Where There's a Will (13 page)
“Yeah,” Carlos agreed, then he explained how he’d ended up down in Texas and how fucking insane Nick’s mother was. Will seemed uncharacteristically quiet even after Carlos talked, and Troy wondered if it was because of those scars that striped Will’s skin in places.
Troy glanced at Carlos and saw the cowboy was frowning at Will. “The fuck kind of sisters you got?” Carlos growled.
Will cocked his head to the side and studied the ceiling, pursing his full lips as if truly giving the question a great deal of thought. But the grin that teased at his lips and didn’t quite reach his eyes gave away his game. “Bossy, bully-ish ones?” Will shrugged. “They don’t see themselves as such, of course. My brother and dad are the same way.” He shrugged again. “They’re all strong, and always right, and blah blah blah. I’m the weak link, the runt, the—”
“Stop it,” Carlos snarled at about the same time Troy did. They nodded at each other and Troy pulled Will to him, overwhelmed by the need to protect the younger man. And when Will fluttered those thick lashes at him, and looked at him with such adoration, Troy couldn’t bring himself to doubt the sincerity he saw. Nor could he stop his heart from www.total-e-bound.com
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swelling with a certain warm joy, but he was sure would scare him, later. When he was alone.
For now, he was content, especially when he met Carlos’ eyes again, and the man drilled him with a dark stare Troy couldn’t misinterpret. The question may not have been vocalised, but Troy felt it in every passing second as he kept his gaze locked with Carlos’.
Will’s arms tightened around Troy, and slowly, Troy relaxed into the embrace and asked a question, needing to hear it instead of trying to be assured he interpreted every look, every touch, correctly.
“What are we doing?” He held his breath, tensing back up, scared his lovers’ would answer with ‘nothing’, or ‘having a relationship.’ Both terrified him.
But Carlos smiled, and Troy couldn’t figure out why the cowboy looked like he knew something about Troy, had some faith in him Troy didn’t have in himself. His smile, though, it was about the sexiest thing Troy had seen Carlos wearing, hotter even than Carlos wearing nothing but chaps. Will’s hands felt so good on his chest, soothing and chasing away Troy’s fear with each feather-light stroke.
Carlos leant down and brushed a kiss over Will’s lips, then Troy’s, and the brief touch of moist skin to moist skin left Troy as breathless as if he’d run five miles.
“We’re taking it a day at a time, together,” Carlos explained, and it sounded much less intimidating than the whole relationship thing, something Troy was less likely to fuck up.
Something, maybe, he could do.
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Carlos was prepared to catch some crap when he got back to the ranch. He’d only fired off a text, telling Nick not to expect him to return until the following afternoon. It shouldn’t cause a problem, but he figured his choice of bed partners, or one of them anyway, would probably stir up a shit storm.
Although, he reckoned Josh hadn’t gone all nutty about Will, so maybe none of the others would either. Carlos wasn’t sure what to expect now, the more he tried to parse it out, the more complicated it all got. He wished he could have stayed in bed with Will and Troy, but it just hadn’t been possible. He was—lights flashed in his rearview at the same time a siren blared.
“God damn it.” He was fucking getting pulled over, that’s what he was doing! Carlos cursed again, disgusted with himself for not paying more attention. He didn’t even know if he’d been speeding, having automatically hit his brakes as soon as those damn red and blue lights flashed in his mirrors. For all he knew, he could have run through a stop sign or two.
“Which means my ass deserves to get pulled over and ticketed. Dipshit.” Carlos manoeuvred the truck onto the grassy shoulder and put the vehicle in park.
He took his hat off and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and waiting. Cops always had to call in or run plates somehow—Carlos wasn’t quite sure how they did it nowadays, but it’d take a few minutes, surely. The tap at his window surprised him, although he hoped he hid it well as he opened his eyes. A large, serious looking cop with grey eyes and greying hair stared back at him. Carlos ran his fingers through his hair while lowering the window with his other hand.
