Chapter 14
“What? What do you mean you love him?” Dennis was standing and for the first time in years didn’t feel his arthritis. He didn’t feel anything but pure adrenaline running through his body.
Lonnie groaned and he said, “I’m gay. Okay? I’m gay and I’ve been in love with Jack for years. Even before Martin died but I never thought I’d have a chance until lately.”
“Wait, why lately? Did he…did he come on to you or something?”
Lonnie breathed out a sardonic laugh and said, “No. Of course not. It’s just with you closer to retiring I thought maybe I could get in to be his new deputy and then he’d see I wasn’t a kid anymore and…”
“And he’d fall for you too.” Poor Lonnie. Unrequited love was the worst kind. That still didn’t let him off of the hook though. “You could go to prison.”
Standing up and taking a few unsteady steps, Lonnie sighed, “So.”
Dennis had had enough. “So? You want to be a cop! You can’t be a cop with a record Lonnie!” He grabbed his nephew and shook him once hard. “You have to stop this! Jack is in love with that Rebel guy. If you wanted him you should have grown some balls and told him a long time ago. It’s too late Lon!”
Breaking down then Lonnie slumped in his uncle’s embrace and slid down him to the floor where he covered his face in his hands. Dennis’ heart broke for him but what the hell could he do? What the fuck could he possibly do? Jack wasn’t stupid in fact far from it. He would figure it out soon if he hadn’t already. Lonnie’s entire future depended on Dennis not letting him go to jail.
The last thing in the world he wanted was to see Lonnie go but he had no choice. “Lonnie we have some cousins in Utah. You need to go stay with them until this blows over. With you not around maybe Jack will let it slide.” Hopefully.
“Utah! Come on Dennis I’ll just go stay with my dad. He…-“
“Fuck that! You’re not going down there so you can end up like him, a worthless fucking drunk. You are going to Utah!”
Lonnie moaned but nodded in agreement. Dennis huffed out a breath and pulled away from him, heading to the bathroom for his medication. He downed a pill then opened the bottle of the pain killers and took one and thought about it then took another as he stared into the unfamiliar face in the mirror. The lines marking his face so pronounced, the dark look of pain in his eyes. Just the streaks of white through his black hair was enough to tell him he wasn’t the kid he once was, in love with a girl who didn’t love him. What Lonnie was going through not only made him think back on those days but also made him long for them.
What would he do with a second chance? He knew exactly what he would do. He’d tell the girl and that is the advice he would give his nephew if circumstances were different. If Lonnie hadn’t fucked things up by trashing a store and a house. Now he would never know. Now Lonnie could live in the same sorrow he had lived in for thirty years.
“Fuck!”
He got back out to the living room and grabbed his keys so he could over to Lonnie’s apartment to pick up his things.
oooOooo
Rebel’s face showed his confusion as he stared at Jack slack-jawed. “What?”
Jack kissed him hard, hands holding his face and then he pulled back. “I love you Rebel. I love you and I don’t want to be without you.”
Rebel pushed Jack away, sat up and shook his head. Jack let him go and they both stood up again and Jack was thankful he only took a few steps away. “You don’t love me.”
Jack clasped his hands together just so he wouldn’t grab onto the man and look desperate. “I do and I think you know that.”
Something he didn’t expect happened then. Jack thought he’d run or punch him but instead he dropped down to his knees and put his forehead on Jack’s thigh. “I love you too Jack. I love you and I don’t want to.”
“Why because you don’t think it will last?” Rebel didn’t answer so Jack lifted him up and drew him close. “It doesn’t matter what you think baby. What do you feel?”
Rebel wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck and whispered, “I feel this.”
Jack held him and felt like crying and screaming at once. Rebel loved him too and it was the best feeling he’d had in so long it was like he was just waking from a nightmare and stepping into his most cherished dream. He gripped Rebel’s shirt and nuzzled his face into his neck.
“Jack I want to run.”
“Don’t.”
“Okay.”
Jack pulled back smiling. “Just like that?”
“No one but my aunt has really ever asked me to stay and they sure as hell haven’t said they loved me. I’d be a moron to leave the one guy who not only said it but who I love too.”
