Crossroads Read online

  Was he hinting something? Even if he was, he was right. I had to let him go.

  My heart sank. He had gone to a lot of trouble to prove he was willing to do things my way. I had to show him I was willing to do things his way, too.

  "Corey," I said as I took his hand. "If you need to go, I'll..." I sucked in a breath. "I'll support you." It was his life and his choices. I had to let him make them without pushing. "I'll stop pushing. You do whatever you think is right, whatever you need to do. I understand. Too much of your life has been decided for you."

  Corey's face fell. He looked absolutely crushed as we sat in one of the most picturesque spots in the state, after having a romantic evening, and a wonderful time. I'd messed it all up. Damn it.

  22

  Corey

  "Take me home," I muttered, my heart broken into a million pieces as I stood and started walking toward the brewery and his truck. After all my effort, after growing to the point that I was ready to at least consider commitment, he wanted me to leave. He'd changed his mind.

  I was halfway down the damn river before Brady moved. "No!" he shouted. The leaves and small branches crackled and broke under his feet as he thundered toward me. "Wait."

  I stopped and faced him, my face made of stone. "What?"

  "I messed this up," he said frantically, panting as he reached me. "This wasn't how I meant it. Don't leave." Dropping to his knees, he took my hands. "If you need to leave, fine. I'll deal. I'll be hurt, and my heart will break, but what I'm trying to say is that I want you to do what is best for you. What I want is irrelevant, but what I want is you. Stay with me. Don't leave me. Let me be there for you and cherish you, and make plans with you. That's what I want."

  Gaping at him, I pulled my hands from his and framed his face as I dropped to my knees and pulled his lips to mine. "You really messed that up," I whispered in between kisses.

  His hands roamed my body. "I love you. Don't leave."

  "I'm not leaving. I can't promise forever, Brady, I just can't." The hurt in his eyes cut me. "But I can promise for a long time. I'm here. I'm not making plans to leave. And if that changes," I peppered him with kisses again, "I'll tell you first. I promise."

  He crushed me into a hug, exploring my mouth with his. I moaned, aching for him to feel me and touch me, to come as I did. I wanted our bodies together, hot, sweaty. "Take me home," I said again, this time in a completely different tone of voice.

  Standing, he pulled me to my feet and the walk back to the brewery was slow. We couldn't keep our hands off of each other. Every few steps we stopped to kiss. Finally, the trees broke and we pulled apart, walking chastely toward the crowd.

  I took the keys to start the truck and get the air flowing while Brady ran in to thank Carson. I'd already paid the waitress, including a generous tip. It had been quite the whispered argument as she walked toward us, but I'd finally won. He had fed me the entire time I'd stayed with him. I wanted to pay for our first date.

  "Officer," I said as he pulled onto the road. "I'm going to do something very illegal. Please don't arrest me."

  His enormous truck had more legroom than anyone ever needed...until they wanted to suck the driver's cock without anyone seeing.

  He sucked in a breath as I wiggled my fingers under his tight waistband, unbuttoning him and shifting around until I pulled his hard cock out. I was pretty sure we'd both been hard since we'd kissed at the river.

  Without preamble, I took him into my mouth, sucking him down my throat and stroking his base at the same time. He moaned, body tense. "Fuck, Corey, that's the hottest thing anyone's ever done. I understand now."

  Chuckling, I licked up and down his shaft before asking for clarification. "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "I've had to break up many car-sex rendezvous. Now, I get it."

  He sucked in another breath, but this time it sounded different. "Corey," he said in a low voice. "Stop. We're home, and there's an El Camino on the curb."

  I yanked my mouth off his cock with a pop and watched his erection soften even as I felt my own wither. Damn him. Damn that man!

  Poking my head up as we pulled into the driveway, I peered out the tinted window. Sure enough, John was sitting in the car, peering up over the steering wheel at us as we passed by.

  "Fucking hell," I whispered. "How did he find me?"

  "Do you want me to run him off?" Brady asked me, taking my hand as the garage door closed behind us.

