by RJ Scott
"Not really," he said. He decided to be honest.
"I didn't either. Not for me anyway. Nik, on the other hand, said he fell in love with me when he found me on the run and as pale as a ghost. It took me a little while to admit it to myself that I was in love, not Nik though. Still even he had his issues. He said what we had wasn't real love and that it couldn't be sustained past the trial I was heading for. Shows what either of us knew. He's my rock and my world, and if I lost him it would end me. I'm not convinced I am a strong enough person to fall in love again."
"Why are you telling me this?" Josh was confused.
"Well, you asked me if I worried when he's not with me. Yes, I do. Every time he goes and does his thing I wonder if this time the bullet will hit him square on."
Morgan touched the side of his face where there was scarring. Josh wanted to ask why he was scarred but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt this quiet moment. "Not everything they do is dangerous. The big thing, though, is when I fell in love with Nik he was an operative. He'd already done his time at the FBI. You don't get into a relationship with someone like Nik, knowing what he did, and then try to change him. Can you imagine Nik working in an office? Or a shop?"
Josh considered what Morgan had told him. "Not really."
"So while I worry—I signed up for this. I knew what he did and I can worry inside but I don't let him see so much. Oh and the sex when he gets home? Scorching."
Morgan smiled and Josh had to pull himself back to what they were discussing.
"You're saying I shouldn't make it obvious I am worried about the guys."
"About Manny," Morgan corrected.
"Not just Manny," Josh said defensively.
Morgan laughed. "I'm teasing you."
Josh waved away the comment and took his coffee and sat on the sofa. He wanted to be in the office listening to what Manny and Nik were discussing. He wanted on the systems to do more research. Sitting here and waiting was hard. What did the new murders mean for Manny? Did it affect the way he was approaching the Bullens? Who exactly had died tonight? He'd know soon enough. As soon as he got online he would find out. His fingers literally itched with the need to connect to the volumes of information that Sanctuary held. Finishing his coffee and suddenly irritated that he was the one left out here, he stood with every intention of just walking in the comms room.
Before he could move Nik was calling.
"Can we borrow you in here?" he shouted.
Josh looked at Morgan and the other man pushed himself up. He shrugged.
"Could be either of us," he said. They joined the others in the comms room and Josh first noticed Manny perfectly still in the middle of the screens. The only indication he was on this earth was the flickering of his gaze from one screen to the next. Pictures, which by the look of them were from the seventies and eighties, filled the screens. Josh heard the mantra that Manny that was repeating over and over. Uncle, aunt, two daughters, one…
It was a long list of names and family members. Didn't Manny actually know his family? Suddenly Manny stopped.
"I'll be wearing an earpiece," he said to Josh.
"I don't like that," Nik interrupted. "If they search you—"
"Leave that to me," Manny said firmly. "I'll need you on comms this end, Josh. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Josh answered immediately. He wasn't sure what being on comms entailed exactly but he was determined he could do it.
"You'll need to have information for me if it sounds like I need it. If whoever we get a meet with is anything like how my dad talked about his dad then we're in for a lot of reminiscing."
"I can do that."
Manny nodded. "Nik made the call back as my representative. The meet is scheduled for ten am. Pipers, the bar on Fifth. I need everything you have on anyone working out of Pipers; families, gangs, physical and geographical location. Literally anything. Also any intel we have on the place itself, exits, the patrol route it sits on for cops, the cops that walk that beat, arrest records, crime profiles. Can you do that?" Manny had this ice cold expression on his face, totally focused and concentrated.
"Yes." Josh scooted past Manny with a nod and then slid into the main central chair. Flexing his fingers, he began. Page after page of detail slid past him and he pulled out pertinent information, schematics, history, and photos.