“Morning, Officer—” Carlos glanced at the name on the cop’s tag, “Shearing.” Carlos started to reach for his wallet only to have the cop pop open the door lock then open the door. He frowned and stilled, wondering what the hell was going on. Bits of news reports flitted through his memory and Carlos’ pulse spiked as adrenaline pumped into him. Bad shit could happen to a gay man in Texas.
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As if aware of Carlos’ thoughts, the cop stepped back and held up both hands. “I just want to talk to you about Will.”
“What the—” Carlos unbuckled and slowly got out of the truck, keeping his eyes on Shearing, never blinking. “You pull me over with those flashing lights and siren going just to talk to me about Will?” He didn’t know if the cop’s cheeks were always ruddy or not, so he couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or just unfortunate colouring making Shearing’s complexion splotchy, and he didn’t particularly care. “So you abused your authority, your position, just to get me to pull over so you could—what?” Carlos thought of Xavier, even though he hadn’t met the guy, and his partner, Chase. Even the way Josh had seemed sceptical about Will. And Carlos got mad.
“You think you’re gonna pull me over,” he began, one finger aimed at Shearing as the cop stood still and expressionless in front of him. “Gonna fuck with me and tell me what?
Tell me Will is someone I should stay away from? He’s a bad man for doing a job and it pisses people off? Or what? How about he made some passes at some people who didn’t appreciate it? Appreciate him?” Carlos stopped, head tipped back just slightly to glare at the cop as he thumped the big bastard in the chest. “You gonna tell me I ain’t—”
Shearing grimaced and caught Carlos’ finger. “I’m gonna tell you to stop jabbing at me.
It irritates me.” Then he smirked and let go of Carlos’ finger only to drape his arm over Carlos’ shoulders, which was too weird for Carlos to even process as he gaped at Shearing while the cop kept on talking. “The rest of it was pretty entertaining, though, and makes me feel a little better about you and Will…and Troy.” Shearing didn’t sound as sure about the bartender. “I’m guessing Troy got his head out of his rear end yesterday, then?”
Carlos finally closed his mouth only to open it right back up again. “Who the hell are you?” And was he going to give Carlos a ticket or not? What kind of weird town was this?
Shearing stopped and held out his hand to Carlos. “Glenn Shearing.” Carlos had just taken his hand to shake when the man added, “Partner of the man Will’s been keeping tabs on.”
Carlos went cold then hot, fear being trumped by anger again as he jerked his hand back and stepped out of Shearing’s hold. “What kind of games are you playing, Shearing?”
He struggled to keep his mind from plummeting into scenarios where he ended up dead and dumped in a hole in the ground somewhere no one would ever find him. The things a cop www.total-e-bound.com
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could get away with in a place like this were probably shocking. Carlos’ imagination made it hard to believe Shearing when the cop shook his head.
“No games, and you
were
actually speeding, got you clocked at six miles over the limit.”
Carlos snorted. “Seriously? Okay.”
Shearing cocked his head to the side, a slight grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Yeah, I know, hardly worth the effort, but you sure didn’t notice me following you for a good mile or so before I resorted to the lights and sirens. I really did just want to talk.”
“About Will.” Carlos didn’t ask it, although he did arch an eyebrow at Shearing when the cop nodded. “Really. Well, I think I’ve heard enough trash talk about Will already, so—”
Shearing slashed a hand through the air and took an aggressive step forward. “People are protective of James.
I’m
protective of James. He’s my partner, my husband even if this fucked up state won’t let us get married. But,” he smiled with such tenderness it sent a dull ache of envy through Carlos. “I know James is a strong man. Not many could go through the things he has, and come out stronger, better. He doesn’t need to be coddled to death—and neither he nor I think Will’s the bad guy for doing his job—now.” Shearing sighed and his big shoulders curved slightly as he slouched where he stood.
The guy looked miserable, but Carlos wasn’t ready to feel sorry for him. “But before you and your partner realised that, you both thought Will was all of the things people say about him now?” It sounded confusing even as Carlos said it, but Shearing nodded. Carlos narrowed his eyes. “Man, I don’t even know what all everyone is saying about Will, and frankly, I don’t fuckin’ care. I’ve been in town less than three full days, and already there’s more drama and gossip than on my mama’s favourite telenovela.”
