Two Spirits (2 page)

"You going to be okay here?" the cop asked
Trey. "If you're not good with this, you can ride back with
me."

"I'm good," Trey said, his stomach in a spin
cycle that was pulling his skin tighter and tighter while his heart
pounded like a classroom of kids banging on their desks in
revolt.

Through an open doorway two old-fashioned
cells were visible, the kind with floor to ceiling bars. Both had a
pair of cots with folded white sheets and a light green blanket at
the foot of the mattress.

Home sweet home? As long as he wasn't locked
in, he could deal with it…as long as Tenino didn't spend much time
in the office. Or maybe one of the nearby buildings was a hotel and
Tekoa intended to put him up there.

The cop didn't waste any time leaving.
Tenino said, "The cabin's remote, might as well grab something to
eat in town. You hungry?"

"Cabin?" Thank you god it didn't come out as
panicked as he felt.

Tenino's smile was pure sin, purely
unconscious sin but that didn't deaden the impact though Trey
doubted a Kevlar vest would stop the heart shot that was then
deflected to his cock.

"Can't put you somewhere it'll be easy for
the bad guys to find you. So are you up for some dinner?"

I'm up for more, more, more
his cock
said. A nod was all he could manage.

How was he going to survive this? Should he
volunteer to stay in a cell?

"What about you?" Tenino asked Tekoa. "You
eating in town or waiting 'til you get to your place?"

"I don't think food will be on the menu by
the time I get back home."

"Torture me, why don't you?"

Tekoa laughed and placed his hand on
Tenino's shoulder. "Your turn's coming."

"I'm not counting on it."

"I never thought I'd find what I needed
either. But look what dropped into my lap. Look what happened with
Ukiah. Your turn's coming."

Tekoa's gaze flicked from Tenino to him,
then back to Tenino and Trey's heart stuttered. Then stuttered
harder with the possibility they'd figured out he had a hard-on for
Tenino.

No way. Absolutely no way was Tenino gay and
the sheriff suggesting… What he can't possibly be suggesting. These
guys are law-and-order types and this is a small town.

Sweat trickled down Trey's sides the way it
had when he'd stepped into the classroom that first day as a newly
minted teacher. He needed to get his attraction to Tenino under
control.

Their eyes met and guilty heat rushed up his
neck.
Please god, let the floor open and swallow me,
now.

It didn't.

"Ready?" Tenino asked, his voice like a fist
curling around Trey's cock and stroking from base to tip.

With one last glance at the jail cells, he
said, "Ready," and grabbed the duffle then followed Tekoa and
Tenino out.

A white Jeep Rubicon was parked in front of
the office. Red, yellow, and blue stripes curved over the sheriff's
department logo on the front doors and swept to the tail lights
like a wing. Tenino opened the back door. "You can toss your gear
in here."

Trey threw the duffle in and they kept
going. The restaurant was next door. It was a small mom-and-pop
place with a juke box, black-and-white tile flooring and the
cooking area behind a counter lined with barstools with bright red
vinyl seats.

They claimed a window table, with him
electing to keep his jacket and drape it over his lap instead of
hanging it on a hook near the door. Outside, black clouds promised
a downpour and competed with nightfall for which would darken the
town first.

A flash of lightning streaked across the
sky. A second later there was a boom of thunder and the mist
condensed, giving the town a mystical appearance.

He'd been wrong about Hohoq when he'd seen
it from the cruiser's passenger seat. It wasn't a dreary prison at
all but a great place to gather Native American myths and rural
folktales.

"So what do you do when you're not hiding
from dangerous ex-girlfriends?" Tenino asked, drawing Trey from
cool, misty comfort into scorching discomfort.

He picked up the menu and used it as an
excuse not to study the man across from him—and be studied in turn.
He'd die if Tenino picked up on the fact that he was about to have
a houseguest who was crushing on him.

"I teach. Elementary school."

"You're lucky the Feds approached you and
asked for your help instead of hauling you in as a suspect."

