A not-entirely-unfriendly voice jeered, “Get a room,” over the background noise of the fair.Someone else yelled back at whoever it was to mind their own business.The back and forth made Bon bark, and Cloister, without looking, grabbed her collar on autopilot.
Reminded that he was still on the clock, Javi reluctantly broke the kiss.Getting caught up in a brawl at the county fair while wrapped around his deputy sheriff boyfriend wouldn’texactlyimpress on Joel that he had learned his lesson about fraternization.
Although for a second, as he looked into Cloister’s pale blue eyes, framed by thick gold-dusted lashes, he almost didn’t care.
Almost.
Javi leaned to the side and murmured into Cloister’s ear.“It’s the lube that’s mango-scented.”
He felt the heat against his palm as a flush spread up Cloister’s throat and into his face.Point made, Javi pressed a kiss against one pink cheek before he stepped back.He let his fingers trail along the harsh line of Cloister’s jaw as he pulled them away.
“How did your first shift back go?”he asked, his voice determinedly conversational.
Cloister looked blank for a moment.He gawped at Javi and had to clear his throat, a gruff rasp, before he could catch up with the tonal shift.
“The shift…yeah, it went OK,” he said, then frowned and scrubbed his hand through his short dark blond hair.“But I heard some interesting gossip.”
Javi raised an eyebrow.“About me?”
“No,” Cloister said, then narrowed his eyes as he thought better of the answer.“Or…maybe.Either way, I thought I should run it by you.”
“And I thought you just missed me.”
This time, Cloister’s smile was softer, and the warmth of it lingered around the corners of his mouth a little longer.
“That too,” he said as he reached over the table to brush his fingers lightly over Javi’s knuckles.“But…mostly the other.Do you have a minute?”
Javi checked his watch again.Still the bulk of six hours to go, but….
“I’m owed a lunch break,” he said.“Do you know anywhere good to eat around here?”
Cloister glanced over his shoulder at the varied stalls behind him.
“I don’t know about good,” he said as he looked back at Javi.“But fried I can do.”
Javifastidiouslytwistedhisfork, wrapping the strings of cheese around the chunk of potato until they snapped off neatly.
“If GardnerisIAU,” he said and pointed briefly at Cloister with the fork.“And we probably shouldn’t put too much weight on intel from Tancredi’s sidepiece…”
Without hesitating, Cloister reached out and plucked the neatly wrapped parcel off Javi’s fork.He tossed it into his mouth and sucked his fingers.Bon put her chin on his knee and sighed heavily.Cloister dropped his hand to let her lick his fingers.
“But if he is?”he said.“That doesn’t mean it’s anything to do with you.It could be coincidence.”
Javi gave him an unimpressed look and, to even the playing field, stabbed one of the deep-fried pickles on the plate in front of Cloister.The batter coating cracked under his fork, and he cupped his free hand out to catch the crumbs as he lifted it to his mouth.
The batter crunched, and the pickle flesh gave under his teeth.It tasted sharp and salty, with a sour, hot aftertaste that caught at the back of his throat.
“It’s possible,” Javi admitted grudgingly as he wiped grease off his lower lip with his thumb.He weighed the likelihood of it in his mind as he absently reached for his iced tea.“The sheriff’s been coasting on the political goodwill from ‘cleaning up’ Plenty for two election cycles.If it came out he’d not done such a good job after all—like leaving a corrupt cop’s wife in charge of the department’s evidence unit—that wouldn’t look good.He could have sent IAU in to make sure there’s no one else compromised like that.”
Cloister took his hand back off Bourneville.He wiped it on his leg before he reached for a pickle chip.
“But…” he prompted.
But.
Javi poked at his tray of loaded fries, flicking aside chunks of potato until he found the BBQ sticky chunks of meat.
“It fits Kincaid’s MO too,” he said, his voice stiff and reluctant in his throat as he name-checked the head of the FBI’s Los Angeles division—who was also his ex, his one-time mentor, and the man gunning for what he’d left of Javi’s career.
