by Jessie G
The Captain and the press liaison drilled the importance of sticking to the facts and keeping his answers short, so he ignored her when she opened her mouth to ask a follow up and pointed to another reporter. “You’ve referred to the partner as ‘he.’ Are you positive it’s a man?”
“Good catch, and no, we’re not positive of anything.” He turned and pointed to a guy in the back. “What’s your question?”
“Detective, while you’ve been adamant that this is not a coming out, surely you must realize how it will look to the public that you are in a relationship with the brother of the man who raped you?”
Despite being warned not to take such questions, he cocked his head. “How does it look? Terence was a sick man who left a horrific legacy behind for his family. Vilify them if it sells papers, I can’t stop you, but trying to hold them accountable for another man’s actions won’t stop the threat still at large.”
Before he could move onto the next reporter, the guy shouted, “Isn’t the MPD concerned about a conflict of interest?”
“I don’t speak for the MPD as a whole, but I can tell you that no one is as invested as I am in catching this guy. No one can stand with his other victims and know exactly how they feel. For them, I will get justice. For you, I will not explain myself.”
“How does your partner feel about your relationship with a man?”
Davin looked at Sully who was leaning against the wall playing on his phone. “He doesn’t look too bothered, but you’ll have to ask him yourself. This line of questioning is counterproductive to my investigation. If you aren’t invested in helping me, then I’m going back to work.”
“Detective Monroe,” the first reporter shouted. “Just one more question please?”
“Fine, this is the last one, so make it count.”
This time she stood and smoothed a hand down her skirt. Immediately, all cameras turned in her direction and that was so much better than having them on him. “You said most sexual assaults still don’t get reported and that men, especially, might feel uncomfortable coming forward. If you could say anything to them or to anyone who’s been assaulted, what would it be?”
“Call me.” He walked off the stage with the Bennetts falling into step behind him and the press liaison jogging to keep up in her three-inch heels.
“Detective, I write speeches for a living. Now, I’m not saying you did bad, but we would have preferred you stick to the game plan.”
“Speeches don’t catch monsters and I would have looked insincere if I stood up there reading from your cue cards. His victims deserve better than lip service.” The elevator doors opened, and Davin stepped back to allow the Bennetts to go in ahead him. Once they were inside, he looked down at her and said, “I know you’re annoyed, but I hope you were listening. Be careful, I would hate to have to stand over you.”
“Wait… I… Do you think I’m a target?”
Had he been talking to himself? If no one was going to listen, what was the point of dragging him out there? “If you were listening, you’d know that everyone is a potential target.”
“Detective…”
“Enough! Let me do my job.” He stepped into the elevator and blocked the entrance until the doors closed, making sure she or any of the reporters that were hanging around couldn’t get on with them. “Fucking vultures.”
“I feel a group hug coming on,” Claire whispered through a sniffle.
“Claire-bear, I will hold you to that later, but here I kinda have a rep to protect.” There might have been a chuckle. It didn’t come from him, but he was glad to hear it.
As the floors ticked by, Alaric leaned close, nudged his shoulder, and whispered, “That’s my warrior.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Juan Montoya
If heaven were a place on earth, Juan figured it would look a lot like the office that had been set up for him at the Bennett Group. When he’d arrived shortly after the press conference, Alaric’s assistant Delia was there to greet him, providing a keycard and a tour before showing him the space. A commandeered conference room, it was three times the size of his work area at the precinct and outfitted with equipment he only dreamed of getting his hands on.
“Do you need another moment?”
Caught ogling, he tried covering with a smile. “It’s impressive.”
“Mr. Bennett sent the schematics over yesterday afternoon. All of the passcodes are in here.” She offered him a leather-bound folio, then gestured to the woman seated at a desk outside the conference room. “I’ve made Marguerite available to you for the duration of your stay.”
“Available to me?”
“Yes, she’ll act as your secretary. We realize you’ll be handling classified information, but you still might need someone to answer your calls, remind you to eat, or get your office supplies.”
“Okay.” He was sure the woman had better things to do than remind him to eat, but it made him feel important to have her there.
“I’ve placed a list of necessary extensions near the phone. Myself, Marguerite, and Mr. Bennett’s, of course, and if you need to dial outside the building, you’ll select one of these lines.” She continued talking, pointing out the nearest bathroom, the water cooler, the stairs to the rooftop lounge if he wished to smoke, and he really tried to pay attention. But his new digs were only outshined by her smile. “You look a little overwhelmed.”
“It’s not the MPD.”
“No, it’s not.” She smiled again when he just stood there staring. “Mr. Bennett and Detective Monroe are on their way in now, so I’ll leave you to get settled. Don’t hesitate to ask for anything you need.”
Your phone number? The thought came out of left field and he immediately shot himself down. The only time the perfectly gorgeous blonde fell for the nerd in the rumpled khakis was in the movies. While god-like in hacker circles, he was a peasant in hers.
