Starting Point (8 page)

“Oh, man, that’s so good,” he responded genuinely. “I’m so happy for you! Though all these freakin’ weddings are gonna send me broke.”

I laughed. “You’ve got plenty of time to worry about that.”

“No immediate plans, huh?” he asked. “Oh man, Mitch doesn’t know, does he?”

“No. Kira said Anna will kill me if I call him while he’s on his honeymoon.”

Kurt laughed. “We got told the same.”

“Good to know she treats us all equally,” I said with a laugh.

“Rach’d do the same.”

“How is Rach?”

“Good, man,” he said. “She’s real good.”

“No plans on asking her to be your bride?”

“Well, no.” Then he added, “We’re more of a live-in-sin kind of couple.”

I smiled, but thought I may as well get to the purpose of my call. “Anyway, I was hoping you could do me a bit of a favour,” I started. “Normally I would ask Mitch, and he’d either do what I asked, or flip me off.”

“Okay.”

“I have the names of two guys that I’d like you to do a background check on, if that’s okay?”

“I’m listening,” he said cautiously.

“Darius McInnes and Tyler James. They’re two guys that have started hanging around outside. They don’t come in, but they seem to target the local kids.” I sighed. “Maybe it’s nothing, and I didn’t really give them much thought, but I was talking to the church pastor today and his reaction to them was fair warning.”

“Hmm,” was Kurt’s response.

“Hmm, what?”

“Well, a few things,” he mused. “If they’re not drug-related, I don’t know how much I can find out. But you know this, so I’m presuming you’ve cause enough to be concerned. Which brings me to my next concern—if
you’re
questioning it, then chances are they’re up to no good.”

I smiled at that. “Well, like I said, it wasn’t my intuition about the two guys. It was the pastor’s reaction to seeing them. He seems to be a pretty switched-on kind of guy.”

“And the names?”

I repeated them, “Tyler James and Darius McInnes.”

“Needles and haystacks, man.”

“I know.”

“I’ll see what I can find out for you.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I know it’s a long shot and they’re small-fry, but I’m grateful. Maybe it’ll turn up nothing.
Hopefully
it’ll turn up nothing.”

Now it was Kurt’s turn to snort into the phone. “When have
you
ever raised an investigation that turned into nothing?”

I barked out a laugh. “Say hi to the guys for me.”

“Even Berkman?”

“Especially Berkman.”

There was only laughter then a dial tone in my ear. I hung up the phone, and it was then I heard another familiar laugh in the gym. Smiling, I walked out of my office to the main floor area and found Kira and Arizona talking, laughing.

“Hey,” I said in greeting.

“Hey,” Kira replied. “Arizona was just telling me about your little sidekick, Claude. She was giving you a hard time today?”

“She gives me a hard time every day.”

“You finished for the night?” Arizona asked me.

“Yep. I just got off the phone to Kurt.”

“Everything okay?” Kira asked.

“Yeah, it’s all fine,” I reassured him. “Just wanted to ask him a few things.” I gave Kira a smile, but knew he’d ask me about it when we were alone. I looked at Arizona. “You done here? I’ll help you lock up. Need a lift home?”

“Nah, man, I drove,” he said. “I’ll just check the bathrooms,” he said, walking to the amenities door.

“I got the windows,” I called out. It was procedure to check and double check all doors and windows before we left each night. When the place was secure and the alarm was coded, we said goodbye to Arizona and headed home.

“What did Kurt have to say?” he asked. We’d not even gone one block.

“I asked him to do a background check on two guys that have been hanging around.”

Kira smiled, but then he glanced from the road to me and realising I was serious, his smile died. “Matt.”

“I told you before. I’m not involved. I just asked the question and they’re going to look into it, not me,” I said. He didn’t look too convinced, so I said, “Kira, baby, that’s why I called Kurt. I don’t
want
to be involved. Truly, I don’t. It was just that the pastor at the church warned me to keep the kids away from them, so I thought I’d just ask the boys to check on it. What they find, or what they don’t, is outta my hands. I promise you, Kira, I’m not involved. But I can’t have some losers at the club scouting kids to run drugs—”

He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Matt, it’s okay. I believe you. I do.”

