The minute he’d walked across Colt’s living room and kissed Stuart, everything had changed. This was Mitch-fucking-Knox’s fault. All up in his face, telling him the kid had had eyes for him all night long… Kreed’s jaw clenched as he sneered at the memories in his head. Man, if he hadn’t already thrown Knox off the porch, he’d fucking do it again. This wasn’t even his damn case to worry about. Fucking Mitch Knox! People got hurt every day. That was life.
Kreed steeled his spine and forced all this unwanted sentiment out of his head and his heart. It was harder to do than he’d ever thought possible.
“Sinacola, answer the fucking question,” Skinner said, forcing him to tune into the conversation again.
“Repeat,” he fired back, having no idea what question he’d missed.
“Are you sure you can handle this? There’s no shame in walking away. It might even be for the best,” Skinner added quietly. He was the one person on this planet who knew everything there was to know about Kreed Sinacola. Knox didn’t even know as much as Skinner did.
“If I bail, it’ll derail things. I’m not leaving Aaron without someone to watch his back. The kid and I have things worked out. We don’t have time to get acquainted with new partners. He trusts me, and you need the kid,” Kreed reasoned.
“Aaron needs to trust you, but the kid phrase bothers me. He’s almost thirty. Are you using him to fill the void from the loss of your brother?” Skinner asked boldly, and it took all Kreed had not to bark out a laugh at that one.
“Hell no, not at all.” Fuck no! Aaron was the light in all the darkness that had surrounded his life. Hell, it didn’t just surround him, it had consumed him until Aaron Stuart worked his magic. Kreed’s eyes darted toward the door as he realized the magnitude of that thought. Aaron had come into his life and chased the shadows away. There was silence from Skinner, and he had no idea what to say. His director was savvy enough to put two and two together, and if he did, he’d pull Kreed from this case in a matter of minutes. He had to think of something—anything—to help qualify his statement.
“He looks like a kid. Stuart looks real young. That’s all I’m saying. He’s not a kid, and he’s vested in this case just like I am. It took us a few days to get things right. He’s not overly social. He doesn’t do well with all this, but I think he trusts me now. It’d drag out this case if we brought someone else in.” When Skinner didn’t respond, Kreed changed his tactic. “I truly believed this was small potatoes. I thought at best we’d find someone here that knew what Agent Langley was doing and tie this case up. It’s bigger than that. I want to see this through for Knox. Don’t take it away from me.”
Silence continued until Skinner finally spoke. “All right. Watch your back. I’ll be in touch. If this goes down like I’m thinking, we’ll have minutes to get Stuart out of there. Tell him the procedure if we storm in. I don’t want him hurt.”
“I will. Stay in touch.” Kreed ended the call. His nerves were getting to him. He looked down at the floor, unable to escape the frustration building inside him. He was so unbelievably angry at himself. Why in the world had he crossed the line? Ignored his rules? Just missing Skinner’s call yesterday spoke volumes to his state of mind. All he could think about was Aaron Stuart, and that could get them both killed.
Rage boiled below the surface at the stupidity of his choices. He fisted his hand, trying to hold off the burst of anger that usually followed. Aaron wouldn’t understand if he went out there and laid into him for no reason. It wasn’t Aaron’s fault Kreed had broken his own rules. Even now, as mad at himself as he was, he still wanted the kid on a level he’d never experienced before.
Apprehension settled in. Kreed was working in uncharted territory. He sat on the edge of the sofa and hung his head. Minutes passed before he was able to move his thoughts from something ugly and destructive to finding a common ground in this new turn of events. So what was the bottom line? Kreed lifted a hand to tick off the points with his fingers.
Aaron meant something to him. That was a fact.
He didn’t want to leave this case. That was a fact.
But why didn’t he want to leave this case? Was it a sound reason? That took a little longer to answer. He didn’t want to leave the case because he didn’t want Aaron’s welfare left to anyone else.
Decision made.
He stood at the same moment Aaron knocked on his door and pushed it open to stick his head inside. They were now officially past the private boundary stage if the kid was comfortable enough with Kreed to open the door regardless of what he might be doing.
