by Victoria Sue
AS THE truck came to a stop, Gael jerked awake in a panic. He’d trained himself to sleep lightly, and even though it had been years since his bed had been a few cardboard boxes, it still took nothing to wake him. What shocked him was that he had fallen asleep in the first place.
“Would you like a coffee or a beer or something?” The words were out before he knew he was going to say them. “That’s if you don’t want to go to bed.” Shit. “I mean, you might be tired and want to go home.” He groaned and thunked his head back on the seat.
A low chuckle had him opening his eyes again. Jake’s eyes were… dancing, for want of a better word, and Gael grinned.
“Open mouth, insert foot.”
It took a second and Jake pulling in a sharp breath before Gael realized his last comment, while not as suggestive as the first, could also make his brain go somewhere else. He gave up and opened the door. He didn’t know what to think when Jake cut the engine and opened his own door.
Gael picked his way through the various trash littered on the sidewalk, barely gave the truck a second glance, as he had no idea what to do about it, pulled his door key from his pants pocket, and took the two steps to the door. He cringed at the peeling paint and the general feeling of drabness and quickly keyed in the code to silence the alarm after he had opened the door. Gael flicked on the light and stepped into one of the three rooms in his ground-floor apartment.
He looked around critically, not sure why he wanted Jake to like the space. The two massive recliners suddenly screamed “old man” when they had always meant lazy Sunday afternoons catching a game. The large flat-screen seemed to shout that he had nothing better to do, and the beige-and-chocolate color scheme looked boring.
“Nice,” Jake said with what seemed to be genuine admiration in his voice.
Gael waved him to a seat. “Coffee or beer?”
“What you got?”
“Wild Night,” Gael said without thinking, then wished for lightning to strike him where he stood when Jake grinned.
“I meant beer, but whatever.”
Heat flushed through Gael at rocket speed, and he strode to the refrigerator in case he was likely to spontaneously combust. Jake is gay? “It’s a local Florida brewery, Swamp Head,” he rushed out in explanation. “Midnight Oil, Stump Knocker, Wild Night.”
Gael looked up when Jake didn’t reply to find him studying his music collection.
“Eric Darius?” He turned over the CD.
“Local to Tampa actually,” Gael supplied, grabbing the bottles and an opener. “Saxophonist,” he added by way of an explanation.
Jake nodded and put the CD down, then took a bottle from Gael. “I like Mindi Abair. Did you hear her record with Aerosmith?”
Gael smiled in delight. “You like jazz?”
“I like most things to be honest. Not so much heavy metal, and I don’t like full orchestra, but people don’t have to sing for me to like their music.” Jake eased down into one of the leather recliners. “How long have you lived in Ybor?”
“I grew up in Charlottesville and eventually moved to Tampa. Got a job on the docks and met Talon there. I roomed with Talon for a while, and then I got this place.” Gael gazed around the room. “It’s small, but there’s only me.” Shit, could he sound any more pathetic?
“You have a brother, right?”
A warm feeling spread through Gael. “Yeah, Wyatt. He’s just graduated from Georgetown.” He couldn’t keep the pride out of his voice, but he didn’t care.
“You got any other family?” Jake asked.
The temperature suddenly took a drop in the room, and Gael’s blood seemed to prick his skin from the inside. Smooth warmth had been replaced with brittle cold. Gael lurched to his feet. “You want another one?”
Jake looked down at his bottle. “No, I’m good,” he said slowly.
Gael was grateful Jake didn’t point out that he’d barely had time to take more than one swallow from his still mostly full bottle. He moved back to the fridge, not really knowing why, because he hadn’t drunk any more than Jake. He turned around to face Jake, to offer some sort of explanation for his shitty mood, but Jake was there behind him. How had he not heard him move?
Jake drew a hand through his thick black hair, and Gael watched as his fingers trailed through it. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” he said slowly.
Gael tried to process the words, but his eyes were fixed on the pink lips they were moving through. He swallowed. “Because?”
