Ken was halfway out the window. "Shit!" The kid scrambled to get the rest of the way out.
Asshole. He grabbed the kid's feet as Vin got around to the front.
"In or out, Boss?"
"In. He can use the door."
"Let go of me, you fucker!" Ken kicked and wriggled.
He hauled Ken in, shut the window. "You can go where you want, but you're getting tailed. Get used to it."
"So whatever asshole is following can steal my stuff? You assholes owe me a hundred bucks and next time I am calling the cops if my car disappears."
"The shit you bought? Dirty. Laced with poison. Wouldn't have killed you, but you wouldn't be walking today, maybe not tomorrow." He was going to beat Simon with a shoe.
"Says you." Ken glared.
The door to Primary Two's bedroom opened with a soft click, Bay looking in, eyes a bright green.
"Bay!" Ken went over, but Bay left the door mostly closed.
"I just wanted to know what the noise was." The door closed again, lock loud as it clicked.
He winced a little for the kid, but kept his mouth shut, moved out to the security room, leaving Vin to guard the window. The banging started, Ken hitting Bay's door and calling out Bay's name.
Bay came out of his own room. "I'm going down for breakfast."
"Yes, sir." He stood, following silently.
Bay went to the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal with milk, sitting in the small table in the corner.
Rick didn't crowd, just stood and watched. Bay looked up at him. "Is he okay?"
Rick nodded. "He bought some drugs that were laced with arsenic. Simon took it. He didn't drive drunk, Simon brought him home."
"He gets in trouble when he goes out alone. I should have been with him." Bay made a face. "He's an idiot."
"Simon watched him, kept him safe." Rick almost smiled. "Simon is the best, Bay."
"If he promises to behave, will you call everyone else off? Have it just be you and Simon again?"
"Yes." Rick nodded. "I'm not here to fuck up your life, Bay. I'm here to protect you."
Bay's face lit up. "Okay, I'll talk to him." The kid got up, heading back upstairs.
He chuckled. "Bay?" "What?"
"Can you wait two minutes and let me get a glass of juice, please?"
"You've got guys crawling all over this place; I can't go up to our rooms on my own?"
"Not until we have a system down." He walked over to Bay, serious. "Let us get settled, get familiar with the grounds, with you, and things will ease."
"We were kind of hoping you'd go away." There were dark bruised marks under Bay's eyes, testament to his night of pacing.
"I know. When the threat is gone, we'll go." "I'll wait for you to get your juice."
"Thank you." He poured himself a glass, drinking a few swallows so it wouldn't spill, and then followed Bay back to the rooms.
Bay knocked on Ken's door. "I'm coming in, Kenny." The kid disappeared into his brother's room.
A few moments later there was yelling and crashing and then a thump and things went quiet.
Fuck a duck.
He knocked once. "You okay?"
There was a muffled sound and another thump. He opened the door, gun drawn, Bob standing up and pulling his piece. The twins were on the floor, humping madly, mouths fused.
He shook his head, waved Bob back. "It's fine." Then Rick shut the door, giving the boys their privacy, their space.
***
Bay lay beneath Ken's body, hands dragging over warm skin. "If you're good, Ken, it'll go back to just Rick and Simon."
"And then the old man's won."
"Kenny, Rick says the threats are real." He was worried Rick was right.
Ken snorted. "Yeah, sure." "Why would he lie?"
"Fine, he thinks they're real, so the old man convinced him. Doesn't mean they are."
"But what if they are? What if there are some assholes out there who want to hurt us because of him?" God knew the old man was an asshole; maybe he’d pissed the wrong guys off. It could happen.
"Come on, Bay, you don't really believe that, do you? I mean you're not falling for Rick's line, are you?"
"I want all these people gone, Ken. Two is better than six!" He slid his hands on Ken's spine. "Please, Ken? I don't like having all those people here, knowing they're watching me all the time."
"All right. But they'd better back off -- that Simon asshole took my stuff, ran off the guys I was with and had my car brought back here and let me think it was stolen. I'm not putting up with that crap."
Bay started to laugh. "And he wouldn't fuck you." "How did you know?"
He pushed Ken off him and got up, pulling his clothes on. "Because I know you. I'm glad he took your stuff -- Rick said it was full of poison."
"Another lie."
He rolled his eyes. "Get dressed and let’s go tell Rick so he can rid of everyone."
"This is really freaking you out."
"You're only just figuring that out?" Bay tried to keep the hurt out of his voice. There weren't a lot of people who honestly gave a shit about him, but Ken was supposed to be one of them. The important one. And Ken always did, when he wasn't too busy being a paranoid asshole.
Ken wrapped his arms around Bay from behind and kissed his neck. "Sorry, Bay, I'll try, okay?"
He nodded and took Ken's hand, leading him out to talk to Rick.
Rick was filling out paperwork, the oriental and the big blond playing cards and fiddling with monitors.
Bay poked Ken.
Ken gave him a glare and cleared his throat. "I'll behave if you call off the extra dogs."
