All Kinds of Tied Down (33 page)

“Fuck!” I roared, getting to my knees, not missing the fact that there was no plate on the car.

Sirens, armed men and women all converged on me, and I was ordered to drop my weapon and put my hands behind my head.

Laying my gun down gently, I laced my fingers over the top of my head and waited. The first guy who reached me almost put his foot on my gun to kick it away from me.

“You touch the gun, and you’ll buy me a new one.”

He stopped—they all stopped—and then someone noticed the badge on my belt.

“Oh fuck.”

My sentiment as well.

Fifteen minutes later, I was talking to the head of airport security and individuals from the sheriff’s department, and getting my arm bandaged up by two EMTs.

“How long’s it been since you had tetanus booster, Marshal?”

“Like a month ago,” I informed her.

“Get shot a lot, do you?”

“Pretty much,” I said, wincing as she cleaned the wound.

“Miro!”

I groaned, leaning around her to see Ian charging through the terminal, Drake and Cabot in tow. From the bellow I’d been treated to, the hard set of his jaw, and the tight bunch of his fists, I got the idea I was in trouble.

Pushing through bystanders, he reached me and dropped down to one knee beside the bench I was sitting on. “What the fuck?”

“There was a hit man for the Nava Cartel in the bathroom.”

“What?”

“I—”

“There’s a dead man in there now,” someone chimed in.

His eyes flicked to my arm. “Jesus.”

“It’s a graze.”

“It’s on the same side with your heart.”

I grimaced.

“Again!”

“Yeah, but—”

“Miro!”

“I got a name,” I said quickly, hoping to get him to change the subject.

“You got whose name? The hit man’s?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

What was I supposed to say? “He was kinda flirty.”

“Flirty,” he repeated flatly, and I watched, utterly riveted, as his eyes went from their normal pale icy blue to deep, dark cobalt.

“Wow,” I said, grinning without meaning to. “You have it kinda bad, you know?”

His eyes narrowed to slits.

Crap.

He moved to get up, but I took hold of his wrist and held tight. “Don’t leave me.”

“Oh, I won’t leave you until I kill you,” he promised, smirking. “Now I’m gonna call your boss. I hope you live.”

That wasn’t nice.

B
ECAUSE
IT
was my day, Kage was flying into the Tri-Cities airport to rendezvous and fly back to Chicago with us. We had, of course, missed our plane, and with the latest development, he wanted to be on site. He would have been leaving Arlington today anyway, but now he was backtracking to help us transport our witnesses home because I was, technically, out of commission. Even though I told him I was fine, he was coming because he, too, wanted to hear what I had to say to the sheriff’s department, FBI, Homeland Security, and airport security. Press swarmed everywhere, and law enforcement sequestered us in the lounge, since no one was supposed to see our witnesses.

Ian alternated being on his phone with working on his computer while Cabot and Drake watched television until Cabot fell asleep on his boyfriend.

“So it sounded like, from what you said,” Drake began when I crossed the room to check on him, “that the cartel people don’t want to hurt me.”

“Yep,” I sighed. “That was my understanding as well.”

“How come, do you think?”

“I think if you hadn’t seen Safiro Olivera that night, he would have been burned up and no one would have ever known what happened to him.”

“So now his family knows what really happened to him.”

“And that way they can grieve.”

“Well, good, that’s important.”

We were quiet a moment as I studied him. He had such a good face, strong and kind. “So your life will probably go back to normal faster than you think. Maybe you and Cabot can go back to Bowman and—”

“No sir,” he said implacably. “Cabot and me, we’re going to start our life together far away from all that.”

“You’re really young, Drake. You realize that this—you and Cabot—might not end in a fairy tale. You might not last.”

He thought a moment, his gaze surfing the room before landing back on me. “Maybe. I mean, I’m not stupid. I know we’re really young, both of us just turned eighteen, and it’s not gonna be easy. We’re gonna have to go to school, and even though school will be taken care of, we hafta eat, right?”

“Yes.”

“And Cabot, I mean, he’s never worked a day in his life. He doesn’t know about anything, so that part’s kinda scary.”

“Sure.”

“But I love him like crazy, you know? And when you love someone like crazy, should you stand around being scared that something might not work out, or do you do something about it and take a chance?”

He was right. And because he was so young, he could look at his situation and see it for what it really was—time to take a leap of faith. I had to do the same.

Leaning forward, I patted his knee. “You’re right. Just do the best you can.”

His face lit up. “Thank you, Miro.”

I got up and walked over to Ian, who was back on his phone. When I was close enough, I overheard him say “Emma,” and so I hesitated.

“No,” he sighed, raking his fingers through his hair before he turned around to look for me. I could tell because his gaze swept the room, and then he tensed before he noticed I was right there.

I saw him take a quick breath and settle, and it hit me, like I’d been shot. He needed me to ground him, to tether him, so he didn’t float away. I would do the best job of it ever once we got home. We had to talk on the plane. There was so much to say.

“I can’t,” Ian said gruffly into his phone. “It looks like I’m gonna be tied up for the foreseeable future.”

And he was. With me.

O
N
THE
second leg of the trip home, there were six seats for us, two in first class and four in business. We sat in twos, Kage and White—who was back from leave—up in the fancy seats, and then Cabot and Drake, and me and Ian. I had been really happy to see Chandler White striding up to me beside Kage, looking all hale and hearty.

“What did you say?” he teased.

“I’m being all corny ’cause I’m so happy to see you back on the job.”

He gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder. “You’re a sap, Jones.”

And I was, but having the team back together meant a lot to me. Like the four women in my life who loved me, they were my family.

We played musical chairs with the seating because my boss wanted to talk to everyone. I thought Cabot was going to come out of his skin when it was his turn to go sit with Kage.

