Where There's a Will (15 page)

“Oh, you should have left,” Troy said, interrupting the spiel as he watched a cop car pull up at the kerb, a big pickup truck behind it. He knew who drove the truck. What was Carlos doing there?

“Xav must have called the cops, or Glenn,” Chase murmured. “And I thought I was mad.” Chase let out a low whistle as Carlos slammed the truck door. Troy wasn’t sure who looked angrier, actually, Carlos or Glenn.

“Shit,” Chester Leaks muttered. “God damn it, what a clusterfuck.”

“Eloquent as always,” Will piped up from behind Troy. Troy peered over his shoulder.

Xavier and Will stood in the doorway, Xavier’s hand on Will’s shoulder. “Has Dad told you yet that he’s pulling me off the case and having Tamara take over?”

Will had pitched his voice loud enough to be heard clearly across the yard, and Troy turned back in time to see Glenn go deathly still, except for the hand he rested on the butt of his gun. “You better call for backup,” Troy suggested. “I think this is going to get real ugly.”

Then he just managed to catch Chase with an arm around his waist as the blond lunged at Will’s dad.

Whatever hope Carlos had of keeping things peaceful had pretty much vanished when he saw Will’s car stopped on Troy’s lawn, deep grooves left by the tyres telling the story of Will’s fear. Carlos hadn’t been so furious since…ever. Then Glenn went all still and stony, www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

93

and Carlos could feel the impending violence building, and his own furor died down under the weight of Glenn’s.

“Calm down, man,” Carlos said as he carefully touched Glenn’s shoulder.

“I am calm,” Glenn rumbled. “I’m trying really hard not to pull out my gun and shoot both of them.”

Carlos frowned, looking at the man and woman in front of the porch then back at Glenn. “Both of them?”

Glenn’s nod was so slight Carlos almost missed it. “Yeah. I did enough research on the Leaks family to not care for any of them, except Will. How he came out okay…” Glenn shut up when Will spoke, then he tensed and gripped his gun again. “Enough of this shit.”

Carlos held tight to Glenn’s shoulder, causing the cop to turn an icy glare on him.

Carlos didn’t release him. “You can’t do anything stupid. What would happen to your partner?”

A tiny smile curled one side of Glenn’s mouth. “I’m not going to kill them, but I am damn sure going to arrest them for everything I can think of, every law they’ve broken, thought about breaking, whatever I can nail ‘em for.”

Carlos let him go. He didn’t seem to be the kind of guy to go nuts. Now, the blond snarling and trying to get out of Troy’s headlock?
Yeah, maybe I should help out with him.

Carlos saw that Will was fine, standing on the porch with some big, grumpy looking guy who was hollering on the phone. But Troy sure had his hands full. Carlos and Glenn hurried over and Glenn snapped out an order.

“Chase, cut it out!” The command in Glenn’s voice surprised Carlos. The guy had seemed laid back—well, except for the whole part where Carlos thought Glenn was going to shoot people. So maybe not so laid back. And Chase? As in, the asshole Carlos had wanted to talk to? And did if Chase was here… He looked at the man by Will. Tall, broad, long dark hair, yeah he’d bet he was Xavier, but now wasn’t the time.

“Who the fuck are you?” Will’s dad snapped.

Carlos didn’t see any reason to answer, although he did calmly put a hand out and shove the guy back. Ignoring the woman, Carlos kept his hand on Will’s dad’s chest. “You best not be messing with either of my friends,” Carlos said, stressing the last word. He wasn’t sure what to call Troy and Will, but he was sure they meant a lot to him. “You leave Will www.total-e-bound.com

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alone, or you’ll have me and Troy to deal with. And you leave Troy alone, or you’ll have half this town coming after you.”

“We’d do it for Will, too.”

Carlos looked over at Chase disbelievingly.

Chase glared past Carlos. “I hate bullies.”

Carlos knew it didn’t mean Chase or anyone other than Carlos and Troy—and maybe Glenn, but who knew—cared about Will, but he’d let it go for now. Better to have a united front and such. “You two all right?” he asked his lovers.

“I believe you were both told to leave this property,” Glenn said before anyone else could speak, but Will and Troy did both manage a nod.

