SpareDick by Sarina Wilde

family about Heather.
    No wonder Kevin had looked so pale. He’d always had a chink
in his tough-guy armor for cases involving kids, and then to have to tell a
mother and father their child would never be coming home? She wondered where he
was. She’d checked their joint account online. Other than a gasoline purchase,
there’d been no other charges, not even a cash advance.
    Was he with Adam? As soon as the thought occurred to her,
another realization did too. That’s where she wanted him to be. Adam cared
about him. She’d much rather he was there than sitting by himself in a motel
room somewhere. And didn’t that blow a huge hole in her anger. How could she be
angry with them, but want Kevin to be at Adam’s?
    * * * * *
    “What the fuck do you mean you went to see her?” Kevin
exploded, barely restraining himself from putting a fist through Adam’s living
room wall, or better yet Adam’s nose.
    “Come on, Ramsey! You’re not sleeping, you’re hardly eating
and since we left work this afternoon, you’ve been tossing back beer as if you
bought stock in Miller.”
    “My business,” Kevin snarled. “Not yours.”
    Adam snatched the bottle from Kevin’s hand and tossed it in
the sink. “You made it my business.”
    “Why? Because you’ve had your dick in my ass and I liked
it?” Kevin spun away, pulling at his hair with both hands. “I fucking liked it and now my wife won’t even talk to me! I told you she needed time to cool
down. Why did you do it, Hell?”
    When the silence continued, he turned to look at his
partner. Adam had leaned against the counter, arms across his chest and his jaw
set as he kept his gaze averted from him.
    “Why, Adam?”
    “It’s wrong, dude. You and Jill not being together. It’s
wrong.”
    “Look at me, man.”
    “No.”
    “Why does it matter to you?” The muscles in his partner’s
jaw ticked. “Why, Adam?”
    “Because I fucking care about you, all right, asshole?
Because I would give almost anything to be where you are, to have a woman such
as Jill love me , to have…” his voice trailed off into silence.
    “A man such as you love me?” Kevin finished. He closed his
eyes. God, what a mess. “You know I still can’t go there without Jill. She has
to be part of the equation.”
    Adam nodded, his face still averted.
    “Will you look at me?”
    “I can’t.” His voice was muffled.
    Kevin took the two strides needed to bring him in front of
Hell and then his gut clenched. His partner’s dark eyes were awash with tears
he refused to let fall. Kevin closed his and sighed. “Christ, Adam, don’t.
Don’t waste your tears on me.”
    “Fuck you.” He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands,
his mouth still drawn in a thin line. “I pissed her off.”
    Kevin cupped either side of Adam’s head, forcing him to look
at him. “It couldn’t be that bad.”
    “She told me I had no idea how used she felt. Fuck. I
stared right back at her and said yeah…I knew exactly. Damn it, Ramsey. I gave
her a fuck you, bitch and she got the message loud and clear. God. I’m
so sorry. I told her we didn’t mean to hurt her, but we did.”
    Kevin stared at his partner. They had done this to him. It
didn’t matter that Adam had volunteered. Kevin realized now his partner had
done it because he cared—for both of them—and they had used him. He leaned his
forehead into Adam’s. “We’re the ones who should apologize to you.”
    Hell jerked away. “You don’t get it. You gave me what I
didn’t have the guts to go after on my own. Shit. I’m done with this.”
    Before he realized what was going on, Adam had left the
apartment. Kevin started to go after him and stopped. He’d never seen his
partner—calm, cold-as-ice Hell—so torn out of his frame. Maybe they both needed
a chance to decompress.
    * * * * *
    Adam parked his car in front of the house and simply stared.
He’d already tried talking to her at the hospital and that hadn’t gone well.
What the hell