Good Luck

by KM Mahoney

  He had the sinking feeling that those days were long gone. And he was never going to get them back.

  Michael was pacing in the back room, muttering to himself, the dazed look replaced with irritation. He whirled on Alli the instant Alli entered.

  “Why is it every time I turn around, you’re in some kind of trouble?” Michael demanded.

  Shit. Alli’s stomach knotted, threatened to cramp. But when he spoke, his voice came out calm.

  “I’m a Fayte, Michael. I told you that. And anyone close to me is going to get caught in the whirlwind. If you can’t handle that—”

  “Don’t you go putting words in my mouth!” Michael crossed the room in a few quick strides and planted a hard, claiming kiss on Alli. “I really wish you would stop trying to chase me off.”

  Alli shrugged, looked away. “I’m sorry,” he said with sincerity. “It’s habit. If I run people off, then they can’t…”

  “Can’t leave you?”

  Alli gnawed on his lip and nodded, looking up from under his lashes. “Yeah, I guess so. People don’t usually stick around for long once the bad stuff starts happening.”

  “Babe, if an interrupted romp in bed didn’t send me running, this certainly isn’t. It’s not like you asked Lucas to kiss you.”

  “Of course not!”

  “Then don’t worry about it.”

  Alli narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Michael. The words were right, but the tone wasn’t.

  “You don’t get to worry about it, either,” Alli stated.

  “Who said I was worrying?”

  “And you don’t get to track Lucas down and go all growly on him, either. We’re going to chalk it up to a mistake on his part and move on.”

  “But—”

  “No! Or I swear to God, Michael, I’ll call Chris back and have him arrest you.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  Alli stared.

  “You would,” Michael said in disbelief. Then he chuckled. “All right, Alli, you win. I won’t make an issue of it. But if I catch him touching you again, all bets are off.”

  Alli rolled his eyes and made sure Michael saw it before he stepped close and hugged his still growly bear. “You’ve definitely picked up on some of Evan’s personality.”

  “How so?”

  “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  “Not particularly, no.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Michael’s strong arms hugged Alli back, tucking him close. They probably would have stood there for a while longer, but the front bell rang imperiously.

  “Time to get back to work,” Alli said, pulling back reluctantly.

  “I guess so.” Michael leaned in and gave Alli another kiss, this one full of tongue and heat. Alli groaned, cock hardening in an instant. He wrapped his hands around Michael’s arms, took the kiss deeper.

  Michael broke the kiss with another chuckle. “Customer, babe.”

  Alli glared. “Then what the hell are you getting me all worked up for? Tease.”

  “Nope,” Michael said. “That was a taste. Something to keep you thinking of me.”

  “As if I’ve thought of anything else lately,” Alli muttered. He slapped a hand over his mouth when he realized he’d spoken aloud.

  Michael’s expression positively oozed satisfaction. Alli glared at him some more.

  Someone called Alli’s name.

  “Go on,” Michael told him. Alli wanted to smack the smug expression off his face. Or better yet, kiss it off. No, bad Alli, don’t go there.

  “You’re lucky there’s someone out there, mister,” Alli stated.

  “No, I’m just lucky, period.”

  If Michael ever found out what that charming smile did to Alli’s knees, Alli would be in serious trouble. As it was, he had problems following a straight path to the door.

  “Go find something to do,” Alli called over his shoulder. “And stop bothering me.”

  “Sorry, babe,” came the reply. “I’m not going anywhere. You have a shadow for the rest of the day.”

  “Shadows should be seen and not heard,” Alli retorted. “If you’re smart, you’ll stay back here.”

  Michael’s laughter followed him into the front. As soon as Alli was safely out of sight, he let his smile break free. Bantering with Michael was quickly becoming one of his favorite pastimes.

  Alli discreetly adjusted himself in his pants, hoped the bulge wasn’t too obvious, and turned his happy, lustful grin into a more professional greeting.

  Only six hours until he could go home.

