Fighting Temptation [Brac Village 11] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (5 page)

Carmine heard Turi snort. “I highly doubt that. He is treating me like I’m covered in warts.”

Footsteps began to approach, but Carmine didn’t budge. Turi came into view and Carmine saw how Turi was glaring at him. Carmine had heard the conversation and he knew Turi knew that he had heard the conversation. But the guy did not look remorseful. He just walked past Carmine and headed outside.

“From what Abe tells me, Turi has lived in his tribe his entire life. He has never been out in the modern world,” Malcolm said. “I’m just giving you a fair warning.”

Fair warning.

Carmine wished he had fair warning before he left the house this morning, taking a detour that had changed his life.

Turi sat at Carmine’s desk, bored out of his ever-loving mind. How could anyone sit in one spot for hours on end? His damn butt was so numb that Turi had an urge to reach under himself and massage his cheeks. He wasn’t sure how anyone could do this, but Carmine sat there writing on papers most of the morning, seeming unaffected by a numb backside.

“Is this all you do?” He rested his chin in his hand, letting out a long sigh.

“No,” Carmine answered him as he glanced up from his papers. “In just a moment we will go down to the dungeon to torture our prisoners.”

“Really?” Turi perked up. Anything was better than just sitting here watching the hands on the clock tick by slowly. He feared he would fade into his chair and become a permanent fixture around this place.

When he had first arrived at the police station, everything had been overwhelming. Turi had never been in a place like this before. The sights and sounds had excited him to the point he had bounced all around.

Now he was just plain old bored. He was ready to commit a crime just to liven the place up. If he had to sit in his chair much longer, he just might do that.

“We don’t have a dungeon, Turi.” Carmine gathered the papers and shoved them in a folder. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

Why did he have a feeling that Carmine was apologizing for more than Turi having nothing to do? His mate had spoken the last four words as if he truly meant them, deeply. Now more than ever Turi was curious about why his mate was so standoffish, why the guy kept him at arm’s length.

In all honesty, Carmine didn’t seem like a bad man. He was gorgeous as hell and was going out of his way to keep Turi from being kidnapped again. Someone couldn’t be a bad person if they were sticking their neck out for someone else, could they?

Even with that thought in mind, Turi could feel the walls around Carmine going up, locking into place. His mate was pushing him away for a reason and Turi was going to find out why.

At first he had felt that if Carmine didn’t want him, he wasn’t going to throw himself at the man. He still wasn’t going to throw himself at Carmine, but the more he thought about it, the more Turi knew that finding one’s other half was a very rare occurrence. It was something that he wasn’t going to give up on so easily.

Mating his uncle was something that damn near made Turi want to vomit. He would run until his dying day to keep away from Egon. But the thought of mating Carmine appealed to him on so many different levels. He could feel the pull between them and wanted to get closer.

Unfortunately, his mate didn’t feel the same way.

He also knew that two people refusing to make something work was a disaster waiting to happen. If neither of them budged, then they would get nowhere. Turi didn’t want that to happen. He was just at a loss of how to make Carmine open up to him. What would it take for Carmine to accept that they were mates and fated to be together?

Carmine pushed away from his desk and grabbed the file he had been working on. “I’m going to file these papers. Don’t move.”

Once Carmine was out of sight, Turi moved from the chair beside the desk, to the chair behind the desk. He was curious to know exactly what a detective did. Well, there was only one way to find out. Turi decided to get nosey so he began to open drawers.

His eyes widened he saw two shiny bracelets attached to one another. He picked the set up, running his fingers over the shiny chrome. The two bracelets weren’t as fancy as the one already on Turi’s wrist, but he would trade the one he possessed if it meant he could shimmer again.

Glancing around, Turi checked to make sure no one was watching him. He closed the bracelet over his wrist and clicked it closed. Who on earth would wear something like this? It was clunky and not very attractive. Deciding that he didn’t like it, Turi tried to take the bracelet off.

