Until Forever [Merricks, Montana 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)

by McKinlay Thomson

  The day that Troy had told her he was bisexual had been one of the most nerve-racking days of his life. He knew his mother was open-minded, but it was different when it was your own family.

  “Love is love, son,” she’d said. “As long as they love you back and treat you right, I don’t care what they have between their legs. What goes on in the bedroom is your business.”

  Troy had almost cried at his mother’s acceptance of his sexual preferences and had always strived to make his mom proud in the way he led his life. He wasn’t sure she would be proud of his treatment of Cody though.

  She would tell him to take a chance and not to let the actions of others get in the way of his future happiness. She would probably cuff him on the back of the head and tell him he was being a bonehead.

  Cody had offered him everything he wanted in a relationship and submitted so beautifully under Troy’s dominance. Troy was simply a coward, and now the best thing in his life had just driven out of it.

  Troy sighed and moved away from the window. He needed to get back to the shop. He had more than enough work to keep him busy and keep his mind off Cody and his hot body and how it made him harder than hell.

  Troy was a large man, and Cody’s smaller, slimmer build fit against his perfectly. A few inches shorter than Troy, Cody had a trim, athletic build. He was six years younger than Troy, but the age difference didn’t bother either of them.

  Cody’s shaggy mop of light brown hair was long enough to grab to hold Cody in place as Troy fucked his hot mouth. He would stare up at him with his big, stormy blue eyes, and it was always enough to send Troy over the edge.

  Cody had no style and often wore jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers, and he drove a banged-up old Civic. He wasn’t a material person, even if he loved coffee a little too much.

  Crap, he needed to get his shit together, and pulling apart cars and bikes always made him feel better. Not that he had anyone else to blame but himself. He didn’t want to get hurt again, but it seemed that it was too late.

  Troy grabbed his keys and headed out to his car. His garage wasn’t too far from where he lived and it took only a short while until he was pulling into his parking spot and opening the roller door to the garage.

  Troy turned on all the lights and set to work on an old Ford pickup in need of a reconditioned engine. It had taken Troy a few weeks to source the parts he needed, and the customer was getting impatient.

  Troy picked up his wrench and got to work. Now here was something he understood and could always control. Tools didn’t let you down. They didn’t run off with your brother or get offered jobs in Seattle, and they didn’t break your heart.

  God, he should change the name of his shop to Chicken-shit Loser because that was what he felt like at the moment. Why didn’t he have the courage to let someone in?

  Cody would never treat him like Maria did, and didn’t he deserve some happiness after all this time? Wouldn’t he regret it if Cody left and moved on with his life?

  Troy put his wrench down and went into his office. He had a small bar fridge stacked with beer. Maybe he could drink himself silly and forget about Cody. Forget about the man who made him hard just thinking about all the things he wanted to do to his delectable body.

  He cracked open his beer and went back to the pickup. Troy had always said he wasn’t going to be sucked into another relationship, and he needed to stick to his guns.

  He would forget about Cody, just like he had forgotten about Maria. Work was his ally, and work was what he was going to do. Cody was better off without him. He deserved someone who wasn’t so emotionally fucked up. He deserved someone who would treat him right.

  Troy put his beer on the rim of the Ford and picked his wrench back up. He needed to fix this damned truck and then move on to the next car and stop thinking about things he wanted but was too scared to pursue.

  * * * *

  Cody looked at his car filled with all his stuff and hoped he hadn’t forgotten anything. He was excited about his new adventure and looking forward to a change. This was his dream job, and he was going to make damned sure he excelled at it.

  It didn’t matter that he had spent the last three weeks moping about his apartment and staring at his phone, desperately hoping that Troy would call him and tell him not to go. He had given himself a long pep talk and was now resolved to the fact that Troy didn’t want him.

  “Ready to go?”

  Cody was snapped out of his musings at the sound of his friend Adam’s voice. He threw on his jacket and turned to face his friend.

