LUCAS WATCHED as Owen licked his lips. The normally cool green eyes were dark with lust. His lips were red and swollen. His chest rose and fell rapidly with each hurried breath, and he leaned toward Lucas in anticipation. Lucas pushed him back against the wall. He liberally soaped his hand and let his eyes trail up and down Owen’s body admiringly, until the flush staining Owen’s cheeks spread to his neck. He leaned in, one hand unerringly finding Owen’s thickened cock and his lips settling on Owen’s, swallowing the whimper as Owen felt his fingers close around him. His slickened hand gripped Owen’s length, twisting his wrist and scraping his thumbnail over the sticky tip. He swallowed all the sounds pouring from Owen’s throat. The happy sighs, the lustful pleas, the moans, the inarticulate words that Owen seemed to have no control over. He grazed Owen’s throat with his teeth as Owen leaned back, his eyes closed in ecstasy. Lucas was convinced the only thing holding Owen upright was the door he leaned on and Lucas’s body pressing against him.
He cupped Owen’s balls and reached behind him as Owen had done to him, never hesitating as he inserted the tip of one soapy finger, easing the skin stretched tightly around Owen’s hole. “Lucas!” Owen gasped, his eyes flying open, and Lucas was completely unable not to take Owen’s mouth and taste the pleasure, relishing the affect he was having on him. With another pump of his fingers and one more twist, cum spilled over Lucas’s hand as Owen returned his kiss ferociously.
Lucas leaned back and opened his eyes. Owen’s own dazed ones flickered open a few seconds later. “You are stunning,” Lucas breathed, and Owen smiled lazily, happily. Words—whatever he had been going to say—caught in Lucas’s throat. Somehow Lucas had to keep Owen safe and by his side. They’d get through this, and then maybe they could have a real relationship. He wanted to say all that, but he wasn’t sure how. Owen didn’t deserve more pressure than he was already facing, so he just pulled Owen away from the wall and into his arms. He wanted Owen to feel safe. To always be safe.
A few seconds later, Lucas realized the water was cooling. Owen seemed to notice at the same time and reached up to turn it off. Wordlessly they dried each other off, Owen taking care to be gentle with Lucas’s side, Lucas never dreaming to be anything else with Owen.
They dressed. Owen was still in borrowed clothes, but he didn’t care, and they walked into the living room together. Mark looked up and nodded to the nest he had made for a sleeping Mia. Bailey was curled around her protectively. “He’s been out,” Mark confirmed, then wishing them both a good night, he wheeled himself into his own room. Lucas pulled Owen down on the couch and Owen snuggled in close, his eyes closing almost immediately.
THE NEXT morning, as soon as the clock rolled past nine, Lucas walked over to Mark’s phone and picked it up.
“There’s another option,” Mark said. “I forgot last night, but I know a Fed. An assistant special agent in charge. He’s local, and if Malvetti has done half the things you say, he’s probably already involved.”
Lucas hesitated. “Can you trust him?”
“I don’t know,” Mark admitted. “I mean, I’ve delivered all seven of his kids, and he would never upset his wife, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
Lucas glanced at Owen. “Your call.”
“Jacko,” Owen said reluctantly. He wasn’t sure he could trust another stranger.
He dialed Jacko’s number, while Mark and Owen watched anxiously.
“Hello?”
“It’s me,” Lucas switched it to hands-free when Jacko answered.
“Fuck, Lucas. What the hell happened? Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Where the hell—”
“I’m fine,” he said, effectively cutting Jacko off. “We’re safe and holed up because of the storm, but I need help.”
“Anything,” Jacko said fervently. “Tell me where you are and I’ll come get you.”
Lucas hesitated, but Jacko’s Jeep would navigate the roads much better than the SUV. Then again, he didn’t want Jacko in the line of fire. “No,” he said. “Did your uncle give you any info on someone he trusted?”
There was a pause. “You have to understand Owen is hot property right now. He just urged me to bring you in.” Jacko swore. “I know a ton of guys, but at the same time, I don’t know who to ask. If Owen comes with me, I can guarantee you he will be safe because I can get him in the back way. If you call the Marshals, I can’t make that promise, because the leak is definitely with them.” He paused. “My uncle told me there’s one marshal in particular who’s been asking questions. An Irish guy.”
