Darwin's Natural Selection (26 page)

Tom choked on a laugh. “Definitely. I was checking you out even before I figured out it was you.”

“Hey!” Darwin protested and then paused. “I think I just got jealous of myself.”

His fingers lifted to smooth the fake mustache before pulling it off, revealing the sexy mouth Tom knew so well. Darwin yanked off the scruffy wig as well. “How long was it before you realized it was me under all this goop and hair?”

“Oh, a good ten seconds at least.” Tom tried not to smile when Darwin’s face fell.

“Although most of that time I couldn’t see past the uniform. There’s just something about a man in uniform…” He lost his composure and had to laugh at Darwin’s annoyed under-his-breath grumble.

“You know it’s not safe,” Darwin said, his amused expression flattening as all humor fell away. “Being around me.”

Tom’s stomach dropped right to his toes.

It wasn’t fair to get Darwin back for such a short time only to lose him again. “What are you talking about? It’s
not
being around you that isn’t safe. You just saved me from a psychotic charging asshole—the one who’s terrified me for months.”

Darwin gave him a quizzical look.

“Speaking of that psychotic charging asshole, what the hell were you thinking, throwing a red flag in front of the bull like that?”

Tom shrugged. “I was scared the jury was going to believe his bullshit story. It was just me up there—his other two victims weren’t going to testify. I figured that if I got him to show his true colors right there in front of everyone, they’d have an easier time imagining him beating the shit out of me that night.”

“Huh,” Darwin grunted. “Still a stupid idea.”

“Nope. Brilliant.” Tom grinned at him.

“Worked, didn’t it?”

“Worked almost getting you pummeled,”

he grumbled. “We’ll see if it actually worked once the jury’s verdict comes back.”

“It worked.” Tom squashed the tiny ache of doubt. “I know he’ll be found guilty.”

“Whatever the jury decides, you’ll be okay.” Darwin turned down a residential street. “You’ve got balls, Bambi.”

Although he flushed a little at the compliment, he had to laugh. “That combination of words has probably never been said before.”

“They’re true.” Darwin made a sharp right into an alley and pulled up next to a pickup that looked like the redneck version of his truck. The other truck was parked on a dirt patch at the edge of a backyard. Three of the tires were flat and one was missing.

Darwin reached in front of Tom, opened the glove compartment and took out a screwdriver. “Stay here.”

Before Tom could ask any questions, Darwin was out of the truck. He moved around the front of the other truck and Tom strained to see what he was doing. As Darwin moved to the front of his own truck, a license plate in his hand, Tom figured it out.

Darwin switched the plates on the front and the back in less time than it would’ve taken Tom to take off one plate. As Darwin climbed back into the truck and continued down the alley, Tom shook his head.

“What?” Darwin asked.

“Just admiring your calmness,” Tom said.

“If I’d just stolen someone’s license plates, I would’ve probably peeled away, tires squealing, then remembered not to draw attention to myself and slammed on the brakes and ended up stalling out or running into a tree or something.”

Darwin looked as if he was holding back a laugh. “Or you could just calmly drive away like I just did.” He turned back onto the main street. “And I didn’t steal the plates, really. It was more of a trade.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yep, a trade,” Darwin said, his sugar-sweet innocent expression looking strange on his scarred face. “I actually
had
current tags, so they got the good end of this deal.”

“Right.” Rolling his eyes, Tom tried to focus on the situation at hand. It was too easy to get lulled into a state of lovesick bliss and forget that certain suited individuals were trying to find them. “What’s the plan?”

“I bring you somewhere safe and then it’s back on the road for me.”

There was that sickening stomach drop again. “Safe?” Without Darwin around, no place seemed safe.

“Shit.” All the laughter left Darwin’s expression. “I’ve really fucked you over, haven’t I?”

Despite the situation, Tom had to smile.

“Yeah, but in the best way possible.”

Instead of lightening, the other man’s face got grimmer, looking positively frightening under the makeup.

“That was a joke,” Tom explained, more to break the heavy silence than anything.

“I know.”

“Since, you know, you’ve literally… I mean, since we’ve, well…” As Tom trailed off, he figured it served him right to be the babbler for once. Darwin had filled a whole lot of awkward silences since they’d met.

“And the actual ‘fucking over’ has been great, wonderful even, so—”

“Tom.”

