Iris Boys Box Set

by Lucy Smoke

  “Thank you, Little Bit.” Knix bent down and kissed the top of my head as he took the images from me. “For now, I think I need to send someone over to stakeout Ollison’s apartment.” He straightened, still clutching the papers in his fist. “We don’t know when the man will return, but we want to be ready for him if or when he does.”

  “How long do you want to keep watch?” Marv asked.

  “At least overnight, though I’d prefer a couple of days with rotating shifts,” Knix answered.

  “I can take a shift,” I offered.

  “I’ll take—” Knix stopped when Marv stepped forward and put a hand on his arm.

  “You need to get some rest,” Marv said. “You’ve hardly slept since we got here. Stay behind for the next six to eight hours and get some sleep. Texas and Harlow will take the first shift. Bellamy and I will take the next and when you’re rested up, you and Grayson can follow up with the third—unless Ollison shows himself before then.”

  I glanced between the two of them. Knix’s face tightened in displeasure. I could tell he didn’t want to agree, but there were bags under his eyes and a strain to his features that told me Marv was right.

  “I think he’s right,” I agreed. “Texas and I will take first shift. We’ll be fine.”

  Tense silence followed my words and it felt like an eternity until his shoulders drooped and the pressure seemed to lift from his body. “I don’t expect Ollison will show up in the next few hours, but we need to keep a lookout for him just in case. You’re right,” he said, looking from me to Marv. “I’ll stay behind and then come out later.”

  Marv clapped him on the back. “Good idea, boss.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Grayson asked.

  “I think we should stake out Bricker and Stein’s office,” Bellamy commented.

  I blinked, frowning his way. “Why?”

  Bellamy crossed his arms over his massive chest, the t-shirt he wore pulling tight over the muscles. “I have a bad feeling that he’s hiding something.”

  “We haven’t spoken with his boss yet,” Marv commented. “And I doubt he’s used to dealing with situations like this.”

  Bellamy shook his head. “I didn’t like the way he treated Harlow.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I know he’s probably stressed and—”

  “It’s not that,” Grayson interrupted as he looked to Bellamy. “He acts like that with most women.”

  “So he’s misogynistic.” I shrugged. “What does that have to do with the case?”

  “Maybe nothing,” Bellamy conceded. “But I’d still like to keep my eye on him. It couldn’t hurt. If I don’t find anything, then I don’t find anything, but if I do…” He let the sentence trail off.

  Marv nodded. “Okay, Grayson and I will go with you.” He turned to Knix. “We’ll call you if we find anything.”

  “Be careful,” Knix warned. “We don’t want to offend anyone at Bricker and Stein, especially not if we still need their cooperation in helping to find Jenna.”

  “Will do,” Grayson agreed readily.

  Knix turned to Texas. “I’d suggest you take a laptop with you when you watch for Ollison.”

  Texas scoffed. “As if I would be caught dead without one.” Texas looked my way and winked. “Of course, Spider-Monkey is more interesting to me than any amount of code.”

  “Wow,” I commented dryly. “How did I ever resist you?”

  Texas jumped off the bed and stretched up on his toes, the hem of his shirt lifting to reveal a stretch of skin that drew my eye. “Don’t know, Princess,” he said. “I honestly don’t know.”

  Chapter 11

  I don’t know what I expected a stakeout to entail, but for some reason, I thought it would be a lot more exciting. All of the cop movies and television shows I had watched made it seem like the people doing the stakeout were stationary for mere minutes—eating junk food and drinking crappy gas station coffee—before they were on the move. That wasn’t the case.

  We’d been watching Thomas Ollison’s apartment building for nearly three hours when I cracked. “I can’t take this anymore,” I groaned. “There’s nothing going on.”

  Texas glanced up from where he was typing away on his laptop in the driver’s seat of the car Marv had gone out and rented for just this purpose. It hadn’t occurred to me that any of them had international licenses considering that we hadn’t really left the country before, but Texas had driven the thing over and parked it without an issue. I, on the other hand, was forbidden from driving it. Which didn’t bother me because I still got turned around in trying to figure out why all of the cars were driving and turning in the opposite direction that I was used to. It felt weird to be sitting where the driver would usually sit but with no steering wheel before me. “It’s a stakeout, Spider-Monkey, what did you expect?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I think it was something a little more hands-on than staring at a wall for three hours.”

  He chuckled, clicked a few things on the laptop and then closed the lid before sliding it down to the footboards. “We’re not staring at a wall,” he said.

  “You’re not,” I complained. “You’re staring at a computer screen.”

  “I can assure you, it’s not any more interesting than what you’re doing,” he replied.

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I slumped in the seat and glared out of the tinted windshield at the apartment building across the street. While there were multiple exits out of the building, due to the low brick wall around the property, there was only one entrance into the small courtyard that surrounded the complex.

  “We’ve been here for hours,” I complained. “Do we even know if he’s going to show up? What if this guy’s at work?” Almost as soon as the words had left my lips, a thought occurred to me. I sat up. “Wait,” I said. “What does this guy do? Did we determine why he was picking Jenna up in the first place?”

