Page 18 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

The Police Precinct

Captain Oliver Guy’s Office

Saturday

Noon

L uckily for them, when they showed up at the police precinct, the homicide captain was in-house. Police hours were erratic, but Gene knew that most of the time, cops worked weekends.

Hell.

He and Ethan were Feds, a different kind of cop, but they also had the worst hours known to man.

There were far and few weekends in between when they were home and off.

Oh, like today before Alice showed up.

So, taking a stab at it, their gamble paid off. Oliver Guy was behind his desk, taking care of paperwork.

Before arriving, Gabe had texted him to give him one last chance to back out of their deal, but that wasn’t happening.

They were all-in on this one.

So, Gabe congratulated them. They now had both cases, and they were theirs to run.

It was clear that their boss had done the dance, and had gotten his way with this one. They weren’t going to ask a slew of questions, either.

Honestly, no one was shocked there.

Gabe was a force of nature, and it wasn’t often that someone could stand between him and his goal.

The bottom line was that Gene suspected it hadn’t been easy since they were bending the rules, but hooray for an overzealous FBI boss.

Thank God for The Dragon Slayer.

With Greyson by his side, together, they reached the man’s office, and knocked on the door jamb.

Immediately, he looked up. Instead of irritation, like Gene expected, they got anything but.

Uh, okay.

“Well, well, well,” Oliver said, grinning at Gene. “This is a surprise,” he admitted. “To what do I owe this visit?” he asked.

It was clear to Gene that that man was a little too happy to see him, and that no one gave him the heads-up yet that he was taking not one, but two cases from him. Oh, well, he was going to be cranky when word traveled downhill from the commissioner.

Yeah, someone was going to be testy.

Then, it hit Gene.

Maybe the shit hadn’t rolled downhill yet because he was going to have to be the messenger.

Oh, boy.

Gene didn’t like that because everyone knew what happened to the messenger every single time.

They got their asses chewed.

Still, you’d think he would be a little off of his game finding out his cop was in the hospital.

Or was he overthinking it?

“Hey, Captain Guy,” Gene said, keeping it on the up and up because he really didn’t want to take a visit to ‘boyfriend breakup land’, and this guy tried to get him there every time they crossed paths.

This man was highly inappropriate whenever he was around, and that made himself, and Ethan, twitchy. You’d think he’d be different today, considering, but that was proving to be anything but the case.

Granted, Ethan had nothing to worry about. Gene didn’t cheat, and even if he did…

You’d have to be really dumb to pick this man over the hot and sexy man he had at home.

Still, Oliver Guy kept trying, and Gene was getting tired of batting away the innuendos, looks, and hints.

What did a guy have to do in order to keep some one-night stand from reappearing every time he came to this office?

Bribery?

Homicide?

What?

“Can we speak with you?” Gene asked.

The man stood.

“Come in,” he said, eyeing up Greyson.

At the invite, the two men entered, and Gene closed the door behind them.

As they he did that, the captain was making them two cups of coffee from his private pot.

“So, what’s up?” he asked, as Greyson told him how he liked his coffee.

Black like his soul.

“I know it’s not you just coming here to see me, since you brought someone with you.”

At that, Greyson lifted a brow. The vibe in the room was off, and most of that energy was coming from Gene. He did NOT look comfortable in the room, and that told him something had gone down.

Reading the room, Greyson could see how the man was super focused on Gene, and he was giving off those ‘let’s get-together again’ vibes.

Uh-oh.

Someone had gotten on the Homicide Captain train before, and he’d bet money on it.

Gene made sure to keep it on the up and up, and to have a witness when he showed up at this office. Usually, it was Corbin, or Ethan in a pinch.

“We needed to talk to you,” he stated.

Oliver handed each of them a cup of coffee, and he sat on the corner of his desk, closest to Gene.

Yeah, it wasn’t lost on Greyson that the man did it on purpose. He was setting himself up to be in a power position over Gene. He was at eye to dick level.

Now, Greyson knew he hadn’t been imagining it. These two had history.

Naked.

History.

Someone was focused a little too heavily on Gene to just be bowling buddies, or hockey season friends.

“About what exactly?” Oliver asked.

Gene didn’t drink the coffee. The man gave off kidnapping vibes where he roofied his drink.

It was harsh, but each time they crossed paths, the hair on the back of his neck would stand up.

So, he’d do the job, and get them the hell out of there before Creeper McCreeperson got any closer to his body.

Introductions were made.

“This is Special Agent Greyson Croft, and he’s my partner for this case,” he offered.

