Shadow's Pen [Rescue for Hire 10] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Bellann Summer

  “How what?” Shadow seemed fascinated when he pulled a piece of Pen’s hair straight before letting it spring back into a loose curl.

  Pen jerked his head back away from Shadow’s fingers, trying to gain the man’s full attention. He reminded himself not to do that again when the action jiggled his pounding brain. Getting back to the conversation, he asked, “How do you do it? You’re tall, have muscles upon muscles, and are a hunk-and-a-half. How did you escape the doctor’s notice?”

  “His concentration was centered on you,” Shadow explained, finally looking at Pen’s face. “As long as I didn’t do anything to bring attention to me, I’m, in essence, invisible.”

  “You see, that’s what I’m getting at.” Pen grabbed Shadow’s hand when it reached for his hair again. “With your long hair, dark skin, and gorgeous eyes, everyone should be staring at you. I’m not stupid. You’re called Shadow because that’s what you are. Am I right? Are you one of those men I’ve caught glimpses of while I investigated the shitholes of war?”

  * * * *

  The silence dragged on in the room as Shadow studied the determined look in Pen’s light gray eyes, accompanied by the stubborn straight line of his usually luscious mouth. The man was indeed a reporter through and through.

  A nurse walked into the room, interrupting their stare-off. Shadow waited while she went over Pen’s aftercare instructions. Once she left, Shadow was ready to get out of there.

  Taking Pen’s hand, he pulled the man off the table. “Let’s get you home.”

  Pen looked up at Shadow. “You do know that I’m only going to put up with you not answering my questions for so long.”

  Shadow couldn’t resist placing a quick kiss on the man’s luscious lower lip. He was just too cute when he was ramping himself up into a snit. Shadow also liked how Pen responded in an instant by kissing him back. Shadow’s cock jerked in response.

  It was time to take Pen home. Shadow wanted to spend some alone time with the smaller man and needed to get an overall feel of the Gregslist kidnapping situation from Pen’s view. He had no doubt the spunky man had an opinion.

  Shadow kept his hand on the small of Pen’s back as they went down the wide hallway to the in-hospital pharmacy. He took note of every person they passed and scanned office doorways and dim corners.

  “You know I’m perfectly capable of walking by myself,” Pen grumbled. “And, for that matter, I don’t think I need protecting.”

  Shadow didn’t bother answering. The intriguing man didn’t have any choice. From now on, Shadow was sticking to him like glue.

  While Pen picked up his prescriptions, Shadow kept him in his sights as he went over to a vending machine set up in a small alcove and purchased a bottle of water. By the time Shadow walked back, Pen was sitting on a chair in front of the pharmacy counter, clutching his small white paper bag of meds.

  Squatting down in front of him, Shadow opened the water while observing the squint of pain around the pretty man’s eyes. “Take some of those meds, baby.”

  From the bag, Pen took out a prescription bottle. After shaking a couple of tablets into his hand, Pen gave Shadow a small smile and reached for the water.

  When Pen lifted his chin and took a drink, his Adam’s apple bobbed, tempting Shadow to place his mouth over it and explore it with his tongue. The top of a small bruise peeked out from the collar of Pen’s polo shirt. There was a multitude of additional marks hidden under the material. Shadow wanted to add a few more.

  Pen kept the water and stood. By the light patches of red forming on his cheeks, Shadow knew another round of opinions or arguments were coming. Too bad for Pen, Shadow was going to ignore most, if not all, of them.

  With his hand resting between Pen’s shoulders, Shadow escorted Pen out of the hospital.

  “You know, one mugging does not mean I need a bodyguard.” Pen waved the bottle of water around in making his point. The glazed look in his eyes told Shadow the meds were kicking in fast.

  “Cade knows what he’s doing,” Shadow stated.

  By now they were crossing the parking lot and almost to Shadow’s black Jeep Wrangler. Pen stopped walking and crinkled his mouth up as his gaze took on a shrewd look.

  “If kissing is part of his bodyguard’s duties, Cade is going to make big bucks.” Pen straightened his body to its full height and lifted his chin in mutiny. “Who’s going to be guarding me against nonexistent threats tomorrow? I suppose it doesn’t matter since they’re all hunks.”

