by Jory Strong
"I'm going, I'm going. Spoilsport." She grinned and collected the menus, shot another speculative look his way then left, leaving him with a heart pounding hard enough to sound like kids thundering toward the school exits after the last bell had rung.
Maybe his read in the sheriff's office hadn't been off. Maybe…
Trey swallowed, but his mouth was so dry that nothing went down. He dared a glance at Tenino and fought the urge to grip his cock through his jeans at the heated, bold look that said I know you're gay and when we get to the cabin, we're going to fuck.
Trey glanced away first, his skin too tight, too hot, his heart beating too hard, too fast. He was imagining things. This couldn't really be happening.
Yeah, when they'd driven into town he'd been thinking maybe, maybe when this was all behind him, after the Feds caught Patricia, he'd go somewhere, finally let himself be gay, at least in some anonymous place in the future.
The mist settled more heavily outside and the wind created the illusion of movement, turning swirling grayness into a dark, birdlike shadow that disappeared on a flash of lightning.
Thunder pealed. The shadowy bird reappeared, wings spreading further, as if a great bird drew closer along with the storm.
An odd sensation struck, like feathery talons reaching, sinking in, surrounding his heart and taking its measure. He rubbed his chest, silently laughed at his own flight of fancy.
It hit him then, "Isn't Hohoq one of the names for the Thunderbird?"
"It is," Tekoa said. "How'd you come to know that?"
"I collect stories, mostly stuff that deals with supernatural beings and occurrences because those appeal to kids more." His gaze skipped from the mist to Tekoa sitting on the other side of Tenino. "The promise of a story is a great incentive for good behavior."
"Makes sense. Myths and legends were ways to teach, entertain and bind people together. What do you know about the Thunderbird?"
"I don't remember any specific stories. I do remember that there are a variety of beliefs. Some cultures view them as protectors. In others they're the Creator's messengers. And in at least one tradition they live as men but take the form of a thunderbird when necessary. But pretty much across the board, thunder is the result of their wingbeats and lightning shoots from their eyes."
"You know a fair amount." Tekoa glanced at Tenino and smiled. "What do you think?"
Trey didn't follow Tekoa's attention to Tenino, but the way his heart and cock sprung into hyperactive awareness said Tenino was looking at him. And Tenino's soft laugh had him fighting not to turn his face toward the source of that sound.
"If and when," Tenino said, amusement in his voice. "I'll be happy to say you were right."
Tekoa's smile widened. "Those words will be music to my ears. And a song I'm used to hearing."
Tenino snorted. "You wish when it comes to that last part."
The waitress returned with their food, three identical plates with a hamburger to the side and a huge pile of fries. She set them down. "Anything else?"
"We're good," Tekoa said, pooling ketchup on his plate then handing the bottle to Tenino.
Tenino squeezed some ketchup out and offered Trey the bottle. "So what's your take on the situation? Is there likely to be trouble?"
Trey took the bottle, the pooled ketchup making him think of blood, though it didn't keep him from squirting some on his plate. Hell, it reminded him of the situation he was in and that went a long way toward distracting him from the question he kept spinning back to, Is Tenino gay?
"If Patricia finds out where I am, then yes, she'll come after me. The Feds think she might have killed before, more than once, to keep her family's secret safe. She'll feel responsible for bringing them down and she'll want to punish me for betraying her. Her sister committed suicide when the story broke."
Trey picked up his burger, hated that his hands shook slightly. Patricia had nothing to lose. If she found him, it would end only one way—with one of them dead.
He lowered the burger, appetite gone again.
Tenino reached across the table and stole a fry despite having a plate full of them. "Eat up. Weather's getting worse. We need to get out of here."
He ate, trying not to think about the flutter in his gut every time Tenino helped himself to a fry.
Repeat after me, he thought. I'm a grown man, not a sixteen-year-old with a crush.
I'm a grown man, not a sixteen-year-old with a crush.
I'm a grown man, not a sixteen-year-old with a crush.
