“Really?” He had to admit the kid was fucking brilliant.
“Yep. Can we go?” Aaron fidgeted with the towel in his hand.
The whole impressive plan amazed him as he figured out all the nuances. Aaron’s brain was a marvel.
“You seriously got arrested on purpose?”
“Yep. I needed in the NSA. There were thousands of applicants. I had to get noticed.” Aaron started to move away, but Kreed stopped him, and Aaron groaned at being detained again.
“Stuart, that’s incredible. I mean, wow. You were really together to be so young. I was a stupid kid at twenty,” Kreed said, trying to remove the worry he could see in the tense lines of his lover’s body. He’d been very clear on this point. He’d stay by Aaron for as long as smart boy wanted him there.
“Not really. At any time that could have backfired. I could be sitting in prison right now for hacking a government website, especially back then. The Internet was only full of bad people.”
“I’m impressed,” Kreed said, finally letting go of Aaron. “I’ll go put the loungers up. You go pack your shit.”
“Don’t tell Knox. I like him a lot now. I didn’t really play too many video games until I met him. He got me involved. I go to the Rooster Teeth expo every year. I’m into The Creatures now and all their gaming podcasts. He opened the world to me. Please don’t tell him,” Aaron pleaded, following Kreed off the porch and back to the sand.
“I won’t—or at least I probably won’t. He can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. I might have to drop it then,” Kreed teased as he reached the lounge chairs. He quickly folded the first one before grabbing the other. He finally looked up to see how Aaron had taken that joke. The evil eye he got back said it all, and he laughed. “Okay, I won’t. Come on. We have a plane to catch. We need to shut this place down.”
Chapter 35
“Hey, buddy,” Kreed said, coming through the airport baggage claim to see Cody standing just inside the door.
“Hey,” Cody replied, reaching for some of the heavy bags Kreed carried. Aaron had made a pit stop at the bathroom, but Kreed was too antsy to wait for him like he should have. The messages he and Knox had exchanged since they’d initially spoken about the resignation were becoming one-word clipped answers, and that, more than anything, told Kreed loud and clear that his partner wasn’t doing well with this turn of events. “Mitch is out by the car. We’re in a no-parking zone.”
“How’s he doing?” Kreed asked. He shook his head when Cody tried to take any of the baggage, knowing Knox would kick his ass if he let Cody carry more than his doctor-approved lifting limit. Instead, he moved around Cody toward the inside window of baggage claim. Kreed caught sight of Mitch standing on the curb right outside the airport. He was leaning against the hood of the SUV, arms crossed over his chest, his shoulders slumped as he studied the concrete at his feet. Kreed couldn’t miss the pain in his partner’s stance.
“Not too good. I haven’t seen him like this before,” Cody said, standing next to Kreed, looking out the window at Mitch.
“He doesn’t do this too often. Listen, Aaron’s in the bathroom. I’m going out. Can you wait on him for me?”
“Sure.”
Kreed didn’t wait for that answer before heading straight out to Knox, who never looked up on his approach. When he put his boots in Mitch’s line of sight and dropped the suitcases, his partner finally lifted his head. Kreed reached out and pulled the bridge of Mitch’s sunglasses down his nose to get a better look at his eyes. As suspected, they were full of sadness, red-rimmed, and totally sleep-deprived.
“It’s gonna be all right. I promise,” Kreed whispered loudly, going in for a solid I’m-here-for-you hug. Mitch loved his job more than any person Kreed knew, and his thanks for a job well done was to be sentenced to life behind a desk and have his dream yanked away from him. Skinner had to know the man wouldn’t stand for that. Mitch stayed quiet in the embrace then whacked Kreed’s back to get him to let loose. As he pulled away, he sniffled once and moved his thumb and forefinger over his eyes, underneath the glasses he’d put back in place.
“There some place we can talk?” Kreed asked, deciding they just needed to get this over with. He could feel Aaron and Cody coming up behind him.
Cody attempted a sneak attack, reaching down to snatch a suitcase on his way to the trunk, but Mitch moved quickly, grabbing the luggage from Cody and grumbling, “You’ve still got a weight restriction.”
“It’s not that heavy,” Cody started, but let Mitch have the case with a sigh. Cody’s worried gaze lingered on Mitch then darted toward Kreed. The whole scene became a little more heartbreaking when he registered the deep pain in Cody’s gaze as he worried about his man.
No one spoke. Kreed opened the back door and ushered an unsure Aaron into the car as Mitch opened the back and deposited the luggage inside. Kreed tossed his duffle in the back and crawled in next to Aaron.
Once everyone was in the SUV, Mitch stared at Kreed in the rearview mirror a moment before saying, “Michaels invited y’all to stay there. Montgomery’s gym is still closed. It has a big meeting room if you wanna talk there, or we can go to their house.”
“Which is closer?” Kreed asked.
“It’s Dallas. Who the hell knows? Traffic sucks all the time,” Mitch replied.
“Whichever you’re more comfortable with.” Kreed shifted in the backseat. His legs didn’t quite fit, even though it was a large SUV. They rode almost the whole way in silence. Of course he asked a question here and there, but all he got in reply were one-word answers, so he finally just stopped trying to make small talk. He guessed Mitch had chosen Jace’s gym, when they pulled to the front of a large building with Cheer Dynasty in big, bold letters lighting the front. The place was as impressive as Colt had made it sound.