  The two ladies from the deli next door looked at him expectantly, sporting identical inquisitive expressions, and Alli ground his teeth.

  It was going to be the longest six hours of his life.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Alli rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head, burying his nose in the mattress and yanking on the edges of the pillowcase to cover up his ears. He willed his body to give up the fight and go to sleep.

  It shouldn’t be so hard. Really. And the fact that there was no warm body next to him had absolutely nothing to do with his insomnia. Absolutely nothing.

  Even if it did? Well, Alli was the one who had sent Michael home, after all. He had to go and get a blasted notion stuck in his head, deciding to prove to himself that he didn’t need Michael around. Could, in fact, function quite well alone.

  Which led to his current state. Tossing and turning, every little noise startling him. Every five minutes or so extracting himself from the covers wrapped around his body like a cocoon.

  “Sleep,” he told the ceiling. “It’s what people do at night.”

  Bang! Bang!

  “Oh, for the love of God,” he muttered, sitting up and throwing the pillow away in frustration.

  Three hours. Three hours as he’d listened to the storm move in. The rain had started, its rhythmic pattern soothing. Alli had come so very, very close to falling asleep.

  Then the wind had increased. It played around the corners of the houses, smacked tree limbs together, and quickly discovered Alli’s poor, battered, broken screen door. For the next forty-three minutes—Alli knew, because he’d been staring at the clock—the wind had whipped the metal frame back and forth. It didn’t matter that the screen door was all the way down the hall, on the other side of his locked back door in the kitchen. Each bang reverberated through the still house with the force of an explosion.

  Bang! Bang! BangBangBang!

  With another muttered curse, Alli tossed the covers aside. Maybe if he dug out some rope or something, he could tie the blasted door in place. Heck, at this point, he might very well just try and rip it off its hinges. Anything to get some sleep.

  Maybe it would help. Maybe it wouldn’t. But the poor, broken door made an extremely easy target for his current frustrations.

  Alli padded down the hallway, flashes of lightning guiding his path. They were so bright and steady, he didn’t bother with the light switch.

  As was his habit, he’d left the light on above the stove. Alli dug through his junk drawer in the illumination provided by the dim bulb. Rope, string, even a twisty-tie would do.

  “Ah ha!” he declared, triumphantly brandishing the small bundle of twine he found buried in the back of the dusty drawer. “Take that, wind!”

  Alli unlocked the back door with one hand, then tugged it open forcefully. Bright streaks of lightning stabbed the sky outside.

  Alli screamed. The twine went flying and Alli’s abrupt retreat sent him sprawling to the floor. He stared, numb, at the hulking shadow of a man on his back stoop.

  The flash of lightning dimmed then brightened. Between one strike and the next, the shadow was gone. A loud crack of thunder broke through his stupor and Alli lunged for the door, slamming and locking it while still on his knees. He scrambled from the room, kicking the ball of twine and sending it flying, where it smashed a glass on the counter.

  Alli had the phone in his hand before h
is mind caught up with his actions.

  “Alli? Babe, ’zat you?”

  Michael’s sleepy voice calmed some of the frantic panic making Alli’s heart thump, but it still took a couple of deep breaths before Alli could get any words out.

  “Someone…outside. There was someone outside my house.”

  “You live in a neighborhood,” Michael pointed out.

  “No. Outside my back door.”

  “Shit.” Rustling came over the line. “What happened?”

  “I opened the back door to tie off the screen. It kept banging and banging and it was driving me crazy and—”

  “Alli!”

  “Sorry. I didn’t see much, just a shadow. But there was a guy, standing on my back step, right outside the door.”

  “Okay, I’m on my way, babe. Where are you? Everything locked up tight?”

  “Living room, and yes.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “’Kay. Thanks,” Alli whispered. Just the thought that Michael was coming… It hadn’t been Alli’s intention, to ask for his lover to come running. He’d just needed to hear Michael’s voice. But the thought of his bear’s strong arms, holding tight, making the world seem like a better, safer place… Alli suddenly wanted that more than he wanted his next breath. “Hurry,” he urged.

