Page 29 of You Can Make Me (Carnival of Mysteries #28)

Fifteen

D enny

“It lives!”

Junior opened the door and welcomed Cooper and I into a boss fucking house in the canyon. Gene told me it was swank, but damn.

“Nice to see you too, asshole.”

Junior blew me a kiss and turned to smile at Cooper. “Cooper, it’s great to see you up and around, man. How you feeling?”

“Thank you, I’m…on the mend. Thanks for having us.”

Walter shook his hand, and when Cooper’s wide-eyed gaze darted around the place, Walter looked at me with a pleased expression.

“Come on in. Dee Dee’s in the kitchen finishing up dinner. It’s right through that doorway.”

Cooper smiled nervously at me as he walked through the foyer and the arched entry into the kitchen. Walter pulled me in for a bro hug and a stern pounding on my back.

He spoke close to my ear. “How are you, man? How’s Coop?”

His concerned tone gutted me. It had been six months since I’d seen him briefly at the hospital when he came by to check on Cooper. Now? He looked great. The stress lines around his eyes were gone, and his adorable smile was genuine. It didn’t look forced, like it had for so many years.

I’d spent a lot of the time we’d been friends worried about him, worried he was one step away from a break, like his father, but the way he’d handled the shit with Dane, I needn’t have been so concerned. He was stronger than I ever gave him credit for.

“Getting better, thanks. But Junior, I’m so damned sorry?—”

He pushed me away. “Don’t even. Gene kept me apprised. I get it. You saw how I was with Dane. Cooper needed you. I’m glad he had you.”

The burning in my sinuses took my breath away.“Fuck. Junior, I’m really sorry.”

“Forget it. But hey, I have a request. I know it’s a shitty time?—”

“Anything. What do you need?”

Walter blew out a breath and planted his hands on his hips.

“We had a little something up here. A weird run-in with a guy walking by. Probably nothing, but I gotta get back to Bakersfield. Dax is handling a lot on his own, since I’m on the task force and Gene is killing himself trying to manage the whole damn squad. ”

“The kid apologize?”

“Yeah, he’s been trying to get back in our good graces. We talk…it’s not the same, but I can’t stay mad at him forever. I’m just more careful, you know?”

“That’s big of you, actually. I don’t think I could be so forgiving.”

He snorted. “Gene, neither. He still calls him ‘that twat.’”

“Ochoa’s always been creative with the insults.”

He cleared his throat. “I really do hate to ask, but I gotta work extra since the task force found that body.”

“You think it’s really him?”

“I wish, but no—and I don’t want to leave Dane alone.”

“Don’t blame you. I’ll do whatever you need. What happened that’s got you spooked?”

Walter exhaled again. I knew he didn’t want to tell me. That was his MO. He could be a real quiet guy, focused on work and family, rarely asked for anything. He was always there for his team. Sharp as a tack.

So when he actually met Dane, the man he’d spent twenty years searching for, and became uncharacteristically impulsive, I gave him a lot of leeway.

He finally took what he wanted and had been ready to throw away his career over this guy, so Gene and I intervened.

Thank God we saved Dane—Dee Dee to everyone else—so that Walter could come to terms with his father’s troubled past and they could have a future.

“Something tripped the alarm at Dane’s mom’s house, across the street this morning. And later on, a guy showed up with one of those bullshit stories about solar panel installation, and her assistant Barbara got a weird vibe.”

“And you’re thinking it was one of Evans’ acolytes?”

“I can’t not think that, not until we know he’s dead for sure.”

“Fair enough. You want us to take him to our place?”

Walt grinned. “Our place, huh? Gene said things were pretty heavy.”

“Fuck off, not you too. I figured you’d have my back.”

He put his arm around me and walked me toward the kitchen. “You know I do.”

If anyone understood what I’d been through, even without me having to tell him everything, it was Walter.

“Nice fucking place, Junior. Big step from Bakersfield.”

“Yeah, the kids love to give me shit about it. It’s great being up here, though, and Dane loves being close to his mom. Helluva lot better weather than Bakersfield, better places to eat and shit. We go out and catch shows almost every week. And now we’re neighbors, huh?”

“Just down the street. But you know, we’re in the low-lands, in a penthouse-type fucking condo.” I rolled my eyes. “I go from my shithole apartment to a glamor pad. He’s got a fucking bidet , Junior. What do I know about bidets?”

