Don't Read in the Closet: Volume Four (105 page)

trembling as she tried not to cry. “Taken by who and when did this

happen? Tell me everything Macey.” Hisaki was trying to keep his

own emotions in check but he wasn’t sure he was doing a very good

job of it if Miguel’s speculative look was anything to go by.

“I was leaving the GS to run home because I forgot something.

When I walked out the front doors I saw Maverick Nichols grab

Graven by the front of his jacket and then Graven just seemed to go

boneless. Maverick threw him into the portal and followed right

behind him.” Tears were silently slipping down the dignified woman’s

face.

“Hey…wait!” Pearson interrupted, “Maverick Nichols is the

dealer’s contact.”

“What the hell does he want with Graven?” Hisaki demanded of

no one in particular. The rest of his team was stunned, it was the only

time they’d ever heard their leader use Moore’s given name or rather,

the given name of any suspect involved in an investigation.

Macey’s voice filled the room again, “I’m not sure if it has

anything to do with your investigation, but Maverick has tried several

times to get Graven into bed. Graven always refused, he used the

excuse that he wouldn’t get involved with anyone he worked with

because it could cause problems. Maverick appeared to take the

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rejection well, but I knew he was resentful that Graven would dare to

deny him.”

“Thank you Macey. We will do our best to find Graven and return

him unharmed.” Miguel assured the older woman.

“I’m sure you will honey, what with the way your boss has been

panting after Graven’s ass since they first met.” Macey smiled

through her tears at the shocked look on Miguel’s face. “Thank you.”

She whispered and then cut the connection.

Hisaki stood and paced restlessly, “Miguel, get the data from the

portal across from the GS building. Find out exactly when Graven

stepped through this morning, when Maverick stepped back through

with him and where they exited. Pearson, Marissa, I want you to dig

deeper into the connection between Maverick and the dealer. I want to

know how they met and why the dealer chose to get him forbidden

artifacts.”

Everyone quickly got to work. The ability of NOVA to access the

data of everyone and everything across the galaxies made the

searching quicker and easier, but they still needed to know where to

search in the first place. Once they had that information everything

else only took a matter of minutes to access. But even minutes was too

long for Hisaki when it meant Graven was in danger.

Hisaki refused to deny his feelings any longer, he wanted Graven

for himself. The feeling had grown even stronger since he’d cared for

Graven while he was ill. Hisaki had seen Graven’s vulnerability and

he didn’t like that someone else might be seeing it as well. He ground

his teeth together to stop the growling sounds from leaving his throat

as he tried to focus on discovering where Maverick could be holding

Graven.

“I’ve tracked them through the portals,” Miguel called out. “They

exited through a personal portal at 24.37 on the grid map.”

“That’s the Nichols estate; it’s where Maverick Nichols lives with

his parents.” Pearson told them.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 636

Marissa snorted, “Either this guy’s really stupid or he’s really

narcissistic. Did he really think we wouldn’t be able to track him?”

“I’m not really interested in what he was thinking. Get an entry

team and a swarm team ready, we’re going in hard and fast as soon as

we have all the data.” Hisaki accessed the monitoring system of the

Nichols estate to determine how many people were in the house and

where they were located.

Hisaki uplinked the data stream to the visors of all the units

involved. When they entered the estate a real time map glowing on the

interior of their visors would guide them through the house to where

each person was located. Everyone would be taken into custody until

it could be determined who was involved.

The start position of each man was uploaded to their jump suit so

they could just fade into position covertly. The entry would begin

from there once everyone was ready.

All the different teams were trained to work together under

various different circumstances so they would be seamless in the field.

Hisaki’s team had done other ops with the entry and swarm teams

they were working with today. The initial entry went smoothly and

within minutes the estate house was filled with agents who had faded

directly into the various rooms where people were located according

to the maps.

Every person in the house was restrained and brought to one

central room for questioning. Hisaki was coordinating the strike from

that location and he was barely restraining the urge to tear the house

apart to find Graven. His sigils were glowing blue fire and could be

seen clearly through the back of his sheer shirt.

An older gentleman was brought into the room demanding to

know what was going on. He was sputtering and flailing his arms

around, his face getting redder by the second. He saw Hisaki and

knew he was in charge because of the shirt he was wearing. He

headed for where Hisaki was pacing, but didn’t get far before Marissa

grabbed his arm to stop him.

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 637

“Now see here young lady…I want to speak to that man who’s in

charge.”

Marissa shook her head, “No sir, that would not be a good idea

right now.”

“Why not!” The older man demanded.

“Come sit down before you have a stroke.” Marissa led him to a

chair and gently pushed him down into it. “Do you see the glowing

blue sigils on his back?” She pointed to Hisaki as he walked away

from them. “He is the blue Flame and he is very angry right now,

that’s why his sigils are glowing. This would be a very bad time to go

demanding answers from him. You’ll be informed shortly about

what’s going on, so please be patient.”

