Cross & Crown

by Abigail Roux

Page 18

 

  “All righty,” Kelly muttered.

  Hagan and JD joined them as Nick was positioning Kelly.

  “Getting a little bossy, there, O,” Hagan observed. “It’s a damn miracle you ever get laid. ”

  Nick didn’t respond to the attempt at banter. He beckoned JD with two fingers, walking midway into the street and pointing to another mark on the ground. “Stand here. Face the car. ”

  JD nodded, standing where he’d been told. He kept staring up at Nick with wide blue eyes, like a puppy being scolded. Kelly and Hagan shared a concerned glance.

  “This is the staff sergeant coming out,” Kelly told Hagan quietly. “I’m used to it. ”

  Hagan looked him up and down, narrowing his eyes. “You come like a fire hose when he gives you an order, don’t you?”

  “Only if he tells me to,” Kelly countered with a smirk.

  Hagan rolled his eyes. Nick called him from where he was standing on the sidewalk in front of the shop door, and Hagan strolled over to join him. They were far enough away that Kelly had to strain to hear what they were saying. Nick was telling Hagan he was the owner who’d been gunned down walking into the store. Then Julian obliged Nick’s request to stand in the doorway, where the thief had been shot dead and fallen across the threshold.

  When they were all standing where the evidence indicated they should have been, Nick walked through the scene, studying them, a frown firmly on his face.

  “How do you know where the van was?” Kelly called to him.

  “Window glass,” Nick answered as he circled JD. “Had JD’s blood on it. Bullet clipped him, carried onto the van. ”

  He stepped back, looking first at Kelly, then at Julian. Hagan stood to the side, out of the line of fire. But Julian and Kelly were directly across from one another, and JD formed a direct line of fire between the two.

  Nick put his hands on his hips, prowling back and forth, chewing on his lip. “Fuck,” he finally grunted.

  Julian raised his hand as if he were holding a gun, and Kelly did the same, firing an imaginary bullet at him.

  “No way of knowing what was fired first,” Hagan called.

  “But if you ask me, this looks like an assassination. Whoever was standing where the Doc is, he took out his own man in cold blood. ”

  Nick had a hand over his mouth, still circling JD, studying him, his feet, the way he was positioned versus the rest of them.

  “You’re making me really nervous right now,” JD finally told him.

  Nick stopped in front of him. He waited a beat, and behind them Julian raised his hand again as if aiming a weapon at them. “Turn around,” Nick ordered JD.

  When JD did, he flinched at the sight of Julian aiming at him. He took a step back and knocked into Nick, who didn’t give an inch of ground. He held on to JD instead, keeping him from panicking or bolting.

  Kelly abandoned his position and jogged over to them.

  “Hey. That shit’s uncalled for, man. Not cool,” he shouted.

  He moved to help free JD from Nick’s grasp, but the stunned look of terror on JD’s face stopped him. “You okay?”

  “I remember . . . running. ” JD took a shallow, shaky breath.

  “I was running away from the store. Away from him. ”

  “From him?” Nick asked, pointing at Julian.

  “Wasn’t me!” Julian called in a bored voice.

  “No, from the man who was shot. I ran out of the store.

  I was in there. ” He put both hands to his head and closed his eyes. “Oh God. I really was in there. ”

  When Nick finally met Kelly’s eyes, he looked weary and almost sick. Kelly realized the hard-ass hissy fit he’d just thrown had all been part of a show he was putting on for JD, hoping to jog something loose. It had worked. It had been brutal and perhaps a little immoral, but it had worked.

  “I’m sorry,” Nick offered. He gave JD’s shoulder a squeeze, then released him. “Let’s go inside. See if anything rings that bell again. ”

  JD nodded and headed woodenly toward the store.

  Kelly stepped in front of Nick, glaring at him briefly. “You either believe him or you don’t,” he whispered. “If you do, you can’t pull shit like this. He’s already been through enough trauma, and he trusts you. Only you. You got to live up to that, babe. ”

  Nick nodded, his jaw jumping. “If he has to hate me to keep him safe, I can live with that. ”

  Kelly was left standing there, mul ing that over as Nick sidestepped him and followed the others into the store. That was Nick’s major vice, though, wasn’t it? He’d rather have someone hate him than get hurt.

