Devil's Own (12 page)

“Fawwah, I wuv you,” he mumbled into her hair.

Niall blinked some moisture from his eyes at the emotional reunion, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Hughes look away too, surreptitiously wiping his face and coughing quietly. Nola, however, was weeping openly, albeit with a smile on her face. Whatever else could be said about the Talbot family, these three people were the closest, that much was for certain.

The doorbell rang, a gloomy echo through the house, like dark church bells. Nola ran off to answer it. Farrah and Goddard continued to embrace, and Nola returned in a few minutes with the paramedics. It was difficult disentangling the couple from each other so they could both be checked out, but together Niall, Hughes, and the two paramedics managed it eventually.

Hughes spoke to Nola. “Where the hell did Millicent get off to?”

Nola frowned, seemingly caught off guard from watching Farrah and Goddard get the care and attention they deserved. “I, uh, I don’t know. I… I didn’t notice. She was here? I thought she was in the study.”

Sighing with something close to relief, Niall let Hughes interrogate Nola about the whereabouts of Millicent Marsden. The way she had run off suggested several possibilities. One, she had known the dead man wasn’t Florian and that he was hiding in the secret passage. She might have even known about Farrah being imprisoned there and escaped to evade justice. Two, she had known the secret of the twin bedrooms but not known about the rest and had run off out of fear. If that were the case, she might not have known about Florian still being alive initially, but if she and Florian were the only ones who knew about the passageway behind the wall, then she must have deduced the truth right away. Third, perhaps she couldn’t handle stressful situations and had gone somewhere for solace? Niall rolled his eyes. That sounded ridiculous even to his ears.

Deciding to discuss the possibilities with Hughes later on, Niall ducked back into the secret passage with the intent of perusing the place from top to bottom. He took out his trusted tiny flashlight from his pocket and started his search.

The chains were bolted to the outer wall, and from the look of things, even an adult male would have had a hard time trying to get them loose. There were footprints in the dust, most of them smeared when Farrah had been moving about. Niall tried to be careful as he stepped over the potential evidence, but there wasn’t much room.

He walked the length of the passageway until he came to a lever on the house-side wall. He pulled it, and a hatch similar to the other one opened into the right-side bedroom. Backup had obviously arrived too since there was a uniformed officer standing in the room. He nodded at Niall, who reciprocated.

The lights from the room made it easier to see inside the secret passage. There were no lights in there at all, just cobwebs and dust.

But… time had obviously not forgotten this part of the house, and neither had its occupants, since Niall immediately saw a trapdoor in the floor.

“Hey, you found something?” Hughes stuck his head through the opening, hollering at Niall.

“Yeah, maybe.” Niall tried the trapdoor, but it wouldn’t budge. It must have been locked from the other side, from beneath.

“There’s a trapdoor here, going down, but it’s locked.” Niall glanced over his shoulder at Hughes, things starting to make sense and a picture forming in his mind about the events of the night of the murder. “Well, at least we now know which way Florian Talbot went—after he faked his own death by murdering Titus.”

“H
I
, N
IALL
.
I wasn’t sure if you’d make it tonight.”

Gus stepped aside to let Niall into his apartment. It was after 9:00 p.m., and Niall looked haggard.

“Thanks, babe” was the only halfway human sound Niall made as he shrugged out of his jacket and kicked off his boots.

“What’s happened?” Gus asked, alarmed. Silently, he observed the specs of dust and grime on Niall’s clothes and his stilted movements. It appeared as though he could barely muster enough energy to walk to the living room and crash on the couch, facedown. Niall hadn’t so much as sent a text all day, and Gus was understandably concerned.

“Long-ass day,” Niall mumbled, his face buried in the couch cushions.

“Wanna tell me about it?” Gus sat down next to Niall’s hip and rested his hand on the small of Niall’s back, making soothing circles. Although he didn’t say it out loud, Gus was very happy Niall had come to unwind at Gus’s place, instead of his own. It meant something.

Niall sighed happily, his whole body relaxing into Gus’s touch, and Gus beamed, having succeeded in giving his man rest and comfort.

“You sure you wanna hear?” Niall asked.

Gus nodded but then realized Niall had his eyes closed and said, “Yes.”