“Yeah, but I swear, most of it comes from good intentions. You don’t know what happened before.”
Shearing stopped and, by the look on his face, Carlos figured he didn’t want to know what happened ‘before’ and he said as much. “Isn’t my business, and I sure ain’t going to pry. I don’t care for the way Will seems to be ostracised, though—”
“Exactly,” Shearing interrupted—the guy seemed to interrupt Carlos a lot, which needed to stop. “That’s what I’m trying to say. Even James doesn’t think bad of Will anymore, and try to understand, that’s a big step for James. But once we found out about—”
Carlos glared at Shearing, knowing damn well he’d just been played. The cop had cut himself off so calmly it was clearly a planned move. He’d meant to say exactly as much as www.total-e-bound.com
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he’d said, hoping, no doubt, to pique Carlos’ curiosity.
Which he did, damn it!
“Nice trick,” he ground out, and Shearing grinned.
“Look, I won’t tell someone else’s secrets. I learned my lesson about doing thoughtless things like oversharing, I hope.” He rubbed his jaw and chuckled. “But I won’t hesitate to prod you in the right direction, because I think Will needs someone. Well, you and Troy, hopefully. I just hope you two actually care about him, not just getting off and using him.
And maybe,” Shearing got a pinched expression, as if uncomfortable with the conversation.
“Maybe you two should talk to Will about his past, or try to get him to talk, I mean.”
Carlos thought of those white scars, the short explanation Will had given, so emotionlessly, as if what he’d said was just a fact of life. And he wondered, how much had Will been hurt, to be so calm about being abused severely enough there were scars left on his skin?
“We’ll talk to him, and listen, too,” Carlos murmured, rubbing at his chest, his gaze unfocused as he pictured Will, his fair skin marred.
“And don’t let the bad stuff people are saying make up your opinion on Will.”
Shearing’s advice snapped Carlos back to the present and he glared at Shearing. “Does it look like it’s made a difference to me so far?”
Shearing shook his head. “Doesn’t mean you won’t, eventually.” He looked out to the North, back towards town. “People keep talking, not realising that trying to protect one person can hurt another. Maybe… Maybe James and I can help straighten some of them out.”
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Really, he shouldn’t have been surprised. After two glorious nights with two sexy, sweet men, Will should have known bad shit would happen. It was like Karma just refused to let him have anything good without dumping something atrocious on him.
Atrocious this time being his sister and his dad, neither of whom had absolutely any qualms about breaking into Will’s hotel room. And it would have to be his sister Tamara, of course. She’d always been the meanest of the bunch.
“What’re you staring at, runt? Get in here and shut the door.”
Will stepped inside his hotel room and shut the door, following the order automatically before it dawned on him he was doing so. When it did, he scowled and leant back against the door. “I’m staring at two people who committed a crime by breaking into my room.”
“Shut up,” his dad said so calmly it made Will shiver. He hated that calm tone. It meant his dad was about ready to erupt in a fit of anger. It never went well for Will when his dad went ballistic.
Tamara smirked at him and stood up. She strolled over under their father’s watchful gaze, then lightly tapped Will’s cheek. “Daddy’s decided you suck at this job. You should have had James Stratton back with his parents months ago.”
The second tap was hard enough Will felt his inner cheek split against his teeth, but he didn’t so much as flinch. “His parents don’t want him dragged back now. They just want me to make sure he’s okay.”
“Do you know,” his dad began, standing slowly, “your sister and I have been in town almost a week now, and you never spotted us? We’ve been watching James Stratton, and in turn, noticing how often you
aren’t
watching him. It seems to me Mr and Mrs Stratton have been paying for a job you aren’t doing. The one day you did check up on their son, you sure didn’t manage to remain unobserved yourself, did you? No,” his dad shook his head and sneered. “Of course not. There was a big queer meeting in the parking lot. For a moment there I couldn’t decide if you were going to get your ass beat or fucked,” his dad stopped in www.total-e-bound.com