The man huffed in annoyance, but leaned back in the chair and

crossed his arms ready to wait. Marissa headed over to Miguel, “Any

sign of Moore yet? Hisaki is going to explode soon if we don’t find

him.”

“One of the agents might have found him. I just got a report of an

agent finding someone fitting Moore’s description chained to a wall in

the rear room of the lower level. They’re bringing him up now.”

Marissa whistled low and long, “Hisaki is gonna be pissed.”

Miguel winced, “I’m trying not to think about it too much. Was

Maverick apprehended?”

“Yes, he’s in the main room with everyone else. I’m gonna head

back over to Hisaki.” Before she was able to go two steps the ground

team that had been assigned the lower level arrived, one of them

carrying a shivering Moore in his arms.

Hisaki zeroed in on Graven the minute he entered the room. In a

flash he was at Graven’s side leaving a trail of blue flames in his

wake. He took the shivering man from the agent and held him close.

“Shh…it’s okay Graven, you’re safe now.”

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Graven fluttered his eyes open and stared in awe and relief at the

most beautiful blue eyes he’d ever seen. They were glowing even

more than usual, but his vision blurred as tears filled his eyes. “Thank

you…thank you…thank you…Hisaki, thank you.” Graven wrapped

his arms around Hisaki’s neck and buried his face against Hisaki’s

shoulder.

“I am never letting you out of my sight again, Graven.” Hisaki

kissed Graven’s temple and held him tighter. He looked for his men

around the room and found Pearson first, “Pearson, secure the

prisoner and let everyone else go.”

Graven felt himself moving and then he was sitting in a very stiff

armchair. Hisaki went down on one knee in front of him and looked

into his eyes. Graven felt that look sear him to his very soul. “Are you

all right? Did he hurt you in any way Graven?”

Graven shrugged a bit, “Not really…I mean, he knocked me out

with some kind of drug, but I don’t think he did anything else to me

and I don’t feel injured in any way.”

Hisaki let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and

rubbed both of Graven’s thighs with the palms of his hands. “I’m glad

to hear it. Did he tell you why he took you?”

Graven looked away, “Apparently I had some nerve turning him

down all those times he asked me out and I needed to pay.” Graven bit

his bottom lip and averted his eyes to the floor.

Hisaki could see the guilt in Graven’s eyes and put an end to it

right away. “None of this is your fault Graven. You have the right to

choose who you share your bed with and no one has the right to force

you to do anything you do not want to do. Maverick is the one at fault

here, not you.”

Graven sighed and his shoulders slumped in defeat. “I am to

blame, if I had just said yes to Maverick instead of holding out for

true love none of those families would have been hurt. You see? It is

my fault.”

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Hisaki sat back on his heels and studied Graven. “What does my

case have to do with your turning that asshole down?”

“I’ve suspected for a while that someone was tampering with my

files, but I didn’t know who or have any proof. I know it was

Maverick now, he told me that he was taking my families to give to

the killers to hurt me because I wouldn’t go out with him.” Graven

choked back a sob, “All those families hurt, lives ruined, because I

wasn’t interested in him.” Graven turned pleading tear filled eyes to

Hisaki. “There’s nothing special about me, I’m just average, so why?”

Hisaki shook his head, “I can’t answer that Graven, all I can tell

you is that when I first met you all I saw was an average guy, but the

more I interacted with you the more I realized that you are so much

more than average, so much so that I developed feelings for you.”

Graven’s eyes widened in surprise, “You have feelings for me?

Like boyfriend feelings or friend feelings…I just want to be clear.”

Hisaki’s eyes twinkled in merriment as he took in Graven’s

hopeful puppy dog look. He leaned close to Graven’s ear and

whispered, “Feelings like I want to lick every inch of your body,

feelings like I want to eat your ass until you beg for more…”

Graven felt himself getting hard and squeezed his legs together

trying to slow it down. He couldn’t believe the things Hisaki was

saying to him, only in his dreams did Hisaki ever talk dirty to him.

“…feelings like I want to shove my cock so deep inside of you

that you’ll feel me there for days, but I also have feelings like wanting

to hold you and talk to you, I want to wake up with you and share

meals with you, have a family with you. So, what kinds of feelings are

those Graven?”

Graven

swallowed

around

the

lump

in

his

throat.

“Boyfriend…definitely boyfriend feelings.” He smiled shyly up at

Hisaki and leaned closer.

Hisaki closed the rest of the distance and took Graven’s mouth in

a sweet subtle kiss that spoke more promises than either of them was

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 640

able to say. It ended all too soon for either of them, but they were in a

room full of people and Hisaki had work to do. “Tonight, Graven, I

want to come to your place tonight.”

Graven nodded, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

****

get everything wrapped up and get the results of the interrogation of

Maverick Nichols written up. As a result of the interrogation they

knew where and when the killers were going to strike next, so now it

was only a matter of getting everything coordinated and everyone in

place prior to the date and time of the next attack. It was all finally