Brooklyn Sinners 3 -A Sinner Born (23 page)

His house bathed in light let Kane know he had company. Only one person could be the culprit. He didn’t know how he felt about seeing Syren again after all that went down. He’d disappeared into thin air and the days he’d been gone were the longest of Kane’s life. Worrying as he’d never had to before. Questioning as he’d never allowed himself to do before.

Dog barks from inside the house brought a frown to his face as he fit his key in the lock. The door yanked open and ball of something flew at him, licking his face. Kane staggered under the weight. “What the hell?” He looked from the dog in his arms to Syren’s face, mildly chagrined.

“Down, boy.” Syren snapped his fingers and the dog left Kane and padded over to him, tongue lolling to the side. Syren scratched him behind the ears as he looked up at Kane. “Hello, Marshal.”

“Why is there a dog in my house?” Kane walked inside and stopped short. A woman stood in the entryway between the living room and kitchen, blonde hair framing her strikingly beautiful face. As Kane stared at her, her full red lips parted in a smile. “Why is there a strange woman in my house?”

“Strange woman?” She walked to him on heels clacking on his wooden floors, body tight and compact in a short white dress, breasts out to there. “We’re family,
chéri
.” She purred the words in a thick French accent and Kane caught on as she air-kissed him.

Twice.
“Isa?”
Syren appeared out of nowhere and yanked her away with a comical expression on