  “Yes,” Cody replied. “I suppose I am. Thank you for coming to see me off.”

  It really meant something to Cody that his friend had come over to say goodbye. They had known each other a long time, and even though it wasn’t goodbye forever—Cody and Adam could still visit each other—he was happy that his friend had made the effort.

  “Let me know if you have forgotten anything, and I can send it to you,” Adam told him.

  “Thanks,” he replied. “The apartment is almost empty, so I don’t think I have.”

  “Cool,” Adam said. “Any word from Troy?”

  “No. None.” Cody hated to admit to Adam that he was right. Adam had always had something against Troy, but Cody was so starry eyed that he had never listened. Turned out Adam was right.

  “I’m sure it’s for the best,” Adam told him. “You will find someone on the same level as you to settle down with and not someone into all that bondage shit.”

  “What does that even mean?” Cody asked. “What’s my level? And I like all that bondage shit.”

  Sometimes Adam was so exasperating.

  “It just means that you were better than him,” Adam replied. “He was just a mechanic and—”

  “And made more money than both you and me,” Cody said, cutting him off. “You are being a bit snobby.”

  “Sorry,” Adam said. “I guess I am. Let’s not talk about him. I came to see you off. And I don’t want it to be tainted by an argument.”

  Cody looked at his longtime friend and nodded. He didn’t want to fight either, and he did always get a bit defensive when it came to Troy.

  “You’re right,” he said. “I need to get going, and I will miss you. I’ll miss our crazy nights in, watching movies and throwing popcorn at each other.”

  “Yep,” Adam answered sarcastically. “We were simply wild. I did want to go out, you know. It was you who always wanted to stay in.”

  Cody couldn’t argue with that. He had always been a homebody and preferred to stay home than go to a crowded bar filled with strangers and get drunk.

  “What are you going to do when you get to Seattle?” Adam asked.

  Cody wasn’t sure. He didn’t start his job for a month, but he wanted to settle in and get used to the new city.

  “See the sights,” Cody answered. “I always wanted to see that Space Needle thing.”

  “And there are the ferry boats,” Adam said.

  “Yes, I have never been on a ferry boat.” Cody loved boats. He would have to add that to his to-do list.

  “You need to save some things to do for when I visit,” Adam said. “That way we can do them together.”

  “Of course,” Cody replied. He was sure Seattle was big enough to keep them occupied for years. “Besides, I’ll need to check out the competition. Lots and lots of coffee drinking to do.”

  “You’ll be buzzing from too much caffeine.”

  Cody didn’t think it was possible to have too much caffeine. He could have twenty cups a day and not feel the effects of caffeine. In fact he felt damned cranky without it. Maybe he was addicted to the stuff, which was more likely than not.

  “I guess this is good-bye, then,” he said, pulling his car keys from his pocket.

  “No,” Adam told him. “It’s just ‘see you later.’”

  Cody hugged his friend and thumped him on the back in a manly gesture. He didn’t feel awkward touching Adam, but the back thumping h
ad always been a joke between them ever since they were kids. Cody had told Adam in a very knowledgeable and grown-up voice that men only hugged other men by thumping them on the back or it made them sissies.

  It had been in a more innocent time when Cody didn’t know that being a man meant more than how masculine you looked or acted. He couldn’t even remember where he had gotten that information from. It had taken his mother to show him how a real man truly acted, guiding him to be the understanding and accepting individual he was today.

  That didn’t stop him and Adam from clowning around at his naive remark.

  “See you ’round then.” Cody moved around the car and opened the driver’s side door. He buckled in and started the engine. His old car sputtered to life, and Cody thought it was slightly ironic that his junky car started acting up the moment he’d stopped seeing a mechanic.

  Cody threw the thumb drive he snagged from Adam’s into the middle console. He had spent hours the night before at Adam’s filling it with his favorite music. When it was time to leave, he hadn’t been able to find it at first, but then it had turned up in one of the computer drawers.

