“You alright over there? Making a lot of noise,” Michaels said, sarcastically. “Need to stop and use the bathroom?”
Judge looked over, his jaw clenched tight. I can’t wait to fuck you until that sarcasm turns into begging. Decision made. Detective Michaels would be sent back to his office with his suspect but also thoroughly fucked.
“Look, you don’t have to keep eyeing me like that. Being gay ain’t contagious, so unscrew your face.”
“Damn, you don’t know shit,” Judge scoffed. “Shut up and listen. We’re gonna park up the street from the cousin’s house and watch it today. If nothing is going on, we’ll call it a night around midnight and then sit on him tomorrow. If we still don’t see nothing, then your perp isn’t there and ain’t coming there.”
“Well I want to talk to the cousin.”
“No.”
“No?”
“You heard me,” Judge said, roughly. “The cousin could tip him off. We want him to think he’s almost home free.”
“Whatever.”
“Fucking detectives. Always wanting to detect shit,” Judge said, under his breath.
“If you got something to say, be man enough to say it and not whisper it like a bitch.”
“Careful,” Judge growled. “My patience has a very short limit.”
“So does mine.”
“I said,” Judge drawled out. “You’re not here as a detective. You can’t ask anyone anything. You’re hunting, pure and simple. You don’t reveal yourself until you’re ready to pounce. He can’t see you coming or next thing you know, we’ll be the fuckin’ hunted. You’ll make my job ten times harder if you start raising eyebrows. Walking around flashing your shiny badge is only going to make your perp double his efforts.”
At least Michaels was man enough to shut his big mouth when he realized he might be wrong. They got to the cousin’s house in Gainesville, Florida in a little over three hours because of an overturned tractor-trailer on the highway. It should’ve only taken one, so Judge was pissed that he’d missed so much surveillance time. He pulled into a Walmart that sat in a large, open field. He put a leash on Bookem so he could let him out to exercise a little before the grueling day ahead of them.
“We’ll be sitting for about twelve hours. Get some stuff,” he ordered, without looking at Michaels, and not bothering to respond to the man’s curses as he walked away. He thought it was pretty entertaining that Michaels felt Judge was treating him a certain way only because he was gay. It was actually downright hilarious. Hopefully God or Day didn’t tip the man off until after he got to have some fun with him.
“Your dog doesn’t ever give you away when you’re doing surveillance or creeping up on someone?” Michaels asked, out of the blue. They’d been sitting there for almost four hours. Judge was drinking one of his Five-Hour energy drinks he kept under his seat while he stared motionlessly at the house seven doors down.
“No.”
“He never barks or anything?”
“Have you heard him bark?” Judge said, annoyed. “He knows more about what he’s doing than you do.”
Michaels didn’t rise to the dig, but kept talking. “He’s still a large animal. It doesn’t hurt him to stay cooped up back there for hours at a time?” Michaels looked back at Bookem, asleep on his large pillow.
“He’s fine. I know how to take care of my dog. There’s plenty of room back there for him. He’s used to it.”
Michaels shrugged nonchalantly, popping another chip into his mouth. “Not enough room to live. It can cause bone deformities and arthriti—”
“Can you shut the fuck up, please?” Judge cut him off. He hated thinking about Bookem being sick. He knew they wouldn’t be doing this job much longer, either. But he’d be damned if he needed Mr. Know-it-all to tell him so. “Are you a veterinarian, too? Book is as healthy as an ox.”
“Mmm hmm.”
That was all the smug bastard said. Michaels’ phone buzzed loudly in the cab and Judge looked over, immediately seeing it was God. He reached for the phone but it was yanked out of his reach before he could get to it.
“Put him on speaker phone!” he barked.
“I was going to if you give me a damn chance! I told you leave my phone alone!”
“Then stop trying to hide shit!”
“How am I hiding? You didn’t even give me a chance!”
“Just answer already!” Judge growled.
“Ahhh. I see the two of you are getting along.” Day’s chipper tone broke through their argument. Judge saw that Michaels was stunned and looked a little embarrassed at getting caught arguing like a fifth grader.
“Sorry. I didn’t know I’d hit the button,” Michaels said, uneasily.
“Obviously.” God’s gruff tone clearly revealed his disappointment.
Judge didn’t like the chastised look on Michaels’ gorgeous face. It irritated him that he was concerned about it in the first place, but he ignored it and decided to get to the point.