One Night Part 16
“Fuckity fuck … fuck!”
Kameron smacked his phone against his leg.
“What?” Bear rolled his head over and looked at him.
“I can’t get the rental on the beach I wanted.” Kameron
scratched at his chest.
Bear scowled at him. “Stop scratching, you’ll pull your
stitches.” He sighed, and then winced. He kept forgetting his broken ribs.
Sighing for effect was a bad habit and had to go. “Besides, going to the beach
or a hideaway cabin in the mountains? Total cliché.”
“Well what do you want to do?”
Bear tapped his fingers on the bedrail. “Why don’t we just
go to another city? Get one of those by the week rental places or something? I
need high speed internet anyway, and you can’t get those in little hick towns
or out of the way places.”
“That’s it, just go to another city and hole up in an
apartment?”
Shrugging, Bear said, “Why not? We could use some downtime,
you know? We shouldn’t have to hide like we did in the safe house. We just need
some time to heal and for John to close this case.”
“You think you can stand to spend a few weeks in an
apartment with me?” Kameron grinned at him.
“Well, you’re tall enough to reach the high stuff. Can you
cook?” He kept himself from smiling somehow.
“Some.” Kameron held up his phone. “I’m really good at
Chinese. And Italian.”
Bear couldn’t hold it in anymore. He started laughing. “Okay,
okay. We could use the time to get to know each other better I guess. The real
you, this time.”
Kameron scooted closer in the chair, covering Bear’s tapping
fingers. “I know I’ve said it before, but I’m sorry. Jimmy just wanted you safe
without having to scare you about how bad those fuckers in the Zbrane gang are.
It was a bad idea, but I can’t say that I’m not glad that I met you.”
“Jimmy’s still going to get his ass kicked when he’s all
better. Or maybe I’ll figure out someone to set him up with.” The annoying
client of his, with the voice like it could scratch diamonds, would be a
perfect blind date set up. And if Jimmy just so happened to piss her off enough
to make her decide not to work with Bear anymore … well, his bank account could
take it. He could happy dance while picking up a few extra shifts at the bar
when everything was over.
“Okay. So an apartment it is. Any preferences?” Kameron was
typing away on his phone.
“Nothing on a ground floor; too fucking noisy. No pool,
obviously,” he gestured at Kameron’s bare chest with bandages, “but maybe an
exercise room? I like to run when I’m thinking.”
“Not with your ribs, you won’t.”
Bear shrugged. “Okay, so I can send you off to go walk or
something when you hover too much. Whatever. Just someplace we can relax and
not have to look over our shoulders constantly.”
It was all very surreal when Bear and Kameron were released.
Bear made Jimmy promise not to be a shit to the nurses and get better. Then
they said goodbye. All the way to the car, which was parked by a deserted alley
entrance by the morgue, Bear had to struggle to hold in his fear, which made
him surly and angry.
He was afraid for Jimmy. He was afraid for John, and Loren,
and everyone else that fucker Chaska could get his hands on. Vilem was the only
one who really knew where the hell the gang’s drugs were and John had better
make him talk, and fast.
As much as Bear was looking forward to spending some time
with Kameron, he also wanted to get his life back to normal. He had avoided
becoming a cop like so many of the men in his family had because he didn’t like
the uncertainty of the job. Of course now he had a brother and a boyfriend that
were cops.
“Ouch. Can we try not to bang me into the wall?” Bear
snapped when they went too fast around a corner.
“Sorry,” Kameron said. They’d managed to sneak off without
staff knowing it either, other than their doctors. The chief had an idea of
where they were going, and a number to reach them, but Kameron had told Bear
that he was keeping their location a secret only they would know.
Now they just had to get there safely. The drugs Bear was on
made him sleepy, so once they got in the car and Kameron started driving Bear
was out like a light, leaning against the door with a balled up coat under his
head.
“Bear.” Kameron was stroking his arm when Bear blearily
blinked and looked around. He rubbed his eyes.
“Where are we?”
“Our humble abode. This is the parking garage. I thought off
the street parking would be best.”
Bear groaned as he levered himself up and out of the car.
Thankfully Kameron had gotten a pair of suitcases with wheels on them. They
were both breathing hard by the time they got to the elevator and up to the
third floor apartment Kameron had secured for them.
The door had three different locks. Bear watched Kameron
lock and then test all of them before he turned to look at the rest of the
place. It was furnished with a couch, medium sized TV, a table and chairs.
Everything was better quality than his college guy style apartment, but the
bland tans and whites were boring.
“Bathroom then bed.”
“To the left.” Kameron led the way. The décor didn’t change,
but Bear couldn’t find it in him to complain. He used the bathroom and then
went into the bedroom.
There was a king sized bed with several pillows. Bear eased
himself down next to Kameron. Reaching across the surprisingly comfortable
mattress, he laced their fingers together and rested his forehead against
Kameron’s shoulder.
“Much better.”
Check out these updates by the members of the Briefer's group participating this week!
what a beautiful chapter. Peace and quiet at last...
ReplyDeleteThanks Nephy! They need a break to heal and connect.
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