threatening the city and my people.”
Silence fell on the kitchen, and Angel stood with his back to them. Even without an ability to read a person’s emotional pile, Darren could feel the pain and the hint of panic. If they pushed, Angel was going to run for the hills, and with his bank account, those might be the hills of some country on the opposite side of the world.
“Kavon?” Darren asked.
Kavon nodded. “Let’s go. Mr. Zamora, please consider giving us some assistance. Sometimes we do things we hate because the alternative is something we would hate more.”
They walked out, leaving a shaken Angel behind.
“That didn’t go as well as I had hoped,” Darren said.
Kavon was silent as they walked back to the SUV. Once he started the vehicle, he said, “He’s meaner than I remember. That man knows how to use the truth to cut a person.”
“What?” Darren asked, but Kavon was silent and the bond was still. Great. Kavon had locked him out. Again. Darren sighed. This was the worse vacation ever, and that included the one where he’d gotten caught in the suction cleaner of a hotel pool and nearly drowned.
Chapter Twenty One
Instead of going back to the office, Kavon steered toward home. Darren was uncharacteristically silent, which Kavon appreciated because his own thoughts were spinning. He had always prided himself on not caring what anyone else thought, but he had shaped his entire career based on earning Dave’s approval. He had turned his back on his parents and siblings and thought that made him a man. Sure, he still called on holidays and visited every couple of years, but the tight bonds he’d enjoyed growing up were gone. He’d cut them in a desperate attempt to get away from a life he’d hated. And he’d thought that made him independent and strong.
As they were heading to the elevator, one of their neighbors waved. Before Darren had moved in, none of Kavon’s neighbors even recognized him. Of course, back then Kavon never would have played basketball with them or helped people carry moving boxes. Darren had pulled him out of a self-imposed exile Kavon hadn’t recognized.
Maybe Darren recognized Kavon’s dark mood, because he didn’t say a word as they headed up to their apartment. When Kavon saw their unguarded door—again—a frisson of worry distracted him long enough for Darren to slip his own hand into Kavon’s. Normally Kavon avoided public displays of affection, but no one was around, and the lack of his bull guarding the door left Kavon disquieted. He squeezed back.
Kavon expended enough magic to check his perimeter defenses before reclaiming his hand from Darren so he could unlock the door.
“I was hoping to find the guides here,” Darren said softly, his disappointment echoing Kavon’s. The lack of guides was only one part of his frustration with the day.
“Me too,” Kavon admitted. Had he said that before? Had he even admitted to his lover—his bond mate—that he was afraid? Did Darren want to hear that?
“Okay, what’s going on with you?” Darren asked the second he closed the front door.
Kavon headed to the living room couch. “I have no idea,” he admitted. He felt about a hundred years old, and just to prove he wasn’t shutting Darren out, he opened the bond and let all his confusion flow through.
Darren shrugged out of his suit jacket and dropped it onto the kitchen counter before sitting next to Kavon. “Is this about what Angel said? He’s full of shit. You are not some machismo asshole who tears others down.”
Kavon tried hard not damage others, but he wasn’t so sure. He’d gutted Darren by letting him get too close and then pushing him away. And how many agents had they gone through on the team? White had even warned him about not being so rough with the new agents, and Kavon’s solution had been to have Coretta deal with the newbies. Kavon closed his eyes. God help him, and now he had Milton Ackie, an agent who needed gentle handling. They needed Ackie’s skills, but Kavon was going to fuck this up.
“Whoa. What is going on with you?” Darren shifted to sit cross-legged and sideways on the couch. Then he rested both his hands on Kavon’s knee.
Kavon rolled his head to the side and studied Darren. The man had more compassion than anyone Kavon had ever met.
“You said I was lying when I said I didn’t care what people thought about me.”
Darren frowned as if he didn’t remember the conversation