Fire and Onyx

by Andrew Grey

  “This is Evan,” Randy said as a huge guy came closer. He was well over six feet, wider than Evan, and didn’t provide a name.

  “Trey says you’re pretty cool.” He looked Evan over. “Don’t look like a fag.” He said it in a very strange way, as though he were both surprised and that it didn’t really matter. “Look, we got ourselves a problem, and you’re going to help us with it.” He opened the trunk of the other car and pulled out a small man, lifting him as though he weighed nothing. The hulk set the tied-up man on his knees, manhandling him like he was a dog or something. Then he tossed Evan a small handgun. “He tried to betray us. Take care of him, and we’ll see about letting you in.”

  Evan caught the gun and checked it out quickly. “You want me to kill him, just like that? What did he do?” There was no way he was going to kill someone to get in the group. That would be going way the fuck too far, no matter who it was. There had to be more to this than that. It seemed really bold and a little in-your-face for them to ask this sort of thing when they had just met him.

  “Does it really matter? We have a problem, and you’re going to take care of it for us.” He glared at Evan, who shook his head.

  “Sure it matters,” Evan said without raising the gun. “I don’t go around killing people unless I have a reason to.” Evan lifted the gun, pointing it at the hulk guy. “I could take you out if I wanted, using that logic.”

  “You can’t take out all of us,” Randy said as tensions rose quickly.

  Evan sighed. “I don’t have to. I only have one shot, and I intend to make sure he doesn’t see the light of day again.” He met the hulk’s eyes and saw fear for the first time. “All I need is one shot, and that will be the end of it for you. Is that what you want?” He didn’t look away for a second. The others were there, but it was pretty clear where the power was in this group. “It certainly doesn’t look like it.”

  The huge guy blinked, probably trying to figure out how he’d lost control of the situation so quickly. “No.” He turned to the others, who stepped back and lifted the guy up off his knees. “You’re damned smart, that’s for sure.” He smiled. “I’m Harvey.” He held out his hand. Evan lowered the gun and shook the offered hand.

  “What’s the deal?” Evan asked without looking away from Harvey.

  “Nothing. Go take Evan back to town,” he said.

  Randy motioned Evan to the car. Evan held the gun until he got in the car and then dropped it onto the floor. Justin got in as well, this time in the front, and they retraced their trip out.

  “What in the hell was that?” Evan demanded.

  “Just a little test,” Justin answered without saying anything more.

  “And you’re letting me keep the gun?” Evan asked, thinking he had a pretty good idea of what was going on as a picture formed in his mind.

  “It’s not loaded anyway,” Justin said as he turned around, grinning. “Ours are, though.” He settled back in his seat, and they remained quiet.

  The town came into view, and they traveled right back to the grocery store, where Randy and Justin let him off. Evan wished he could take the gun with him to see what sort of information the department could get from it, but he didn’t dare. Instead, he got out of the car and closed the door.

  “We’ll be in touch… or maybe we won’t,” Randy said, then rolled up the window. The car sped away down the parking lot before making the turn and pulling out into traffic.

  Evan went to his own car, got inside, and retrieved his phone from where he’d hidden it inside the seat. He sent a message to the sheriff that he had made initial contact and that he would see how it went.

  Good. Act like you’re being watched, Sheriff Briggs replied. Keep me informed.

  Evan agreed and went back to the house. He didn’t dare go into the station, and the sheriff’s advice was good. He waited until he was out of the car and inside his house before calling Pierre and bringing him up to date.

  “You should have had backup,” Pierre scolded. “What if they’d really expected you to kill that guy? I know you wouldn’t have done it, but you’d have been killed when you wouldn’t comply.”

  Evan sat on the sofa. “No. They were too nervous, and really, how likely was it that they would ask a guy they had just met and know so little about to kill someone? Really? No way. This was a show… a way for them to take my measure. It was strange, but telling in a way.”

  “How so?” Pierre asked.

