Page 78 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Had I known you were out here…,” she admitted. “I’m blind as a bat.”

They didn’t mind.

Neither of them gave a shit if she came out with her tits out. Now, had she had a gun, that’s a whole different issue. Ethan had proved he wasn’t interested in anyone else, so Gene had tucked that worry away to make room for something else—like Javier Hughes getting to Ethan.

“It’s okay,” Ethan offered.

Sarah looked at Phillip.

“Are you driving me to my study group?” she asked. “Or should I head out?”

He grabbed the keys that weren’t far away and handed them to her.

“Go warm the car up, and I’ll see you in a few,” he said, getting a kiss from the girl.

When she was gone, he grinned.

“Like I said, Friday night girls are different from Saturday night girls. Know what I mean? Saturday girls are around for Sunday brunch with the folks. Plus, she’s loaded, and her parents have a yacht. My parents have money, but her parents have MONEY .”

Gene knew this kid was going to grow up selling something to someone.

He was thinking it would most likely end up being a Ponzi scheme.

If Sarah had brothers, this dude was in for a world of hurt at some point.

Bet.

On.

It.

“No, I don’t understand that. I’m one of the guys getting my nut rocked, or whatever ridiculous thing it was that you said.”

Ethan laughed.

He couldn’t help it.

When Phillip glanced over at him, Ethan was honest.

“I’m with him. I’m the one getting his nut off, and then, he gets mine off next,” he stated. “Like you suspected, dicks are involved.”

He checked out Ethan.

And Gene knew why.

This guy was thinking he would be a good wingman to be a chick magnet.

“OH,” he said. “Cool. Anyway, that’s it. I never saw him again. Three days went by, and I could hear his cat SCREAMING for food. I called the building manager, and he opened the door. The cat was hungry, and there wasn’t a trace of Graham to be found.”

Ethan was curious.

“Did he ever say where he was going?” he asked, still making notes. Corbin had to have been in a hurry. This interview was getting them more information than the detective had put in his notes.

The man nodded.

“Yeah, he was hitting up a gay bar.”

They waited.

When he didn’t continue, Gene did.

“Does the place have a name? How did he find it?” he asked. They knew Corbin did a Google search, and it led him to trouble.

“I think so. As for how he found it…we were in the quad one day, and on a bulletin board, there was a bunch of flyers. One was for some bar that was advertising that it was a gay hangout.”

Gene’s interest was piqued.

“Do you know that name?” he asked, wanting to verify Corbin’s search. This would tell if he Googled prematurely or not.

The kid thought about it.

“The name eludes me,” he admitted.

Then, he gasped.

“Wait! I think I have a picture of it. I was taking a snapshot of a phone number next to it, and I might have gotten the information in the shot.”

Well, that was the first helpful thing he offered for the whole damn interview.

Getting up, Phillip grabbed his phone, and flipped through the pictures. When he found what he was looking for, he handed it to them.

With a warning.

“I wouldn’t go past this one. There are naked pictures of Lacy and Janice in there. But don’t worry, they sent them to me. I never asked for them.”

They stared at him.

Gene hesitated.

Did he do it?

Did he ask?

Finally, curiosity won out.

“Who are they?”

The man grinned wickedly.

“You know…Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s girls. They are my usuals.”

Jesus.

This kid was insane.

If those girls ever found out about each other, he’d be their next case—well, Corbin’s if he went back to work.

Instead of going there, Ethan snapped the picture of the kid’s phone, and made it bigger on his phone to magnify the board.

“It’s next to that number,” he said, pointing at the one he meant.

Gene read what he was directing them to see.

‘For a good time, call Chrissy, five-five-five-two-one-five-three.’

“The one that says call for a good time?” he asked, shocked that this guy was stooping that low as to picking up women off a giant community board in a quad.

Especially since it was likely some douchebag posting it because a girl turned him down.

Clearly, the kid had no qualm with owing it.

“Listen, if you don’t take all the leads, you miss out on some fun shit. Chrissy was fun and now she is Monday’s girl. She’s into some kinky shit. Then again, old guys wouldn’t be into that.”

Gene actually stared with his mouth open.

Old?

Guys?

What the hell was this?

And as for not liking kinky shit, what this college kid didn’t realize was that he was the king of it. There was so much porn running rampant through his head, and all of it was kinky.

And with one person.

Ethan.

It was clear that college kids could humble a guy real fast when they called them old.

Gene was anything but. He was thirty-one in a few weeks. That wasn’t even old in his book.

