“So things were tense,” Carlyle prompted.“But not urgent.”
Kael nodded, started patting his pockets for cigarettes again, and then let his hands fall.
“Yeah,” he said softly.“Not urgent.I… I probably could have lived like that for a while, until politics changed, you know?Until he could bring me to parties, make me his special friend.Come out without worrying about his party turning on him like a pack of pit vipers.But I knew Garber was putting pressure on him for something—only Jay wouldn’t share that with me.He kept saying he wanted me out of it.He’d managed to keep my name from the guy, keep my picture.Halsey knew I existed, but he doesn’t know who I am.And then a couple of weeks ago—” He glanced pointedly at Gideon.“—that changed.What changed?”
“What changed was that Garber was asking your boyfriend to ignore a dogfighting ring,” Gideon told him bluntly.“And apparently Jay Arnold is the last honest man in New York, because that didn’t sit well with him.And when he found out Halsey had authorized a dognapping—and a kidnapping when the owner came to find the dog—he used our people as pawns to make it stop without telling us what we were walking into.”
Kael closed his eyes.“Shit.”
“Not his greatest moment,” Gideon admitted.“But not strictly illegal either.But if your boyfriend was a pawn too, maybe we could help each other out.”
“Halsey Garber’s a piece of garbage,” Kael said with loathing.“Every real estate broker in New York knows he doesn’t pay his workers, and his projects all go bust.It’s like he makes his living out of declaring bankruptcy and leaves this… this trail of broken lives behind him.”
“You sound like you know,” Carlyle said perceptively.
“Ihada college fund,” Kael told him, the bitterness palpable.“And then my father’s company invested with that asshole.Now my parents don’t even have a house, and my dad’s a greeter in Walmart when he should be retired.So I know Halsey’s bad news.And whatever he wanted to involve Jay in, it had to be shady.”His voice dropped miserably.“And I guess the only reason Jay would be involved with something shady was me.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Carlyle said, and he sounded kind—and sincere.“You wanted somebody to love.That’s not supposed to be a bad thing.But yeah, Jay got put in a spot, and he did something stupid, and now we need his help to get the bad guy off the street.”
“I’d do a lot to fuck up Halsey Garber,” Kael said.
They didn’t need to meet eyes again, but they did anyway.That shit was starting to send a thunder through Gideon’s veins.
“Can you introduce us to your boyfriend?”Carlyle asked.“We haven’t spoken for a while, and it’s about time we did.”
GIDEON TEXTEDClint a quick debrief as Kael led them down the side path to the stairs that took them up to Jay Arnold’s level.This wasn’t strictly surveillance, but all they were doing was visiting a contact, right?No need for weapons—thiswasadministration.
Except in person.
Right?
Once they were upstairs, Kael pulled out a key and let them into a tiled hallway that led to a large airy kitchen—or would have.Kael turned instead into a doorway right off the entrance, one that Gideon would have thought led to a laundry room, and they found themselves in a cozy little apartment, carpeted, with a couch and a minifridge and two recliners.There were bookshelves and a television, and even a small desk in the corner, and a doorway in the back that led, Gideon assumed, to sleeping quarters.
The furnishings were masculine—leather and dark wood—and the carpet was a tasteful Berber.There was an art rail, though, with some rather glorious cityscapes, and the couch was navy blue and looked comfortable.There were some throw pillows there with dents in them, and a warm throw in a muted purple along the back, a napping couch that had seen a recent nap.
Kael let out a sad little sound and walked over to plump the pillows and refold the throw.
“He’s been sleeping in here,” he murmured.“He… he has this big bedroom upstairs, but he says he can’t sleep in there, and he can’t sleep in our bed without me, so he’ll….”His voice broke a little.“He missed me.”
Gideon could admit it—he’d carried a grudge.Jay Arnold had put his team in danger to cover his ass, had bullied Pearson and Carlyle when they’d been sheltering their injured colleague, and had threatened to bully Crosby—Crosby—who had been injured while caught up in Arnold’s subterfuge.
He’d been pissed.
But this little domestic scene softened him.Kaelsoftened him.He’d been right.The kid wasn’t a sidepiece.This was protection right here.
This was love.
But that didn’t mean Arnold didn’t need a little come-to-Jesus.
“Call him,” he told Kael, but Kael grimaced.
“Do we have to?”
“We do,” Carlyle said earnestly.“Because a predator has already been in this den.Halsey Garber washere.He’s seen your face.Eventually it’s going to come down to threateningyou, and I don’t think your boyfriend wants that.Which means he needs our help.”
Kael swallowed and nodded, pulling out his phone.
“Jay?”he said softly.“Yeah, I’m—”
