Crazy From the Heat (22 page)

That
was it. Paul had tried to warn him not ten minutes ago in the dining room.
Their whole investigation had led to this night. And Grey was caught right
smack dab in the fucking middle of the big finale.

“Oh,
please, Vinnie. You want to know what I loved best about Rene—I mean besides
his tight, round ass,” Paul slurred his words now, the whiskey taking effect
just that fast.

“No,
Chicago, I’m not interested in knowing the details of your sex life.” Vinnie
seemed puzzled as Paul staggered toward him. Paul held up his hand making a
shushing noise as if the sound of his partner’s voice bothered him.

He
smiled and cocked his head to the side like he hadn’t heard Vinnie.

“For
a straight boy, he did love when I sucked his dick. Oh, Vinnie, Vinnie, all you
had to do to make him spill his guts was go down on him.” Paul stood in front
of his partner now, both Cole and Sarah seemingly forgotten now that the two of
them were face to face. “And I am really, really, good when it comes to making
men spill their—" he poked Vinnie with each of the last two words, his
smile growing brighter with each poke "—guts. Among other bodily fluids.”

“Doesn’t
matter. Rene is dead. You killed him.” Vinnie shrugged ignoring the pokes as he
watched Paul with narrowed eyes.

“I’ve
killed a lot of people, this is true. Some of them even deserved it. But, you
know what? I cried real tears for Rene he was a damned good lay…For a straight
boy,” Paul said, his words becoming even more slurred as he talked.

“That’s
because you’re easy. Any pretty face and you stop thinking with the big head. I
should have known the professor would be a problem the second you landed in his
class.” Vinnie laughed and acted as if they talked about this kind of shit
every Friday night. Hell, for all Grey knew, they probably did.

“You
shoulda sent me to him in the first place. Your buddy Cole isn’t half the man
your brother thought him to be. He’s, at best, inept. And, well, I’m at the
very least, gay. Cole’s problem getting the professor under control was that he
couldn’t bring himself to get into Grey’s bed. Not like Rene…..Oooh Rene…All I
had to do was get on my knees and he was so, so eager to be exactly what you
told him to be. He was so, so happy to keep me busy, and happy. And I was very,
very happy to be busy with him. Too bad he had to die.” The head tilt and
crazed light in Paul’s eyes when his gaze flickered over Grey sent a chill
through is body.

How
had he missed this? How had he fallen for this angel faced psychopath?

Vinnie
seemed to be thinking something along the same lines if the look in his eyes
was any indication. Wary, maybe with a hint of fear…Yeah, he was thinking the
same thing Grey was.

“You
seem to like putting bullets in your boyfriends a little too much.” Vinnie
smiled in a way that had Grey rethinking that last thought and looking for the
nearest exit. There wasn’t one that didn’t have a crazy person standing between
him and easy freedom.

“I’m
not killing Grey, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ll happily fuck your good
buddy Cole over here up, after I maybe fuck him for real. Show him how it’s
done, how a real man fucks his boy.” Paul reached out to Cole and stumbled over
his own feet. He grabbed Vinnie’s arm to steady himself. “Maybe not right now.
Now that I think about it, I need to be drunk to get it up for him.”

While
Vinnie and Paul talked in riddles, Sarah fixed her dress and after a stop at
the bar for a fresh glass of wine, she sank into one of the club chairs not far
from the two cops.

“Wait,
so who’s a cop?” She interrupted the back and forth with an air of practiced
inattention. Grey would almost think she was an airhead if he didn’t know her
better. She wasn’t, and his confusion grew exponentially in that moment.

“They’re
both cops, you stupid whore,” Cole shouted over the two men bickering.

“Oh,
well that makes sense, then. And did you know about Vinnie? Because, from where
I’m sitting, I think you knew.” She sipped her wine slowly, crossing one leg
she bounced her foot as if the cops weren’t standing in front of her casually
discussing men they’d killed to cover up their own nefarious dealings.

“I
said shut up.” Cole lost his temper then and started after her.