“What’s wrong?” Aaron asked, and Kreed furrowed his brow at the question. Aaron shoved the door open all the way and stepped inside with a wet head and wearing his khakis and a white undershirt. “What happened?”
“What’d you want when you came in here?” Kreed asked, trying to skirt around Aaron’s question.
“You go first.” Aaron stood in front of him with his hands on his hips. Kreed liked Aaron’s height, but resisted the urge to lean in and kiss those upturned lips. He wasn’t sure where to draw the line now, especially after determining he really liked Aaron, but he needed to figure that all out before he made too many more moves forward.
“I’ll tell you over breakfast. I need some coffee.” Kreed extended his hand and began to step forward, but Aaron didn’t move. That concern on his beautiful face twisted Kreed’s stomach. Kreed bent forward, almost as if compelled, and kissed those pouty lips he couldn’t resist. The worry in Aaron’s eyes had been too overpowering. Kreed only wanted to comfort him. Out of all the players in this game, Aaron needed to be the one with the least concern as he went back inside that church today. Kreed reached out, wrapped an arm around Aaron’s shoulder, and began turning him toward the door. “We’re good. The case’s moving forward. It’s gonna be fine. I promise.”
Aaron stayed rooted in his spot, clearly not believing him. Kreed went for the door before turning back, forcing all the emotion from his face and voice. “Food’s in the kitchen. You’ve gotta be starving; it’s been at least eight hours since your last feeding.” He smirked at Aaron before turning and leaving the room on that joke. Hopefully that would reduce Aaron’s unease with whatever expression he’d seen on Kreed’s face when he’d barged in the room. Eventually, he heard Aaron following behind him. Now, he just needed to decide how much to say.
Aaron sat across the kitchen table, watching Kreed push his breakfast around his plate. Before the last thirty-six or so hours, he would have said that might be usual for the man. Back then, Aaron’s sole focus had been on finding ways to remain aloof and unengaged, but now he knew there were too many sides to Kreed. One telltale sign things weren’t right had to be when Kreed took the seat across the table from him. They’d been eating every meal together side by side since yesterday morning.
Beyond that, Kreed’s face was way too passive, as though he was controlling his movements and his words. The lack of sarcasm and snarky remarks leaving his lips should be enough to concern anyone who’d been in Kreed’s presence more than a few hours. Honestly, it was kind of freaking Aaron out a little bit. At first, he thought the new, aloof attitude was Kreed’s attempt at creating distance. That was fine. Kreed could try, but Aaron wasn’t entirely certain of the reason behind his actions, meaning something may have changed from the time Kreed left the bedroom until Aaron followed. That couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes at the most.
Looking down at his watch, Aaron estimated he had about an hour before he had to be across the street, reporting in for work. That didn’t give them much time, which meant Kreed needed to start talking.
Not quite finished with his food, Aaron laid his fork down on his plate. He picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth before laying that out on the table. He pushed the plate back a little dramatically. “Spill it, Sin.” Relief seemed the most dominant look on Kreed’s face, but he held firm to the quiet. “So you’re just gonna let me go over there blind and not tell me
whatever’s eating at you?”
“I texted Connors. He’s checking on a few things. I need an update from him before I know for sure,” Kreed said vaguely.
“Tell me what you know,” Aaron demanded, placing both elbows on the table as he leaned forward, going for the tough-guy routine.
“I only know enough that it sounds dangerous,” Kreed said as he seemed to look over Aaron’s intimidation tactic. Amusement flashed in Kreed’s eyes, but the handsome deputy marshal quickly covered it with a smile. Aaron rolled his eyes. So much for being the tough guy.
“Well, isn’t that what the alphabet boys do best? Make everything way more dire than it really is?” He tried to bait Kreed into telling him what he still wouldn’t say.