“M’kay,” Niall mumbled, his voice mellower than before. He even let out a soft gasp when Gus lifted the hem of Niall’s shirt and began massaging his back under the fabric. “This has been one hell of a day. First, me and Hughes found out that the body wasn’t found in Angelina’s bedroom, but in a mirror-image bedroom across the hall. Then we learned that the dead guy is not Florian Talbot at all, but is most likely Titus. Not that we know that for certain yet. Then we go to the mansion, and we find a secret passage connecting the twin bedrooms. And get this: behind the wall we find Farrah Talbot, bashed in the head and chained to a wall. She’ll live. She’s been there right under our noses since the night of the murder. Oh, and Millicent Marsden disappeared before we could question her. Oh, oh, and you ready for this? Farrah said Florian not only left her for dead in that passage but violated her too. And…. Florian’s done construction work under the radar, so now all the rooms in the mansion are accessible via these secret passages. I left before we could even map them all out.” Niall paused for a few breaths. “So, how was your day?” Silence reigned for a moment until Niall muttered, “Babe, why’d you stop?”

Only then did Gus realize his hands had stopped moving on Niall’s back as he was too busy trying to process every detail of the insane story he’d just heard. All that had happened within the span of a single day? Geez! “That’s, um, a lot….”

“Yeah.” Niall sighed, burrowing deeper into the cushions, exhaling long as if letting go of all the tension mounted on him during the hectic day. “I’ve been to the war zone, but this had to be one of the weirdest, busiest days of my freaking life. Every time I thought there couldn’t be any more surprises…. Twist!”

Gus had to acknowledge the truth of that understatement, and he snorted out loud with disbelief. “Geez, Niall, you sure know how to have a good time.”

Niall’s explosion of laughter made his body rumble and shake, and Gus resumed his gentle ministrations. “Fuck, Gus. That feels so fucking good.” He rested his head more comfortably on the couch. “Been waiting all day to be with you. Been thinking about you. Needed you by my side today.” He sounded sleepy and his words accidental, like he wasn’t even aware of how much he was confessing, so Gus chose not to put too much stock in them. But his heart jumped with glee.

“Me too.” It wasn’t much of an admission, not when Gus was beginning to reach the point where he thought about Niall as soon as he awoke and with his last thought before sleep as well.

“You gonna tell me about your day, babe? Wanna hear what you’ve been doing. Did you have fun without me?” A hint of smugness in Niall’s tone was endearing, and Gus gave him a playful shove. That just made Niall chuckle.

“Well, my day hasn’t been filled with as many revelations as yours,” Gus said, waiting out his own disclosure, keeping it to himself for another second. “I did get a surprise visitor to the shop. Guess who?” Niall murmured unintelligibly, so Gus answered, “Autumnsong.”

That got a rise out of Niall, in the form of one lifted eyelid. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Gus smiled wickedly, matching Niall’s smugness with his own flirtatiousness. “We went out to lunch together.”

Suddenly, Niall was fully awake, and he wiggled around on the couch until he lay on his back, eyes wide open. “Come again?” There was a dark glint in his eyes. Gus gulped hard. Surely Niall couldn’t be jealous of the young twink whom Gus despised?

With an elegant move, Gus straddled Niall’s thighs and the big bulge in his crotch. Gus pushed up Niall’s shirt slowly to reveal tight, hairy abs, and he let his fingertips explore leisurely. “I don’t get that guy. His motives, I mean. He didn’t explain why he showed up. But he was insistent. We went to this open buffet at an art gallery. Autumnsong knew the owner, Tia Delaney, and we ended up talking about art for the better part of an—”

“Tia Delaney?” Niall’s voice had taken an edge, and he sat up straighter, alert, almost dislodging Gus from on top of him. “You sure that was her name?”

Gus frowned, baffled. “Yes, I’m sure. I checked out her gallery web site once I got back to the shop. She’s a successful business owner, and a renowned artist in her own right, and—”

Niall wasn’t smiling anymore. Suspicion clouded his eyes and hardened his features. “Tia Delaney is also one of Florian Talbot’s business partners. Angelina mentioned her name during our first meeting.”

Yet another exposé, this time a link between Gus’s private life and Niall’s PI business. Flashbacks of their earlier case together flickered in Gus’s mind, reminding him of his near-death experience, and how Niall had vowed that would never happen again.

