Sullivan (Leopard's Spots 7) (5 page)

And sometime during the night, a fire had started which was why, eventually, Bircher had showed up. Bobby suspected Bircher would take his own sweet time writing up the report on the fire. He’d probably try his best to link Bobby to the fire, but it wouldn’t be possible. Or, maybe Bobby was just being paranoid, but he expected Bircher to be as big a douche about getting the claim done as he had been about everything else. Bobby reminded himself that at least it’d been a small fire, all things considered.

The damage was contained to the storage room, but man, what a mess it was. He wasn’t sure what had caused the most damage, the fire or putting out the fire. It was a definite toss-up, but at least he still had the club. Josiah had helped him run it, but now it was on Bobby’s shoulders, because Josiah lived in Colorado with his sexy little kitty shifter.

Not that Bobby would call Oscar that to his face. Maybe. Well okay, he probably would, because Oscar would turn red and spit and snarl at him, maybe even swing at him. Oscar
was
a stud, even if he wasn’t the kind of sexy stud Bobby was attracted to. He was still cute—and cute just wasn’t Bobby’s thing. He liked big, and strong, and he fantasised about someone tough enough to hold him down if Bobby felt like fighting a bit. Oh, nothing too violent, but his wolf liked to bite and roughhouse, and being an alpha as he was, he’d yet found anyone his wolf would let him take it for. Bobby had touched his own ass enough to know he’d like to feel a man filling him, pounding into him. His wolf, however, disagreed. Or they’d yet to find the right guy to please that damned beast. Bobby doubted his human side would be nearly as picky as the wolf.

Bobby’s cell phone rang and he tucked a hand into his front pocket until he remembered he’d set the phone on the bar. With his hearing as acute as it was, it sounded like the phone was right there, if not on him, then close by. He knew that ring tone, though, and Bobby sprinted out of the storage room to grab his phone off the bar.

“Yeah,” he drawled, propping a hip against the bar. “Whatcha got going on, little bro?”

“Heard you had a little trouble last night,” Josiah replied. “I wanted to see how bad the damage was, because the gossip is varying from next to none to ‘Oh my God it’s a total loss’.”

Bobby chuckled and slouched a little more comfortably. “Gotta love the way gossip travels. I just got done with the idiotic insurance guy, who thinks this should be a more respectable kind of gay establishment, if it has to be a gay place still.”

“What a fuckwit. One of those who assumes all gay men are into flower arranging and decorating?”

“Or food service,” Bobby added, “and you know I can’t boil an egg without burning the chicken that popped it out, too.” Bobby was an absolute terror when it came to cooking.

“No shit,” Josiah snickered. “Your lack of kitchen skills never cease to amaze me. I still don’t know how you managed to ruin a peanut butter sandwich. Anyone ought to be able to do that.”

Bobby was glad Josiah wasn’t there to see how that comment irked him. He kept his voice light, slow and playful as he answered. “Yeah, yeah. I told you, the bread tore all to pieces. That peanut butter wouldn’t spread for Channing Tatum, even, and you know anything or anyone would spread for that stud.”

“Mm. I think Oscar would have my nuts in a jar if I agreed with you.” Bobby could hear Oscar in the background saying he wasn’t
that
possessive, but Bobby knew the truth. All shifters were jealous and possessive of their mates. It wasn’t reasonable, and it was manageable, but that didn’t mean those chest-thumping tendencies went away.

“Oscar would have to agree that Channing is pretty damned perfect,” Bobby prodded, and had to bite back a laugh when Josiah growled at him. Satisfied that he’d irked his little brother, Bobby let it drop. “The fire wasn’t major, but the storage room will have to be gutted and rebuilt. I’ll probably keep the place closed down until then, and try to air it out. Whole building smells like smoke and burnt plastic. All of the throwaway cups are melted piles of goo. Was thinking some of them could be used as hockey pucks, kind of like that time I tried making biscuits.” From the can, even, and he’d still ruined them. Really, it wasn’t his fault the oven timer chose then to go out.

“Those were some seriously hard chunks of burnt dough, bro. Could have used them as weapons.”

“Yep.” Bobby ran a hand down his chiseled stomach. At least eating out hadn’t made him fat yet. “Anyway, your cut of the profits is gonna be smaller this month, needless to say.”

“Eh, keep ’em. I’ve gotten my investment back twice over, and it isn’t like I’m there to help.”

Bobby shook his head even though Josiah couldn’t see him. “Nope, that wasn’t the deal.