I gave him a quick smile and sighed. “I don’t blame you for asking the questions, babe. You’ve earned the right, and I have nothing to hide. I’m not involved.”

“You care, Matt. It’s what makes you, you.” Then after a few moments silence, he said, “I haven’t earned the right.”

I snorted. “Yes you have.”

“How long are you going to think you owe me?”

Well, that was simple. “Every day of forever.”

Kira smiled, looking from the road ahead to me. The seriousness was now gone. “And just what does that entail?”

“Back rubs, massages, breakfast in bed, awesome blow jobs.”

Now he laughed. “I can live with that.”

* * * *

The next week was much the same. I kept busy at work, kept my appointments with Tamara and spent my nights wrapped around Kira. Some nights we opted for no TV and simply talked—about his work and mine, his family, my therapy sessions, about the news, about the back garden. It didn’t matter what we talked about, the fact was…we talked.

They were my favourite nights. We’d cook dinner, well, he’d cook and I’d clean up, and we’d just talk.

It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t overly romantic. It was probably mundane, and probably boring to some, but to me it was perfect.

We needed to get back to basics. We needed to learn how to trust and how to be a couple again, and communication was paramount in that.

It gave us an intimacy I’d never thought possible.

It was like falling in love all over again.

It was Tuesday night, we’d eaten dinner and had moved to the sofa. Kira took the mail off the coffee table and laid back with a sigh, exhausted from his long day at work. I climbed over him, settling myself in between his legs with my back to his front, my head on his chest. I shuffled in till I was comfortable, making him laugh and groan. “You all right there?”

“I am now.”

He wrapped his arms around me and the pile of unread mail sat square on my chest. I opened the first few bills, nothing unexpected, but the last envelope was plain white, and when I opened the letter we both saw the familiar logo on the top right corner. It was the pathology results from my last lot of bloods taken after my stay in hospital. Cage fighting was a high-contact blood sport and there was a risk of contamination. I’d had extensive testing when I’d been admitted to hospital, then three months after and again at six months.

The first and second results had come back fine, but it was still daunting to open the letter for a third time. Kira slid his hands over mine and we read it together, squeezing my hand as we read the results. All was clear—I had a perfect bill of health.

I exhaled in relief and taking his hand, brought it to my chest. “I still can’t believe I came away from those fights unscathed.”

Kira leant forward and kissed the side of my head, above my useless ear. “Not completely.”

“I have my health, and I have you,” I replied.

As we lay there in silence, Kira ran his fingers through my hair. I tossed the mail onto the coffee table. “Kira,” I said softly, but seriously. “I want to tell you something.”

He tensed underneath me, the briefest of reactions, but it was enough to remind me that I’d caused him reason to be wary of my confessions.

Unprotected sex was something we’d talked about before, but given the bloody nature of MMA fighting, with the cuts, the blood, the contact—even my job as a cop came with risks of contact—so unprotected sex hadn’t been an option for us.

But now it was. I wanted to give him everything. I wanted him to know it was just for him. Neither of us had ever experienced it before and I wanted to prove to him I trusted him with my health, with my body, with my life.

I took his hands, and wrapped his arms around me. “Well, it’s not really telling. It’s more asking, but I just want to put something out in the open and you don’t have to answer me or decide anything. I just want you to think about it and you can let me know when you’re ready.”

“Okay,” he said, still hesitant, but more curious now.

“When you’re ready,” I said, “or only if you want to, now that we have these latest blood results, I was thinking, or wondering, if you’ve thought about…you know…not using condoms.”

I always rambled when I was nervous.

He was silent, so I shuffled and rolled over to face him, so I could look into his eyes and ramble some more, telling him not to worry, but a slow smile spread across his face.

“You’re cute when you’re nervous,” he said.

I huffed out a sigh of relief, and put my cheek to his chest. “It’s not something you need to decide right now,” I said softly. “No pressure.”

“But you want it?” he asked.

