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“We need to leave this evening behind us—for now,” Gary whispered, his lips soft on Dan’s neck as he kissed a path to his collarbones. He stopped at the bow tie. “And you need to get out of this tux.”
“To quote you, I’m going to need some help.”
Gary cupped Dan’s chin, tilting his face upward. “Can you forget about it? For tonight?”
Dan smiled. “I’ll try.” He meant it.
That rabbit hole was way too dark.
“Then I’ll do my utmost to make it all go away for a few hours.”
A few hours wouldn’t hurt.
Monday, September 24, 2018
DETECTIVE GARYMitchell barely had time to sip his coffee before the phone rang.
“My office, when you have a minute.”
He smiled to himself. Lieutenant Travers didn’t believe in wasting his breath. “Coming now, sir.”
Coffee would have to wait. So would the cinnamon rolls, unfortunately.
“We’re wanted,” he told Dan, who’d already begun sifting through the folders on his desk, his cup in one hand. “We can choose a new case once we’ve spoken with Travers.”
Dan squinted at him, his eyes lit with a twinkle of mischief. “Remember what happened last time we did that? Actually the last two times. He sent us off in a totally different direction.”
It had been Travers who’d suggested the case of the body in the tunnel, and for most of September, they’d pursued another case he’d shoved in their direction. Not that it mattered, as long as they were solving cases that had once seemed impossible.
Thank God for technological advances, DNA testing—and Dan Porter’s extraordinary gift.
Gary was also grateful for the previous day. They’d done very little except sleep, eat, and snuggle. He’d wanted to lighten Dan’s mood, and if that meant staying in bed the whole day, Gary could take one for the team.
Sex was a fantastic distraction.
They headed for Travers’s corner office. Gary smirked at the usual chaos that greeted them. “You know, legend speaks of a desk under all that crap.”
Beside him, Dan stifled a snort.
Travers narrowed his gaze. “Iwasabout to pay you two a compliment, but now I’m not so sure.” He gestured to the two worn leather chairs in front of his desk, and they sat.
“Aw, go on, sir. Throw us a bone. We don’t get too many of those,” Gary quipped.
“Before I get to the main reason for me wanting to see you—” Travers consulted a desk diary. “—you’re both good to go for October sixth.”
Dan frowned. “And what’s happening then?”
Travers arched his eyebrows. “Aren’t you going to a wedding or something?” He gazed at Gary in bewilderment. “Have I got it wrong? Thatwasthe date on the request for time off, wasn’t it? The request you put in back in August? I know I took a while getting back to you—my apologies for that, by the way, but there were a lot of requests, and yours got buried—but I figured you’d need to know. After all, it’s less than two weeks away.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in.
Gary gave Dan an apologetic glance. “I totally forgot. It’s Nina and David’s wedding. I accepted for both of us.” His chest grew constricted. Back when he was in high school, Nina had been his best friend’s aggravating little sister, and ever since Cory’s murder, she and Gary had stayed in touch, cementing their connection.
The knot in his belly tightened.
Cory’s little sister is getting married, and Cory won’t be there to see it.
The thought deflated him, and he knew Cory would have called him out to see him indulge in such melancholy.