  “They’re bold, but cautious and not stupid. Which makes me wonder about this shoot-out in town. I have an idea that they were behind it in some way… or at least some of their members were.” Evan had given that quite a bit of thought, and if this group was as organized as he figured they were, then it was possible that the damned shoot-out wasn’t sanctioned… or was kicked off outside of the hierarchy. “This could be the work of a couple of self-important members who got themselves tangled up with a few others and tempers got out of control.” He didn’t know for sure, and he would have to see what he could find out, but there were plenty of questions that ran through his head.

  “Just don’t take any chances like that again. We can’t back you up if we don’t know where you are or what you’re doing.”

  “This is undercover work, and sometimes it requires that I take chances. I don’t take any that are unnecessary, but this was worth it. Now I can only wait for a message of some type from the group.” And it seemed that helping Wes had helped. Not that he was doing it for that reason, but for once his personal life and his professional life seemed to be working in the same direction.

  “Is there anything else you need?”

  “Not right now. As soon as I get a message, I’ll keep you informed, but until then, all I can do is wait.” Sometimes this was the hardest part of the job. “There’s nothing I can do to rush them.” If he did, it was likely it would blow his cover, and that would be the end of the assignment and quite possibly himself. Things were at their diciest point, and the shit part was that he just had to wait.

  WES ARRIVED with Greyson an hour or so later. Evan had decided he wanted to make dinner, so he’d gone to the store and gotten the ingredients. A pot of sauce cooked down on the stove, and he had some pasta ready to go into boiling water, and garlic bread for the oven.

  Evan checked the sauce and met Wes in the living room, where he set down his work bag. “Watch,” he said with a smile, getting Greyson on his feet. Evan bent down, and Greyson took a few steps away from Wes and into Evan’s arms, laughing when he caught him.

  “You’re amazing,” Evan said, hugging Greyson and then turning him around to walk back to Wes. “He’ll be running soon enough.”

  “I know. When I went to pick him up, Miss Lisa had him by the hand, and when she let him go, Greyson walked over to me.” Wes lifted Greyson, hugging him. “I’m sad that I didn’t get to see his actual first steps, but this is still pretty awesome.” He twirled around with Greyson in his arms, to giggles and laughter. “I need to call my mom and tell her.” Wes set Greyson down.

  Evan took Greyson’s hand and led him through the house until Greyson let go and took off on his own. He fell on his diapered butt, got right up, and walked back toward Wes.

  “Mom, look!” Wes turned the phone, the FaceTime app showing his mom. “He’s walking.”

  “Gramma’s big boy!” came through. She was clearly overjoyed.

  “I’ll send you some pictures, but it looks like he’s a force to be reckoned with now.”

  Greyson fell on his butt again, looking up at Wes as though he was trying to figure out what happened. Then he got back up and off he went.

  “It looks like he’s decided that he’s going to race everywhere.”

  “He’s just like you were.” She sniffed. “Are you still at Evan’s?”

  “Yes. I just got home from picking Greyson up, and it smells like Evan has made dinner.” Wes smiled at him. “I’m going to go get cleaned up and see if he needs anything else.” They said goodb
ye, and Wes hung up, still smiling. “Come on, little man. Let’s get you changed and washed up for dinner.” Wes scooped him up and zipped upstairs.

  Evan was smiling as he stirred his sauce. It still needed some time to simmer, so he put the flame on very low and finished preparing the rest of dinner. When Wes rejoined him, Evan turned up the heat under the pasta water and got the oven ready for the bread.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Wes peered into the pot of sauce. “Man, that smells good. Mom always uses sauce from a jar. It’s decent, but doesn’t smell anything like that at all.”

  “Just set the table, and we’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes,” Evan said as he gave the sauce another stir. Once he was sure the sauce was in good shape, he put the bread in the oven to warm and added the pasta to the water.

  Dinner didn’t take long to get ready, and Evan put the sauce on the pasta and carried the bowl of penne to the table. He also brought the garlic bread, while Wes got Greyson into his high chair and his dinner ready. “I’ll dish you up a plate,” Evan told him, and once he put it in front of Wes, sat down across from him.

