Rising from the stool, Hazard said, “Extended editions?”
“One of them is, I don’t know, four hours.”
“Christ, let’s hurry.”
Somers’s grin looked a little less tired.
They walked home, Hazard towing the roller bag behind him. Somers had unloaded the car, and Hazard left his bag with the rest of their luggage in the kitchen. When they reached the top of the stairs, Somers stopped him, and Hazard listened. The boy—Colt—was moving around inside the guest room.
Hazard shook his head.
“It’s going to be ok,” Somers whispered, stretching up to kiss him.
“Gross.” When Hazard looked, Colt was standing in the hall, staring at them.
“I’m gay,” Hazard said. “In case you missed it.”
“Uh, yeah.” The words were full of teenage scorn. “I know.”
“Is that a problem?’
Colt’s answer was a sound of nonverbal contempt.
“So?” Hazard asked.
“You’re old. Nobody wants to see old people kissing.” Colt then added, in the tone of someone providing clarification, “It’s disgusting.”
“You can stay until we talk to a social worker. Then you’re leaving.”
Colt crossed his arms.
“Let’s all get some sleep,” Somers said. “Colt, I put a new toothbrush in the bathroom for you. There’s toothpaste in the cabinet. Do you need anything else?”
The boy was still trying to match glares with Hazard, but after a moment, he shook his head.
Somers tugged Hazard toward their bedroom.
Hazard washed up in their bathroom. He traded spots with Somers and strained to listen over the sound of his electric toothbrush. He couldn’t hear Colt, but that didn’t mean anything. The kid could have come up with this ridiculous story for any number of reasons, and Hazard didn’t like any of the possibilities. He waited until Somers was washing his face, and then he drew out the gun safe from under the bed and opened it. It was quick and easy—a four-button keypad, a six-digit combo. Designed to be unlocked by touch, without needing to look at it. The Ruger Blackhawk lay there, cold and dark; his backup gun, the Sig P226, was at the gunsmith’s and probably needed to be picked up. Hazard took out the revolver. He crossed to the smaller safe, also locked, that they kept in a dresser drawer. He took out six cartridges and chambered them. When he looked up, Colt was watching him from the hallway, staring through the open doorway.
Hazard stood. He spun the cylinder and slapped it closed. He raised an eyebrow.
With a sneer, Colt shook his head. Then he turned and walked into the guest room.
CHAPTER FOUR
NOVEMBER 1
FRIDAY
10:49 AM
“YOU CAN’T GO to work,” Hazard said. He was sitting on the edge of their bed in nothing but a pair of black compression shorts. Sunlight came through the open blinds, picking out motes of dust spinning in the air. Outside, the day looked like a cold and hard November.
“I didn’t take today off,” Somers said, fastening his belt. He was always handsome, but in the crisp blue uniform of Wahredua’s chief of police, he was heart-stopping. “I’m already later than I wanted to be.”
“You only slept a few hours.”
“Good thing I’m just catching up on paperwork,” he said with a grin, “and not chasing bad guys across rooftops.”
“Call in right now. It’s not like they can say no.”
“Ree, I’ve got so much to do. I glanced at my emails this morning. There have been break-ins all over the county, and a few were inside the city limits. Apparently there was a fatal traffic accident while we were gone. I’m going to get my ass canned if I don’t get things under control.”
“Your dad is the mayor; he won’t fire you.”
“Have you met my father?”
Hazard scratched his chest. The scattering of stiff, black hairs tickled his palm. Time for the big guns. “I will do two of the things on your list. Any two. You pick.”
Somers burst out laughing.
A flush climbed Hazard’s throat and into his cheeks.
Somers watched him and laughed harder.
“What the fuck are you laughing about?” Hazard demanded. “I’m seducing you.”
“Oh my God. I really needed that this morning. Thank you.” He checked his holstered gun. He examined himself in the mirror. His badge was crooked, and somehow he’d messed up the stars pinned to his collar. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Growling, Hazard stood and crooked a finger.
Somers’s lazy grin said it all, and it only made Hazard angrier. It didn’t stop him from fixing the badge or the stars or, for that matter, straightening the jacket.
After a surprisingly tender kiss, Somers whispered, “Thank you.”
“I’m deleting two things from your list. As punishment. Do you understand that?”
“Please put your gun back in the safe. Unloaded. I don’t like when you sleep with it under the pillow.”
Hazard’s face heated. All he did, though, was nod.
“I love you,” Somers said as he opened their bedroom door.
“Gross,” Colt shouted from down the hall.
“Shut up,” Hazard hollered. In a slightly more moderate tone, he said, “I love you too.”
“Can you two stop? I’m going to puke!”
“I swear to Christ, you had better shut your goddamn mouth!”
“Apple,” Somers said with a smirk. “Tree.”
“You are a dead man,” Hazard whispered ferociously.
Somers blew him a kiss and headed out into the hall. As his steps rang out on the stairs, he called, “Colt, be good and have a great day!”
For some teenage reason that was inscrutable to Hazard, Colt apparently felt the need to shout back, “No!”
When the door to the garage shut, Hazard put his face in his hands. He listened to the house settling. He tried to calculate the annual cost of living in the US Virgin Islands and the maximum amount of cash he and Somers could generate in a short time. He figured they could live pretty easily for at least a year on the island. Colt would have to be gone after a year.
“Are you a nudist?” Colt asked from the doorway. He had changed into the Budweiser tee and the other pair of jeans from his backpack. Both of his socks had holes in them.
“Jesus Christ.” Hazard grabbed the bedding and pulled it across him. “Didn’t anybody teach you to knock?”
“The door was open.”
“I’m wearing shorts. Nudists don’t wear any clothes.”
“Tiny shorts.”
“Go away.”
“I thought gay guys were supposed to have cool underwear.”
Hazard gaped at him. “What the actual fuck are you talking about?”
Colt shrugged. “So are you going to put on clothes? Because I’m hungry.”