His disadvantage came in having spent so much time avoiding situations that would put him around men he found attractive. And in not having been free, before now, to make a different choice when it came to his sexuality.
Dull pain created deep furrows in his heart, wide grooves that would too easily fill with guilt. He turned his face toward the window. A red pickup truck with a camper shell on the back pulled to an angled stop in front of the diner.
He caught a glimpse of a beautiful blonde woman before she was pulled forward by the driver and the truck windows fogged.
That's what he wanted. What the cop had, what this couple had. He ached, longing for it, and ached knowing it wasn't going to happen for him. He wasn't hetero.
The driver got out. He was blond and beautiful like the woman.
He walked around the truck and opened the passenger door. The woman slid from the bench seat, light catching on the diamond in her engagement ring and turning it into a rainbow's promise.
The man pulled her against him, reclaimed her mouth and Trey expected steam to start rising. Tekoa pushed away from the table. Tenino said, "Now that Clay and Jess are back, I guess we shouldn't expect to see you unless there's an emergency."
What? Trey pulled his attention from the couple, only to follow Tekoa back to them.
The woman smiled at Tekoa. She left her blond lover's arms, slid into Tekoa's and their kiss was every bit as hot as the one he'd interrupted.
She clung to him, softened, seemed to melt against Tekoa and Trey couldn't look away. Finally the sheriff lifted his head. He said something to the blond and the blond laughed then leaned in and touched his mouth to Tekoa's in a kiss that sent a lightning bolt straight into Trey.
He hadn't been wrong in the office. He hadn't misread what Tekoa meant when he'd told Tenino, Your turn's coming.
He hadn't misread the speculation in their waitress's eyes. He hadn't misread Tenino's heated look that said I know you're gay and when we get to the cabin, we're going to fuck.
But that didn't mean he knew what he was going to do about it. Whether he was going to keep pretending, keep denying to everyone but himself that he was gay.
* * * * *
Chapter Two
Tenino's stomach clenched. He doubted Trey had any idea just how expressive his face was. Fuck! He wished he hadn't seen half the emotions Trey revealed.
No wonder his dick was standing at attention and his gaydar was pinging. Trey was open to sex with a man, the only problem was that he was bi like Tekoa, and needed a woman too. Which means I'm shit out of luck.
Duh, genius. He is running from an ex-girlfriend. Somehow, bombarded by the constant pinging of his gaydar, he'd conveniently failed to focus on that fact.
For the first time since walking into the office and seeing Trey, he hoped Patricia Veron got picked up by the Feds soon. Otherwise it was going to get tense in the cabin.
Tekoa got into the truck with Jessica in the middle. His mouth covered hers and though Tenino couldn't actually see it, the angle of Tekoa's arm as it reached across Jess made it pretty clear that his hand was on Clay's cock.
Fuck. He needed a cold shower. Nothing new when he was around those three, but having Trey sitting across the table made it worse, much worse.
Not that he could blame Trey for looking and wanting. Hell, he wanted what they had—only with one, special man, as sappy as that sounded.
Clay and Jessica were of The People now. The day Tekoa had met th
em, the Creator had gifted him with otherworldly cups holding a liquid blessing.
Drinking from those cups had united Clay's and Jessica's spirits with Tekoa's. It had allowed for a full joining so Clay and Jessica held a piece of the Thunderbird's spirit. It'd been the same for Tekoa's brother Ukiah and his mate, Marisa.
I can be happy with a life partner who's not Thunderbird.
Tenino polished off the last of Trey's forgotten fries then stood. "Let's hit the road."
It was pointless to shoot Briar a keep this quiet look, but he did it anyway.
His cousin sent back a look that said, Not a chance.
He could count on being grilled the next time she saw him. She'd be on the phone telling everyone he'd left with a delicious blond before he and Trey reached the Jeep.
Any other town and he'd have to worry about talk being unsafe for Trey, but not in an area populated by the People of the Thunderbird.
