Wiseguys: Blast From the Past (3 page)

The next time Carter's fingertips skimmed up his arms, Carter kept going. Over the hard angle of Tony's shoulders, along his collarbone to the front of his neck, and on up beneath his chin, Carter's fingers spread their magic. Tony's need coalesced now in those wet nipples, spread down through him, dipped in at his bellybutton, ran like a live wire through his groin into his cock to settle heavily in his balls.

"You got a plan here?" he asked Carter, his voice rough.

"What, you don't like this so far?" Carter nuzzled up against the side of Tony's neck. "'Cause from where I sit, it looks like you like this a whole lot."

Tony shifted in the tub, trying to find some sort of release for his aching cock. "I got fuckin' blue balls is how much I like this so far."

"I'm not gonna touch you. Not there. But you're still gonna come for me, just from me touching you like this."

Tony almost groaned. "Wait 'til it's my turn. You're gonna get what's coming to you, I get my hands on you."

"I'm counting on it."

Carter's fingertips started their way back down, over Tony's collarbone, around the hard angle of his shoulder, over the lean muscles of his arms, down below the water to his wrists.

Carter was enjoying this a hell of a lot, if the dig of his cock at Tony's backside was any indication. How Carter was managing to hold himself still, Tony didn't know, but except for the slow sweep of his hands up and down Tony's arms, Carter didn't move.

Exactly how long was he going to keep doing this?

Tony got his answer sooner than he expected. On the next upward sweep of his hands, Carter abruptly leaned forward. His teeth nipped down on Tony's earlobe the same time one of his hands pinched down on Tony's nipple. Carter wrapped his other arm around Tony's waist and thrust up, his cock sliding in the crack of Tony's ass.

Water splashed, and Tony yelled even as his balls contracted at the sudden jolt that ran from his ear to his chest right down to his cock. He came, and he came hard, grunting and shuddering in Carter's grasp, and the washcloth slipped off his face.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut tight against the sudden light, too intent on trying to make this feeling, this exquisite feeling, last as long as possible. Behind him, Carter groaned, long and low. He pumped himself twice against Tony, and Tony knew he wasn't the only one who'd come without a hand on his cock.

Afterward, they lay boneless against each other in the cooling bath. Tony finally opened his eyes. He lifted his hands out of the water, not surprised that the skin on his fingers had pruned up.

"Where the hell did you learn that?" he asked in a low, satisfied voice.

It took Carter a moment to answer. "I just got inspired," he finally said. "Thought I'd try something new."

Something new? "What, you didn't know you could make me come like that?"

Carter chuckled. "I did, though, didn't I?"

Tony wasn't the only one who was satisfied.

"I'm never gonna live this down, am I?" Tony said. "You, making me do that without even touching me."

"Oh, I touched you. Not on your cock, but I touched you." Carter's lips brushed the back of Tony's neck. "You have no idea how much I wanted to."

"Yeah?"

"Let me get you in bed, and I'll show you how much."

That, Tony thought, sounded like the best plan of all.

Nothing happened for a week. Tony was beginning to think that maybe they'd over-reacted. Just because the guy from Jersey worked for Luciano didn't mean he and Carter were next on the hit list. Small town Idaho might be out of the way enough that Luciano figured they were no threat.

Then Bess disappeared.

"You guys haven't happened to see her, have you?"

The question came from Norman, the owner of the town's lone sporting goods shop. On their first day in town, Tony and Carter had stopped a robbery from going down in Norman's store. The robbers hadn't been wearing masks. Norman knew as well as Tony and Carter did what that meant, and he'd done more than say thanks. He'd become their friend.

Norman was sixty if he was a day. He didn't care that Tony and Carter were a couple, and if anybody voiced their opinion about how two men shouldn't be together, Norman would tell them to mind their own damn business. He'd been the deli's first customer, and he'd been their best customer ever since.

Bess was only a couple years younger than Norman. She ran a bed and breakfast on Main Street, along with the fancy restaurant that took up the B & B's first floor. Norman called Bess his "good friend", but everybody in town knew Bess was Norman's girl.

