What the hell had he been thinking?

Fox stared at the asphalt as he listened in on Axel explaining the explosion and evacuation to the firefighter. It helped him take his mind off the fact that his head pounded like a drum and his vision was a little blurred.

And the fact that he’d kissed Axel.

He hadn’t meant to. At least, he didn’t think he’d meant to. They were there and Axel was touching him and he fell forward and it all kind of just happened and…

It was dumb. Worse than dumb; if any one of the civilians had seen them it could lead to ramifications. The people here knew Ford was FBI; they might lodge a complaint. He’d heard plenty of cautionary tales about Texans, and while he’d found them nothing but warm and friendly, who knew when an onlooker might suddenly turn out to be a homophobe all along, hiding in plain sight, using these kind people as camouflage.

It was dumb and it was his fault. Shit, he hadn’t had a block like that for years. He was so over it, or so he’d thought, and he sure didn’t have time for another round of psych evals right now. He’d be performing forensic data analysis on his seized hardware, and it was anyone’s guess how long that’d take. After that, assuming he found anything actionable, he’d be off on that trail again, trying to pin down his opponent on this vast, country-wide, months-long game of chess they’d been playing.

If there was nothing, though… Well, that didn’t bear thinking about. If he’d hit a dead end he would have to back-track and go over all his files right from the start.

“My name’s Chip. I’m an EMT with the Hidden Creek Ambulance Service, and I understand you’ve been in a fire. I’d like to check you over, if that’s all right?”

Fox blinked swiftly and dragged his attention up from the ground. There was a guy around his own age crouched in front of him, wearing the deep blue of ambulance crew. “I’m fine,” he said automatically.

“I’m sure you are, sir, but smoke inhalation’s not to be ignored. How are you feeling? Any headache, nausea, blurred vision, sore throat, or other unwanted after-effects?”

Fox squinted at him and debated whether he had time for this, but an extra few minutes on his ass might not be too bad. And this Chip guy was pretty hot, which was a real shame, ’cause under other circumstances Fox might make a play.

But Axel was here. Alive. In his life. And even though all they’d done was kiss, Fox couldn’t think of anyone else; Axel suddenly dominated his every thought.

He groaned softly and danced through Chip’s questions, refusing to admit to any of his symptoms and insisting that he’d be a hundred percent in no time, but ultimately what saved him was the sound of his cellphone ringing. He excused himself and grabbed it to check the caller ID, which read Diego.

Diego wasn’t his name, of course. It was a cover, a codename to prevent anyone from glimpsing the truth when Fox’s boss called him in the field. They had all kinds of checks and balances in place to make sure everyone was safe.

He tapped the button and held the phone up. “Diego! Buddy!” Call is not secure.

“Hey, buddy!” Supervisor Gutierrez amped up the cheer. “How’s it hanging?”

Fox laughed as he waved Chip off. “Oh you know how it goes. To the left.” Once Chip went to tend to other patients and Axel was on his own phone, Fox lowered his voice. “Clear,” he said softly. “There are complications, sir.”

“What happened? I’m seeing reports of a fire on local news, Walker.” Gutierrez was all business now.

“Yeah.” He winced. “FBI turned up on site. They’re tracking domestics and had a clue that led them to the same location. I think our cases might be linked, but they didn’t come in under cover and whoever was here blew the place up.”

“JTTF?” Gutierrez was referring to the Joint Terrorism Task Forces which had been set up all over the country to pool intel in situations like this.

“No, sir. Branch office, from what I managed to gather before the place turned into a fireball.”

“All right. Sounds like you’re going to have to work with them to get to the bottom of this. Is anyone hurt?”

Fox quashed the flash of excitement at being given the go-ahead to work with Axel. He had to calm himself down. As much as he liked a good flirt, maybe even more, first and foremost he had a job to do, and he wasn’t going to get sidetracked.

“No, sir. Everyone got out. EMTs are on site now.”

“Good. Keep me apprised.”

“Yessir.” Fox hung up and risked getting to his feet. He only wobbled for a second, then his senses seemed to right themselves, so he waited for Axel to come back to him.

“Forensics are on their way,” Axel murmured. Then he flashed his badge and said more loudly, “I’m going to have to take those as evidence, sir.”

Fox looked to the stack of servers and tried to hide his grin. It was a brilliant move. If Fox walked away from here with stolen property any one of the onlookers could call the cops and complicate matters, but if the FBI seized the equipment they were home free.

“Sure,” he said. “Knock yourself out.”

He watched as Axel manhandled the servers into the trunk of his car, and did his very best not to stare at the ex-soldier’s ass.

He failed.