That looked to genuinely confuse Oliver.

“What happened to your old partner. The mixed race one,” he asked. “Did you lose him?”

Hell.

No.

The day he willingly let Ethan go was the day he had himself committed for questionable behavior.

As for the rest of the man’s comment…

Someone had better tread lightly.

From where he sat, Gene stared at the man, hoping he didn’t go there.

Usually, it was a short trip from ‘mixed race’ to ‘half-breed’ , and that ALWAYS put him over the edge when someone talked shit about Ethan’s ethnicity.

Partner or not.

Gene wasn’t a racist piece of shit.

“Oh, well, don’t worry. Ethan is still my PARTNER ,” he said, emphasis on the last word so the man would get the hint. “He’s handling something else, and Greyson is helping me with my portion of this.”

Greyson studied the situation, and the tension in Gene’s voice. It was crystal clear he didn’t like the man like the captain was feeling him.

“Oh,” Oliver said. “I see.”

When he moved to go back around his desk, Gene looked a little more relieved to not have the dude up in his space.

Yeah, Greyson couldn’t wait to hear the explanation on this one.

It was time to get this handled so he could get out of there.

“Anyway, what I’m here about…It’s about Corbin. I just left the hospital after seeing him.”

Immediately, the man’s smile disappeared.

“I’m worried about him. Is he doing okay? When I found out he’d been hurt, I headed to the hospital. He didn’t want to see me, but the doctor told me about his injuries. Then, I spoke to him on the hospital phone.”

Gene let him talk.

Sometimes, when you said nothing, you learned a lot more by just listening. He was hoping the man gave him something he could use to buffer the news.

Oliver steepled his fingers.

“Honestly, I’m just waiting on the rape kit to see if he was assaulted, and then, I’ll pass it off to someone to investigate. I know he said he doesn’t want an investigation, but I’m obligated to have someone take it.”

Yeah, no.

That was NOT happening.

‘Someone’ wasn’t taking it. They were to protect Corbin’s privacy.

As for the kit, that wasn’t happening either. He and Ethan would keep their word.

The FBI file would be sealed.

The only good thing was that if he was waiting on the kit, that meant it hadn’t spread far and wide.

Well, it was time to ruin this guy’s day.

“About that…the FBI is pulling jurisdiction on the case he was working, and his case. We’re taking over the homicides, and the investigation regarding Corbin since they are clearly connected.”

The man stared at him.

Oh, and he didn’t look happy that someone played leapfrog over the man.

“Pardon?”

Greyson said nothing, letting Gene handle it—for now. What he was seeing was a situation that he did NOT like for one of his agents. As long as Cantrell and Blackhawk worked at his office, they were his.

“Like I said, we are taking both cases. It’s been brought to our attention that there were three victims found dead, and we have every right to handle that.

Since this is a problem in the city, the Deputy Director of the FBI has decided that we’re going to work that case, and since Corbin was working that, and it resulted in his assault, we’re taking that too. ”

Here’s where the tap dance began.

“That screams serial killer to the FBI,” Gene added, “and you’re at three victims, and Corbin might have been the fourth had he not…lived.”

Oliver laughed.

“We both know it’s trafficking, and not a serial killer, Gene. Who are you kidding? The FBI has no jurisdiction here since we didn’t call them.”

Oh, he knew this was sketchy, but they had to get that case so that they could tie Corbin to the victims. If they went with ‘he’s an escaped victim’ , that would make him the fourth potential victim.

Gene laid down the law.

“No, we don’t know that. What we know is that Vice needed help with the homicides, and that pulled Corbin into the fray. Now, we’re coming in to clean up the mess. It’s safe to say that Corbin is the one who got away. It’s ours.”

That hung there.

Finally, Oliver spoke.

“That smells like dirty FBI games,” he said. “I thought we were beyond that since we had a relationship.”

Oh, Greyson was fully invested in the conversation now. Gene could see him watching from where he sat beside him.

Yeah, Gene wanted to sigh, but he didn’t.

This man was exhausting.

Once more, someone was taking liberties, and that wasn’t happening. It looked as if he was going to have to come clean to Greyson now too.

So much for anonymous sex to keep the battery charged. His past was up in his face again.

“We didn’t have a relationship, Captain Guy. What we had was a one-night stand, and that’s it. Don’t make this more than it is. This isn’t about us, this is about Corbin and our job here in Philadelphia . The bottom line is that the FBI is taking jurisdiction.”

Oliver went there.