Ex's and O'S (6 page)

“Actually, ma’am, I can,” the freakishly huge cop said. “He can get out on his own or I can get him out.” Adam felt more than a twinge of fear; he’d heard enough jokes about Texas—and made more than a few himself—to be convinced this was a backward state

where inbreeding was rampant. Maybe if he wasn’t so exhausted and sore he wouldn’t be so quick to be judgmental, but—

“That’d be a shame though, ma’am, since I only want to make sure he’s fit to drive,”

the cop rumbled, “it’s obvious he’s been hurt.”

Adam groaned and closed his eyes as his mom leaned over him. He just knew she was pointing at the cop, and—“Well, he’s managed to get us this far, so I don’t see any reason you need to be concerned about him now—or any other time, for that matter.” Adam felt her arm moving against his chest. Yep, she was shaking her finger at the big snarly cop. He almost giggled as he realised he wouldn’t have to worry about Rollins sending someone to EX’S AND O’S

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kill him. His own mother was going to get him killed instead if she kept provoking pissed off looking cops who had big scary guns.

“You know what I think?” his mother continued, not giving anyone time to answer. “I think you got one look at my son and that tiny brain of yours thought,”
oh God, no, shut up
Mom! Shut up!
Adam sank down in the seat as much as he could as she charged on. “Well, look here, here’s a pretty girly boy to screw with. Does it make you feel like a real man to harass someone else just because they’re smaller? Or is it because we’re from out of state? Is this a common problem in Texas? Are we going to have cops harassing Adam just because he’s—”

“Mom! Stop!” Adam finally shouted, his tongue unsticking from the roof of his mouth as humiliation and fear vied for the lead in him. God, he loved his mom to death but she could be such a…such a mom! “I was speeding,” he pointed out, “you were nagging me to slow down. I got pulled over for speeding, not because we’re from out of state or…” Adam darted a glance at the cop and wished to hell he could see the man better, “because of anything else.” All Adam had seen of the man’s face was shadowed planes and a firm jaw, but when the cop had leant down, he’d smelt so frigging good Adam had wanted to lick him.

Okay, he might end up getting himself killed if he gave in to impulses like that. The police officer looked like he could break Adam in half with one hand.

“I still don’t think you should get out,” his mom muttered. “I don’t trust that cop, he seems like a di—”

“Mom!” Adam snapped, horrified at the word he was pretty sure his mother had been about to utter. There were just some things he never wanted to hear her say!

She grinned at him even as she narrowed her eyes and glanced out the window.

“What? You think I’ve never said di—”

“That’s it!” Adam shoved the door open and stumbled out of the car, his legs stiff from more than just hours of driving. He grabbed at the door, trying to keep himself upright even as pain shot up from his legs to his shoulders. “Shit!” The cop was probably going to think he was drunk, the way Adam was flailing. Adam hooked an arm over the top of the door and cracked the back of his neck on the car but he managed to stay upright. He wasn’t surprised when the question came.

“Have you been drinking or using drugs?”

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Adam thought about his mom’s prescription pain pills. No way was he admitting he’d taken some of them hours ago. “No sir, I haven’t. Just drove too long without stopping and my legs are—what are you doing?” Adam shrank back as the cop approached. “Do you want me to do a breathalyser? I can, if I can get a deep breath, I—”

“Why can’t you get a deep breath?” the cop asked in a soft snarl. “Want to tell me who beat the hell out of you?”

Adam could answer that truthfully. “I don’t know.” He just knew who’d sent the men.

He held himself still while the other man stared at him as if judging the truth of Adam’s words. Adam just tried not to drool.

The guy was just huge, there was nothing else for it. His shoulders were probably twice as broad as Adam’s, and his thighs each as big as Adam’s waist and…he looked up…and up when the man stopped only inches away from him. Heat spiked in Adam’s

belly, fear and desire combined. The cop wasn’t classically handsome, far from it, but he appealed to Adam like no one else had before. Adam had always picked men who were gorgeous in that model perfect way. The only exception had been Nick, and they had only been friends. Adam had been willing to be more, but Nick only wanted Josh and Adam got that. Of course, Chase hadn’t been model pretty either, but…Adam shut down that train of thought. He didn’t know what Chase looked like now, or if the man would even survive after what Rollins’ men had done to him.