Walter was laughing so hard he was crying by the time we joined our guys.

Dee Dee was giving Cooper a taste of whatever he was cooking, and Cooper’s eyes rolled back in his head.

“Oh my God, that’s amazing. I only recently graduated to food with flavor,” Cooper joked, and something loosened in my chest. I wondered how he’d be, talking about his recovery, but he seemed to feel comfortable.

He winked at me. “Although I had the best cook ever. He made boring food taste like heaven.”

I rocked back on my heels. It was ridiculous how much praise from him puffed up my chest. “I love cooking for you.”

Our eyes met, and I was suddenly wondering why we’d left the comfort of Cooper’s—okay, I guess mine, too—bed at all.

Right, because he was nearly killed and there were still monsters out there who wanted to hurt him and Dane.

Walter snorted, breaking the mood, and we all laughed. Yeah, he couldn’t say a damn word.

“Why don’t you two grab a seat. Walter, mind helping me?”

Cooper and I walked over to the dining table that was long enough to seat eight, but the place settings were gathered at one end. There was already a salad on the table, freshly baked, steaming corn bread, and Walter carried over a huge pot of gumbo.

“Cooper, we’ve got wine, beer, or sparkling water?”

“Oh, sparkling water. Thank you. As much as I love wine, Doc says I should be cautious about alcohol while my brain is still healing.”

I squeezed his hand under the table, and he blew out a breath. I’d told him in the car that he could absolutely trust Walter with his life and any information. “He’s the most loyal person I know. And he’s not going to give you shit like Gene. At least not until he knows you better.”

“You can’t mess around with that,” Walter said, as he set a beer in front of me.

“What if I wanted wine?” I faked being offended, and Walter rolled his eyes at me.

“Please. You might be moving up in the world, but you’ve only graduated to Beverly Hillbilly.”

I held up the bottle and nodded. “Can’t take the Bakersfield out of the man.”

Walter stood behind Dane’s chair, waiting to pull it out for him. Dane brought a can of sparkling water and a glass with ice for Cooper, set them down, and then smiled at Walter with so much love as he sat, it gave my heart a twinge.

Six months ago, I would have stayed quiet, but the hollow feeling would have clawed at my insides until I couldn’t catch my breath. The time after Cooper walked out on me had been miserable. Seeing my friends with their significant others had been torture, and I couldn’t say a word.

I reached over and took Cooper’s hand in mine, and the smile he gave me in return brought me peace like nothing else.

Although, I had a niggling worry about what Cooper would ask Dane, and what Dane would feel comfortable telling him.

Walter and I discussed their meeting and agreed that we’d let them work it out unless it started to go south.

Dane started to serve the gumbo, but his hands shook so much that he nearly dropped the first bowl. Walter stepped in with the save.

“Sorry,” Dane muttered as he sat down.”You’re our first guests besides family and Ryan and Kal.”

I recalled how badly his hands shook when we first met. He seemed so much better, but some things would probably plague him for life, like they would Cooper. I wanted to kill both of those monsters for what they’d done to these special men.

“No worries,” Cooper said. “Denny takes care of everything for me. I broke three dishes trying to prove that I could do it on my own until I gave in.”

“Can I serve the salad for you?” I was a little overzealous as I jumped up to help.

“Thanks, man.” Dane smiled and folded his hands in his lap.

He kept his hair down around his face, but he didn’t seem to make himself quite so small as he had when I’d met him.

He wore a long-sleeved tunic over jeans with flared bottoms, which worked as well today as it likely had forty years ago, when he was an up-and-coming folk singer.

Dane knew what had happened to Cooper, but Cooper didn’t know about their shared trauma. All Cooper knew was that Dane had seen Hunter Holland at the carnival, and he believed Dane was Dee Dee, the son of Dane and his best friend, fellow folk singer Tess Miller.

On the surface, this was two guys introducing their new boyfriends to each other, but the reality was much more loaded.

“This place is really amazing, Junior,” I said, admiring the view of a lush patio out back. There was a pool and an in-law pad just beyond, and then a slice of the LA skyline.

“It’s great, yeah. Commute sucks, but Gene and I worked out a schedule so I’m only gone three or four days a week.”

I couldn’t imagine him being okay with this for the long haul, but that was a conversation for another time.

“Gene said the cabin was a great setup. Not sure I’d want to come back to the rat race after that.”

Cooper and I chuckled. The topic had certainly come up.