Unbreak My Heart (Heroes of Port Dale Book 4)

by Romeo Alexander

  “Should be asking you that,” Eric murmured, touching Blaine’s side carefully.

  “I’ll feel it, but I think I’ll manage,” Blaine said, laying on his good side beside Eric.

  Without skipping a beat, Eric rolled toward him, facing his chest. Blaine blinked and softened as he wrapped a protective arm around Eric’s waist and held him there. Eric tucked his arms between their bodies, allowing Blaine to cradle him gently.

  If there was any remaining doubt about whether or not Eric had meant what he said, that little gesture would have washed it away in an instant. It was a show that Eric was content, comfortable, and feeling completely safe. The gesture was something Blaine had only seen a handful of times in the past, and to see it again after so many years brought a dull, but welcome ache to his chest.

  “I love you,” Blaine murmured, pulling a pillow under each of their heads.

  “Love you too,” Eric whispered, voice faint and heavy with sleep.

  And that was enough for Blaine.

  Eric

  Warmth surrounded him, which was good because he could feel the room was chilly. Humming softly in pleasure, he pushed himself closer to the source of the warmth. The smell of smoke, faint cologne, and a hint of something else he couldn’t quite put a name to filled his nostrils. It didn’t matter if his sleep fogged brain couldn’t parse the description, all it needed to know was the smell was a good one and left him with a dopey smile on his face.

  “Mornin’,” came Blaine’s rough voice.

  Eric opened his eyes, blinking rapidly at the bright light in the room. Looking up at the broad chest he had been nuzzled against, he stared up into Blaine’s smiling face. His mind slowly began chugging, remembering the past twenty-four hours, and the thing he’d been buried against was Blaine.

  “Mmph,” Eric grunted, pushing his face back into Blaine’s chest.

  Blaine chuckled, the sound deep and rumbling. “Ever the morning person.”

  “Coffee,” Eric grumbled.

  “That would require me to get up.”

  Eric had to admit that was a strong counter-argument. He’d rather not lose his reliable source of heat. Plus, Blaine smelled and felt good. It was hard to believe he’d allowed himself to ignore Blaine for so long, or rather, actively pushed him away.

  He knew why he’d done it, but it seemed so stupid and destructive. With Blaine’s strong arms wrapped around him, refusing to let him go, it was hard to picture laying any other way.

  “I can feel you thinking,” Blaine teased.

  Eric snorted. “You don’t sound very worried about it.”

  “Since when has you thinking ever been something I felt the need to worry about?”

  “That wasn’t as comforting as you might have thought it would be.”

  Blaine kissed the top of his head. “Just so long as they’re good thoughts.”

  “Just thinking about how stupid I’ve been.”

  “You didn’t know.”

  “I didn’t want to know.”

  Blaine sighed. “I...meant what I said.”

  Eric looked up. “About what?”

  “Well, everything. But the reason why I signed up for the corps,” Blaine said, forehead creasing.

  Eric frowned. “Well, yeah. I kind of figured as much.”

  Blaine bit his bottom lip. “But after the fact, I realized it wasn’t the only reason.”

  Eric pushed away from Blaine so he could see the other man’s face a little clearer. It wasn’t that he didn’t figure there was more to it, but whatever this other reason was, it was weighing heavily on Blaine. Eric spared a thought of wry amusement that a week ago, he wouldn’t have given a shit, or tried not to.

  “What is it?” Eric asked softly.

  Blaine took Eric’s hand in his, squeezing their fingers together. “I did it because I didn’t want to be trapped there, because I was terrified of being in Carson my whole life.”

  Eric couldn’t say he blamed him. There was nothing there for them, save for their families. But Sean had moved shortly after Eric had left, and even Eric’s brother had moved on to greener pastures.

  “I get it,” Eric murmured. “Truth be told, I might not have left Carson if it hadn’t been for you leaving. I might have stayed there my whole life.”

