Page 4 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

The island of sand, sun, and a half-naked Native who wanted nothing more than him in a banana hammock with some Pina Colada lube.

Thank you, God. You really do exist, and you love a gay man a whole hell of a lot to make this a reality.

To be able to watch Ethan half-naked on the beach, and to get him drunk on Pina Coladas?

It was well worth it.

As they were both putting the finishing touches on packing, they couldn’t wait to get to their flight.

It was leaving in a few hours.

Then, they’d be free of Philly , and the winter snow that was perpetually making their lives a chilly hell.

“I’m drinking on the plane,” Gene admitted. “I’m warning you now. If you go to the bathroom, I’m following and we’re going to play ‘bear mauling a Native in the contained space’ ,” he warned. “You had your fun in the shower, and I’m having my fun in a small space ten thousand feet in the air.”

Ethan laughed.

“You’re insane,” he said. “How about you don’t maul me where other people shit, and instead, you get me a drink, and we’ll get disorderly together when we land?”

He kissed his man.

“Oh, Baby, that’s a deal. Thank you for this present. I can’t wait to use it—and by use it, I mean spend all of our week on holiday fornicating with the hottest man I know.”

Ethan winked at him.

“Did I mention when I’m in the sun, I get really tan, really fast?”

He stared at him and didn’t say a single, solitary word. Instead, his gaze never wavered.

“What?” Ethan asked when he saw him staring.

“Sorry, I was picturing you with no tan lines, and a wet dick from the copious amounts of head I’m planning to give my hot, tan, Native man.”

He did a little jig as he rolled his bag toward the door so he could call for the cab.

The city would have to take care of itself until they got back from the beach.

At that moment, Javier Hughes was in jail. Funny enough, he was denied bail, since he kept trying to hurt a Fed. He was stuck there until his trial in the spring.

The tides were turning against the man, and that meant they were safe.

It probably had something to do with Willis Finch, his stooge, turning for state’s evidence to save his own ass.

Yeah, it was a good day in Gene’s world.

When Ethan rolled his suitcase out, he had a bottle of tanning oil in his hand. It was the kind people used to get that island glow.

But there was a problem.

Gene lifted a brow.

“My dude, I’m mayonnaise white and from the Midwest. That will cook me like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day. I need SPF four thousand to sit on our balcony in the daylight.”

Blackhawk couldn’t help himself.

He laughed.

“Smell it.”

He tossed Gene the bottle, and it was like coconut and the beach trapped in the plastic container.

Then, he clued him in.

“For the record, I wasn’t giving it to you to use it for tanning oil, Gene. Think about it.”

He looked at the bottle.

At Ethan.

At the bottle, again, and then Ethan’s ass.

Oh, someone was desperate to have Gene ‘bottom out’ in his bottom. He was going to make this almost impossible for Gene not to be a lecherous pervert.

Well, why not give it a try while on vacation?

He was up for the task at hand, and where better to commiserate the first time Ethan took dick than in Puerto Rico ?

Now, that was a memory he could get behind.

Because he pictured it, Gene giggled, jigged again, and did a sexy little dance that included the bottle of oil.

Not only was Ethan going to get what he wanted, but someone else was getting suntan oil lubed, and he wasn’t saying no to that.

Oh.

Hell.

No.

Yeah, God loved him a whole hell of a lot.

That was for damn sure.

Gene only stopped grinning when there was a knock on their door, catching him off guard.

“Oh, fuck me,” Gene said. “If that’s Greyson, trying to take our vacation back, I’m knocking him out, and we’re making a run for the airport. Or if that’s Corbin, dropping a case on us, I’m locking his ass in the closet and leaving him there. He’ll have to find his own way out.”

Blackhawk laughed, and then, he clued him in.

“Greyson left for work already. He texted me to say have fun,” he admitted. “As for Corbin…anything is possible. Run fast, pasty white man who bakes like a turkey.”

Well, crap.

Then, it could only be Corbin, and there was no way on God’s green Earth, where he made hot Natives, was he working this week.

Someone would have to die first.

PERIOD.

Ethan had booked them an all-inclusive funfest at a gay resort where they could be cock out all the damn time. He wasn’t pissing that away.