“Thanks.”
He watched her close the door, and then set his box on the conference room table. The Captain’s chain of custody rule meant that all the equipment from Terence’s apartment would be transported only by him and could only be in the Bennett Group offices if he was present. He was fine with that, just as he was fine with Alaric’s plan to clone everything so as not to be limited by those rules.
Well, he assumed that was the plan since it was the first thing he would do.
He took the time to lay out each device, arranging them by potential importance, and using index cards to identify them. Next he took several pictures of the entire layout, proof that nothing was lost in transport, and was just setting the camera aside when Bennett and Monroe walked in.
Even though he liked women, he could appreciate a good-looking couple and that’s exactly what they were. Both tall and built, one dark and one light, one tailored and one rugged, and all that contrast only enhanced each other’s appeal. The type of men beautiful blondes fell for, if not for the whole gay thing.
Alaric
“Good, you’re all set up.” Snagging a hanger from behind the door, Alaric hung up his suit jacket and pulled off his tie before carefully rolling up his sleeves. When he caught Davin and Juan staring, he grinned. “Boys, most men who wear suits every day invest in hangers.”
“He says that like he’s most men,” Davin teased with a wink in Juan’s direction.
While he loved Davin’s teasing, he couldn’t handle Juan’s stammering and blushing. They were here to do a job, and Juan already knew too much about them. He needed to turn the tables before he gave the man access to one of his most prized creations.
“I see Delia got you all squared away?”
“Yes, she was very helpful.”
“Good, and she assigned Marguerite to assist you?”
“I guess? I mean, I’ve never had a secretary before.”
“Davin tells me you got arrested for hacking a few years ago.” Juan met his gaze head on and made his face carefully blank. As tells went, it was a dead giveaway. “And that they
got into a bidding war with the FBI to recruit you. Why did you choose the MPD?”
If Juan was as smart as Davin said, he would know Alaric did a background check the same day they met, so there was no reason to deny it. “No real interest in leaving paradise.”
“Fair enough.” Alaric pushed one of several buttons on the wall by the door and watched as privacy blinds slid down to cover the floor to ceiling windows. Aware of their scrutiny, he walked around the table where everything was laid out and revealed a small hidden panel tucked in the far corner. He watched Juan as he entered the code that would make the table come to life.
“Are you shitting me right now?” Juan stumbled back when the entire surface lit up, the devices on top powered on, and initial data began streaming on the long wall beside them. After the initial shock wore off, he inched forward and asked, “You’re cloning them, right?”
Neither admitting nor denying, Alaric waggled his eyebrows and offered, “Want to play with my buttons?”
“Honestly,” Davin groaned when Juan flew across the room. “I’m standing right here.”
Beaming with excitement, Juan looked at him over one shoulder and laughed. “Don’t be jealous just because I get to play with his toys, and you don’t.”
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but if I find out you’re fondling more than his buttons, I will hurt you.” The threat was mostly joking, and Juan was too oblivious to pick up on the hint of steel beneath the banter. Alaric heard it clear as day and loved seeing Davin joke around and knowing he was feeling possessive.
Leaving Juan to play, Alaric strolled back around the table. Davin called himself a loner and claimed he didn’t have any real friends. But Alaric watched him with both Juan and Sully and thought the problem wasn’t that he didn’t have them so much as he didn’t know he had them.
“He’s completely lost, Dav, but I do appreciate all that posturing on my behalf.”
“Whatever,” Davin grumbled and rolled his eyes. “You know he’s going to try to hack your system at some point. He can’t help himself.”
Alaric glanced back and saw Juan nearly bent in half trying to see beneath the console. “Of course, why do you think I made the offer? The Bennett Group could use a man with his reputation, and I wanted to see him in action.”
“I don’t get you tech people at all.” Davin grimaced when Juan dropped down to all fours, bumped his head on one of the supports, and then disappeared beneath the table. “You have this under control? Cause I need to go do some detecting.”
“Wait.” Alaric walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a very slim tablet. “Take this so we can send you any relevant information.”
“I have my laptop. It should be fine.”
“I checked it out last night. It doesn’t have cellular service, so you’ll need to be on public Wi-Fi to use it in the field and you can’t do that because the security on it is crap.” Ignoring Davin’s long-suffering sigh, he tapped through the setup screens and then held out the device. “Put your hand in the outline and when the screen turns…ah. There you go. Green. Now it will only respond to you.”
“Fingerprint activated?” They hadn’t seen Juan crawl back out from under the table, but suddenly he was right beside them, craning his neck to see what they were doing.
“Whole hand activation.”
“Can I see?”
“No, I don’t have time to stand here and watch you drool.” Davin snatched up the tablet and stuck it in his backpack. “Get back to work while I kiss Ric goodbye. Unless you want to see that too?”
Alaric didn’t protest when Davin crowded him against the wall and kissed him, staking his claim for no reason other than he could. “Is this part of protecting your rep, Detective?”