“Shit,” Jack said as he pushed Rebel to the floor and started kissing him. He was overcome with love and lust for the man and he tore open Rebel’s shirt sliding down just enough to take his nipple between his lips then teeth and as he bit down Rebel lifted up off the ground.
“Stop!” Rebel said this in a breath but Jack heard it like a shout.
“What? I want you and I want you right now!”
Rebel smiled and it made his face glow. Jack laughed as Rebel said, “Sub’s turn to boss the Dom around…go and do your job. I need to go see the store and you need to go with me so you can find out who did it.”
Jack growled and agreed, “Okay but then I’m taking you back home and fucking you until neither of us can walk.”
They righted their clothes and closed up Candace’s house tight, Jack checking all of the windows and doors. Not that that would stop anyone but it made them both feel a little better but that didn’t last. As soon as they saw the destruction of the bead shop Rebel tried to punch the wall but Jack stopped him with only a look. Rebel dropped his fist but it stayed clenched as he looked around.
oooOooo
“I know this looks bad but everything seems to be here. I mean I don’t think anything was stolen.”
Rebel nodded and went to the cash register which had been overturned behind the counter. Once he had it turned back over he got inside of it and saw that Jack was right. There was every dime that Aunt Candace kept inside. It was two twenties, three tens, five fives and twenty ones. She said to always be prepared to make change. He smiled at the memory even as it broke his heart. He saw Jack leaning over something and went there fast.
“Something?”
Jack looked up at him but his face yelled that the something wasn’t good. “Yeah and it was something I was afraid of.”
In his hand was a set of keys. Rebel was sure Jack recognized them. “Whose are they?”
Huffing out a breath Jack answered, “A good friend.”
Rebel didn’t understand but he could see it in Jack’s eyes that it was painful for him. He brushed his hand down Jack’s back. “Listen, drop me at home after we take the pictures and close it up. Go do what you have to do.”
Jack looked surprised and frankly he wasn’t the only one. Rebel was surprised at his calm approach to the whole thing. “Are you sure?”
Even with the destruction around him he felt for the first time like he was building something and not just with Jack. With himself. “Yeah I’m sure.”
When Jack dropped him off he smiled and waved before he went into the house to plan what dinner he would have ready for his man…his Dom. He wanted to take the stress out of Jack’s eyes and what better way than a good meal and then some hot loving after.
oooOooo
Lonnie’s place was quiet. He knocked a couple of times then Jack decided to just go in. He took the keys from his pocket and opened the door to the tiny place Lonnie had lived in for the last year or so. It was called a studio but that was a stretch. There was just enough room for the full sized bed and television on the dresser. The kitchen was just a stove and ancient fridge, a rickety table with one lonely chair and a microwave hanging precariously on the wall but it was clean and neat just as Jack had expected. At the diner Lonnie cleaned up after himself and the others, placing their spent sugar and creamer packets neatly on the plates he stacked at the edge of the table then wiped the whole table down until it was clean.
By the looks of the apartment he was the same meticulous way at home. There was no dust, no stray t-shirt on the floor, not even a dirty glass in the sink that stood off to the side of the bathroom to double for it and the kitchen. Just as he sat on the corner of the bed the door opened but it wasn’t Lonnie that walked in.
“Dennis.”
Dennis jumped then winced, looking like he wanted to bolt out of the door. “Jack…what are you doing here?”
Jack stood and put his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. “I think you know Dennis. Where is he?”
Closing the door and not looking Jack in the eye he answered, “He’s gone. He left town.”
“And you let him go?”
Finally Dennis faced him. “I had to. He’s my blood and he needed me.”
Jack turned around and looked away from Dennis to let the anger pass. “Tell me why at least. Why’d he do it? What did he have against Rebel?”
Dennis sat on the bed and said, “It was stupid and it was maybe childish but he hated Rebel because of you.”
Jack turned back to face him. “Why?”
Jack could tell Dennis didn’t want to say, just about couldn’t get it out but once it came it came fast, “He hated Rebel because he wanted you for himself. He’s gay and he has been in love with you for years.”
