Warnings and disclaimers in first part
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more that Duo had found out yet, not a surprise since Trowa had only slept two hours. The green-eyed man was shocked when Duo asked if he would like to stay for dinner, giving it serious thought before declining the offer. He had to continuously remind himself he was there because the braided man was the best tool he had for finding Kaitlin; not because they were friends or shared a bond of some kind.
Obviously noticing Trowa’s hesitation, Duo’s behavior altered from one of an acquaintance that had the possibility of being a friend to that of an employee, his comments changing from friendly to formal in an instant. Trowa was saddened to see the way the cobalt eyes instantly became shuttered, hiding all the secrets they had shown during the day. He was preparing to apologize when Duo nodded stiffly, “I’ll do what I can to find your niece and let you know if there’s anything else I need from you. Hopefully, I’ll have some answers for you soon.”
“Should I come back tomorrow?” Trowa inquired as he was escorted through the house and to the front door.
“I’ll call and keep you up-to-date. There shouldn’t be any reason for you to come here again.”
Duo’s dismissive attitude was clearly a way to give Trowa the distance he had implied he wanted when he hesitated. With no way to argue, he left, stricken with a wave of loneliness he was unaccustomed to. Unwilling to go to Catherine’s house, Trowa did the only thing he could do and went to his hotel for the night.
Two days passed with no news and Trowa was going crazy. He needed to know what was going on, yet didn’t know how to find out, the braided investigator not getting in contact with him. Once, he had gone to Duo’s house out of desperation, needing to see the man and hoping to get information, driving away after realizing the Duo wasn’t home. Another time, he had called the number on the business card that had led him to the strange bounty hunter, but his call had gone unanswered and his request for news had gone without reply.
Nights were long and spent tossing on the uncomfortable hotel bed, dreams and nightmares dominating his sleep, leaving him surly and terse the few times he had spoken to Catherine. She had asked him what was wrong but he hadn’t answered, not planning to share the erotic dreams of Duo or the terrors of Kaitlin being alone in the dark, tormented by an unseen presence.
The sound of knocking on his door woke him from a twisted dream, in which Zechs taunted him by parading Duo around, half-naked but with his eyes as cold as ice. Glad to be awake but exhausted, he scrambled from the bed and yanked the door open, assuming it was a hotel maid coming to clean his room. “Can’t you read? The sign says do not disturb,” he demanded crossly, pointing at the small sign on the doorknob.
“Should I come back later or get you a towel?”
The drawled question had Trowa blinking as he looked down at the man standing casually with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, cobalt eyes steady on him. “Huh?” Remembering how hot he had gotten during the night, Trowa glanced down and found himself stark naked. Acting on his first reaction, he slammed the door in Duo’s face.
The other man’s laughter could be heard clearly through the door, “Does that mean I need to come back later?”
“No, damn it, hold on,” he growled as he hastened to pull on some shorts. Feeling slightly less exposed, he reopened the door, stepping back to let the smaller man inside the room, realizing it abruptly felt much smaller with Duo in it.
After glancing around the room, Duo nodded, “Zechs would have assumed you would stay in a more opulent hotel. It wouldn’t fit you, though. Neither does this, though it’s closer to what I expected.”
His most current dream had Trowa’s nose curling in disgust, “Talked to Zechs lately?” he sneered, stunned at the childish and jealous tone.
“Not since you were there.”
“I tried to call you. I came by your house and you were gone.”
Duo leaned a shoulder against the wall, eyebrows lifted, “Do you realize you sound like a jilted lover? You hired me to do a job, Mr. Barton. That’s what I’ve been doing. If I could stay at home and get answers, I would never leave my house, but it doesn’t work that way.”
Trowa flinched at the overly formal words, holding up his hand, “I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping well and am a bit…moody. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing or if I should be doing anything and I feel inadequate. I’m not used to a situation where I have no control.” Assuming the small nod meant he was forgiven for his surliness, he added, “It’s Trowa, or did you forget?”
Cobalt stayed on him for a long moment before Duo nodded his head once, “I didn’t forget; I wasn’t sure where we stood. There aren’t many things I feel I can’t control, either, and it seems like things are spiraling farther out of my reach every second.”
“You don’t know anything more about Kaitlin?”
Duo held Trowa’s eyes for another minute, “I wasn’t referring to Kaitlin, or the case.” Turning his head, he jerked his chin in the direction of the bed, “I’m guessing you haven’t had breakfast yet?”
Baffled by the other man’s meaning, Trowa frowned, “Not yet; I just woke up from a very disturbing dream.”
“Disturbing in a good way or a bad one?”
Trowa blinked. In his dream Duo had been mostly naked but Zechs had been there. “Both, I suppose.”
