If anything, I wanted him more now than I had before.
“I’m going to shower,” I said abruptly. Bax said nothing. “You need to watch the window.”
In the bathroom, I turned on the shower to let the water heat while I stared at my reflection again in the mirror, swiping angrily at the steam as it fogged over. “What thehellwas that?” I demanded in a low murmur. I looked weary, red-eyed, and I needed a damn good shave. But there was no time for that kind of thing, not on stakeout.
Or whatever it was we were doing in this cheap hotel room.
I showered for a long time, figuring that it would give Baxter the necessary distance to pull himself together. It was a stupid thing we’d done, no doubt about that, but it would be fine as long as we didn’t talk about it.
I washed myself down twice and, when I found my cock still heavy and twitching on the third pass, gave in and jacked off slow and sweet. I couldn’t keep my mind from the kid, but why bother? I wanted to get off fast, get him out of my system. One more orgasm should do it.
And so I thought again about fucking that pretty mouth, and wondered what the other parts of him might feel like, what it would be like to have his cock in me, something for me to please myself with while I worked myself over like I was right then—
The second orgasm did not entirely get Baxter Flynn out of my mind, but it did make me start to think more clearly.
I would go back out and tell him to leave. Tell him to fuck off, like I should have right at the start, turn himself into the task force, or hell, the local precinct. Tell him to trust to justice, just as he had his whole life, hold strong to his black-and-white ideals.
But as I wrapped a threadbare towel around my waist, I heard it, the sound to which any Family member is attuned: sirens. Close and getting closer.
I burst out of the bathroom just as Bax started shouting for me. He was standing naked at the window, his fist clenched above his head and resting on the pane. He glanced over his shoulder. “Something’s happening,” he said grimly.
The sirens had stopped, but lights were still flashing from the street below. I came up behind Bax to look down. Two police cars and an ambulance. The cops were directing bystanders to move on, while the paramedics ran into the building.
Fuck.
They could have been going for any apartment in that place, of course. But long experience had taught me that the worst outcome was probably the most likely.
“What’s going on?” Bax murmured, craning his neck.
“Get away from the window,” I told him, already starting to pack up the computer. Thank God we’d gone light. I’d send my associate back to get the cameras later in the day. “Flynn,” I snapped, as he ignored me. “Get the hell away from the window.”
He took one ungracious step back. “But what do you think—”
“Our mark is dead. We need to blow. Pack your shit and do it fast.”
I started wipe downs of all surfaces as Baxter began to obey. He was slow at first but picked up pace as my own sense of urgency grew.
“But how do you know it’s—”
“We don’t have time to talk now.”
My brief wipe-down would have to do. Even if they did find evidence of us being here, it was circumstantial. Thank God I’d brought my own sheets, I thought, as I bundled them up. The amount of DNA sprayed all over them…
Baxter was back by the window. “Shit, they’re coming back out. Slowly.”
I went over to yank him back, but paused to watch as the paramedics re-emerged from the apartment building doors with all their gear. They packed it back into the ambulance and left the scene.
“Why are they just leaving like that?” Baxter wondered, more to himself than to me.
“Because they aren’t needed. Whoeverwasin there is dead, and their corpse is now officially part of a crime scene. So we need to get out of here before the whole street is crawling with cops.” I put my hand on his arm. “Bax. We’ve fucked this up enough already. If we hadn’t—if I’d been watching—” My anger rose up, anger athim, though it wasn’t fair.
I only had myself to blame.
“Let’s go,” I said again.
“It might not be him,” Bax began.
“It’shim, for fuck’s sake. No more of this magical thinking. We let whoever it was walk in there, kill him, and get out again while we were—” I bit off what I really wanted to say. It wasn’t his fault, I reminded myself. It was my own. I had let myself become distracted. “Anyway, one thing should cheer you up.”