  “He’s been in and out of employment for years, but from what I pulled up on his background, he seems to be working mostly menial labor jobs—all part time or contract based,” Texas said. “Restaurant jobs, delivery jobs, those kinds of positions. He usually gets off around seven though, according to his timecards with his current employer.”

  “It’s an hour past that now,” I said, nodding to the digital clock on the dashboard.

  Texas nodded. “Not everyone comes home straight away and considering the traffic in Sydney, he might not come back for several more hours. Knix didn’t seem to think he’d be one of those come-straight-home types. It’s likely we might not see him at all.”

  I returned to staring out the windshield at the gray brick building that was Thomas Ollison’s home. “I just want this over with,” I admitted. “I want to find Clarissa’s niece and just know that she’s okay.”

  Texas found my hand with his, reaching across the console and grasping my fingers in a firm, warm grip. “I know you do, Princess,” he said. “We’ll find her.”

  Though I wasn’t convinced, I nodded anyway and sighed as we settled in to wait out the rest of our shift. Eventually, Texas pulled away and reopened his laptop while I kept my eyes glued on the complex. Every once in a while, however, I noticed him glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “Texas?”

  He jerked his eyes back down to the laptop screen. “Hmmmmm?” he hummed innocently.

  I shook my head. “What’s up with you?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  I pursed my lips and lifted a brow in his direction. “I’m not stupid,” I said plainly. “You keep looking at me like you want to ask me something. What is it?”

  Texas was quiet for a moment, unable to meet my eyes as he stared down at my hands in my lap. The silence stretched so long that I started to grow slightly uncomfortable. When I moved my hands from my lap to the sides of the leather car seat and curled my fingers around the edges, he finally took a breath and looked up, meeting my gaze.
/>   Uncertainty settled in his expression. His mouth opened slightly, white teeth biting down on his lower lip as if whatever he was considering needed extensive thought before he just blurted it out. Seeing the reservation on his face unnerved me.

  I turned towards him. “Hey.” I reached for his hands and lifted them with mine. “You know you can tell me anything, right?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Whatever it is, I’m not going to judge you,” I assured him.

  He released his lip and sighed. “I didn’t think you’d judge me,” he said. “It’s not about—it’s...just…”

  Texas was normally so upbeat and expressive, it was like looking at a completely different person. His eyes were serious. His face drooped with solemnity rather than lifted with amusement. It was so out of character. My heart sped up. Did he regret our relationship? The marriage? Was it the other guys?

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m fucking this up. It’s not you. I don’t want you to—” He stopped and took a breath as if steeling himself. “Bellamy told me that you didn’t use a condom the last time you were together.”

  I blinked. Considering I’d had this conversation with Marv only a few hours before, hearing Texas’ words confused me. It hadn’t been what I expected.

  “I—I—” I had no clue what to say.

  “You don’t need to explain anything to me,” Texas rushed to say, “but he was worried and he didn’t know how to ask if you—if you’re—”

  “I’m on birth control,” I said. “I didn’t use a condom with Marv either.”

  “Oh.” After a beat, Texas pulled his hands away.

  Bereftness followed his action. “I didn’t want to talk about it just yet, but we were going to talk to everyone when this was all over,” I said.

  “Birth control isn’t one-hundred percent effective,” Texas said quietly, his eyes lowering.

  “I don’t…” My breath struggled in my lungs, coming in short sporadic puffs of air. My body didn’t feel like it was drawing enough in, and it was letting too much out. “Do you not want…?” I tried.

  Texas’ body clenched, but in the next breath, he slumped against the seat and bowed his head over his lap. Moving the laptop back to the floor, he set his elbows on his thighs and shoved both hands through his hair at the sides of his head. “A kid is a big deal, Harlow.”

  “I’m not pregnant,” I pointed out.

  “No, I know, but what if you were. You’re going to want kids at some point. The guys might want kids. I wouldn’t blame them and I could be that fun uncle, but…”

  I shook my head, confused. “Texas, look at me,” I said. For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to. He kept his face down, aimed at his knees. When he finally lifted his head, my heart broke at the expression on his face. “What’s this really about?” I asked gently.

  “What if it was mine?” he asked.

  “A child?” He nodded and I released a breath. “Would that be a bad thing?”

  “I don’t know how to be a dad,” he admitted.

  The whole world narrowed to that statement. It was said with such certainty, and yet, such fear, that it made me realize why he was acting this way.

  I slid across the seat and reached over the console to him. I rested my hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Texas,” I began, “no one knows exactly how to be a dad, especially if they’ve never had kids before. You figure it out as you go along.”

  “My parents were shit, Harlow,” he said. “They left, and while my grandparents were amazing, they weren’t my mom and dad. How can someone who didn’t have parents be a parent?”

  “I think…” I bit my lip. “I think sometimes the people who didn’t have parents can be the best at it.” I recognized the emotion in his eyes now. It was fear. “No matter what happens,” I continued. “I know you’d be an amazing dad.”

  “How can you be so sure?” he asked.