  “I will,” Michael promised. “In the meantime, I want you to call Chris. Then lock yourself into the bathroom until one of us can get there. Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  Alli was kind of glad that Michael hung up, because he doubted he would have been able to break the connection. Alli’s fingers were still shaking as he punched the number for Chris’s cell phone.

  It wasn’t until a grouchy Chris demanded, “Someone damned well better be dying,” that it occurred to Alli that it was two-thirty in the morning. Michael had meant call the police, not necessarily call Chris himself.

  “Oh, damn, sorry, Chris. I should have called the station, sorry, sorry. I’ll just—”

  Alli cut himself off by ending the call. He’d just started to punch out nine-one-one when his phone rang in his hand. Alli squealed and dropped it. It took three more rings before he found the device underneath the chair.

  “Yes? Hello?”

  “Alli, I swear to God, you’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days,” Chris barked. “Now, start talking.”

  “Sorry. It’s stupid,” Alli apologized again. He just couldn’t seem to help himself. “I just…there was…someone was… I’m probably overreacting, I’m sure no one was trying to actually break in.”

  “Never mind,” Chris interrupted. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Have you called Michael yet?”

  “Yes?”

  “You don’t sound too sure about that.”

  Alli heard whispering in the background and he felt even worse. But heck, how was he supposed to know Chris would have someone over? He didn’t even know the deputy had a girlfriend.

  “Ten minutes,” Chris reiterated. “You in the bathroom with the door locked?”

  “No.”

  “Well, why the hell not?”

  “Sorry, sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing. Just get in there and wait for me.”

  Chris hung up and Alli scurried down the hall, phone clutched so tightly his knuckles started to ache. Alli had the feeling he was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it. Heck, he didn’t even know if he’d actually seen someone outside or if it had been a trick of the storm. But with that blasted feeling of being watched, then the break-in at the store, Alli felt immeasurably better knowing Chris and Michael were on their way.

  Alli flicked on the bathroom light, locked the door, then sank onto the floor, pressing his back against the vanity cabinet and holding the phone to his chest. The chill of the vinyl floor seeped through his thin pajama pants, the boom of thunder making him jump every time. The wind still whipped around the house, howling loudly and making the walls creak and groan.

  The screen door was ominously silent. Alli made himself take deep breaths and consoled himself that at least in here, away from any windows, he wouldn’t have to see that cursed lightning.

  “Alli! Open up right now!”

  Alli jumped at the bellowed command.

  “Thank God,” he whispered, scrambling for the lock on the bathroom door. Chris was here, he was safe. Alli made it to the front door in record time, spurred on by the barrage of noise coming from outside, and flung open the door. Chris shoved past him, hand on his gun, eyes hard and cold.

  “You all right?” Chris asked, scanning Alli visually from head to toe.

  Alli nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine. Look, I’m not even sure it wasn’t my imagination, huh?”

  Chris ignored that and strode purposefully to the back of the house. “You sure he didn’t get in?” Chris waved at the broken glass as he spoke.

  “Oh. That. No, that was me.”

  “Alli!” Michael’s shout echoed through the halls.

  “Good Lord, I don’t even want to know how fast that man drove,” Chris muttered. Alli took off without a backward glance, suddenly consumed with an overwhelming need to see Michael. Michael stood in the living room and Alli flung himself into his lover’s arms with a muffled sob. Michael’s arms closed tightly, squeezing until Alli could barely breathe. It was perfect.

  “You okay, babe?” Michael asked, cradling Alli to his chest and burying his face in Alli’s hair. “You’re not hurt?”

  “No, I’m okay.”

  “Then how come you’re shaking so bad?”

