Orgasm descended, swift and sudden, answering Fury’s summons. Nathan hung on to Fury as though survival depended on it, leaving bruises on Fury’s hip and thigh. Nathan’s ears rang with a thousand chimes, and when it was done, he stayed deep inside Fury, propped on an elbow and heaving giant gulps of air.
“Mmm.” Fury hummed and kissed behind Nathan’s ear. Nathan grunted, his breath outrunning him and staying beyond his reach.
Fury chuckled, Nathan made a questioning sound, and Fury chuckled more. “Can feel you every time you do that.”
“Do what?” Nathan grumbled and sighed.
“That.” Fury petted Nathan’s hair. “Breathe.”
“Can’t really help it,” Nathan pointed out.
“I like it.”
“Good, ’cause you know, the alternative kinda sucks.” Nathan laughed, delirious, and Fury held Nathan tighter and kept chuckling, squirming now as though Nathan were tickling Fury.
“Out,” Fury commanded.
“Thought you liked me close?” Nathan teased, kissing Fury’s nose and refusing to let Fury untangle himself.
Fury crushed his knees around Nathan, who gasped. “Okay, okay.” Nathan pulled out, flopping onto his back next to Fury. Faintly, Nathan heard a noise. “What is that?”
Not answering, Fury undid the clamps and flung them aside. “That’s probably going to tingle,” Nathan warned.
Fury shrugged, found Nathan’s hand, and took it. He brought it to his mouth and kissed Nathan’s knuckles. He drew his other arm across his forehead.
The noise was persistent, and Nathan suddenly recognized it. “Shit. It’s my phone.”
“Nah, think it’s mine,” Fury said.
“You sure?”
Fury nodded, their joined hands resting on his chest. “You never use vibrate. Got them clangin’ bells and music shit.”
“I don’t call your music names,” Nathan said.
“My music’s good.”
“And I don’t say a word about your taste,” Nathan said.
Fury chuffed a disbelieving sound and rolled toward Nathan for a kiss. “You say plenty about the way I taste.”
“Smart-ass.”
“Your ass.” Fury grinned.
“Yep, all mine,” Nathan agreed, but it came out far more tender than he’d intended. Fury’s smile softened, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and he kissed Nathan, shifted away, and sat up.
“Do we have to care about who’s calling?” Nathan asked, struggling to the other side of the bed.
“Dunno yet.”
Nathan’s grunt was unimpressed, and he staggered into the bathroom to do away with the condom. He wiped himself down, took a piss, and got a towel for Fury. When he walked back into the bedroom, however, Fury was hopping around the room yanking on his jeans like his hair was on fire.
“The hell?” Nathan asked.
“Gotta go,” Fury said, grabbing his shirt.
“Where?” Nathan asked, dropping the towel and going for his own clothes.
“Nowhere.” Fury paused. “You can’t come with me.”
Nathan shut his eyes and ground his teeth hard enough to make his head hurt. After the last two weeks without Fury and with only worry, Nathan was done. And the tone of Fury’s voice was so dismissive, despite the fact that they’d just shared some of the more personal moments of Nathan’s life and Nathan wanted more of them. He would
have
more of them, so help him God. He was sick to death of being a pawn on the chessboard, moved out of the way and sacrificed to the greater scheme. It was high time Nathan crossed enemy lines and got crowned a badass.
Nathan stalked over to Fury, got in Fury’s face, and didn’t back down. “I can come with you, and I am. You owe me answers, and I’m getting them, and don’t—” Nathan held up a hand when Fury got that maddening stern, know-better look and started to protest. “Don’t give me that shit about danger. I’ve been doing stupid shit for a long time, and it’s always been and still is my choice to keep doing it.”
Fury blinked, and amusement sparked in his eyes, but Nathan didn’t let up. “And don’t try to tell me it’s not my business or whatever the hell,” Nathan said. “
You
are my business. Anything to do with you is my business. It’s been that way for a while, I want it to be that way for a lot longer, and I’m tired of this being-kept-in-the-dark bullshit. You’ve got to trust me.”
“I do trust you,” Fury said. “With what we just done, I’d better.”
“Good.” Nathan took a breath. “Now. Where the hell are we going?”
“I don’t know what we’re getting into,” Fury said.
“Then we’ll find out together,” Nathan said stubbornly.
“Izzy’ll have both our hides.”
“They’ll look good on her.”
“I gotta go to the warehouse. I promised you I wouldn’t go back to the warehouse.”