* * *

Fox mingled with the rest of the office crowd as they stood in the parking lot and watched the firemen work. It really was something, seeing a building go from fine to burning to a smoldering shell in the space of an hour.

Once in a while he caught sight of or overheard Axel interviewing the staff or speaking with some of his team who had showed up. The army training seemed to shine through in those moments. Axel’s agents were professional and alert, and busied themselves with their tasks as soon as they received them. His forensics team were at the ready, waiting for the fire department to declare the structure safe. Among it all, Axel was a rock, calm and centered, giving orders and coordinating people like he was born to do it.

“What do you think the FBI were here for?”

Fox looked back toward the lady who had spoken and his brain auto-filled her name for him. She was Tamara, and her password was the name of her cat with all the e’s swapped out for the number 3. “I don’t know,” he said, re-adopting his soft Texan accent. “I better not get fired.”

Tamara laughed, a bit hysterically. “Honey if you’re getting fired, we all are. How’re we gonna work when there’s no place to work at any more?”

“Yeah.” He meant it to sound like he agreed, but it came out kind of empty.

Whoever had done this could have cost everyone here their jobs, and they didn’t care. They didn’t care that the fire could have killed someone, either. And although Fox had only spent a couple of hours with these people, they were all human beings, each and every one.

They deserved better.

“You know,” he said faintly to Tamara, “I’m gonna go home. I don’t feel so good.”

“You should talk to the EMTs.”

He stopped her as she began to wave at Chip. “Naw, they already saw me. I just need to lie down. Take care, okay? Let’s hope the Feds catch the guy.”

“They sure better!”

He smiled to her as he moved away and made sure to pass Axel as he walked. “I’m gonna need those servers fast,” he said quietly, without stopping. “When can you stop by with them?”

“I’ll follow you,” Axel said, equally softly. “Stay slow for three blocks; I’ll catch up. If I miss you, you’ve got my card.”

“Got it.”

Fox dropped into his car and threw it in reverse, then checked over his shoulder as he backed out of his space. He had to maneuver carefully around a couple of firefighters, and it was a convenient excuse to drive painfully slowly back toward Victory Boulevard as he waved goodbye to people who thought they’d see him again.

Damn, but he stank though. The smoke had gotten into everything. It was in his clothes, his hair, and all over his skin. His first priority had to be a shower, because the acrid bite of the smell was too much for him to handle right now. A shower meant he had to go home to his motel instead of the office, but that was fine. He had enough kit in his car to get started wherever he chose to work. At the very least he could rescue the server hard drives and see what he had to deal with. He had to work carefully, in case the drives were arranged in an array with the data striped across them. If that were so, he’d have to piece together data which was sprinkled across several disks like confetti at a wedding.

He groaned and banged his head briefly against the steering wheel as someone honked at him for going so slow. He didn’t even bother to flip them off. His head hurt, and maybe he should have let Chip look him over properly, but he was on a deadline here. Whoever was behind this was out the door and long gone, and all Fox had done was hang around at the scene and kiss a man who was probably straight.

“Nice, Fox,” he muttered. “Real smooth. You’re lucky he didn’t shoot you.”

He counted blocks as he drove, and looked to his rearview mirror at each one. By the time he reached the third there was a black sedan looming ominously in his view, and he laughed.

There really was nothing undercover about a huge guy in a black suit tailgating him. He had to wonder whether the FBI was this subtle by choice, or whether they accidentally stumbled into it one day and never looked back.

Fox picked up the speed and crossed the Hidden Creek city limits, and his thoughts were able to drift at last. In the sanctuary of his own car, with nothing but the sound of his engine and his tires forming a soft rhythm, he could almost feel Axel’s lips on his again. Ford’s arms were solid under Fox’s hands, like rocks under cotton. His skin had been hot from the fire, but his mouth was hot from something else.

Axel had returned the kiss, hadn’t he? Fox was only half sure. It was all so hazy, so confused in the moment that he could have imagined it.

No.

He hadn’t imagined Axel’s hand in his hair, or the way he’d held Fox close as their breath became one. He refused to believe it had been some hallucination or fever dream. It was real. Please, God, it had to be real. That spark couldn’t be faked, no matter how hard anyone tried.

He had a job to do, and kissing Axel had been a dumb error made in the heat of the moment. They were lucky nobody had caught them in the act, and Fox couldn’t rely on that kind of luck going forward. He’d made his mistake and now he had to learn from it.

Except the real mistake had been letting himself freeze up in a fire.

Fox sucked in air and straightened in his seat.

It was time to shape up, because he and Axel were going to be working together now. If Fox really wanted to impress Axel, he had to start by not letting him know how Syria had wormed its way into his head with Axel hot on its heels.

And he had to absolutely make sure he never mentioned his wet dreams.