And maybe—maybe—it had stung a little when Bryce hadn’t said anything back. But that was okay. Tom hadn’t said it because he expected something in return. Bryce wasn’t the kind of man who could be rushed, not with things that mattered.
He pulled into the hotel lot and found Jax out there, checking his SUV. While Tom didn’t think any of the people from Elk Ridge he’d met were likely to have booby trapped the car while Jax slept, he couldn’t fault Jax’s attention to detail.
Jax rolled out from under the vehicle as he approached.
“Embedded yourself pretty deep in that pack, huh?” he said, standing and dusting off his hands. His eyes swept over Tom like he was logging a tactical weakness. “Guess that’s one way to get access. Some of us stick to more professional methods.”
Tom didn’t want to deal with Jax’s judgment this early in the morning, especially not when it was so richly deserved. So he ignored his wolf, snarling inside him at the implication Tom had only slept with Bryce for a way into the pack, and tamped down his anger.
“Is there something I should know about Karl Griffin?” he asked. It had been bugging the hell out of him, and he wanted to show his mind was on the job, despite the fact he was standing there in yesterday’s clothes. “His name didn’t throw up any red flags on the searches I forwarded to you.”
Subtlety was lost on Jax, so he might as well remind him that Tom had cooperated fully and deserved the same in return.
Jax darted a glance around the parking lot. Just a few yards away, a family was standing beside their car, talking. “In a minute,” he said curtly.
One of these days, Tom was going to grow accustomed to the paranoia that surrounded everyone in DC. He waited with the appearance of patience while the family discussed at excruciating length how to order their plans for the day. Eventually, they all got into the car and left.
“Back in the corps, Griffin was a legend,” Jax said, and for the first time Tom heard respect in Jax’s voice for someone other than himself. “Ghosted in, ghosted out. No one ever really saw him, but everybody knew where he’d been. Then he vanished for good—just dropped off the grid. Rumor was, something went sideways. But that’s all anyone ever heard. And now he turns up here, living like a burnout, taking orders from some wannabe alpha with a handful of shifters to his name? That’s not the Griffin I heard about, Barrington.” He shook his head impatiently. “I don’t get it.”
And that was Jax’s other problem—lack of imagination. Matt Urban’s pack was tiny, but far from being a wannabe, Matt would give the alphas of the biggest packs in the country a run for their money, if he chose. Instead, he’d somehow unearthed an Argent. Tom wanted to laugh with the ridiculousness of it, but he knew Jax would only think he was laughing athim.
And, while Matt was a force to be reckoned with, it didn’t answer how Karl Griffin had ended up here. Tom couldunderstand why he stayed, though. God knew, the place had a magnetic pull. Or maybe that was just Bryce.
“Maybe he’s got a partner here,” Tom suggested. There wasn’t one in the pack, but a few shifters dated non-shifters.
Jax shrugged. “Didn’t ask. Still doesn’t explain why a guy like that would tank his whole rep to hole uphere.” The way he looked around the lot said exactly what he thought of the place.
Jax started toward the hotel. Something in the way he moved, together with the fatigues he favored, gave him an unmistakable air of menace. It was one he cultivated—he maintained that subtle, unobtrusive suits were for Secret Service types who’d lost their balls.
“Anyway, you’ve been here for days.Youshould have found out why Griffin’s here.” Jax cut a sideways glance at him. “Thought you were supposed to be Steadman’s prodigy.”
Tom blinked, because,what?“She just asks me to do the stuff no one else wants to do,” he said truthfully.
“Well next time, make sure you’ve done your damn job before jumping the nearest warm body,” Jax said as he pushed open the front door and neglected to hold it open for Tom.
He didn’t follow Jax into the lobby. If he had, he might have punched him. Instead, he took the side stairs two at a time, not stopping until he was inside his hotel room with the door locked behind him. Empty and silent, with impersonal patterned carpet and dark drapes adding to the impression of gloom.
He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed a hand over his face. The apartment in DC was a world away from this room. It was modern, sleek, and airy. He used to think it was what he wanted. But now, all he could picture was the messy sprawl of Bryce’s bedroom and the comfort of the rumpled sheets.
Then, uninvited, the memory of Jax’s contempt sliced through. Like Tom was soft for wanting something as simple as connection. As if strength were only to be found inaggression. When the security detail assembled in full gear—military fatigues, sidearms, comm units—they didn’t look like bodyguards, these days. They looked like a private army. One that answered only to Bennett.
And the detail was growing, just like Bennett’s power base. Just like Tom’s unease. Which was yet another reason to do his job well. Steadman needed the facts to keep Bennett in check. And Jesse deserved a chance to face the world on his own terms.
He leaned back, arms braced behind him on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. In another minute, he’d get his thoughts in order for the councilors’ arrival, but first, he just wanted to think about Bryce a little longer.
He didn’t know what this was between them. What it could be. But he knew he didn’t want to let go of it.
Chapter Sixteen
BRYCE
Bryce padded along the edge of the trail, ears flicking, Karl ahead and silent. They were checking for intruders and familiarizing themselves with the scent of the guards Jax had set outside their boundaries, before the councilors arrived. And he was doing that. Mostly.
But with Karl’s razor-edged competence not needing any help, his focus kept slipping.
It made no damn sense. He’d only known Tom Barrington a matter of days. And yet Bryce couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d smiled into his coffee, rumpled and soft that morning, or the solid weight of him curled against Bryce during the night. The way he’d let himself be held, and had held Bryce in return. It had unsettled Bryce, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
He’d given his heart away when he was sixteen, and never asked for it back. Never beenableto get it back, not when Mattwas his whole world. And all these years, he’d been faithful, emotionally celibate, waiting for Matt to see him that way. But he never had.
