Tobias mouthed kisses along Soren’s bare chest, along his fuzzy abdomen, fingers hooking into his underwear to drag them out of the way before flicking his gaze up to meet Soren’s as his tongue darted over his slit. “Then I guess you’ll just have to be really careful.”
Epilogue
Soren
Soren sank against the worn leather seat of the rental SUV and cranked the volume knob on the radio. Meringue music filled the cab and coaxed one booted foot into a steady tapping rhythm. Headlights streaked past him in the parking lot of the busy apartment complex where he waited. Another pair followed, signaling the end of the workday rush. Soren glanced at the clock on the dash and fiddled restlessly with his sleeve. Five more minutes and then…
Toby rounded the corner of one of the complex’s old brick buildings, looking every bit the part of another one of the young professionals that lived here, with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder.
Soren’s lips split in a grin as the doc strolled closer, in no hurry. Goddamn, he was handsome. A total fucking whack job but hot as hell and endlessly intriguing to Soren. He leaned over the console and pushed the door open just as Toby reached for the handle.
“How’d it go, Doc?”
Toby answered by sliding into the cab, yanking the door shut, and pulling Soren toward him for a sizzling kiss.
“So, good, then,” Soren said when they came up for air. The way Toby kissed him had turned out to be a reliable barometer for the doctor’s state of mind, and the searing intensity of that last one was promising. Pride swelled in Soren’s chest at how far Toby had come in such a short time.
“Pretty good. A few things could've been improved. Some I can work on, some were just him.” Toby pulled the seatbelt over his shoulder with a shake of his head. “He didn’t fight as much as I’d hoped. That was disappointing.”
“Some men know this life will catch up to them eventually and they’ve made relative peace with it,” Soren ventured. The target, Peter Talbot, had that sort of look in his eyes, even in the mug shot Toby had shown him. Soren had flipped through the attached file, skimming the laundry list of chargeable offenses, like pedophilia, then moved on to Toby’s notes, which were much more exhaustive and included suspicions of his involvement in a snuff film ring but nothing law enforcement had been able to charge the guy with.
Toby sighed. “Yeah, I know this. It’s my face, I think. It’s just not intimidating enough.”
“It’s very attractive,” Soren agreed, then broke into a chuckle. “You think maybe you should go in with a Freddie Krueger mask on sometime?”
Toby cracked a small smile for the joke. “Maybe. Or a clown mask. God, you wouldn’t believe some of the hulks of men I’ve counseled who admit to being absolutely terrified of a clown. Even just a figurine. It’s quite amusing. Clowns are truly a collective consciousness thing.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I could start trying to figure out my target’s greatest fears beforehand and then try to incorporate them. That could be fun.”
“It’ll be something, yeah.” Soren snorted lightly but didn’t shoot down the idea. Toby had his methods and desires, after all, and as long as it didn’t get them caught, who was he to say how Toby should take his guys out. Plus, it was entertaining as hell to be along for the ride.
They’d devised Toby’s system together. In order to avoid tripping suspicion, the doc didn’t take out active patients. He worked from the bottom of his list up, old patients who’d moved on, other psychopaths that Toby had researched who’d never been nailed down by the law. Some had moved on or vanished. Then they would call up Cas to do his hacker magic and find the person. Sometimes, they were already dead, and some candidates weren’t viable because they were too close to home. Since Toby wasn’t quite ready to give up his practice, they maintained a balance and Soren promised him, someday, when the time was right and Toby was ready to retire for good, they’d go for the remainder of the list over a bloody span of weeks before vanishing for good themselves.
Soren put the car in gear and pulled out of the complex parking lot. “I’ve been thinking of an idea you could use once or twice if there are any current patients who really piss you the hell off.”
Toby brushed lint from his trousers and arched a brow. “Your ideas always fascinate me.”
“Unless it’s a sex swing,” Soren said pointedly.
“Unless it’s a sex swing,” Toby agreed. They’d tried that out of curiosity a couple of weeks ago and, well, it hadn’t been all it was cracked up to be. Then Mantis had got ahold of the straps and shredded the thing.
“We’re better organic,” Soren said. “But, I was thinking, what if you use one guy on your list to kill the other guy?”
“I’m a shrink, not a Jedi. I can’t mindtrick my patients into killing each other.” Toby paused, running a thumb over his lower lip. “Actually, that would be an intriguing challenge.”
Soren reached out, squeezing Toby’s thigh fondly. Toby caught his hand and laced their fingers, and Soren was careful not to comment on the action, just enjoy it. Toby was, in his own time, practicing casual affection. Sometimes, he even seemed to like it. Soren thought so, anyway. “I mean, maybe you can just kill both guys and make it look like they killed each other.”
Toby turned fully and stared at Soren. “Oh. That’s an awful idea.”
Soren shrugged. “Not really. I saw it in a movie once. Worked out great for them.”
Toby spluttered and then laughed. “You’re saying that just to mess with me.”
“A little bit, but I’m also a hundred percent serious. Would be fun to try sometime, at least.”
Toby shook his head with a smile. “Sometimes, I’m not sure how you’ve made it this far without getting caught.”
“Told you. Me and the universe have an understanding of sorts. One day, we’ll disagree, I’m sure. But...hasn’t happened yet.” Soren put on the blinker and turned into the parking lot of a motel with a kitsch neon sign proclaiming it the Alpine Inn, all honeymoon suites.
“What’s this?”