  "No. I have to face him, I think. It’s time."

  "I’m here," Brady said. "We’re going to get through whatever your past throws at us. It’ll keep life lively, right?" He chuckled and opened the truck door.

  Taking a few calming breaths, I reminded myself I was confident, intelligent, and fucking gorgeous. Brady saw me, he saw my worth. John couldn’t take that away from me, no matter how hard he tried.

  Repeating my mantra—confident, intelligent, gorgeous—I walked through the house to the front door, opening it to find John already standing on the porch, waiting for me.

  Rather than inviting him in, I stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind me, but didn’t shut it. If I needed Brady, I wanted him to hear me. I knew he’d be just on the other side, waiting for me.

  "What are you doing here, John?" I asked testily. "Nobody invited you here."

  "I’ve been trying to get ahold of you." He looked me up and down. "You look good. This country boy trying to spoil you? Steal you away from me?"

  "There’s nothing to steal," I said incredulously. "When I told you I was done with you, I meant it."

  "Oh, come on, Corey. What are you gonna do without me? You ain’t got no skills. The only thing you’ve ever done in life is fuck and snort coke."

  What a fucking dick. How had I let him touch me? How had I thought I loved him? "Says you." I crossed my arms. "See yourself out of my life and don’t come back."

  "I’m not going anywhere without you, Corey. Get in the fucking car. This is enough of your drama."

  "John." I stuck my face forward, looking him directly in the eye. "Read my expression. Hear my voice. Understand me. I’m never going back to you. We are over. We are through. Leave and never come back."

  He stuck his own neck out. "Get in the fucking car, Corey. I’m not going to say it again."

  I laughed in his sallow face. "Or what?"

  Lunging forward, he grabbed my left arm and turned toward the truck. I tried to wrench it from his grasp but he had too good of a grip on it. "Let go," I roared as loud as I could. I swung around with my right arm and tried to punch his face, but he saw it coming. He used his free hand to cuff me in the side of the head.

  The roaring in my ears, I soon realized, was not from the relatively harmless hit John had gotten off. He hadn’t truly been trying to hurt me, he never had. He liked to show his dominance with casual smacks and kicks. Just a way to let me know he was in control, always.

  No, the roaring came from Brady just as he tackled John, effectively freeing my arm.

  "Oh, no," I said casually. "Stop." Was it my fault if my voice wasn’t loud enough for Brady to hear over the sound of his fists hitting John’s face? "Don’t hurt him," I whispered with a smile.

  A movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to whip my head around. An elderly neighbor was standing on her front porch. "Call the police!" I yelled to her. She jumped and nodded before scurrying inside.

  For the Three Lakes PD to only have three or four officers, they sure showed up fast. Not only did Brady’s captain turn up, but a fire truck and ambulance did as well, nearly at the same time.

  In the few minutes it took for everyone to arrive, Brady had calmed a bit and stopped punching John. He didn’t even cuff him, just left him rolling around on the ground in pain.

  "What happened here?" Brady's captain boomed as he looked at Brady's bloody knuckles and John's swollen face. The paramedics began administering first aid to my illustrious ex. Brady opened his mouth, but then closed it, looking at me. Bless h
im, he didn't know what to say, or how much I'd want revealed. "He attacked me," I said. "Tried to pull me to his car, to kidnap me. Adult nap me?" I cocked my head at the Captain, a very hairy man with a sour expression on his face. He shook his head. "Well, anyway, Brady stopped him. Then when John fought back, Brady had to take care of it." The captain looked skeptical. "Then he fell. On his face."

  Arched eyebrow.

  "A lot."

  The smaller of the two paramedics snorted, then bit his lip. I gave him an eat-shit-and-die look and he shrugged. "Sorry," he said. "It just really looks like he did fall on his face to me." He looked up at the captain with a tickled expression on his face. "A lot."

  The captain's stoic demeanor broke. "If you say so," he said as he shook his head and turned away. The elderly neighbor, the one that had called the police, stood watching.

  "Bertha?"