Trey shivered. His stomach clenched hard and
fast and with enough force that he swallowed against the bile
rising in his throat. "Yeah, I am lucky. Damn lucky."

He still broke out in a cold sweat several
times a day over that fact. All it took was suspicion to ruin a
reputation and a career and turn life into a living hell.

The first thing he'd done after the Feds
laid out their evidence and asked for his help was to call his
principal and arrange a meeting. They'd agreed on a plan of action,
so the school wouldn't be hurt and neither would he when the story
broke about the Verons.

The Feds had done as promised. They'd told
the media that he was never a suspect and had been instrumental in
helping them build their case and shut down a child pornography
operation.

He put the menu on the table, his appetite
gone. Their waitress arrived, wearing jeans and a denim shirt.

Like Tenino and Tekoa, she was Native
American. Mid-twenties maybe with her hair pulled back in a
ponytail and three silver loops in her left eyebrow.

She set three glasses of water on the table,
took Tenino and Tekoa's orders, then looked at him and lifted the
brow sporting the rings. He shook his head. "Nothing for me."

Tenino laughed. "Get him what Tekoa and I
are having. Otherwise he's going to regret not eating once I get
him to my place."

The waitress's dark eyes turned speculative
and heat shot up Trey's neck.

Tenino said, "Briar—"

"I'm going, I'm going. Spoilsport." She
grinned and collected the menus, shot another speculative look his
way then left, leaving him with a heart pounding hard enough to
sound like kids thundering toward the school exits after the last
bell had rung.

Maybe his read in the sheriff's office
hadn't been off. Maybe…

Trey swallowed, but his mouth was so dry
that nothing went down. He dared a glance at Tenino and fought the
urge to grip his cock through his jeans at the heated, bold look
that said
I know you're gay and when we get to the cabin, we're
going to fuck
.

Trey glanced away first, his skin too tight,
too hot, his heart beating too hard, too fast. He was imagining
things. This couldn't really be happening.

Yeah, when they'd driven into town he'd been
thinking maybe, maybe when this was all behind him, after the Feds
caught Patricia, he'd go somewhere, finally let himself be gay, at
least in some anonymous place in the future.

The mist settled more heavily outside and
the wind created the illusion of movement, turning swirling
grayness into a dark, birdlike shadow that disappeared on a flash
of lightning.

Thunder pealed. The shadowy bird reappeared,
wings spreading further, as if a great bird drew closer along with
the storm.

An odd sensation struck, like feathery
talons reaching, sinking in, surrounding his heart and taking its
measure. He rubbed his chest, silently laughed at his own flight of
fancy.

It hit him then, "Isn't Hohoq one of the
names for the Thunderbird?"

"It is," Tekoa said. "How'd you come to know
that?"

"I collect stories, mostly stuff that deals
with supernatural beings and occurrences because those appeal to
kids more." His gaze skipped from the mist to Tekoa sitting on the
other side of Tenino. "The promise of a story is a great incentive
for good behavior."

"Makes sense. Myths and legends were ways to
teach, entertain and bind people together. What do you know about
the Thunderbird?"

"I don't remember any specific stories. I do
remember that there are a variety of beliefs. Some cultures view
them as protectors. In others they're the Creator's messengers. And
in at least one tradition they live as men but take the form of a
thunderbird when necessary. But pretty much across the board,
thunder is the result of their wingbeats and lightning shoots from
their eyes."

"You know a fair amount." Tekoa glanced at
Tenino and smiled. "What do you think?"

Trey didn't follow Tekoa's attention to
Tenino, but the way his heart and cock sprung into hyperactive
awareness said Tenino was looking at him. And Tenino's soft laugh
had him fighting not to turn his face toward the source of that
sound.

"If and when," Tenino said, amusement in his
voice. "I'll be happy to say
you were right
."

Tekoa's smile widened. "Those words will be
music to my ears. And a song I'm used to hearing."

Tenino snorted. "You wish when it comes to
that last part."

The waitress returned with their food, three
identical plates with a hamburger to the side and a huge pile of
fries. She set them down. "Anything else?"