Jake stared into Gael’s eyes. Gael took a breath, then another one as Jake seemed to swallow all his oxygen. “Because,” Jake whispered, taking a step closer, his hand sliding around the back of Gael’s neck, “I want to do this.” He breathed the word out as his lips ghosted over Gael’s.
Gael leaned forward, his chilled body seeming to know it needed Jake’s heat and seeking it out. Gael ignored the whimper from his own throat and slid his hands up Jake’s back, feeling the hardness, the strength. He opened his mouth, and Jake instantly pushed his tongue in, stroking, exploring. Teasing every shudder out of Gael, his arms clutching him tighter to show he liked it. On and on the kiss went, demanding, domineering, until the only thing keeping Gael balanced was the heavy hand threading through his hair as Jake leaned him back. For a second Gael’s brain went fuzzy, and he suddenly wrenched his mouth away for oxygen. He had been so lost he hadn’t realized he needed it. Jake immediately moved his lips to Gael’s throat and gently mouthed the skin. Gael wobbled. He’d always thought going weak at the knees was a cheesy line until he actually felt it.
“How about I stay, and then I can give you a ride to work again tomorrow?” Jake panted, as though words were an effort.
But they were the equivalent of a cold shower. Gael stepped back, and it was Jake’s turn to stumble. He bit his lip, and Jake searched his gaze until Gael dropped it.
Jake gave a little sigh. “Maybe you’re right. We could probably both do with an early night.” He took a step back with a slight shake of his head, as if to clear it. “I don’t think we have anything going on early tomorrow, so I’ll be around at eight thirty unless we get a call or something.” He hesitated. “Unless you need help getting your truck anywhere tonight?” He looked at his watch. “What did the insurance guys say?”
Inexplicable temper flared in Gael, and he scoffed. “Insurance?”
Jake looked puzzled. “Yeah. Do you need a police report? Maybe we can ask Vance—”
“You’re really clueless, aren’t you?” Gael bit out. “Enhanced don’t get insurance. I only get mine because I have an approved job.”
“Gael, buddy—” Jake sounded apologetic.
“I’m not your buddy,” Gael nearly yelled, not wanting to be patronized. “You want to work with us, you should have done your homework. My so-called insurance only covers me for damage to other cars. It’s taken out of every pay check automatically as a condition of employment, and I pay $600 a month for a crappy piece of paper that means I will only ever get to live in a dump like this,” he roared finally, the volume increasing with every word.
Jake opened his mouth and closed it without saying a word.
“Get out.” Gael thought he was going to have something—someone—of his own, but this would never work.
“Get out?” Jake parroted in disbelief. Then, with sarcasm dripping from every word, he said, “Wow. You were right when you said I hadn’t done my homework. Tell me, where does it say that all enhanced are assholes?”
Gael lunged before he thought better of it, and Jake sidestepped, whirling around and grabbing Gael by his neck. In a second he had his arm around his throat and a hand to the back of his head. Gael held his breath, stunned at how fast Jake had moved. He could snap Gael’s neck. Jake blew out a short breath and stepped away, releasing Gael instantly. He didn’t even bother with a backward glance as he strode to the door and yanked it open. Gael couldn’t help the wince as Jake slammed it shut behind him.
“Fuck,” Gael spat out into
the silence, sliding down with his back against the wall. What the hell had just happened? Jake was right—when had he become such an asshole?
THE NEXT morning Jake pulled into Gael’s street. He’d thought long and hard last night after he had calmed down. He knew something was up with Gael. He knew that. Why had he pushed, and then why had he treated Gael like some one-night stand? Gael was better than that. Jake was better than that. He’d gotten exactly what he deserved last night, and Gael might have been an ass, but he was right about one thing: Jake should know more about the people he was working with. Before he’d gone to bed last night, he had hit the internet.