Instead Adam concentrated on the roughly handsome face in front of—or above,

practically—him. A square jaw and jutting chin that promised a stubborn disposition in the man, thin lips that stretched over a sensually wide mouth, a nose that looked to have been broken more than once, and large grey eyes framed in lashes so thick Adam would have thought they’d been glued on if he didn’t know better. The idea of a cop in Texas wearing false lashes was ridiculous enough to make him giggle. Adam slapped a hand over his mouth and knew his eyes were near to bugging out. “Sorry,” he said around his hand, hoping he was pulling off the puppy dog eye begging thing. He really didn’t want to be tossed in jail on suspicion of driving under the influence.

“I think you need to come with me.”

Adam stiffened at the words and his mother let out a curse word that singed Adam’s ears. It sounded so much more vulgar when his mom said it! He risked falling over long EX’S AND O’S

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enough to let go of the door and cross his arms over his chest, hissing as the movement pulled at his ribs. “I really don’t want to go to jail. I haven’t done anything other than speed—”

“Twenty miles over the speed limit,” the cop pointed out. “That’s reason enough if I wanted to throw you in jail, but that wasn’t what I had in mind.”

Adam arched an eyebrow and cursed, stealing his mother’s word as pain sparked

around his brow. Of course he had to get punched over the eyebrow he preferred to arch—

okay, the only one he could arch. The other one refused to cooperate on its own. He heard the car door slam and forgot about trying to give the cop a haughty look. “Mom, get back in the car please.” This was worse than when he was a kid. His mom had always been

overprotective, never knew when to step back and let him fight his own battles. As a result, his childhood had been hell. Being a mama’s boy, whether he’d wanted to or not, had set him up as a target for bullies.

“I won’t say anything,” she murmured as she stepped to his side. Adam didn’t believe her but he nodded. Hopefully she at least wouldn’t say anything to provoke the cop. Who was, Adam noticed with not a small amount of amusement, staring at Adam’s mother with something akin to fear on his rough features. The big man moved back a foot or two and turned the flashlight off before slipping it back in a loop on his belt.

“If he wants to drive anywhere else, he needs to get checked out by a doctor,” the cop said firmly. “He can’t stand without wavering and he’s giggling.” Adam couldn’t miss the unspoken judgement there—real men do not giggle. Whatever. Adam wasn’t insecure in his masculinity at all.

Adam saw his mother’s jaw working. He touched her hand and shook his head

slightly before addressing the officer. Swallowing his pride, Adam tried to dissuade him. “I don’t have health insurance, or money, so going to the doctor is out.”

After several moments of silence the cop grinned so suddenly Adam’s breath stuttered in his lungs before gushing from his lips. Holy shit! And he’d thought the man wasn’t exactly attractive? That smile right there, it did all sorts of things to Adam’s insides and his outsides.

His cock shot to fully erect so fast Adam’s vision dimmed from the head rush.

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“Lucky for you I have a friend who’s a nurse,” the cop said, then snickered in a way that made Adam want to fuck him or hit him or maybe both at the same time. Shit, he must have been hit in the head harder than he’d thought.

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Okay, maybe it did make him an asshole, springing Adam on Josh like this, but Les really didn’t think he deserved the evil glare Josh gave him when Les escorted Adam and his mother—she’d introduced herself as Charlene once she’d been convinced Les wasn’t going to haul her precious baby off to jail—into the ER. Les had given Adam directions to the hospital then followed behind to make sure Adam actually went to the hospital, and, okay, because he wanted to see Josh’s expression when Adam walked in. Josh had, after all, shot Les full of whatever crap it was that was making his dick hard enough to pound nails.

The state of that particular unruly part had nothing to do with Adam’s nicely rounded ass. Les closed his eyes and wondered how feverish he was to be thinking such things, especially when the look Josh was levelling on him should have killed Les on the spot. Adam hadn’t noticed Josh yet, too busy being cosseted by Charlene as she tried to lead him to a chair in the ER. Josh pointed at Les and mouthed ‘now’, flipping his finger towards the orange doors and tacking on what looked like ‘you asshole’ to his silent demand.

