A Case of Christmas (9 page)

were waiting in the next room… He didn’t want to understand, but he did, and though it

made no sense, he was moved. Hell, he was getting choked up over it. Over
what
?

“Then the answer was no,” Linus said. “You don’t get to overrule the owner of the

property just because this is important to you.”

Hupert turned his face away. He said in a stifled voice, “I know that.”

Shane said gruffly, “I’m not that busy, and I’m not that important. I won’t dump

anything without letting you have a look at it first. Fair enough?”

Hupert turned back to them, staring.

Shane added grimly, “But
don’t
try to break into my cottage again. I’m not going to

be amused.”

“No! No, it was just a-an impulse. I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head. Once I

knew everything was still there, had been sitting there all this time, I started thinking I

shouldn’t have reminded you, that you might decide to clear everything out.”

Shane shook his head. “No.” He laid Hupert’s screwdriver on the table.

“What was that really about?” Linus asked quietly as they pushed through the small

gate and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

The blinds parted on Hupert’s front window as he stood in the darkness, watching

them leave.

“Who knows,” Shane said. “Reliving the past? Saying good-bye? Second chances?

Or maybe he
is
still after sunken treasure.”

“Are you going to let him sort through Lacey’s papers?”

“Yes.” He glanced at Linus’s profile.

“I didn’t take you for such a softie,” Linus said. He was smiling.

“I’m not. It’s just a way of getting someone to sort through all that crap. I don’t have

time or interest.”

“Sure,” Linus said in a humoring tone. Yet Shane had the feeling Linus did not

disapprove of his decision to let Hupert off the hook.

“I know something you didn’t tell me the first time.”

“What’s that?”

“You were a cop before you became an insurance investigator,” Shane said as they

retraced their footsteps down the windblown street.

“I was. How’d you guess?”

“The way you handle yourself—now that you
are
yourself.”

Linus said lightly, “You can take a boy out of the force, but you can’t take the force

out of a boy.”

“Why’d you leave?”

Linus gave a short laugh. “The truth? I burned out. I saw that nothing I did made a

difference in the long run. The justice system is broken.”

“It’s got a few weak links, but—”

“We couldn’t touch the big fish. All we ever caught were the little fish, and half the

time the punishment didn’t fit the crime. Meanwhile, the big fish sailed on their merry

way, getting bigger and fishier.”

That was an unexpectedly bleak view. Shane didn’t know what to say. In any case,

they had reached his cottage, and Linus was changing the subject.

“Too bad about dinner,” he said. “You’re welcome to come over to my place. I’m

sure I can fix us something. It won’t be buffalo burgers, but it’s better than going to bed

without supper.”

Shane almost said yes. He wanted to say yes. But the bizarre encounter with Bradley

Hupert had left him feeling off-kilter, almost sad. He had liked Norton a lot. Had maybe

been falling in love with him, regardless of what Linus wanted to think. And all he really

knew of Linus was that Linus was the kind of guy who could walk away and never look

back. Spend every day—and every night—with you for two weeks and then never give

you another thought. And if by some chance your paths did cross again, Linus would

happily be willing to pick up where he’d left off because it didn’t mean anything anyway.

Why he found that depressing, Shane wasn’t sure because he’d always kind of been

the same way.

He said, “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night. But thanks. I appreciate

the offer.”

There was a strangely naked pause. “Oh,” Linus said. “Right.” Then more briskly,

“Another time.”

“Sure,” Shane said. He wasn’t crazy after all, and he very likely would want to take

Linus up on that implied offer one of these days.

Linus started across the street and then turned back. “What about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Christmas Day. You want to come over for turkey? I’ve got a seventeen-pound

Butterball. I can’t eat the whole thing by myself.” Linus was casual, even cheerful. In the

dim light, Shane could see that he was smiling. And yet…maybe Shane
was
getting to

know Linus because he knew that this was Linus braced for further disappointment.

“Uh, sure.” After all, who wanted to spend Christmas alone—even if that had been

the original plan. “What time?”

The set of Linus’s shoulders relaxed. “Two? Three? Whenever you like.”

“I’ll come over about three. I don’t really have anything to bring, but—”

“Don’t worry about that.” Linus stared at him for a moment. “See you tomorrow.”

He turned away, crossed the street, and disappeared inside his cottage.

Shane went into his own cottage and headed straight for the kitchen where he made

himself a cheese sandwich, which he ate in three bites. He followed that with a second

sandwich, and was tempted to go for three except he had a feeling he would regret it.

Instead, he lit the fire, and poured a glass of Hupert’s Dark Origins. Alcohol wouldn’t

normally affect antibiotics, and if the drink did make him sleepy or tired, fine. He had no

plans.

Which was exactly the way he had wanted it. So it would be silly to start second-

guessing his decision to turn Linus down.

The whiskey had a sweetly smoky taste to it. A hint of sherry? A hint of earth. It

tasted like something pirates—classy, pirates—would drink.

He was just settling into one of the leather chairs in front of the fireplace when the

door jumped under an energetic knock.

“Up on the rooftop, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered. Perhaps the whiskey had not been

the best idea.

He set the glass down, rose, and looked out the peephole. Linus stood on the

doorstep, scowling into the night. Shane opened the door.

Linus turned and said roughly, “I want to explain something to you.”

“Okay,” Shane said warily. He stepped back, and Linus entered the cottage. He

regarded Shane with a dark, troubled gaze.

“Go ahead,” Shane said. His heart was racing with a mix of anticipation and dread.

He really hoped he was not going to hear more bad news.

