Sandpipers' Secrets (20 page)

“He’s fine. The police are takingRio away, but they have some questions.”

Brody’s arm tightened around Lark. He probably would always react the same way when police were anywhere near him, but Brody fought to stay calm. There had been far too much panic for one day already.

Lark gave him a squeeze back, letting him know without words that he understood, but that it would be okay.

“Hey, Wolf! Do you remember Officer Denkewitz from the other day?” Lark asked, directing his comment to the top of the little boy’s head where Wolf still clung to Lark’s legs in a fierce hug. “He’s here again. I think he’d like to talk to us some more. Do you think that would be all right?”

“I suppose so,” Wolf mumbled without looking up. “But make the bad man go away first.”

“It’s okay, Wolf. You don’t ever have to talk to him. He wasn’t being very nice so the police took him away.” Lark pushed back Wolf’s unruly blond hair and Brody felt his heart flip flop. It was such a sweet, gentle gesture of love and affection—like Wolf was Lark’s to care for too.

“No ice cream!” Wolf announced, thrusting out his bottom lip for emphasis. His little face looked so cross and serious Brody had to smile. That was Wolf—judge, jury and executioner. If only it were that simple.

Shivering, Brody pulled away as a wave of unease raced down his spine. The very thing Zak and Lark had tried to avoid all along was most likely inevitable now. The media were going to have a field day with this.

Brody jumped when he felt Lark’s hand caress his cheek.

“It’ll be all right, Brody. Promise.”

And looking into Lark’s dark blue, sincere eyes, Brody couldn’t help but believe him. It would be all right, somehow. They were all together. Everything would be just fine.

“Come on. Let’s go before Zak opens the cookie jar and gives Officer Denkewitz all the double-choccy chip ones while we’re not there.”

Reaching down, Lark took Wolf’s hand and led him way. Looking at the two of them like that—his small, energetic little blond lover holding Wolf’s hand and talking reassuring nonsense to distract him from his recent terror—Brody’s heart ached in the best possible way, so full of love it was almost too much.

“Come on, Brody,” Lark called over his shoulder, “or Wolf gets your share too.”

Despite everything, Brody smiled. Yep, everything was going to be just fine.

When the doorbell rang to announce the last of Wolf’s friends arriving for the party, Zak didn’t even bother looking over to see if Lark or Brody would be going to answer it. Brody was just as stubborn as Lark now, about answering the door. Zak guessed he couldn’t blame the man after recent traumatic events.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Zak wasn’t at all sorry both men demurred, leaving the job of answering the door to him. Besides, the noise level was getting pretty bad with four juiced-up kids in residence. Zak was relieved to be able to turn tail and run away, even if it was only for a few moments.

At the door, Zak used the newly installed peephole to check out who was on the other side. Honestly, he probably would have opened the door toRio anyway, before he went apeshit, but afterwards, it still seemed like a good idea to get one put in. It was something that should have been done years ago when they retrofitted the apartment. When it had been strictly a storage area, it hadn’t needed one. Now it did.

Zak peered out and spotted the top of a man’s head. The man was bent down as if talking to someone at his knees. He couldn’t see the man’s face, but the stunning, glossy black hair gave the man away regardless.

Raven was one of the parents they had met since Wolf started preschool the month before. He was a
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single dad looking after his son, and if Zak had been interested, he probably would have described the man as drop-dead gorgeous.

As it was, however, Zak had more than enough good-looking men to chase after and cause trouble. But window shopping, according to Lark, was still very much allowed, and Zak found he could truly appreciate Raven’s fine, masculine form—the sleek muscles, the trim waist, the tight ass covered by tighter black jeans. Yep, Raven was definitely one fine specimen.

Opening the door, Zak smiled down into the huge brown eyes of the miniature copy of Raven that stood clutching his father’s hand. “Hello, Ryan. Come in, we’re just getting started.”

The little, dark-haired boy silently held up a present, very carefully wrapped in homemade wrapping, like it was some sort of toll for admission. Zak smiled gently and stepped back, aware that Ryan might be intimidated by his size. Raven was barely five-six in boots, and Ryan almost looked like a dark pixie, he was so small and slight.

“It’s okay. Why don’t you go in and give it to Wolf? He’s in the living room.”

Carefully removing his shoes, Ryan headed down the hall. He’d been over once or twice already to play and knew his way around, but the boy still looked a little cautious and wary.

Much like his father, Zak thought as he looked back to see Raven watching him before the man quickly ducked his head away. Zak found himself wondering what Raven’s story was.

“Hi.” Raven voice was almost too soft to hear.