Les opened his eyes and glanced at Adam, hunched down and by all appearances

miserable as hell. The fluorescent lights in the ER made the bruises and scrapes stand out in stark relief against Adam’s pale skin. Adam’s hand trembled where it rested on the arm of the chair. The knuckles on that slender hand were torn and bruised, blood crusted in the swollen folds of skin. And despite all the damage to the man, Les’ dick was still painfully hard. Thank God he’d grabbed his jacket and put it on before getting out of his cruiser this time.

Adam shifted in his seat and winced, his breath hitching. A cold knot of fear spread from Les’ stomach. Was Adam just beaten, or had he been… Les’ mind spun out, running as desperately as he suddenly wanted to.
Stop it,
he chided himself. It wouldn’t do him or Adam any good to hide from the fact
if
the man had been raped. The very idea made Les want to kill someone—a frightening feeling for a man who took pride in his self-control.

Then Adam turned those powder blue eyes on him and Les’ heart flopped like a fish out of water.
Oh shit oh shit! What. The. Fuck!
Les spun on his heel and headed after Josh. The furious EX’S AND O’S

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look in his green eyes was less terrifying than that open, pain filled one in Adam’s eyes and Les’ reaction to it.

Josh snatched Les by the arm the second he got close to the doors leading to the exam rooms. Les was kind of impressed by how strong the little guy was; Josh always looked so sweet and happy—but he didn’t now, so maybe his added strength was due to temper? Josh squeezed hard, the tips of his fingers digging into the muscles of Les’ forearm. It smarted, just a bit.

Les gave Josh a blank look as Josh’s scowl darkened comically. Les wanted to laugh at the smaller man’s pique—Josh reminded him of a sexy, little, evil imp—God damn it, what the fuck?! Les jerked his arm away, his amusement at Josh’s expense vanishing.

“What kind of shots did you give me?” Les snapped just as Josh opened his mouth to speak. “I don’t feel…right. What are the side effects?”

Josh frowned and stared at Les as if he could see inside him. Les tugged the edges of his jacket together. No way did he want Josh to notice his semi-erect dick. Josh felt Les’

forehead. “You feel a little warm, and you aren’t coughing like you were. The prednisone can cause you to sweat and affect your mood, make you nervous and kind of high strung, is that what you mean?”

“Yeah, that’s probably it then.” Les wasn’t going to mention the whole being hornier than a bull in rut thing. He’d just make sure he never got another shot of the stuff again.

Josh nodded then crossed his arms over his chest. He glared up at Les. “Okay. So why did you bring that…that man here? It’s bad enough that Nick wants to help the guy out, but—”

Les scowled, crossing his own arms over his chest. “Did you even look at him?”

“Well…” Josh glanced at the doors then down in the vicinity of his feet. “Not exactly. I just—”

Oh good Lord. “Just what? Thought I brought him in here for shits and giggles?” He sort of had, but only as a side benefit, although as miserable as Josh was looking, Les was regretting poking at a man he hoped could be his friend. Les sighed and shoved the fingers of one hand through his short black hair. “Look, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do, okay? I caught him speeding and noticed the bruises and cuts—and he keeps wriggling EX’S AND O’S

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around in his chair out there and doesn’t have insurance and—” and maybe the prednisone made him babble, too. Les shut his mouth, biting his cheek to keep from blathering on.

“Bruises and cuts?” Josh’s anger drained away in the blink of an eye. “What do you mean, he’s wriggling around? Like…like…” Josh’s green eyes rounded as he sucked in a breath.

Les grunted as he glanced towards the waiting room, as if he could see Adam through the heavy doors. “I don’t know, just, he’s hurt, and if I had to guess, I’d say it happened right before he left Montana. There’s dried blood on a few of the cuts and…maybe his back hurts, but I just don’t know!” And he needed to, for some strange mind-boggling reason, make sure Adam was going to be all right.

“Oh.” Josh paled as his mouth pinched into a thin line. “You do realise I might be the last person he wants to check him over?”

“But you will?” Les asked, his heart doing that heavy thudding thing in his chest again. “You can examine him without, you know, billing him a couple thousand bucks for it?”