no more incidents, make sure everyone keeps their mouths shut, and there’s no case. He has two years before the next election ramps up. He’s got time to wait and try something else.”
“And the Neighborhood Watch might still rake in some legitimate cash,” Nick said. “By now, there’s been enough damage for people to be jumpy.”
“How did this turn into our problem?” Brian asked.
Nick and Charlie looked at each other again, and there was a touch of blankness in their expressions. Then Charlie said, “He wanted to play hero,” at the same moment as Nick said, “He was bored,” and they laughed and bumped fists as if that settled it.
“Anyway,” Nick said. “Yasmin’s on their hit list. For shakedowns as well as damage, remember?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He felt his face flush. He’d been thinking about Nick’s safety and forgotten the wrecked tractor and the vulnerable sheep. “What do we do?”
Charlie said, “Right now, I go home and we get some sleep. Although that ain’t as easy as it sounds with a baby in the house.”
“Regretting signing up for that?” Nick teased.
“No.” Charlie looked down, plucking dog hairs off his shirt. “A kid— that’s a commitment. Eighteen years, I’ll have to stick around to see it through. Sometimes it helps to have made that kind of promise, y’know?”
A hollowness to his tone rang alarm bells in Brian’s head. What was the alternative to sticking around? “Charlie? You okay?”
Charlie looked up, his expression and voice brightening. “Now tomorrow we, what, go to the sheriff first?” He focused on Nick. “Or do we poke at Sam some more? Or start surveilling McNaught? He’d be more of a challenge than Sam.”
“Sheriff, I guess. Hint around at what we have, no names, see if she bites. If not, then we ramp up the pressure on McNaught.”
“It’s a plan.” Charlie got to his feet slowly, with a hefty boost from his hand on the recliner arm. He moved stiffer and slower than when he came in.
Nick said, “Call me in the morning.”
“Yep. I will.”
Luger jumped up from his mat to escort Charlie the ten steps to the door, watched him go out, then stood staring at the closed door, head cocked and tail slowly swinging, until the sound of Charlie’s car faded off down the road.
“Well.” Nick stretched against the back of the couch, his pose a showy reveal of toned arms and flat stomach. “Time for bed?”
Something hot and angry rose inside Brian. He turned away and went to the patio doors. “Luger. Outside.” He slid the door open enough to let the dog through, then closed it and stood against the glass watching as Luug sniffed around a bit, then watered a clump of dried weeds. Luger leaped up the three steps to the repaired deck in one bound and pressed his nose to the glass. Brian let him back in, shoved the latch handle down, and pulled the drapes across.
When he turned, Nick was watching him, sitting on the edge of the cushions, looking a bit less sure of himself. Good.
Brian wasn’t sure why he was irritated, or at whom. All he knew was that this time, tonight, Nick was not going to get everything his way. He said, “Bedroom. And strip.”
Nick blinked, then smiled slowly. “Just like that?”
“Now.” Brian kept his tone flat.
Nick sobered, stood, and turned for the bedroom. Being Nick, there was a sway to his ass, though. Brian moved up fast behind him, crowding him, grabbing a handful of shirt at the small of his back and snagging him to a stop. He bent and breathed into Nick’s ear, “I’m going to fuck you. Are you ready for that?”
Nick murmured, “Bathroom first. Ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Maybe three.” Nick jerked his shirt free and ducked left, and Brian let him go.
Reaching the bedroom, he closed the door in Luger’s face and paced beside the bed. He wasn’t sure why he was wound up, what part of waiting for Nick and Charlie to have their adventures and come home and plan more dangers was rubbing up inside him like stroking his fur the wrong way. You knew he was like this. He’s trying to be a cop again, and you have to let him.
That was the simple truth. Nick had even asked Brian’s opinion this time, before running off to investigate. So why did he want to pin Nick to the wall and use his size and weight to fuck his man senseless?
Maybe I should bottom. Maybe I’ll be too rough. He thought about