Page 8

Chapter Eight

Drake

“I wasn’t going to say this in front of Moira, but Rawlings wants to see us about the fire. He has information.” Well, he wanted us to make a plan. Rawlings hadn’t given me details, and I’d been distracted as I was still working out how the fuck Shae had managed to get out of bed this morning without waking me up. “What do you think of Moira’s offer?” I was interested to know where Shae’s head was at.

He didn’t reply right away, and I guessed he was figuring it out. “I want to get my life straight,” he said cautiously. Then he neatly turned the tables. “What about you? Any plans for after you stop working for Diesel?”

I just about tripped up over my feet again, and Shae gripped me with a steadying hand. Fuck this was the second time in a day he’d done this. What was it about Shae that pushed all my buttons? I’d never thought about what I would do after. Being who I was, I suppose I didn’t see another me. “No idea,” I said honestly. “I’m never gonna be happy riding a desk, that’s for sure.”

He let go of my arm, and I eyed him. I thought I caught a flash of disappointment in his eyes, but for what? That I didn’t have a plan? “Thought we’d grab some food, then head out to see Rawlings before the doc,” I said, changing the subject.

Breakfast was a little stilted. It was almost like I was trying too hard, and he knew it, but at least he ate. Then we got in my truck and set off to the apartment where Rawlings and Danny were meeting us. And if Danny was there, then it was likely…no a safe bet, that Kane would be there. He stayed silent until I couldn’t take it any longer. “Do you drive?” It had just occurred to me.

He nodded. “Got a license, just no wheels.” I snorted at the gangster-hip deep voice he adopted teasingly and just like that the atmosphere lightened.

“Ever work on any cars?”

He shook his head. “I wish.”

Satisfaction bloomed inside me, though I tried not to show it. “Albert’s got an old one-fifty that’s taking up space. I’ve worked on them before so we can get it running, then you’ll have wheels .” I grinned.

“Where did you find time to learn to work on cars?” he flushed. “I mean—”

“Yeah, not from my dad, obviously,” I agreed. “We had this neighbor, Ernie. He always had someone’s car up on ramps. Fixed them for the neighborhood.” I shrugged. “He let me hang around sometimes when I didn’t have time to come here, and I paid attention.”

He’d found me in his garage the first time I’d hidden from Dad’s fists. It hadn’t been the last. Everyone always assumed I got my scar from being in combat, and I suppose you could say that, except I’d been eleven at the time and Dad had been drunk.

Even I couldn’t summon the energy for chit chat after that reminder, and I pretended not to notice the quick looks Shae sent me. I pulled into the parking lot and parked in one of the four designated spots for the apartments Rawlings had bought and noted Gray was here as well. I’d wondered why Rawlings didn’t just buy the whole building as there had to be only three left he didn’t own, but I’d asked him a couple of years ago and he’d replied it gave great cover. He wanted normal traffic in case someone ever watched us.

Seemed a bit James Bond for a security company, but since we’d met Talon and the guys, we tended to do the stuff they as FBI couldn’t do. Like chat with Jethro Dunne.

And I had no problem with that. Livened things up a little.

We parked and Shae jumped out. “You know Gray.” I gestured to the Tucson. “Ever met Seb?”

He nodded without replying, and I forced down a sigh. I doubted Seb was here. He’d be singing somewhere or writing songs, but if Gray was here, Seb wasn’t anywhere except home, because Gray didn’t leave that man’s side if he wasn’t protected. For a moment, I wanted that with so much passion it nearly stopped my heart. I wanted Shae. I wanted the farm, the dogs, the horses. I wanted to work on the truck together. I wanted evenings reading those fucking books. I wanted that and so much more.

I wanted everything. But life didn’t work like that. And even though we’d known each other for the better part of a year, this was new. I took a step away from Shae automatically, defensively , and he noticed.

“Shae!” Lost in my dreams of a future that wouldn’t happen, I hadn’t realized we’d gotten up to the apartment until I heard the squeal and Seb flung his arms around Shae while Gray looked on indulgently. Seb’s service dog, Bentley, seemed quite content with Shae, but he didn’t take his eyes from Seb. I met Gray’s eyes and saw way too much. Or Gray did. He saw how I looked at Shae, and I felt bare. Gray was older than Seb, sure, but he wasn’t as old as me. Gray studied my face, but instead of the understanding I expected, his eyebrow quirked.