It came too fast for Jack to even begin to process it but when he finally did after staring down at his best friend he sat down on the bed next to him. “I need a fucking drink.”
He got that drink. He and Dennis went to LoLo’s and sat at a quiet table…the same one Rebel had taken on his night out. Dennis was quiet until LoLo took their order and he ordered a Coke while Jack asked for a double shot of whiskey. After downing it he stared out over the rough wood floor.
“Why didn’t he ever say anything? I had no idea! I mean I never even thought he was gay.”
Dennis huffed out a long breath. “You weren’t alone. Shit the whole town has been waiting for him to get together with Deb.”
Jack looked at him then and said, “Shit I think she knew. She told me to talk to him the other day.”
“Well there was one then.”
Martin was there sitting at his right and leaning back on the chair. “See if you had just opened your eyes you could have gotten over me a long time ago.”
Jack shut his eyes tight, wishing Martin away. At the moment he had too many apparitions on his plate what with the one of Lonnie staring at him from across the table. Lonnie…fuck he still couldn’t believe it. That beautiful young man in love with him and he had had no fucking clue. Some cop he was.
“Listen Jack I know this has all hit you hard. Lonnie was striking out…trying to get your attention maybe. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking but damn it I couldn’t let him go down for it. Not like this.”
Shit, of course Jack understood. He hadn’t been sure it wasn’t Rebel who trashed the MacAbby place and yet he hadn’t rushed back to put him in jail. “I know. We’ll go with the cover that kids did it. You get Lonnie to pay for the damages and I won’t go after him but please tell me he is okay.”
Suddenly that was the most important thing to him to know; that Lonnie was all right. Lonnie, who was so sweet and shy and so fucking beautiful and he had been there, right in front of him the whole time and all he could think of when he looked at him was that he was a kid and one of his best friends. Not too young to share a beer or a dirty joke with but too young to see him as a man who he could be with and care for.
“He’s going to be. I sent him to live with the non-drunk relatives.”
“Good,” Jack whispered. “Good.”
When he got back home the smells coming from the kitchen ignited his appetite but he still didn’t think he could eat. He walked into the kitchen and Rebel was sitting at the table, which was set with the only candle Jack owned, a glass encased dark green pillar that must have had an inch of dust on the top.
Rebel got up and went to him, pulling him in close for a kiss. “Hello sir. I hope you’re hungry.”
Jack held him tight and felt even guiltier that he had thought about another man when Rebel was at home waiting for him. “Baby it’s so good to be here. It smells great. You’ve been busy.”
“Just trying to be a good little sub for you.” Rebel searched his face and Jack hoped his guilt and thoughts weren’t evident.
“You are perfect baby. Why don’t you serve us some of whatever it is that smells so good and then I need to take you downstairs, tie you down and then fuck you until you scream?”
No matter what he’d been seeing in Jack’s face the words worked. Rebel moaned and kissed him again. “Yes, sir.”
After a steak cooked perfectly and some potatoes that were not quite done but perfect anyway to Jack’s mind, he helped Rebel clean up, then took his hand and walked with him downstairs. At the door to the playroom he embraced Rebel and bit his neck gently at first then harder extracting a deep groan from Rebel. He smiled against his lover’s neck and said, “I think we both could use this.”
“Oh fuck yeah we can.” Rebel stepped back and tilted his head while his eyes narrowed. “Not that I want to stall this because that is the last thing I want, but are you going to tell me what you found out or is that a Dom thing that you can’t tell me?”
The question he’d been dreading and there it was, out and in the air like a heavy fog between them. “I know who did it. I know and they’re gone. They left town.”
Rebel ran his hands over Jack’s chest then started to unbutton his shirt slowly. “Are you going after them?”
Jack stopped Rebel with a strong grip on both of his wrists and said, “No. I’m not. There are things you should know I guess, not only as the owner of the store but as my partner.”
Rebel smiled and lowered his head. “Not now. We have time to talk. Right now just take me in here and make me know that you still want me as bad as I want you.”
Smiling despite all that had happened that day Jack said, “I could get to like the sub telling the Dom what to do.”