As if summoned by Gideon’s thoughts alone, Stevie called from the top of the staircase, “Joey!Joey fuckin’ Carlyle!You down there?You protecting your fag cop buddy yet?Show your face, boy, or I’ll gut him like a fish and tie you up with his guts!”
Oh, nice.Gideon thought his decision to kill himself to escape was probably one of the best he’d ever made.Yay him!
Wait.Wait.What was that other sound again?
’Cause it was getting louder.
“I SWEARto Christ, Joey, how high were you to think Crosby might have fit down here?”
“Sorry,” he grunted, feeling his way to the next boulder.They both had flack helmets with lights, but they were bulky, and you couldn’t always point the light to where you needed to wiggle your body.
“Only be sorry if we get stuck.”
“Didn’t think I’d grown that much—” With a soft gasp he slithered between a fractured brick wall and a pile of rocks.“—since I was fourteen.”
“Brag, brag, brag,” she muttered.“All I’ve grown is boob, and I’m still not making it.”
He tried not to stumble.“Your boobs aren’t that big,” he told her.“I think you were born that big.”
She let out a breathless little “Ha!”and continued to keep pace after him.
“Didn’t know you noticed boobs,” she hissed as they took another step, and another.
“Noticed ’em plenty,” he told her, wondering if all soul-baring was as awkward as his had been.That trip back from the Stone Pony was probably the most poetic conversation he’d ever had.“Ouch.”He tore his knuckles on a ledge of metal embedded in rock.“Careful there.”
“You noticed ’em plenty, but you’re shacking up with Gideon?”She didn’t say “string bean” or “scarecrow” or “scrawny no-assed skeleton,” for which he could only be grateful.He knew what she meant.Unless she saw him without his shirt—and why would she?—she wouldn’t know he looked good, defined, strong, powerful.
“I don’t know,” he muttered.“If Gideon’s soul had come with boobs, I would’ve fallen in love with boobs.But Gideon’s soul came with that nose and those eyes and that tall scrawny body.Life’s a fuckin’ mystery.I don’t ask questions—I just keep showing up at his apartment.”
“Aw, man,” she said and then drew up short, as did he.
The terrifyingly narrow path of boulders, hewn granite, and broken walls had stopped abruptly, giving way to a small antechamber barely big enough for Pearson and Joey to stand abreast.
It practically felt like a ballroom after the journey there.
“Aw man, what?”he asked, panting with the exertion of making his body fit where it had no business fitting.The fucking gamekeeper hadn’t seemed this small either.
“Aw man, that was really sort of romantic.How do I give you and Crosby shit about being tough guys in love if you do it with grace and charm?It’s heinous.”
“Yeah, you’re just trying not to notice Swan’s had a thing for you since the beginning.”
She grunted like he’d hit her and then took a breath.“Yeah, well, watching you and Garcia freak out when something happens to your significant other doesnotmake me want to dive into the deep end of the pool.”
He glanced at her, her piquant face grimy from rock dust and sweat, but as fierce as any man he’d ever met.“Too late,” he said softly, and the look she gave him was pained.
“Of course it’s too late.Have youseenSwan?I mean… dude.He’s gotmanboobs, and they’reglorious.”
He glared at her.“How could you?”he asked, only partially kidding.“How could you put that image in my head?”
And then, in case she had something worse to offer, he pulled out one of the daggers from the back of his belt and started working on the lock to the basement door.
One, two, three—Pop!
GIDEON HEARDthe rasp of the door as it scraped across the ground, and tried to pull in enough breath to yell a warning.
All he got for his efforts was spots in front of his eyes.
The noise at the top of the stairs continued, but there was creaking as Stevie made his way down them.Oh.Huh.He left the door open.Why?