I glowered and ignored the family reunion, pretending not to notice Shae when he turned to grin at me, or that when I didn’t return it, his smile fell. Fuck. I couldn’t mess with him like this. I was supposed to be helping, not making things worse.

I didn’t have time to growl my opinion to Gray’s unspoken question as Kane and Danny appeared, including both dogs, and then it was a whole thing. Thankfully they were all service dogs, even Kane’s puppy, so it wasn’t chaos.

“This a meeting or a party?” I grumbled to Rawlings as he joined me in the kitchen. He snorted and opened the fridge, handing out waters and then flicking on the coffee machine and the kettle, getting the tea for Danny. I glanced over at him as he fell silent, but he wasn’t looking at me, and I followed his gaze.

Shae was sitting on the floor, Sadie practically lying on top of him, and I frowned, noticing Danny’s gaze fixed on them. I’d only ever seen Sadie do that a couple of times, both with Danny, and both when she sensed his anxiety climbing.

Shae wasn’t looking at anyone. He had his face half-buried in her scruff, her tail was wagging, and he was making baby-type cooing noises and telling her what a good girl she was. Danny glanced over and sent me a careful glance before moving into the kitchen to finish making his tea. The meeting would be in the new conference room Rawlings had made by knocking through into the other two apartments on this floor. His new space had a separate entrance and exit to the outside corridor and contained the conference room with a large viewing screen at one end and a table with up to twelve chairs. Two bathrooms, a smaller spare office, and a small kitchenette made up the remodeled space. It had been designed so the other two apartments were private from any clients Rawlings needed to see here.

Rawlings had an office downtown, but he’d given that up. I liked the new arrangement.

“How’s Shae?” Danny murmured.

“Better than he was a couple of days ago. He’s got an appointment with his doc at three.”

He kept his gaze on Shae and Sadie. “She’s gone into work mode,” he said carefully.

“What does that mean?” I took a gulp of coffee.

“It means she’s sensing something with Shae,” Danny said quietly, but slowly, as if he was trying to work it out as well.

“Sensing what? His heart?” I tried to keep the concern out of my voice.

“No,” Danny said. “She met him plenty of times before and she’s never been so protective, even at Diesel’s.”

Even so, I was very glad we were going to the doc’s later.

“Okay, people,” Rawlings said and led the way into the conference room. I held my hand out casually to Shae, almost daring him to ignore it, but he didn’t. He looked up as Sadie moved off him and reached out. When our hands connected, so did our gazes. And locked.

I knew his eyes were always amazing. Blue, sometimes with darker gray speckles that seemed to change depending on his mood, and as I drew him up, he seemed to come so incredibly close. It was odd how he smelled. Well, no, that wasn’t right. I didn’t mean he smelled odd . He reminded me of sunshine and outdoors. What was odd was that I was even registering it. I took a step back and let go, even as every part of my body seemed to be very aware we were standing close.

“Ringo!” Rawlings yelled, and I shook myself mentally, and we both followed the others. Seb didn’t come into the conference room, as he had some calls to make and speak with his agent, so there were just the five of us.

I knew this was outside of Rawlings’ normal business dealings and I appreciated he wasn’t involving anyone else. Gray had been there when we questioned Jethro, and Danny was our tech guru, which meant Kane was also in the loop.

Rawlings went over everything we’d learned from Jethro. “He’s doing as asked and keeping his head down, but we don’t think Ryan knew about him. I doubt if Lee was supposed to share with anyone what Ryan asked him to do and there’s been no attempt to call him directly.”

“How much is your farm worth?” Kane asked. “Is this Ryan guy desperate for money?”

“Desperate enough to risk the sort of sentence aggravated arson could bring?” Gray added.

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “The working theory is that it would be sold for a housing development.”

“Which is all well and good, but that would depend on the parcel and the road infrastructure,” Danny said, not looking up from his laptop. “I would guess, and obviously this is a guess based on comparisons, that you might get one fifty an acre. But there’s a lot of expensive considerations with the land.”