Pipers was a nothing place. No direct links to gangs or drugs, but after enough digging he connected the dots and had it as being run by a company that itself was owned by Selby Corp. Run at a loss for the last twenty years, the small place wasn't exactly what Josh expected for some kind of Mafia-type showdown. He turned in his seat to comment but there was no one in the room. Blinking as his focus adjusted from screens to real life he realized the room was in darkness. The only light was from the bank of monitors. A quick glimpse at the time showed it to be just past two am. Hell, he'd been at this for hours and had clearly done his usual blocking out of everything around him.
Stretching and yawning he knew he needed to catch a few hours' sleep. He had reached information saturation point and he had a good grasp of the material for Manny.
Speaking of whom, he wondered where Manny was. A quick investigation had the kitchen area empty and he had just been in the comms room. That left Manny's bedroom but when a quick look showed that vacant as well then either he was in Nik and Morgan's room, which there was no way Josh was going to interrupt, or maybe he had gone out for a walk.
After pouring a glass of water he went into his own room and stopped dead at the door. Flat on his back in the middle of Josh's bed was Manny Sullivan, wannabe Mafioso, and he was snoring gently. Still fully dressed he could not be comfortable, hell he even had his boots on.
Considering his options, Josh finally placed the water on the bedside table and moved to the end of the bed. Gently he tried to remove Manny's laced walking boots but there was a good amount of huffing and puffing since the sleeping Manny wasn't exactly helping. Finally the boots were off and then the socks. Manny had discarded his jacket and lay in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. The top three buttons were open and Josh leaned in to have a closer look at the intriguing tattoos. What seemed like a random tribal ink from the visible parts now took on a clearer shape. Pushing the tee aside, he waited with his breath in his throat for Manny to complain. When he didn't, Josh looked closer. The edges of two rings and a straight line from a letter M. M for Manny? The tattoo spread from the neck to disappear down his arm. He wondered what it meant.
"A ring for each of them." Manny's voice was gruff and heavy with sleep and Josh leaped back in surprise. He felt guilty for looking when Manny was asleep and embarrassment flooded him. Manny held out a hand and Josh instinctively took it, allowing himself to be led to sit on the bed next to the former sleeping man. "One for my mom and my dad, and the other is for my sister." Releasing Josh's hand he wriggled a little to pull the tee up and over his head. Josh inhaled deeply at the warm-toned skin; so much of it on display. The rings of the tattoo were open to view and he had been right when he had thought there was an M.
"Is the M for Manny?"
Manny nodded. "It was a fresh start for me; another name and this new me is connected to my family." He trailed the long tail of one of the M's down to near his elbow. On the line, if you looked closely, there were small marks, or nodes that left the line; almost like thorns on a rose stem. "And this is my path. The road I travel. Each extra mark is a time in my life that is important to me. This one here is the accident, this one for the day I met Jake, and this one, well this one is a private thing," he laughed softly.
Josh was immediately intrigued. He wasn't going to push though. Maybe one day Manny would tell him. Hell who did he think he was kidding? Once this case was over they were going their separate ways. No time for sharing special moments. Still that didn't mean he couldn't look his fill of the beautiful man in his bed. Sparse hairs on his chest and the cinnamon nipples were his first focus. Then, without conscious thought, his eyes went
lower to the trail of dark hair starting just below Manny's navel.
"Do I need to get my gun?" Manny asked carefully.
"Your what? Your gun? Why?" Josh blinked up at Manny's face. Did Manny mean that he was going to shoot Josh? Jeez, he was only looking.
"It worked last time to get you to touch me."
The words hung there, loaded with meaning. When neither of them moved it was Manny who took matters into his hands. He removed his jeans until he lay just in those intriguing black boxers he wore and then he pulled back the covers and wriggled his way under. Josh blinked and watched. In a daze he stripped to his boxers and then stood uncertainly. Manny turned so his back faced Josh and then looked over his shoulder.
"Strictly cuddling. We need sleep," he ordered.
Now that was something Josh could get behind.
Literally. He climbed into the bed under the covers and before he could change his mind he was spooning Manny.
