“You’ve met him, right?” He quirked his mouth, laughing at what he imagined Miki’s response would be to Edie’s high-handed order. “I found a murdered child molester in his garage, then probably the same asshole threw a dead dog through his window. And let’s not forget the bag of fingers and cow parts on his front porch, but that didn’t convince him not to come back here. Believe me, he’s not going to go anywhere, ma’am.”
“In the words of another woman, ‘ma’am’ is just another way to say ‘bitch’.” Edie let loose a smoky chuckle. “I don’t want to leave him alone….”
“He’s not alone,” Kane said softly. “He has me.”
The silence on the other end of the phone would have been deafening if not for Dude’s snores coming from the other room. Kane glanced over his shoulder, taking another look at the man sprawled out on the mattress. Miki’s foot was exposed, and from what Kane could see of it, his pinky toe seemed to curl under his other toe. A black nose poked out of the sheets, the linens ruffling as the dog breathed heavily outward.
“You’ll have to excuse me, Detective Morgan, but I don’t know you. How can I trust you with him?”
“Yeah, I don’t know you either,” Kane shot back. “But of the two of us, who the hell’s sitting in his living room at fucking three o’clock in the morning?”
Another length of silence passed, shorter than the last. Then Edie said, “Point taken, but to be fair, Detective Morgan, he’s not let me into his living room… at any time of the morning.”
“Do you need to be down there?” he asked. “To deal with the shit that’s going to hit? Or can you come to hover over him and do what you have to do up here?”
“It would be better for me to stay down here. It’s harder to break heads long distance,” she admitted slowly. “But I don’t want to leave him alone.”
“I’ve already told you.” His reply was gentle but firm. “He’s not alone, and if there are any heads to be broken up here, I’ll deal with them.”
“Does he know that?” Edie asked. “About you… willing to break heads open for him?”
“Yeah, pretty sure he does.” He cut her off. “And if he doesn’t, he will soon. Look, he feels safe here. From what I can see, there aren’t too many places he feels safe at. I’m not going to let some asshole take this one from him.”
“Let me give you my number. I’ll take yours.” She rattled off her information and made Kane repeat his twice. “If anything happens… anything at all, I want you to call me.”
“You think he’s going to like me running to you every time he stubs his toe?” Kane laughed. “I’ll let you know if something hardcore is up.”
“Will you make sure he eats, at least?” It wasn’t hard to hear the worry in her voice, and Kane smiled, almost hearing his mother in Edie’s words. “And something other than ramen.”
“I promise. He had steak tonight. And vegetables.”
“Now I know the world’s going to end,” she muttered. “I’ll call you both when I know more. Thanks for taking care of him, Detective. I owe you one.”
“I’m not doing this for you, ma’am,” Kane replied. “I’m doing this for him.”
HIS beer went warm before Kane could finish it. After dumping the rest in the sink, he prowled through the lower level of the warehouse looking for linens to put on the couch. Not surprisingly, he came up empty. Glancing up at the staircase winding up to the second floor, Kane was debating searching there when he heard Miki murmur his name.
He shed his sneakers an hour or so ago, so Kane’s bare feet made little noise as he padded over the wood floors to Miki’s bedroom. The light from the lamp he left on in the living room barely reached the bedroom’s interior, but it was bright enough to catch the gold specks in Miki’s hooded eyes. Kane spotted Dude, snoring and buried in a stolen pillow on the floor. The singer lay on his side, facing the archway, and he watched Kane intently.
“Didn’t mean to wake you up.” Kane sat on the edge of the bed. “I was looking for sheets I could use on the couch.”
Miki blinked, sleep dragging down his eyelids. Nestling his chin into the pillow he clutched to his chest, he mumbled. “Bed’s big enough. Just sleep here.”
“Mick, even as dead tired as I am right now, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Kane eyed the enormous bed. “I was thinking of crashing on the couch.”
“It’s just to sleep. Get in bed. You’re making too much noise stomping around for me to crash.” Miki grumbled. “And the couch isn’t long enough for your ginormous body.”
Compared to the too-short couch, the comfort of the feather-topped bed was tempting, but not half as tempting as the young man already lying in it.
“Turn off the goddamned light,” Miki grumbled. “And go to sleep.”
“God, this is a bad idea,” he muttered. “Big fucking bad idea.”
After a quick trip to the living room to flick off the lamp, Kane stripped off his jeans and climbed onto the bed. Pulling at the edge of a sheet, he covered himself and reached for one of the stray pillows. Miki slid back to give him room, edging nearly to the wall he’d placed the bed against. Kane let his eyes adjust to the darkness and was surprised to find Miki still awake and staring at him.