Unbreak My Heart (Heroes of Port Dale Book 4)

by Romeo Alexander

  Morgan grinned, plopping down behind his desk. “Glad to see you’re in your normal, stellar mood, Andreas. Speaking of, hey, Edwards.”

  Blaine turned, shoulders straightening. “Sir?”

  Morgan’s lips twitched at the formality. “Was he always a prickly ass, or was that something he picked up after you were gone?”

  Eric’s fingers flexed at his side and waited in the silence.

  Blaine cleared his throat. “Will we be starting immediately, sir?”

  The evasion was about as smooth as sandpaper, and Eric wasn’t sure if it was the avoidance that pissed him off more or the knowing smirk on the chief’s face.

  “I won’t be starting you out today, Edwards. You’ve been in the city, what, a week?”

  “Five days.”

  “Five days isn’t enough time to get your feet, not when you’re starting out here,” Morgan’s gaze flicked to Eric on the last word.

  “If you say so, sir,” Blaine replied.

  Morgan nodded. “I do. We’ll see how the two of you work. Here’s hoping a bit of history between you eases things, though who knows with the way you two are acting.”

  “Chief,” Eric warned. He didn’t like the knowing look in the man’s eyes.

  He was ignored. “But for today, Andreas will show you the office you two will be working out of. Then you can have the rest of the day to yourself. Personally, I would take the time to reacquaint yourself with your new partner, but I’ll leave that to you.”

  “I would prefer to have something to occupy us, sir.”

  “I’m sure you would. Andreas.”

  Eric scowled. “What?”

  “Show the man the spacious office and his high tech setup.”

  “Right. Straight out of the 90s,” Eric growled.

  “Oh, don’t mind him. Our systems aren’t that bad.”

  Eric rolled his eyes. “Fine. Anything else?”

  “Yeah, take the rest of the day off after you’re done here. I can already tell what you’re going to be like and you’re useless without a partner, and in the mood you’re in. So both of you, get the hell out of my office so one of us can get something done today.”

  Blaine’s arm stiffened, and Eric rolled his eyes. “C’mon, soldier boy.”

  There wasn’t quite the quick reaction to Eric’s words as there’d been with the chief. It shouldn’t have irritated Eric as much as it did. It wasn’t like he was an authority figure. Sure, he was the one in charge of making sure Blaine knew his ass from his elbows, but that wasn’t quite the same thing. Or at least, he hoped it wasn’t. Not once had Eric looked at Sam as anything but a mentor and a friend, and he sure as hell didn’t need Blaine looking at him for some sort of authority.

  When they were in the hallway, Eric closed the chief’s door and pointed to their left. “Break room’s down there. Coffee is shit, but that’s government spending for you. Once a week, they cater from somewhere, and sometimes it’s good. If it’s the Thai place, get some, if it’s the nearby pizza place, don’t, you’ll regret it for the rest of the day.”

  Blaine’s eyes lingered on Eric’s face before looking to their right. “And our office?”

  Eric’s lip twitched, but he fought to keep his face neutral. “Yeah, it’s down there. C’mon, let’s get this over with, and you can get back to whatever.”

  Blaine’s mouth opened, and Eric pushed past him before the man could say a word. Eric had no idea what the hell Blaine would want to say to him after almost a decade of silence, and quite frankly, he didn’t care. He could feel the coffee he’d downed earlier beginning to churn unhappily in his stomach. Eric had never dealt with the past very well, and it seemed like he wasn’t going to deal too well with the past rising up and smacking him in the present either.

  He walked, jerking his chin or a thumb in various directions as they walked. “Stairs there lead up to the second floor. Evidence and records are up there. Downstairs is the lockup. Bathrooms are there, but don’t be an ass and take a shit in them, use the ones downstairs for that if you gotta go that bad.”

  “Why do we get an office, but others don’t?” Blaine asked softly.

  Eric shrugged. “Because we’re investigators, not just foot cops. We actually have to put shit together.”