There was a small amount of wriggling; Josh checking what he could and couldn't touch and then Manny moved back and snuggled down. In seconds he was sleeping. Josh lay there for a while. He guessed Manny just needed the moral support but he wished he could sleep. He was hard and his damn dick was pressed up against Manny's ass and that wasn't helping with the whole sleeping thing. Reaching behind him, he checked his cell alarm was set and with a final push to settle his libido he concentrated on sleep.
CHAPTER 10
The meet was on and Josh's voice was clear in Manny's ear. The tone of it was reassuring as he went through the history of Pipers. Apparently the place had once been a speakeasy and the basement held corridors that were escape routes. They had fallen into disuse now; much of the tunneling had caved, and the building of the tower next door had cut into the foundation. Still, Josh intoned, it had history seeping out of every brick. He surmised it was probably one of the places the original Bullens held sway over back in the Prohibition era.
Funny how sexy Josh sounded when he was simply reciting historical facts—he wondered what the man would sound like when he was coming? Manny hadn't had the high of listening to that particular noise yet. He had never before spent so much time with another guy, enjoying it so much. Well, apart from Adam—when Manny was running Adam he could listen to the guy all day. Pity he had been so involved in the FBI guy who had broken his heart, otherwise Manny would have tried his luck.
"So back to today," Josh changed direction with the information he was providing. "The back exit leads to the alleyway; street cams show it's the only exit other than the main entrance itself. Your guy is likely to hit the back way I'm assuming. Unless this is some show of strength and they all come barreling in the front door. Shit. Forget I said that."
Josh had a way to go before he could provide level, calm support but the dramatic announcement in his ear made Manny want to smile. He couldn't smile but he could save the feeling for later.
They hadn't talked much this morning. When he woke he had been spooned very effectively by Josh who smelled of tea tree and was as warm as a furnace. Nerves twisted in his gut—it had been a long time since he'd been in the field like this—even longer since he thought of his family. He could talk the talk to a certain extent—his dad hadn't lost the way he had been brought up and Manny had picked up enough to get by. The anxiety deep inside him made him roll over as cleanly as he could in Josh's hold, but awkwardly enough to wake the guy up.
"Hey," Josh had said. His green eyes were adorably sleepy and he was blinking the tiredness away.
"Hey," was all Manny could say back. He didn't have words and he simply buried his head against Josh's warm skin and clung on for dear life. To his credit Josh didn't ask why; plainly he was as inside Manny's head as Manny himself. When the alarm sounded on Josh's phone at the same time as his own it was a fumble to turn them both off, which kind of avoided the whole sleeping in the same bed awkward slew of questions. Showered and standing in front of the closet, it had been Josh who had helped him choose what to wear.
"Expensive stuff," he said as he rummaged through the clothes Manny had brought in with him. "Good call. A blue shirt—" He looked at Manny. "No, wait, cream with your eyes. And a tie with gold and red… this one…"
On it had gone, with Josh dressing him and commenting on how he looked. Until finally Manny Sullivan, all casual jeans and tees, had been replaced by Vincenzio Altosinno with his Prada and his D&G. That had been only an hour before but it seemed like such a long time ago.
He was in the corner of a bar called Pipers, a clean place sporting a large TV on the wall and a menu board with lunch options that sat next to a gleaming coffee machine. Very 'coffee house' and not at all like the seedy back alleys where Manny had maybe expected this to go down. Manny sat at the table with his back to the wall and Nik standing behind him with his arms folded across his broad chest. His weapon was showing and the expression on his face was very much tough guy. Later Manny would tease him for that, but now at this moment he needed to focus on whoever was meeting them. He doubted it would be Alastair. The guy was likely to have tails like he wouldn't believe, from cops, to Feds, to freaking journalists looking for the next scoop. His arrest had been high profile, his release pending trial even more so. Bail had been set at some stupid multiple of a million and although he clearly had not been judged as a flight risk, he would probably have to be seen to be reporting in daily.