  I leaned down and pressed my cheek to his, closing my eyes as I breathed in his scent. Somehow, he always smelled like sweet vanilla. I wanted to roll across him and lather myself in the fragrance of him. “I just know,” I whispered against his skin. “I know because I know how much you care and what you’re willing to do for your family. You would do nothing less than everything you possibly could for your kids.” I brushed a kiss against his neck. “Trust me.”

  Texas didn’t return my affection for several long moments. I simply stayed where I was, relaxed against his unyielding body until I felt the core of him soften and an arm come up, encircling my shoulders.

  “I love you, Spider-Monkey,” he said.

  “I love you too,” I replied. “I always will. Even if you’re a bit dense.”

  He chuckled. “Me? Dense? I don’t think so.” His voice lifted as he looked up and stared out of the window.

  “Oh, I definitely think so,” I argued playfully.

  “Harlow.” Texas’ arm left my shoulder and he sat forward. I drew away, startled by the abrupt change in his tone. His eyes were glued to something across the street. I stopped and followed his gaze, gasping when I saw what had captured his attention.

  “That’s him,” I said, rushing to unlock the door.

  “Wait.” Texas’ hand shot out and locked on the door handle as I moved to turn it. “Stay here, call Marv, and tell him that Ollison is back at his apartment first.”

  I nodded jerkily and reached into my pocket for my phone. I pressed the last called button and waited until the list of names came up. Clicking the green next to Marv’s icon, I put the phone to my ear and stared out of the windshield as it began to ring.

  “This is Marv. Sorry I couldn’t get to your call, if you leave a—” I hung up and dialed Knix and then Bellamy and then Grayson, but received the same result each time. Shakily, I looked up at Texas.

  “They’re not answering.” My voice trembled. One of them wouldn’t have been cause for concern. Two would have been strange. But all four of them? They wouldn’t have been unreachable without telling us something was going down.

  “None of them?” Texas yanked his gaze from the complex and looked at the phone in my hand. I shook my head. He cursed low, snatching his laptop up and opening it with a snap. I looked over his shoulder, passing my attention back and forth between the building and what he was doing.

  “Is that their phones?” I asked when he pulled up a map of the city and showed six blinking red dots. I assumed the two just outside the city were us since they were practically on top of each other. The four remaining dots, however, were inside the city. “They’re together,” I said.

  “Yeah.” Texas zoomed in. “They’re at Bricker and Stein. All of them.”

  “Even Knix?” I asked as a droplet of rain slapped the windshield.

  He nodded. “Their phones are still on. Everything looks normal.”

  “If their phones are on…” I gulped. “Why aren’t they answering?”

  “I don’t know.” Texas closed the laptop and reached into the backseat as more raindrops hit the top of the car and the side windows, sliding down the glass and blurring the image of the street outside. My eyes widened when I saw him lift out a case that I hadn’t seen before. He opened it, revealing a small handgun.

  “A gun? Are you even allowed to have gun in Australia?” I hissed.

  “Marv got an import permit for it,” Texas said as he leaned forward and tucked it into the back of his waistband.

  “What are you expecting to happen?” The pitch of my voice shot up as he shrugged into a jacket.

  “Hopefully nothing,” he replied, “but I have to be prepared for everything.”

  I shook my head as he handed me a spare jacket that looked like it belonged to one of the guys. “I don’t like this,” I said as I shrugged into the coat.

  “You don’t have to come with me,” he said, his brows drawing low. “It could be dangerous, I’m not sure you should—”

  “You’re deranged if you think I’m going to let y
ou go in there alone,” I snapped. “Do you know how many people with guns end up getting that same gun turned on them. If there are two of us, we have better odds.”

  “I think that’s for home invasions,” Texas said, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, I probably won’t even need to use it.”

  I reached for the door handle. “Let’s hurry up and figure out what Ollison knows,” I said. “The sooner we know, the sooner we can get to Bricker and Stein.”

  Texas nodded and reached for his own door handle. Releasing the locks, the two of us dashed out into the rain.

  Chapter 12

  Texas and I moved through the gate that led into the apartment complex’s courtyard as rain fell heavy over our heads. I pulled up the hood on my borrowed jacket and stayed close behind. We approached the front door and found it unlocked. I could still hear the rain coming down as he stepped into the front hallway.

  I sniffed as the smell of someone cooking drifted into my nostrils. “Do you know which apartment is his?” I asked as Texas strode through the first hallway, his head turning left and right as he scanned the apartment numbers, and since he never stopped, I could only assume they weren’t what we were searching for.

  He nodded. “He’s apartment 204.”

  I moved to the side and started following the path of numbers. We reached the end of the hall and took a set of narrow stairs just large enough for us to go up single file onto the next floor. “204,” I said, stopping in front of the first apartment I came across. We must have come up the back way.

  Texas nudged me to the side and moved in front of me, raising his fist to knock. We waited a bit and when a gruff voice answered. “‘Oo is it?”

  “Mr. Ollison?” Texas inquired.

  “Ye’?”

  “My name is Texas Johnson; I’m here to take a statement on behalf of Bricker and Stein on the disappearance of Jenna Wiedleman.”