"We're good," Tekoa said, pooling ketchup on
his plate then handing the bottle to Tenino.

Tenino squeezed some ketchup out and offered
Trey the bottle. "So what's your take on the situation? Is there
likely to be trouble?"

Trey took the bottle, the pooled ketchup
making him think of blood, though it didn't keep him from squirting
some on his plate. Hell, it reminded him of the situation he was in
and that went a
long
way toward distracting him from the
question he kept spinning back to,
Is Tenino gay?

"If Patricia finds out where I am, then yes,
she'll come after me. The Feds think she might have killed before,
more than once, to keep her family's secret safe. She'll feel
responsible for bringing them down and she'll want to punish me for
betraying her. Her sister committed suicide when the story
broke."

Trey picked up his burger, hated that his
hands shook slightly. Patricia had nothing to lose. If she found
him, it would end only one way—with one of them dead.

He lowered the burger, appetite gone
again.

Tenino reached across the table and stole a
fry despite having a plate full of them. "Eat up. Weather's getting
worse. We need to get out of here."

He ate, trying not to think about the
flutter in his gut every time Tenino helped himself to a fry.

Repeat after me
, he thought.
I'm a
grown man, not a sixteen-year-old with a crush
.

I'm a grown man, not a sixteen-year-old with
a crush.

I'm a grown man, not a sixteen-year-old
with a crush
.

His disadvantage came in having spent so
much time
avoiding
situations that would put him around men
he found attractive. And in not having been free, before now, to
make a different choice when it came to his sexuality.

Dull pain created deep furrows in his heart,
wide grooves that would too easily fill with guilt. He turned his
face toward the window. A red pickup truck with a camper shell on
the back pulled to an angled stop in front of the diner.

He caught a glimpse of a beautiful blonde
woman before she was pulled forward by the driver and the truck
windows fogged.

That's what he wanted. What the cop had,
what this couple had. He ached, longing for it, and ached knowing
it wasn't going to happen for him. He wasn't hetero.

The driver got out. He was blond and
beautiful like the woman.

He walked around the truck and opened the
passenger door. The woman slid from the bench seat, light catching
on the diamond in her engagement ring and turning it into a
rainbow's promise.

The man pulled her against him, reclaimed
her mouth and Trey expected steam to start rising. Tekoa pushed
away from the table. Tenino said, "Now that Clay and Jess are back,
I guess we shouldn't expect to see you unless there's an
emergency."

What?
Trey pulled his attention from
the couple, only to follow Tekoa back to them.

The woman smiled at Tekoa. She left her
blond lover's arms, slid into Tekoa's and their kiss was every bit
as hot as the one he'd interrupted.

She clung to him, softened, seemed to melt
against Tekoa and Trey couldn't look away. Finally the sheriff
lifted his head. He said something to the blond and the blond
laughed then leaned in and touched his mouth to Tekoa's in a kiss
that sent a lightning bolt straight into Trey.

He hadn't been wrong in the office. He
hadn't misread what Tekoa meant when he'd told Tenino,
Your
turn's coming
.

He hadn't misread the speculation in their
waitress's eyes. He hadn't misread Tenino's heated look that said
I know you're gay and when we get to the cabin, we're going to
fuck
.

But that didn't mean he knew what he was
going to do about it. Whether he was going to keep pretending, keep
denying to everyone but himself that he was gay.

* * * * *

Chapter
Two

Tenino's stomach clenched. He doubted Trey
had any idea just how expressive his face was. Fuck! He wished he
hadn't seen half the emotions Trey revealed.

No wonder his dick was standing at attention
and his gaydar was pinging. Trey was open to sex with a man, the
only problem was that he was bi like Tekoa, and needed a woman too.
Which means I'm shit out of luck.

Duh, genius. He is running from an
ex-
girlfriend
. Somehow, bombarded by the constant pinging of
his gaydar, he'd conveniently failed to focus on that fact.

For the first time since walking into the
office and seeing Trey, he hoped Patricia Veron got picked up by
the Feds soon. Otherwise it was going to get tense in the
cabin.