PASS.

Going to the door, Gene was getting testy. If the man thought he was working a case, and giving up sexy oil time with the hot Native that didn’t pack any underwear…

He was insane.

Gene would strangle him with his banana hammock.

“No,” he said, opening the door, only to be surprised that it wasn’t Corbin.

It was Alice.

And she looked bad.

Like REAL BAD.

“Hey,” he said, noticing she’d been crying.

Immediately, Ethan was there. Alice was family, and for her to show up in this state…

Something happened.

“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked, concern and worry in his eyes.

Gene was already pulling her in, worried about the woman just as much.

Alice wasn’t a cryer.

She was a ‘punch a dude in the balls’ kind of a lady.

“My son,” she said, starting to cry all over again.

Oh, hell.

This was going to be bad.

They hadn’t heard from Corbin in about two weeks. They knew he was trying to get an undercover case, despite them telling him it was a bad idea, but they figured he was handling the workload the city threw at him.

Surely, he’d know to call them if he had to go undercover—in case he needed backup.

Right?

Their baby detective wouldn’t do something stupid, would he?

Oh, shit.

He totally did something stupid.

“What happened to Corbin?” Ethan asked, almost afraid to go there.

Alice sat down, and the men flanked her.

Then, she told them.

“They found Corbin beaten, assaulted, and nearly dead outside Bull’s Biker Bar ,” she whispered. “He was working at the time. The hospital got his name, and they called me. A security guard at the hospital was once a city cop.”

Oh, fuck.

Neither man spoke as she explained.

They’d both heard the waver in her voice when she said ‘assaulted’ , and they had a sneaking suspicion why.

That tone said it all.

“All I know is that he went in undercover for a sting the police wanted handled, and someone hurt him. That’s all his captain would tell me. He’s in the hospital, and I didn’t know who to come to. I can’t get in to see him, and I’m scared.”

Oh, Jesus.

This was exactly what they warned him about.

Bull’s Biker Bar was a hotbed of trafficking, and a sane person wouldn’t go in there.

That was a death wish.

What the hell was he thinking?

“Assaulted?” Gene asked. “Are we talking sexually?” he inquired, needing to know even as he prayed that wasn’t the case.

With tears in her eyes, Alice nodded.

As she shared what she’d found out, her heart was breaking for her son.

Honestly, she didn’t know how to make this better—if she even could.

Both she and John were at a loss with this one.

“The doctor said it appears that he was raped multiple times,” she whispered. “He won’t talk to us or let us in the room to see him.”

Oh, boy.

That didn’t sound good.

Not.

At.

All.

“I know my son. He’s hiding, and I don’t know what to do. I know you guys are leaving for a vacation, but I had nowhere else to turn. Corbin mentioned that you guys were heading out the last time I spoke to him, but I’m at a loss. I’m scared.”

Well, she didn’t need to worry about them leaving on vacation.

They couldn’t leave now.

Their Philadelphia family needed them.

Corbin would need them.

They both wrapped their arms around her to comfort Alice, and it gave her the strength to keep talking.

“Corbin once told me that if he was ever hurt or killed that he’d want you two to find who did it. He said he didn’t trust anyone more than the both of you.”

They felt that way about Corbin too.

Alice somehow continued.

“I need you to figure out what happened to Corbin, and let me know. I’m being blocked from my own son, and I’m so scared I’ll never see him again if he can’t pull out of this. Please, guys, I need your help, and I’m afraid for him. I know my son. This is going to break him.”

Well, shit.

No one had died, but this was right up there with something that would make Gene cancel his vacation with Ethan.

It was one of the ONLY reasons he would not get on the plane today.

Corbin was family, and so was Alice. If she was here, that meant they had to help. There was no doubt in Gene’s mind that if the roles were reversed, Corbin and Alice would be there for them.

To.

The.

End.

Yeah, the crotch goblin would do the job.

It looked like they were going to be heading back to Bull’s Biker Bar again, and their vacation was going to have to wait.

Because Corbin, the baby detective, needed his family.

While he was a baby detective, they weren’t baby Feds, and they’d have the best chance of mitigating the rumors about Corbin, and finding the people who did this.

Because no one hurt their family.

No.

One.