And Will was enjoying the hell out of teasing Cole. He always had, to be fair; there was just something satisfying about rumpling a person who prided himself on being so put-together. But this time around in particular, Will couldn’t seem to stop himself from pushing to see just how far he could take things before Cole snapped his teeth and Will had to retreat.
Not that he could say all that to Cole.
“It’s how I show affection,” he settled on as the plane began its descent. The local airport was too small to have a manned tower this late at night, but the center controller was broadcasting automated information to help guide them in close.
“How you drive people crazy, maybe.”
“Oh, that too,” Will agreed. “You should have heard Baby Boy ream me up one side and down the other for being late with check-in.” He tilted his head. “You two kind of remind me of each other, actually.”
Cole glanced at him. “How could I possibly remind you of your brother?”
“You both put up a harsh front in the face of emotional distress,” Will replied instantly. “Which, now that I think of it, makes a lot of sense given how you were raised, constantly having to prove yourself to somewhat distant parents, never being able to rely on a confidant other than yourselves…” Yeah, there were some startling similarities between the two, actually.
“I thought you grew up together.”
“Eh.” Will waggled a hand back and forth. “By the time we got into the system, I was too old for most people to even think about adopting me. Being stubborn as a mule didn’t help, either.” Will smiled as he thought back. “I kept running away from my foster families to go check on Baby Boy. He was adopted almost immediately, cute little shit, but I had to makesure his new parents were treating him right. That got me kicked out of a lot of placements until I finally ran away for good.”
Cole was quiet for a moment before asking, “His parents didn’t want you, too?”
Not even close.
“They couldn’t afford two kids, much less three,” was all Will said.
“Who was the third?—”
The radio crackled to life, and Cole refocused. “Starbase Airport Tower, this is Cessna 48722 eight miles northeast with Charlie, landing full stop.”
Will snickered at the airport name.Someone’s a sci-fi fan.He listened as Cole and the air traffic controller talked through the landing. Wow, so formal. So official. So different from picking a strip of grass and just going for it. Ten minutes later they were on the ground, heading for a hangar. It was all so… civilized.
And boring.
“You could have bounced once or twice on the way in,” Will said. “Y’know, to keep my spirits up.”
“I can’t control for your feelings of inadequacy,” Cole said, but even though it was dark Will could tell he was smiling. He liked being able to know how Cole was feeling from the sound of his voice. It felt like privileged information.
“Nor would you care to,” Will replied. “All right, big shot. We’ve landed at the ass-end of Virginia. Now what do we do?”
“What, you don’t have a safehouse near here?” Cole replied as he finally brought the plane to a halt.
“Nah, this coast seems more like your stompin’ grounds,” he said. “I’ll leave it to you to pick the next one. What have you got up your sleeve? Another private island? Maybe a historical villa in the middle of?—”
“Actually,” Cole said as he pulled off the headset he’d been wearing. It left a flat space in the middle of his hair that was justbegging to be fluffed. “I think we need to avoid my established safehouses for the time being.”
Huh. “Mmmkay. Why is that?”
“Because.”
Oh, ha. No. “Not that I don’t think it’s cute when you try to stonewall me,” Will said, “but I’m not gettin’ out of this plane until you tell me what’s going on in your head.”
Cole glared at him. “I could just leave you here.”
In a showdown over abandonment issues, Will was going to fucking win. “Do it, then,” he taunted. “Run away and handle things all on your little lonesome instead of giving me thirty seconds of fucking honesty. Then when Alders drags you and your family through the mud and Marcus trashes your rep to the point of no return, you can comfort yourself with the satisfaction of knowing that you won an argument you didn’t even need to have?—”
“I think my safehouses are compromised.” Theyou jackasswent unsaid but very well heard at the end there. Will didn’t care; at least they had a starting point now.
“Okay,” he said easily. “Is this why we didn’t go to your place in Buffalo?”
“In part.”