O’Connor. He must have survived being shot at, and he hoped like hell that DuPree had. That he’d survived that night was definitely convenient… if he was the leak.
Lucas met Owen’s eyes, and he nodded, so Lucas gave him the address, and Jacko said he would be there in around two hours.
They were all quiet. Lucas managed to cram some food down, but Owen didn’t eat at all. Mark was cuddling Mia while Owen got their things together.
“I want you to come with us.” Lucas sat down next to Mark.
“Uh-huh.” Mark looked skeptical. “Does Jacko have a minivan? Because there’s no way your friend is going to be able to get four people, a wheelchair, and a baby seat in a car.” That was true. Lucas didn’t like it, but it was true.
“How about I go with Jacko and you two wait here?” Owen suggested.
Mark burst out laughing before Lucas got the chance to say anything. “Like he’s gonna let you out of his sight. No, you three go with Jacko, and I’ll wait until you call me.”
Lucas gazed at Mark and took a chance. “If you were thinking of sticking around here, I know where there’s a sweet end cottage coming up for sale near mine. It needs work, but it’s nothing I couldn’t help with. And you’d get it for a good price.”
Mark met Lucas’s eyes. “I have a standing offer to join a partnership in Greeley, or even a medical center nearer Fort Collins.”
Lucas let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and then they all heard a car engine.
“It’s an old silver Jeep,” Mark commented, looking out the window.
“That’s Jacko,” Lucas confirmed and got up to go to the door.
Jacko jumped from the Jeep and jogged over to Lucas. “Are you okay?”
Lucas clasped his hand and shared a hug. “I am now. Ready when you are.”
Jacko nodded and followed Lucas as he stepped back into the cabin. Owen stood up and gathered Mia to him. She looked in interest at the new arrival. He smiled and walked over to her, chuckling. “You always did manage to rescue pretty ladies, Lucas.”
Lucas caught the smile on Owen’s face before he glanced back at Jacko, but Jacko missed it. He shook hands with Mark and then walked back outside. Lucas grabbed the bag of baby things and the small pack of dressings and spray Mark passed to him.
“Just in case,” Mark murmured. Lucas stood for a second, not knowing what to say. Mark smiled. “Go,” he ordered softly.
Lucas clasped his brother’s arm, nodded, and just steered Owen out.
Mark grabbed Bailey’s collar as he tried to slip past. “Don’t think so, buddy.” Bailey whined, and Mia heard him.
“B-bee,” she cooed.
“We can’t, sweetie,” Owen said and tried to hush her. Mia squirmed. “B-bee,” she cried louder, and then Bailey barked and twisted. In a flash, he was free of Mark and sprinting across the yard to them.
“You’re kidding me.” Jacko laughed. “Sorry, doggy, but you’re gonna have to stay with Lucas.”
“What?” Lucas’s head shot up, just as he was putting a bag in the trunk.
“What?” Jacko parroted in confusion.
“I’m going with you,” Lucas said slowly.
Jacko shook his head. “Not possible. I’ve spoken to my uncle. Everything’s set up, but I have to take Owen and Mia in on their own.”
Lucas scoffed. “I don’t think so.”
“Think for a minute,” Jacko reasoned. “Owen and Mia will be taken into protective custody, but that won’t include you. And if Malvetti finds out you’ve been the one hiding them, you’re putting both yourself and Mark in danger.”
“Damien already knows,” Owen said dryly. “O’Connor insisted Lucas came for his own protection, and that was before they tried to stop us at the cottage.”
Lucas frowned. “Why would that put Mark in danger? No one knows where we are except you.”
Jacko sighed and rubbed his head. “You’re a stubborn bastard.”
Lucas grinned, and he took Owen’s hand, pulling him closer. Jacko’s eyes widened as he looked from one to the other.
“This is why I’m coming. The Marshals protect couples together.”
“What the hell, Lucas? Are you insane?” Jacko exclaimed.
Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “Be very careful with whatever words are the next to come out of your mouth.”
Jacko’s mouth fell open. “I don’t mean that. You know I don’t mean that, for fuck’s sake.”
“Then what exactly do you mean?” Lucas asked silkily. But no one would mistake the tone for anything other than the warning it was intended to be.
“Lucas, don’t,” Owen said quietly.