Zak considered the man for a moment. He wondered how Raven ever managed to meet people. He looked so incredibly uncomfortable just saying hello. No wonder Lark had taken him under his wing and invited the man and his son over so often in the last month. Zak had a feeling they’d be seeing a lot of Raven and Ryan in the future.

“It’s nice to see you again, Raven.” Zak held out his hand to shake and Raven returned the gesture somewhat awkwardly.

“I…umm…I heard what happened…last month…with the guy that tried to…I just wanted to say…I’m really glad you’re all okay.”

Zak was pretty sure it was the most he’d ever heard the man say. Fair enough, he hadn’t known Raven terribly long, but he’d probably just doubled the amount of words Zak had ever heard come out of his mouth. And it’d obviously taken him weeks to work up to saying it.

“Thanks. It could have been a lot worse. I’m just glad it didn’t seem to have any long-term effect on Wolf.”

Raven nodded, lowering his eyes again.

Actually, Zak was even more grateful that the media circus he had expected around the issue had never eventuated. It had been a lucky combination of factors. Firstly, the police tried very hard to downplay the situation. The last thing they wanted was every evangelist and nutter in the country landing on their doorstep and causing trouble. And secondly, the newly elected local mayor—the one who had pledged to ‘tackle the depravity attacking the city’—had been caught, on film, coming out of a notorious gay
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brothel. The media frenzy had rivalled a pack of sharks at a bait ball.

Zak knew it wasn’t completely over yet. They all still had to go throughRio ’s trial, and no one was sure what that would entail. It was still too early. They weren’t even sure whatRio was charged with. They knew now from the private investigators that Gus had been responsible for the vandalism—one final

‘fuck you’ before he had taken off to his sister’s—butRio was behind all the letters, and of course the final attempt on their lives.

Honestly, Zak just wanted to forget all about it. They had a really great crew in the kitchen now. Dave and Andy were still with them and the same as always. Absolutely nothing seemed to faze either man for long.

Dave just gave the world the finger and moved on to the vegetable prep, and Andy would dryly tell it to fuck off and prepare another sauce. And their latest addition, Mark, was working out so well they’d ended up offering him the position as head chef. They could manage for a while until they found a new mains chef again, but Mark was simply too good to risk losing. He ran the tightest kitchen Zak had ever seen. And, bless the man, he’d offered to help out with the food today.

Lark hurried into the hall, his eyes brightening suspiciously when he spotted Raven. Zak wanted to groan in protest. What was the little troublemaker up to now, he wondered.

“Hi, Raven! I’m so glad you came! Would you mind helping Mark in the kitchen for a second? I really think he needs an extra set of hands in there, but Zak and I need to get the games organised before the revellers revolt.”

An ear-splitting squeal arose from the living room to punctuate Lark’s little speech.

Raven’s eyes widened and he headed straight for the kitchen, obviously glad to be hurrying away from the noise. Lucky bastard.

Zak looked over to see Lark watching Raven’s tight ass disappear into the kitchen.

“What are you up to?” Zak asked bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Lark peered up at him, eyes wide and innocent and completely unconvincing. “What?” he blinked, unable to hide the smile that tugged at his lips and showed how self-satisfied he was feeling right then.

“Mark no more needs help in a kitchen preparing food for this lot than I need to put on a tutu and start dancing the nutcracker suite.”

“Actually, the kids could probably use a little distraction to calm them down…”

“Lark!”

Lark got up on his tiptoes and kissed Zak’s cheek. “Do you really want to know?” he asked with a cheeky look in his eyes.

Zak considered his lover for a few seconds. Who knew what was going through that devious little mind when he thought to set up a meeting between Mark and Raven. Zak wasn’t at all sure he did want to know after all.

“No,” Zak finally agreed.

Just as Lark looked likely to tell him anyway they heard Brody bellow for help in the living room.

“Let’s go rescue our lover before the kids tie him up somewhere,” Zak suggested, heading off whatever Lark had been about to say.

“Mmm…Yes, I think we should be the only ones allowed to do that,” Lark whispered and Zak let a quick burst of laughter slip out.

Yep, great minds really did think alike.

About the Author

Jade Archer was born in 2010, after a prolonged pregnancy and labour of over thirty-four years! I’ve decided she’s about twenty-four, enjoys long walks in the country because she doesn’t have five kids and a husband to care for, eats as much chocolate as she wants because she never has to worry about putting on weight (must be all those long walks!) and can often be found planning her next whirlwind world tour or endlessly typing away (without any interruptions) on another hot and steamy erotic romance. It might be space pirates; it might be shifters or a lonely vampire with a hunger for the girl next door, but one thing’s for sure, she loves variety and can’t wait to meet the next characters destined to fall in love.

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Jade loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at

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