“I’ll handle it.”
Sloane and Dex kept the area secure while they waited for Maddock to deal with the press. Of course, that didn’t stop reporters from trying to get Sloane’s attention. It’s as if they knew of his aversion to them.
“Agent Brodie! Are the THIRDS even trying to catch the Coalition? Or are you glad they’re doing your work for you?”
Sloane pressed his lips together to keep himself from telling the guy to fuck off.
“Do the THIRDS have any leads on the Coalition at all? Was the victim a member of the Order?”
Maddock pulled up in his black Suburban, and Sloane thanked his lucky stars. He headed for the BearCat with Dex close behind. Sloane needed to get back to HQ to start piecing this mess together. Their first victim was a member of the Order. The Coalition happened to show up chasing some other members of the Order, and Cristo ended up shot in
the head. Now this victim had been shredded by two large Felids. He needed to know if the Coalition had been seen in the area. He also needed to know the identity of their victim. If he was a member of the Order as Sloane’s gut was telling him, then there was more going on here than they thought.
The rest of the day had been filled with reports and briefings. Maddock took Sloane’s gut feelings very seriously, and Recon was working on gathering all the intel they could on their latest victim. If these two killings weren’t coincidental, Sloane wanted to know what was so special about these men. Was the Coalition simply escalating the violence, or was it something else? If they were stepping things up, why bother making the first murder look like an accident?
Chapter 10
“HI.”
“Hey.” Dex stood to one side to let him in, then closed the door behind him. Walking into the living room, Sloane noticed the TV was off, which for anyone else wouldn’t have been unusual, but not for Dex. The only time Dex ever turned his TV off was when he wasn’t feeling well or when he was thinking. Sloane had a pretty good idea what Dex had been thinking about, especially since he could hear the drums and cymbals of a power ballad floating up from the speakers. His stomach flip-flopped, and he figured the sooner he got it out the better it would be for both of them.
“Dex, what you said in the office—”
“It’s fine. Forget it.” Dex headed for the kitchen, and Sloane followed, gently touching Dex’s arm in case his partner wanted to pull away from him. He didn’t. With a sigh, Dex turned, folded his arms over his chest, and leaned against the counter. Waiting. Was he expecting more excuses from Sloane? An apology that would inevitably lead to yet another apology? A vicious circle of Dex putting his heart out there for Sloane to crush before disappearing and crawling back?
“I don’t want to forget it. I know things between us would be a lot easier if I wasn’t so fucked-up—”
“You’re not,” Dex stated firmly. “You’ve been through a lot, and I understand that. I don’t expect you to feel the same, and I don’t want you to say something you don’t mean. Hell, even I know it’s too soon, but….” Dex shrugged and shoved his hands into his jeans’ pockets. “I can’t help it. You made it easy.”
“Easy? I’ve made it anything but easy for you.” Sloane stepped up to him, his hands slipping around Dex’s waist to hold him. How could he need someone so badly yet be so terrified of getting close to him?
“You don’t get it.” Dex looked up at him, his eyes filled with so many promises, and unlike Sloane, Dex would never let him down, never run from him or from them. “I know this is going to sound cheesy, but the moment you showed up on my doorstep, drunk off your ass and in so much pain, I was gone, man. I’d like to say I don’t know what it is about you that had me taking a swan dive into an empty pool, but I do know.”
“Tell me,” Sloane said quietly, not merely wanting to know, but needing to know. His fingers stroked Dex’s jaw, feeling the stubble growing in. Scruffy looked good on Dex.
“The way you fight with everything you’ve got, even when it’s against yourself. Doesn’t matter how much pain you’re in, you keep fighting. I admire that.”
“Feels like I’ve been fighting my whole life.”
“No matter how many times you walk away, you keep coming back. To me. And don’t get me wrong, I hold onto that, but I have to tell you it hurts like fuck when you do that.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Dex, and I hate how this is going to sound like an excuse, but it’s not. I want you to understand.”
“I’m listening.”
“All my life, whenever something or someone good came along, I couldn’t let myself get too close, because I truly believed nothing good could ever last. Even with Ash, it took me a long time to accept he was going to stick by me as long as it was in his power to do so. At the end of a good day, I’d be too scared to go to sleep, thinking everything would fall apart come morning. I’ve never been in this position before.”
“Neither have I.”
“What about Lou? You two were together for four years.”
“I know. And I cared about him. A lot. Really cared about him. But I wasn’t in love with him. He never gave me butterflies in my stomach just from him looking at me. Never made me feel like a horny teenager itching to touch him every time I saw him. He’d go on trips, and yeah, I’d miss him, but I never felt like he’d taken a part of me with him.”
Sloane swallowed hard at the last part. Did Dex really feel as if a piece of him was missing when Sloane was away from him?