Jumping at Shadows (24 page)

But that was then, and Eric firmly reminded himself of that fact as the cold of the still winter air began to seep under the collar and cuffs of the heavy down coat. His shoulder throbbed from where it had hit the door of the Highlander as it smacked against the solid trunk of the tree growing at the bottom of the embankment, just at the edge of the parking lot of the out-of-the-way former liquor store, bar, and porn outlet, underneath the highway that led into the city. But no other injuries were apparent, and Eric had wasted no time. The opening under the overpass had been too visible, and too far away to hope he could slip away before the Explorer spotted him, but the abandoned building had been just behind him. The captain would have to drive around unless he chose to risk the embankment, and Eric knew he wouldn’t. His scramble across the parking lot had been graceless and ungainly, but he had made it around to the back in one piece, and jarring open the rotting door had been quick and easy. The cold had followed him inside when he had stepped out of the open, though only this dark and musty storage room had greeted him.

Eric shivered as the silence began to settle, smelling the must and rot as his breath burned in his lungs. He could pick out the leather cuffs that hung from chains attached to the wall on his right, as well as strips of leather, candle stubs, and an unnerving length of barbed wire that were positioned on or around several boxes too new to be remainders from when any of the businesses had been open. Those and the overturned bottle of lube on the floor were pretty much a testament to the fact that the place was still in use by those who knew the abandoned building was here and remembered what it had sold. But busting this kind of trespassing was someone else’s job in the Breten City Police Department. Busting Victor Kroger was his.

After allowing himself only a moment longer to let his eyes adjust, he crept to the front, circling the counter to crouch between the empty shelves that separated him from the door. The shelves were open, giving him an unobstructed view with a clear shot if he needed it, and the large, plastic-covered window beside the door gave him a smeared view of the hazy gray lot outside. His heartbeat echoed in his ears in the empty stillness, and he took a deep, calming breath as he waited.

He didn’t have to wait long. He heard the Explorer as it entered the parking lot, heard it pass the store to where the embankment met the concrete. It would only be moments before they realized that the SUV was empty.

“Get back!”

Eric heard the captain’s shout clearly even through the distance and the walls, and he knew he was talking to T.J. even though he couldn’t see either one of them.

“He’s fucking armed, and God only knows how goddamn dangerous he is when he is out of his goddamn mind! Now get back to the car!”

“Fuck that! This is
Eric
we are talking about!”

Eric’s heart nearly stopped at the sound at that all-too-familiar voice. He already knew that T.J. was with the captain, but hearing his voice now, for the first time since he had bolted from their house, was a little disconcerting. And even now, the sound had the ability to pierce him deep inside and take hold.

“
I’m not playing here, Briscoe—
”

“
Neither am I!
Eric is in trouble, and I’m not about to wait in the fucking car when I need to make sure he’s all right!”

The brunt force of the tone was almost startling to Eric, even muted through the abandoned walls. He hadn’t heard that tone—that brutal, steel-coated
coldness
—from T.J.… ever. T.J.’s voice was warm and rich, and it calmed him, encouraged him, and teased him, whether he was talking about work, the weather, dinner, laundry….

And especially about sex. That soothing sound deepened when he was aroused, grew low and sultry when they made love, purred when he came. It was a sound as sensual and erotic as anything he did with his body, and it wrapped around Eric just as physically. Heat grew deep inside him despite the cold, from nothing more than the memory of that rumbling purr when T.J. held him close in his arms, relishing the feel of it against his skin as their sweat mingled and mixed….

No!
Breath hissed through his teeth as he fought to drive the memories back, willing the arousal tightening his groin to wither and die. T.J. had used him to help Victor Kroger, had lied to him for eight years, had forced him to live a lie for the last
seven years
….

“Eric! Where are you?”

Eric started at the sound, yanked sharply back to the present. His eyes cleared to focus on the empty shelves, then moved warily to the dusty plastic covering the window. T.J. had moved closer, and he now stood out clearly in the empty lot outside, his figure smudged and blurred by the grimy plastic but visible all the same. His head swung from side to side as he searched the surroundings for movement, eventually stopping to focus on the building. Settling on the window, not the door. As if knowing that Eric was on the other side.