“We’ll leave right now.” Chester Leaks started to back away only to have Glenn shake his head.

“You’ll leave once the other officer gets here so we can each take one of you to jail,”

Glenn informed them. “Now, you have the right—”

Chester Leaks puffed up his chest and glared. “I know who you are. You’re the guy fucking James Stratton, who will be monitored now by my daughter Tamara or myself. This is a clear conflict of interest—”

Glenn’s smile stopped the idiot cold. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do—”

“This is bullshit!” Tamara snapped. “You can’t arrest us!”

“Why can’t he?” Carlos asked, then he tipped his head towards the street. “You got a problem with this other fella there arresting you? He looks pretty ornery to me.” The second cop was huge, and sure didn’t look to be a man to be messed with. Even Tamara seemed intimidated, actually shrinking in on herself a bit and looking down.

Carlos watched the big cop approach, and, feeling sure things were going to calm down now, he walked up the steps and slid an arm around Troy’s waist while reaching for Will with the other hand. Will practically flew into his arm. “You really okay, baby?” Carlos didn’t even cringe at the endearment, or rather, at saying it in front of other people. If they didn’t like it, they could get over it.

“I’m good now,” Will murmured, then Troy moved and put Will between them for a hug all three of them needed. “But Dad’s pulling me off James’ case and putting Tamara on it, and she’s…she’s not a good person.”

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“By not a good person, you mean—what, as compared to you?”

Carlos growled at the question, coming from the blond, Chase. “What happened to defending him and hating bullies?”

Chase shrugged. “Meant it, but I don’t know him”—he tipped his chin at Will—“or you. And all I do know about this one here is, he’s been paid to spy on James.”

“I don’t spy much,” Will pointed out. “Which…well, that’s one of the reasons I got fired from this case.”

“It’s not the only reason, I’d bet,” Glenn interjected. Carlos was going to get whiplash from swivelling his head back and forth. “You didn’t take James back to his parents in the first place.”

“Like you wouldn’t have killed me if I tried,” Will muttered.

Glenn came over and tucked a finger under Will’s chin, raising his head. “Admit it.

You’re a decent guy, once you get past trying to get laid.”

Troy snickered and Carlos wondered what the story was there. Then he figured it wasn’t hard to parse out. Will wasn’t the shy type, and he’d have made a pass at a man—or men—he found attractive and thought were available. Carlos didn’t think Will was a home wrecker.

Glenn said something about getting back to work before Les, the other cop, lost patience with him. Carlos glanced at the big, quiet man and didn’t think there was any emotion at all in those eyes, but maybe Les was just really good at hiding his feelings.

Then Carlos, Will and Troy were left alone with Xavier and Chase. Carlos really didn’t feel like dealing with them right now, and he needed to check in at the ranch, since he was supposed to show up and cook dinner. Fortunately, Chase and Xavier didn’t seem all too eager to stir anything up. Maybe Glenn had done more than arrest two assholes. Maybe he’d started making a way for Will to be accepted here.

“We’re gonna go, let y’all do…stuff,” Chase said. He abruptly thrust his hand out at Carlos. “We haven’t been introduced or whatever. I’m Chase Murphy, and this is my partner, Xavier Talbot.”

Carlos shook both men’s hands, still feeling a good dose of irritation towards them—

until Chase, then Xavier, both turned to Will with the same offer of a handshake. Then Carlos thought things just might be okay eventually.

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WHERE THERE’S A WILL

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Troy checked on Will, smiling like a sap when he saw that the PI was curled up around Troy’s pillow in the centre of the bed. He’d been sleeping since right after Carlos left, hours now, and Troy felt good giving Will this bit of peace, this small measure of safety.

Granted, Carlos had helped calm him and Will both. Troy had been impressed with the cowboy’s quiet tone and soft words. He’d been so angry, so ready to hurt Chester Leaks, but Carlos had, in the slow-talking, smooth-touching way he had, drained most of the anger right out of Troy. If he hadn’t peeked between almost shut lids and caught the flare of temper burning under Carlos’ expression, Troy wouldn’t have even known the cowboy was every bit as upset as Troy.