“Yeah?”

“This is serious.”

Tom shrugged. “I’ll survive. I stood up to Dave today. It didn’t kill me, so, if the old saying’s true, I should be stronger, right?”

“I don’t want you to have to be strong. I don’t want you in danger,” Darwin said. He paused, his jaw muscles working so hard Tom was afraid they’d pop right out of his skin. “I should never have dragged you into my shit.”

“Enough,” Tom said, his tone sharp, bringing Darwin’s head around. “It’s done now. I’m
in
your shit. I like being in your shit.” He blinked for a second, a little grossed out by the direction the metaphor was going. “Whatever. Quit wallowing like an emo princess and accept that you’re stuck with me.”

After a few seconds of silence, Darwin spoke. “Emo princess?”

“If the black eyeliner fits…”

“Fine.” Darwin finally laughed— grudgingly, but it was definitely a laugh.

“I’m no longer wallowing. Happy?”

“Surprisingly, yeah.” Tom grinned at him. “So, once again, what’s the plan?”

“I have to leave.” The humor was gone as quickly as it had returned. “I talked to the others. We’ll meet up in Colorado and then decide where I’m going from there.”

“When are we leaving?”

Darwin shook his head. “You’re not like me. You’re connected here—your job, Anne, your condo. I can’t ask you to rip out your roots when all I can offer you is a life of running.”

“And what’ll I get if I stay? Government agents who would kill me to get you back and who know we’re…” Tom trailed off, not sure how to describe what he and Darwin were. “Friendly?” Darwin winced and Tom pressed on. “Since you’ll be in Colorado, you won’t be around to protect me and the suits won’t believe that I don’t know where you are, so they’ll just keep torturing me and torturing me—”

“Stop! Okay!” Darwin interrupted. “You can come with me. Just stop talking about getting tortured.”

“Okay.” Hiding a smug smile, Tom settled back in the seat. “So…”

Darwin glanced over, eyebrows raised.

“What can you do then?” Tom asked.

“Special-powers-wise, I mean.”

Rolling his shoulders back, Darwin got that look, the one where all the humor and kindness and everything that made Darwin who he was disappeared, leaving an emotionless mask.

Tom opened his mouth to take the question back, to tell Darwin he didn’t have to say anything about the lab or his abilities, but then he closed it, pressing his lips together firmly. Tom was right in the middle of this whole mess. He needed to know the details.

“They’re not…” Darwin started, staring through the windshield. “They’re more…

modifications than special powers.”

“So I know you’re really strong,” Tom offered when the other man fell silent again.

“I mean, you broke those zip-tie handcuffs.

Brittle plastic, my ass.”

His expression lightening a little, Darwin gave a small, affirmative shrug. “What can I say? You bring out the Hulk in me.”

Tom squirmed a little but forced himself to focus. He couldn’t let Darwin distract him. “What else?”

“My senses—vision, hearing, smell—are enhanced.”

Tom considered that. “You could always tell when I was scared or excited. Were you smelling
me?”

“Yeah.” Darwin smiled a little. “You always smell fucking fantastic.”

“Huh.” The smelling thing was a little weird but Tom shook it off. “Why you?

How’d you get involved in all this?”

“I don’t know.” When Tom gave him a quick look, Darwin nodded. “Really. They wiped our memories. I can’t remember anything before nineteen months ago. We don’t know if it was a side effect or if they thought it’d make us easier to control, to get us to do what they wanted.” The mask was back, his face hard enough to make Tom shiver.

“Wow.”

Darwin smiled at that, a slightly twisted smile, but Tom was still relieved to see it.

“So what’s the point?”

“The point?” Darwin echoed. “To create the perfect soldier. Strong, fast, aware…a killing machine.”

“Killing machine?” Tom snorted. “Guess you’re their failure then.”

Darwin didn’t laugh. He wouldn’t even look at Tom. “Not a big enough failure that they’ll leave me alone. There’s too much money wrapped up in us.”

“How many of you are there?”

At this, Darwin’s face relaxed. “Five. We separated after we escaped. It’s not the best of circumstances but it’ll be good to see them again.”

The thought of five Darwins was a little intimidating. “There are so many questions in my head, I don’t even know what to ask.”

“There will be lots of time for questions.”

Darwin held out a hand, palm up. “First, give me your phone.”