“Are you complaining?”
“How can I when you do aggressive so well?” There was so much more he wanted to say, but with their audience still listening with half an ear, he settled for, “Keep my warrior safe.”
“Always. I’ll see you for dinner.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Alaric waited until the door closed behind him before turning to meet Juan’s curiosity directly. If the man had questions, he’d rather they got that out of the way now so they could get back to the work of helping Davin solve his case. “What do you want to know?”
“Nothing. It’s just… Seeing you together, it’s hard to believe you spent eight years apart.”
Juan earned his respect when he risked his job to protect Davin’s feelings, so Alaric was willing to answer even though it wasn’t really a question. “Have you ever been in love?”
“Sure, I guess, of course. Hasn’t everyone? I mean, most women don’t really look at me like that, but I’ve had a few relationships.”
Walking to the mini-fridge, Alaric pulled out two bottles of water and tossed one at Juan before pulling up a seat. “So, no one that got away?”
“No, no one that keeps me up at night.”
“Then you’ve never been in love. I’m not going to spill our secrets, but despite all the reasons against us, we belong together.”
“You mean Terence?”
“Not just Terence.” No one would ever accuse him of oversharing, but they would be working together for the foreseeable future, so he chose to add, “We were openly gay in school.”
It was a statement that stood on its own and he saw no need to explain how hard it was that Davin was in a separate school, leaving him to deal with the haters alone. Or that nothing got better for Davin when he went home to a judgmental, homophobic father. Or how the disparity in their family’s financial status made Davin the target of ridicule from both sides—those who wanted to look down their nose at him and those who thought he was reaching too far out of his station.
“We nerds are usually the target of bullies, but even I can’t imagine how much of a target that painted on your backs.”
“It’s probably not so different really, though it helped that we were always bigger and stronger than anyone who wanted to run their mouth.”
“Sometimes words hurt as much, if not more, than fists.”
The commiseration added a new level to their working relationship, and Alaric was glad he chose to share. “Without question.”
“Forgive the tangent, but this whole cultured-not-quite-pretentious thing you got going on is tripping me up. Like, I see the Bennett heir, but I can easily imagine you as rough and rugged as Davin.”
“And he can be just as cultured and not quite as pretentious as I. After all, we have known each other nearly half our lives.” Juan’s eyes had gone wide when he finished talking, but Alaric was too amused to be insulted. “Do tangents happen often?”
“As often as my mouth works without consulting the rest of me.”
“Good to know.”
“Are you really going to be able to investigate your brother’s life with objectivity?”
“You’re asking the wrong question, Juan.”
They considered each other across the table before Juan said, “You want the first six names for yourself.”
“Very much so.” Terence was out of his reach and Davin was already hunting his partner. Both were good steps toward getting Davin justice, but there were still men out there who needed to pay, and Alaric fully intended to make sure that happened—with or without the backing of the police. “Are you going to have a problem with that?”
“No.” Juan blinked, as if surprised by his own answer, but Alaric wasn’t. A hacker who held back vital information so he could warn a friend first was a man who refused to live in the confines of the law he swore to uphold. “Davin deserves justice.”
“You’re right, he does, but he’ll feel vindicated when he finds Terence’s partner and let it end there.”
“You won’t.”
“No, I won’t.” The only way he would care about the partner was if they discovered he was part of the original six. While Alaric didn’t want to see anyone get hurt, he wasn’t a cop and it
wasn’t his job to protect the world—which was ironic since he created tools to make that job easier for law enforcement.
Who would he be if he didn’t use them to get justice for Davin?
Chapter Thirty-Three
Davin
The little taqueria in Overtown was nearly empty when Sully pulled in just after three. No more than a shack, it leaned heavily to the left and had been decorated by the local street gangs on the outside, while the inside boasted an uneven concrete floor that barely supported a scattering of mismatched tables. For whatever reason, Sully seemed to like the place, but it certainly wasn’t for the decor or the surly waitress who just stared silently until they placed their order.
And when their plates were literally dropped on the table, he knew it wasn’t for the food either. “Why do you insist on coming to this dump?”
“Food’s pretty good.”
“My burrito is swimming in oil.”
“It’s the local flavor! I thought you were born and raised in Miami?” As a native New Yorker, Sully came down for college, fell in love with the palm trees and a pretty girl, and never left.
“I was, that’s why I know this is bad. Next time you want local flavor, I’ll show you the right places to go.”
“Naw, abuelita does the cooking here and she likes when I come, says it keeps the local gangs off her back.” He stuffed a fork full of oil-slicked burrito in his mouth, grimaced while he chewed, and shrugged. “It’s not gourmet, but so what?”
“Good cause aside, I still can’t eat this.” He considered snapping a picture of it with his new handy tablet and sending it to Alaric. The man was forever harping on him to eat more regularly, but surely, he would draw the line at this crap.
“I never expected you to. You do that thing you do while I eat.”
“That thing?”
