Concealed Hearts (Hometown Jasper #4) - Nicky James Page 0,50

determined.”

Reluctantly, I pulled away. Tomi turned around and scanned me head to toe. “You look good, Chief Elkhart. Tired, but good.”

“Can I bring anything back from town?”

He considered, glancing around the kitchen once before shaking his head. “We’re set on food. Can’t think of anything else.”

“How are we on cleaning supplies?”

Tomi swatted my shoulder and shoved me from the kitchen. “Get to work. I’m not that bad.”

“You’re rearranging Easton’s kitchen, and I smell oven cleaner.”

“I’m bored. I clean when I’m bored. And have you looked in that oven?”

When I peered back, I must have had that look in my eyes. It was my greatest concern. Tomi was stuck out at the cabin all alone most days while I worked. Our arrangement didn’t allow him even a simple trip to town. He’d assured me it was fine, but I could tell it was getting to him. Every day that passed, the scrambled look in his eyes was worse. He said his mind was busy, and it made him antsy. Normally, working on his research or math stuff helped, but he hadn’t brought enough to do.

He stopped my next words with a kiss. “Go. I’m fine.”

So I went.

Every time I took the service road from the mountains and out onto the county road that led into town, I anticipated someone seeing me and figuring out what Tomi and I were hiding. I held my breath, scanning the horizon for a car or a hiker who’d recognize my old beat-up CJ and report it to someone in town who’d tell their friend who’d somehow figure out the whole puzzle without having all the pieces.

It hadn’t happened yet, and today was just another day.

Instead of aiming for the station to grab a patrol car, I drove to the high school, praying whatever awaited me could be taken care of quickly. An awful churning in my gut told me it wouldn’t.

The high school was closed for the summer. Apart from a few janitors who spent the months of July and August cleaning, the place was desolate. Not a single car occupied the student parking lot. Two cruisers sat alongside the road, and two other vehicles were parked in the staff lot on the other side of the building.

I pulled up behind the cruisers and parked. The front of the school seemed normal and untouched by the vandalism John had reported. As I aimed to walk around back, Julie appeared from the side of the building.

“Hey, Chief. John’s waiting for you.” She thumbed over her shoulder. “I have to take another call, but he said you were on your way.”

“Thanks.”

We exchanged smiles. Julie was a quiet woman. She came and did her job but hadn’t gone out of her way to build a rapport with her coworkers. She was a big-city gal and seemed to be struggling to shed her big-city ways.

Around the back of the school, John stood with a man I knew only as Pokey. He’d been a janitor at the school since I was in attendance. I didn’t know how old the man was, but he was old thirty years ago when I attended Jasper High.

I joined him and John, only then noticing the wall of graffiti. It stopped me in my tracks. I’d seen the teenagers express their slurs and homophobic remarks on buildings before. A while back, Easton had dealt with something similar out at his ranch. This time, it was as John had said. Personal.

Each remark was aimed at this Grant kid, naming him a faggot, announcing he liked sucking cock, and one roughly etched message claimed he had AIDS. Like when I’d come upon this sort of thing at Easton’s, my stomach dropped, and a sick rotting pit in my gut made me want to throw up.

This was where a lot of my fears were rooted. Being a gay man meant opening yourself up to slurs and violence and attacks by a world full of homophobes. I’d had a small taste of this back when I was in my early twenties, and I’d retreated as far into the closet as possible as a result.

Whoever this Grant kid was, I hurt for him.

John moved up beside me and handed me a large coffee in a paper cup from the Jasper Café and Bakery. “It’s nasty, isn’t it? Pokey showed up to work this morning and found it. Called it in right away.”

“Sure did.” Pokey shook his head, his thin silver hair flapping in the breeze. “Disgusting. Kids today are getting