Page 77 of Sean's Sunshine
The stupid dirty cop Jackson had been trying to save said, “Hey, is somebody shooting at us?” and Jackson called out a name.
“Adler! Adler, don’t do it!” He was yelling from flat on his back, with Ellery on top of him, obviously working hard for oxygen, and when the sniper answered back, tearfully, Billy saw Jackson take his first real breath since Ellery had leapt on him.
And then he looked up at his boyfriend and begged. “Baby, please get off me. Please. You’re in the line of fire.”
What followed was something Billy would never forget. A dual conversation between a guy up top of the stadium pointing a sniper rifle down at them, a guy with every advantage and nothing to lose, and Jackson Rivers. And in between that, there was Rivers begging Ellery to get up and run toward safety.
Billy clutched Sean’s hand like a lifeline, like he could keep Sean from running into danger today, tomorrow, or for the rest of Sean’s life.
“C’mon, Ellery,” Sean muttered. “Get up and let him work.”
“He won’t,” Billy replied, neither of them taking their eyes from the terrifying tableau.
Sean glanced at him. “How do you know?”
Billy caught his eyes. “I wouldn’t.”
Sean swallowed, and they both turned back to the scene, listening as, one painful moment at a time, Jackson Rivers talked the sniper down.
Henry’s voice sailed across the stadium, calling, “Jackson, we’ve got him!” and then the dirty cop—the sniper’s intended victim, who, it seemed, hadn’t been innocent in the least—attempted to flee through the tunnel Billy and Sean were standing in.
Billy was aware that Sean was reaching for the weapon he’d apparently strapped on when he dropped off the dog, but the dirty cop was coming too fast.
Billy stepped out of the thruway in front of Sean and threw all his fear, all his frustration, into a solid punch to the guy’s jaw.
Dirty cop went down, and Sean muttered, “Damn, Billy!” as he sank to one knee, pulled a pair of handcuffs from his gun belt, and started to cuff the guy while reading him his rights.
Billy saw him, busy, looking purposeful, and his stomach gave a lurch as he realized this was his lover in his element, and Billy had a moment of disconnect, of “What do I do now?”
Then his eyes fell on Ellery and Jackson. Ellery was scrambling up, careful not to put any pressure on Jackson’s prone form, and Jackson was squeezing his eyes shut. As Billy approached them, he heard Jackson say, “I think I popped all my stitches.”
Oh Lord.Thatwas a lot of pain. As Ellery leaned forward to leverage Jackson up, Billy crouched behind him, and using the same idea he’d used when helping Sean, he hoisted Jackson’s elbows while Jackson held his arms stiff at his sides. After he was partway up, Ellery took over, and for a moment the two men simply stood there, holding each other’s faces, while Ellery begged Jackson not to take chances like that and Jackson begged Ellery not to put himself in danger like that either.
Billy wanted to laugh—or yell at them both for being idiots, but then Jackson Rivers did something truly magical.
He proposed.
Billy’s jaw dropped, and Jackson told Ellery that since they couldn’t seem to promise to stay out of trouble, the least they could do was promise to be together forever.
For a moment time stopped, and two of the most practical men Billy had ever known shared the most romantic moment he’d ever seen, and in that moment, he wondered if this was why people still believed in love.
And then he saw the mess of blood seeping through Jackson’s sweater and realized that, oh my God,hewas the grown-up here, and he needed to speak up. Ellery Cramer seemed about to pull out a tablet to schedule the wedding, and Billy said, “Later! Right now, he’s bleeding like a stuck pig.”
A few words of sanity in that madness—that’s all he had to offer, but it was enough to get them out of the stadium and to the parking lot, where an ambulance awaited. Ellery and Jackson left in that, after Ellery shoved his keys into Billy’s hand and begged him to get Ellery’s Lexus to Med Center. Billy tightened his hands around the keys and promised he’d get it done, and they were gone.
Sean was over by Christie and the interim partner’s unmarked vehicle, helping Christie book the dirty cop. Billy had no idea for what—being target practice? But it was sort of fun to watch the guy fume, “You guys are supposed to be my brothers!” when Billy knew that if Rivers said he was dirty, he wasreallyfuckin’ dirty.
But Billy had nothing to do. With a sigh, he wandered over to the Charger, where Curtis sat in the passenger’s seat with the door open, watching everything with interest. The fire department showed up as he talked to Curtis about which one of them got to drive the Lexus and which one of them got to drive the Charger topick upthe guy who drove the Lexus, when one of the firemen—a tall, stacked salt-and-pepper daddy—strode up to Sean and… holy shit!
“Is that guy macking on your cop, man?” Curtis asked in disbelief.
“Ohhellno!”
This—thiswas purpose. Billy didn’t even remember striding up to the guy, but he had a very clear image of Sean pushing against his chest in an obvious effort to free himself from the man’s long arms and unwanted attention.
“Yo!” Billy snapped. “Are you Jesse?”
Surprised, the guy turned to him. He was wearing a uniform but didn’t have the helmet or the fireproof jacket or anything, and Billy realized he was probably six-foot-plus tall if he was an inch.
