Page 20 of Gold Rush
“Well, you’re as tall as me.”
“Great! What I always wanted,” he said sarcastically.
They piled into a van that Murphy rented and headed to one street near where Sammy Dane had his stable. Two streets over, as a matter of fact, just close enough to get some attention, but far enough away that they wouldn’t technically be in his territory.
Mims had also gone onto several sites where Dane placed ads for his people. He began to put ads up for the guys at the pub. He’d placed them two days before they went out.
Eazy and Ryan were watching from the roof of a two-story building down the block, and they were all on the various street corners in the newest red-light district in the city.
The men asked to pick them up started to come, but they weren’t the only ones to try. What the six of them did, however, was to give them prices too high to pay, and almost all turned them down, except a few. Those were told to leave because a regular customer was pulling up who would pay even more.
Not the best way to gather customers away from Dane, but they were only there to get attention.
As they were driven away by one person, another would be waiting for them when they returned half an hour later, then the original person who’d picked them up would come in a different car, with a different hat or clothes.
It was a long night, but they definitely drew attention. Before dawn, a long black Hummer drove slowly in front of them, and when the darkened window lowered, they caught the head and eyes of the man watching them.
He was everything that Dean had described.
When they got back to the pub, they were all beat, but Goldie went to his room, where Dean was staying. He found that Deanhadn’t slept a minute all night. Dean was in his arms and held him tightly while murmuring over and over, “I was so worried. I thought he’d kill you.”
“We’re all okay, Dean. Stop worrying. I’m gonna go get some sleep.”
“Sleep here. Please? I won’t bug you, I swear.”
Goldie looked into his eyes and said, “Only if you sleep beside me.”
“Okay.”
After he took off the more binding elements of his wardrobe, Goldie got under the black and gold comforter on his bed, and Dean crawled in beside him, cuddling up close to him.
It took a while to fall asleep, as he just languished in feeling the man next to him. It had been a long time since he’d felt a warm body near his. The smell of his hair, the sound of his steady, shallow breathing as he drifted off, finally secure with Goldie beside him.
Goldie didn’t know if it would last. It was rare, that kind of closeness, but since seeing Cosmo and Mims finding someone to love, maybe it didn’t seem so impossible.
He went to sleep thinking of that. Having someone to love.
When he woke, Dean was still beside him, but sprawled on the other side of the bed, rather than still in his arms. His snores were loud, and he was fucking adorable.
Goldie got up and gathered his clothes from his drawers, heading to shower, only to find Hippy already in the bathroom. “Hey, Gold.”
“Hip. How was your night? I didn’t get a chance to ask.”
“I’d have rather armed everyone, but beyond that, it was kinda fun. Make believe, like a kid, I guess.”
Goldie agreed, “Yeah, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But then again, we knew who was picking us up.”
Hippy sat on the sink counter and sighed, “True. Man, can you imagine living that life for real? Having to…get into cars when you didn’t know the person. Taking those chances. It’s…sad.”
“We’re lucky. We could have been.”
Hippy nodded and said, “I haven’t felt real grateful or lucky lately. I guess…I guess I should, ya know?”
Goldie sat on the counter with him and asked gently, “When are you going to talk to one of us about this?”
“About what?”
He was trying to be cagey, but it didn’t work. “You’re so in love with Cosmo you can barely look at him without everyone seeing that…yearning. Man, you gotta talk to someone.”