It was a clear shot, Eric noted grimly, easy and clean, but though his fingers twitched on the grip of his gun, he didn’t raise it. He couldn’t see T.J.’s face clearly through the plastic, but he knew it well enough that he could envision the deep brown eyes watching him. Eyes that had a way of consuming him, drawing him in with laughter or lust until he became lost in their depths….

He suddenly saw T.J.’s face hovering over him in their bed, those eyes dark and hungry and so full of love as he sank into Eric slowly and deeply, gaining heat as he pulled out, just a little, before pushing in again. Other memories from a day long ago swam over the image in his mind and the figure he saw in the parking lot, blurring them both in the dim light of the Pub seven years ago.

“I love you, Eric Michael Geller,”
T.J. had said the day he proposed, repeating the words he had said countless times before, and countless times after.

T.J.’s eyes grew darker as his thrusts into Eric’s body grew harder and faster.

“You are the most beautiful, smart, and generous person I have ever known, and I can’t picture a time when I wasn’t in love with you. You have my heart, body, and soul, and from the moment I saw you I knew I wanted to share my life with you.”

The crowd at the Pub had grown quiet and awestruck, but for all Eric was aware of them, they didn’t even exist.

“I can’t imagine my life without you, and I cherish the life we have made together.”

T.J.’s eyes bored into him as his fingers dug into Eric’s hips, burning and hungry as flesh slapped against flesh. Sweat glistened on his skin, a single drop slipping around his neck, then dripping from his skin to burn a trail across Eric’s chest….

“I never thought I could find someone that I could love so unconditionally, but I have found that with you.”

His panting breath hissed hotly through his teeth as the force of his thrusts rocked them on the bed, sweeping over the sweat on Eric’s cheek as his hips slammed forward again and again….

“I thank god every day that you were brought into my life, and I never want to spend one moment without you.”

The weight of his body bore down on Eric, pushing him deeper into the mattress, and his hands pulled their bodies together as he drove himself deeper….

“Eric Michael Geller, will you marry me?”

T.J.’s cry sounded deep in his throat as his body plowed into him one last time, and Eric felt the throbbing cock inside him shoot warm wetness straight to his heart, yet the love in T.J.’s eyes had never faded, even after the waves of ecstasy receded.

The crowd in the Pub erupted in cheers the moment Eric said yes.

“Eric!”

The shout shocked Eric back to the present, back to the cold seeping into his bones and the dusty plastic shelves that once held booze and porn. It was T.J.’s voice, and it was close.

“Baby, where are you? It’s just me, baby. I’m coming in.”

Eric jerked sharply as the knob on the door moved, and he raised the gun automatically as it slowly creaked open. Renewed winter air swept in as the door opened wider, leaving T.J.’s dark silhouette framed perfectly against the grayish-white light behind him.

“
Briscoe! Get back here!
”

T.J. ignored the shout, not looking over his shoulder as he stepped into the cold interior, his eyes finding Eric almost instantly amongst the shelves. Eric, not the gun in his hand, and they never left his face even as he closed the door carefully behind him. The captain’s shouting was muted but didn’t vanish. Eric’s aim never wavered.

“Baby, what’s going on?”

His voice was loud in the emptiness of the abandoned store, and Eric laughed shortly at the absurdity of the question, though the sound that came out was bitter and betrayed. He stood slowly, stepping away from the shelves as T.J.’s eyes followed him. Both hands held his aim steady as he positioned himself in front of T.J., with only a few feet of empty, scarred flooring between them. Both the cold and the shouts from outside seemed to vanish as the world suddenly narrowed to only this, only them inside the hollow, vacant room.

It was just him and T.J. now.

“Isn’t the usual line ‘put the gun down’?” The words sounded strained even in his own ears, sounding so ridiculous that it pulled another harsh laugh from his throat.

T.J. didn’t laugh, but he shook his head slightly as a small, warm smile curled his lips. His next step into the room was slow and precise, and the usual rote was absent as he opened his arms, forgoing any pleas that Eric should relax or any promises that everything would be all right. Instead, he said a simple and heartfelt, “Come here, baby.”