It wouldn’t open.

He tugged and pulled, but the bracelet wouldn’t budge. Great, that was all he needed, another bracelet clamped tight on his wrist.

“Why are you in my chair?”

Turi quickly hid his wrist behind his back and smiled up at Carmine who was standing there scowling at him with those pretty café-brown eyes. “No reason,” he said quickly.

Carmine’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at him before waving toward the other chair. “Sit over there so I can finish my work.”

Turi stood and backed away, taking the long way around the chair so his mate wouldn’t see what he had done. He sat in the chair next to the desk and leaned back, trapping his arm behind him. How the hell was he going to get the bracelet off of his wrist? Carmine was sure to notice them missing sooner or later.

Why would his mate have them in his drawer? The two bracelets were connected by a short chain. That made no sense to him. Turi had never seen anything like them and now he wished that he hadn’t been so dang nosey. What in the heck was he going to do?

Turi watched another man approach Carmine’s desk. The guy dropped a file in front of his mate. “Dead guy over on Route 303.”

Carmine stood, grabbing the file. He glanced at Turi and then down at the folder in his hand. There was confusion in Carmine’s café-brown eyes. He could tell the man was debating something. In that moment, Turi had an urge to run his fingers over the beard Carmine had on his face. Did his mate know how handsome he was? Turi wasn’t sure why he was thinking these thoughts. It could be the way his mate’s muscles flexed as he stood there or the fact that he towered over Turi. He never knew he liked such big men until he had met Carmine.

“Maybe I should drop you back off at the Lakelands’.”

Turi quickly stood, keeping his hand behind his back. He didn’t want to be dropped off at the Lakelands’. Turi was determined to crack Carmine’s tough shell. He was beginning to suspect that maybe it wasn’t him, but something else that made Carmine so standoffish. Whatever the reason, he wouldn’t be able to get close to his mate if he wasn’t near him. “I won’t get in the way,” he quickly promised.

Carmine shook his head and Turi feared the man wouldn’t take him along. “I’m not supposed to take civilians to a crime scene.”

“But I’m not a civilian. I’m fey.” He lifted his hair to show Carmine his pointy ear and realized his mistake a little too late. The bracelet that wasn’t attached dangled midair from his wrist.

Carmine opened his drawer and then grunted. “You put my cuffs on?”

Turi quickly hid his hand behind his back, but knew it was useless. “What are cuffs?”

Turi swallowed hard when Carmine walked behind him, grabbed the arm that didn’t have a bracelet on it, and pulled it behind his back. He heard a click and then Turi found that his hands were trapped behind him.

“That’s what cuffs are,” Carmine said in a low growl. “They neutralize a suspect.”

Turning in circles, Turi tried his best to get them off. A large hand landed on his shoulder and then Turi saw Carmine holding up a key. “Hold still.”

He held still and soon both hands were free. Carmine dangled the cuffs in front of Turi’s face. “You shouldn’t play with these unless you’re serious about it.”

What the heck did that mean? Serious about what? Turi’s throat went dry when he saw the heat in Carmine’s eyes. He might not be worldly, but Turi knew when sex was on a man’s mind. He felt his face heat up as he glanced away.

“You can come with me, but you have to stay in the car.” Carmine shoved the cuffs into a little pouch that was attached to his belt before he headed toward the door. “Come on.”

With swift feet, Turi hurried behind Carmine.

After a twenty-minute drive, they pulled up behind a large van that had the words
County
Coroner
on the side. He turned to Carmine. “What’s a coroner?”

“A person who picks up the dead body,” Carmine said as he opened his car door. “Stay here.”

Turi moved to the window, glancing out as Carmine walked to the open field. There were men all around his mate, a few squatting down, looking at something. Turi was curious as hell. Not that he wanted to see a dead body—but he had never seen a dead body before.