Once he got through the blah, blah about the early years, he had found some career links. He knew the enhanced weren’t allowed passports. The incidence of enhanced transformation was restricted to the US, which was completely fascinating. Not that other countries wanted them, but why would something that seemed like advanced human evolution be restricted to one country? There was a team of scientists at Stanford University doing research on just that. He scrolled past the figures ranking the university first in the country for biological science, chemistry, and physics, and read the call they had posted asking for enhanced volunteers to help them with research. He wondered if the team knew. He would bet Finn did.
None of the information he found last night, while broadening his education certainly, gave him any clues on how to deal with Gael. He had no idea what to do, except possibly grovel. He’d even gone to Starbucks on his way here, hoping the ambrosia of the gods would smooth an apology. Last night was all on him. He’d known something was bothering Gael, and for the first time in a few weeks, he didn’t think that something was Jake himself.
He was lost in his head a little as he pulled up outside Gael’s apartment and didn’t notice anything until he stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked up.
Shit.
He recognized the spray paint immediately, exactly like the truck. And as if that wasn’t enough, the same bad spelling, as the word mongral had been sprayed all over his front door. As he wondered whether to pull out his cell and call Talon or Vance, the door opened and Gael stepped out with a cardboard box. He didn’t even see Jake, and Jake watched the defeated slump of shoulders, the shuffled steps, the downturned mouth, and he felt even worse than he had last night.
“Hey,” he called out softly, holding up the coffee cups.
Gael looked up, startled, and his nose flared as he took a couple of hurried breaths. Jake walked up to him, needing to make things right but not wanting a conversation on the street. Gael took an immediate step back inside.
“I owe you an apology,” Jake said quietly as soon as he got close enough.
Gael took a breath and stepped farther back inside the house. “Come in, because so do I.”
Jake smiled; he couldn’t help it. “I was way out of line last night, and it won’t happen again.” He passed Gael a cup.
Gael tilted his head to one side. The really was unspoken but heard loudly. Jake glanced behind Gael at the boxes, the suitcases. Gael followed his look and took a tentative sip of his coffee. A flash of surprise crossed his face when he tasted the caramel. Jake smiled. He tried to take notice of things when he could.
“Landlord called an hour ago. He wants me out by twelve.”
“Why?” Jake asked in astonishment. “Can he do that?”
Gael heaved a sigh. “You saw outside? You must have,” he said, answering his own question. “The noise woke me up around one, but they’d gone before I got to the door. Anyway, the landlord found out, and I have to leave.”
“But,” Jake started, “it wasn’t your fault.”
“He threatened to call the cops,” Gael said. He gestured to his mark. “And we both know who would have turned up and loved every second of it.”
Jake swallowed more protests down. He didn’t want to get chewed out again. “Where are you going?”
Gael hesitated. “Vance has an empty garage at his mom’s. They’ll store my stuff. I was just gonna call them.”
“So you’re going to stay there?”
Gael shook his head. “No. Connie has recently started fostering again. She got an emergency placement two days ago, and they’re full. Don’t get me wrong, I could sleep on the couch, but I don’t want to make things awkward for them.”
“Vance’s dad would give you shit?” Surely not—his son was enhanced.
“Oh, no.” Gael shook his head. “Nothing like that. I just know Connie is due an inspection soon or something. There are certain people in their neighborhood causing trouble about her fostering enhanced. Saying they are dangerous and should be locked up. I don’t want me sleeping on her couch to give them any ammunition.”
“So, where are you going?” Jake asked carefully, and Gael smiled brightly.
“I know a guy who rents rooms. I’ll be fine.”
Jake wasn’t sure who Gael was trying to convince, but it wasn’t working. He bent and picked up a box. “Have you called Vance to help you move any of this yet?”
“No. Like I said, I was just going to.”
Jake smiled. “Don’t bother. You’re coming to my place.” He strode to his truck before Gael had time to get a word out.
“I can’t do that,” Gael insisted, following him.
“Why?” Jake asked. “I have a spare bedroom, and I promise not to jump you.”
Gael’s mouth fell open.
Jake might have admitted to enjoying himself a tiny bit. “We still have to take the big stuff to Vance’s, but let’s get everything in the truck, and then you can decide.”
