Page 8 of Fish in a Barrel
Jacksonhmmed and took his mouth again, a hard, brief kiss that promised more.
“I won’t be too long,” he half promised. Even Ellery knew that “not too long” could mean home in time to leave for court the next morning.
“Just let me know where you are,” Ellery begged. Jackson hadn’t always. One terrible, terrible night almost a year ago, he had disappeared off the grid, and Ellery had almost lost him in a thousand different ways.
“’Course,” Jackson said with a wink. Then, obvious reluctance in every muscle, he took a step back. “I gotta go upstairs and change and grab Henry.”
Ellery nodded and primly wiped the edges of Jackson’s sinfully swollen lips. “Maybe kissing me wasn’t your best bet for professionalism,” he said, but his heart wasn’t in the advice.
“But, Counselor, you looked so delicious,” Jackson murmured, voice low and sexy, and Ellery gave it up and groaned, resting his forehead against Jackson’s shoulder this time.
“You delight in doing this to me. Fabulous. Thank you so much.”
“Heh heh heh heh heh heh.”
And that laugh! Gah! Ellery was lucky he remembered his own damned name after that.
“SO?”
Jade Cameron was a beautiful woman, curvy, a little on the short side, dark-skinned, with hair that had been styled into long, flowing curls, each one ending in a bold magenta wave. She’d also grown up on the same streets that had helped shape Jackson, so when she asked a question, Ellery tried to answer her straightforwardly.
Which was also why—in the way of siblings—Jackson was the one to yank her chain.
“So what?” he baited.
“Ellery, I’ll hurt him.”
Ellery scowled at Jackson, who grinned back. Apparently bickering was a hobby that the two of them enjoyed very much. That and inventing new swearwords, which Ellery was starting to enjoy as well.
“No, you won’t,” said Henry, popping his head out of Galen’s office and peering down the corridor to the entrance where Jade’s reception alcove stood as the dividing line between the now empty lobby and the three offices and the conference room that made up the practice. One of those offices had yet to be filled, but Galen and Ellery had discussed it and had come to the conclusion that they were both picky and wanted to make sure it was the right person as opposed to just a body. The fact that nobody was in the waiting room—and Henry had been in Galen’s office—told Ellery that the last client had probably left a few minutes ago.
“Why won’t I hurt him?” Jade challenged. Like Jackson, she enjoyed treating Henry as a much-tormented younger brother.
“Because he’s going to tell us, like, right now!” Henry insisted, striding down the hallway to stand in front of the reception desk and glare at Jackson. The reception was a counter-height extension of a wall that sheltered a small alcove. The alcove hosted a shared computer at a tiny student-sized desk that sat against the back wall. A copy machine took up the adjacent wall, and a shelf rack filled with office supplies sucked up all the remaining space. Ellery wasn’t sure what the space had been when the whole building was one house, but for their office, it was a combination office/changing room/supply closet.
“No, I’m not,” Jackson said mildly, going around the cluster of people standing in front of Jade and into the supply closet space. He started rooting around on a shelf where he kept a set of street clothes to change into for days like today when he didn’t want to wreck his suit.
“Dammit, Jackson!” Henry began, but Ellery snorted.
“You two are so easy,” he said, not wanting to hear the threats to his lover’s person today. “He’s waiting for Galen so we don’t have to say it twice, because I think this one’s going to need big brains.”
“If you want to summon the devil,” Galen Henderson said in his acid Southern drawl, “you need to call his name two more times.” He was taking measured steps down the hallway, no cane in hand. Ellery noticed he did that sometimes when the distance was small, even though it seemed to cost him a great deal. Galen Henderson may have barely survived the accident—and the addiction to oxy that had followed it—but his stiff-necked pride hadn’t received so much as a dent.
“Galen,” Ellery said with a nod.
“’Sup, Galen,” Jackson said from the back of the reception cubby. “If you all want to go to the conference room, I’ll be there in a minute.” He had his back toward them and was clearly unbuttoning his suit coat as he kicked off his shiny dress shoes.
Galen met Ellery’s eyes and raised an amused eyebrow. Henry let out a quiet whuffle, and even Jade raisedhereyebrows at them all before turning around to enjoy the show. Together, they watched in silent appreciation—and judgment—as Jackson stripped down to his boxers, taking care to hang his suit up right. For a moment, right before he hopped into the legs of a pair of baggy jeans and yanked them up in one smooth motion before donning a T-shirt and a hooded sweatshirt that had a picture of theStar TrekstarshipEnterprisepainted a la Vincent Van Gogh’sStarry Night, they all got a look at his pale, scarred, and naked back.
Ellery, who got to see him naked nearly every day, breathed a sigh of relief. Jackson had put on weight this summer after his heart surgery, thank God, and it looked like the weight was staying on. He had muscles in his back now, instead of bare scapula and vertebrae, and his ass had some meat on it to hold up his briefs, whereas in June it had appeared to be mostly pelvic bones. Yes, there were scars—more now than when they’d met—but there were no wounds, no stitches, and no recent bruises. Around him, Ellery could feel the quiet relief of everybody else as they all assessed the health and progress of Jackson Rivers, who was so very good at taking care of other people and so very bad at taking care of himself.
He seemed to be doing all right, and Ellery thought maybe he’d worry a smidge less if Jackson was a little late home that night.
Oblivious to the scrutiny, Jackson started packing up.He placed his suit in the suit bag and added the shoes on the bottom, hung it up again on the shelf with the paper on it, and then turned around, obviously intent on heading toward the conference room, where he thought everybody had gone.
He was greeted by hoots and hollers and a smattering of applause, and Ellery would forever treasure the way his eyes grew wide in actual surprise.
“Oh dear God,” Jackson said, holding his hands up in front of his chest in retroactive embarrassment. “I feel a little violated.”
