Chapter Nine

“Hey,” Jaxon drew back, balancing one ass cheek on the edge of the chair in order to place Hayden on the biggest part of the seat.

It gave him a better view of Hayden’s eyes, and he ran a concerned glance over the man’s face.

“How are you feeling?” Jaxon brushed the hair from Hayden’s forehead.

“It’s going to be okay. Whatever this is, we’re going to get through it together.”

“Thick and thin?” One of Hayden’s blond brows quirked.

“Yes.”

“Come rain or shine?”

“Mhmm,” Jaxon vowed, trying not to smile.

“For better or worse?”

Was that a trick question? Jaxon gulped. Hayden was giving him that damned grin that made him want to kiss those pursed lips. His mouth grew dry and he gave a hard swallow, only able to nod.

“Come hell or high water?” Hayden tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair and then finished with, “Or against all odds?”

“Yes,” he croaked.

“Like two peas in—”

Jaxon placed two fingers on Hayden’s lips to stop the flow of words. The man’s blue eyes swam with laughter over the tops, and his lips pursed with a loud smacking kiss against his fingertips. Jaxon felt the zing all the way up his arm as if Hayden’s lips held an unseen power, and Jaxon had the insane urge to kiss him.

He slowly dropped his hand with the sound of his heart thundering in his ears. Hayden’s eyes grew soft and fuck…Jaxon didn’t know what the look was in those beautiful blue depths, but they’d changed somehow, making his mouth go dry like the desert.

Then Hayden’s lips parted and Jaxon leaned in oh so fucking slowly…closing the distance between their lips.

Slam!

“Shit!” Hayden jumped from the sound of a car door slamming and Jaxon jerked away, falling backward off the fucking seat. His ass smacked the patio floor hard, jarring his tailbone and leaving a throbbing pain in its wake.

Hayden laughed. Oh my god, the man laughed and laughed.

“Shut up.” Jaxon rolled, lurching to his feet and stalking to the edge of the patio to look over the railing at the tranquil little cul-de-sac below. The door slam had been the neighbor, a woman coming home with arms full of groceries. He spun on Hayden, who was still giggling and squinted.

“Oh, come on, that was funny.”

“My ass doesn’t think so.” He frowned, rubbing at the ache in the back of his jeans.

“Want me to rub it?” Hayden blinked his eyelashes and smirked.

Okay, now that struck his funny bone and his desire at the same time, and to cover the sudden state of his cock when he thought about Hayden touching his ass, Jaxon grinned and then chuckled.

“I guess that was funny.” He rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, turning slightly away.

They’d almost kissed.

And what the fuck had he been thinking anyway? A kiss between them would have been disastrous! Wouldn’t it have? Yes, it damned well would have.

That wasn’t who they were. They were best friends. They’d been to hell and back on numerous occasions and not once had they ever crossed that line.

Did he want to potentially ruin a friendship to get a piece of ass?

Wait…Hayden wasn’t just some piece of ass, and Jaxon was positive it wouldn’t be a quickie with Hayden. And that very thought left him wondering.

Yeah, wondering…and a whole hell of a lot of other things.

Shit, he needed to get laid, that must be the problem. He thought about the list of numbers in his phone. He’d dated several men and women in his lifetime, and a couple of Exes—he had a whole list of hookups on his phone if he wanted. That was what this had to be. He hadn’t gotten laid since months before he’d left for California to help Dave with his assassin problem.

“Earth to Jax.”

He pressed his lips, shook his head, and said gruffly, “Come on, let’s see if there’s anything to eat in this joint.”

They ended up ordering pizza because the cupboards were bare and Jaxon tried like hell to keep his mind off of the way the light from the television sent a glow through Hayden’s light hair. He needed to focus more on eating the food and trying to figure out who the fuck would want them dead.

Hayden pulled a large piece of the pizza from the pie and placed it on his plate before serving himself. It was a habit, just like Hayden pulling off the onions to pile on his. He waited patiently for the man to finish before he lifted the piece and took a large bite. They both dug into the mouthwatering goodness.