Because he saw the look on his face, Ethan elbowed Gene. He needed to see what this kid wasn’t pointing to because he saw it and that alarm bell went off.

The flyer.

When he showed him, he knew why. That was definitely a flyer for a bar called Bull’s .

‘Bull’s Biker Bar.’

It appeared that Corbin’s Google search had panned out. They could see by the address that it was one in the same.

Oh, boy.

This was a problem.

Why?

Because they sent the assholes off with the CIA, and they’d believed it when they said that they weren’t taking men for the supplier. If this kid went there, that was now a possibility.

Shit.

Had they been wrong and the bikers lied to them? Was the place the actual ground zero?

“He went there alone?” Gene asked, astounded that someone would look at the place and think, ‘I want to hang out there and get sexually assaulted’ .

But here they were.

Back at square one.

The young kid shrugged.

“I have no clue. All I know is I never heard from him again. Can you tell me about how you found him? I’d like to know how he died. I liked Graham. He was a good dude.”

Yeah, they could tell him.

“Graham was found in the woods with remains. He was found with two other victims.”

That hung there.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered. “I’m sorry to hear that. Graham was a decent guy. Did that place do him in?” he asked.

Honestly, now, they weren’t one hundred percent sure. Could all of the men have lied? That was something they’d have to ask Gabe about, but it would take time to ‘extract’ that information.

Or was this a coincidence?

They’d busted Corbin’s chops for running with a coincidence, and now, they might do the same.

Ethan was curious, and he needed to get in a few more questions before this lunatic remembered that Sarah was parked in his ride.

“What do you know about Professor Harrison Dunne?” he asked. “Graham taught for him.”

He shrugged.

“I don’t know a lot about that,” he admitted. “I don’t have Dunne as a professor, or have classes with Graham. I’m a chem major.”

Gene tried.

“Did he ever mention him?” he asked.

The kid nodded.

“Yeah, he liked working for the professor. He made a little money, and got to talk about politics. That was his jam. He told me he was a great professor and nice guy.”

There was clearly nothing else. Phillip wasn’t giving them anything, and God knew he spilled a lot in this brief talk they were having.

Too.

Much.

Information.

Well, at least they tried. It was time to tug on another thread to see what they heard.

And Gene knew what one to hit.

“We saw that Graham got a scholarship through a foundation. Do you know anything about it?” he asked, digging for information.

He didn’t even bat an eye.

“Just that Graham was thankful for the scholarship. Most scholarships give the money to undergrads, but he got some as a grad student. He did say grades mattered, but Graham was super smart. He had all A’s. Some guys have all the luck.”

Yeah, he was so lucky to be assaulted, drugged, and filled with a toxic brew as he was forced to entertain sickos because they were rich.

“Did he ever meet with the scholarship committee if say his grades dropped?” Gene asked.

He laughed.

“Uh, his grades would have to drop. That never happened with Graham. Like I said, all A’s. I mean, he recertified every semester to make sure he was covered, but it was a quick lunch with whoever ran it.”

Since Phillip hadn’t given them much, other than the information about the bar, it was time to regroup and figure out what to do next.

It appeared that the three interviews that Corbin had done were over.

Now, it was time to start doing what they did best.

Investigating.

Thanking Phillip, they left the apartment, and headed back toward their car. When someone ran by them, they noticed it was Phillip.

He shouted something into the wind, and then got into an already warmed-up fancy, sportscar.

“Well, we know why he’s getting the ladies,” Gene said, “and it’s not that tiny dick energy from being a walking Syphilis pit.”

Ethan laughed.

“You’re just bitchy because he called you old. That always makes you cranky.”

“Damn right,” he stated. “I haven’t even hit my prime yet. I’ve got a good twenty years before I’m having my midlife crisis.”

Ethan was curious.

“And what will that entail?” he asked. “When you’re fifty, what do I have to look out for? Are you going to hook up with a younger man and drive a sportscar?” he asked, joking. “Because I’m younger and the Mustang counts.”

Gene shrugged.

“Maybe we’ll buy a house and have some kids.”

When Ethan came to a full stop, Gene did too. When he glanced over, Ethan looked worried.

“Uh, what did I say?” he asked.

Ethan was to the point.

“Oh, I don’t know. You said kids.”

Yeah, and that went over like a lead balloon. Honestly, he never thought about kids, and he didn’t really want any. He was happy how his life was, and he was enjoying having a partner who loved him.