by Stormy Glenn
“No, it just kind of happened last night. You’re the first person I’ve told.”
“Well, the church is done being rebuilt, so you’ll have a place to do it.” Russ smiled again. “Just think. Yours will be the first wedding in the new church.”
Adam brightened at that thought. After the church had burned down a few months ago, everyone had pitched in to get it back up standing. It was kind of nice to think he’d get married in the same church his parents and brother had gotten married in, even if it was the rebuilt one.
“I think Mike would like the idea of us following family tradition.”
“What about Mike’s family?” Russ asked. “How are they going to feel about all of this?”
“Mike was an only child, and he doesn’t have much to do with his parents.”
“Because he’s gay?”
“No, because he’s not a snob.” At Russ’s confused frown, Adam chuckled. “His parents are rather well off. They hated the fact that Mike went into law enforcement instead of investment banking like his father. They hang with the classy crowd. Working down in the dirt with the DEA was not how they saw their son’s life going.”
“Oh.” Russ’s frown deepened. “You don’t think they had anything to do with this, do you?”
Adam stumbled to a stop. He had never even considered the possibility that it could be Mike’s parents trying to come between them. The idea had never even entered his head. Mike didn’t seem to care about them, so Adam hadn’t either. Now, he wondered if that had been a mistake.
“I don’t know,” he admitted truthfully. “Mike never introduced us. He said he didn’t want to expose me to their hatred.”
“You should tell the sheriff about that, Adam. I’m not saying they did anything, but it’s an avenue to look into.”
“Fuck, man, can you imagine hating your kid that much?”
“We’ve seen a lot of that here in Cade Creek, Adam. You know that. People do weird things in the pursuit of what they think is right.”
“Makes me want to hug Mom and Dad.” His parents had loved him and Russ no matter what. They didn’t care about the gay thing. They just wanted their kids to be happy.
“Let Mom help plan your wedding and she’ll be thrilled.”
Adam smiled when he thought about just how thrilled his mother would be to help plan his wedding. “That should give me enough brownie points for the next ten years.”
Russ chuckled. “Right?”
Adam just hoped Mike would be around to enjoy it.
Chapter Ten
Mike was ready to rip someone’s head off. He clasped his hands together and rested them on the table in front of him, waiting. He felt as if he had been waiting for hours, and he probably had. With no watch—he’d left it on the nightstand last night—and no clock on the wall, he had no idea what time of day or not it was or just how long he had been sitting in an interrogation room.
I felt like forever.
Adam had to be going out of his mind even more. One minute they had been sitting in the kitchen having a nice breakfast and talking about getting married. The next minute, Mike was being whisked away in handcuffs.
And he didn’t know why.
He had been taken back to an agency building in the city and placed in an interrogation room. He knew there was a guard outside of the room simply because the man continued to look through the small window in the door every few minutes. Mike didn’t know what the guy expected to see.
Was he supposed to try and escape through the air duct or something?
Mike rolled his eyes as he glanced up at the blinking red light on the camera in the corner. He was being watched by someone else, as well. Mike narrowed his eyes as he raised his hand and flipped off whoever was watching him. He was pissed about being held, especially since he hadn’t been allowed a phone call.
He would have called Adam.
He didn’t exactly know what was up or why they were holding him and treating him like a criminal. Technically, they could hold him for seventy-two hours without charging him with anything, but he still got a phone call.
Mike glanced up when the door opened. He wasn’t surprised to see his supervisor walk in, but he was shocked to see his supervisor’s supervisor walk in behind him. Maybe he was in deeper shit than he thought.
The two men took seats across the table from him. His supervisor opened a folder and stared down at whatever was inside of it. Mike took a bit of comfort from the fact his picture wasn’t stapled to the top of the pile.
“Special Agent Ryan,” Supervisor Waltz began, which was odd. The man was being very formal. “It has been brought to our attention that you failed to report contact with a suspect in a case you had been removed from even after you were told to stay away from him.” The man glanced up. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Mike instantly knew from the guarded look in his supervisor’s face that the man had something to do with what happened between him and Adam months ago. He had always known the man had it out for gay men, but it had never been anything he could prove.
Until now.
“I quit.”
The guy’s eyebrows shot up. “You quit?”
“Yes, sir, and just as soon as you give me my phone call so I can call my lawyer and a union rep, I’d be more than happy to write up my resignation and sign it.”
Waltz looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Oh, I don’t think we need to—”
Mike leaned closer. He didn’t want them to misunderstand his words. “L.A.W.Y.E.R.”
“Now, Mike, we—”
“Oh, it’s Mike now?” Amazing how quickly the man changed his tune.
“Special Agent Ryan,” Chief Inspector Hudson began, “I’m sure we can discuss this in a reasonable manner if you would simply—”
Mike narrowed his eyes. “A reasonable manner? Are you fucking serious?”