“I’ve had those before. There’s a diner on the next block that has some great waffles. I’ll wait for you outside. Wear a jacket, Trowa; the air is pretty cold out there.”
Trowa got ready in record time. Ten minutes after the door closed behind Duo, he was joining the other man, staring when he saw the braided man leaning against his battered pick-up, smoking a cigarette that emitted no smoke. Getting closer, the tall man realized that Duo was actually holding an unlit cigarette between his lips. “You don’t strike me as someone that would smoke,” he noted when cobalt eyes focused on him.
Pulling the cigarette from his mouth, Duo put it in a beat up pack before tossing it through the cracked trucked window. “I started when I was ten or eleven. At the time I thought it made me look tough,” the smaller man explained as they began to walk, Trowa letting Duo lead the way. “After I got in the army I figured out they weren’t helping me, so I quit. I’ll have one occasionally; they help me think sometimes.”
“Did you really enlist at fifteen?”
Keeping his eyes forward, Duo winced, “It was a better situation than the one I was in and there wasn’t anyone to stop me. I lied about my age, had the fake ID and everything. They tried to keep me out, but I passed all of the physical and mental tests they threw at me. A lot of other recruits had bets on how long it would take me to wash out during basic. Out of two hundred and eighty recruits, I was one of the one hundred and twenty-three to make it all the way.”
Unable to imagine how hard it would have been to make it through that kind of hard training so young, Trowa’s respect for Duo rose a little more. “Aren’t they supposed to check birth records? They should have known you were too young.”
“I don’t have a birth certificate or school records, not real ones. A friend set up a social security number for me and created a fake past for me. There wasn’t any way to prove I wasn’t how old I said I was. By the end of basic, I don’t think they cared anymore.”
Wanting to wait until he could sit to find out about Kaitlin, Trowa pursued the subject in spite of hearing the reluctance in Duo’s voice, “Why not?”
“I fit a specific profile they were looking for. I could fight, knew how to use weapons, could learn fast, and had no family or close friends to worry about me. It made me perfect for jobs I might not come back from.”
“You mean special ops?” Trowa could recall the Special Ops groups in the Navy, arrogant men that believed most people were inferior. He couldn’t see Duo as one of those cocky, over-confident people.
“Not quite. I mostly worked alone in situations others wouldn’t fit into. My appearance helped me infiltrate groups of younger people, the children of possible targets. Through them, I could get information about what their parents were planning. Kids have a habit of trusting more easily than adults.”
Understanding there was a lot Duo was leaving out, Trowa fell silent when the smaller man pushed open the door of the diner. Neither man spoke until placing their order with the waitress, with Duo breaking the silence first, “You weren’t mistaken about the identity of the man speaking to Kaitlin at the pharmacy.”
“How could it be the same person? Kendrick isn’t supposed to be released for years.”
“It seems he managed to escape while working with a cleaning crew. Your sister should have been notified the second they verified his disappearance, but it somehow got forgotten. From what I gathered, several skirmishes occurred at that time and Holmes simply slipped away during the chaos. Another inmate escaped at the same time.”
“Weren’t they being guarded?” Trowa was dumbfounded. “Why would they let someone with Kendrick’s record to be on a cleaning crew in the first place?”
“Since his arrival at the prison, Holmes has been a model inmate. He made sure to cause no trouble.”
“You think he’s been planning this?”
Duo’s eyes stayed on Trowa in a way that made the tall man jumpy as he nodded, “Holmes turned snitch, ratting out other prisoners to the guards and warden. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he didn’t seem to be the kind of person that was willing to help people out.”
Trowa leaned back as their food was served, taking a deep breath when Duo looked at the plate sat in front of him, “Kendrick looked out for himself first; he always did.”
“A man like that would worry about making his fellow inmates angry, if he were planning to stay for his entire sentence. Instead, he made a number of enemies in order to get the warden to trust him. Holmes petitioned for a position on the work crew every week, going out on his first job the same day he escaped.” Duo met Trowa’s eyes again over the food, “Yeah, I think he’s been planning this since the day he was arrested. Your sister was the one that put him in prison, Trowa. It’s not that hard to figure out the best way to get revenge.”
It felt like a weight was lodged in Trowa’s stomach, but not from the way Duo watched him, “You think he’ll kill Kaitlin?”
“All the facts say yes, but I don’t think he will. It’s just a hunch.”
“Why don’t you think he’ll kill her? He’s capable of it.”
“He’s capable of killing; three guards were killed during his escape. I know he’s also capable of brutal acts; that’s why he was put in prison in the first place, but there was something I found in the transcripts to make me believe he would keep Kaitlin alive. During the original custody trial, he kept repeating that no one could take Kaitlin away from him because she was his daughter. He sees her as an extension of himself in a twisted way. He’ll want her to carry on his legacy.”