  The Jeep’s lights flickered when Shadow pressed the button on the fob in his pocket. Steel laced every word of Shadow’s response. “I suggest you get in the car, now.”

  “Fine.” Pen whirled around and started to stalk the fifteen feet to Shadow’s Jeep. Movement caught Shadow’s attention from the corner of his eye. A silver VW Beetle shot out from between two cars in the row next to them and headed straight toward Pen.

  Pen froze, his wide eyes staring at the vehicle bearing down on him. Shadow sprang into action, closing the distance between him and his lover, and took them both down. Shadow’s body slammed onto the asphalt, but he managed to keep Pen on top of him to soften the teeth-jarring impact. Ignoring the pain, he rolled them between his Jeep and the vehicle next to it.

  Before they finished rolling, Shadow had his gun out. No, he didn’t obey the signs posted around hospitals that said it was a no-gun zone. He never went anywhere unarmed.

  He covered Pen with his body, ignored the man’s struggles, and waited for the Beetle to slam into the surrounding cars in an effort to get to them. Instead, there was the roar of an engine gunning and the scream of tires sliding on asphalt before the stench of burnt rubber coated the air. As the seconds passed, the adrenaline rushing through Shadow’s system calmed. From his position, he couldn’t see the Beetle or hear any engines close.

  Shadow decided the Beetle was gone but kept scanning the area in case the vehicle or the driver came back. Reaching into his pocket, Shadow pulled out his phone.

  A few swipes later had Cade’s voice in his ear. “What’s up?”

  “An older model silver VW Beetle, license plate JBC428 just tried to run us down in the hospital parking lot,” Shadow stated.

  The tone in Cade’s voice turned into that of the boss he was. “I’ll have Shane and Treb head over there. They won’t make contact but know they will be tailing you and able to assist if you need them. You call the police station and report the incident. As far as anyone watching is concerned, a boyfriend was taking his partner home from the hospital. Rescue for Hire isn’t involved in any way.”

  “Got it, and here I was wondering why you’d chosen me for this assignment,” Shadow commented before shifting to secure Pen in a tighter hold before the wiggling man’s thigh connected with his groin.

  After he ended the call, Shadow lifted his shoulders, letting Pen’s face free. “Are you hurt in any way?”

  “Let me the fuck go,” a red-faced Pen shouted. “That was my dead brother’s car.”

  Chapter Six

  Pen had had enough of this day. He was sick and tired of the whole thing and wanted nothing more than to go to bed and pull the covers over his aching head.

  He was sick of doctors probing him and putting stinging medication on the new set of scrapes he’d received from a certain caveman barreling into him like a mac truck. He was sick of deputies asking him if he had any enemies or maybe a disgruntled boyfriend, which had the bohemian galoot stiffening and looking as if he was going to tear someone apart. And most of all he was sick of the not-explaining, one-sentence-speaking giant glued to his side.

  With that thought, Pen sent a dirty look Shadow’s way. As usual, he was ignored and gentle hands rested on his shoulders while guiding him into his apartment.

  Pen watched as Shadow picked up a chair from the dining area in his kitchen and set it against the wall near a corner by the breakfast nook. He was so tired, lead seemed to be coating his eyelids, making it hard to keep them open. Pen didn’
t bother to object when Shadow led him over to the chair and had him sit down. Was he being a fool for observing how the skin on Shadow’s hand felt rough against his palm and hoped it hadn’t been injured from their rolling around on the asphalt?

  A kiss pressed against Pen’s uninjured temple. “I’ll be right back.”

  Pen didn’t answer. He’d tried to ask questions and demand answers in the Jeep on the way back to his apartment. Had that gotten him anywhere? Nope.

  In the other room, there was a small bump as a door was closed. The clinking scrape of the shower curtain being pushed aside followed. The apartment wasn’t that big, and Shadow should be finished searching it soon. But Pen didn’t care.

  The sight of his brother’s car had brought home all the anguish and pain of losing his brother, his only family. Black, devastating frustration consumed him at not being able to see or bury his brother’s body.