We split the profits seventy-thirty when we started, and I don’t see any reason for that to change. Besides, you have someone in that ginormous family of y’all’s doing the books for the place. You gotta pay them, right?”

Josiah cleared his throat and Bobby stood up a little straighter. That gravelly sound was never a good sign.

“Actually,” Josiah began, then he groaned and Oscar told him to get on with it already.

“Okay, okay. Actually, we need another favour.”

“Another one? I’m kinda feeling like a genie in the bottle, with y’all wishing for my help,” Bobby quipped. “Just, I don’t think that comparison works so well if you or Oscar are doing the rubbing on my—”

“Bobby! Concentrate!”

“I am,” Bobby drawled, “you’re just taking forever to get to the point, and that’s kinda scaring me.”

“Urgh. Fine. Look, Oscar has a cousin who just moved there to go to UTSA—”

“Aw, shit. Tell me you don’t want me to babysit some chick.” Bobby would rather be tarred and feathered. Or locked in a kennel box.

Josiah laughed and said, “Not a chick, Bobby, no. One of the snow shifter boys, though.”

“He’s not a boy, Sully is older than I am,” Bobby heard Oscar holler. “What are you implying, Jo?”

“Someone’s getting in trouble,” Bobby sang, delighted by the curse words Josiah levelled at him. “Aw now, you did insult your mate. Why you cussing at me?”

“Because you’re a dick,” Josiah snapped. “Look, go check on the k—er, cousin. I’m texting you his address. Make sure the
kid
, who he picked up at a gas station, isn’t dangerous or using him, and make damned sure Sully isn’t messing with him since he’s a minor.”

“Who?” Bobby frowned so hard his temples throbbed. “Jesus, you’re fucking confusing, Josiah. What kid? The cousin, or did he pick up a too-young boyfriend?”

“I don’t know! That’s what you’re supposed to go figure out!” Bobby contemplated hanging up but figured he’d catch hell from his folks and everyone else who knew him if he did that. “Why isn’t someone in the family doing it?”

“Because Sully called Levi for advice, and Levi had promised not to tell anyone, but he freaked out and Oscar pried it out of him,” Josiah explained, which didn’t clear anything up for Bobby. Josiah must have figured as much because he offered more. “Levi only told Oscar on the condition that Oscar not go narc to Grandma Marybeth or Sully’s parents. Now, we’ll respect that if, and only if, Sully isn’t in danger either from being dumb as a bag of rocks, or from the homeless kid he picked up.”

Bobby wondered how the hell that had come about, but the less involved he was, the better. “This Sully either sounds like a prince or an idiot.”

“I’m going with option B,” Josiah groused. “Scaring Oscar and Levi, and who the hell picks up anyone off the street and takes them home? No one with a lick of sense, that’s who.” Bobby wasn’t going to agree so quickly. Sometimes he’d done things people would probably have considered idiotic, like bait the insurance dude. It wasn’t his place to judge, even if he sometimes did just that. But homeless kids were a sore spot with him, and maybe this Sully guy felt the same. Bobby wouldn’t have turned a kid out if he could have helped one.

“Yeah, all right. Club’s closed for a few days anyways. I’ll just pop up and scare the shit out of this guy, growl a little, sniff around.” He had good instincts, usually. That was why it was fun to ignore them periodically. He needed the excitement.

“Thanks, and if you’ll go as soon as possible, and let us know—”

“I’m on my way.” Bobby hung up, partially to irk his brother and partially because he wanted to get this over with. Showing up at the place of someone he didn’t know, and trying to snoop—that was going to be a ton of fun.

“It might be,” he told himself. “Not like I got anything better to do.” His cell phone chimed and he glanced down at the address Josiah had texted him—right after the all-caps words, ‘
Bye Asshole’
. He couldn’t keep from texting back.

‘Who the hell found that place for him? It’s in one of the worst parts of town. People need to
learn to research crime stats and shit.’

That would probably keep Josiah busy, but he should have known the area. It wasn’t like Josiah hadn’t lived in San Antonio all his life until about a year ago. Sometimes Josiah could be obtuse, and everyone thought Bobby was the slacker…

Bobby hopped on his Harley and debated the helmet. He put it on, remembering, as he did every time he waffled, the old joke about what a helmetless rider was called—an organ donor. Bobby didn’t think it was funny, but it made him strap the helmet on before he took off.