“Stop!” Eric hissed sharply, stiffening his arm and tensing his grip on the gun. “Just… stop.” T.J. did, but the tenderness on his face made Eric swallow before he could continue. “Tell me why.”

T.J.’s smile faltered a little in a brief display of confusion, but his arms remained open as he took another careful step forward. “Why what, Eric? Why do I love you? Why do I—”

“
Why did you lie to me!
” Eric shouted. “Why did you….” He trailed off as he released one hand from the gun, wiping it sharply over his eye. Then the hand was back. “Why did you spend seven years making me think what we had was real? When all the while
you were working for Victor Kroger
!”

“I’m not working for Victor Kroger, baby. I never was. You know that.” T.J.’s voice wasn’t cajoling, just stating a fact.

Eric snorted. “That’s why Victor so easily destroyed everything we had at the trial, right? Why you remained so calm when I showed you those pictures. They didn’t bother you at all, even though you were in those pictures too. But then again, you already knew about them, didn’t you? That’s why you were never worried about them.”

“Eric, sweetheart, I already told you why I wasn’t worried.” Another careful step, bringing them just a little closer. “I’m married to a cop, one of the city’s finest detectives. Baby, I wasn’t worried about them because I’m married to you.”

“Yeah, right.” Eric laughed darkly. “You’re married to me, and that was enough for you to never give them a second thought. You expect me to believe that?”

“Yes, Eric, I do.” T.J. took another step, keeping his arms open and out, keeping his eyes only on Eric’s face. “I don’t need to see the certificates on the wall or the awards in the closet to know you are one of the best and most dedicated detectives on the force. I didn’t worry about the pictures because I knew you would find whoever was behind them. I never doubted for a second that you would catch Victor Kroger and put him away, and I never doubted for a second that you could keep us both safe no matter what. I never doubted
you
, baby. Not once.” Another step closer.

“Yeah, and I suppose you never doubted that someone was watching us either?” Eric shot back. T.J.’s sudden halt was more surprising than his advances, startling enough that the gun wavered, though it didn’t lose its aim. Eric waited, but the heavy sigh T.J. let out seemed to be hiding a laugh.

“I doubted it was a spy,” T.J. conceded calmly, his eyes suddenly teasing and mischievous despite the gun pointed at his chest. “Turns out I was wrong there. But it wasn’t a spy from Victor Kroger.” The teasing spread to his smile. “The Jensens live right behind us, remember? And they have a son who is about to leave for college? Turns out that Kyle Jensen has been catching free shows from time to time through our bedroom window.” He let out a small chuckle as he took another small step. “It seems that not even cold Minnesota winters can’t stop a horny eighteen-year-old from getting his kicks.” His smile warmed a little more. “Your captain wasn’t ignoring you, baby, he just wasn’t telling you about the quiet questioning he’s been doing around the neighborhood. And it wasn’t a spy. Just a Peeping Tom.”

The gun wavered a little bit more, but the frown creasing Eric’s brow was more than a little telling. T.J. stepped closer.

“And that Lexus you kept seeing?” T.J. went on, continuing to slowly close the distance. “The Morgans down the street had their in-laws visiting. The Lexus was a rental, and what you kept seeing was the in-laws trying to get to the airport to catch their flight home.” Another step. “The weather canceled their flights, baby. They had to stay a little longer.” T.J. paused and then added, “They’re from Florida, baby. They don’t know this weather.”

Eric was listening, and a kernel of uncertainty in his gut was telling him that the pieces fit, but he couldn’t stop the desperate need to know if what he was hearing was the truth or just an attempt to confuse him. T.J. had lied to him about Victor Kroger… but he knew just as certainly that T.J.
would never
lie to him. His aim faltered enough that it was no longer threatening as T.J.’s words continued.

“The man in the parking lot of the precinct really was just reporting a lost dog, and he really was just looking for it in the bushes in the parking lot. He only reacted the way he did because you scared him,” T.J. went on calmly. He was within an arm’s length of Eric now. “Your captain told me about that, and about the car you chased the day you were suspended. You could have seen anyone. They could have
been
anyone, baby. If they acted strangely, they were only reacting to you.”