“Touch
her and I’ll put a slug in you myself, Cole, man.” Vinnie forgot about Paul for
a moment and pulled a gun from the waist band of his jeans. Cole stopped moving
and with another shove at his hair he glared at Vinnie.

“You
forget yourself, little brother.” The slurred voice of the stoned rocker punk
picked up a decidedly Cajun accent that clearly surprised everyone but Vinnie.

“I’m
pretty sure I haven’t forgotten a thing you taught me. This is a case of the
student becoming the master, Val.” Vinnie lost the innocent kid look completely
as the game changed. Grey edged toward Sarah. He had to get out and his
conscience wouldn’t allow him to just abandon her, whether she was guilty or
not.

Vinnie
aimed the gun at Grey an insane sparkle in his eyes.

“Don’t
even think about it Professor. This is just starting to get interesting. You
need to be here to see how it ends.”

“So
you’re going to kill me, anyway.” It wasn’t really a question. Grey could see
the truth in the man’s eyes.

“Of
course. You’re no good to me now. Well, you are. But we have plenty of time to
play with you before I call this in.”

“Vinnie
hasn’t watched enough Bond movies. He’s a rank amateur at offing people.” Paul
wandered back to the bar and picked up the nearly empty bottle of Jack. He gave
it a dirty look as if to blame the liquor for spilling itself. “You don’t tell
them your plans, asshole, you just put a bullet in their brain and make sure
the scene matches your story.” Paul tipped his head back and drained the
bottle. “Rene begged me not to hurt him when he found out I was onto his lies.
Your lies, Vinnie. He died because you forgot to cover your ass and I had to do
it for you. Cops don’t like other dirty cops. Especially jumped up beat cops
who come in and take credit for busts they shouldn’t, and cost another good cop
his shield.”

“Are
you insane? What the fuck are you even talking about?” Vinnie flailed his arms,
the gun pointing briefly at everyone present. “And how do you know…?”

Vinnie
seemed to be on the verge of foaming at the mouth. His brother, his real
brother Grey suddenly realized, glared at him when the gun was aimed at his head.
Sarah looked on in bored fascination, while Paul switched sides. Vinnie just
laughed.

“Are
you wired? Is that what this is? They told you to play me?”

Paul
lifted his shirt over his head to expose his scared torso, turning around to do
the same.

“No
wire, Gato. They took my shield and my gun this afternoon. True story, bro. I
came here to get laid, and here you are with the lady history teacher riding
your dick and a room full of under age kids the two of you are pimping out to
her rich friends. And if that wasn’t enough, your dead brother alive and
running drugs in Mo-beal, fucking, Alabama. And, once again, you think I’m
stupid. I don’t like being set up, Gato. If you’re not smart enough to run a
drug and prostitution ring without trying to implicate your partner, then I’m
thinking you’re not smart enough to know when you’ve just been demoted.” Paul’s
words were barely comprehensible, he slurred so badly.

“You’re
taking over my operation, Chicago?” Vinnie laughed for real this time. “You’re
drunk. You won’t even remember this in the morning. By then your friend will be
dead and you’ll be lying in the puddle of blood. Remind you of anything,
CHI-CA-GO?”

“I’m
not so drunk, Vinnie. I know what you and, what the hell was your brother’s
name before he managed to fake his death and disappear?
Varlin…Varmint…Valmont…Fuck me…Damn, you were Vinnie and Varnie, now I
remember. He went to prison because you turned him in. How about that Varlie?
Bet you didn’t know which one of our gang it was that turned State’s witness on
you, did you? It was your favorite brother, Vincent.”

“Shut
up Gaines, before I—” Vinnie stopped and cocked his head toward Grey. The look
on his face sent real fear racing through Grey’s body. “It occurs to me that I
don’t know what you did to cost you your shield.”

Paul
looked between them and shrugged. “The captain found out who sent the pictures
of me and the professor to the principal and a few select numbers that were
guaranteed they’d get passed around school.”

“I
wondered about that myself,” Vinnie said with a look of something akin to pride
in his eyes. “It was genius. Wasn’t any of us, but it was genius. Took the heat
off Sarah.”