Wow. Side by side they did look as if they were siblings, both gorgeous with the pale skin and hair. Kane smiled at Isa. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Her breasts rose and fell when she took a deep breath. “Same here. All great things.” She spoke to Kane with her eyes but he couldn’t decipher the message she meant to convey. Finally Isa broke eye contact and looked around. “My car will be here to take me to the hotel any minute.”
As if on cue a car honked outside.
Isa picked up the dozen or more bags from the couch and Syren rushed to help. Together they struggled out the door, the dog at their heels. A dog. And Isa. All in his house after he hadn’t seen Syren in so many days. Kane stood at the door, hovering, as Syren piled Isa and her bags into the car. Maybe if he knew where things stood with him and Syren he’d have invited Isa to stay, but he didn’t. He flew blind.
“See you, Kane,” Isa purred as she leaned out the taxi window. Man, she and Syren had that purring thing down to a science. “Let’s have dinner before I leave, yes?”
The car drove off before he could reply and Kane backed into the house, thanking God for small favors because he had no answer for that. He would love it, but more than that he would love to know where he stood with his lover. He walked into the kitchen and stood, leaning against the island. The place smelled heavenly and he sniffed, trying but failing to identify what smelled so good.
“Isa cooked.”
Kane looked over to find Syren standing there, gaze hesitant, face blank. The dog stayed at his side, looking up at Kane with curiosity.
“Tell me about the dog.”
Syren looked down at the animal then back at Kane. “He’s a German Shepherd. You said you wanted to get a dog when you retired.” He lifted a shoulder. “That day I called Gabe, asked him what type of dog you’d prefer then I contacted a shelter and got the adoption ball rolling.”
Kane stared at him. “You got me a dog?” The disbelief couldn’t be helped. Syren got him a dog. Like he got him
Sunset
. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the gesture, didn’t appreciate that his lover actually listened and paid attention, but… “You think that’s what I need, a dog?”
“No I—” Syren didn’t meet his eyes. “I wanted to make you happy.”
“Really?” Kane cocked his head to the side and eyed his lover up and down. “You know what would make me happy? Having you not disappear for days without a fucking word! That, that would make me happy.” He stalked past Syren and into the living room.
“I’m sorry.” Syren spoke behind him. “I couldn’t— I couldn’t face you after what I did to you.”
Kane whirled on him. “What are you talking about? What did you do?” He’d never seen his lover so forlorn. Syren stood with his fingers laced in front of him, gaze downcast. “Look at me!”
Syren’s head shot up.
The dog at his side whimpered.
“What did you do that made you hesitant to face me?”
A flush brought red blotches to Syren’s face and neck. “What I did in the parking lot,” he said quietly. “I hurt you with my actions and my words when I didn’t mean to.” He swallowed audibly. “I’m so sorry.”
Kane squeezed his eyes shut. “Then why did you?” Why had Syren pushed him away and run off?
“I was in pain and I needed to hurt someone.” Syren’s eyes glittered like polished amethyst stones. “I just lashed out at you and I’m—”
“Fuck that noise.” Kane slashed a hand through the air. “Excuses. Those words are excuses. I want the real.”
Syren jerked a nod and stared off into space for the longest time. Kane gathered patience he didn’t even know he had and waited.
“I was scared,” Syren whispered. “I was— I am afraid you’ll wake up one day to the realization that I’m broken beyond repair.” He met Kane’s gaze evenly. “I’m afraid you’ll decide it’s too much work to deal with me and my demons and you’ll walk away.”
Kane couldn’t stop his feet from moving forward, but he stopped shy of taking Syren in his arms. The pain in his lover’s eyes and voice clawed at him though, and he shook his head. “No.”
“I hurt myself,” Syren bit out. “I make myself bleed and it feels good. It eases the pressure inside me, but it never lasts for long.” His lips trembled. “Before I slept in your bed, I’d never had a full night’s sleep. Before I crawled into your arms I’d never been safe.” He shuffled forward. “You give me that. You hold that power and you can take it away.”
The weight of those words hit Kane in the middle of his chest and he rocked back on his heels. “You never told me that.”
Syren’s mouth twisted. “Not something you share with the man you—with the man you’re sleeping with. It’s also not your job to fix me, to make sure I’m happy.”
“Of course it is.” Kane grabbed his arm. “It’s my role as your lover to make sure you’re okay. What are you even talking about?”
“But I’m not okay, am I?” Syren gave him a sad smile. “I won’t ever be okay and that night in the parking lot was about me letting you go on my terms before you wise up and escape the madness on yours.”
Kane couldn’t help the chuckle. “Escape, huh?” He tucked some loose strands of hair behind Syren’s ear. “You’re fucked up, yeah, I’ll give you that.”
Syren looked away.
“But I kinda like it, you know.” He cupped Syren’s chin. “You’re like no one I’ve ever met. You fascinate me.”
