He’s not afraid of me. Nothing had terrified Garrick more than worrying that Devlin would fear the man living inside Garrick who could kill without mercy when needed. The violence that had to remain inside Garrick in order to maintain his ability to kill in case someone found him one day again. But he’s not afraid of me. Tears burned behind Garrick’s eyes, threatening to fall once more.
Garrick exhaled and then inhaled deeply as he fought through an overwhelming wave of love that pushed to burst a floodgate he was working with everything in him to keep intact. “I’m glad you became a firefighter.” He desperately needed to change the subject so he could regain his equilibrium. “You seem so comfortable in your skin now.” A smile came naturally as Garrick thought about the man with enough balls to come looking for his former lover who had denied being that. “It makes you even more attractive than you were before.”
“Thank you.” Even in the shadows, Garrick could see the pink flood Devlin’s skin. “I don’t know if I ever would have let myself go for it if we had not had that talk.” He ran his fingers down Garrick’s shoulder to his chest, and that sweet little smile appeared as he teased the tips in a circle around Garrick’s nipple. “You remember that one?”
“Yeah.” Garrick’s voice was strained as Devlin scratched his trim nails over the already-stiffened peak of Garrick’s nipple. The man brushed the pad of his thumb over the sensitized area, and Garrick grunted as his cock twitched. Not right now. He clamped a hand over Devlin’s, halting his arousing play. “I see your big brother is home too. From what Maddie says, you’re all pretty close now.”
Devlin nodded. “Aidan came back three years ago to take over as chief of the Redemption fire department. He came back for Ethan too.” Shadows suddenly filled Devlin’s eyes, putting Garrick in mind of a stormy sky. “Turns out my mother sent him away. That’s why he disappeared.”
Garrick forgot all about foreplay in a second. “I wish I could have come help you when your mother died.” He dipped down and pressed a kiss to Devlin’s shoulder, holding the connection for a moment. “I was having the tattoos removed and prepping for the new job when you called and told me she’d passed, and there was no way I could have up and left.”
“It’s all right.” Devlin dug his fingers into Garrick’s hair and moved him so they were facing one another again. “I got your sympathy card. I still have it.” The dark slate swirls continued to churn in Devlin’s eyes. “Turns out my mother wasn’t as open-minded as she claimed to be. On his graduation night, Aidan told her he was gay and in love with Ethan, and that Ethan wanted him too. He said he was so fucking happy, and her first question was if he’d ever molested me.”
Garrick’s heart stopped, and then broke for the younger Aidan. “Jesus Christ.”
Devlin’s lips pulled downward, creating harsh brackets around his mouth. “My mother held Maddie and me over his head. Told him he’d never have contact with us again if he chose Ethan and a gay lifestyle. Aidan walked away from what he had with Ethan so he could keep his relationship with us. Tough to hold a grudge against him after we found out about that.”
“But Aidan ultimately ended up with you, Maddie, and Ethan after all, so that ended well.” Garrick cupped Devlin’s cheek and rubbed his palm against the beginnings of stubble. “Right?”
Devlin reached out and duplicated the way Garrick held him. “It could end well in Redemption for you too,” he said softly, “if you decide to stay.”
The floodgate inside sprung a leak and a rush of adrenaline pumped through Garrick’s veins worse than wildfire. “With someone still possibly after me, and after I killed that guy in cold blood... I don’t know.”
Devlin clamped his hand over Garrick’s mouth. “That hired assassin who would have done the same to you.” Passion infused Devlin’s voice. “That is who you killed, Garrick, not some innocent on the street.”
Garrick pried Devlin’s hand away as the need to purge himself overtook any previous vows. “I left that man on the floor of that house and I ran. I had nothing but the cash I had stashed in the house. I trusted Joe--he was my FBI handler--but it was obvious to me that someone else in the FBI who had access to the undercover operation and my relocation status was on the take and selling us out.”
“That would be my uneducated guess.”
“I bought a disposable cell phone and placed one call to Joe. I told him what happened, and he agreed that someone on the inside was bad. He told me he would take care of it, but that he would only be able to call me one more time, so to give him a few days to put something together. During that time--I don’t even think I realized I was doing it at first--I was making my way north, to you.” He could hardly get the words out through the clog in his throat. “I didn’t know what in the hell I would do when I got here, I just knew I needed to find you.”
Devlin squeezed Garrick’s hand, and it gave strength to Garrick’s voice so he could finish this.
“Joe called me five days later. I was already hiding out in a motel on the outskirts of Redemption by then. He wired me ten thousand dollars from a dummy account; he had a new identity for