  “I thought that was a detective's job.”

  “Chief likes to split things up, ease the workload by spreading it about. People who do well at investigating also get a chance to make detective, it’s how he’s always done things.”

  “So it works.”

  “Obviously,” Eric growled. “Now shut the fuck up so I can finish the tour.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The words were laced so heavily with sarcasm, Eric was surprised he couldn’t taste the bitterness. For a brief and shining moment, he considered what would happen if he took a swing at Blaine. It wouldn’t be the first scuffle between officers, though they were kept in house secrets. He’d probably get his ass reamed up one way and down the other by the chief, and they’d probably be reassigned to different partners quicker than he could pick himself up off the floor.

  And he had no illusions about who would come out on top of that particular little scrap.

  Eric glared at him. “I’m not your little soldier buddy or the chief, so don’t call me that.”

  “No, you’re not,” Blaine said.

  Not sure what that was supposed to mean, or if he even wanted to know, Eric turned on his heel and continued down the hallway. The heads at the nearest cubicles of the open-plan room turned toward him and then darted away. Eric didn’t need to look over his shoulder to know that Blaine was behind him, staying a few feet away. Marching to the end of the row, he veered into the office at the end.

  Eric gestured around. “This is the office we’ll be using.”

  Blaine looked around the small room. Two matching desks and computer chairs, with the end of one desk pushed against the front of the other. Eric had cleared his things off the desks after Sam had threatened to have his hide if he didn’t give his new partner the choice of desk. Apparently, that was just ‘common courtesy’ though Eric suspected his former partner was just screwing with him.

  Blaine hummed thoughtfully. “The computers don’t look that old.”

  “It’s an old joke,” Eric grunted. “We spent the past several years with nothing but old computers and new software. Made getting through anything a pain in the ass. Local general at the fort donated a bunch of their older models to us last year, so now things work.”

  “Old? These models aren’t more than a year or two old.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Since when does the military have anything up to date?”

  “Fuck if I know. Take it up with the general.”

  “Which desk is yours?”

  Eric crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to look at Blaine. “You pick.”

  He could feel Blaine’s eyes on him, but Eric still refused to look up. The silence was heavy before Blaine raised his right hand and pointed to the desk at the back. Eric snorted softly, shrugging to show he didn’t care one way or the other.

  That had been his desk before, damn it.

  Eric opened his mouth to say something, but his words caught in his throat at the glint on Blaine’s hand. For one wild moment, he thought the band of silver on Blaine’s hand was that of a wedding ring. A second later, he realized he was staring at the wrong hand for that. It looked like an average band, though he’d swear he caught sight of something else on the other side where Blaine’s palm faced.

  Then it was gone, Blaine’s hand pulled to his side, hands in his pockets.

  Eighteen years of age was a good age, or at least it was in Eric’s mind. It didn’t help that he was officially out of high school and never had to look back. Sean was pushing for him to go to college, but Eric didn’t think that was in the cards for him. He’d had to sit through twelve years of school, he didn’t want to have to go for another four to six years. Not that
that left him with a whole lot of options, but there were still some choices.

  The other reason was the man wandering the trees ahead of him. Eric’s heart skipped a beat when Blaine looked back at him, his crooked smile making his eyes sparkle. The man was up to something, but Eric would let him have his fun for a little while longer. They’d been the best of friends since Eric had been the new kid two years earlier, and they’d been dating since a month after Eric’s eighteenth birthday.

  Their relationship was private, not known to anyone except them, and well, to Sean. His older brother knew just about everything there was to know, and it felt right for Eric to keep him in the loop. He knew another person knowing about them made Blaine nervous, but since it was Sean, he’d kept it to himself.

  Eric ducked his head, trying to hide his goofy smile. He and Blaine had made it almost a year together, though Eric thought he’d been in love with the man since the first day he’d sat with him outside the school. It might have taken two years for Blaine to see him in the same way, but it was worth it, God was it worth it. Now he had the man to himself, and while he couldn’t show him off to the world, it was enough.