“And yours is what? Six, seven?” Rawlings asked. “Plus access?”

“Plus the Georgia red clay complicates things and adds to the cost,” Danny hummed. “There has to be additional foundation work, and I imagine the cost of getting the utilities and underground works there has to mean they’d need a minimum number of sales to make it worth it.”

“What about Moira’s place?” Shae asked. “She said herself that developers have approached them.”

“You mean buy them together?” I asked. “It’s a good question. But the whole thing seems messy. Albert and Moira have only got around seven or so acres, so that’s only fourteen between us.”

“Their place backs directly onto protected farmland, which complicates it even more,” Danny said. “They couldn’t expand that way.”

Danny’s laptop was displaying on the huge wall screen so we could all see what he was seeing. It was an aerial view of mine and Albert’s properties and the road work surrounding it. Kane pointed to the area nearest the road where the mine sat. “Would developing your neighbor’s place depend on access via your place?”

I studied the map. The road to their place wasn’t suitable for even moderate traffic, and I knew deliveries always came through mine. “I think Albert told me that at one point they’d all been one spread.”

“Albert?...” Danny asked.

“Davis,” I said. Danny hummed, then a second screen came up with Albert’s driver’s license on it. “Nice couple,” I said. “Good neighbors and helped Jim and Ellie when I was deployed or more recently, taking jobs here.” And I struggled with not being there for them even though I’d contributed financially. Money wasn’t always an answer.

“No red flags,” Danny murmured, and I bit off a sarcastic of course . Danny was doing his job.

Shae gazed at the screen. “What about his conviction?”

Danny typed some more. “No record.” He looked at Shae. “What conviction?”

Shae glanced at me uncomfortably, but he was right, so I explained. “Moira told me the reason they could never foster or adopt was that Albert got into trouble, as she called it, when he was younger. She didn’t tell me anything else and I didn’t ask.”

Danny tapped away furiously but shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Could it be a sealed juvie record?” Gray asked.

“They have to be separated by Georgia law,” Rawlings acknowledged. “But I’m pretty sure any background check for adoption or fostering would be given access.”

Danny heaved a breath. “And you can’t find out if someone has a sealed juvenile record without a court order. Normally,” Danny added and glanced at Rawlings.

“How is this relevant?” I asked, not wanting Danny to pursue this even if he could. Rawlings studied me and I let him. I didn’t give a shit. These people had been good to me.

“Agreed, for now,” Rawlings said. “The cops have interviewed Ryan Connaught with his lawyer present, but they have nothing. They haven’t made the connection to Jethro Dunne even if he’s a cousin of Lee Dodson, and I don’t think it will help anything to alert them.”

“No.” But maybe having a chat with Albert was something I could do? I wanted to know if anyone was interested in their land.

“You don’t think this guy would go after Miss Moira?” Shae asked. If I hadn’t been able to hear the worry in Shae’s voice, Sadie immediately getting up from where she was lying down next to Danny and crossing to sit at Shae’s feet would have told me how he felt.

Danny glanced over at me, then back to his laptop.

What did that mean?

It was obvious he was worried. I didn’t need a service dog to tell me that.

“Jay’s not on a contract on at the moment,” Rawlings said. “Let him put a couple of guys on securing the place for a few nights. He knows what happened with the fire, so he won’t question it.”

Shae’s face smoothed out, but now that Danny had drawn my attention to it, I noticed his nearest hand stayed on Sadie’s neck.

We went over the other few jobs Rawlings had, and I didn’t ask for any of them. I had other things on my mind. After an hour, we broke for sandwiches, and I liked that Shae and Seb seemed to get on so well. Shae needed friends.

“Feel like a proud papa yet?”

I glanced in annoyance at Gray for giving me shit, but when I saw his face, I paused. He was watching the same thing I was. Two young men casually chatting about music and petting their dogs absently. But more importantly, I knew Gray wasn’t poking at my sore spots. He was trying to lance his own.

“I’m older than you,” I said quietly.

“Seb gets tons of fan mail,” Gray said, ignoring my comment. “Quite a few about me. A lot asking why he’s letting an old man hold him back.”

I turned to him in surprise. “I didn’t know that.”

