Yeah. Sure they were. Slade knew exactly the kind of friendship Carson offered. The guy had an eerie way of finding a guy when he was down and worming his way into their life. Slade knew firsthand. He’d spent nearly a year with Carson dragging him around by his dick.
It damn sure didn’t surprise him that Carson would be interested in Atticus. He was just his type. Young, hot. And likely open for some heart-stopping sex. That seemed all that Carson needed—a spark. From there, he was capable of amping up the intensity to the nth degree. Slade knew from experience.
Not that he spent time dwelling over what might’ve been with Carson. He’d gotten over him a long time ago. Not quite as long ago as he would’ve preferred, but he wasn’t heartbroken anymore. He’d stopped thinking about their time together in the negative sense and reflected on the good times. Slade wouldn’t deny he’d enjoyed the hell out of himself. Carson had taught him things he’d never imagined possible. At least not when it came to sex. To say the guy liked kink was an understatement.
But what Slade had thought was something real had turned out to be one of Carson’s many games. Carson was like Spencer in that regard. Minus the traitorous affair. Carson didn’t sleep with other people’s wives. And not because Carson was gay. He was a good guy. A standup guy. He merely had an issue with settling down.
Or he had. Back when Slade had been his entertainment.
“Well, you watch out for that one,” Luca told Atticus. “He’s squirrelly.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“Trust me, you’ll figure it out.”
Slade fought the urge to look up. He sensed Atticus’s confusion, but no way was he going to weigh in this time. He’d done that already by getting in between Atticus and Spencer. Atticus could figure this one out on his own.
“Why do you look like you’ve got your … what was it? Nuts in a vise?” Evan asked, his voice too low for anyone else to hear.
Slade rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t sound the same comin’ from you.”
Evan laughed. “Yeah. I realized that as soon as it came out. You want to grab a beer after work?”
“Yeah.” Anything to keep him from thinking about Atticus and Carson together.
If the mental image of the two of them together wasn’t so fucking hot, he was certain the idea would’ve repulsed him.
Damn certain.
***
As Baz drove home from HQ, heconsidered stopping at the grocery store before going to the house. It would save time. Usually, he would’ve picked JJ up, whether at the house or the office, so she didn’t have to be alone. She preferred it that way.
These days, though, she was exerting her independence to convince him that she was okay. To prove her point, she had slipped out of the office early after closing out the last of the details on Decker’s case. When they didn’t have a case keeping them busy, she preferred slipping out early on Fridays. As soon as she mentioned leaving, Baz had immediately offered to go with her, but she had reminded him that she had driven herself that morning.
Those reminders were coming a bit more frequently these days. JJ’s routine was changing, and she was becoming more independent. He knew she was doing it because she wanted him to believe she was no longer scared to be by herself. Whether that was true, he didn’t know for sure, but Baz knew bringing it up would only cause an argument, so he didn’t make a fuss about it. He trusted her to know what was best for her.
Baz would’ve preferred to chauffeur her everywhere she needed to go, but JJ had told him it was weird. Again, her way of making them both believe she was moving forward, one step at a time. It had taken her a long time to get over what had happened the night before her house exploded, and Baz understood. She’d been drugged that night, and while nothing had been done to her physically—thank fucking God—it had been traumatic to wake up in a pool of blood. Turned out to be animal blood, but the damage had been done, regardless.
To help her move forward, Baz suggested they replace her car with a new one. He’d been driving her everywhere she needed to go for a solid year at that point. At first, she’d blown him off, using the excuse that it was more cost-effective to ride together. Then, once a month, he would bring it up. By the sixth time he made the suggestion, she pretended to be excited about the idea. For his sake, he knew. So back in June, they bought her a Toyota RAV4, newer and nicer than her previous one, which had also been decimated in the house explosion.
These days, she made an effort to drive herself at least once a week, giving him time to work with the rest of the team on open cases once they returned from the field. Today, she’d left him at the office when he was set up in the conference room with Charlie and Jay, going over what they’d learned during their time in Chicago. Her timing had been intentional. Had he not been in the middle of something, he would’ve left with her.
If he had to guess, she’d gone straight home, unlocked the front door, disarmed the alarm, then locked herself in, resetting the alarm.
She was taking baby steps, and he was proud of her. She still wasn’t comfortable being alone for long periods, but she was learning to do it. Baz assured her she would one day be back to normal, urging him to leave so she could have some time to herself.
Baz decided hewouldgo to the grocery store before he went home. If nothing else, to show her he trusted her judgment and wasn’t hovering, although he was prone to do just that.
He told Siri to call JJ and waited until her voice sounded through the truck’s speaker.
She answered on the first ring. “Are you on the way home?”
“Yeah,” he told her. “I thought I’d stop at the grocery store first.”
“Ooh. Yay. What’re you makin’ for dinner?”
“I guess it depends on what you’d like.”