  "Yeah, Ronnie?" She was old, but damn she could hear all the way across the lawn.

  "This guy fall on his face?" He looked down at John. "A lot?"

  Bertha nodded her head slowly. "That's what I saw."

  He waved and she went back inside. "Boys, take him to county. Patch up his face. Get the doc to sign off on his injuries and bring him to jail."

  The paramedics nodded, and the captain handcuffed John to the stretcher. "Don't like people making trouble for the citizens of this town," the good captain said as he tipped his hat to me. "Son."

  My jaw dropped. I didn't think I'd ever had a cop—besides Brady—take me seriously. If the fight had happened in Portland, we'd have all gone to jail, including old Bertha.

  "That's it?" I whispered to Brady.

  "For now," he replied before walking over to thank the firemen that had just pulled up. Everyone left and we went back inside.

  "We'll have to fill out paperwork, run his name and aliases, the whole nine yards. And however much the record might show he fell, the captain is going to have my ass for losing my cool. He won't let me slide on it, even if it doesn't go on my record."

  On one hand, fudging the record seemed like a seriously shady cop thing to do, but on the other, it was John, so who fucking cared?

  A tow truck turned up a few minutes later and took the El Camino to impound. Brady followed it out, but not until after I'd patched up his hands. I'd insisted. No way he was going in to that police office with bloody knuckles.

  When he left, I found myself in a big empty house with nothing to do but stew on the situation. I grabbed Brady's PlayStation controller and tried to lose myself in his game of killing zombies with big guns. When the phone rang, I was hunting for a particularly wily demon thingy that was eluding me. The game was very suspenseful, and the shrill ring of Brady's house line nearly took me out of my skin.

  "Hello?" I asked shakily.

  "Hey," Brady said. "It’s me."

  "What’s going on? I’ve been going out of my mind." No need to tell him I’d been engrossed in a video game while he was working.

  "He’s got a rap sheet a mile long. Plus, this dumb son of a bitch had nearly two kilos of coke in his car."

  Holy fucking hell. That was like fifty grand. If he ever got out of jail, his boss would kill him. Literally. "He'll be dead in jail," I whispered. "I guarantee that."

  "Well, whatever happens to him, he's out of your hair. The staties already came and picked him up. We cleared your car, if you want it. Captain agreed to waive the impound fee since I gave you a rock-solid alibi. I had to tell him how long you'd been with me and a shortened life story. I'm sorry."

  "It's okay," I whispered. "Was he mad?"

  "No, he agrees with me. You're really strong, Corey. I'm proud of you."

  "Wait," I said, his words fully processing. "What do you mean my car?"

  "The El Camino. It's in your name."

  Well, what did I fucking know? "I never signed to buy a car. I don't even have a license."

  "Well, you've got one. Do you even want it?"

  I considered his words. "I do not. If you know someone looking for a car, sell it for whatever you think it's worth."

  "As a matter of fact, I do. Remember Max? He's renting Ian's loft?"

  Yeah, the hottie with a limp. "Yep."

  "He needs a car. And Corey?"

  "Yeah?"

  "You didn’t have to give me a fake last name."

  He chuckled, told me he'd be home soon, and we disconnected.

  As soon as he got home, I threw my arms around him. "I don't ever want to live like that again," I told him. "That life isn't for me anymore. I just don't want it." He hadn't made it into the door, so he lifted me with one arm, my feet dragging the floor, and walked fully into the kitchen.

  "Okay. You never have to have that life."

  "And I don't care where I am, or if we move, or whatever, but wherever I end up, I want it to be with you. If that's here, I'm okay with that. You're amazing, and I can't believe I'm so lucky that you want me." I kissed his face all over, squeezing my arms around his neck. He continued his progression with me hanging off of his body all the way up the stairs and into the bed, where I proceeded to prove to him just how much I loved him.

  Twice.

  23

  Brady

  "You got some last night, didn’t you?" Martha cackled behind her menu.

  "Martha," I hissed. "I didn't ask you to lunch so you could be a perv." I tried to look scandalized, but I was far too happy to hide the grin on my face.

