Page 12 of The Murder Between Us
“Damn. Thought he might have gotten hit by a train.”
“We should be so lucky.” They didn’t know where he’d been, or why he stopped six years ago, or why he was back now. “We need to examine every murder of a young woman for the past few years. See if we missed anything. Check other jurisdictions, too. If he murders across state lines, we take over primary jurisdiction.”
“We’re probably going to take over anyway. The sheriffs from all four counties, along with the chiefs of Des Moines and West Des Moines PD, have asked the FBI to take the lead in restarting the Coed Killer Joint Task Force, if this is definitely his work. No one is comfortable with one of our own being murdered.” Hayes sighed, ragged and rough. “We have to stop him this time, Noah.”
Noah nodded. His breath echoed over the line. “I want to bring in more help this time. Let’s call the BAU, see if Quantico can send out a profiler. I want to throw everything at this. We didn’t catch him the first time, and now he’s back.”
“I’ll put in the request today and ask them to send someone out as soon as they can. The best profiler they’ve got.”
“Thanks.”
“Get the task force back up and running. You run this how you need to. You’re going to get him this time. I know it. Let me know what you need.”
Noah hung up. He tried to smell the summer wind, the sun-warmed corn stalks and the nitrogen-rich earth. Tried to recapture a single molecule of the happiness he’d touched so fleetingly, and that he’d left behind under neon and desert darkness. The joy he’d brushed—that certainty—seemed so far away, so removed from his life. Were Vegas and Iowa even on the same planet? It didn’t feel like it. Whoever he’d been when the sun rose that morning, he was no longer the same man. He couldn’t be. Not here, not now.
He sighed, reaching, grasping, for sunlight, for neon, for something.
But all he smelled was death and despair.
5
Another Monday,another flight.
Cole rolled his head against the headrest and stared at the carpet of clouds floating below the wing of the plane. He blinked. Beneath him were all those flyover states. Middle America, those midwestern states. Full of midwestern men.
Damn midwestern men.
His eyes slid closed. Cold sunlight fell on his face as the plane banked gently, turning at the outer marker for the last hundred miles of the flight. God, he flew so much he practically knew the pilots’ routines and the routes they flew by heart. Not that he’d ever flownherebefore.
Maybe if Noah had called him, he could have taken a few days and paid him a visit before this assignment. Or after. Or during. He could have seen Noah again, met up with him in whatever city was nearby.I can’t be like that at home.So Noah was closeted, even though he wanted to know who he was and what he wanted. That was okay. Cole could work with that.
Hell, he’d work with anything if it meant he got to see Noah again.
When was the last time he’d been so captivated by a man? By all of a man? Sure, it was easy to fall for a man’s physicality, his appearance. But he would run out of fingers and toes if he tried to count how many men he’d been attracted to who, after he got to know them, made Cole want to run for the hills. There wasn’t a way to put a paper bag over someone’s personality, and he was finally growing out of his testosterone-fueled-fuck years, where it didn’t matter who someone was as long as they had a killer body andfuck-meeyes.
Meeting a man like Noah was like finding a diamond buried on an endless beach. He had that bashful, shy attractiveness that drove Cole wild. Noah had no idea, none at all, how sexy he’d looked when he’d come out that night. There was a reason that the waitress had zeroed in on him. And if Cole hadn’t made his move, someone else would have. There was no way Noah would have been alone that night.
Had he done something wrong? Had he pushed too hard? He thought Noah had been having a good time. He thought they had been on the same page. How much had Noah drunk? He hadn’t been out of control, wasn’t even tipsy. Cole never wanted to take advantage of him. He just didn’t want the night to end.
It had seemed like Noah didn’t want the night to end, either. Especially when they got back to his room and—
God, the way his eyes went wide, went wild. The fire burning inside Noah. How hungry he seemed for Cole.
He wasn’t actually hungry for Cole, though, was he? No, he was hungry for the experience, for the novelty. For knowing who he was. Cole was just some guy, muscles and a dick and his first kiss, his first blow job from a man. Cole could have been an escort, for all it ended up mattering.
Damn it, he’d let himself be captivated by Noah. By that midwestern earnestness, that all-American solidity, that bashful, quiet strength wrapped in a gorgeous body. He may have been ‘some guy’ to Noah, but Noah had gotten under his skin. Clearly.
He’d really wanted that dinner date. He’d really wanted to hear from Noah again. Maybe it would have all gone sideways and the spell would have been broken. Maybe reality would have crashed in on that second date. But maybe it would have been just as magical as the first. Maybe they would have built on that spark, fanned the flame between them. Maybe there would have been candlelight and nuzzling each other and holding hands until they made out in the booth. Maybe they would have gone back to his room again and explored some more. Maybe he could have shown Noah even more.
And maybe, since he was now on his way to the Midwest, he could have seen Noah again.
If only.
If only Noah had called or texted. If only Cole hadn’t sat waiting for hours, staring at his phone screen at the hotel bar as the pit opened up in his stomach and the rejection sank deep. What had he done wrong? How had he spooked Noah?
Were there… other reasons? He’d checked—he always did—for a wedding band. He hadn’t seen one. But that didn’t mean Noah wasn’t married. He’d been emphatic that he couldn’t be gay, couldn’t be out, back wherever home was for him. Couldn’t be gay, in 2021? Why?
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re on our final approach to Des Moines International Airport. Winds are calm and the weather is beautiful, so we anticipate a smooth landing. We’ll have you on the ground and at the gate in about ten minutes. Thank you for flying with us, and have a great day in Des Moines, or wherever your final destination may be.”