  The juggling act across the table was priceless. Wes took a bite of his dinner and then fed Greyson a bite of his. Greyson had his mouth open like a baby bird as soon as Wes got the spoon ready for him. Once Greyson had eaten his jar of carrots, Wes put some Cheerios on his tray, and he scooped them up. Wes took a few minutes to eat himself before giving Greyson a bottle.

  “How was your day?” Wes asked.

  “I’m making progress, I think,” Evan confessed. He had no intention of telling Wes about the test.

  “You won’t tell me, will you?” Wes took a bite of garlic bread and moaned softly. “Dang, this is good.”

  “I’m glad you like it, and no. I’m not going to tell you. Sometimes when I’m undercover, I have to do things I’m not particularly proud of, and I don’t want you to think badly of me.” Evan took a second piece of garlic bread and held it in his fingers.

  “You mean like James Bond sleeping with everyone he wants to get information from?” Wes asked.

  Evan grinned and shook his head. “No. I have never slept with someone to get information… or anything else, for that matter. It’s just that sometimes I have to make decisions that a lot of people wouldn’t understand.” He took a bite of the bread. “And it’s best if you aren’t aware of what’s going on. Then if Trey tells you something, you can act surprised. Just trust me on this. There are things about my job that you don’t want to know.” Hell, there were things he had done that he didn’t want to talk about, or remember, for that matter. “I always act ethically and stay within the boundaries of my assignment. But sometimes….”

  “You have to lie?” Wes asked as he fed Greyson some strained peaches. The youngster was sure hungry tonight.

  “Yeah. I have to do that, and there have been times when I’ve had to do things that were almost illegal in order to get people to trust me. Mostly, I’m really good at constructing backstories that are close enough to the truth that people believe them easily, but sometimes I’ve had to exaggerate.” Evan paused and set down his piece of garlic bread. “One time, part of my backstory was that I had killed three people. That assignment was before I came here, and it required deep cover, so deep that I began to believe I had done what my backstory claimed.” He never wanted to get that deep undercover again. It had taken him quite a while to recover his own personality after that. “My backstory became embedded with my own actual memories. I didn’t realize that was possible, but it happened.” He set down the bread and scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I’m more careful now about things like that and I hold on tighter to who I am, but….” He shrugged.

  “I don’t think I understand something like that, but I’ll trust that you know what you’re doing.” Wes gave him a half smile, and Evan sighed a little. That was the most he could expect from anyone, and it meant a lot coming from Wes.

  “We… you and I need to be careful… okay?” He was stepping into uncharted emotional waters, and he wasn’t sure how this was going to work out.

  “You’ve been here before, I take it,” Wes said, and Evan nodded.

  “That assignment, the one I got in too deep with, there was a guy that I….” Evan sat straighter and took a deep breath. There was no need to beat around the bush or be coy. “Like I said, I got too deep, and I got involved with one of the guys on the case. His name was Kyle, and… well… I made a bad choice that almost got me killed and put the entire assignment in jeopardy.” Evan tried not to let the memories pull him back in, even though they were so strong, he still had trouble separating reality from what had been manufactured as his cover. It was best if he just didn’t go there.

  “And you think that this is that way? That I could be like Kyle and the wrong person to be involved with? Is that why you don’t want to talk about what’s happening?” Wes asked, setting down his fork and pushing away his plate.

  “Not really, no. If I thought that, I wouldn’t have invited you to stay here.” Evan sighed. “Kyle was a member of the drug gang in Cleveland, my last assignment before coming here. Anyway, like I said, I got too involved with my cover, and before I realized it, we were sleeping together and I had fallen in love with him.” Evan took a drink of his ice water, the emotional memories threatening to well up and overtake him once more. He absolutely hated that he seemed to have so little control over them, that even in new surroundings, they held power that he didn’t want them to have. Evan knew that was why none of the guys his friends had pushed him to meet and date had held his interest. It was just hard to explain it to them.