Trey stood. He reached for his wallet, the movement jerking Tenino's gaze downward to Trey's erection and making him swallow a curse. "Don't worry about it. Meals come with the job."
They stepped outside into pounding rain but its cold lashing wasn't enough to beat back the heat. He jogged to the Jeep, not exactly fun given the hard-on.
Both of them were soaked from the bottom of their jackets down by the time they climbed into the Rubicon. He fired the engine. Maybe he'd get lucky and the call that they'd caught Patricia Veron would come in. Otherwise the drive to the cabin was going to be one long argument with his cock about what to do about Trey.
His head, the big one, the smart one, took the position that doing anything with Trey would only lead to misery.
Sure, he loved watching Tekoa interact with Jessica and Clay. Loved their open sensuality. Fuck. He loved Jessica.
She was gorgeous, sinfully submissive when her men wanted that from her. She was a wet dream waiting to happen and if he'd been straight or bi, he'd have needed to sweat the envy out of his system every time he saw her with Tekoa and Clay.
But he wasn't straight or bi. He was gay.
It'd rip his heart out to share a lover with a woman. So what chance did he have of gaining a true spirit mate when their physical union would never produce children? How would it serve The People? The Creator?
And still he couldn't stop himself from checking Trey out and hoping that maybe he was wrong about the whole bi thing. That maybe Tekoa was right, and Trey's arrival was like Marisa's and Clay's and Jessica's showing up, especially given the whole discussion about Thunderbirds at the diner. That maybe when they reached the cabin, he'd find the cup holding the Creator's blessing.
Usually he found the wind's call and rain's music irresistible. Usually he couldn't wait to get home so he could stretch out in front of the fireplace and let his spirit escape the confines of human flesh to become Thunderbird.
It was the overpowering need to take flight in the land The People protected that had brought him back to Hohoq. He could sense Thunderbirds high above them, but with Trey sitting next to him, all he could think about was stripping out of their clothing and taking Trey on the rug in front of the fireplace and soaring with passion instead of with the storm.
And that was the little head talking, his dick arguing for what it wanted.
Next to him Trey was looking out into nothing but fog trapped by night and rubbing at the place above his heart. Couldn't be heartburn, the meals served at the diner were too fine for that. And thinking about Tekoa with Jess and Clay was more likely to have him gripping the erection.
So worried about something? Besides a murderous ex-girlfriend involved in child porn?
Tenino frowned. "Your family safe?"
Trey's hand stilled. "There was only my mom. She raised me solo."
Was. Usually he'd drop it, but…
"Recent loss?"
"Three months ago."
"Sorry." Sorry for your loss. Thank the Creator he didn't have to say that very often now that he was back home. The words never felt adequate enough or real enough to make a difference. He'd had to say them far too often when he'd been a cop in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Trey's hand dropped to his lap. "She's at peace now."
So probably not an accident, though putting Trey at around twenty-four, twenty-five, his mother wouldn't have been that old. "Cancer?"
"FTD. Frontotemporal dementia. Best way to describe it is Alzheimer's on steroids, except it's fatal. It shrinks the lobes in the brain that control personality and speech. Hers was particularly aggressive. She'd have hated what it turned her into, someone who was verbally abusive."
"You lived with her?"
"Moved back home as soon as the doctors figured out it wasn't Alzheimer's or Parkinson's."
A good son. A good teacher. A good man.
Not that Tenino had doubted it. The Feds wouldn't have been above putting pressure on Trey in the form of a threat to his reputation to get him to cooperate, but there'd been no whiff of that shit. The guy had put his life in danger to keep and make kids safe.
"Death can be a blessing," he said, and he sure as hell didn't mean Trey's.
"Yeah, it can be." Trey rubbed his palms over his knees, two passes before turning away from the window and looking in his direction.
Tenino caught it out of the corner of his eye, felt it like a hot caress that streaked to his dick and gave it a louder voice. He fought like crazy not to turn his face toward Trey. He'd gotten that message loud and clear, direct eye contact would have the guy pulling back like a turtle into his shell and pretending the heat between them didn't exist.