“He’s just gonna ask you some questions,” I promised when he walked back to me instead of forward to sit with Kage in the last row of first class, where they had actual glass salt and pepper shakers.

He nodded, inhaled quickly, and strode forward and sat down.

“What’s he asking him?” Drake wanted to know, leaning up over the seat.

“He’s looking to get an accounting of what happened at his father’s house,” I explained. “I wrote a report, my boss is only corroborating it.”

“Yeah, okay,” he said worriedly. “But he won’t take us away from you and Ian, right?”

White did a slow pan to me from where he was sitting now beside Drake.

“Shut up,” I snapped at White before returning my attention to Drake, who appeared terrified. “It’ll be fine.”

“My mother never gave a shit about me and I never knew my father. Cabot’s folks were the same. So you and him,” Drake said, tipping his head at Ian, “are as close to people who give a shit as we have.”

I would so hear it from White later; the smirk told me so. “Yeah, kid, I know. Don’t worry about it. It’ll be okay.”

Ian leaned forward and put his hand up over the back of Drake’s chair, and Drake immediately grabbed it, squeezed, and then let go.

“Take a breath,” Ian directed.

“Okay,” he said, then turned around in his chair and got comfortable.

I had never put the armrest down between Ian and me, so once both Drake and White were facing forward, Ian slid his hand down my thigh.

Turning to him, I saw the scowl. “What?”

“You got shot at again.”

“Yeah, well,” I croaked, realizing I had to have a very serious conversation with him. “That’s gonna keep happening since I’m a federal marshal.”

His brows furrowed and the scowl changed to his normal glower.

“Stop,” I ordered, sliding my fingers through his on my thigh, flattening his hand, holding it pressed tight against me. “Listen.”

All his focus was on me, and he waited, calming simply because I was touching him. Who knew that, all those times when Ian was bouncing off the walls, all he needed was for me to reach out and hold his hand?

“You’re gonna live with me, yeah?”

Boom.

That fast, his eyes darkened with heat. “You said I could.”

“Well, then I gotta tell the man sitting in first class.”

I don’t know what I expected, but Ian thinking a moment and then nodding wasn’t it.

“Ian?”

“Yeah,” he said huskily. “Good. So that way he’ll stop asking you if you want a new partner and leave it alone.”

“You knew about that?”

“’Course,” he said as I moved my hand, letting him go.

“How come you never said anything?”

“Because you always talk for both of us.”

“You know if I didn’t love you, I’d kill you,” I grumbled, getting up after seeing Kage had finished with Cabot.

I passed the younger man, gave him a quick pat on the back, and was almost to the seat beside Kage when it hit me.

I went almost light-headed with the realization of what I’d said to Ian Doyle.

Holy shit.

“Jones?”

Looking down at Kage instead of back toward my partner, I flopped into the seat beside him.

“I actually wanted Ford next, not you.”

My gaze met his, and I noticed, as always, that meeting his stare was not that easy. He was an intense man, and being his entire focus was slightly unnerving.

“Jones?”

I took a settling breath and jumped. “I’m gay.”

Nothing.

“Boss?”

“Yes, Jones,” he said, sounding so very bored.

“You heard me, right?”

“I did,” he said patiently.

I cleared my throat. “Ian, he—he’s gonna move in with me.”

He squinted. “And?”

“I—we—thought you should know.”

“Because?”

“Well, I mean, you’ve gotta be thinking, if we’re in a relationship and it goes south, what does that do for your partnership?”

“Why would that concern me? It should concern you.”

“I—”

“If things go south, you’re the ones who have to deal with the fact that you’re partners and stuck together. I’m not getting how that’s my problem?”

It was all so… composed. Kage was acting like it was no big deal, like people came out to him at work every day. All of it perfectly normal.

“So you’re okay with—”

“Is there anything else, Jones?”

I coughed. “No sir.”

“May I speak to Mr. Ford now?”

“Yessir.”

“Excellent,” he said sarcastically as I stood up slowly.

I couldn’t stop staring at him.

“I’m aging here, Jones.”

“Yessir,” I muttered, turning and leaving, making my way back to where Cabot was sitting beside Drake. “Hey, Drake, my boss would like a word.”

He was frightened; it was there on his face.

“It’s no big deal, I swear.”

He got up, White took his spot, and I flopped down next to Ian. Immediately, his hand was on my thigh, gripping tight.

“So?” Ian prodded.

“Your boss could care less.”

His smile came slowly as I shook my head. “I knew it.”

“You knew what?”

“That Sam Kage was not the kind of man who cared about us outside of work.”

“What?”

“You know what I mean.”

“He cares about the kind of job we do, not about who we do away from it.”

“Yeah,” he said, grinning as he let his head bump against the back of his seat.

“So,” I said, clearing my throat. “What’d Emma want?”

He turned to look at me blankly. “What?”

“I heard you say ‘Emma’ when you were on the phone back at the airport.”

“Oh, no, that wasn’t Emma. That was Jocelyn, a friend of hers.”

“And? Don’t make me dig.”

“She, uhm,” he began, his voice low and rough, “wanted to have dinner to make sure I was okay.”

“How sweet,” I said curtly.

He took my hand in his, lacing his fingers through mine. “But I can’t have dinner with her. I’m busy, right?”

“From now on, yeah.”

He squeezed my hand for a second.

“You like me saying that.”

“I do,” he growled, and the sound slithered right through me to my cock.

“Jesus,” I mumbled, shifting in my seat, my jeans suddenly very tight.

“Call Aruna when we land and see if she and Liam can keep Chickie one more night.”

“Okay,” I agreed, my body heating fast.

He leaned into me, his mouth on my ear. “I wanna move all my
stuff in tonight, but we’ll just go to my place and get clothes for
tomorrow.”