Page 27 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

Not Much Later

Corbin’s Home

Saturday

Early Afternoon

P ulling up to the man’s brownstone, they found Corbin’s driveway empty. Honestly, that wasn’t shocking since he already knew that Corbin’s car had been stolen from where he’d left it at the club.

It wasn’t like they’d get lucky and have it returned right to his house.

Right?

Trying to look inconspicuous, they parked in his spot, and checked out the neighborhood.

It was quiet, proving that cold January weather in the Northeast was no one’s friend.

Both men wanted to get this done, and get back to the condos to check-in. They had picked up lunch for all of them, and it smelled damn good.

Only, that had to wait.

Getting out, Gene took the key from his ring, and held it up, answering Greyson’s next question of ‘how the hell do we get in’ ?

If anything, he was predictable.

Thankfully, Corbin had given them a key in case he got locked out so he could have anyone, but his parents bust his ass about it.

At the door, when he went to put the key in, the door actually moved, proving it was left slightly ajar.

Uh-oh.

That was all kinds of wrong.

Corbin would never leave his door unlocked if he was heading out for the night, and Alice wouldn’t just pop in and do that either.

That meant one thing.

Oh, fuck.

Someone had broken into Corbin’s home.

Immediately, without saying a word, both men pulled their guns and got ready to enter the place. Gene pointed to the back, and Greyson got it.

Someone was going in the back door. Tossing him the keys, Greyson took them and headed around back to access the kitchen so they could block off both exits.

In the front, slowly, Gene toed the door open with his boot, and peeked inside. As he listened, there was no sound. Then, he heard the kitchen door open, and knew Greyson had gained access too.

Inside, he cleared the room, checking behind any and everything. What Gene did notice was that the place was tossed.

As in someone ripped the hell out of his place as they disrespected it.

Corbin’s photos were off of the wall.

The couch was torn up.

The table had been flipped.

The place was a hot mess, and there was no doubt in his mind who had done it.

This had to be done by the assholes who took his wallet and keys. They’d found his address on his license, and used the keys to gain access to Corbin’s home.

That.

Was.

Fucked up.

Talk about adding insult to injury. They violated Corbin’s body, and now, his home. They made it so he’d never feel safe again.

Yeah, Gene couldn’t wait to find these pieces of shit.

“Clear,” Greyson said, moving into the room after making sure the kitchen was free of scumbags.

Gene pointed up, and Greyson nodded as he went to clear the upper part of the home.

It wasn’t lost on Gene that his partner in this moved like a soldier, silently and with purpose.

As he cleared the upstairs, Gene moved around fixing things. It made him angrier that the men had been in there. There were beer bottles on the table, and Gene knew who they likely belonged to.

Corbin wasn’t a slob, and he preferred wine if he was drinking.

It pissed him off to no end that they fucking sat in his house and watched goddamn TV after what they’d done to him.

Now, he was incredibly irate. This didn’t help calm him down.

Not.

At.

All.

When he heard footsteps, Gene glanced over in time to see Greyson heading his way.

“Well, no one is in his bed, but someone was,” he said, holding up a pair of thong male underwear with his gloved fingers. “Someone had a party with another dude in his bed. Maybe they brought another victim here?”

God.

This kept getting worse.

“They won’t be Corbin’s or Will’s, and Corbin isn’t a one-night stand kind of a guy, and he’s most definitely not having anyone over unless it’s for boardgames and snacks. That’s more his speed.”

On that, Gene agreed.

Gene pointed.

“They were watching TV and drank beer here after hurting him. After he was lying in an alley dying, they came here to celebrate killing a cop.”

Yeah, now, Greyson was pissed too.

That kind of callousness spoke about the kind of men they were.

Yeah, someone needed an ass beating, and Greyson knew who wanted to give it to him.

Gene.

Well, sign him up.

Greyson would hold them down.

“Well, what do you want to do?” Greyson asked. “We can have a team here…”

That was the last thing they needed.

“Again, like you just said, if we call this in, then it goes on the record. Sasha will hear about it or notice when all of the techs leave the office.”

He was right.

“No, we can’t. Someone will piece it together. We’ll grab what we can, clean up the rest, and run it on our own with the mattress and the clothing. That will take one tech running it, not the whole team.”

He figured as much.

“I’ll go grab some bags, and I’ll deliver them to the FBI techs for you when I can. It won’t look odd if I ask them since I run this nut farm.”