  Two of Nick’s four sisters resented him and his distant relationship with his parents because they had no idea he’d been the only thing standing between them and a childhood of being knocked around by their father. And to Kelly’s everlasting annoyance, Nick refused to set them straight. He would rather they hate him and continue in their safe little bubble than learn the truth.

  It took Kelly a while to get his temper in check before he could join the others in the shop. They were gathered around the display cabinet, scrutinizing it as if it might somehow provide them with doughnuts.

  “I’m telling you, if this is authentic, it has a panel,” JD was saying.

  “What’s going on?” Kelly asked. Glass crunched beneath his feet as he approached them.

  “I was right about this cabinet,” Julian answered. “It’s Colonial era. ”

  “Pieces from this era, of this style, often had hidden drawers or panels, places where papers could be hidden from the authorities,” JD told them.

  “Why?” Kelly asked.

  “The Stamp Act, maybe? Every piece of paper the colonists touched had to be affixed with a stamp. It was very costly. ”

  Nick snorted derisively. “They didn’t hide their papers because of the Stamp Act. They hid them because they were planning a rebellion. The Stamp Act was one of the Intolerable Acts; it was a series of bullshit handed down from the crown, created a rift that made the atmosphere one of secrecy and paranoia. That professor was right, you are a hack. ”

  “Shut up!” JD griped. “You watch too much History Channel. ”

  “I’m sorry, the Stamp Act? What the fuck are we talking about?” Kelly demanded.

  Hagan gave the bottom of the case a nudge with his boot.

  “The hack believes something could be hidden in the display case. ”

  “We just need to . . . find it,” JD said, and he reached his fingers out to touch.

  Nick grabbed his wrist, making a hissing sound. “Active crime scene,” he grunted, and he extracted a pair of latex gloves from his pocket.

  “Sorry,” JD said as he tugged them on. He ran his fingers gingerly over the wood. “It’s in remarkably good condition.

  I’m not seeing any obvious spots. ”

  Julian sighed heavily and shoved his hip against the case, rattling it down to its legs.

  “Watch it!” JD shouted, and Nick and Hagan both jerked like they were going for their guns.

  The decorative panel on the far right of the case rattled loose and fell. Julian caught it deftly, as if he’d just pulled it from thin air. He was smirking when he glanced up at them.

  “I sell antiques,” he quipped.

  JD and Nick both glared at him, but Kelly moved forward and peered into the hidden compartment.

  “What’s in there?” Nick demanded.

  Kelly raised one eyebrow. “Guess. ”

  “What are they doing in there?” Hagan asked. “How’d they get there? Unless the owner knew he was going to be robbed, what the fuck?”

  “I put them there,” JD said, realization dawning. He nodded excitedly and placed his hand on the case, where the outline remained in the dust. He swept across it as if grabbing up the two items, and his motion followed the dust trail perfectly.
“That’s the only thing that makes sense.

  I was subverting them. That’s why I ran. Has to be. ” He glanced around at them all, the hope renewed in his eyes and his half smile.

  “It gels,” Hagan said to Nick. “He comes in under duress, they tell him to find this shit, but he’s able to hide it and claim it’s not here. Other guy starts tearing shit up, JD bolts like any sane man would, dead guy comes running out of the place shooting at JD. Then the killing starts. ”

  Nick was nodding, his eyes unfocused. Then an idea must have hit him; the color drained from his face. “That’s why they came after you again, at the pub,” he said to JD. “They didn’t know you hid this stuff because you went down in the street and they had to get out before they could check either body. They thought you still had it. ”

  “Why kill him, though?” Kelly asked. “Why not try to grab him and get the items back?”

  “So I don’t get there first,” JD said, his eyes on Nick. Nick nodded grimly, eyes darting between JD and Kelly.

  “We have to get there first,” Julian said.

