Chapter Twenty One
Rand
Coward! His subconscious mind was a bitter bitch. The few minutes spent in a dank hotel room in Washington with Rory Landers in his arms was heaven—the image of the saucy agent looking up at him through hooded eyes, pupils blown, lips swollen and wet, played on a continuous loop in his mind. They’d been dancing around each other for months and everything came to a head that night. Both men raw and on edge after spending the day in the company of a sadistic serial killer and unable to mask feelings that were apparently mutual. Had Rand never been on the receiving end of a cheating bastard, he might not have found the strength to pull away from Rory, to stop from taking him right then. It wasn’t just the memories of how gutted he felt when he first learned of Grant’s infidelity that penetrated his lust-addled brain…if only. The thought of Rory having to go home and tell Shannon what he’d done, what they’d done—that, he couldn’t bear. So he’d tucked Rory under the covers after picking him up off the bathroom floor and sat on the edge of the bed watching him sleep for hours. There was something to be said for watching someone you cared for as they slept, not a care in the world. Rand could still remember the spark he felt in his fingertips when he held Rory against the wall, hand brushing his Adam’s apple, the way the man shuddered, breathing ragged and labored. Closing his eyes, he recollected the way their bodies fit together, how his heart raced after just one taste of Rory Landers’s lips.
Frustrated with his own lack of control and exhausted from being up for two days straight, he ignored Rory’s attempts to talk to him the next morning, telling him it was a mistake that would never happen again. Standing right beside the memory of Rory up against the wall, loose and pliable, was the memory of the pained expression Rand saw on the man’s beautiful face when he brushed him off the morning after. On their flight home, he’d hurt Rory once again when the agent slid into the window seat, looking up at Rand and smiling. The coward he was stepped aside and let Connie slide into the middle, taking the aisle seat and ordering the first of several cocktails. Was it his third strike when he declined Rory’s offer to go have a drink and talk at the airport when they landed? Maybe…probably…but it was for the best. Rory got to go home to Shannon, and he would never have to tell the pretty blond that he’d betrayed his trust.
And they hadn’t betrayed Shannon, right? Idiot! Yes, you did. Rand’s conscience bitch-slapped him again. It hadn’t been just a kiss. Finally getting his hands on Rory, feeling the man shiver in his arms and respond to him—it was intense and perfect and Rand’s first thought had been, I wish Shannon was here too. What he should have done was walk away from the start. At least he had the frame of mind to stop things when he did, and not let the situation escalate.
A knock on the door to his office jarred him. “Yes,” he barked. Blair Cummings pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Rand stood and walked around the desk, hand extended to greet him. “Agent Cummings, this is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I got a call this morning. Guy says he heard we were looking for him, so I asked his name and he said he’d rather not say over the phone. Said he has information about Bruce Pearson and the missing persons cases. I again asked the caller to identify himself, and he again ignored the question, responding that he was catching a flight from Phoenix and would be in Dallas this afternoon.” Cummings’s cell rang, and he fished the phone from his pocket. “Sorry, just a sec.” He turned and left the office, leaving Rand confused and slightly irritated.
Wracking his brain, Rand tried to think of any connections to the Pearson case or any of the supposed victims, dead or alive, that linked back to Phoenix, Arizona and came up blank. “Sorry, that was Rory. I’d called him on my way up to your office. Like I was saying, he said he has information for us, so I gave him my cell number, and he’s going to text me when his flight lands. I told him I’d send a car to pick him up and bring him back to the station.”
“All right, if you’ll give me a heads up when he lands, I’ll come down to your office. Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can find any connection to Arizona we may have missed.” Cummings agreed and left his office. Finally, Rand was able to shift his focus to something other than Rory and how badly he’d fucked up when they were in Washington. He just hoped that once the case was solved and Pearson was locked up for good that he, Rory, and Shannon could remain friends. Trying to picture his life without the two of them in it was a blank image, stark and white. When in the hell had he gotten so wrapped up in the two men? How could he be so fucking stupid?
Rubbing a hand over his short hair and sighing, Rand flopped into the big, comfy desk chair and pushed the button to fire up his computer. Work would keep him busy, trying to find a link between the mystery caller and Pearson or one of the missing persons. And if he were busy, his thoughts wouldn’t be consumed by Rory and Shannon.