That worked for him.

As Greyson did that, Gene moved around the place, fixing tables, putting garbage in bags, and cleaning up for Corbin.

The last thing he wanted was for Corbin to see the place looking like this. It would break his heart, and he’d never feel safe again here.

Unfortunately, the couch was a loss, and he knew it would need to be dragged out to the curb for the trash. Corbin was going to want to get a new bed too.

Who knew what nastiness went on upstairs, especially since the bikers were gay, and that G-string likely didn’t belong to a woman.

No one wanted a mattress STD.

When he heard footsteps, he thought they were Greyson’s.

Spoiler.

They weren’t.

“I’ll let Corbin know that he needs to get a new couch. Can you help me get it to the curb, Greyson.”

When he didn’t get an answer, Gene turned fast, pulling his gun.

Will jumped.

He’d been surveying the chaos, and had quite the look on his face.

Oh, shit.

Not only was Will there, but now, he was going to ask all kinds of questions.

Like why he’d pulled a gun on him?

Like where was Corbin?

Before he could explain, the not-so-fun game of ‘lawyer twenty questions’ began.

Well, hell.

“What the hell happened here?” Will asked, looking around.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

How was he going to answer this?

When he didn’t, Will kept going, and Gene knew it was going to be futile to bullshit him too much.

The man was an attorney, and he knew how to question people in a cross examination.

Gene was boned good.

When Greyson came in, he came to a stop.

“Uh-oh,” he said, starting to back out of the room to be able to avoid what they both knew what was inevitable.

The inquisition.

“STOP,” Will said.

The men stared at each other, and their looks said the same thing.

They needed to abort this mission and get the hell out of there without telling Will anything.

“Where is Corbin?” Will asked. “For some reason, I haven’t heard from my boyfriend since yesterday. He sent me a text that said he was working, and that was the last time I heard from him. I’ve been calling him all day, and someone just answers and laughs before hanging up.”

Well, they knew why that was happening because they knew who had Corbin’s phone.

This was another problem.

One they’d have to solve.

“Will…,” Gene began.

The man looked worried.

“He talks to me every night, and last night was the first time since we started dating that he hasn’t talked to me. Where is he, Gene?”

Well, this was a pickle.

Of course, he was going to run into Corbin’s boyfriend as he was checking out his house.

“Well?” Will asked.

Gene had to do something.

It was best to give him as little as possible until Corbin could handle this on his own.

“He’s working a case,” he said, hating that he had to lie to the man.

Both he and Ethan liked Will. They didn’t spend a lot of time with him, since Corbin had been scarce the last few weeks, but they knew he was good for their friend.

Will stared at him.

“What kind of a case?” he asked.

It was clear that Corbin didn’t tell his man much about him working undercover, or he was testing them to see what they’d say.

Either way, this was a slippery slope.

“And why all of a sudden is he blowing me off? Something is going on, and I think I deserve an answer,” he admitted.

Corbin had told him he wanted to move in with him, and that they were getting even more serious about each other.

That was then.

Now, he was not answering his calls.

Will was scared shitless that it had all been a lie, and he’d fallen for it.

As for Gene, this was a situation.

Well, shit.

“I’ll go handle the upstairs,” Greyson said, bailing on his partner as quickly as possible.

He was a horrible wingman when the shit hit the fan. That was for damn sure.

Still, Will was staring at him.

“Like I said, Will, he’s working a case. He asked us to head here since a neighbor called him and said someone was lingering around his home, and we found it a mess.”

That was partially the truth so he only felt half as bad as he should.

“I see. Why wouldn’t the police handle this then? Why would he call the FBI to come to his house?”

Gene had to think fast.

“Because Ethan and I have a key. I was out working on a case with Greyson, and got the call from him. As for everything else, you need to talk to Corbin. I’m sure he’s tied up with something important that’s work related. You know how homicides are.”

He stared at him.

The whole time, Gene made eye contact, and tried not to give off any tells.

“Weren’t you supposed to be on vacation?” he asked, suspiciously.

Yeah, don’t remind him.

Had someone told seven A.M. Gene that one P.M. Gene was going to be in Corbin’s house dealing with the aftermath of this nightmare, he would have punched them in the face.

Seriously.

“It was postponed due to a case we had to take,” he said, and that was one hundred percent the truth.

Deep down, he knew the more lies he told, the worse this was going to be later.

For him.