  Was he weak for not coping anymore? Again, Pen didn’t care. He let his body slump against the wall and started to cry.

  * * * *

  Shadow focused all of his senses on the apartment, looking for anything, even a whisper of air, that could be out of place. At the hospital, he had let his fascination with Pen take his attention from the environment around him. And that had almost cost Pen his life.

  While giving the deputy his statement and waiting for Pen to give his, Shadow had let the hunter inside him out. He’d scanned the parking lot for anything out of the ordinary, anything negative. People walking to and from their cars were given a once-over.

  He had to give Shane and Treb a bit of credit. They were good, but not good enough. Shadow had spotted them right off.

  Shadow was on full alert in the hospital while the doctors attended to Pen. Each new scrape on the man’s body took a chunk out of Shadow’s soul and made him more determined to keep Pen safe, even if the feisty man gave him hell the whole while. In Shadow’s twisted way, he found it amusing.

  The apartment was empty. Shadow made a mental list of things he would do to make it safer. A noise from the kitchen caught Shadow’s attention. He paused in mid-step and quit scratching at the tape holding the bandage on his shoulder. The doctor had insisted on treating the bleeding gash, and Shadow agreed to let him just to stop Pen’s nonstop nag…no, concern.

  A sniff and a shaky breath had Shadow rushing to the kitchen, where his heart dropped to his feet. Pen was still in the chair but was collapsed against the wall with tears running down his cheeks.

  Shadow lifted Pen out of the chair. He liked how the smaller man wrapped his legs around Shadow’s waist and buried his head in his shoulder. “Crying will only make your head hurt worse.”

  “I don’t care.” Pen’s response was muffled, but Shadow heard it, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

  Walking over to the kitchen counter, he held Pen with one hand on the man’s delicious ass and grabbed a tissue with the other. “Blow,” he ordered.

  Pen lifted his head away from Shadow’s now damp shoulder and grabbed the tissue. A few noisy minutes later resulted in Pen being calmer, his nose cleaner, and a sticky, balled-up tissue thrown in the garbage. Shadow grabbed a couple of more tissues, just in case, and headed toward the bedroom.

  Shadow sat on the bed with Pen wrapped around him like a monkey. “Let’s get into bed, baby.”

  Pen didn’t move anything but his lips. “Would you like to know a secret?”

  “What is it?” Shadow decided, in time, he would know all of Pen’s secrets.

  “Being in your arms like this is the first time I’ve felt safe in years.”

  “You are safe.” He would always be safe if Shadow had anything to say about it.

  Shadow lay back, kicked off his shoes, and used one foot to push them onto the bed. Pen didn’t move except to straddle Shadow with his legs. Shadow took off Pen’s shoes and threw them on the floor.

  “Why the tears?” Shadow waited. Soon Pen was going to crash after everything that had happened that day. Shadow figured he had until then to find out more about his lover. His talky baby didn’t let him down.

  “My parents were normal, everyday people. My dad was a carpenter and spent long hours building and remodeling homes while mom was a teacher’s aide at the local elementary school.” Pen moved his face against Shadow’s shoulder. He suspected the man had just wiped his nose on his T-shirt but wasn’t going to call him on it. “At fourteen, I couldn’t hold back anymore and told them I was gay. There was no violence or anger in their reaction. It was worse.” Pen lifted his tear-streaked, flushed face and looked at Shadow. “They were disappointed in me. I was sure of it. It killed me to see that expression on their faces. I knew it was because I wasn’t normal. I told them right then that I was going to achieve great things in my life. I promised them.” Pen laid his head back on Shadow’s shoulder. “Do you know what my mom said?”

  “What did your mom say?” Shadow tensed, wondering if he was going to have to protect Pen from a nasty woman.

  “She said…” Pen’s breath caught for a moment. “She said the greatest achievement I could gain was to be truly happy.” Pen lowered his face back against Shadow’s shoulder.

  Warm wetness soaked the material of his T-shirt. Shadow cupped the back of Pen’s head and tightened his arm around his lover’s body. It wasn’t real graceful, but Shadow managed to gently rock him. After a while Shadow pushed a tissue into Pen’s hand.

