Page 6 of Rising Storm

Helix shrugged. “Could be anything, but probably means there are others watching him as well. Which means we need to be extra careful on this job.”

“Aren’t you always?”

“True.” Helix turned back to look at the building. “Let’s wait and see how long the cleaning crew takes. That will give us a good night time gauge on the place.”

Gareth settled in to wait. He turned on the car to start the air conditioner going, though, because the humidity was becoming too much to take. “This statuette means something to me. Did Quincy tell you?”

“Just that you looked for it before.”

“I used to hang out at a LGBTQ center and had a mentor. Rising Storm belonged to him. Getting it back to him will mean so much to me.”

“Then it’s good you’re on this case.” Helix shifted in his seat. “A mentor, you said? One who owns a statue worth that much?”

“Local millionaire who funded the place and spent most of his days there. He said he always wished there’d been a place like that when he was a teenager.”

“So what kind of place was it? A shelter?”

“Yeah, for homeless teens. I wasn’t homeless, but I hung out there after school. They had a cool rec room with games in it. The volunteers were great, especially Larry. I tried so hard to find his statuette for him later when I was on the force. I can’t wait to get it back to him.”

“I stayed at one of those places once. Didn’t work out with all Hayrick had me doing, but I thought about going back a few times.”

Surprise pricked him—Helix having shared something personal. He hadn’t known Helix had been homeless at one point and his heart turned over for the man. There was so much he didn’t know and he was curious. Curious about his past as well as what made him tick now. Outside of Helix’s usual grouchiness, Gareth knew nothing other than he’d been forced to steal for Hayrick Letsen for years. And that he was from Maine. Every now and then, a hint of an accent showed up in dropped Rs. He stared at him now, taking in his handsome face with its sharp angles and square jaw. He was so damn alone and that’s what Gareth picked up from him the most. Alone and seemingly happy that way. Well, not happy, exactly. The man never seemed to be happy. But a loner, yes. He was surprised Helix had even moved into Hayrick’s house with the rest of them.

“Were you on the streets long?” Gareth asked.

“Don’t really want to talk about that.” Helix shifted in his seat as he changed the subject. “From the way the lights are going on and off, it looks like the cleaning crew starts on the first floor and moves up. That will work in our favor. We can possibly hide upstairs until they start, then make our way down as they move up. But we still need to go in and look the place over wearing suits on Friday.”

They watched until the crew left, noting that it took them two hours to clean the entire office building.

“We got what we needed,” Helix said. “Let’s go back to the motel and get some sleep.”

“Sounds good,” Gareth replied as he hit the gas. As he drove over the dark city streets he thought about this being his first re-steal and hoped his nerves wouldn’t get the best of him.

Chapter 3

Helix woke and didn’t know where he was at first. He’d been dreaming of ghosts again. Faceless people from his past, ones who would forever haunt him. As always, he woke with a heavy heart and wondered if it would ever grow lighter, if he could ever learn to forgive himself. One of those ghosts always had a face and he awakened wishing he could go back in time and stop her death. Shoving aside memories of Judy, he rolled onto his side.

The piped in air and musty odor reminded him he was in a motel room. He stared at the unfamiliar shadows, his mind slowly coming online. Something had awakened him, but he wasn’t sure what.

Then a knock came on his door and he realized that was what had jerked him from sleep before.

“Helix, you awake?”

He rolled out of bed and padded in his boxers to the door to open it, blinking into the bright sunlight. He raised a hand to shield his eyes. God, it was early and already the sun was baking the pavement. Last night’s rain felt like a mirage now. “I am now.”

Gareth wore a pair of soft-looking gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt that stretched across his wide shoulders and showed off his muscular arms. He had a crease in his cheek from the pillow and it looked like he’d just run his hands through his hair. “I’m starving. Wanna go get breakfast?”

Helix just grunted and fought the urge to feel bad when Gareth’s friendly, open expression closed up.

The other man frowned. “There’s a good diner a couple of streets down.”

He’d never been the sort to find conversation easy and because Gareth left him with a lot of mixed feelings, it seemed worse with him. All their conversations outside of work were short and perfunctory. He knew it frustrated the other man, but didn’t really care all that much. What did they have to discuss other than work? Helix had never had friends and had no basis on which to act toward one. He’d been alone since he was fifteen years old and on the streets.

But for some reason, he couldn’t completely dislike Gareth. Maybe it was his friendly personality. Helix had always gone for smoother, smaller men, but the thought of touching the big, furry Gareth appealed. More than he liked. Still didn’t trust him, but trust came hard for Helix after a lifetime of dealing with Hayrick Letsen and the assholes who’d worked for him. It still felt unreal that he was free.

But then he wasn’t—not really. Not until he found Sayer. And even then he’d never be free of the memories of things he’d been forced to do.

Fuck, he was maudlin today.

---