After they stopped the robbery at his store, Norman had arranged for Tony and Carter to stay in the best suite at the B & B for a few days. Tony and Carter had celebrated their first Christmas as a couple in that suite, complete with a real Christmas tree and Carter's homemade lasagna giving the place the smell of back home.

Ever since the guy from Jersey had ordered a meatball sub and left behind a side of unwanted complications, Carter had taken to propping open the door between the kitchen and the front counter so he could keep an eye on Tony. Operating the deli that way wouldn't stand up to a health inspection, but Tony knew he couldn't talk Carter out of it, so he didn't try. When Norman asked about Bess, Carter couldn't help but overhear.

He came out behind the counter wiping soapy water off his thick arms. "She missing?" Carter's voice was low like it always was when he got down to business.

"I don't know." Norman's eyes were faded blue, large and worried behind thick glasses. He was thin and wiry, but no one in their right mind would ever call Norman old. "I went over to her place for coffee, like I always do in the mornings, but she wasn't home. She's not at the B & B, either. She'd call me if she was going somewhere. We got in the habit of calling each other ever since..."

Norman trailed off, but Tony knew what he meant. Bess had told him once that they knew how close they'd come to losing each other when the kids tried to rob Norman's store.

Tony and Carter exchanged a look.

This wasn't Jersey. People didn't just go missing here. People got drunk on the weekends, went out hunting and maybe shot themselves in the foot. There was some vandalism, like the rock that had been thrown through one of the deli's plate glass windows that spring, but gangs didn't roam the streets, cops weren't on the take, and old ladies didn't up and disappear from their houses.

"You seen anybody new in town?" Tony asked. "Somebody who doesn't look like a tourist?"

Norman blinked a few times. "New? What do you mean?"

"Somebody like us?" Carter asked.

Norman almost said "gay" -- Tony could see it on the tip of his tongue -- but then he got it. Tony always had a feeling Norman knew what kind of background he and Carter had, but Norman had never said anything about it. Now Tony knew.

Norman knew they were wiseguys. Correction -- former wiseguys. He just didn't care.

"Hard to tell," Norman said. "Summer months, lots of people in and out all the time."

That was part of the problem. Anybody who showed up from Jersey would have the perfect cover. All they had to do was act like any other tourist. Pretend to be here for the scenery, to go fishing on the lake, or even say they were just passing through on their way up to Canada. If the guys Luciano sent were smart, they could blend in.

The thing with Bess could be unrelated. Enforcers didn't go around kidnapping innocent old ladies. What would be the point? To draw the two of them into some candyass search for her, get them off by themselves so they'd make an easy target? Luciano's guys would have to kill Bess, too, and probably Norman because no way would Norman stay out of it even if Tony asked. That made it messy. Messy drew the wrong kind of attention from the local cops.

Tony thought it over. It would take a lot of time and effort to find out Bess had any connection to them, even with Norman hanging out at the deli a couple times a week. An enforcer wouldn't risk something like that, not when he already knew where to find the two of them. No, an enforcer would come at them when they were alone. Brace them in their house when they were sleeping, catch them on the way to the van. No enforcer worth his salt would come at them sideways like this, but Tony didn't like the coincidence.

Little old ladies didn't go missing for no good reason.

That meant whoever was here from Jersey was an amateur. Fucking Luciano had hired an amateur to take them out, and he'd been here long enough to latch onto their connection to Bess.

"You better call Clifford," Tony said.

Clifford Sewell was the local sheriff. He didn't like Tony, and he especially didn't like Carter, but beyond the occasional visit to the deli just to let them know he was keeping an eye on them, Clifford had left the two of them alone.

Some of the color left Norman's face. "You think something's happened to her?"

"Better just to call him," Carter said, his voice low and serious. He exchanged a look with Tony. It said they'd be looking for Bess whether or not Clifford Sewell got involved.

∗ ∗ ∗

Tony kept the deli open the rest of the day with the help of Julie, their part-time summer counter girl, while Carter went out to do what Carter did best.