  After Pen cleaned up a bit, he leaned back and looked down at Shadow. “I have a younger brother.” Pen shook his head. “I had a brother. He’s dead now.”

  Shadow studied Pen. His red-rimmed eyes were glassy from more than tears. The drugs and the day were kicking the poor man’s ass. “I think he will always be your brother,” Shadow observed.

  Pen thrust a hand through his messy curls, wincing a little. “Yeah, while I was making a name for myself, being a big shot reporter in foreign countries, he was going to college. Daniel was an adrenaline junky. He liked skydiving, riding mountain bikes through the hills and forests. He enjoyed life to its fullest every single day.”

  “That’s a good thing,” Shadow said. He reached up and ran a finger over the lines bracketing the corners of Pen’s mouth, trying to smooth away the torment physically and with his words.

  “I got a message from his school while I was on assignment in Cambodia that he’d gone missing. It took a week for me to get that message and another week for me to make it back to the Midwest.” Pen’s light-gray-eyed gaze darted around the room. “By then they told me they had found his body, but I couldn’t see it for security reasons.” Pen looked at Shadow. “What the hell does that mean?”

  Shadow wondered if the authorities were keeping everything under wraps until they captured the other kidnappers that the public didn’t know about. “How are your parents handling it?”

  Pen’s mouth trembled, and his eyes grew moist. “Two years ago mom was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. She died within four months. Six weeks later, they say Dad had a heart attack. Daniel and I think he died of a broken heart.”

  Shit, the man couldn’t catch a break. Shadow pulled Pen down and wrapped his arms around him. “Go to sleep,” he ordered.

  “That was my brother’s car at the hospital, Shadow,” Pen whispered. “The authorities never found it after Daniel answered an advertisement for a mountain bike for sale. I told the deputy at the hospital, but other than writing it down, he didn’t seem interested. We have to do something.”

  “Go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.” Shadow would call Cade after Pen finally settled down and update him on the details. It wouldn’t hurt to check out why Deputy Irvin hadn’t seemed interested in the car’s connection to a kidnapping. At the time, Shadow had observed the man’s nametag and his demeanor concerning Pen. After noting the man’s respectful attitude without showing too much interest in Pen personally—which would have pissed Shadow off—Shadow had gone back to his guarding duties.

  “What if he gets away?�
�� Pen’s words were slurred as exhaustion caught up with him.

  Shadow held Pen tight and waited. In slow increments, his lover’s body relaxed, and soon Pen was breathing deeply against Shadow’s neck.

  * * * *

  Pen frowned, and then sniffed, before wondering why his head felt as if he had a hangover. He sniffed again, enjoying the scent of male coming from the skin his face was currently buried in.

  Shadow. They hadn’t known each other long, but Pen would forever be able to pick the man out of a crowd by his scent. Lifting his hand, Pen intended to touch the ache coming from his brow. Instead, he froze as pain lanced through his arm muscles, which caused more pain to radiate throughout his body.

  “Oh ow,” he whimpered.

  A warm hand encircled Pen’s bicep and began to rub the sore appendage. Pen groaned from the pain and then moaned in relief when the stiff muscles loosened.

  “Turn over onto your back.” Shadow’s deep, husky voice broke through the quiet.

  Pen didn’t want to move. It was so nice and warm on top of Shadow’s muscular body. His dick liked being nestled against the man’s hard abs so much it was getting stiff and letting Pen know it wanted some morning action. Pen shifted his hips a little. His dick rejoiced, even as the muscles lining his spine screamed in misery.

  Hands grabbed Pen’s shoulders, and in one agonizing move, he was flipped off of Shadow and onto his back.

  “Oh fuck that hurts.” Pen took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes and glaring at Shadow. “I was doing just fine where I was.”

  “We need to loosen those muscles, or they will tighten up worse.” His tone said he would put up with no nonsense.

  Shadow moved until he was kneeling next to Pen. It didn’t escape Pen’s notice that Shadow was naked. He glanced down and saw that sometime during the night, the nakedness had spread to his own body.