“Not this time, Stuart.” Kreed stood, picking up both their plates and taking them to the sink. He rinsed them and wiped down the counter before turning to face him again. Kreed rested back against the sink, crossing those brawny arms over his chest. “They’re escalating the church’s status from hate group to a domestic terrorist cell. That’s significant. Hate group implies verbal spewing. A terror cell indicates desire to harm. That tells me that it’s not only isolated to the single agent and perhaps someone rogue on the inside. And it’s probably not isolated to that building across the street. But while I have thought of them as homegrown terrorists, now everyone’s on the same page, and the intel points to it starting there. From what they’ve been able to glean from the access you were able to grant them, they had enough to take the IT manager into custody. They’ll hold him and his family until this case’s resolved, but it sounds like he’s part of the problem, and they felt, with his background, he could figure out what you’re doing.”
“So Hasselbeck won’t be there today?” Aaron asked, trying to follow all the information given. Once the term terror cell was mentioned, he wasn’t certain he’d heard much else Kreed had said.
“No, he’ll be on medical leave with no access to the church. Those calls have been made to excuse his absence. He’s in federal custody under lock and key. His background reports are shady at best. He knows his shit. Skinner compared him to your skill level. They feel like he was hired for the specific purpose of keeping people out of the church’s shit. Regardless of all that, you’ve been an unexpected asset. They’re afraid he’ll catch what you’ve done, and they want to protect against that for as long as possible,” Kreed explained a little further. Now he got why Kreed had been so weird this morning.
“He wouldn’t,” Aaron said absently, looking down at his hands. A terror cell. Wow. Okay.
“You don’t know that,” Kreed started, and Aaron lifted his head.
“Kind of I do.” He wasn’t being cocky when he said that. There weren’t too many people on this planet that did things like he did.
“That cocky attitude’s my biggest concern.” Kreed sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “At this point, we assume nothing.” Kreed shoved off the sink counter and paced into the living room. Aaron had noticed Kreed’s pent-up energy during the meal and knew the man needed a direction for it. He seemed larger than life right now as Aaron watched the guy walk across the room.
“It’s not arrogance that leads me to say that. In really basic terms, I set it up and masked the hell out of it—actually several times. It appears somewhat simple to remove, kind of basic. So if they search, it just looks like the breach is a little better than an amateur move. If I found it, I wouldn’t look further,” Aaron said, trying to explain while also trying to calm Kreed’s nerves. “I don’t take any of this for granted. Trust me on that. I’m not trying to play hero here.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Kreed spun around and headed back his way. “I assured Skinner we’re solid.”
“We are solid,” Aaron said, confused. Where had that come from out of everything just said?
“But without being in DC, I can’t know for sure what they’re looking at. I only get bits and pieces of information that they feel are important. There’s too much left unsaid, but what they think they’ve found is big. You’re green, and I’m fresh off bereavement leave. We aren’t ideal,” Kreed explained.
Yeah, okay, so he got that. He’d argued that exact point before they threw him into the middle of all this.
“The terrorist thing’s weird to me, but I always had a feeling it was big.” Aaron pushed his fingers through his hair, the weight of the situation starting to take hold. These people killed because they hated another group of people that they saw as an abomination to their God. Those were extremely archaic and barbaric ideals and spoke volumes toward the findings he’d uncovered so far from that church.
“I honestly downplayed it in my head. I’m pretty certain Connors did too. I had a feeling we would find answers here, but I didn’t realize how far this thing actually reached and how organized it truly is. We’ve got backup, but my first thought was that I didn’t want you back in there,” Kreed said quietly, now standing less than a foot away from him.
Kreed extended a hand to touch his face, but stopped mid-reach and dropped his hand to his side. It didn’t matter that Kreed didn’t follow through with the touch, Aaron had caught the flash of intense concern in his eyes before Kreed took a step backward. Aaron realized that was Kreed’s way of putting barriers back between them, and that was okay. He could deal with that. It seemed crazy, but if Kreed had grown attached to him over the last twenty-four hours, Aaron needed to allow him to create distance, at least for the time being. Kreed needed his mind on the case and not on Aaron. It seemed a reasonable coping mechanism.