Hudson clearly didn’t like being spoken to in such a manner. He began to frown, his features darkening. “Agent Ryan—”
“Not only was I taken from my home in handcuffs, but Supervisor Waltz sent two agents to my fiancé’s house a few months ago and told him I had been killed in a drive-by shooting while I was recovering in Cade Creek from a shooting that had nothing to do with my fiancé. He then proceeded to deliver a letter to my apartment supposedly from my fiancé, telling me that he knew I was DEA, which I had never told him, and that he wanted nothing more to do with me. Because of that, we’ve been apart for months.”
“Now, Mike—”
Mike ignored his supervisor and continued to speak, giving the chief all of his attention when he saw an interested lift to his eyebrow. “And once we get all that worked out between us, he had me taken once again from my fiancé without a word. My fiancé is going out of his mind right now because he doesn’t know where I am or even if I’m alive. I wasn’t even given the chance to tell him good-bye.” Mike’s fists pounded into the table as he stood. “And you expect me to be reasonable?”
After learning that Adam hadn’t sent the letter, and about the fiasco where he had been told Mike was dead, Mike had begun to believe his parents might have orchestrated the mess they had fallen into. Now, he knew his parents had nothing to do with it. The sheen of perspiration on his supervisor’s forehead pointed right at him.
“Agent Ryan,” Waltz said, “I don’t really think Chief Inspector Hudson is interested—”
“Oh, no, I’m interested,” Hudson said. “I want to hear everything.”
“Sir, maybe—”
“Now!”
“Sir—”
“Shut up, Waltz.” Hudson turned to look at Mike. “Start at the beginning.”
Mike peeked a quick look up at the camera in the ceiling to make sure the red light was still on. He wanted this conversation recorded. Once he was assured that it was, he started talking, beginning with when he was given the assignment to investigate the drugs being run through the veterinarian clinics in town.
Mike didn�
�t know how long he sat there and talked, but by the time he was done, he had drunk enough coffee to sink a battleship and had to pee something fierce. His butt was numb and his eyeballs ached from the overhead lights, but he had filled the Chief Inspector in on everything he knew, not leaving anything out, not even Cato.
Supervisor Waltz had been removed from the room by the guard who had been standing outside of the interrogation room when he kept interrupting. Only Hudson and Mike remained.
“Is that everything, Ryan?”
“Yes, sir.”
The man nodded. “I’ll have a statement written up. Will you agree to sign it?”
“I’ll have to read it first.” He wasn’t signing anything without reading it first.
“I would be concerned if you didn’t.”
When the man stood, Mike expected him to walk out of the room. He was surprised when Hudson walked over and turned off the camera before coming back to sit at the table. He pulled out a cigar and started to light it, and then paused.
“Do you mind?”
Mike shrugged. What did he care if the Chief Inspector smoked a cigar inside of a government building? It wasn’t as though he was going to report the guy.
“Are you still considering resigning, Mike?”
They were on a first name basis?
“I’m moving to Cade Creek. There’s no field office there, and I’m not commuting.”
“Dorian James retired to Cade Creek, didn’t he?”
Mike just stared at the man. He didn’t know Dorian well enough to give out any information about him.
The Chief Inspector chuckled as if he understood Mike’s silence. “You should consider staying with the agency, Mike.”
“No.”
The man took a long puff off his cigar before meeting Mike’s eyes. “What if I was to tell you that we were thinking of opening a field office in Cade Creek?”
Mike’s jaw dropped. “You’re going to open a field office in Cade Creek?”
For what? Cow manure?
“We are if you decide to stay with the agency.”
“Why?” That’s all Mike wanted to know. Cade Creek wasn’t exactly the heart of drug country. A field office was kind of overkill for the small town.
Hudson shot a look to the camera in the corner before looking back at Mike. He held his cigar out of the way as he leaned forward. “Look, this needs to remain between us, but there’s been a lot of activity between here and several cities to the east of us, and word is, it’s all moving through Cade Creek.”
Mike’s eyes rounded. “Holy shit.” Sheriff Riley would shit if he knew that. So would most of Cade Creek. “How reliable is this information?”
“Reliable enough that we are considering opening a field office there.”
Damn.
Mike rubbed his hand down over his mouth before dropping it to the table. “I won’t answer to Waltz.”
“You’ll be answering directly to me, and just so we’re clear, I could care less who you’re fucking.”
Mike grimaced. He didn’t like the beauty of what he had with Adam worded in such vulgar terms. “If I take this assignment, you need to be fully aware of the fact that I plan to marry Adam Bozeman.”
Assuming the man would still have him after this fucking mess.
“I’ll send you a fruit basket,” Hudson said before sticking his cigar in his mouth.
Warm and fuzzy, he was not, but Mike actually appreciated that fact. He knew exactly where he stood with Hudson.
“I need to talk to Adam before I give you my decision.”
“You do that.” Hudson stood and then pushed in his chair. “I’ll need an answer soon. I already have to find one agent for your office. If you don’t take the position, I’ll need to find two.”
Mike frowned at the man. “I thought this was a one-man job.”
“Two.” Hudson held up two fingers. “You and another agent. You’ll be his immediate superior, but you need at least two people there. If nothing else, you need someone to man the phones.”