Troy had meant to do something about it, he really had, but he’d been so relaxed, and Carlos had urged him just to rest for a while, until Carlos could come back. And Troy had drifted in and out of sleep for a while before getting up finally sometime after Carlos had left.

Troy glanced at his alarm clock. That’d been hours ago. How long did it take to cook dinner for some guys?

Like it’d be so simple. They are probably grilling Carlos about fucking Will. Or bitching about
him doing it.
The idea of them doing something like questioning Carlos or nagging him made Troy’s blood pressure start to rise again. Carlos had stayed here and taken care of him and Will, but who was going to take care of Carlos? Yeah, Carlos could handle himself, but so could Troy and Will. But it’d been really nice to have someone else take care of them for a little while.

Did anyone ever do that for Carlos?
Could
anyone? Troy pondered the question and finally decided, yes, he and Will sure could. They’d just have to make sure Carlos didn’t feel like he was being coddled much.

Anticipation chased away Troy’s irritation as he smiled.
This is going to be fun.
Troy rubbed his hands together and made his way over to Will. He’d bet his little lover had all sorts of fun ideas for turning Carlos into a relaxed ball of warm, sated man. God knows Will could sure do it to him.

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Will had several favourite ways to be woken up, like having his dick sucked or his balls licked, or his ass cheeks spread and a warm slick tongue or thick hard cock fucking him. He wasn’t all up on being woken in a way that made him nearly wet himself, which was exactly what Troy did. One minute, Will was blissfully asleep, dreaming about things that weren’t anatomically possible for the most part, and the next he was being squashed under what seemed, to his sleep muddled mind, to be a gasping pile of elbows and knees.

“Get off,” Will huffed, shoving and squirming. Troy cursed and hit the floor with a thud that jarred Will’s bones in sympathy. “What the hell?” he muttered, sitting up and wondering if Troy had cracked a couple of his ribs. Will’s head was pounding too, or—“Duh, dipshit.” He got off the bed at the same time Troy tried to push to his feet, and the end result was not pretty.

“God! Get off me!” Will tried to sound exasperated, but in fact his sense of humour was waking up and doing a happy dance.
Nothing like doing our own pratfall comedy routine.
Troy, however, didn’t look as amused as someone pounded on the front door again. Will flopped back against the bed, figuring Troy was close to having a stroke as red-faced as he was. “Go on, I’m all clear.”

“Sorry,” Troy muttered. He stood up and held out a hand to Will. “I’m really sorry. I was gonna wake you up all nice and calmly.” He shrugged. “But I slid when I leaned over then someone started banging on the door. Fuck!”

Will let Troy help him up then followed him into the living room. “Just a sec!” Troy sounded pretty irritated. Will swept his hands down Troy’s back, over the very fine ass flexing under worn sweats. He gave those cheeks a squeeze and Troy stumbled as he looked over his shoulder at Will.

Will leered and squeezed again. “It’d take a better man than me to resist this. Or a straighter man, whatever.” Troy’s ass was definitely a work of art, much like the rest of him.

Will slapped one cheek just as another knock on the door sounded.

“Hey,” Troy yelped, reaching back to rub at his butt.

Will winked and edged around Troy to look out the peep hole—and promptly slammed back into Troy.

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“What’s wrong? Who is it?” Troy growled, thinking it must be Will’s insane family again. He pulled Will close to his chest and looked, and felt his stomach drop down to his ankles and spring back into jittery place. “Oh damn.”

“No shit.” Will trembled, from nerves or fear, Troy didn’t know. He was kind of in shock to see James out and about somewhere other than at his appointment, even if Glenn was right beside the redhead.

Troy’s hand shook a little as he unlocked the door. He tucked Will under one arm and looked at him. “You want me to send them away? I don’t think they’re here for anything bad.

James isn’t the violent type.” Well, Will should know what James was like.

“You know we can hear you,” Glenn called out through the door. “And we’ll leave if you want, but James really would like a few words with Will.”

“Shit,” Will squeaked, his eyes wide with what Troy took as fear. Sweat broke out on his forehead and upper lip, adding an instant glisten to his pale skin.

“Please,” another voice—James’—added. “I didn’t… I haven’t—”

“Let them in,” Will said as James’ strained tone sputtered out. “He’s got to be pushing himself hard just to be here.”