Pulling it out of his pocket, Tom handed it over. Darwin cranked down his window.

A truck was approaching, traveling in the opposite direction, hauling a rickety-looking trailer full of stacked hay bales.

“What are you…” Tom trailed off as Darwin tossed the phone onto the hay bales as the truck and trailer passed them. “Oh.”

“GPS,” Darwin explained but Tom was already nodding.

“No, I get it. They could ping us.”

Despite that, he couldn’t help craning his head around to get a final look at the shrinking truck and trailer. “Goodbye, phone. You were a good phone.”

“You going to be okay?” Darwin asked with mock-concern.

“Yeah,” he said on a heavy sigh, relieved that the old jokey Darwin was back. “It’s just hard to let go.”

“Tell me about it,” Darwin grumbled.

“Did I mention that I missed you?”

“A few times,” Tom said, pressing back a smile, and then grabbing the door handle as Darwin made a sudden right turn onto a narrow gravel road. Tensing, Tom wrenched around to look behind them. “Someone following us?”

“Don’t think so,” Darwin said, turning into a stand of evergreen trees. Tom squeaked as branches thumped against the truck and scraped needles along the windows.

“Are you waiting for them to catch up?”

Tom craned his neck, trying to see the traffic on the highway, but all he could see was pine branches. Well, pine branches and Darwin.

“No.”

“So why’d we stop?”

“I had to do something.”

Tom opened his mouth but before any words made it out, Darwin had unbuckled Tom’s seat belt and hauled him across the bench seat.

“Ow!” Tom yelped as the steering wheel caught him in the side.

“Sorry.” Darwin released his own seat belt and slid over. Without the steering wheel in the way, he easily lifted Tom to straddle his lap.

“This is the ultra-important thing you had to do?” Tom teased, although his smile was a little shaky. He wondered if he’d always be at least a little bit scared, even if Darwin were the one holding on to him.

“Nothing more important than this,”

Darwin said, cupping the back of Tom’s head and pulling him in for a kiss. There was no tentative touching of mouths or brushing of lips—it was immediate, full-on, hard-core possession.

The familiar wave of fear built and broke over Tom but he didn’t pull away. It was part of it now, that tug-of-war between nerves and lust, making everything feel so much more…

Just
more
.

Darwin made his way down Tom’s neck, using his tongue and teeth, raising both his cock and the hair on his arms.

“Didn’t think I’d get to touch you like this again.” Darwin’s words blew against Tom’s damp collarbone. Despite the chilly air outside the truck cab, Tom was sweating.

All it took was a kiss and a few words from Darwin and he was hot and hard and ready to be fucked. With a groan, he arched into the contact of Darwin’s mouth.

“Thought you were gone for good.” The last word disappeared on an inhaled gasp as Darwin caught his hip and ground their covered cocks together.

“Couldn’t.” Darwin didn’t sound much more coherent than Tom. “Promised you I’d be there.”

Pulling the other man’s head toward his, Tom found his mouth. Darwin’s cheeks were rough under his hands but not in the usual stubbly way. Tom would have laughed if he’d had any oxygen to spare.

“Super hot…”

Darwin’s hands kneading his ass knocked all the words out of Tom and he couldn’t finish his sentence. “What is?”

“Feel like I’m making out with a stranger,” Tom managed to tease, running his fingers over Darwin’s disguised face, loving his mock growl.

“Enjoy it,” Darwin said, pushing Tom’s tie aside and unbuttoning his dress shirt.

“Last time you’ll ever make out with anyone besides me.”

Tom followed suit and worked the top button of the uniform shirt in front of him, already impatient with his fumbling fingers.

“If I admit that caveman possessive shit makes me hot, does that turn
me
into the emo princess?”

Darwin laughed and choked at the same time. “You’ve always been the emo princess, Bambi.”

“Hey!” Tom took a swing toward the other man’s shoulder but Darwin was too quick and caught his fist in midair.

“Okay, okay,” Darwin allowed, his free hand now working on Tom’s pants button.

“There was that one time when I held the crown.”

Back to work on Darwin’s shirt, Tom shook his head. “I’ve gotten two whole buttons undone on your shirt and you have me practically naked. It’s not just license plates you can get off in a hurry.”

“Planning on getting
you
off here soon,”