Rick looked up. "That includes sneaking out, Ken. I will not sacrifice your safety."
Ken rolled his eyes, but dutifully promised not to sneak out.
Bay was almost bouncing, a weight lifting off his shoulders.
"Okay. I'll send the extras home. So unless we're having a problem or a day off? I'm your morning guard, Simon's your night."
"So does that mean we can fuck you at night and Simon during the day?"
Bay rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but giggle. God, he loved Kenny.
Rick looked over, chuckling, shaking his head. The interesting thing? The long, serious look the other two shared, the complete lack of laughter there. Bay was glad they were going.
"We're going down to the pool, Rick. You're coming with, right?" He trusted Rick, not those other two.
"I am." Rick looked over at the others. "Consider yourselves on the standard retainer. I'll set up a relief schedule tonight. Tell your wife hello from me, Bob."
Bay took Ken's hand and tugged his brother out to the pool, feeling better than he had since they'd first found out about Rick and Simon in the first place.
***
Rick nudged him, "Come on, wake up now."
Simon smiled, reached out for his lover, hand sliding over one long thigh. "Do we have to, babe?"
"Wake the fuck up, O'Neal."
His eyes flashed open, the dream shattering into a thousand pieces and leaving him hot-cheeked and needing a smoke. "Sorry. My shift, yeah?"
"Yeah. Mike's on call. The boys are being good." His hand was removed from Rick's leg with a look of somebody pulling off a leech.
"Let me grab a shower and I'll be there." He stood up, stark naked, but not worrying on it. He couldn't be less hard and Rick had seen it all before. Didn't want it, either.
He made the bed and grabbed his shaving kit and a pair of
jeans, an ironed shirt. A pack of cigarettes and a couple aspirin.
Rick left without another word, leaving him to shower and shave and wish to fuck Jonas hadn't wanted both of them here.
Thirteen years of being lovers, ten years of being business partners and, hell, after two years of being one without being the other, he was fucking ready to quit, too. But no. No. Fucking Jonas Templeton had to piss off the meanest fucking drug lord in Columbia and now his smartass kids needed protection.
"We owe him, O'Neal."
"I don't like it either, O'Neal."
"We don't have to talk but about the job, O'Neal."
"You don't have a fucking choice, Simon. Once this is over, we never have to look at each other again."
He lifted his face to the spray.
Never again. Fuck.
He let the water run for a while, pouring over him, not thinking.
By the time he strapped on his piece and his jeans, he was ready to face anything -- twins, death, aggravation.
Even Rick.
***
Ken wanted to go out, get high, get drunk, get fucked, but Bay didn't. His twin was tired from no sleep and Ken had promised to be good, which meant no splitting up, at least for a day or two. Besides, Bay's eyes were heavy on him and he knew his twin wanted him. He could live with that.
And it was almost eight, which meant it was tall, dark and studly's time off, which meant his excuse of “I'm on the clock” wouldn't hold much water.
They were in the game room, playing pool and drinking beer, munching on nachos. And in a flash of brilliance, Ken figured to ask Rick to play pool once he was off the clock. Once the man agreed to stay, he was sure his considerable charms would do the rest.
He put himself in Rick's space. "Almost shift change time, Brick. You gonna stick around and play the winner?" He nodded at the pool table where Bay was in the process of lining up a shot that Ken knew his twin was going to miss -
- it was too ambitious for Bay.
Rick tilted his head. "One game, sure, if your brother doesn't mind."
Bay scratched his shot and made a face. "I'm not as good as Ken."
"Story of our lives."
Bay stuck his tongue out at him, but Ken grinned, unrepentant as he moved back to the table and finished out his shots, sinking the eight ball last.
The red-head walked in, hair still wet, nodding once to Rick before going to sit back in the shadows, watching.
Bay handed his stick over to Rick and got a Coke out of the fridge at the bar, sitting to watch.
"You wanna break, Brick?" he asked, moving into Rick's space again.
"Sure." Rick took his shot, broke clean and sank two balls, neat as anything. "I'm solids."
He hummed a little and ran his hand from Rick's chest to his belly. "You sure are."
Rick's eyes met his, laughing. "Flirt. My shot."
He smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's that, too. We should make it interesting; put a little something on the game."
"I don't want to take your money, Ken." Rick took another shot, sank another ball.
Ken laughed. "I wasn't thinking money." He leaned against the table, giving Rick a nice long once-over. Nope, he hadn't been thinking of money at all.
Rick lined up to shoot, when the red-head cleared his throat, the ball going wide. "Your shot."
Ken chuckled. "Your partner's not helping you out any. So what are we playing for? Beer? Backrubs? Blowjobs?"
"Beer."
"Yeah, the man's blow... backrubs leave something to be desired." Simon's words were laughed off, but those long fingers tightened on the cue.
He shot a look at the redhead at the back of his room, question in his eyes as he looked at Bay. His twin nodded a little and shrugged. He tilted his head, grinning as Bay got up and strolled over to where Simon was sitting.