Gray raised an eyebrow. “Not like you’re around much.” Which was true. I didn’t really socialize with any of them. He pushed off the wall. “If I listened to any of them, it would rob me of the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.” Seb looked up then and his expression softened when his eyes lit on Gray. He certainly didn’t seem to be struggling with Gray holding him back from anything. In fact, the change in him from when I’d first seen Seb was nothing short of miraculous. He was confident, happy, but even more, he was content in his own skin. A big change from all the years when his father had manipulated him, and both emotionally and physically abused him.

Then I glanced at Shae—not that my attention was ever far from him—and thought about what I’d decided last night. I knew even if we did get into a relationship, it wouldn’t last because despite what Gray said, there was no way Shae wasn’t going to wake up one day and wonder what the hell he’d done.

I knew that, despite everything.

Shae glanced at the time on his phone and got up, telling Seb he had to go. They did that casual hand clasp I’d seen them do before, but then Seb reached out and they hugged each other. “Maybe you’d like to come and see the place?” I murmured to Gray.

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed.

I caught Rawlings’ eye and indicated we had to go to the doc’s. He kept his goodbye casual for Shae, and in a few minutes we were heading for the entrance. “Thought we could have Gray and Seb ‘round, maybe for a barbeque. They can bring Bentley.”

Shae’s eyes lit and he followed me out into the small parking lot. I scanned my surroundings automatically and watched a truck idling, clearly looking for a space when there weren’t any.

“Maybe you ought to talk to Albert after what Danny said?” Shae said and glanced to his right to cross to my truck.

“I was thinking the same,” I acknowledged. “When you go see to the dogs, I can—”

But whatever thought I’d had vanished when I heard the sudden rev of an engine and a squeal of tires, and I was reaching out for Shae before I’d even given had a conscious thought to do so. He was in the open, too exposed, but before the spit of bullets even started, my feet were off the floor. I blinked and we were back in the lobby. Fuck, Shae had just picked me up.

“Stay here. Call Rawlings right now,” I barked and pulled my gun, going back out. The truck was squealing back to the entrance and just as I was aiming for the tires, another car pulled in. Too close. Fuck.

I jogged back inside just as Gray, Rawlings and Kane barreled down the steps to get to us. “The hell?” I yelled at Shae “What were you told?” I was furious. He’d picked me up for fuck's sake and ran. “You know—”

“Of course, I fucking know,” Shae yelled back. “I know my body’s fucked up. It’s been fucked up half my fucking life.” I reached a hand out but he just vanished, again . I practically roared my frustration and slammed my fist into the wall.

There was a stone-cold silence, then Rawlings sighed. “Let’s go see what Danny can get from the cameras. I imagine the cops will be here soon. There’s no way someone won’t have reported the shots.”

“I have to find Shae,” I mumbled, my fury evaporating.

“The only one that can find him is Danny,” Gray said shortly, and knowing he was right, and calling myself every name under the sun, I followed them back. The thought of a bullet hitting Shae had scared the crap out of me, and then I’d lost it because he’d used his ability when it could damage his heart even more.

It should be me protecting him, dammit, not the other way around, and this was the second time in less than a week.

The trouble was I doubted if there would be a third, and not because there might not be another incident, but because I knew I’d just blown any chance I had with him. I needed to grovel. Assuming I would get the chance if my toddler sulk hadn’t already convinced him to keep far away.

“See if you can find Shae first,” Rawlings said, “before we see about the truck.”

I debated going to the farm but knew that was likely the last place he would go. We all watched Danny going through CCTV. He also had facial recognition software that I knew Gael had helped him with and was probably on the wrong side of some law. Not that I gave a shit.

“The problem is when he’s running, there’s no CCTV cameras in the world that can pick him up,” Danny said. Then a light started flashing at the bottom of the screen and Danny clicked on it. It was a picture of Shae. He turned to me. “He’s just walked into Piedmont Health.”

I huffed out a breath. “He’s got an appointment with his cardiologist at three.”

Rawlings glanced at his watch. “He’s early so if you go now, you should get there in time.”

I picked up my keys and left to follow him. Even though I doubted Shae would even talk to me after I’d screwed up, I still had to try.