But what he had with Taylor went way beyond this.
He drew back — not without effort — and said, “And this is why spending the night at your place would not be a good idea.”
Bradley looked slightly dazed himself. “Will —”
“I’ll stop by tomorrow on my way out of town,” Will said, and he got himself out of there.
* * * * *
The generic hotel was mostly clean and mostly quiet. Will used the complimentary toothbrush, took a couple of painkillers, climbed into bed, and phoned Taylor.
Taylor’s voice had that edgy, on-the-job note when he answered, and Will said, “Everything okay?”
“Sure.”
Will could hear the conscious effort to ease up. Something had happened; Taylor was definitely wound tight. Tighter than usual. Will silently cursed the fact he wasn’t driving back. “Any more weird gifts or notes?”
“Nah.” He sounded relaxed about that, so it was probably just the stress of working with Varga. Taylor confirmed that a second later. “Varga and I are in the doghouse. I’ll tell you when you get here.”
“Well, I’ve got bad news,” Will admitted. “I’m not going to make it back tonight after all.”
“Ah.” Neutral.
“It’s… Well, I had a slight mishap.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I was in pursuit of a suspect, and I —” Will broke off to cough. He hadn’t swallowed a lot of water, but enough that his lungs were still a bit foggy.
“And you what?”
“Fell in a swimming pool and knocked myself out.”
“You’ve got to be — Are you all right?” Taylor’s voice was hard and terse.
Will reassured quickly. “I’m fine. But I don’t think driving back tonight is a good idea. Much as I want to.”
The edge was noticeably sharper as Taylor questioned, “Where the fuck was Lt. Commander Bradley during all this?”
“He was right there. He pulled me out of the pool.”
“If he’d been doing his job, you’d never have fallen into the pool.”
“Come on, MacAllister.”
“Don’t ‘come on, MacAllister’ me, Brandt. He was supposed to be watching your back.”
“Nobody failed in their duty, nobody made any mistakes — except me slipping in the pool water.”
“It shouldn’t have happened.”
This was touchy. The few times he’d tried to address this with Taylor, Taylor had shut him down fast. Will gentled his voice. “Shit happens, Tay. No one should know that better than you.”
Silence.
Taylor changed the subject. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m okay. Swear to God.” Will added softly, “I’m disappointed too.”
Taylor let out a pent-up, irritable breath. “It’s not that. Well, yeah, it is partly that, but…you could have been killed, Brandt, and here I am stuck babysitting East Africa’s answer to Paris Hilton.”
“That bad?”
“Yes. And don’t change the subject. Did you actually see a doctor, or did you just decide all on your own you didn’t have a concussion?”
“Yes. I saw the base doctor. I just stunned myself for a few seconds. If I hadn’t fallen into a swimming pool, it wouldn’t have been worth mentioning.”
Taylor made a huffy sound that made Will’s lips twitch into a grin he’d never dare have shown.
“On the bright side, we’ve wrapped our case up,” he offered.
“Yes?” Taylor sounded slightly mollified.
“Yep. I’m driving back first thing tomorrow morning, and we can spend tomorrow night together. Your place or mine, you can choose.” He planned on stopping off in Orange County and doing some more checking into the recent activities and general attitude of the Phu Fighters, but he wasn’t going to mention that right now. Taylor was edgy enough.
“We’ve got one more day escorting Miss Congeniality around LA. Then they fly her off to San Francisco, and the gang on Pine Street get to amuse her for the next forty-eight hours.”
“So, tomorrow night. My house or yours?”
“Mine. I…want to show you something.”
“Oh yes?” Will said hopefully, suggestively.
There was a smile in Taylor’s voice, but he sounded absent. “Will?”
“Right here.”
There was a pause. “When I was shot —”
Will’s heart quickened; he wasn’t even sure why. “Yeah?”
“It wasn’t because of you…turning me down. It wasn’t because my mind wasn’t on the job.”
“No?”
“No. I know — at least, I think I do — that you thought you were somehow to blame for me getting nailed. It wasn’t anything to do with you.” He heard Taylor sigh. “It was when I saw how young they were. Kids. And I hesitated. I hesitated a couple of seconds too long. That’s all.”
Something inside Will relaxed, like the clutch of a child’s hand on a balloon. The balloon went sailing free and happy. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. So if you’re, you know — you don’t have to.”
“Huh?”
Taylor said carefully, painstakingly, “So, if you’re you know —”
Will burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it — not to save his life. “You are fucking insane, do you know that?”
“I beg your pardon?” Taylor said in outrage.
The formal words and indignant tone made it all the worse, and Will was already having a very hard time not roaring. He couldn’t even explain why he felt so happy. “You think I’m with you out of guilt?”
“No, you ass. Of course not. I just mean —”
“You’re a nut, MacAllister. I’m with you because I love you.”
There it was, out. Three little words. Three of the most common words in the world, but string them together and they were more powerful than any warrant, any extradition papers, or even treaty. Stronger than any magical spell. Had he really never said them aloud to Taylor? Something in the ringing silence that followed made him think he maybe hadn’t.
It was a relief when Taylor said, at last, in that irritable voice that always signified nerves or great emotion, “That’s fine. I just thought you should know.”
“I love you,” Will repeated firmly, having got the hang of it. “I’ll see you tomorrow night, you lunatic.”
“Love you,” Taylor said tersely and hung up.
* * * * *
Taylor stared at the receiver in its cradle and then got ready for bed.
If he was spending the night by himself, he’d have preferred to be between his own sheets. Somehow it felt lonelier
