All Kinds of Tied Down (Marshals 1)

“Nothing. While he’s been in custody, Fisher’s been talking, and it turns out he doesn’t only do cleanup for Malloy, but for several different families. He stopped talking because he said he had a feeling that Drake might not be around much longer.”

“What does the message say about that?”

“To watch out for Drake and Cabot until we get them on the plane. Once we’re back in Chicago, no one will know who they are.”

“Right. Does he say who he thinks might be coming after them?”

“No.”

“Okay,” he said on an exhale. Then after a few moments of silence: “Were you worried last night?”

“What?” I asked, turning to look at him, ignoring my laptop.

“Last night? In the woods? Were you scared?”

“No.” I yawned. “You were there.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“No, I don’t mean, like, you were there, so you saw I wasn’t freaked out. I mean, you were there, you were with me, and so I was fine.”

“Oh.”

“If you and I are together, I don’t worry.”

He grunted and I went back to my report.

Ian found a drugstore where we stopped for toiletries for the guys before heading over to the hotel. At the front desk, we had to wait a bit as there was a family reunion happening and a lot of people were checking in. When it was my turn, I advised the clerk that I needed a specific layout for our suite and I had checked them on the Internet.

In the room, Cabot was confused.

“There’s only one bedroom.”

“Right,” I agreed. “Now walk with me.”

We passed through a short hallway and saw a bathroom on the left that led to a bedroom. But if you walked by the bathroom, there was a couch that opened up into a bed, and on the other side of the bedroom wall, a dining room table and chairs.

“You guys will be in there,” I directed. “You close the bedroom door here, and the one that leads from the bathroom, and you’re completely enclosed. Ian and I are out here, and anyone who comes in has to come through us first.”

“You have kind of a sucky job,” Drake said bluntly. “I mean, you guys just protect us ’cause you have to.”

“Normally, yes.” I agreed with his summation of the facts. “But I’d protect you guys even if I didn’t have to, at this point. I’m interested to see what happens.”

“We’re like an experiment,” Cabot said, grinning at me.

“Yes,” I agreed, flashing him a smile.

“I’m taking a shower first,” Ian grumbled, walking toward the bathroom with his backpack. “Somebody call down and get more towels.”

He slammed the door behind him, and Drake took his and Cabot’s bags into the bedroom while Cabot turned on the television. Of course, the first thing he saw was his old home on the news.

“Jesus Christ, it looks worse than it did this morning when we flew over it.”

The house was basically gutted. Between the grenades and the bullets, the remodeling would have been extensive. But the inside had been blasted as well. I was glad I had insisted on Cabot taking anything of value when he ran with us, because his bedroom had been completely destroyed.

“I’m sorry you won’t get to say good-bye to your mother,” I said gently.

Cabot shook his head. “Don’t be. She never gave a crap about me. At least my father knew I was alive. Every time he hit me, at least he saw me.”

I couldn’t help it. He was so young, so sad, and at that moment, he needed me. Stepping in front of him, I hauled him to his feet and into my arms.

“You think I’m weak because I’m gay, and—”

“I’m gay, idiot,” I told him, squeezing tighter until he broke down, going boneless against me. “Gay doesn’t have shit to do with anything, and never let anyone tell you different.”

His breath caught as he started to cry, his arms wrapping tight around my waist as he buried his face in my chest.

“You can get married in Chicago if you want. June would be perfect since you’ll have graduated high school by then. People’ll think you got yourself knocked up.”

The dam broke, and the sniffling and laughing turned to all-out ugly sobbing in seconds. He had only just turned eighteen. He was still so young, had been through an ordeal, and was now basically an orphan with no one but my partner and me to give a crap about him and his boyfriend.

“You’re gonna be all right,” I promised. “You’ll see.”

He clung so hard, and I rocked him and soothed him, rubbing circles on his back. When Ian walked into the room, Drake spoke up.

“Cab,” he said softly. “Baby, do you want to take a shower next or—”

Cabot tried to wedge tighter, and I motioned for Drake to go ahead.

“Did you call down for towels?” Ian asked.