Dropping his fork to the plate with a loud clatter, Trowa felt sick, “You think he wanted to get her pregnant with his child?”
“God, gross! Not what I meant…ewww,” Duo made a face. “I mean that he’ll want to teach her how to be a criminal like he is. Holmes has a list of suspected crimes longer than my arm but no one was ever able to convict him because of a lack of evidence. He wants her to be like him. What better way would there be to get back at your sister for hurting him?”
Slightly relieved, Trowa picked up his fork, “I can’t think straight.”
“Eat, you’ll feel better,” Duo suggested softly. “We have good news and bad news with this scenario. The good news is that as long as he feels like he’s in control of Kaitlin, she’s safe.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“If he thinks she’s against him, he’ll get rid of her. I doubt he’ll kill her because she is his daughter, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know someone that’ll do it for him.”
After breakfast, Duo convinced Trowa to go see Catherine, planning to meet at the investigator’s house once he was able to explain to his sister who had taken her daughter. By the end of that conversation, Trowa was grateful for Jackson’s presence, supporting Catherine when she fell apart.
Seeing his sister bawl was difficult; she had always tried to be strong when they had lived with their parents. He had never had the heart to tell her what had happened to him after she had moved out, refusing to make her feel guilty when her own life had been difficult enough. Knowing there was nothing he could do for her, he put Duo’s business card on the table where Jackson could see it, “Call him later. She might know were Kendrick would go, where he feels safe.”
“The police need to be notified about this, Trowa. This should be enough to prove Katy didn’t run away.”
“It’s being taken care of. The investigator was going there while I came here. He has some friends on the force that should listen to him better than they listened to us. They’ll likely come by for a formal statement,” Trowa passed on what Duo had told him, hoping it would offer some hope for the couple.
He didn’t wait around, making the drive to Duo’s house after leaving his childhood home. The sight of a van had him slowing for a minute, shaking his head as he pulled into Duo’s driveway less than a mile away and smiling when the braided man met him at the front door, in a decent mood now that they had a possible lead on his niece’s whereabouts. “You’ve got a problem,” he stated without preamble.
“I’ve got more than one, but please share.”
“There’s a van parked less than a mile down the road.”
“It could be someone hiking,” Duo reasoned as he let Trowa into the house. “There are plenty of trails around here to spend an afternoon on.”
“I’m sure there are, but I doubt most people would bring a brand new, shiny, white van and park it on the side of a dusty road where it could be stolen without any witnesses. There also seems to be a radar dish or antennae on top of it.”
Duo rolled his eyes, “Unless someone’s decided to run a pirate radio station this close to my house, we’ll have to assume it’s Zechs. Damn, that means the office is off-limits for a while.”
In the living room, Trowa looked around in surprise. Since his last visit, many of the boxes had been unpacked; the house was finally beginning to look like someone lived in it. “You’ve been busy.”
“You’re not the only one that’s been having trouble sleeping.”
Eyes following Duo as the small man paced the room, Trowa was mesmerized by the unconscious grace. “I’m surprised you haven’t taken the camera down.”
“I haven’t been home that much. I spent last night at a hotel about four miles away from the one you’ve been staying at. The camera hasn’t been on my mind and neither has Zechs. I almost forgot about his little visit.”
Before taking time to think about what he was going to suggest, Trowa asked, “How badly do you want to get rid of Zechs?”
“I don’t want to kill him or anything,” Duo scoffed. “Didn’t you say he was interested in me, not my clients? How do you get rid of someone like that?”
“Show him he doesn’t have a chance anymore.”
“I’ve told him that, multiple times. I made him leave my house at gunpoint before I moved here. How many more ways can I tell him the same thing?”
“I didn’t say to tell him, I said show him he doesn’t have a chance. If you had a new lover, he would stop obsessing about you or he’ll try to kill you. Either way, he’ll leave you alone afterwards.”
Duo stopped pacing and stared at Trowa before sighing, “It’s a good idea, but I don’t have a new lover and there’s no one that could fill the part. I don’t have a lot of time to socialize.”
“I could do it.”
Duo’s eyes grew wide, “You do realize I’m a guy, right? I might be little and have long hair, but I’m very much a male.”
“I’ve noticed,” Trowa could feel his face heat. “If you were a woman, I couldn’t be very convincing.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not attracted to women,” he stated bluntly, wondering what in the hell he was doing, yet unable to take the words back. “I can do this, to help you.”
Duo visibly swallowed before nodding with jerky motions, “If it is Zechs in the van, he’ll likely be here in a matter of minutes. We only need to be convincing enough to make him believe we’re sleeping together and it only has to last for a minute. After that, he should be on his way here.”
“I think I can do that,” Trowa agreed, more concerned about not wanting to release the smaller man once he had Duo in his arms. “What if it isn’t Zechs parked down the road?”
