“Six years ago? Yeah, I did. I’ve dated other women since. Men, too.” He’d had a few serious relationships but for the last few years he’d kept most contact casual. A few dates, sex. No commitment to anything but the job. “Though, to be honest, thanks to a heavy work schedule, not that many of either lately.”
“You’re saying…” Justin dropped his arms to his sides. “What exactly are you saying?”
“I’m not sure why this is a topic of conversation, but I don’t have anything to hide. I’m bisexual. Since I’m also your boss and I’m sure there’s some sort of office protocol on this, we should probably stop there.”
“Forget the boss thing.”
“That’s kind of tough, but okay.”
“So, this isn’t new?”
The comment caused Finn’s brain to blink out for a second. He’d never really been asked that before.
“Me being bi? It’s more or less a forever thing.” Finn stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed one ankle over the other. “I figured it out when I was about eleven, thanks to Tommy Jenkins.”
Some of the hardness around Justin’s mouth faded. A look that bordered on a smile appeared as he sat down on the bed again. “Your first boy crush?”
“We ran together after school. Literally ran. He went on to be a big track star in college. I started running because of him.” Finn shook his head at the memory. He’d been so awkward and unsure back then.
By following Tommy around, he risked h
aving people know; the taunting, losing friends. He had seen it happen to another boy at the private school he attended. The fear of being found out only increased his self-loathing and did nothing to lessen the dreaming and wanting.
He hadn’t known back then about Alec being gay. Alec kept that information a secret well into his twenties. Even after Finn slipped and announced to their father that he was bi, Alec remained silent. Supportive but still not out. Their father insisted Finn would grow out of it, as if his sexuality was a phase, and threatened to send him to a special camp to speed up the process. At fourteen, Finn had been terrified yet weirdly relieved by his outburst of honesty.
The memory cleared and Finn glanced over at Justin. He was smiling, looking sunnier and more approachable than Finn had ever seen him.
“You noticed our boy Tommy and wanted to follow him, huh?”
Finn blamed the amusement in Justin’s voice for the way the words started tumbling out. “He had coal-black hair and these big blue eyes. I didn’t stand a chance.”
“Did you make a smooth move on him?”
“Of course. Come on.” Finn snorted, enjoying the easy back and forth, then immediately sobered again. “Well, I thought I did.”
Justin winced. “Uh-oh.”
Yeah, that was an understatement. “We kissed behind the bleachers one day in the middle of a downpour.”
Justin nodded. Even looked a bit impressed. “Good atmospheric detail.”
“Apparently not, because ten seconds later he informed me that he definitely was not gay.” Tommy had shouted it as the clouds rolled in and the storm waged around them. Finn could still hear his voice.
“Ouch.”
“He insisted he was just practicing.” The sharp pain of Tommy shoving him away both emotionally and physically that day had faded long ago. Hell, it had faded by the next week when Tommy came back for another practice.
Justin shook his head with the exact right amount of pretend drama. “Oh, Tommy.”
“We practiced a lot for the next two years.”
“Starting at age eleven?”
Finn laughed then. It had been years since he thought about Tommy. He’d only told one other person about him. For some reason, it felt right to share the details with Justin. “Kissing and touching. Nothing more because I really didn’t totally understand the mechanics of what happened next back then and, honestly, the idea of figuring it out scared the piss out of me.”
Justin made a humming sound. “Very smooth.”
“Right?”
“Though I can’t really blame Tommy for panicking. I did that myself a few times. Before I was a mature sixteen-year-old who knew everything, of course.”
“Of course.” Finn couldn’t imagine a younger version of Justin. Even six years ago he came off as responsible to a fault, someone undefined by age and totally in command. “I assume you have a Tommy or two in your past.”
Justin rested his hands on the bed behind him and leaned back a bit. “Mine was Peter. He had the best videogames.”
Finn had never been allowed to play videogames. His father had deemed them a waste of time. But Finn would sneak over to friends’ houses or beg for a few minutes on someone else’s console while away at school. “A former high school football star and tough Army guy had a thing for a gaming nerd?”
Justin snorted. “I see you’ve been reading my file. Leave it to Alec to have one on me.”
“Come on.” Finn refused to apologize for his brother’s overly paranoid behavior. “Are you really surprised?”
“I’d be stunned if he didn’t.” Justin let out a long exhale. “But the headline here is you know I’m gay.”
They sat so close. With the dip of the mattress their thighs almost touched. Finn could feel the heat pounding off Justin. Smelled a hint of peppermint, which he thought might be from Justin’s shampoo or soap.
“It’s only relevant because we stationed you in a country where homosexuality is illegal.” Finn had to turn his body slightly to see Justin’s face. The shift pressed his knee against Justin’s leg but neither of them pulled away. “We worry about your safety.”
“We?”
