But Gideon wouldn’t apologize, not for this.“You were very candid in your interview with Clint.The DOJ doesn’t want to touch your father with a barge pole because he’s got his finger in too many illustrious asses, but we know who he is.”Gideon regarded him compassionately, but levelly too.Joey was too smart to jerk around.“Stevie Carlyle is a functioning sociopath, and he’s wanted for a fair number of killings, some of which we think he’s done himself.Weknow.And I know whoyouare.You may not be great at relationships, Joey, but youarean honorable man.”
Joey’s cheekbones and the slight cant to his sepia-colored eyes often made him seem inscrutable, but after a year and a half, Gideon could read the tilt to his chin, the sheen to his eyes, the slight—oh-so-slight—quiver to his lean lower lip.
“You believe that of me?”he asked, and the formality of the language was like a giant arrow pointing at Joey’s heart, blinking “This is important!”in neon.
“After working with you for so long?”Gideon asked, continuing to lean, continuing to treasure the heat of Joey’s body as he leaned back.“Of course.”
“I’m not always nice,” Joey whispered, still staring at the remains of their late-night feast on the coffee table.
“I know.Neither am I.”
Joey gave him a quick glance.“I won’t make this easy on either of us.”
“Just remember what I said when we cleared the door,” Gideon told him, and suddenly his heart was pounding in his ears.
“I won’t taunt you,” Joey said softly, and his lean body softened, became pliant.“I won’t betray you.”
Gideon let out a laugh that was almost a grumble.“I had honestly never thought about you doing that,” he said.“Just remember, Joey—I know what you grew up with.I’ve profiled men like your father before.As much as you might think you’re damaged beyond repair,Iknow, you’re more human than most people parented by monsters.I know who’s been in my car, I know who’s in my bed.We’re both the wolf, Joey.If you will trust me not to turn on you, I will trust you with my life and my bed.It works both ways.”
Gideon felt the tremble where their arms touched, and he couldn’t help himself.He wrapped his arm around Joey’s shoulders and drew him close, nuzzling his cheek, where he found telltale dampness, and nuzzling his neck, where Joey’s pulse throbbed.
“I’m so tired,” Joey whispered.“I couldn’t sleep all month.”
Oh, baby.“Let’s clean up and go to bed,” he said.“Tomorrow we’ll get up and go to work like we always do.And we’ll be us, like we always are.This is my den, Joey.You are always welcome.”
Joey let out a strained chuckle.“Maybe make me a key.I hate that you’ve been leaving your window open.”
Gideon grunted.“I hate that you wouldn’t come in,” he muttered.
“I’ll come in from now on,” Joey said.“I promise.”
Gideon nodded, and tiredly they got up and began to clean.Their bodies were replete now, and their hearts were eased.
Sleep came swiftly, and if either of them dreamed, they were wolfish dreams that needed no words.
When Snow Coats the Ground
JOEY UNDERSTOODthat in many families, people keep time by the events in the family.September was when everybody had a birthday, or April was when somebody was expecting, and the entire year hinged around those moments.
September was when Garcia arrived and Crosby got shot, and Joey had to accept another person into their family—and worry about the brother he already had.
September was when he’d first slunk his way into Gideon Chadwick’s bed, and Gideon had mastered him there, not justfuckedhim—and damned well—butmatedwith him.
Possessed him.Kept him.Had given Joey haven, safety, home.
Joey hadn’t had a home—a real home—since he was eight years old.
He wasn’t sure what to do with it.He wasn’t expected to spend every night there, was he?Their partnership was well established, but this other thing was in its infancy.Surely Gideon would need some nights to himself.
Every second or third night, Joey would say he needed space and spend the night in his apartment.He never slept those nights, simply lay awake in the bed that had come with the apartment, under the bedding that Gideon and Harding had bought him, and waited for something, anything, to break through his door.
For a year and a half, as he’d learned more about electronics, he’d set up his own surveillance in that apartment, had cameras, had alarms, and nothing had disturbed his sleepthen.
Two nights with Gideon and it no longer felt like his den.
And right when he was starting to get a handle on why he was so jumpy, the thing happened that shattered all his peace.
They’d just hit a big case.Joey had made the kill this time, with a crossbow in a cemetery while Crosby had distracted the killer, a man about to annihilate his entire family with a 9mm in his daughters’ brains after he’d already done the same for their mother.Joey had spent the night in his apartment—he’d been closer to the scene when Crosby caught it, and Gideon had taken overwatch from the office since he’d only just arrived.