“You’re not going.
We’re
going.”
“I want you out of this,” Fury insisted, shaking his head.
“Yeah? Well, I want you more.”
Fury’s gaze slid to the floor. He buckled his belt, put on his shoes, and grabbed Nathan so suddenly it knocked the wind out of Nathan. The kiss was like the one that had started their reunion evening: forceful and full of claims to ownership. “Dale Springs Community,” Fury said.
“What?” Nathan asked, nearly tripping in his shock. “That’s where… Why are we going there?”
“Because that’s where Dennis left me somethin’.”
“Dennis?” Nathan snatched up his shoes and chased Fury out of the bedroom. “I thought you were through with him.”
“I am. Have been.”
“Then…”
Fury whirled, cell phone in his outstretched hand. He hit the button for Speaker with his thumb.
“
It’s me
,” said the voice mail, and Nathan recognized Dennis’s voice. “
I’ve tried calling. Look, I need a favor. I know I’ve been an asshole, I understand how shit’s going down, and I don’t blame
…” A long sigh, a moment of silence, and then: “
Go where we used to crash. I’ve got something there, and I need you to bring it to me. Usual place
.”
The message ended, and Fury hit more buttons. The next message sounded more frantic, as though Dennis was struggling to keep it cool and failing fast. “
Man, I really need you to answer your phone. Just do what I asked, all right? Tonight, yeah? It’s gotta be tonight
.”
Fury shoved the phone into his pocket. Nathan nodded, mind made up. “So, Dale Springs, huh?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah,” Fury said, relieved, but then he frowned. “They got security there, though. Don’t think they’ll know me. I ain’t been there in a long time.”
Nathan started to laugh and had trouble stopping, eventually resorting to muffled giggles. “Oh, no worries. I think I can help you out.”
“Yeah?” Fury asked, dubious but following Nathan out of the apartment and into the frosty night air.
“Yeah,” Nathan locked his apartment. “Got a guy on the inside, so to speak.”
Nathan spent the walk to his parking space convincing himself that he wasn’t completely insane. Or, if he was crazy, then it was worth it because Dennis sounded like he needed help, Fury cared about the man, and, well, Nathan cared about Fury. Why was it that the simplest things were always the hardest?
“Okay,” Nathan said, once he was inside the car. “What’s the deal, then? What’s going on?”
Fury slammed the passenger door and reached for his seat belt. “Dennis is a crook.”
Nathan backed out of the space, heading for the exit and the road to Dale Springs, home of his fake fiancée and, apparently, his lover’s ex bad boy. “Yeah, okay. And?”
“He’s a small-time crook. Fights, mostly, bettin’, that sort of thing.”
“Yeah.” Nathan waited with practiced patience for the information he didn’t know.
“A while ago, he got involved with a guy named Tray Deeds.”
“Now there’s a name.”
“Heard of him?”
“Nah.”
“Good. Tray’s a real piece of work and sort of Izzy’s boyfriend.”
“Of course he is. Awesome.”
“I told you this was more her deal.”
“Yeah, I heard you.” Nathan slowed down for a stop sign. “So when you say Dennis and Tray got involved, you mean business, not pleasure.”
“Business,” Fury confirmed. “Tray’s ass is owned by an operation that runs drugs and whores up out of Florida. Izzy met him when she was livin’ down there.”
The woman got around. “When was Hellabeth in Florida?”
“For a few years after our dad died.”
“I thought you were living with her after that? When you knocked off the liquor store for her?”
“No,” Fury said quietly, and Nathan counted road signs until Fury decided to explain. “After the house burned, we went our separate ways for a while, me and Izzy. I stole to get by, did some stupid shit like kids do. Izzy hitched a ride south. When I did the store, it was after I got a letter from Izzy at school. I got a phone number to use, and she said she needed cash to get home. I didn’t have none, so I tried to up my game and rob the store. Got caught, you know the rest.”
“Hardly,” Nathan muttered. “Did your sister get home then?”
“No. She didn’t come back into town until a year or so ago.”
“With the Tray guy?”
“Yeah.”
“How do she and her boyfriend fit into all this?”
Fury shifted in the seat and rubbed his palms on his thighs. “Izzy stays out of bad trouble by turning it in.”
“You mean like, what, to the cops?”
“Yeah. She’s gotten caught and let go more times than I can count.”
That certainly explained why Fury had gone to Hellabeth to see if Nathan was a cop or involved with Tray’s gang. “Personal safety isn’t in your family’s genetic code, is it?”