Mike chuckled. “Just make sure whoever you get isn’t like Waltz. The ratio of straight to gay people in that town is dwindling on a daily basis. Anyone who has a problem with that won’t last long in Cade Creek.”
“I’ll take it under advisement.”
“Sir?” Mike asked when the man reached the door. “What’s going to happen to Waltz?”
Hudson sighed. Deeply. “At the moment, he’s on paid administrative leave until an investigation into his less than stellar leadership of this office is investigated. You aren’t the first man he has done this to.”
“He’s…” Mike didn’t even know how to phrase his question.
“One of the reasons I was willing to listen to you was because yours is not the first complaint filed against Waltz. Unfortunately, it’s never been anything concrete. A few agents felt he singled them out for assignments no one else wanted, ones that placed them in more danger than one agent should have been in. When they complained, they were taken off the cases they were working and a reprimand went into their files. If they stayed quiet, they were given other assignments.”
“And I complained.”
Hudson chuckled. “Loudly.”
Mike hadn’t thought he had complained all that loudly, but maybe someone was listening.
“When your transfer to another assignment came across my desk before you had completed your investigation into the veterinarian clinics, I knew something was up, but I had to wait until you said something, and you were on medical leave.”
“If Waltz thought I was going to say something, then why did he bring me back to the office?”
Hudson smirked. “He didn’t.”
Before Mike could say anything, the man opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. A moment later, the doorway was filled with the one man Mike wanted to see more than any other, and he looked pissed.
“Adam.”
He started to reach for the man, but Adam stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. “If we’re going to get married, you and me need to have a serious conversation about your career goals.”
Mike lifted an eyebrow. “What would you say if I told you I’ve been offered a job in Cade Creek?”
Adam’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of job?”
“Supervising a DEA field office.”
“Are you going to disappear again?”
“No.” He hoped not.
“Are you going to get taken away again?”
“No.” Again, he hoped not.
“Are you going to be shot again?”
“Uh…” Mike winced. “I’ll try not to?”
Adam lifted his hand up and started counting off with his finger. “I expect you home for dinner by six every evening.”
“Done.”
“You will have weekends off.”
“Done.”
“If you get shot, I am the first person who gets called.”
“Done.”
Mike started to grin. Adam wasn’t saying no. In fact, he was laying down the rules he wanted Mike to follow, which meant he was agreeing.
“I want the direct phone number for whoever that guy was who called me and had me brought here. If something happens to you, I want to be able to call him so he can find you.”
“Uh…”
Mike’s jaw dropped when Hudson appeared in the doorway and handed Adam a business card. “My private cell number is on the back.”
He was gone as fast as he appeared.
Mike turned his eyes back to Adam. “That was Chief Inspector Hudson. He’s my boss’s boss. And he just gave you his private phone number. Will that do?”
“I’d prefer if you didn’t disappear again, but you don’t seem to be real good at that.” Adam held up the card. “This will do for now.”
“Adam—”
Adam held up his hand. “I don’t want to hear it. If you expect me to marry you, then I want it written into the marriage vows that you wi
ll do everything within your power to not get shot and not disappear again.”
Mike grinned. “Done.”
Chapter Eleven
Adam groaned as he rolled over and slapped his hand down on the alarm and then flopped back on the bed. The sun wasn’t even up yet. No self-respecting human should be awake this early in the morning. Which would explain why he was up. He needed to go take care of Cato.
Jonny had offered to do it, but the man worked longer hours than Adam did. By the time he pulled in at the farm, the man was usually dragging ass. He didn’t need to be taking care of Adam’s colt, as well.
“Where you going, baby?” The words were sleepy sounding, but they warmed Adam’s heart. It had only been a couple of weeks, but he had grown to love waking up next to Mike.
“It’s time to go feed Cato.”
“Want company?”
Adam turned to look at the man stretched out beside him. “Don’t you have to meet up with your new agent?”
“That’s not for another few hours. I have time.”
Adam rolled until the entire length of his body was pressed against Mike and he could rest his head on the man’s chest. He wanted to stay right where he was and snuggle, but Cato was depending on him and he wasn’t about to let his horse down.
“Why don’t you stay here and warm the bed for me. I shouldn’t be long.”
“Are you sure?”
Adam smiled. “I’m sure.” He groaned a moment later when Mike rolled over on top of him, pinning him to the mattress. “Mike.”
The man nuzzled the skin under the edge of Adam’s jaw. “Maybe I should give you a good reason to come home as fast as you can.”
Adam quickly calculated just how fast he could get out to the farm, feed Cato, and get home. If he followed the traffic laws, he could do it in about thirty minutes. If he wanted to spend any time with Cato, it would take a little longer.
“It shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.”
Mike’s grin was feral. “Way too long.”
“Mike, I have to—oh god.” Adam tilted his head back when Mike began nipping at his skin. He used to think he had a couple of hot spots. Almost everyone did. Since Mike came into his life, he had learned his entire body was one huge hot spot. Everywhere Mike touched him blazed with pleasure.