  "Well, did you?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Corey is in the kitchen cooking if you must know, and I love being this close to him, so hush." She continued giggling. "Are you seventeen, Martha?"

  "Always young at heart, child." She looked up at Daisy, who had just walked over to take our order.

  "Daisy, I hope you don't mind, but I forwarded the station calls here while we eat." It was the easiest way to be able to slip away while I was on the phones. My cell was too unreliable. Captain was on patrol duty, and everyone else was off.

  "Of course not, you know I don't mind." It was something we'd done many times over the years.

  "Thanks, Daisy. How's Corey doing in the kitchen?"

  "Oh, didn't he tell you? It's his day off." She took our orders and bustled off to the kitchen. I hadn't realized Corey was home today. I wondered what he was doing. Probably cleaning something. I couldn't get him to stop.

  "Stop smiling," Martha teased. "It's nauseating."

  All day at work had been like floating on a cloud. Corey loved me. We could handle anything together because we’d be together. I wanted to run home and take him into my arms again. Was that what new love felt like? A constant desire to be in your lover’s arms?

  I hoped so. And I hoped it lasted. Not even being on desk duty was bringing me down. I’d worked on paperwork half the morning, fielded calls and dispatched them out, nothing major, luckily.

  "So, when you gonna put a ring on it?" Martha asked.

  "Oh, stop." I looked around and leaned in conspiratorially. "He told me last night that he loves me."

  "Brady, I'm really happy for you. I've been wondering what to do about you. You need some stability and a relationship in your life. No sense in going through life without a companion."

  "Martha, you're single." She'd been a self-imposed bachelorette as long as I'd known her.

  "You young fool. I'm not single for the fun of it. I'm gay. You see any other seventy-year-old lesbians in Three Lakes?"

  My heart sank. She was right. "Have you thought about moving?"

  "Nah, I've lived here too long. I had my share of flings in my youth, but never found the love you have. If you know what's good for you, you won't let him get away."

  Her words succeeded in wiping the smile off my face. I couldn't help but wonder what her life had been like.

  "Don't feel sorry for me," she said softly. "I'm happy. I've made my peace. Now tell me about your young man."

  Her words pulled me out of my sad thoughts as I told her about Corey, about his strength. We chatt
ed until it was time to head back to the station.

  The captain walked in from patrol duty a little after lunch. His replacement had just headed out. "Afternoon, Cap," I called.

  "Son, you look like the cat that ate the canary," he said as he passed my desk.

  The only shadow on my day was the possible warrant Corey had mentioned. I’d been very careful what systems I looked him up in the night before, avoiding the system that would flag his name at all costs. One button click and I would’ve had his full criminal record.

  Taking care of the paperwork from John’s arrest was what I'd done half the morning. He was going to be in jail for so long, Corey would have time to heal and move past his time with John. Far past it. Hopefully with my help.

  His criminal record didn't mean anything to me. Only his character did. I swore to protect and serve, and part of that is turning in any criminals I come across. But when it came right down to it, I didn’t know if I could arrest Corey if I was put up to it. I’d rather find another job. The forestry service was always hiring.

  My parents had lived Corey’s life. The enormous difference was that Corey had pulled himself up and out of it. They’d never tried. Actually, I hadn’t looked them up. For all I knew, they’d died years ago. If they hadn’t, maybe someday they’d get themselves some help, but after they’d abandoned me, I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to forgive them.

  That was a conundrum for another day. Corey was completely different. Our love was new, but it was strong enough to withstand a past mistake. I was stronger than that. After what he’d been through, I knew damn well Corey was.

  "Hey, Brady," Captain stuck his head out of his office. "Did you look up your new boyfriend in the system last night?"

  "Uh, no, sir, why?" Here it came. I’d managed to keep from telling the captain too much the night before, but if he’d found Corey’s warrant, it was all about to hit the fan.

  "Do it. Now." He slammed his door shut. He could’ve given me a bit more warning, a bit more detail.