“What the hell kind of game is that fucking kid playing?” Niall grumbled angrily. He was referring to Autumnsong, Gus knew. “Why introduce you to Tia Delaney?” All of a sudden, he seemed to recall something else, because he blinked hard, with a confused expression. “Come to think of it, the Talbot family lawyer is also a Delaney. Deon Delaney.”

Gus was utterly befuddled; he harrumphed in frustration. “I’m sorry, Niall, but I’m really lost right now. What on earth is going on with your case?”

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna find out.” Niall’s mind was obviously a million miles away, but then his gaze came back into sharp focus. He took Gus’s hands in his own, smiled reassuringly, and squeezed tenderly. “I promise, Gus, this time you’re not gonna end up in the path of some deranged killer.”

“Like last time, huh?” Gus tried for levity, but Niall looked serious, worried. “I’ll be all right, Niall. I don’t know what’s up with Autumnsong, but next time he drops by unannounced, I’ll kick him to the curb. I swear by the Goddess.”

“He’s mixed up in this after all.” Niall shook his head, seemingly infuriated, ignoring Gus’s attempt at humor. Gus was flattered at being the object of Niall’s protective instincts. It made his toes curl pleasantly. “I knew that little twat knew more than he was letting on. Fuck.”

Gus slipped his hands back under Niall’s shirt, rubbing over hairy skin. “It’s late. Let’s not think about it tonight.” He had missed his boyfriend all day and wanted some quality time with him.
My boyfriend
. He repeated it in his head several times, just to make sure it felt as sparkly as the first time he’d thought it. “Come on. I’ll draw you a bubble bath.”

That snapped Niall’s attention right back to Gus. “You what now?” He shook his head adamantly. “No way. I don’t need no girly—”

“Aww, really? ’Cause I was hoping we could take a dip together. You know, get all squeaky clean.” Gus made lazy circles around Niall’s sternum, purposely avoiding his gaze.

“Oh.” Niall hummed a little, and out of the corner of his eye, Gus saw Niall smirk in that flirty way that drove Gus insane. “Well, that’s a whole other ballgame, now ain’t it?”

“G
ET
THAT
,
Niall. It’s yours.”

Gus buried his head beneath his pillow when a phone started ringing insistently. From the ring tone—“I Love Rock ’N Roll” by Joan Jett—he knew the cell wasn’t his.

A muffled grumble sounded, then rustling as Niall dug himself half out from under the covers, and finally the bed dipped as he rolled to the edge to dig into his clothes on the floor for his phone. “Yeah?” his gravelly voice asked as he picked up the line.

Pleasantly rubbing his foot against the hairy, muscular calf next to him, Gus wanted to play now that he was pretty much awake. But the sudden shift of the sheets, feet hitting the floor hard, and the shameless cursing that followed told Gus that he and Niall would not be rocking the bed with passionate calisthenics this morning.

He glanced blearily at the bedside clock. The digital face said 5:28 a.m. As much as Gus was a morning person, after a night of slow, languid lovemaking and the blissful buzz that had followed, he had barely gotten a wink of sleep.

“Babe?” he muttered, with a single word asking what was wrong. Funny how naturally the endearment came now that they had slept together more than once, even if interrupted.

But Niall was speaking in grunts only, and he sounded less groggy with sleep and more angry. “Yeah, yeah, we’ll be there in an hour. Bye.”

We?
What had Niall meant by that? Gus burrowed deeper under the covers, wishing the world away so he and his boyfriend could cuddle some more.

Then Niall smacked his bottom, though the covers took the brunt of the slap. “Get up, sleepyhead. We gotta get to the police station.”

Gus moaned, peering at his man from behind the pillow. “Oh God, what now?”

Niall sighed, rubbing a hand across his face, resigned, as if he had expected something else to go wrong. “Millicent Marsden is dead.”

Well, that
did
get Gus out of bed in record time.

“T
ELL
ME
again,” Gus urged while sipping his extra-strong coffee. He let Niall do the driving since Gus was too busy squinting at the brightness of the world around them.

Last night had been wonderful. The bubble bath had made both of them forget their worries and release their tension, and that effect was compounded by over an hour’s worth of great sex. By the end, Gus had barely remembered his own name, let alone been able to curl his fingers or toes. It had been a magical flight into sensual paradise.