Lucas glanced at Owen and forced his anger away. Then he deliberately put his arm around Owen and glanced back at Jacko. “I go wherever he goes.” If the Marshals wouldn’t take Lucas with them, he’d just have to manage on his own. At least he’d know that Owen and Mia would be safe. And when it was all over, they’d come home.
Whoa.
Come home?
Lucas faltered a little, even as they were heading for Jacko’s Jeep. Was that what he wanted? Owen to come home. Owen and Mia?
Yes.
Definitely yes.
Owen tried to hush Mia—she didn’t like the idea of being strapped in a car seat. Owen glanced up. “She’ll go to sleep as soon as we get going,” he said as the fussing got louder.
“Stevie used to do that.” Lucas glanced back around. “He went through a colicky stage at about four months when he wouldn’t sleep. I thought Tory was going to leave him at Goodwill at one point.” She’d been tearing her hair out, and each time he went on shift, she drove to her mom’s place. “I’d come home and take him out in the car, driving until he fell asleep. You wouldn’t believe the miles I put on the car that summer.” And he had. Truth be told, he had loved it. It had been a special time for him, and sometimes, if they’d had a quiet shift, he used to take him back to the station. None of his guys were on, obviously, but it was a small place, and Esther, the captain’s assistant, often used to beg Lucas to bring Stevie back with him after he had finished that morning.
Little by little, he stopped noticing when Tory had stayed a few extra nights at her mom’s place, and she would visit with her girlfriends in the city. He should have realized there was something wrong then, but he was cocooned in a perfect world. He had a job he loved, and he thought his family was happy.
Maybe he should have—no. He had to stop blaming himself. At some point, it just had to be enough already.
“How about you get in?” Lucas turned to help Owen because Mia was making her opinion of the whole thing very obvious. Jacko chuckled and came back around to the back seat. “I ought to practice,” he said, just as his phone started ringing. Jacko huffed and ignored it. The cell stopped ringing, then started again. He fished in his pocket for it but fumbled, and it dropped on the ground.
Owen leaned forward to pick it up. He glanced at the screen as he passed it to Jacko, and froze.
Jacko held his hand out. “That will be Christine ragging on me to get something from the store she forgot.”
“It wasn’t Christine.” Owen’s voice came out strangled, just as the phone stopped.
Jacko shrugged. “Come on, we need to get moving.”
“Lucas?”
Lucas glanced at Owen and stilled. Owen’s eyes were wide and pleading. His hands were fisted, and as Lucas watched, he struggled to swallow. “What’s wrong?” He took a step forward. “Owen, what’s wrong?”
Jacko shut the car door with force. “I figured you would have stayed with Mark, Lucas,” Jacko said in a defeated voice. “I’d hoped you’d have stayed with Mark.”
And every hair Lucas had on the back of his neck stood up. He looked at Jacko in confusion. “Why, Jacko? Why didn’t you want me to come with you?” Jacko reached for his arm, as if he was going to pull him forward, and Lucas jerked back.
“Why?” Lucas growled.
Owen immediately opened the car door and had Mia out in a second.
“We need to go,” Jacko argued. “This is ridiculous.”
Lucas looked at Owen. “Who was calling?”
“It said Big G. The caller ID said Big G,” Owen croaked out.
Lucas frowned. “Big G is Jacko’s uncle.”
But Owen shook his head in agitation. “Big G is also one of Damien’s cop friends. If there was a problem with an arrest of a dealer or something, Damien would always say that Big G would take care of it.”
Lucas looked at Jacko. “Big G stands for Malcolm Greer.”
Owen shook his head. “I don’t know what his name was. I only saw him once.”
Lucas thought about Jacko’s uncle—the larger-than-life detective who worked a lot of sex trafficking cases.
“He had two fingers missing from his right hand. He was holding a glass when I last saw him,” Owen said.
Lucas’s heart thudded. Malcolm had nearly lost his hand when a perp had shot wildly. They had managed to save it, all but the two end fingers. He took a breath and forced the words out with sickening finality. “Jacko, just go. Get out of my sight.” He would go to prison for a long time.
How could he have been so wrong? Jacko had been his friend. His buddy. For years.
Lucas held his hand out to Owen. “We’ll wait for the marshals. They’ll be here soon.”
“Not soon enough,” Jacko said sadly, and pulled a gun.