“I don’t mean to,” Syren said hoarsely. “I just— I’m scared of how much I need you. My happiness is not all about having you in my life, it’s also about making myself whole again.”
“You know that so what are you doing about it?”
Syren lifted a shoulder in a helpless gesture. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Come.” Kane pulled him down beside him on the couch and the dog jumped onto his lap. Kane patted his head. “Hi there, you’re so well-behaved.” He sank his fingers into the dog’s short, dark-brown coat and scratched behind his ear. “What’s your name, huh?” He beamed at the animal. “What’s your name?”
“Um. Kane, say hi to O.G.”
Kane glared at him over the dog’s head. “What kind of name is that?”
Laughter lurked in Syren’s eyes. “I think, and this is what the woman at the shelter said, it’s short for Original Gangster.”
“That’s—” Kane spluttered. “That’s criminal. We have to rename him, my dog will not be named Original Gangster.”
His lover pursed his lips. “Yeah. Um, he’s been at the shelter for a while and they tried renaming him everything under the sun.” Syren gazed at Kane in sympathy. “He only answers to O.G.”
“Hell no.” Kane patted O.G.—the dog’s head. “Don’t worry, I’ll think of something much more suitable, boy.” He snapped his finger. “Boy! That’s it. What about Boy?”
Syren rolled his eyes. “Really? That’s all you’ve got?”
“Fine.” Kane narrowed his gaze. “But this conversation isn’t over.” He fixed his attentions on Syren. “Let’s talk about you and the need you have to constantly run from me.”
Syren paled. “I’m sorry.”
Kane waved his words away. “I don’t want your words of apology. I want that shit to stop.” He threaded his fingers through Syren’s hair and closed his eyes for a second, breathing in his lover. “I was so worried about you, wondering where you were, if you were safe or hurt.”
“I was okay. Physically.” Syren covered Kane’s knee and squeezed. “I went straight to Isa. She’s my sounding board.”
The pang of jealousy in Kane’s chest was an unwelcome surprise. What did it matter that Syren preferred to speak to Isa about his and Kane’s relationship than Kane?
“I missed you,” he readily admitted. “My head was not in the game at all and that’s…that’s new for me after all this time. Worrying about someone like that.” Syren’s lips parted and Kane nodded. “I know. You’re sorry.” He took a breath and spoke the words he really wished he didn’t have to. “I want you to stop hurting yourself and any way I can help—without injuring you—I will. I want you to let me in. Open up and let me in. I’ve got carte blanche to your body, but it feels like I’m locked out of everything else.”
Syren bowed his head and Kane wasn’t having it. He lifted the smaller man’s chin with a finger.
“I’m here for you to talk to, with a shoulder for you to cry on.” So much more he wanted to offer. So much more he choked on the words, stifling them, because Syren wasn’t ready to hear how empty Kane was without him around. “I want you to listen to me when I say this. If you run from me again, I’m done.” The words burned his tongue, painful as they were to say, but they needed to be aired. Syren had to know this thing wasn’t a game. “No more chances.” He caught Syren’s face in his hands and a tear ran down his lover’s cheek. “If you run you’re telling me I’m wasting
my
time, that you’re not willing to put in the work, and I won’t give you a third opportunity to hurt me like you just did.”
Syren’s fingers dug into his thigh. “Fair enough.” He nodded. “More than I deserve.”
“You know what, you deserve so much more than you think you do.” For all the strength Syren had, he had as many weaknesses and Kane saw now, one of them had to be the fear of rejection. Of not being good enough. Lots of people went through that, didn’t they? Everyone worried about measuring up. Only in Syren’s case, everything he’d been through amplified his fears times a thousand.
He hugged his lover close and just held him, hands roaming up and down his back until O.G.—God, they really had to find that dog a new name—barked at them and sat down at Kane’s feet.
“Thank you for getting me a dog,” he whispered in Syren’s ear. He’d wanted one for a while. But he doubted he’d have put that task at the top or even middle of his todo list. That Syren listened and acted warmed him better than any hot toddy ever could.
“Thank you for that,” Syren murmured back and waved at
Sunset
on the wall opposite them. “Thank you for making room for me in your life.”
“It’s the easiest thing.” Kane pressed a kiss to his forehead. Emotion thickened his voice. “It’s the easiest thing, letting you in.”
Syren sighed and clutched him then O.G. barked and they sprung apart. Kane stole a quick kiss from Syren’s lips then leapt to his feet. “Does he need to be walked or fed or what?”
Syren gave him a droll look. “Yeah.” He winked. “Why don’t you and O.G. figure that out while I go take a shower?” He shrugged off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt. “I’m very dirty.” He peeked up at Kane through his lashes. “Very,” he purred.
Goddamn.
Syren stood and made his way to the stairs, clothes trailing in his wake. “If you hurry, Marshal,” he paused halfway up the stairs, “you can dirty me up all over again.”
Goddamn. “Come on, dog.” He knelt and stared into O.G.’s face. “Tell me what you need so I can go take care of your other daddy.”