“Me…Alec, Griff.” Finn shook his head, thinking about the memos that flew around the office when this issue came up. “Okay, and the entire legal team. Not to mention the kidnap and rescue firm that provides us with security reports for the countries the company operates in and advice on how to keep our executives safe.”
“The laws are much harsher for Moroccan citizens. They can disappear if caught. Being gay isn’t an issue in Spain. And you’d be fine here as a noncitizen so long as you stayed inside and didn’t risk any public displays, which I don’t.”
The words suggested it wasn’t a big deal but Finn heard a different story in Justin’s tone. “Sounds shitty.”
“It is.”
Justin’s leg now rested against Finn’s. There was no denying they were touching, sitting only inches apart, with their heads close and their shoulders brushing against each other. Finn knew he should scoot over and give Justin some space, but he couldn’t make his muscles move. Not even a twitch. Balancing his weight against Justin’s felt both comfortable and strangely intimate.
“Are you concerned about your safety?” That was the sort of thing Finn did not take for granted.
Alec had drummed it into Finn’s head from a young age that he’d always need to be smarter and more careful than his friends. That in most places he wouldn’t have the luxury of public displays of affection. Add in their family’s wealth and issues of possible kidnappings and blackmail rose, which meant walking into a random bar in a random city and picking up a random guy for no-name sex had always carried a higher than usual risk, so Finn was extra vigilant.
“I don’t…” Justin glanced around the room as be stumbled over his words. “Engage, so it’s not an issue.”
“Engage?”
Justin frowned at him. “How did we get on this subject?”
The intimate mood snapped. Some of the heat seemed to seep out of the tent.
“Excellent question.” Finn lifted his hip and grabbed for the papers Justin had given him. He tugged, but the right half was caught under Justin’s ass. “Uh, yeah. I need to go through all of this.”
“Right.” Justin shot up. They’d been lounging and quiet but now energy pinged around him as he stood, hovering over Finn. “I really don’t want the papers out of my sight.”
“Understood.”
“You seem reasonable all of a sudden.” The tips of Justin’s boots touched Finn’s.
Justin didn’t move, so Finn had to lean back a bit to look up at him. “I’ve been rational since we met. You’re the one with an almost obsessive hatred of any Drummond brother not named Alec.”
“I dunno. That middle one, Griff, might be okay.” A full three beats passed before Justin broke into a smile.
“Funny.” Kind of irresistible, actually. Finn didn’t understand his attraction to the grumpy, aloof side of Justin. And he had no defenses at all against this softer, joking side.
He put the documents down and started to stand. They were locked in a silent battle, their gazes traveling over each other. Finn’s landed on Justin’s mouth. On that short scruff around his chin.
This close, Justin couldn’t hide anything from him. Justin’s chest rose and fell on heavier breaths. His lips parted and his tongue darted out to lick his bottom lip. The whole thing struck Finn as pretty damn sexy.
It might be wrong, because he was Justin’s boss, but he couldn’t pretend not to see the signs. Behind all that anger, the bluster, lay something else. Possibly something hot and wild and definitely worth exploring.
Finn leaned in. Not far, but enough to send up a green light to Justin in case he was wondering. Justin didn’t step in closer, but his body shifted
. His arms started to lift.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The unexpected sound ripped through the night. It seemed to echo all around them, coming in bursts followed by silence and then another round. Justin’s arm came around him and pushed him down until they were both ducking.
A few seconds later they stood up. Justin didn’t shove away but he almost jumped, separating their bodies.
Finn ignored the reaction and focused on the mumbled voices he could hear outside. He’d recognized the noise but hoped he was wrong. “What was that?”
Justin seemed to shake himself out of whatever had held him still for a few seconds. “Gunfire.”
Chapter 5
Gunfire. Exactly what Justin had feared. The billionaire playboy showed up and shooting started. This could be the beginning of a bloodbath with Finn as well as innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
He needed to move.
Justin held up his hand, almost in Finn’s face. “Stay here.”
As Justin spun around for the door he heard footsteps behind him, the heavy thunk of boots against the ground. Looking over his shoulder, he spied Finn throwing the documents back into the safe and shutting the door.
Smart move…but he was walking. Following him. “I said—”
“No.” Finn almost ran past him to the door.
Justin grabbed his arm and stopped him in time. “You are a pain in the ass.”
“Right back at ya.”
They stopped outside the tent doors. Lights burned in the main tent offices a few yards away, but several of the outside security lights were off. The issue could be sabotage or faulty generators. Either way, it had never happened before, so it happening now was a bad sign.
The entire back half of the camp had been plunged into darkness, but in the moonlight Justin could just make out the Royal Moroccan Army uniforms of the men patrolling the outer perimeter.
Then the screaming hit him. People running around, a new terror fresh in their eyes to compound the horrors they’d already seen before arriving at the camp.
Dirty Games Page 4