  “I couldn’t do it. Not to myself, not to you. And really, when it gets right down to it,” Blaine said, taking a deep breath. “I was running. The corps was...my escape, I had to get away. Not from you. From that place, from my parents.”

  “You love your parents,” Eric said with a frown.

  “I do, they’re my mom and dad, of course, I love them. But I could never...I mean c’mon Eric, you saw them, you knew them. They were the most traditional, conservative people in that town. I couldn’t be me with them. I couldn’t have them, and you too.”

  “You ran from Carson, and from telling your parents the truth,” Eric said in understanding.

  Blaine nodded. “I couldn’t tell them the truth, but you...and me, we deserved to live our lives truthfully. Being there, we couldn’t do that. In the end, we’d be stuck, one way or another. At least, that’s what I told myself, and instead of questioning it, I ran.”

  Eric’s jaw tightened, and he jerked their combined hands closer to him. “Don’t you do that.”

  Blaine stared at him. “What?”

  “I can hear that tone, I know that tone, Blaine Edwards. Don’t you dare think of yourself as a coward, don’t you dare blame yourself. Not for that. Yes, you should have talked to me, you should have told me this. But you know what, I should have listened instead of freaking out.”

  “Eric,” Blaine warned with a low growl.

  At that, he grinned. “What? If you’re allowed to call yourself names for wanting to get the hell out of Carson before it was too late, then I get to blame myself for being too stupid to stop and listen to you.”

  He should have listened, God should he have listened. Blaine had been right in the alley, calling Eric selfish. All Eric had heard was that Blaine was leaving, and that was all he wanted to hear. Eric should have trusted him, should have believed in him. Instead, he’d been all too willing to drive Blaine away and send the both of them into misery for the next several years.

  Blaine huffed. “I hate when you outsmart me like that.”

  “Yeah, well, I hate when you logic away all my goddamn emotions. I guess that makes us even,” Eric shot back.

  Blaine grinned. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

  The kiss was sweet, and Eric shivered at the heat at the end. “Quit that.”

  “What?” Blaine asked though he wasn’t successful at keeping his voice completely innocent.

  “I should be going into the precinct later, and I don’t need to be limping more than I already will be,” Eric told him.

  “What, after a couple of times?” Blaine teased.

  “Three times, thank you very much.”

  “Mm, yes. That’s right, almost forgot.”

  “Liar.”

  Eric swatted him on the chest, doing his best to wriggle out of Blaine’s hold. He managed only to flail around. Blaine’s fingers dug into his side, wiggling between his ribs and causing Eric to shriek indecently.

  “Quit!” Eric bellowed, trying even harder to get away.

  His wish was granted when his flailing hand smacked onto Blaine’s right side. With a grunt of pain, Blaine released him. Eric pushed away as he was let go, shoving himself off the side of the bed. He landed on the carpeted floor with an indelicate grunt, flopping onto his back.

  “Ow,” Eric managed.

  Blaine peeked over the bed. “Ow is right. You know my ribs are broke, right?”

  “They’re cracked as you pointed out last night. And that wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t an asshole,” Eric said, swatting at him.

  “I forgot you were ticklish,” Blaine told him, flopping back out of sight.

  “Yeah, my ass, you forgot. Dick,” Eric grumbled as he sat up.<
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  His eyes fell to the box on the bedside table and smiled. As he took to his feet, he grabbed it and pulled it with him as he sat on the edge of the bed. Opening it, he gazed down to where he’d replaced the ring atop the letters, and something else.

  “What’s up?” Blaine asked him.

  “I uh, did more than go to the grocery store,” Eric admitted, reaching into the box to pull out the ring.

  “Oh?”

  “I stopped by my apartment too. Grabbed something I’ve had in my closet for years, and took it in. Didn’t think they could...repair it as quickly as they did, but I guess the damage was bigger in my mind than in reality.”

  Blaine rolled onto his side, propping himself up on one arm. “Is this where you tell me what’s going on?”