  “So,” Blaine said, words slow and patient as they always were.

  Eric stopped, staring at Blaine’s back. “So.”

  “Knowing you, you’re probably wondering why I dragged you out to the middle of nowhere,” Blaine said.

  “The thought crossed my mind,” Eric admitted.

  “And probably did a few thousand laps while it was there.”

  “A few.”

  Blaine chuckled, turning around. His hand was in a fist, the other loose at his side.

  Eric eyed the closed hand. “Okay?”

  “Hand,” Blaine said.

  Eric rolled his eyes, but held his hand out, palm up. Blaine’s loose hand reached up, wrapping gently around Eric’s wrist and squeezing. The other turned, releasing its hold, and Eric felt something heavy drop into his palm.

  “I know things have been harder lately,” Blaine explained. “With me going out of town for the apprenticeship and having to work all the time. But I’m trying to make my life better, that way I can make sure we have a good life together.”

  Eric gave him a bemused smile, pulling his hand back to see. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the ring sitting in his palm. It was Blaine’s class ring, the only expensive thing he’d ever bought for himself. Blaine had worked tirelessly at a part-time job to buy the ring his parents called a waste of time and money. Blaine’s name was etched into the silver band circling the peridot gemstone that represented his birth month. His date of birth was engraved on one side of the thick band, his graduating year on the other.

  “A little old fashioned, giving class rings,” Blaine said, sounding nervous.

  And practically telling the world what was happening. Old fashioned or not, even their generation knew what it meant for someone to wear a guy’s class ring.

  “And a little big,” Eric admitted, voice faint.

  Blaine’s smile widened, and he reached into his pocket. From it, he drew out a chain necklace of interlocking links. It was thick, dense enough to carry the weight of the ring. The necklace was long too, long enough that the ring could sit against his skin, out of sight.

  “Oh,” Eric said, watching it pool into his palm as Blaine set it down gently.

  “I thought of that too,” Blaine whispered.

  It wasn’t the proclamation to the world Eric had thought, and even hoped for, but it was something alright. Blaine had graduated a year before Eric, and he’d never taken that ring off, except to shower or wash the dishes. It was a piece of Blaine, one Eric could carry around. Yes, it would be out of sight, keeping them hidden, but it would be there.

  And as he tilted his head up to kiss the man, he hoped he managed to get all his thoughts across in that one, gentle gesture.

  Clearing his throat, Eric shook his head like a wet dog. He knew his eyes were still locked on the place where Blaine’s hand had been only seconds before.

  “Eric?” Blaine asked warily.

  He motioned to the desk jerkily. “Take whatever fucking desk you want, fill it with whatever you want, I don’t give a shit. Just be here tomorrow on time, got it?”

  Blaine caught him before he could stomp off. Eric’s jaw tightened, and he fought the urge to look up, and the one to swing at Blaine. The last thing he needed was to start a fight, or for Blaine to see...something in his eyes, something that would betray him.

  Damn him for being here, for coming to Port Dale of all places.

  “Eric, I…” Blaine began, words trailing off before they’d had a chance to really begin.

  Eric gritted his teeth, yanking his arm free of Blaine’s grip. “Don’t touch me. You don’t get to touch me.”

  “Eric. Please.”

  “You…”

  No, he wasn’t going to do this. There were too many ears nearby. And really, he wasn’t going to dredge up the past just because Blaine felt awkward. What was done was done, and nothing they said was going to change that.

  “See you tomorrow,” Eric ground out before marching off.

  Blaine

  If he thought that a few days would have been enough to take the hard edges off Eric’s attitude, Blaine had been sorely mistaken. They’d officially been working together as partners for over a week, nearly a week and a half, and Eric had yet to show any sign of warming up.

  And someone had failed to mention just how much paperwork there was to police work.

  “Does this ever end?” Blaine asked more to himself than anyone else.