Fury’s eyebrow went up. “Like you can talk.”
“True.” Nathan ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth. “So Izzy knows bad people, and she brought them home?”
Fury rested his head on the window. “Izzy moved up here after Dennis and I had split mostly for good. She knew Dennis, introduced him to Tray, and they struck up a bargain that meant Dennis was goin’ to be dealin’ more than odds.”
The world really was too small a place. “Which means it’s your sister’s fault that Dennis is in too deep?”
Fury shook his head. “Tray and Dennis were talkin’ before Izzy said she knew a guy in Knoxville. Just turned out to be the same guy Tray wanted to know better. Dennis wanted to get noticed. Tray’s people wanted somebody. Everyone wants a piece of this fuckin’ city. It’s a crossroads for all sorts of shit.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You do,” Fury agreed. “Anyway, Hellabeth sets up the bar at Dennis’s outfit, Dennis becomes Tray’s bitch, and Tray’s workin’ for the bigger fish. And I don’t find out squat until I show up at Dennis’s place one night lookin’ to get my hands dirty, and there’s my fuckin’ sister behind a bar.” Fury chuckled. “Think we could’ve killed one another right then. Me on her for not tellin’ me shit, and her on me for bein’ in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like she got the rights to certain things once they get nasty enough.”
“You two really are related.”
“We are,” Fury agreed, missing or ignoring the sarcasm.
“Okay, so she didn’t know you two had been back together?”
Fury laughed. “I don’t know if she knew we’d ever been together in the first place. She sure didn’t know I was fightin’ for him.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, that’s about what she said.” Fury rubbed at his jaw like it still hurt from Hellabeth’s lecture.
“Sometimes you can’t get away from people, huh?” Nathan asked.
Fury hummed. “Had these talks with Matt about fate and your actions comin’ back on you. He says it’s God givin’ second chances or pullin’ people together to do somethin’ they couldn’t do alone, but sometimes it feels like the man upstairs is messin’ with you.”
“I hear that.”
“We didn’t know what the right thing was, you know?” Fury said. “Once Izzy and I got calmed down, we figured out quick that nobody on Tray’s side knew about her and me, and Dennis wasn’t really talkin’ to either of us. Guilt, I think. He wanted more money, a bigger game, but he didn’t count on gettin’ both me and her in the mess with him.”
“Christ,” Nathan muttered. “No wonder you didn’t bat an eye when I told you about Laura and all that crap. Next to your life, mine’s a breeze.”
Fury smiled. “Matt says I saw a kindred spirit in you.”
“Nah, you saw a hot guy you wanted to fuck.”
“That too.”
The dominoes kept falling. “And then you got gun-shy when you saw me with Duke, ’cause, hell, everybody else in your life was involved with Dennis’s shit. Why not the cute guy from the gym too, right?”
Fury reached over and squeezed Nathan’s shoulder. “Didn’t turn out that way.”
“No, it didn’t.” Nathan took the Dale Springs exit. “What did you and Izzy do then? After you talked?”
“We tried to knock sense into Dennis, but he always liked cash more than he liked people. I didn’t want to leave ’cause Izzy was there. She couldn’t leave ’cause I was there, and Tray would notice her leavin’. I’d promised Dennis some fights, he owed me cash, and I wanted my due.”
“So you were stuck.”
“For a while, yeah, but that last match was the final straw.”
“Because Dennis told people you two were brother and sister?” Nathan asked.
“Worse than that.”
“How so?”
“I thought it was a bad sign, the other guy knowin’ I had family in the mix, so I got Izzy alone and told her what went down in the fight. She says it probably wasn’t Dennis talkin’, or if it was, it’s ’cause he’s coverin’ his ass and ours because Tray knows there’s a rat talkin’ to the cops.”
Nathan got chills. “How do they know that?”
“Probably ’cause Tray’s people have cops on their payroll.” Fury shrugged. “It’s how shit gets done.”
“And Izzy’s the rat?”
“Yeah. It’s her plan on gettin’ us out of this fix. She hands over enough information to nail Tray, but it’ll mean nailin’ Dennis too.”
“And what happens to her?”
Fury smoothed a hand over the seat’s fabric, brushing all the fibers in the same direction. “The people she’d be helpin’ to take down are big. Not Tray, but the guys he works for. So witsec, probably, if she don’t disappear before that. She ain’t exactly one to follow orders from authority, and she’s great at vanishin’. Even better at survivin’.”