  Eric hesitated, then smiled again. He sat the ring on the bed beside him and grabbed what lay on top of the letters. The jewelers had removed most of the wear and tear on the chain, and looking at it, no one would know it had been broken. Eric remembered the feel of it as the links gave way under his grief driven strength.

  “Is that…” Blaine asked, voice soft.

  Eric nodded. “I kept it. In a box of its own, in my room.”

  “All this time.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Eric nodded. He’d never been able to justify to himself why he’d kept it, especially when he’d supposedly wanted nothing to do with Blaine ever again. Yet he’d held onto it, and while he didn’t pull it out as often as he had years ago, he’d never forgotten it.

  “I,” Eric said, holding out the necklace. “Would like to wear it again…”

  Blaine looked at the necklace, the first gift he had ever bought Eric. Then he looked down at the ring, the gift that had been an unspoken promise, and the one Eric had cruelly thrown back at him.

  Eric’s heart thudded in his chest as Blaine took hold of the necklace, undoing the clasp at the back. Moving carefully, as though afraid any sudden movements might shatter the moment, Blaine took the ring and threaded the chain through it. He reached over Eric’s head, letting the necklace drape around his neck. Eric shivered, first at the touch of the cool ring on his warm skin, and then at Blaine’s breath on his neck as he clasped the necklace.

  Blaine’s fingers pulled back, and Eric brought his hand up, laying it over the necklace. He’d forgotten how heavy the combination felt when draped over his shoulders, and how comforting its presence was.

  “Back where it belongs,” Blaine whispered.

  Eric’s eyes stung, and he whirled around to kiss Blaine. He tried his best to pour every bit of heartache, apology, and meaning he could into the kiss. It would take time for both of them to move beyond the past and truly embrace the present, to walk toward the future together. But that was okay, because Eric had Blaine now, and he understood just what he’d been missing for eight years.

  “I love you,” Eric breathed against Blaine’s lips.

  Blaine pulled him closer, grip firm but somehow gentle as he brought Eric atop him. He was warm, and his arms around Eric’s waist were protective and possessive. Eric chuckled as Blaine’s fingers gripped him, pulling their bodies closer together. He’d told Blaine he needed to go into work later, but hell, it could wait.

  Stepping through the double doors into the precinct’s lobby, Eric hesitated after a few steps. David was in his customary spot, but he was the only person in the room.

  “Something wrong?” David asked, looking up.

  Eric shrugged. “Weird. It’s so quiet in here.”

  David snorted, the sound of a turning page coming from under his desk. “Probably because there’s no one else here, at least for the next couple of hours.”

  “Really?” Eric asked.

  David shrugged. “It’s a Friday night, and there weren’t too many people in here to begin with. Wild and crazy times for the drunk people.”

  “They left you with the guys in lock up?” Eric asked.

  “No one there yet, bet there will be by night’s end.”

  Eric grunted. “Fair.”

  “What’re you doing back here?”

  “Grabbing a few things and wanting to take some of the recent files home. Edwards is still laid up, and Morgan doesn’t want me in here without my partner for too long.”

  “That why you’re in here so late?”

  No, he was late because a certain partner of his didn’t know how to keep his hands to himself. Not that Eric was going to complain, he’d happily fallen back into bed for another round of intense sex, followed by a nice meal, shower, and a nap.

  “He’s a big baby when he’s injured,” Eric told him instead.

  “Well, good thing he’s doing alright. Woulda sucked to have the guy killed or taken outta commission. He only just started.”

  Eric snorted. “Tell me about it. Then I’d have to find a whole new partner.”

  “God knows you only just managed to break this one in. Can’t imagine what the next bastard would’ve had to deal with.”

  Eric rolled his eyes and walked on. “Yeah yeah, funny guy.”

  “You alright?”

  David’s question stopped him in his tracks. “Uh, yeah, why?”

  “You haven’t said one rude thing to me, and you’ve gone a whole conversation without swearing.”

  Eric narrowed his eyes. “You know, you’re right, fuck you, David. Mind your own business.”

  “Ah, and the universe is aligned properly once more.”

