Page 62 of What I've Tasted of Desire

“What?” My sudden bark was enough to startle everyone, even Alex. “You don’t have anything else? The dog?Nothing?”

Some security company…

“Okay, everyone, just relax,” Rhodes said, putting her hands up in front of her. I stepped back, closer to Alex, and put my arm over him. “What happened, Cal?” Rhodes asked, turning back to the man with the computer.

“Someone destroyed the sensors to activate the cameras. That’s the first thing I checked when I arrived. They’re gone. All of them.”

“Interesting,” she began. “I would say our suspect is someone who was here yesterday. Someone who’s close to Alex and able to fly under the radar. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone on the construction crew. Someone who was here when the sensors were installed.”

I groaned. “No! It’s not a construction worker, it’s Alex’s so-calledfriend,Tom.”

“Why would you say that?” Rhodes asked.

“He showed up here yesterday causing a scene. He was yelling at Alex and grabbed him. I had to fight him to make him leave!”

“You fought him? Physically?” Cal asked.

I momentarily let go of Alex, and held my bruised knuckles up for them to see.

“So Alex is dealing with a stalker, and some guy shows up here, gets aggressive with him to the point where you have to physically fight him off, andno onecomes to the conclusion that we should be notified about it?” Rhodes asked irritably.

“It’s hard to lead a department of people no one trusts, isn’t it, Detective?” Cal asked, a small twinkle in his eye.

Rhodes ignored the man’s slight and continued, “The…” she paused, looking over at Alex, “graffition the truck read,mark him again, and I’ll kill you both…”

“Look at Alex’s neck,” Cal interjected.

Rhodes took a small step closer to Alex. After a moment he turned his head to the side, displaying the trail of love bites I’d left down his throat.

“Hold still,” she said, taking a quick snap of Alex’s neck with her phone’s camera.

Alex held still as instructed, but turned bright pink with embarrassment.

You have nothing to be ashamed of, baby boy.

“Did you have those marks when this Tom guy showed up yesterday?”

Alex nodded and then turned his face back into my shoulder.

“What’s Tom's last name, and where does he live?”

Tom Hutchinson: born June 18th. He’s 21 years old, 5’11”, 186 pounds. He lives at 5459 Carmichael Way, up in the Camdens. He drives a 2024 gray Ford Explorer, license plate FH5856.

Of course, despite helpfully knowing every single detail of Tom’s biography, I couldn’t say anything, so I held my tongue. Against my side, Alex pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to type into his note app. Once he was finished, he turned the screen around so I could see it.

TOM HUTCHINSON. HE LIVES IN THE CAMDENS. I’M NOT SURE WHERE.

I read the words he had typed out loud for them to hear.

Detective Rhodes turned and whispered something to Cal before speaking to us again.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Caliber is going to take the two of you to the station and I’m gonna go have a little chat with your friend Tom.”

***

Stop-and-go traffic made the drive to the police station slow and frustrating. Alex dozed off leaning on my shoulder as I looked out the window. He was so exhausted and mentally drained. I just wanted him to be able to relax, and start to recover from this. I hated cops, but I had to figure out a way to make sure Tom couldn’t come anywhere near Alex again. I wasn’t able to kill him right now, so this was my only option at the moment.

We walked into the station and Caliber led us into a conference room before excusing himself. We sat there in silence for a good 15 minutes or so until Rhodes walked in and asked us to follow her. Alex put his hand up over his eyes to shield them from the unforgiving fluorescents lining the ceiling.

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