Half an hour went by, and Jaxon kept his eyes on the television even though he was done eating. The silence from Hayden had him frowning and when he glanced over, he found Hayden dozing off. Jaxon turned off the television and stood before he leaned over and cupped Hayden’s cheek.

“What?” The man instantly blinked his eyes wide and startled.

“It’s time for bed.”

Hayden rubbed his face and nodded before lifting to his feet. Jaxon shut off the lights as the younger man walked down the hallway letting out a huge yawn.

He followed shortly after and found Hayden sitting on the edge of the bed in one of the spare rooms. “Get some sleep.”

Hayden gazed at him. “Leave the door open.”

Jaxon smiled. It was a habit of Hayden’s, even back at home the guy didn’t close his door. Jaxon pushed the wood wider and continued down the hall to the other spare room. He changed his shirt and grabbed an extra clip before heading back down the hall. Stopping in Hayden’s doorway, he saw the top of the man’s head poking out from beneath the blankets.

It was going to be a long night,he thought, and continued back into the living room.

Jaxon flipped through the television channels the next morning so Hayden didn’t have a chance to brainstorm ideas he’d been mulling over that morning during breakfast.

It was like that between them. Jaxon usually picked the program on TV to watch and Hayden would go along because they had the same tastes in movies…oh, and music.

Shortly after moving into Jaxon’s spare room, Hayden had discovered they enjoyed the same music. Their mutual love of classic rock hadn’t been discovered by being in the same household, but rather from a hole-in-the-wall bar they’d found several years ago.

The place had been packed, and the music hadn’t been all that great until Jaxon had bribed the DJ to play some classic rock. When Jaxon started pumping his arms and cocking his legs out like a broken chicken dancing, Hayden had bent over, hands on his thighs, laughing hysterically. Jaxon had pounced on him and pulled him into his arms. They’d danced that night to every rock song the DJ could find.

“You’re not too bad when you slow down,” he had teased, dodging Jaxon’s big feet. “Less like a broken chicken.”

“I’ll have you know that all the girls in high school wanted to dance with me.”

“When was that, 1960?” He grinned and Jaxon scowled.

Hayden had wiggled away and Jaxon had chased him around the dance floor much to the amusement of the other dancers.

They had the best time when it was just the two of them.

Smiling at the memories, he scrolled through the email on the open laptop on the coffee table and spotted a recent one from Logan. Snatching up the remote, he flipped off the TV.

“I was watching that,” Jaxon grumbled, shooting him a quick look.

“Watching what?” he countered.

“Um…” Busted. Jaxon looked away. “Nothing.”

Hayden snicker snorted and then pointed to the email. “Logan sent over some of the case files we’ve recently worked. Maybe something will be in there and we can find out who the hell wants us dead,” he said, going through the list of potential suspects.

“Good idea.”

“Mhmm.” Hayden’s fingers paused and then he gave a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“I want my cell phone.” Hayden pursed his lips and then tossed him a sad pout. “I feel odd without it and we forgot to get me a new one.”

“I’ll send for your things.”

“Yeah, how?” Hayden’s face filled with hope.

“I’ll have Solomon meet Ryder with your stuff. He’ll check your phone to make sure that nobody put a tracker on it.”

Hayden rolled his eyes at that, but tapped his fingers on the keys.

“Yeah, like I’d let someone put a tracker on my phone. And who’s to say Solomon would even meet Ryder.”

“He will. Solomon knows Ryder.”

Hayden squinted at him for a few moments.

“What?” Jaxon lifted both eyebrows.

“I still think it’s someone after you and I just happened to be collateral damage.”

He was confused for a second when Hayden switched the subject on him, but came back with his own logic.

“Maybe. I’m not taking any chances though,” he said, and stared when Hayden slid a wary blue gaze his way.

A puzzled look crept into Hayden’s eyes as if he were silently trying to figure out something, and Jaxon cleared his throat—nodding toward the computer screen.

