Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,47

we waited. When I buzzed again, I glanced at Derek as worry nipped at my chest.

“I’ll try calling him, maybe the buzzer’s busted.” My stomach clenched. The buzzer wasn’t busted. We all knew it, could hear it sounding when I rang. Oh, God. Ben. My stomach churned as I pictured Ben, injured, in need of help.

“Good idea.”

While I listened to Ben’s phone ring, the twins crowded around the security door, and before I ever hung up, it popped open.

“What—?”

Ben’s voicemail droned in the background while Matt slinked into the back foyer and headed straight up the stairs, Derek gave me a grin, and I stood slack-jawed. They’d broken in. Jimmied a lock. Broke and entered.

“After you, princess.” Sean held the door and swept an arm as an invitation.

Shocked and pleased, I ended the call and hurried inside, shooting Derek a look as I scuttled past. He laughed and matched my quick pace as I jogged up the concrete stairs. “I told you they’d come in handy.”

“Breaking and entering!” I gasped and shot him a look. “Not what I expected from you. You’re a doctor.”

“Hey, I wasn’t here. My prints are not on that door. And besides”—he pushed past me and spoke over his shoulder—“I could have popped that lock quicker than they did.”

A bolt of arousal shot through me. “Stop. You’re turning me on.” Angelic savior Derek had lock-picking skills?

“I’m a foster brat, remember?” He winked and picked up the pace, his divinely pert ass ascending away from me as my heart tumbled. Damn, a secret bad boy. The Dish was getting hotter by the day, and I wondered how many more sides he had. So far, I liked them all.

I was out of breath when we made it to the fourth floor, but his grin told me he was barely warming up.

“Here.” I slapped his ass with the back of my hand and bit back a moan at the firmness of the rebound, then pointed to the fire exit door. “This way.”

Heat climbed up my spine when I pushed past him, and his hand grazed over my hip, dangerously close to my crotch. I led the way to Ben’s apartment, but Matt had gotten there first and stood outside the open door.

“No one’s home.”

His huge frame took up most of the door opening, and Derek held my shoulder as I tried to peer around the bulk.

“It’s the same scene Eli reported about Sebastian’s apartment,” he said to Derek, as if I wasn’t standing right there.

“Excuse me.” I pried past Matt.

“It’s not pretty.” The twin’s warning came too late. I was already inside, stunned by what I saw.

“Oh, man…” I turned in the middle of what used to be Ben’s living room and took in the devastation.

The place had been destroyed, just like my apartment, only his apartment looked ten times worse because Ben had way more stuff than I did. His huge screen television was a busted bundle of wires and plastic, the legs of his dining table were snapped off, ugly leather couches were ripped to shreds, frames that once held sports jerseys were smashed, bookshelves were knocked over, and even the glass on the kitchen cabinets had been broken.

But where was Ben? I rushed into his bedroom, half expecting to see him face-down with a gunshot wound to the head, but let out a sigh of relief when I found it empty. The stuffing from his gutted mattress coated every surface like a blanket of fake snow, but no sign of Ben. But even without a body, none of this was good. If he wasn’t here, where was he? From the looks of things, he was in as much trouble as I was, but he sure didn’t have a team of hot homos helping him out. I crouched down and clutched my stomach, urging to cramps to leave and my lungs to take a decent breath.

Dr. Dish came to stand at my side and dropped a hand on my shoulder. “How are you doing?”

“I’m okay.” I sounded calmer than I expected, and I wiped my hands together and was surprised to find they weren’t sweaty. Maybe I really was okay.

“We found this.” He held up a busted laptop with its hard drive and all the other innards hanging out of its warped case. “Think it’s worth taking with us?”

It was almost definitely the laptop I’d ‘thawed’ for Ben when this whole shit had started, and a little bubble of hope floated up in my chest. “Nice. Yeah,