  Alli realized Michael was right—shudders rippled through him, probably an aftereffect of the adrenaline rush. “I’m not hurt,” Alli clarified. “It just freaked me out a bit, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Michael wandered the house, checking locks and peering in closets. Alli trailed behind him, fingers wrapped in the belt loops of Michael’s jeans, obviously still wracked with nerves. Michael thought he should maybe sit down and cuddle his fairy—it would make them both feel better. But he couldn’t make himself stop moving.

  Michael ended his wandering in the kitchen. Every light blazed in the house, from hallway to door. Chris had turned on the outside floodlights as well, lighting up the back stoop. The deputy was wearing a pair of tattered jeans and a paint-spattered T-shirt. The sight made Michael feel better for some reason. Clearly, Chris had grabbed the first thing he could find and rushed over. It helped ease some of the tightness in Michael’s chest, to know that Alli had people watching out for him.

  Michael was still freaked, though. And Bruce? He was growly as all get out. Michael could feel the bear pacing inside him, wanting to burst free. What Bruce thought he would do then, Michael didn’t know. It wasn’t as if spectacled bears were aggressive. They were vegetarians, for crying out loud. But their Alli had been threatened, and it was making Bruce cranky.

  It was making Michael cranky, too.

  Chris stepped into the kitchen, pulling the door closed behind him. The grim expression on his square features wasn’t encouraging.

  “Well, it wasn’t your imagination,” he declared. “Unfortunately. There are some big-ass footprints out there. Paw prints, too.”

  “So we’re definitely looking for a shifter?”

  Chris hesitated.

  “Paw prints, Chris!” Michael growled.

  “All right, yes,” Chris capitulated. “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but the likelihood is high.”

  “What were they doing out there?” Alli asked. He was still clinging to Michael’s pants, eyes wide and dark.

  Chris hesitated again. “Don’t freak out,” he finally said.

  Great. “You know that phrase just has the opposite effect?” Michael pointed out.

  “You want to know or not?”

  “Chris!” This time it was Alli whose patience was being tested.

  Chris sighed and rubbed at his jaw, covered in blond stubble. “Looks like he was tryin
g to get in. The lock’s all scratched to hell. Since Alli opened the door, I don’t know if he succeeded or not, but it sure wasn’t for lack of trying.”

  Michael’s muscles locked with tension and a growl rumbled up from his toes. Alli latched on to Michael’s arm, petting his biceps in what Michael took as an attempt to calm him down. It wasn’t working.

  “Alli, go pack a bag.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re not staying here,” Michael insisted. “Pack some stuff. You can come stay with me.”

  Michael wanted Alli within reach. Besides that, it was where the fairy belonged. In Michael’s home, Michael’s bed. And with this bastard on the loose, it meant less argument from Alli.

  “But—”

  “Alli. This isn’t up for discussion.”

  Alli’s hand slid away and he scowled. Michael sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Damn stubborn Fae. He’d argue with a rock.

  “Please, Alli.” Michael didn’t even bother to try to disguise the plea. “There’s no way I’m leaving you here.”

  “We don’t have any evidence that he wants to hurt me,” Alli said.

  “We don’t have any evidence that he doesn’t, either,” Chris added his two cents’ worth, and Michael wanted to hug him.

  “This is ridiculous.” Alli didn’t look nearly as scared anymore. Pity. He was easier to convince when scared. “I haven’t done anything bad enough to make someone want to hurt me. And how about the words at the store? They just said ‘Go home’, not die.”

  Michael shuddered. “Don’t even go there.”

  “Sorry. My point is—”

  “Alli, please. For me. Maybe he doesn’t want to hurt you, but I can’t take that chance.”

  “I won’t let him chase me away from my own home!”

  “Fine,” Michael spat. “Then I’ll stay here. Hell, I’ll camp on the front porch if I have to. But I’m not leaving you here alone!”

  “Alli, I agree with Michael,” Chris said. “I don’t think it’s wise to stay here, at least not until we can get some kind of security system set up. I’ll even settle for a dog.”

  Alli’s nose scrunched up. “Dogs and fairies don’t mix very well.”