  Wes reached across the table and took his hand, his fingers sliding along Evan’s before lightly gripping them. Just like that, Evan’s roiling emotions calmed and he could breathe once again.

  “We all fall in love with the wrong guy at some point in our lives.” Wes squeezed Evan’s fingers. “Do you want me to tell you about my failed crush?” He asked the question so quietly. “I didn’t even know that’s what was happening at the time.” Wes swallowed hard and gave a few more Cheerios to Greyson, who perked up and ate some of them, playing with the toys Wes had given him. “My first summer out of school, I was able to qualify for a jobs program through the state, and they put me to work in the high school here, helping the janitorial staff and things like that. One of the regular employees, his name was Stanley. He was tall like you, and strong. He did a lot of physical labor, and he used to like to take his shirt off when he was on break and things. Stanley was built, and I used to watch him sometimes, but tried not to look like I was. Stanley was a nice guy, and I worked hard, so he liked me.” Wes smiled and turned to Greyson. “I developed a crush on Stanley.” Wes chuckled. “Of course, I never told him that, and thankfully it didn’t last too long and I realized that I was being dumb. Stanley was married and had young kids. He probably is still married, and those kids are grown now. But for a while, I was kind of heartbroken over it. Granted, it was my own fault, but at the time, my heart was young and sort of dumb. I was still figuring a lot of things out, and Stanley was nice and paid attention to me. I think sometimes that’s all it takes, especially when we’re out of our element and in a situation where we have to rely on ourselves. It’s easy to reach out because we need support. You’re a person first and a cop second.”

  Evan sometimes wondered if it wasn’t the other way around, but he didn’t argue or correct Wes. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.”

  “Maybe not,” Wes agreed. “But you need to remember that and give yourself a break.” Wes lightly caressed his palm with his fingers. “What happened with Kyle?”

  “It got ugly, and my loyalties became confused. That should have been my first indication that I was in over my head. But I didn’t listen. Thankfully, things came to a head before I did anything over the line, and my partner on the force was able to step in and help me. God, I fought him tooth and nail, but he didn’t back down and even
threatened to have me pulled off the assignment unless I got my head screwed on straight. In the end, the department got the group dead to rights, and I got out, albeit with a broken heart… and I left the department. I needed some time to get my mind cleared and have a chance to figure out what I wanted to do. Then the job with the department here opened up, and I took it when they offered the position.” Evan was grateful for the chance to wipe the stain from his record.

  “I have to ask if that’s happening again, if you’re getting too close, or think you are?” Wes stood and got Greyson out of his high chair, wiped him up, and then set him on his lap, bouncing him with his knee.

  “No. I know it isn’t, because what I feel for you is real. I know you’re a good person and that you aren’t mixed up with the people I’m after. Sure, there’s some conflict because of your brother, but things between us aren’t like they were then.” At least he hoped not.

  The burner phone he’d gotten so he couldn’t be traced dinged in his pocket, and he checked the message. Be at the custard shop at 9 AM. That was all it said, and the number wasn’t one he recognized.

  Evan answered the message and put the phone back in his pocket.

  “Is that what you’ve been waiting for?” Wes asked, and Evan nodded.

  “I think so.” He pulled out his regular phone and sent messages to the sheriff and Pierre to let them know about his progress and where he was going to be in the morning. The sheriff returned a message that they were on it.

  “What are you going to do?” Wes grew pale and held Greyson tighter. “I know you have to do this, but I don’t have to like it.” He got up and left the room, taking Greyson up the stairs.

  Evan knew how Wes felt. What he did was dangerous and carried a definite risk. But it was his work and he was good at it. Part of what made him good at his job was what had made him vulnerable to Kyle. Evan could assimilate into most situations and immerse himself in them. That made it easy for him to roll with the punches and think on his feet without making a mistake that could blow his cover.