I looked up at him and nodded. “One day. To have you, and only you, inside me. No barrier between us.” He still didn’t answer, so I told him, “It’s okay if you don’t, babe. It’s something we both have to agree on, and make an informed decision about.”

Kira traced his fingers down the side of my face, and his eyes looked intently into mine. “Can I have time to think about it?”

“Of course. As much time as you need.”

“I want to,” he added. “I really do, but I’d like some time to think about it. And I want you to know any hesitation on my part is not a lack of trust.” He held my face a little firmer and stared at me, almost daring me to claim otherwise. “You know that, right?”

I smiled. “I do. I know it’s a heavy topic to just dump on you, but just with getting the letter and results… I just want you to know that it’s something I’d consider if you wanted.”

He leant forward again and pecked his lips to mine, and I lay my head back down on his chest and sighed contentedly.

Then Kira’s hands started to skim my sides, across my shoulders, my lower back, over my ass. His touch became firmer, and his cock stirred against my stomach.

“You really shouldn’t have told me to think about it,” he said, and lifted his hips for effect.

I laughed into his shirt, and he rolled me over so we were both on our sides. We were crammed onto the sofa, which was funny enough, but then he tickled me, making me laugh and squirm.

Tickling fingers became fumbling hands and sure mouths and searching tongues. Kira took me to bed and fucked me. He used a condom, of course, but as he lay over me, he grunted into the back of my neck that one day he wouldn’t have to. That he’d slip inside me, just him, and he’d bury his seed deep within me.

His words alone brought me undone.

Chapter Six

I hit send on the text, and put my phone on the diner table and looked at the two faces looking back at me. “So what will it be?”

“Nothin’ for me,” came Ruby’s reply. He slid the unopened menu back across to me. “You don’t need to be buyin’ us anything.”

Claude tried to hide the disappointment, but in silence agreed with her brother. I had no clue how long it’d been since these two ate anything.

“Well, how about I just order you both something, and if you decide you want to eat it, you can,” I said, and without waiting for a reply, I ordered two burgers and fries, and two lemonade sodas.

“Aren’t you eating, Matt?” Claude asked. “You didn’t order anything. Or is the food here really bad and you won’t eat it?”

I laughed at her tact, or lack thereof. “The food here is just fine. Kira and I have plans for tonight, that’s all.”

“If you’re goin’ out, why you wastin’ time here with us?” Ruby asked.

“I’m not wasting time,” I told them. “I’m buying you guys dinner. I had to wait for Kira to pick me up anyway, so I texted him to tell him I’d be here instead of the club. No big deal.”

Claude smiled across the table at me. Her wiry, tight curly hair was like a dark halo around her angelic face. “Where you going?” she asked. “With your man.”

I smiled again at her. I usually found myself smiling at the things that came out of her mouth. “Date night. We’re going to the movies. Kira’s turn to pick what we watch, so it will probably be crap.” Then I added, “Don’t tell him I said that.”

Claude laughed and even Ruby smiled at that. He was so protective of his sister, always serious, so it was good to see him smile. I’d learned early on not to push the questions they didn’t want to answer, so while I really wanted to know where their mother was, or where they lived, or why they were never home—if they even had a home—or when and if they ate, I didn’t ask.

One wrong question and these kids shut down and backed off, and I couldn’t risk that.

I really liked them. I wanted them to have a proper chance. A better chance than what life had given them. It was something I think my shrink was stuck on, like there was some hidden guilt trigger and this was me trying to right the wrongs I’d done.

I could see why her psychological brain made that leap, but for me it wasn’t like that at all. I just didn’t want kids like Ruby and Claude to think everything in the world was against them. If I could give them a few happy moments in a world that was kind of dreary, then I would do that.

We talked about the fight club of course, and the upcoming fundraising day and tournament. Claude was excited about it, whereas Ruby only seemed agreeable because his sister was all huge smiles and animated hands. The waitress served the two lemonades just as Kira walked through the door.

He spotted us straight away, and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was curious to my being here. Then he saw who I was sitting with, and he gave me a what-are-you-up-to-now look before he sat down next to me. “Hey, guys,” he said. He patted my leg under the table.