"So yeah, I'm not really sure I want to do it anymore." Tristan's face morphed into a sad smile. "I think I just want simple stuff now. I'd give anything to have Natalie back, even if I had to go to some crappy job and be an absolute nobody with a boring life."
Tristan's melancholy blanketed him, and again, Cade lacked the words of comfort that others might offer, so he stayed silent.
The walk back was quiet and contemplative, and the only sounds were the animals and the branches that splintered under theirfeet. Back at the cabin, Cade toed off his shoes and sank into the sofa.
Checking his phone, he told Tristan, "Annabeth texted."
"What's up? Did they find something?" Tristan sat beside him, his eyes wide with hope.
"Yeah. Annabeth was able to access surveillance video from the warehouse, and Hamm assigned two guys to review it. But she's still working on breaking the encryption."
Throwing himself against the back of the sofa, Tristan let out a frustrated growl. "That's good, I guess, but I want to help. Ask Annabeth if there's anything else I can do to help."
Tossing him a skeptical look, Cade typed out a brief text. When Annabeth replied curtly with 'not right now,' he was almost afraid to relay the message. When he did, Tristan glared at him so intensely that he felt guilty even though he hadn't done anything. He muttered, "Sorry," and tucked his phone back into his pocket.
Tristan sat unmoving, his face drawn into a frown, seemingly gathering his thoughts. When he pulled the laptop to him and started typing on the computer, Cade asked, "What are you looking for now?"
"I figured I'd look for sex trafficking research to see if there's anything about how rings were found and broken up. Maybe I'll find something useful. I don't know. It's all I can think of right now."
Cade's heart squeezed a little at Tristan's quiet, flat tone. For the next few hours, he scrolled on his phone and covertly tracked the other man's expressions. Every emotion, from frustration to annoyance to disillusionment, played out on Tristan's face, and it was fascinating. He was definitely getting way too invested in Tristan's emotional state.
He found himself empathizing with Tristan's situation far more than he had with any other victim. Maybe it was the proximity,the prolonged exposure, or because he found him attractive. Regardless of the reason, the case would be over soon, and these feelings would go away.
In theory.
When he found himself dozing off from pure boredom, Cade took a walk around the cabin. He returned and searched the kitchen for something to do, settling on neatly arranging the cans of soup alphabetically in the cabinets. At one point, he dropped to do pushups. He was focused on counting when Tristan squeaked, "Wh.. what are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
He glanced over and found Tristan's head peeking over the back of the sofa. His eyes were a little too wide, his gaze a tad too intense, his cheeks a bit too pink.
"Why are you doing pushups now?"
"Because I'm bored."
"Do you do this a lot?"
"Yeah, most days."
"Oh." Tristan's eyes were fixed on him, and Cade started to feel self-conscious, but he disregarded the feeling and focused on counting. When he got to one hundred, he stopped and stood.
Tristan was still gaping at him, his face flushed as if he had been the one exercising.
"Are you okay?"
"Yep!" the redhead chirped before he turned back to the computer, leaving Cade scowling in confusion.
What the fuck was that about? Could it be … had Tristan been checking him out? Was Tristan attracted to him? Jesus, that would not be good. He had to shut down those thoughts immediately, or his stupid urges might give him ideas.
This was a job, and Tristan was under his protection. Even if he disregarded those very important factors and they both wanted to get naked, Tristan would probably balk at Cade's preferences.
Cade managed to avoid thinking about Tristan in the nude for the next hour or so, mostly anyway, and when the other man finally tore himself from the laptop around dinner time, he stretched and declared himself famished. Anxious to have something to keep him occupied, Cade offered to cook dinner. He plopped a bag of rice on the counter and asked Tristan to make it as he prepared to sear two slabs of steak in a pan.
When he was met with silence, he turned to find Tristan looking sheepish with his cheeks and the tips of his ears stained red.
"What?"
"I, um, don't exactly know how to do that."