“Anything?”

“Well, yeah,” Hayden smirked, turned to the computer, and began reading the list of names.

Jaxon sent a quick text on his phone and then held it up. “Ryder will get your stuff and meet with Solomon.”

He harrumphed, but was secretly pleased. Scrolling through the list of case files, he realized that most of the cases were ones where the perp was either dead or in jail. There were a few older ones where stalkers had been released on good behavior. One case stuck out. Cobalt Security had been called in to protect a woman from a stalker. The man had been caught a month later and sent to prison.

“Says here that the guy is now out on good behavior.”

“Where’s the woman?”

“She died from cancer a year ago.” Hayden grimaced. “He may be pissed at that or pissed at us for keeping him from her while she was still alive,” Hayden finished after reading the short info on Ruby Kirkland.

“Who was the perp again?”

“Richard Lundry.”

“Yeah. I remember him, total dick,” he said. The fucker had held a knife to Ruby’s throat while attempting to kidnap her.

“Why the hell would they let him out?”

“Maybe because Ruby is dead? He can’t stalk her anymore?”

“Yeah, he’ll just become someone else’s fucking nightmare.”

“Hey, Dick is only a few hours from here…let’s pay him a visit,” Hayden said.

“No.”

“Pullllleeeease?” Hayden’s eyes gleamed with excitement and his lips parted.

“No.” Jaxon squinted and steeled himself against Hayden’s trickery.

Sexy, sexy trickster.

“You know you want to.”

“No, I don’t.”

“If we don’t go now, I’ll just sneak away when you’re not looking.”

“You can’t do that. I’m always looking.” Jaxon ran his eyes over Hayden’s smiling face.

“Remember Cinco de Mayo last year?”

Jaxon scowled.

“Or New Years 2018? Or what about when we went to the rodeo the same year?”

Jaxon groaned and rubbed at the back of his neck remembering the bets Hayden had waged that he could ditch him. But mostly, Jaxon remembered how he’d lost the bet every single damned time. Yeah, Hayden could give him the slip in a heartbeat—the guy was talented.

“Remembering the past three weeks?” Hayden cackled.

Jaxon glared. He should have known Hayden would rub that one in. He let out a heavy sigh. “You always did like the chase.”

“Nah, it’s more about catching them.” Hayden waggled his brows.

Jaxon snorted, studied the grinning man, and then thought…why the hell not? It would give them something to do and take his mind off of things that he shouldn’t be thinking about. It might give them a break in the case and root out their attacker.

Maybe this way, they could get a jump on the perp without waiting around for Logan to call whomever. Still, though, Jaxon sent Logan a text of their plan and he wasn’t surprised when his phone rang a moment later.

“What now?” Logan’s growled words were heavy with disbelief.

Jaxon explained about their suspect. “We could get the guy when he’s not expecting it.”

Logan sighed. “True. And when you do go after this joker, be fucking careful. I can pull Brick and Felix off another suspect and send them your way.”

“What suspect?”

“The team has received a few death threats they’re checking into.”

“Nah, don’t pull them. Keep them on that while we check this guy out. It could be nothing.”

“Just do recon, don’t engage. Hayden doesn’t work for me,” Logan ordered after a moment. “Plus, he’s got to be sore as hell.”

“Copy,” Jaxon said and ended the call. He gripped the phone and turned to find Hayden watching him. The bruise on the younger man’s jaw had him squinting.

“What?” Hayden’s pretty lips pursed.

“Stay close to me and there will be no ditching,” Jaxon croaked.

“Did you bring my running shoes?”

“I did,” Jaxon said, slowly nodding.

“Try to keep up.”

There was no way in hell he could keep up running with Hayden, the man was hella fast, not to mention wily. Jaxon eyed the sexy smirk Hayden wore and it once again gave him ideas that he shouldn’t have.

Jaxon cleared his throat and murmured, “Don’t lose me.”

“Never.”

And damned if that one word didn’t send his heart pounding.