Linus seemed to struggle, then said in that same choppy way, “I honestly didn’t think

what we had together meant anything more than sex to you. You gave no indication that

it did.”

“I don’t know that it did,” Shane said. But that was pride talking, and by now they

both knew it.

“It wasn’t my intent to—to hurt you.”

“I believe that.”

Shane’s admission didn’t seem to ease Linus’s tension. “But even if you had, I didn’t

have a choice. I was hired to investigate you. How much validity would my report have if

we were involved?”

“We
were
involved.”

“I mean, if we stayed involved. If we began an actual relationship.” Linus shook his

head. “Yeah, he’s one hundred percent in the clear, and he also happens to be my

boyfriend.”

Shane was silent. He hadn’t previously considered this angle.

“What was plain to me from the start was you had no intention of leaving the

Bureau. You wanted your job back. And once I figured out you were one of the good

guys, I
wanted
you to have your job back. I wanted to be able to do that for you. To give

you that. But for that to happen, for me to clear you of any suspicion of wrongdoing…I

had to be an objective investigator with no personal stake in the outcome.”

“You’re saying you walked away without a word for my sake?”

“Shane, I never had a clue you were interested in a relationship. But even if I had

thought that…my investigation had to be by the book. Yes, for your sake.”

“Even if that’s true,” Shane began.

“If?”

“Let’s say it is true,” Shane said. “I had a right to know what was going on. And if

what you’re saying is maybe you had feelings for me too, then I doubly had a right to

know. It wasn’t your place to make that choice for both of us. If that’s what you’re saying

you did.”

Linus’s smile was twisted. “You think you would have chosen me over the FBI?”

Shane’s face warmed. “How would I know? There was never any indication on
your

part that what we had together was anything more than sex for you either. But if there

was something more there, then…we should have discussed it. Together.”

Linus shook his head. “There was no way to do that without compromising my

investigation and my findings.”

“Oh, to hell with your investigation,” Shane snapped. “It’s been over two years. You

could have contacted me.”

“You also could have contacted
me
,” Linus said. “You work for one of the biggest

and most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world. If you’d wanted to find me,

you could have done it.”

“Clearly you didn’t want to be found.”

“Didn’t I?”

Shane tried to read Linus’s expression. “
Did
you?”

“I don’t know.” Linus’s eyes met Shane’s. He swallowed, said, “I thought I was a

joke to you.”

Shane’s jaw dropped. “A
joke
?”

“I
was
a joke to you. And I did it to myself.” Linus smiled, a funny, rueful sort of

grimace. “I created this goofball, and then I was stuck with that character.” He met

Shane’s eyes. “Yeah. I did. I did hope that you might come after me. That I mattered

enough that you’d want to find out what happened.”

It sort of felt like when Schrader’s blade had slid right into his guts. A thrill so deep,

so shocking, it took a few seconds to recognize it for pain. Shane felt winded. Weak.

“I… It wasn’t like that,” Shane said. “I didn’t think
you
cared. I thought it was pretty

clear you didn’t. Even once I figured out that you had been hired to investigate me, it

never crossed my mind that I was anything but a case to you.”

Linus’s brows drew together. “No. Jesus, it was embarrassing how fast I fell for you.

I kept telling myself I needed a little distance, but it was all I could do not to tell you

what was going on. And then, when it was over, I thought that if you did care, you’d

come after me. And if you didn’t, then that was the answer. And I knew that
was
the

answer because you’d made it clear from the start you just wanted a little fun, a little

relaxation.”

“At the start, yeah. But later…” Shane shook his head, whispered, “No. Not even

close.”

He thought he moved first, but who moved first was no longer at issue. He reached

for Linus, and Linus was right there. Their mouths met. Linus tasted cold and like he’d

had a shot of something before he’d braved going out to pound on Shane’s door. His kiss

was careful, experimental—or maybe that was Shane because it was important not to get

this wrong.

You only got so many do-overs, and if that’s what this was—and it tasted as sweet

and intoxicating as a second chance—he didn’t want to ruin it.

Linus groaned softly, and one of his arms slid around Shane’s waist. Shane wrapped

an arm around Linus’s shoulders—he wanted more than the press of mouths—and

Linus’s chilly lips heated beneath the pressure of Shane’s. Or maybe, again, that was

Shane. This was the first moment he’d felt really warm since he’d arrived on the island.

Or left it, that long-ago spring.

Their mouths parted, Linus pulling back enough to look Shane in the eyes. His own

gaze was very blue, very sincere. “I’m sorry. If I had known—if I’d realized—” He

shook his head.

“I don’t know why I was so quick to assume it couldn’t be real,” Shane said. “It felt

real at the time.”

He had never been afraid to take chances professionally, but in his personal life?

Until now he hadn’t realized how few emotional risks he took. None. And this was what

it had cost him. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The room was dark, the sheets were a little musty, and there was a draft whispering

from the doors leading out onto the small deck, but it was as if spring had arrived early

all the same. They held each other and kissed and kissed and kissed. Sweet and light

kisses. Dark and deep kisses. Apology and acceptance and aloha, which meant both

good-bye and hello, and seemed appropriate even if it wasn’t something people said on

this island. Shane and Linus were on their own island, and it was in bloom.

“Can we do this? I don’t want to hurt you,” Linus said softly, as they moved from

kisses to fondling and petting. His fingers trailed gently down Shane’s ribs, tracing the

line of bandage.

“Nah, you won’t hurt me,” Shane said. Anyway, maybe you needed a little pain now