“Thank
you. I thought so myself.” The slur left Paul’s voice and the man Grey thought
he knew became something completely different. He became cold. Calculating. He
lost the bumbling drunk and loving boyfriend routine as Grey watched.

“You
did what?” Grey said, going cold inside. Betrayal mixed with anger and fear
left him stunned. “You ruined me? On purpose? You…You said you loved me, but
you—"

“I
set you up, Doctor Talbot. I played you, and then I needed you out of the way
so that I could do exactly what I’m doing right now.” Paul wouldn’t look him in
the eye. He didn’t take his gaze off his partner, specifically his partner’s
gun.

Cole
or Varlin, or Valmont, or whatever the hell his name was, looked like a deer
caught in head lights as Vinnie laughed.

“What
the hell are you laughing at, Vince?”

Vinnie
continued to laugh, ignoring the man Grey once dated.

“Oh
man, how did I miss it? Two years and I completely…You’re good Gaines. You play
your role well. But I still have a gun, and you have nothing.”

Paul
smiled and cocked his head to the side while the man formerly known as Cole
shouted, “What the fuck are you laughing about? What game are the two of you
playing?”

Vinnie
didn’t answer, he ignored Cole altogether as he pointed his gun at Paul’s head
and grinned.

“So
who are you with? FBI? DEA? My money is on DEA. Doesn’t matter, you still have
to prove I was even here.” He turned the gun back to Grey. “But the professor
is still going to be dead. And he’s still going to take the fall. And there is
still not one damned thing you can do because, Chicago, you played your part so
well even the feds will think you turned and killed another boyfriend who got
in your way.”

“Yeah,
yeah. Kill one boyfriend and they never let you forget it…I guess that about
sums everything up. But there is one thing you don’t know, Vinnie. Rene is
alive and enjoying a brand new life somewhere courtesy of the Federal Marshals.
If you ever get out of prison you might want to look him up and thank him for
these past few weeks.”

Paul
held his hands out to his sides as he circled around the bar and Sarah edging
closer to Grey. Grey watched him warily, trying hard to pretend that he didn’t
have a gun aimed at his head for the second time in less than a month.

“I
saw his sorry ass buried.” Vinnie faltered now, his confidence shaken.

“And
why did you have to go and kill Rawlings? He was a festering turd on the ass of
humanity, but he didn’t deserve to die,” Paul said calmly.

“You
killed Tony?” Cole shouted once again, this time in real anger. “He was my
friend.”

“You
shouldn’t have let him sample the goods. He was about to turn you in. He came
to me ready to make a deal. So I dealt with it.” Vinnie shouted back to his
brother.

“Thanks,
that’s all we needed. Vincent Gautreau, you’re under arrest,” Paul said, but
that was all he got out before the gun went off.

The
orange flash, the smell of smoke, the deafening roar of blood racing through
his head, Grey ignored everything and ran. But not away from the gun. He ran
for
Paul, catching him before he could even blink. His eyes were wide in disbelief.
A blossom of red seeped through the tight grey Metallica tour shirt.

“I’m
sorry,” Paul said reaching up to cup Grey’s face. “By the time I
figured…Figured he was setting you up…too late…I’m sorry, Grey.” Paul’s legs
gave out and he dropped, taking Grey with him to the floor. Sarah’s screams
were the only sound ringing in his ears now.

“Grey!”
she screamed again. Grey hooked Paul’s gun from the holster tucked in the back
of his jeans and, without a second thought, aimed. He watched as surprise
entered Vinnie’s eyes and just as quickly fade to nothing. Vinnie pulled the
trigger as he fell, the bullet lodging in the wall just behind Grey’s head.

Paul
looked up at him, his eyes growing dull. Grey held him as the house filled with
federal agents. Sarah sat in her chair sobbing her innocence to anyone who
would listen. Grey heard a couple of pops and wondered briefly if that was the
end of his almost-boyfriend.

“I
love you.” Paul reached for him again. Grey caught his hand in his blood soaked
fingers and held him. “I didn’t lie about that, Grey.” He smiled one last time,
his hand so cold in Grey’s.

“I
know,” Grey said, but Paul didn’t hear him. “I always knew.”