Page 38 of Touch of Innocence
“Look, I guess you’d better come in, but I don’t know what you think I did. I’ve been behaving myself ever since I got out. I’m not sure why you’re after me.”
His words weren’t exactly comforting for Sam, who stared at him like he’d grown a whole other head. The way that Gunner was talking, it almost sounded like he had had some sort of run-in with the cops before.
In fact, it sounded a lot like that. It was hard to think of what else it could even be.
“Then all we need to know from you is where you were two night ago,” the taller agent, who seemed to be the one who spoke more, said those words, and as the four of them walked into the living room, Sam was just grateful that Ruby was off at her friend’s house again. He really wouldn’t want to try to explain this to her.
Sam’s legs gave out, luckily right when he was standing by a comfortably overstuffed, faded loveseat, one which Sam had sat in for more than half of his life. It didn’t give him a lot of comfort now, but some was better than none.
Gunner sat beside him, and Sam shook his head in disbelief which slowly turned into horror as he saw the look that his boyfriend—if that’s what Gunner even was—was giving him. The cops had asked where Gunner was two nights ago.
Sam could have answered that for him if he’d been brave enough. Two nights ago, Gunner had been dragging Sam into bed, wrapping his arms around him and kissing him until neither of them could breathe. Gunner had been making Sam come, and Sam had been doing the same to Gunner, over and over again until they’d both passed out together.
Without a word, Gunner’s eyes begged Sam to understand, but Sam shook his head. He had never thought he would be in a situation where he would be pretty much demanding that someone lie to the feds, but that was exactly what was going on.
It was hard enough for Sam to deal with his own brother knowing that Sam was with another man. Complete, full on strangers? And strangers who were sort of officious jerks, too? That was just not something he could tolerate.
Gunner looked away from Sam, then sighed and reached over to touch Sam’s leg.
“I was with him.” Gunner didn’t even look at Sam as he twisted the knife just a little bit deeper. “In bed. All night.”
Just in case there could be any doubt what their relationship was, Gunner blasted it out of the water. Sam closed his eyes briefly, his cheeks flaming, and lowered his head. All of his life, fighting against himself. Trying to deny that there was even a reason to hide.
It was so much work, and it had all been for nothing. His stomach roiled, and the room spun, and he sincerely wondered if he was going to be sick all over the worn, well-loved coffee table.
“Is that true?” the loud agent asked, and Sam drew in a breath that felt like needles, sharp and stabbing deep into his lungs. For all that he had been silently willing Gunner to lie to the cops when it came down to it, he couldn’t do the same himself.
“Yeah. It’s true,” Sam said, and he forced himself to look right into the eyes of the agent. Not the loud one, the blustery one, but the quiet one who seemed to see everything. Hoping that, no matter how angry Sam was at Gunner, this cop would see that Sam was telling the truth and that they didn’t have to take Gunner away.
“What’s this about?” Gunner finally spoke, his hand still on Sam’s leg. Part of Sam wanted to take it in his own. Part of him wanted to push it away. In the end, he did neither, just did his best to ignore it.
“There was a robbery. A liquor store, just on the other side of the Texas/Oklahoma border. Your former boyfriend and partner, Chad Stevens, was seen on the scene of the crime.”
Talkative agent slapped down a photo onto the table, and Sam leaned in. Even with all of the emotions swirling through his mind, he found himself curious about who this man was. This man who had saved Gunner but who had apparently gotten him into a fair bit of trouble, too.
Sam had heard very little, really, but none of it was good. He gazed at the photo and saw a man, a very handsome, rugged man, with wild dark eyes and careless brown hair and thick, masculine scruff on his face. A man who was older than he would have thought.
He was with another man, one who had a mask on. Gunner’s ex, though, made no effort to hide who he was, not in the slightest. It was like he was asking the world to know that it was him.
“That’s not me.” Gunner tapped his finger on the image of the man with the mask. “I’ve been here for weeks now. You can ask my boss, Mike. Sam’s already told you.”
“We already spoke with Mike,” the agent said, “How did you think we knew where to find you?”
The other one, the one who had stayed silent the entire time, finally spoke up.
“We believe you,” he said, though Agent Talkative didn’t seem to be so convinced. “But if you hear from him, we’re going to need you to promise that you will contact us right away. We have reason to believe that he’s looking for you. You seem like a good kid, don’t let him get you into trouble again.”
“Believe me, if I see him, getting back together with him is going to be the last thing on my mind,” Gunner spoke fervently, and he reached for Sam’s hand and took it in his own, but Sam wasn’t sure if he could believe anything that Gunner said. How much had Gunner held back? That question and others filled his brain and made it difficult to think about anything else.
It hadn’t actually occurred to Sam before that that he might have to worry about Gunner leaving him for his ex. It was a touch of anxiety that he really could have done without, actually.
The less talkative agent handed over his business card to Gunner, who accepted it without letting go of Sam’s hand with his other. Was it because he actually wanted to hold his hand? Or because he was playing up this relationship so that they’d believe him?
The two agents showed themselves out, and Sam slowly turned his gaze toward Gunner. He pulled his fingers out of Gunner’s grasp, searching his face, trying to figure out what to say, and where to start.
“I’m going to go have a shower,” Gunner stated and then shot him a little smirk like he knew full well just how damn sexy he was. “Do you wanna come?”
Doubtless, it would have been fun to let Gunner distract him with sex, just as he had done after the incident with Mike’s car. Sam even knew that it would be good, really good, with the simmering tension which flowed between them stronger than ever.
But he couldn’t let that happen. Not this time. So he reached out and grabbed Gunner by the hand, forcing him back down onto the loveseat before he could do more than start to stand up.
“No. I want you to tell me everything.”
