Page 5 of Rising Storm

Gareth grinned. “Of course.” He opened his door and a wave of heat immediately filled the car. “Thanks for the ride. Pop the trunk, will you?”

They got out their bags and walked into the main office to check in as Liam drove off with a wave.

They had side-by-side rooms. Helix dropped his suitcase on the bed and looked around. It was a generic-looking room with one full bed with a brown and orange striped comforter. There was a television, of course, and a small table and two chairs. The first thing he did was crank up the air-conditioning, then take a shower to get all the sweat off his body. Anticipation made him hurry through the shower. Nine fucking years since he’d seen his brother. It was time for a family reunion.

* * *

“I don’t thinkwe’re going to see much with this rain,” Gareth said as they sat in a rental car a block from Kavaugh’s place. They’d slowly driven around the building, locating all the entrances and there were two ways to get out of the place should things go sideways. It was weird being back in OKC when he’d expected to never set foot here again.

This building of Kavaugh’s wasn’t actually in Bricktown, but in a business section of OKC. A seven-story building that didn’t stand out among those around it as anything special.

It was dark and intimate in the car with the rain pattering against the roof and windows. Gareth stared at the water sliding down the glass, his senses filled with the scent of Helix. The man was unnaturally quiet most of the time, but it was like stealing had clicked a switch in him. He’d pointed out all the entrances and the best place for them to park when they did this. It was the most he’d ever said to Gareth.

“It doesn’t look like they use a night security company,” Helix pointed out. “We won’t know for sure until we case the place out inside. We should dress like office guys and go in—probably Friday would be best. Wear suits. Around closing time to see what we’re looking at. Door locks, cameras, things like that. People will be thinking about their weekend plans and getting out of there, so we should blend in easily because they won’t be paying as much attention.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They were both silent then as they watched the building. Lightning rent the sky, followed by a loud crack of thunder. Seemed Oklahoma was having one of its rare wet summers this year. City lights blurred like stars in the rain and the inside of the car felt humid. He glanced at Helix to find the other man’s attention firmly on Kavaugh’s place.

“Sitting in a parked car like this reminds me of being on the force.”

Helix glanced at him. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes, yeah. But I like what I’m doing now. I miss the camaraderie of having Liam, Carter and Isaac in my life though.” Along with Quincy, the five of them had bonded on a force that hadn’t always been the most accepting when it came to their sexuality.

Gareth had never hidden it, but since he wasn’t one for casual sex, his intimate life hadn’t been on display much. He’d had one on and off again relationship with another cop, but Jake had been so firmly hidden in his closet, they’d mostly been on the off-side of things. Jake had been heavily involved in investigating Hayrick Letsen and when all that crap had hit with Gareth supposedly being on the take, Jake had been suspicious of him. It still smarted, that a guy he’d been intimate with could think something like that of him. He’d broken things off for good after that and they hadn’t spoken in over a year.

“Don’t you miss chasing bad guys?” Helix asked.

“I’d say I missed putting right to wrong, but isn’t that what we’re doing? Don’t you feel better every time you return something?”

“I suppose I do.”

“For years, you were made to do something that went against your very nature. What we’re doing now? It makes that better.”

“Now you’re a psychologist,” Helix drawled.

“No, just one of the sharper knives in the drawer.”

“Are you? Are you really?”

Gareth grinned. “Hey now, I’m genuinely hurt here. I see what you think of me.”

“Let me guess. The love. It burns.”

Gareth snorted.

Helix was silent a few moments as he watched the building, then cleared his throat. “Looks like a cleaning crew is going in now. That could either be tricky or work in our favor. If we had more time, I could get a job with them and have access to the entire building.”

“Done something like that before?”

“Nah, most of my takes were private homes, but that’s an option to think about in the future. This will be my first office building. It’s kind of wild this Kavaugh guy would display a stolen item so prominently in public. He must have one hell of a set of balls.” He turned to look at Gareth in the darkness of the car. “You sure you don’t remember anything about him? Liam seemed surprised you didn’t know of him when he mentioned circles.”

“I didn’t hang out at a lot of gay bars or anything like that, so I didn’t run in the same circles. I mostly worked and took care of my uncle. And I lost my job some time ago, so I was out of the loop.”

Helix nodded. “Too bad. Shelli gave me a write up on him, but it didn’t say much other than he owns a lot of property. In fact, she said the information on him was surprisingly scarce. Oh, she did say a red flag went up when she was searching.”

“A flag?”

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