Luckily he wasn’t too far from Sully’s apartment. He could either take I-37, or just cut through downtown. He opted for the latter because he enjoyed driving downtown, unless it was during rush hour. Granted, the highways were worse then, but traffic still sucked downtown too. There was always at least one idiot who couldn’t read and ended up turning down the one-way street Bobby was on.

Ten minutes after he walked out of the club, he pulled into the parking lot of the apartments Sully lived in. Bobby shut the bike off and removed his helmet. He glared at every possible spot someone could be hiding, letting the threat of death show in his eyes in case anyone was lurking and thinking to steal his Harley. The glare he backed up with a wave of power, stronger than the one he’d loosed on the insurance agent. Once he’d done that, he strode confidently to the door marked A1 09. He was going to assume the first zero had fallen off a decade or two ago.

The door was grungy, especially around the knob. Didn’t anyone wash their hands before they opened the damn door? He scowled and raised a fist to bang on the dingy wood.

If Sully turned out not to be a perv hitting on a minor, Bobby was going to insist he get a steel door. The wooden one wouldn’t hold up against Bobby’s sneeze.
Heh. I could huff and puff
and—

His train of thought derailed as he heard locks being undone on the other side of the door. His eyes began to sting as the heavy scent of bleach hit him just before the door was opened. Any hope he had for coming off like a tough guy died as he began to rub at his eyes and try not to sniffle. Damn it, he hated bleach!

“Yeah, it’s kind of strong, but it has to be or else the scary mould will escape with our food.”

Bobby figured the kid was speaking because he sounded all of twelve. He blinked rapidly and made out the slight form in front of him. The kid was definitely pretty, and too young to be standing there eyeing Bobby hungrily. Bobby put on his fiercest glare, which had absolutely no effect on his ogler. “Cut it out, kid. You’re making me feel dirty.”

“But you’re so fuckable—”

“Mando, really?” said a taller, broader—and more importantly, older, as in legal age—

man. His auburn hair fell in a straight sheen to his shoulders, and his eyes were a very familiar and attractive mix of green and brown. Bobby had seen enough of the snow leopard shifters to know this had to be Sully. That, plus process of elimination. The kid was Mando, which left only Sully as far as Bobby knew.

“What did I tell you about…” Sully started, flicking a glance at Bobby before looking at Mando, only to jerk his gaze back to Bobby’s. Sully gulped and Bobby felt a tug of desire right in his balls. He knew then that if Sully wasn’t a perv, he was going to be fucking him as soon as he could get Sully away from Mando. “Uh.” Sully’s eyes widened and he gulped again. Bobby watched his Adam’s apple bob and his mouth watered to taste that thin skin there.

“Dude, maybe you won’t be a virgin much longer, eh, Sully?” Sully went a brilliant shade of red but didn’t look away. “Shut up, Mando. Go scrub the toilet again.”

Mando snorted. “Can’t hurt it, that’s for sure.” Bobby raked his eyes over Sully’s frame and wondered how such a hunk could still be a virgin. He didn’t have any qualms about taking someone’s cherry if they were sure they wanted to fuck. He’d have none about taking Sully’s either.

If the poor guy didn’t have a coronary before Bobby got in his pants. Sully was turning a darker shade of red and was making a choking noise. Bobby was just about to run in and slap him on the back a few times when Sully began coughing hard. A wad of something flew out and smacked Bobby’s chest. He screwed up his nose and checked to see what it was. The pink glob quivered and started to roll off his chest, and for a stupid reason Bobby couldn’t fathom, he caught it.

“Hey, that’s good aim, Sully! You spit your gum right on him!” Mando chortled.

Bobby tried not to get grossed out, but he didn’t particularly care for slimy foodstuffs that had been in other people’s mouths. He flung the gum off to the side. It hit a door a few apartments over and Bobby mentally shrugged. It wasn’t going to make the door look any worse.

Sully was telling Mando to be quiet, and Bobby watched the two of them for a few seconds. They seemed more like brothers than anything else, although he thought they’d only recently met. Maybe he was wrong. He should have asked more questions before he hung up on Josiah.

“Did you want that back?” Bobby asked when Mando trotted off. “’Cause I can go get it.”

Sully snapped his attention back to Bobby and he groaned. “Aw, man. I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I mean, I got choked, obviously, because I was stuttering and babbling like a fool. You’re—” Sully coughed again, this time covering his mouth as he did so. His eyes watered and he looked Bobby over from head to toe then back again. “Man, you’re really what Mando said.”