  Kelly straightened, shaking his shoulders out and clapping his hands together to rattle everyone from the suddenly heavy silence. “Well, let’s get on it! We’ve got until our meeting tonight to look over these letters and figure this shit out, so let’s work it out, bitches. ”

  Nick chuckled, but held his finger up before Kelly could reach for the papers inside the case. “Crime scene. ”

  Kelly’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. Nick got out his phone to call the techs in. “Use your badge to have sex in a parked car but won’t let me National Treasure a piece of evidence,” Kelly muttered as he walked away.

  “Parked car?” Julian asked as he followed Kelly out.

  “He’s more fun when he’s off duty. ”

  Chapter 7

  Elly’s plan to spend the rest of the day going over Kthe bundle of letters they’d found in the display case backfired spectacularly, because Nick apparently had shit to do that didn’t involve trying to decipher Colonial-era penmanship and he refused to help.

  He also refused to let Kelly do it, so Kelly was left with nothing to do but watch Nick fill out paperwork. He was so bored he could have cried.

  Nick assigned the letters to Julian and Hagan instead, along with the contemporary diary that had been recovered at the scene. Nick and Kelly were sitting at Nick’s desk as Nick finished the report on their visit to the crime scene, and Kelly was still glaring at his lover.

  Nick finally looked up, blinking at Kelly when he met his eyes.

  Nick put his pen down and glanced around the squad room. He gestured for Kelly to come with him, and he stood, heading for the stairwell. Once in private, Nick trailed his fingers down Kelly’s cheek with a soft smile. “You’re pissed at me. ”

  “Irritated, yes. ”

  Nick’s smile was gentle, almost amused. “What’d I do?”

  “You’re being a little more cavalier than I’m used to seeing you, it’s throwing me off. ”

  “I’m sorry,” Nick offered. He sounded sincere. “The letters are important, you’re right. But I want Cross off the streets, you with me? If he’s combing through letters, he’s not shooting up my city looking for Cameron. ”

  “Yeah, makes sense,” Kelly grudgingly acknowledged.

  “What about me, though? Why am I sitting and watching you do paperwork?”

  Nick narrowed his eyes. “One, because it was you and not me who cut the tape at the scene and I needed you to give me the details. ”

  Kelly flushed and scrunched his nose. “Oh yeah. ”

  “Two . . . I need you to come somewhere with me. ”

  “To do what?”

  “We need to buy JD a suit that’ll get him past security for the meeting tonight. And I don’t feel like living through a Pretty Woman scene today, so I want you with me. ”

  Kelly laughed before he could stop himself. “Wait so, Hagan and Cross are delving into historical mysteries, and we’re going shopping?”

  Nick nodded, though he looked thoroughly disgusted with himself. Kelly grabbed Nick’s face and kissed him. “I love you, you know that?”

  “I know. I know I’m lucky,” Nick rumbled.

  Kelly kissed him again. “Does this count as a fight?”

  Nick hummed deeply. “It does if you want to rack up makeup sex for next time. ”

  “We’ll count it as a fight then. ”

  Nick kissed him again, holding him tighter.

  “Can I get a new suit too?” Kelly asked against his lips.

  Nick bit him. “As long as I get to pick it out. ”

  The task didn’t take them particularly long. The suit they wound up getting JD wasn’t perfectly tailored or anything, but it was close enough to pass Nick’s rather critical inspection. He also got JD a few more items of clothing, because he’d been borrowing jeans from Nick and shirts from Kelly, and neither fit him particularly well. JD kept promising to repay him, but Nick shrugged it off in the way only Nick could.

  JD certainly looked more comfortable leaving the store in clothes that fit him well.

  Nick dropped Kelly and JD off at the marina and told them to spiff up like they were getting a chance to walk the high-dol ar street corner, then left them. They were supposed to take a cab to meet up with Nick and Julian at the hotel that evening.

  A few hours later, Kelly and JD were climbing out of a cab and gawking at the odd building that was the Liberty Hotel.

  It was made of brick, and laid out in the cross shape of an old prison, which Kelly knew it had once been. A huge decorative window graced the front entrance, and a smiling doorman greeted them as he held the door for them. Kelly craned his neck to take in the impressive lobby.