Three months, so still grieving though it probably felt as if he'd lost his mother well before the actual event. Then on top of his mother's death, throw in finding out that his girlfriend was involved in making and distributing child porn…
That'd be a blow to his confidence when it came to choosing a lover. Tenino took a hand off the steering wheel and rubbed his own chest, reinterpreting some of what he'd seen on Trey's face in the diner, when he was watching Tekoa with Clay and Jess.
Loneliness, a craving for comfort, the desire to be held, kissed—fucked. It wasn't ego telling him that's what Trey's eyes now held. He'd been looked at enough by other men, he'd done the looking enough times to know that's what was going through Trey's head, the big one and the little one, in what Trey thought was the safety of a dark car.
What the guy needed was some sexual healing—
Ah fuck no. But it was too late. He was already hearing the Marvin Gaye classic in his head and seeing Briar's grin after turning away from the juke box in the diner.
Note to self: Remember not to go into the diner after a casual roll with someone just in the area for camping or climbing.
Only he didn't want casual anymore. And he'd never been good at reading the notes he left to himself.
He risked a glance at Trey.
Trey's face snapped toward the windshield. And fuck if that didn't open up a well of tender feelings. The guy had been through a lot in a short amount of time.
They took the final curve on the private road leading to his place and the Jeep's headlights speared the cabin and the stand-alone garage set apart and to the right of it. "Here we are. Home Sweet Home."
He shook his head at the last bit. Hadn't exactly meant to say that.
He parked in front and got out, pretty sure his cock had won the argument, not that the big head was completely ready to acknowledge defeat.
Trey grabbed the duffle and followed him onto the porch and into the cabin. Tenino's gaze zeroed in on the fireplace mantle and the Thunderbird image Ukiah had carved into it. There was no half-filled cup waiting as there had been for Tekoa when he took Clay and Jessica to his home.
He swallowed his disappointment. He'd known better than to hope there would be one—especially since Trey had a thing for women.
Maybe Patricia Veron had cured him of that.
Tenino snorted. Right.
"Drop the duffl
e anywhere you want."
He shucked his jacket and hung it on a peg next to the door. Trey did the same and damn if that didn't feel intimate.
For the most part his place was one room with the kitchen separated by a counter and the bedroom space delineated by a dark brown carpet. The couch was oversized, plush, the TV an energy-consuming extravagance that'd made several elders mutter about the foolishness of youth, especially when they saw the collection of video games making up his library.
"I'll get a fire going," he said, surprised the one in his dick didn't already have the cabin going up in flames. "What you see is pretty much what there is." He pointed toward an open doorway. "Bathroom's there."
He crossed the wooden floor and knelt on the thick, woven rug in front of the fireplace. Even with his back to Trey, he was acutely aware of Trey opening the duffle, probably pulling out another pair of jeans since his own were still wet from mid-thigh downward. He hadn't expected the deluge to arrive so quickly. Usually there was a knowing that came with being Thunderbird.
His gaze lifted to the mantle.
No cup.
Doesn't mean Trey's not—
There's still the woman thing.
Right.
Tenino fisted his hand and tapped it against his heart. Resisting Trey was going to be a problem.
Trey disappeared into the bathroom carrying light gray sweats. For the next week or so, this was his job, keeping Trey safe. But short of having a tracking device on Trey, there was little chance of Patricia Veron finding him—which meant there was little danger of anything except dying of blue balls.
Tenino got the fire going. Trey emerged from the bathroom barefoot and wearing sweatpants that didn't hide the erection. He dug a book from the duffle then claimed a spot at the couch end closest to the fire.
It was so fucking homey that it took everything Tenino had not to put a knee on the cushion and his hands on the couch back so he could swoop in for a kiss.
Trey's head was down, his attention seemingly on the book he was using to shield his hard-on, but Tenino was willing to bet his badge that if he asked, Trey wouldn't be able to tell him what he was reading.
