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I didn’t even get to answer before I heard the front door open and Mace came into the kitchen. He turned on the overhead lights and leaned against the doorframe. “That was one unhappy cabbie,” Mace said. “Had to pay him fifty bucks to take a hike.”
I ground my teeth as I watched Mace walk over to lean down and kiss Jonas. “Are you coming back to bed?”
Jonas shifted his gaze to me, then said, “I’ll be up in a few. Cole has to be up in an hour anyway so maybe you want to wake him up now and I’ll join you in a bit?”
I didn’t miss the suggestive tone in Jonas’s voice and clearly Mace hadn’t either because the next kiss he laid on Jonas was anything but innocent and sweet. When they finally separated, Jonas was smiling happily and Mace aimed a dark look directly at me. “You owe me fifty bucks,” he said before leaving the kitchen. Jonas got up and grabbed a mug off the counter along with a full pot of coffee.
He put it down on the table. “I can make you a latte if you prefer,” he said as he motioned to the espresso machine on the counter.
I shook my head and sat down, reaching for the coffee. “This is fine, thank you.”
Jonas sat back down and studied me as the stillness of the kitchen was only interrupted by the occasional shifting of the dog that was lying at Jonas’s feet. The night before was the first time I’d officially met the young man, but I knew quite a bit about him since I’d been Mace’s backup on the case that had introduced him to Jonas. I’d been charged with gathering information on the young artist who’d been a suspect in several sexual assaults against little boys as well as the disappearance of a boy in Boston. While my role had been to pull together the information Mace needed, Mace’s job had been to end Jonas’s life so he would never hurt another child. And while I’d been assured of the young man’s guilt based on the evidence we’d had, Mace had thankfully held back. Because it had ultimately turned out that Jonas had been set up by one of our own guys trying to collect a contract that had been put out on the young man. My own guilt in the role I’d played had kept me from coming back to New York to meet the two men who’d changed Mace’s life.
That same guilt was rolling through me now, but it was in good company because it seemed that all I could feel since the moment I’d woken up yesterday morning to answer that fucking phone call was guilt and shame.
“It’s not easy, is it?” Jonas asked and I lifted my eyes from where they’d been studying the coffee mug that I suspected one of Jonas’s students had made because it had two stick figures on it with art easels and the words I love Mr. Jonas were written in red letters above the image.
“What?” I asked.
“Letting someone in.”
I didn’t respond, but of course that didn’t seem to faze the young man. “There’s that moment that you always remember…the one where you finally lose all hope,” Jonas murmured softly. “And you have to decide to either go on anyway or just let go.”
I watched as Jonas began running his fingers over the inside of his wrist. He kept his eyes there as he said, “And then fate steps in and changes everything.” Jonas lifted his eyes and let a smile drift across his face as he removed his hand from his wrist. “Of course, then you have to decide if you’re going to take what fate is offering you or if you’re going to tell her to fuck off,” he added with a light chuckle.
He took a final sip of his latte and stood. I watched as he put the cup in the sink and began to walk past me. I wasn’t surprised when he stopped next to me, but he caught me off guard when he leaned down to give me a small hug. “Don’t tell her to fuck off, Mav,” he whispered and then he was gone, turning off the overhead lights. The dog jumped up from the floor to follow him, leaving me alone in the darkened kitchen. It would be easy enough to call another cab, but I didn’t. I didn’t do anything except refill my coffee and sit there in the silence.
And waited.
Chapter Twenty
Eli
I hadn’t had any idea what to expect as we drove past the jagged hills that blanketed both sides of the desolate road that led to the reservation. I hadn’t seen much from the air because I’d fallen asleep within minutes of the jet leaving Newark and I hadn’t stirred until the landing gear had hit the small airstrip just south of the reservation. Like the previous day, Mav and I hadn’t exchanged more than a couple of words from the moment I’d gotten up, my body still deliciously sore from his lovemaking.
