see Derek, he stood, coming out of his defensive crouch and stared at his kidnapped boyfriend.
“Dammit,” he yelled at Derek. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Shocked to his core, Derek yelled back. “What do you mean?”
Sam threw up his hands. “Why are you not invisible and trying to work out a way to get out of here? You bloody well disappear at the sight of my cock, and when there’s a room full of bad guys with guns you just hang around?”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Derek scowled at Sam. “If you didn’t happen to notice, I’m locked up. In a cage? With a padlock? I’m not a supo who can melt steel or walk through walls. And besides, where have you been? I’ve been waiting for ages.”
Sam stalked to the cage and rattled the lock. “Where have I been? I’ve been saving your ass!” He pulled at the padlock, yanked it, and tried to pull it off without success, then put his fingers in the wire and tried to force it apart. “Do you know how fucking scared I was when I found out they had you? I nearly went bloody invisible myself. I know I sure as hell detonated.”
He kicked at the cage and then bent and tried to force it off the ground. The wire stood fast.
“You’re blaming me for getting kidnapped?” Derek snapped. “They’re your friends. They only knew about me because of you. I told you your snooping around would get you into trouble.”
Visibly frustrated, Sam body-slammed the wire of the cage, trying to make a dent in it. The cage wall bowed ever so slightly, but it held fast. Sam tried kicking it again, a solid whomp with his foot. Nothing. Finally Derek could stand it no longer. “Um, Sam?” he asked tentatively.
Taking a run up, Sam hit the cage again with his shoulder. “Hold up, baby. I’ll get you out of there and then you can yell at me some more.”
Derek sat back on his nest of pillows. “Oh. Okay. No problem. I was just going to mention the fact that there’s a pair of bolt cutters on the tool bench behind you, but no worries. You go on with what you’re doing.”
Scowling, Sam gave a wordless growl of annoyance and grabbed the bolt cutters. With a marvelous show of strength, he snapped the padlock and opened the door of the cage, giving a small bow. “If you would follow me, sir?” he said with a grin.
Happily grinning back, Derek crawled out of the cage and stood, stretching his back. Then he took two steps and was enfolded in Sam’s embrace. For long minutes they held each other. “Thank you,” Derek said quietly. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“Were you ever in doubt?” Sam replied, just as quietly.
“Never,” Derek said. “Can’t you see? Can’t you see? You can actually see me, which means I wasn’t scared at all. I knew you would rescue me.”
Sam rubbed Derek’s shoulder. “They stole my heart when they stole you from me.”
“I know. I knew they wouldn’t get away with it. So I’ve been calm and waiting for you. I wrote down all their names and all the people they were extorting. You were right, Sam. The restaurant, the cafes, the dress shop, the bookstore. I wrote down everything they said.”
He held up the notebook proudly but Sam didn’t smile. “You mean while I’ve been tearing this town apart, knocking on doors, phoning everyone I knew, waking up small business owners, forming a coalition against the gang because the police wouldn’t help, searching warehouses, detaining and kidnapping my own prisoners, interrogating them with the help of irate chefs and jewelers with drills, endlessly tracking down every lead, and eventually following that bozo over there against the wall back to his hideout, you’ve been writing all the details down?”
“Yep.”
Sam gathered Derek into his arms and squeezed him tight. “Oh, my God. You’re my hero. You kept a cool head. I bet whatever you have will finally be enough for the police.”
A groan from Salvatore had them breaking apart. Sam heaved a sigh and pulled a handful of zip-ties from his pocket. With economical movements he rolled Salvatore and Jerry to their stomachs and fastened their hands behind their backs.
Derek watched his hero. “You know, I didn’t think there was anything sexier than you at that chalet, but you busting in here and taking care of things is definitely higher. I love it how you didn’t stop until you