Making sure Carmine wasn’t watching him, Turi eased the car door open and stepped out, closing the door quietly behind him. He was going to take a quick look and then get back into the car. What harm could there be in just looking?

There were a few men walking around. Turi used the distraction to ease around the coroner’s truck. He wanted to look, but didn’t want Carmine to know he wasn’t in the car. From the way his mate acted, Turi was sure Carmine wouldn’t be happy about him not following orders.

Hell, the man just might put the cuffs back on Turi if he found him snooping around.

“Do we have an ID on the victim yet?” Carmine asked some guy standing next to him. Turi saw a small pad of paper in Carmine’s hand and his mate was writing something in it.

“Nothing yet. We took his fingerprints. Forensic should be running them through the database soon.” The stranger pointed over toward the road. “We have tire tracks. Maybe our John Doe was carjacked.”

“Just as soon as we figure out who he is, I want you to find out if a car is registered in his name. If there is one, I want a BOLO put out on it.” Carmine turned in Turi’s direction and Turi quickly pressed his back into the truck so his mate wouldn’t see him. He didn’t understand what they were talking about, but it sounded very interesting.

“I’m willing to bet it was not only a carjacking, but a mugging,” the stranger said to Turi’s mate. “He has no wallet, nothing to ID him. Maybe someone tricked him into pulling over and then they attacked him.”

“Well, we’re just getting started,” Carmine replied. “Let’s find out what evidence the crime lab gathered and go from there.”

When Turi didn’t hear anyone talk for a moment, he peeked around the truck. Carmine was standing two feet away, staring right at him. As he suspected, the man didn’t look happy that Turi was out of the car.

“I was just…” Turi wasn’t sure what to say. He was busted. Any excuse that came to mind sounded pretty lame to him, so he just stopped talking. He wasn’t about to dig himself deeper into the hole he was already in.

“Just messing up the crime scene?” Carmine asked as one thick, dark brow rose high on his forehead. If his mate wasn’t mad, it would have been a very sexy look.

“Uh, yeah,” Turi replied and then shook his head, holding his hands up. “Wait, no.”

“The first answer was correct,” Carmine said and then crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I knew you were there the moment you stepped out of the car.” He pointed to his nose.

Turi craned his neck around Carmine, trying to get a glimpse at what was going on behind his mate. He might be in trouble, but he was still very curious. “I’ve just never seen a dead body before,” he whispered so no one else would hear him.

“And you aren’t going to see one now.” Carmine pointed toward the car. “I told you to stay put.” When Carmine came toward him, Turi danced around his mate’s grabbing hand, wanting just one tiny—Turi came up short when he spotted the body.

“Turi.” Carmine wrapped his fingers around Turi’s upper arm. “This isn’t something you should be looking at.”

“Wait.” Turi pulled at Carmine’s hand as he stared into milky eyes. He thought maybe the guy would look like he was sleeping. But he didn’t. The poor man’s eyes were wide open, his head turned at an awkward angle. “I know him.”

Carmine pulled Turi off to the side, away from the busy men. “Turi, this is a crime scene. You shouldn’t—”

“I know him,” Turi repeated more firmly. “He’s come to my village a few times. He was always talking with my uncle.” His eyes locked onto the dead body once more. The man should be standing up straight, talking, walking. Not lying there staring at…nothing.

Even though Turi had never cared for the guy—the man always made his skin crawl—that didn’t mean the guy should have died such a violent death. The victim was still relatively young. What kind of a monster would do something like this?

“Do you know his name?” Carmine asked. He was no longer trying to pull Turi away, but his mate did block his view.

“I heard my uncle call him Grainne one time.” Turi wished he could be more help. “I was never allowed to listen to their conversations.” His tone was apologetic as Turi glanced toward the grass, really wishing he hadn’t been so nosey. Now he couldn’t get the image out of his mind.

Carmine pulled him even further away from the men working around the dead body. “The deceased is human. You’re telling me he was working with fey?”