They spent the entire day with Isa, doing both breakfast and dinner since she showed up at Kane’s house at the ass crack of dawn, interrupting some major make-up sex time.

Syren really wanted to strangle the bitch, but he gritted his teeth and went along with the program. Thankfully she headed back to Paris that night with a threat to visit soon. Not if he could help it. That chick straight cockblocked him.

He and Kane settled into a routine, comfortable and amazing. Syren stayed in the house with O.G. when Kane went to work and in the evenings they took O.G. out for walks in the nearby park, went out to dinner or stayed in while Kane cooked delicious stuff and Syren pretended to help. He knew where his real talents lay and it was not in the kitchen. The need to tell Kane about Càtia became too much. The time had come to reveal the last piece of himself he’d so carefully tucked away. It wasn’t fair to Kane and to Càtia anymore to divide his time when he didn’t have to. The two people he’d give his life for, the two people he lived for, had to meet and he had to quit with the fear and make it happen.

He waited until Kane went out to LA—on the trail of a teacher who’d jumped bail after being charged with having sex with her underage student—and made the trip to Costa Rica. This time he made sure his lover knew he was leaving, only he wasn’t quite as forthcoming with his destination. Kane assumed he would be visiting Isa and Syren didn’t correct him.

In Costa Rica, on the tiny deck outside Càtia’s bedroom, under the stars, he told her about the man he’d given his heart to and showed her a picture of Kane he’d taken on his phone. Her questions were expected and he didn’t have a lot of answers but he answered them as best he could. Mostly she wanted assurances that the heart he’d told her belonged to her would remain the same. Nothing would change that, whether Kane accepted her or not. Nothing.

