Page 61 of Bait and Switch
“The hell?” he whispered.
Casey was right there, looming over him. Gabe opened his mouth again, to say something smart likeMenacing is not conducive to sleep.But before he could utter a single word, Casey leaned in and pressed his lips against Gabe’s.
Oh.Oh.
The kiss was all tongue, sloppy, and over too fast. Who cared if it was sloppy? Not Gabe, he was greedy, he wanted all the messy kisses Casey would give him and turned toward the man to chase all that messiness. But Casey pulled away, and in the dark, Gabe couldn’t read Casey’s expression. Reaching out a hand, Gabe found his chest and felt the jackhammer of Casey’s heart against his splayed fingers.
“Do it again,” he demanded.
For once, Casey didn’t argue with Gabe. He leaned in, and they were kissing again. Thank fuck. Gabe could’ve kissed Casey for the rest of the night, either more of that first sloppy-messy or this slow-intense, but reason reminded him that they needed to sleep and that Casey was injured. This time it was Gabe who stopped.
“We keep going and no one is getting any sleep. And, as much as I adore Elton, I don’t want him in the audience.”
Casey snorted. Laying back on the bed, he scooted them both around so Gabe was the little spoon. Which didn’t take that much effort; the bed didn’t offer a lot of extra square footage.
A large warm hand landed on Gabe’s hip and stayed there.
“That was okay? And this?” Casey wiggled his fingers.
“God, yes,” he hissed. “That was incredible. I want to do more of that, with you.”
Somehow, even with Casey’s hand burning a hole through his skin, Gabe managed to fall asleep and stay that way.
Up until all hell broke loose a few hours later.
Loud bangingagainst Elton’s front door was immediately followed by Bowie barking and growling like the knocks had personally offended him.
“Motherfucker,” complained Gabe when he fully resurfaced. “Why? What the fuck time is it?”
A man’s voice called out, “Sheriff, open up!”
“Just a dang minute,” Elton yelled.
Daylight had not yet made its presence known to Heartstone, so it couldn’t have been later than seven or so. Gabe rolled to standing and spent ten seconds digging out his absolute last pair of jeans and tugging them on over his long underwear, then pulling his grubby Mariners sweatshirt over his head. Yetanother piece of clothing he’d left behind at Elton’s that he was thankful for.
For his part, Casey settled for the clothes he’d worn the day before. Keith had been perched on a windowsill but shot under the bed at the racket, from where she hissed at them all.
“I kind of want to join her,” Gabe said morosely.
“Yeah, well. Let’s see what fuckery is going on now.”
Gabe followed Casey out into the living room. Elton had the door open a crack but was blocking it with his body. A uniformed officer stood on the stoop, and another was standing out in the rain. The top-step officer Gabe recognized as the one and only Sheriff Rizzi, and the one getting soaked was Deputy Eagan.
Rizzi spotted Gabe and Casey over Elton’s shoulder and pointed at them. “Gabriel Karne, you’re under arrest for the murder of Peter Vale, also known as Peter Stevens.”
Gabe blinked. Being arrested for murder had not been on his to-do list for the day. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
“Eli,” Elton began, “what is this? You know Gabe didn’t have anything to do with Peter Vale’s death.”
Rizzi shoved some paperwork into Elton’s face, presumably a warrant, but he whipped it away too quickly for any of them to read.
“The fuck you’re arresting Gabe,” growled Casey, grabbing Gabe’s biceps.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Ranger Lundin, but Karne is coming with us. Eagan, this is your time to shine, cuff him.”
Dropping his hand from Gabe’s arm, Casey stepped between Gabe and the door, either to block Rizzi from coming in or to keep Gabe from leaving, Gabe wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter which because either one would end up with both of them arrested.