  It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to constant busywork and bureaucracy from the military. But at least the work had been more active than sitting at his desk, checking over old files and paperwork. There really was a several page report required for every time a firearm was discharged. That just seemed excessive. He couldn’t even imagine how much space it would have required if he’d been forced to do that in the military.

  He might still be writing the reports from his second deployment.

  “No,” Eric grunted from his desk. “It doesn’t.”

  It was one of the few times Eric had spoken to him without sounding like his anger was directed specifically at Blaine. Those moments had been few and far between and only seemed to happen when Eric was heavily distracted.

  Blaine leaned over in his seat, trying to see what was on Eric’s screen. “Hey, are those the arsonist reports?”

  Eric shrugged. “Fuck knows there’s plenty of them. Chief wants to make sure everyone’s up to date on it. Fucker’s been burning through half the city lately.”

  “So I heard.”

  “Surprised you did, haven’t been here long.”

  Eric’s tone wasn’t quite accusatory, but there was certainly something barbed under the seemingly benign words. Personally, Blaine would have preferred to get their issues out into the open, so they could just deal with them. That had been his intention on their first meeting in over eight years, but he’d seen the look on Eric’s face.

  Time might change people, but even nearly a decade’s worth of time couldn’t change Eric Andreas’ ‘fuck off and don’t ever speak to me about this again’ face. The first time Blaine had ever seen it was shortly after they’d become friends. Every school had that one asshole who thought himself God’s gift to mankind and thought it gave them the right to act however they wanted.

  Davis Turner had learned the hard way that his beliefs didn’t exactly fit reality. He’d made it his mission to try and get a rise out of the quiet loner that was the new kid. Why? Blaine had never known, but he supposed that hadn’t mattered. What had mattered was that after a couple of weeks of trying, Davis had decided to use his newfound knowledge about Eric’s deceased parents as an attempt to get a rise out of him.

  Eric looked up from his screen, squinting suspiciously. “What?”

  Blaine blinked. “What what?”

  “Why are you looking
at me like that?”

  “I wasn’t looking at you. I was looking in your direction. And thinking.”

  Eric looked like he was fighting the urge to roll his eyes. The gesture might have made Blaine feel a little better. The classic eye roll from Eric meant exasperation, sure, but it was at least friendly exasperation.

  “About what?” Eric asked.

  “Davis Turner,” Blaine admitted.

  And like a miracle, the wary expression on Eric’s face broke, giving way to wry amusement.

  “I remember that asshole. How long did he wear that sling again?” Eric asked.

  “Only a couple of weeks, but he only needed it for one.”

  “An asshole and a drama queen.”

  “He always did like the attention.”

  Eric shook his head. “Well, apparently he liked it too much. Hope he’s enjoying all the attention in prison.”

  Blaine’s brow shot up. “No shit?”

  He nodded. “Yep. Got busted a couple of years back for a B and E. Would’ve been just that, but the owner surprised him in the house, and after the fight that broke out, it got bumped up to felony assault. He should be out on parole in another five years or so.”

  Blaine whistled. “Damn. I knew he was a dick, but not the type to beat a guy up over a few valuables.”

  “Drugs will do that.”

  “Shit. Is that what brought him up here?”

  “The one and same. I guess the shit back home wasn’t much good.”

  “Huh. You think you know someone.”

  “Yeah. You miss a lot when you’re gone for a long time.”

  Eric’s words were laced with a sudden flare of anger, his lips pursing. Blaine couldn’t help the sigh that slipped out as Eric turned his attention back to the screen in front of him. Blaine didn’t think the man was reading as devoutly as he pretended, but he didn’t want to risk calling him out on it either.

  The Eric he’d known before could be gently coaxed from his little tantrums. Eric had always had a short fuse, but he wasn’t one to hold a grudge for too long. Of course, it usually required some gentle prodding from Blaine before he could bring a smile to Eric’s face, grudgingly or otherwise. Somehow he didn’t think he’d quite have the same effect if he tried again.