The phone call came as Càtia fell asleep in his arms. Syren scrambled to answer it before she woke up. “Hello?”
“It’s Gabe, where are you?” Gabe Ashby sounded stressed and out of breath.
Syren frowned as he glanced down at Càtia. “Out of the country. Why?”
“Kane’s been shot.”
The three words echoed in Syren’s brain for a second before he fully understood them. “What?”
“How soon can you get here?” Gabe rattled off the name of a hospital in LA and Syren staggered to his feet.
“What the hell happened?” he barked into the phone. “Gabe, answer me.”
“Someone shot him outside the hotel where the marshals were staying.” Gabe sighed. “He’s got a bullet in his upper torso.” Gabe’s voice shook. “He’s in surgery, but I know he’ll want you here, so get here.” He hung up and Syren stared down at the phone.
Kane was shot.
Syren ignored the unease crawling up and down his spine, the fear burning his chest like hot ice and quickly left the house, glad that this time Càtia wasn’t up to watch him leave yet again. He didn’t remember the ride to the airport, but once there he paid a college-aged female close to five thousand dollars for her plane ticket and boarded the commercial flight, all on autopilot.
Kane had to be fine, there was simply no alternative, but in the confines of his cramped aisle seat, he crossed his fingers in his lap and reached out to a God he’d never really believed in.
A cab took him from the airport to the hospital and Gabe, who met him in the lobby. The worry on his face set Syren’s heart racing. Jesus, just how bad was Kane?
“Hey.” Gabe touched his arm. “How was the flight?”
Syren shrugged. “Six hours too long. How’s Kane?”
“He’s doing good. Surgery went well.” Gabe walked ahead of him in the direction of the elevators. “There’s a bunch of marshals up there, some I know and some I don’t. Some who may know his sexual preference and some who may not.”
Syren didn’t meet his eyes as they stepped onto the elevator and started moving. “Why are you telling me this?” Did he think Syren would act like the little woman and freak out?
“I called you because I know he’d want you here, but try not to call too much attention to yourself.”
What the hell was he talking about? “What does that even mean?”
The elevator doors dinged open.
“Vince is there and he…refuses to leave Kane’s side.”
Ah. A smile threatened to break out on Syren’s face, but he kept his calm demeanor. Time enough to deal with Vince and his schoolboy crush later. “Did you know I held a knife to his throat?”
Gabe chuckled. “I do know. Try to keep your little ass calm before the guys with guns fuck your ass up.”
“That’s twice you’ve mentioned my ass, darling. Been staring at it again?” Syren threw Gabe a wink as they strode past a group of burly and downright scary-looking men. The weight of their eyes on him was damn unnerving. “They think I’m Faro,” he whispered to Gabe from the corner of his mouth.
“You are Faro.”
Leave it to Gabe to point out the obvious.
They paused at a door where a uniformed officer stood guard. He greeted Gabe with familiarity, but raised an eyebrow at Syren.
“This is my brother’s partner,” Gabe said.
The officer didn’t blink, but he did insist Syren pony up his identification before he opened the door and waved them into Kane’s hospital room. Vince sat in a chair beside Kane’s bed, holding his bandaged hand, his chin touching his chest as he nodded off.
Unacceptable. On too many levels to count. Syren cleared his throat and Vince jerked upright, face going stony when he recognized Syren. For his part, Syren ignored him and strode over to the other side of Kane’s bed and slid in carefully.
His lover’s eyelids fluttered and opened. “Hey.” Kane peered up at him with foggy eyes. “When did you get here?”
“Just now.” Damn. Syren swallowed the thick emotion constricting his breathing. “I leave you alone for a day and you get yourself shot, Marshal?”
Kane smiled up at him, looking comically high off whatever pain meds they had him on. “That means you should never go away again.”
“My thoughts exactly.” He traced Kane’s nose with a finger. “You scared me and you know I don’t do fear well. Don’t do it again.”
“I know and I won’t.” Kane nodded then groaned. “I hurt. Kiss it better.”
See if he didn’t. Syren kissed him on the forehead, eyelids and nose, tender brushes of his lips. When he got to Kane’s mouth, Syren kissed him deeply, uncaring of Gabe’s presence and Vince’s censorious looks. He finally broke the kiss and looked up at Vince. “Can we get some privacy here or do you want to watch?”
Kane’s touch on his shoulder chastised him and over in the corner Gabe snickered, but Vince with the hard-on for his man shot Syren a dark look and got out of his chair.
“I’ll be back to check on you later,” he told Kane, who nodded.
“Make it much, much later,” Syren shot back as Vince disappeared out the room.
“Childish much, Tiny?” Gabe asked.
Syren stuck out his tongue. “Where’s your better half?”
Gabe got serious mighty quick. “Back home.” His face twisted. “You know he can’t show his face, especially in this crowd.”
Syren nodded solemnly. “I know that.”
Angelo Pagan may have changed his address and the name on his driver’s license, but he hadn’t changed his face, and the truth of it was he wore the face of a dead gang leader and gunrunner.
“Go to your hotel and get some rest,” Kane croaked to his brother. “You heard the doctors, I’m fine, just need to heal up.” He lifted a hand then winced and dropped it. “Go. Syren will stay with me.”
“And I promise to call you if anything changes.”
“It won’t,” Kane piped up.
Syren shot him a glance. “But if it did, I’d call.”
“Fine.” Gabe walked over and hugged his brother. “Listen to the doctors,” he murmured in Kane’s ear. “Take your meds. I’ll be here tomorrow.” He straightened. “You.” He pointed a finger at Syren. “Take care of him.”
Syren snapped a salute. “Yessir.”
“Tiny bastard.” Gabe escaped through the door and closed it softly behind him.
Syren grinned at Kane. “I think your brother has a problem with my height.”
“Well, you are rather…miniature.”
Why that— Syren glared at his lover. “If you weren’t all hopped-up on painkillers I’d punch you right now.”
“Save it for later.” Kane dropped his head back onto the pillows with a sigh. “I’m tired.”
“Do you know who did this?” Syren asked. “Was it the person you’d come out here to find?”
“Could be, but it felt personal.” Kane sounded winded. “He strode past Vince and a couple other guys in the parking lot to get to me.”
“It was definitely a man?”
“Yep.” Kane’s lashes fluttered and seconds later he was asleep, snoring gently.
Syren stayed up, positioned next to his lover all through the night as the nurses came in to check on his bandages and administer his meds. He managed to squeeze a couple answers from one of the nurses who told him the bullet had been removed and there should be no serious damage in the long run. They’d keep him for a couple days, monitor his progress then send him on his way.
Good news for Syren. He needed to know who had a grudge against Kane, who wanted his lover dead, because that shit was not happening. Not on his watch. He needed to get Billy on it. In the morning.