  Waving good-bye to his friend, he put his car in reverse and slowly pulled out of the driveway and into the street. He switched on the radio and settled in for a long drive.

  Maybe he should have caught a plane, but then he would have had to ship all his things, and it would have been a pain. No, he liked a long drive, and it gave him a chance to see some of the country.

  Cody had never been to Montana or North Dakota, and he had to drive clear across them both to get to Washington State. He didn’t have a clear time frame. He was just going to drive and see what interested him enough to stop along the way.

  Cody wasn’t used to being so carefree, and it felt great. He was going to have an adventure before he settled into his new dream job. Life was looking good, and he was happy. He just wished Troy was a part if it.

  * * * *

  Adam waved to his friend as he drove out of the driveway and into the street. He would miss his friend and would definitely visit him once it was safe to do so. Not that Cody knew that Adam was in danger.

  He didn’t even know that his old boss was crooked. Adam didn’t feel bad for keeping Cody in the dark. It was for his own good.

  Now he just had to figure out what to do with the evidence he had hidden in his computer table drawers. He felt that hiding the evidence in plain sight was a good move. Nobody ever went in his place anyway.

  That thumb drive was the only evidence that Eli was working to defraud the government and was working with the Russian mob, and Adam needed to get it out of his apartment and somewhere where no one would find it until he was ready to hand it to the police.

  Adam didn’t know how long until they sent someone after him, and he didn’t want to have it on him when they did. Gosh, he hoped that he remembered to log out of the computer. He had used his access code to get past the security, but he couldn’t remember if he had logged off again. He had been so scared and just wanted to grab the evidence and get out of there. It was a stupid mistake and could have compromised the whole plan.

  He was just hoping that, if they tortured him, he would be able to stand the pain and not cave and tell them what he had done with it.

  The bastards wouldn’t be able to get past the encryption that Adam had protected it with, if they did find it, but that wouldn’t stop them from destroying it and killing him. Adam knew he was placing his fate into a lot of unknown factors. The mob just might decide to kill him outright and not care about the evidence. Golly, he was taking a big risk, but he had set himself on a path when he had decided to download the files from his boss’s computer. It was too late for regrets now.

  He was just glad that Troy hadn’t manned up and convinced Cody to stay. That would have ruined all of his plans. He had been trying to get Cody to turn against his lover and take the job for weeks.

  He had started to work on Cody telling him that he was too good for Troy and that it was his dream job the moment Cody had told him of the offer. It had been a shitty thing to do, but he loved Cody and always had. He wanted Cody for himself, and that meant no Troy. Once this was all over, they could be together. Cody would hopefully never find out what he had done. Troy was out of the picture, and it was Troy’s own doing, so Adam’s hands were clean.

  Adam moved out of the front yard and started to make his way home. He had walked over. It was a nice day, and he could use the exercise. They didn’t live to far apart anyway.

  He kept checking over his shoulder, paranoid that he was being followed. He wasn’t good at all this cloak and dagger stuff and would be glad when it was all over. If he wasn’t dead, that was.

  No, it would work out. It had too. He just had to bide his time until it was safe to collect it. Then he would hand it into the police, the non-corrupt ones and it would be all over.

  Eli would go to jail, and Adam would be safe. Adam needed to stop stressing so much. It was fine. Everything would be okay. He hoped.

  Chapter Four

  Cody was lost. When he had decided to detour through Great Falls and then head down to Helena, he shouldn’t have gone off the main road. He was still on a highway. He just wasn’t sure to where.

  Then there was the fact that his car was acting up. He had stopped in Dickson to go to the dinosaur museum, and that was where his car troubles had started.

  One of the local mechanics had taken a look at it and fixed it for a sizable amount and told him it would get him to Seattle, but he needed to start saving for a new one.