  There was no way in hell he was going to tell the man that he hadn’t felt as relaxed and at ease as he did right then in ages. The few rounds of good sex had certainly done its work there, but Eric knew it was more than that. As he made his way back to his office, he reached up to curl his fingers around the ring beneath his shirt.

  Blaine hadn’t been happy that he couldn’t come in too but had been assuaged when Eric promised he’d only be an hour or two. Eric had even promised to sit down and go over the case files with Blaine. Detective work was still new to Blaine, but it was clear he needed something to do with his time while he was recovering. Plus, there was the ever so personal factor that both of them had nearly been killed by the bastard.

  Any hope that there might be more updates for him to sink his teeth into were quickly quashed when he booted up his computer. The latest was the investigation into the firebomb that had almost claimed Blaine’s life. The investigation hadn’t really got far in the past few days, something Eric accepted with a resigned sigh.

  He downloaded what there was to the network he had access to outside the precinct. Both he and Blaine could look it over later, hopefully with a box of takeout between them and maybe a movie playing in the background.

  Eric frowned when the download failed, citing a random error. Muttering under his breath, he set it to work again. Almost immediately, it cited the same error, and he swore under his breath. Restarting the computer did nothing, and in fact, he found himself unable to access the database at all.

  “Fucking technology, I swear to God,” he hissed, pushing away from his desk.

  Stomping out to the lobby, he stopped when he found it empty.

  “Hey, David, where the fuck did you go?” he called, looking around.

  Grumbling about people unable to do their job, he approached the desk and looked behind it. The small space David customarily used as his workspace was dim, lit only by the security feeds on the small screens beside the desk.

  “Seriously?” Eric muttered. “Fine, fuck you.”

  Not bothering with going around, he hopped over the desk. Crouching down, he looked over the small device under the desk. It was supposed to be the router to the mainframe, which was located on the second floor. He really hoped the error wasn’t something to do with the mainframe, or he’d have to wait until the tech nerds came in to look it over.

  Rooting around, he frowned when he drew the device out, no cord dangling from it. Blinking, he turned it over, and then down at the floor. Every single cable had been pulled out an
d left on the carpet. His eyes flicked up to the camera feeds above him and found none of them had the recording symbol in the lower right-hand corner either.

  “Well, no fucking wonder,” he muttered, brow creasing.

  The silence felt heavy as he set the router down and looked around once more. David had left his book behind, which was strange since the man was normally attached to his latest novel. Eric’s eyes flit over the cover, seeing the same half-naked fireman he’d seen almost two weeks before.

  Flipping the book open, he found it hollowed out in the center. There was another book inside, made by an amateur from the looks of the cover and binding. He opened the smaller book, breath catching as he read over what appeared to be instructions and ideas. Some of the pages were pulled from the internet. Eric knew you could find just about anything on it if you looked hard enough. The rest were printed copies of devices and objects, some of which had small, handwritten notes next to them.

  “Oh shit,” he muttered as he recognized the trap that had almost burned him and Blaine to a crisp.

  A shadow fell over the page, and Eric stiffened. Standing up, he whirled around, hand going to the gun in his holster. Pain flared along the side of his head, and he rocked backward. He had a few moments of blurry sight to see David’s once friendly face turned into a mask of rage. The next blast of pain was mercifully short as he felt his knees buckle beneath him, landing facedown.

  His last thought before darkness took over was how thick the ring felt pressing against his chest.

  Blaine

  His apartment felt empty. Not that Blaine had ever thought of it as bursting with life and energy before. Despite his name on the lease and his possessions taking up space, it had never quite felt like his. Without Eric around, even if it had only been an hour, the empty spaces felt too big, and the silence was oppressive.

  Smiling to himself, he set his Bluetooth speaker to a playlist, music he was pretty sure was still to Eric’s taste. No doubt, the man would tease him mercilessly for being unnecessarily sentimental. Blaine wouldn’t take offense, though, because he knew he would spot the warm twinkle of appreciation and love in his partner’s dark eyes.