As for the senator. No. It wouldn't be him. News of potential resignation had swept the state and all eyes were on him. At the moment he was fighting the suggestion he should step down because of his brother's arrest; he was still sticking to having nothing to do with his family.
Manny was surprised when the slim, meticulously dressed woman chose to sit in the chair opposite him.
The senator's wife, Emily Bullen, or Emily Selby as she liked to be called. An ex-debutante, she was everything the young Thomas Bullen had needed to enable him to go straight through to the white office. Money, charm, and an impeccable family tree made her akin to a freaking Kennedy. Why was she the one who had taken this meeting? Manny half stood as she sat and then retook his seat. She nodded at the guy behind the long bar and then sat quietly until he came over with a coffee. Her bodyguard faced off with Nik and stood silent and watchful.
"Why are you here?" she asked quietly.
"Vincenzio Altosinno of the San Diego Altosinnos."
She looked at him over the top of her coffee cup and narrowed her eyes. "We know who you are. We have nothing to say to the West Coast."
"If you did your research, ma'am, then you will know that the Altosinnos are no longer a force there. I am taking them back to the top."
"You seem awfully young." She wrinkled her nose and placed the cup on the table. "Tell me why you wanted a meet."
Manny sat back in his seat. Josh was silent in his ear. Clearly he was working on this new twist with the senator's wife in the hot seat.
"Maybe you should be telling me why you agreed to the meet. You look at that reply and I think we will answer each other."
She inclined her head in silent agreement. Manny looked closer and wondered what she saw in him.
Adversary? Friend? He saw her face lined with worry, even though she was trying damn hard to present an unconcerned façade.
"What are you bringing to this table?" she asked. "If you researched us then you know I don't need money."
"Guns. Experience." He inclined his head at Nik who stood quietly behind him. "Muscle." He paused for a while. "I know what is happening. I saw it happen in my family. Things start to go wrong, an arrest here, a murder there, and suddenly you are exposed with weakness you never imagined. Anyone who can, will try to get their slice of it all. A relationship between Bullen and Altosinno would be the first step in me creating a new, stronger presence on the West Coast."
"How do you plan on doing that?"
Manny huffed a laugh and then forced a suitably contrite expression onto his face. "No disrespect, ma'am, but take me to whoever is in c
harge and we'll talk man to man."
She narrowed her eyes and stared him down. They were in some kind of weird face-off until Manny deliberately dipped his gaze. She probably took it as a sign of respect; he hoped so, it was what he had been aiming for.
"We did our research as well," she finally offered.
"Don't think us stupid. There is little to speak of you as anything other than the son of a dead man and the nephew of an idiot."
Manny tilted his head and gave a half smile. "We're not always responsible for what our fathers did before us or for choices made. One person and one block at a time I am rebuilding the Altosinnos as a force to be reckoned with. I am sure your research showed that."
She stared at Manny for a good few seconds. Then she appeared to come to some kind of internal decision.
Every single step of it was written in her eyes. Confusion, acceptance, and then judgment.
"Come with me," she finally said. Putting her sunglasses back over pale blue eyes she gestured to the rear of the building.
Manny and Nik followed her and the bodyguard out the door marked kitchen, through a prep area, and out the back entrance. A short alleyway led to the street at the same end where Manny had entered and where a car was now waiting. She paused and cast a look up and down the street.
Manny was acutely aware that she was as much in line for paparazzi as her husband and he dipped his head, just in case. There were no flashes. Finally, they stood by the open car door where Manny had a final decision to make. If he got in this car he was agreeing to going wherever the senator's wife thought was good.
"We'll follow you," Manny said simply. He indicated back to their 4x4 parked up on the opposite side of the road. Getting in the car with her was like admitting he fully trusted her.
He didn't.
As soon as the car door shut on them Manny was
talking and reporting back to Josh. Nik drove carefully at a good distance behind the town car and concentrated on weaving around late morning traffic.