  If today was any indication, the mechanic had been wrong. He wasn’t going to make it to the next town, let alone all the way to Seattle. He was smack-bang in the middle of nowhere and had absolutely no idea how far to the next town. He hadn’t seen signs for miles.

  Cody felt the car sputter and cough and prayed it wasn’t going to conk out on him. He just needed to make it to the next town. Then he could have another mechanic take a look at it.

  Maybe he should have paid attention when Troy was telling him everything he had fixed on his car. He was never interested as long as the thing worked and he didn’t need to buy another one.

  The car sputtered again, and Cody held his breath. Please, please, please, he prayed, but it was no use. The engine gave one last shudder and died. Cody used the momentum to steer the car off the road before it rolled to a stop.

  “Crap, shit, bugger, shit,” he swore, slamming his fist on the steering wheel. Cody unsnapped his seat belt and popped the hood before getting out of the car. The engine was steaming and hissing as he propped up the hood.

  Cody stared at the engine, but he really had no idea what was wrong with the thing. He failed big time at all things manly. It wasn’t as though he was girly or anything. He had just never been someone interested in cars, sports, or the great outdoors. He put it down to the fact that all those things usually coincided with drinking, and he wasn’t much of a drinker. He preferred to stick to coffee.

  Sighing, he moved away from the car and looked up and down the road. All he could see for miles was nothing, just endless trees, paddocks, and road. There was no other traffic and not a house in sight. He was well and truly up shit creek without a paddle.

  A thought struck Cody, and he raced to his car. He had his cell in the car. He could call for help. Not that he knew who to call. He couldn’t call emergency services, and he wasn’t a member of one of those roadside assist companies. He wasn’t going to ring Troy. He would rather starve on the side of the road than call his sort-of-ex for help.

  Grabbing his phone from his backpack, Cody swiped on the screen and looked at the display. He almost cried at the little no-signal sign displayed on his cell. He threw the phone back into the car and sat down in the passenger seat with a huff.

  He would just have to wait, and hopefully someone would drive past soon. His great adventure was turning into a bit of a nightmare, and he needed rescuing. He needed a knight in shi
ning armor to come and sweep him of his feet.

  Cody let his mind wander as he waited. He liked the idea of being a damsel in distress. What was the male equivalent? Cody snorted. He wasn’t sure there was one. He would settle for hot, hunky dude in distress.

  Now all he needed was his knight in shining armor. They would have to be strong and independent and good looking. It was his fantasy after all. Capable of having a relationship and not commitment phobic. He’d had enough of that with Troy to last a lifetime. Knowing how to fix cars would be a bonus too.

  Cody could imagine it all. He closed his eyes and tried to picture his fantasy rescue. The man would drive up in his large black pickup, and they would stare into each other’s eyes. Cody would shyly cough and look away before his rescuer would ask, “Are you okay?”

  Cody’s lip would quiver, and he would suck in a deep breath.

  “Excuse me, sir? Are you okay?”

  No, no, he was imagining a more masculine voice, but he would roll with it. He didn’t mind being rescued by a woman. Yes, a sexy, curvy Domme. Cody’s fantasy changed form as he shifted in his seat.

  “Hello? Are you awake?” Golly, she was a persistent, naggy rescuer in his fantasy. “Are you going to answer me, or are you unconscious?”

  Cody jumped as a hand touched his shoulder and gave him a small shake. His eyes snapped open, and he let out an unmanly squeal.

  “You scared me,” he said, holding his hand to his chest. He looked up at the blonde woman standing before him and blinked. She was beautiful, and Cody’s mouth went dry.

  She had the most amazing curly blonde hair, styled as though she’d fallen out of a ’40s film. Her light green eyes stared back at him, and Cody was entranced. She was curvy and full-figured, her body perfectly complemented in her jeans and red-checkered shirt. Her large breasts pushed against the material, and the way she was leaning forward toward him created a most spectacular view.