“So really nothing’s changed on our end. Everything’s different from the bureau standpoint, but we’re in the same place we were. Right?” Aaron asked.
“I guess. You just have to keep your ears open,” Kreed reinforced.
“Exactly what I’ve been doing.”
“Listen to me. If anything feels off, you get your ass out of there. I’ll be tracking you every step of the way, but it’s on you to keep your guard up. You hear the wrong thing and you take off for the closest exit,” Kreed stressed.
“Of course I will.”
Kreed stared at him long and hard, the deputy marshal’s dark eyes searching his.
“I promise I will get out of there, Kreed.” Aaron saw some of the tension ease from Kreed’s face as he made his oath. Kreed didn’t say anything, just nodded once and turned to leave.
“I think this freaks you out more than it does me,” Aaron called after Kreed.
“Probably. I’m gonna shower. We need to talk about your goals for today before you head back over there.” He heard the bathroom door shut after he spoke, but Aaron didn’t move until he heard the water in the shower. He wasn’t exactly sure how to take Kreed right now. Kreed was unsteady, and he’d never seen that before. Aaron didn’t doubt Kreed’s ability to keep him safe; he wasn’t certain why Kreed did. Besides, there was no indication Aaron had given that he was a risk taker and he wasn’t going to be in this situation. Behind the computer? Absolutely, but not in this. He’d get the hell out of there way before anything went down. Kreed could bet his ass on that.
Chapter 21
Not thirty minutes later, Aaron was wired up, dressed in proper church-boy clothes and fully briefed by Connors on everything that had gone down in the last two days. Kreed’s guilt over not taking part in whatever information they’d found yesterday came through loud and clear. The problem was, he didn’t see how Kreed could have helped. What was the big deal? He’d missed a phone call from Skinner. Not even Connors had included Kreed until this morning.
It seemed to Aaron, Kreed was doing exactly what he was supposed to. No slacking at all on his part. Maybe this was an after-sex guilt thing and Aaron absolutely hated that idea. He didn’t want Kreed to have any regrets about being with him. But he just didn’t see Kreed as the kind of guy who had guilt over spilling his load. If so, that was fucked up, and he needed to know that sooner rather than later.
Right
now, though, he had to push all of that out of his mind and concentrate on his task like Kreed wanted him to do.
“Keep your head down today, Stuart. Be as available as you can, but blend in,” Connors instructed from the speaker of Kreed’s cellphone.
“All right. That’s pretty much been my plan this whole time. I should get going. It’s close to eight,” Aaron said, hoping that would end the call with Connors.
“Give me a minute to get him out the door,” Kreed said, completely back in super-serious mode.
“Can you see me out?” Aaron asked. He knew no matter how quiet he got, the wires would catch everything he said now. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder and left the room. He went for the kitchen and covered the cross pin on his shirt with his left hand before going for the pad of paper by the phone. He scribbled a note quickly as Kreed trailed in behind him.
Nothing’s changed. We’ve got this. He pointed to the pad on the table before he went for his coat. He zipped up his jacket, covering the cross altogether as Kreed read the note and nodded. He wasn’t certain if the buckle wrap had a camera so he pulled his bomber jacket down, covering his belt as he walked back to Kreed, lifting a finger to his lips. Aaron pushed up on his tiptoes and pressed his lips to Kreed’s, knowing he was committing a major no-no.
He tried not to take offense when Kreed’s eyes grew to the size of saucers, and he immediately backed away, shaking his head. Aaron smiled at his reaction; poor guy looked like a deer caught in headlights. Where was all the bravado now? Aaron ran his tongue across his lips, hoping to hide the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
On second thought, he couldn’t resist and stepped in to brush his lips over Kreed’s one last time before turning toward the front door.
Kreed wasn’t the only one that had a vested interest in what they’d done or the job they had to accomplish. It was time Kreed got on Aaron’s page. He was tired of playing on his partner’s. Besides, Kreed’s page wasn’t any fun. Kreed had all those rules he lived by, and Aaron just wanted to make it through life reasonably unscathed.
Nice Guys Collection With Added Bonus Material Page 96