“I actually need to drop the keys to my truck at Vance’s. He’s got a cousin who’s got a garage he can transport it to. I was an ass last night,” he admitted. “I don’t want you thinking this is going to spill over at work. Believe it or not, I can be a grown-up.”
Jake nodded and went for another box. In less than ten minutes, they had the truck loaded. Apparently the bedroom furniture had been rented with the house, and Gael insisted he didn’t want the recliners. They were old. Jake shrugged. He’d thought they were kinda comfy, but whatever.
They pulled up at Vance’s less than an hour later, and Gael chuckled and nodded to Talon’s beast sitting outside. “I think Vance told his mom we were coming and she asked everyone over for pancakes.”
Jake’s stomach growled. It had been a long time since his coffee, and he deliberately had left that morning with no breakfast, hoping to persuade Gael to stop for some.
“Have you met Connie?”
Jake shook his head just as a teenager came down the path at the side of the house.
“Gael,” he yelled happily, and Gael strode toward him, enveloping him in a big bear hug.
“Hey, Liam, how’s school?”
Liam’s smile was huge. “Professor Reed from UCF is coming to talk about tectonics.”
Gael grinned, and Jake instantly knew who the boy was. Liam, the enhanced child who could literally see beneath the earth’s crust. It was completely mind-boggling.
Liam glanced at Jake and smiled happily. He put out his hand. “You’re Jake.”
Jake shook it solemnly, realizing he had seen Liam briefly at the whole mess with Alan Swann a few weeks ago. He would never have recognized the smiling, happy kid. “Good to meet you properly.”
Liam smiled back at Gael. “Gotta run. The bus will be here soon.” He ran down the sidewalk and disappeared around the corner.
Gael walked up the path that Liam had come from, and Jake followed him. The kitchen door opened before Gael got a chance to knock on it. An older woman with gray curls and a huge smile threw her arms around Gael, and Gael soaked it up. “I haven’t seen you in two weeks,” she chided softly before turning her attention to Jake.
He put his hand out. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Connie batted his arm away and flung her arms around him as Gael stepped into the kitchen. She released him after a minute and gazed up at him. “Are you Gae
l’s new partner?”
Jake sighed. He wished.
She smiled gently and shooed him forward. “The gang’s all here.”
Jake walked in and was surprised to see so many people sitting around a huge wooden table. Vance grinned and waved him to the empty seat next to Gael. An older man in uniform looked up as Jake came in. Jake stood smartly, instantly recognizing the single silver bar.
Lieutenant Connelly nodded his acknowledgment and got up, shaking Jake’s hand. “I know of your father. Good policeman.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jake replied respectfully and sat down. Before he had chance to ask any questions, a full breakfast was put down in front of him. He stared in astonishment at the bacon, eggs, and home fries. A huge pile of pancakes was pushed toward him as well. His belly growled noisily, and Gael chuckled.
When they’d all eaten, Connie disappeared with Vance’s dad, leaving him and Gael, Talon, Finn, Vance, and Sawyer sipping coffee. Gael put down his cup and took a breath. As if a switch flicked, the team looked at him expectantly.
“I need to tell you guys something.”
“About damn time,” Talon said, and Jake looked at him sharply, but it made sense. He knew they were best friends.
“I know, and I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier to any of you.”
Jake raised his eyebrows. Maybe Gael hadn’t told Talon anything.
“You don’t have to tell us jack if you don’t want to,” Sawyer said.
“You speak for yourself,” Vance grumbled. “Should I put another pot on?” he asked seriously. “My mom always used to ask us if this was a one pot or a two’er when we were kids,” he offered.
Gael smiled weakly as Vance put two on when the team waved their empty mugs. “You all know that my mom left me, my dad, and Wyatt when I was six?”
Jake looked up in surprise. He certainly hadn’t. No one said anything, just listened quietly.
“Thing is, when I got back from that hostage negotiation course, there was a letter waiting for me. It had been passed on through the department.” Gael blew out a breath. “It was from my half sister. She lives in Texas.”