Thanks to the over-abundance of food already in the case, Tony had more than enough food to last the day, even with an influx of teenagers who showed up around three. He finally ran out of baked ziti about the time Carter came back, looking grim.

"You okay to handle things out here?" Tony asked Julie.

"Yeah, sure, Tony." Julie looked at the two of them with big eyes. "Everything okay?"

"Just fine," Tony told her. "You've been a big help today. I won't forget that."

Julie was a smart kid. All of seventeen, and she worked harder than most adults. She never talked about her home life, but Norman had told Tony once on the sly that Julie's father was long gone and her brother was doing time for boosting a car. The money Julie earned at the deli helped support herself and her mom. The only time she'd ever asked Tony for anything non-work related, it hadn't been for herself but for her cousin, Jason, and it had been a favor Tony and Carter both were happy to provide.

He felt her gaze follow them into the kitchen.

Carter took a soda out of the fridge, popped the top and took a long drink. Tony kept walking through the kitchen and out the back door. He didn't want to take a chance that Julie could hear whatever Carter had to say.

A single-lane driveway ran behind the deli. On the other side of the driveway, the ground sloped down to a small marina tucked into a narrow channel leading to the lake. The channel was too small for sailboats. Only rowboats and the occasional power boat tied up at these docks.

People were starting to come back from a day on the water. Tony watched as a power boat idled on low, barely enough forward momentum to push the boat toward its tie down. The guy with his hand on the motor was bare-chested and sun burnt a nice, deep red. What skin wasn't burnt was fish belly white. He'd be in a world of hurt tomorrow.

"What'd you find out?" Tony asked Carter, keeping his voice low.

"Not much, and nothing good." Carter took another drink from the can, eyes on the guy with the sunburn. "She's still not back. Yesterday's deposit was in the strong box, ready for the bank. Jewelry's still there. So's her car."

"Sheriff catch any of that?"

Carter shrugged. "I didn't hang around to find out."

"He gonna figure out you were there?"

The look Carter gave him was amused. "I'm not that rusty."

That was one less worry. If Carter got his ass thrown in jail, it would make them all that much easier to pick off, one at a time.

"This ain't right," Tony said. "We never went sideways at somebody like this."

"Could have nothing to do with us." Carter took another long drink from the can. "She could have something going on nobody here knows about."

"Not even Norman?"

"Especially not Norman. You ever know anybody who tells somebody else everything about themselves?"

True. Tony figured he knew Carter about as well as anybody, but there were things about Carter, especially about his childhood, that Carter never talked about. Like his old man. Tony had seen the bruises when they were little kids. Carter's old man was probably the only one who'd ever laid a hand his kid and not come out the worse for it. Tony used to wonder if Carter ever turned the tables on his old man, but he never asked. Some things you just didn't talk about.

From where they were standing, Tony could see the access road to and from the public park on the lakeshore. This time of day, traffic was bumper to bumper leaving the park. Just as many people were leaving on foot, crossing over the bridge that spanned the narrow channel. Most of the people leaving the lake were families with kids, the guys toting coolers, their wives toting diaper bags and towels and blankets, the kids worn out from a day of family fun. Tony didn't see anyone who looked out of place.

The land fronting this side of the lake was flat. The park was little more than public parking, a big grassy area with volleyball nets and shade trees, and a cinder block concession stand. On the other side of the lake, miles away, the land rose sharply from the water. The hills were steep and thickly forested and dotted with expensive homes on private roads. That made for a whole lot of wild area to hide one elderly woman.

"We're not gonna find her unless they want us to," Tony said.

"Yeah." Carter finished his soda and tossed the empty can into a recycle bin. "If it's got to do with us."

If. It was one big If.

"If it does," Carter said, looking Tony in the eye. "I'm gonna kill the bastard."

He said it like he thought Tony would argue the point. Tony had kept Carter from busting people up, like the homophobic asshole who threw a rock through the deli's front window. Then it had been about disrespect and intolerance, and there would have been no upside to Carter using his fists to settle the score. One lesson Tony had learned from Uncle Sid was to pick his battles. This though? This was different.