Duo’s eyes flashed for an instant, making Trowa wonder what the other man had been thinking. “In that case, we’ll stop after a few minutes and come in here like we’re going to…” Duo shrugged as he trailed off. “Even if it’s not him, he’s bound to be recording the footage from the camera. He’ll see it eventually.” Shifting back and forth on his feet, Duo averted his gaze, “How do you want to do this? You’ll be the one in control, or it’ll look like it and…”
“Don’t plan anything. It might make it more difficult to make it look real if we go over details. I’ll…surprise you. If I do something you don’t feel comfortable with, tug on my arm to let me know and I’ll back off.” Trowa suggested softly, amazed Duo couldn’t hear the way his heart was pounding and the way blood was rushing in his ears.
“Same goes for you. If you don’t like something, pull on my braid. I’ll feel that faster than I would you pulling on my shirt or something. When do you want to do this? We can do it now or wait until later -”
“Now,” Trowa managed in a strangled voice. Duo’s way of phrasing hadn’t been the best of things to hear, wondering if it was possible to get any harder, his pants feeling several sizes too small already. “We should do this now.”
Duo’s eyes were wide, “What should I do when we go in there? I can’t think about what I should do.”
“What do you normally do when you go into your office?” Trowa was glad he wasn’t the only one having trouble thinking, though Duo was probably worried that this ruse wouldn’t work, whereas Trowa was having a hard time trying not to imagine stroking the other man’s flesh.
“Ummm, I take my mail in there and go through it.”
“Do that. Zechs will be suspicious if you alter your routine; I’m assuming he knows what you do when you go into your office. I’ll wait for you in there,” he nodded decisively. Before going into the office, he winced, “Can I have something to drink? My mouth is extremely dry at the moment for some reason.”
“Just grab something from the fridge, you can take anything you want,” Duo replied quietly, eyes focused on the floor.
“You really shouldn’t give me that kind of permission considering what we’re about to do,” the tall man mumbled as he began to search the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water and gulping half of it down in an attempt to wet his throat.
Without looking back, Trowa pushed his way through the curtain, taking deep breaths as he moved toward the window and looked out, fairly certain he had lost his mind. Did he really think this was going to end well or that Duo would mean it as more than the ruse he had suggested? Less than a minute later there was no time left for doubts or second guessing as Duo walked in, a pile of mail gripped in his hand. Seeing the hesitant and surprisingly shy smile offered to him, Trowa let go of all of his worries, crossing the room slowly, wearing a smile of his own. “Is there anything good in there?” he gestured to the mail.
Duo’s shoulders abruptly relaxed as he looked at the stack before tossing it on the desk, turning to lean against the furniture, gaze watching the tall man’s progression across the room, “Some bills, some payments, and a letter offering me a pre-approved credit card.”
“You know those things are a scam, don’t you?” Trowa managed to tease lightly as he neared the other man, pulse jumping erratically.
“I figured that out years ago. Do you have any credit cards?”
“No, when I want something, I go get it. I don’t see the point of paying interest for a year for something that costs half the price.”
The braided man’s eyebrows winged up as if contemplating something, “If you want something, you just go get it?”
“It depends on how badly I want something,” Trowa retorted, putting his hands on either side of Duo’s body, trapping the smaller man in the circle of his arms. “There are only a few things I want badly enough to pursue.”
“I wasn’t talking about something you can buy, Trowa,” Duo responded quietly.
Leaning down so their faces were close, the tall man dared to look Duo in the eyes, finding the cobalt half-closed, “Neither was I,” he whispered before letting his lips touch the other man’s once, then twice. The third time he lingered, tilting his head to firmly seal their mouths together and moaning when Duo opened to give access to his questing tongue.
In an instant he forgot about the camera and Zechs, delving deep in Duo’s mouth for every taste he could get. If Duo had reacted in a negative way he might have been able to pull back, but the braided man’s tongue met his, sliding across Trowa’s and making his entire body tremble. A hand on his arm had him remembering what he had told Duo to do if he felt uncomfortable and he broke the kiss, gasping when the hand on him gripped to keep him from going anywhere.
Cobalt eyes regarded him, moving from his eyes to his mouth, a tug on his arm pulling him closer instead of pushing him away. In less than a second, Trowa’s mouth was fused to Duo’s again, with none of the restraint from before. As their tongues danced, Trowa released the grip he had on the desk, grasping Duo’s hips to pull them together, an erection meeting and rubbing against his own in a way that had him moaning. The sensation of nails digging into his back only served to inflame him further, the realization that both of Duo’s hands had found their way under his shirt driving him a little mad.
Picking the smaller man up, he sat Duo on the desk, breaking the kiss and tilting the heart-shaped face back so he could taste the skin of Duo’s neck. Hearing a rough groan, he stopped long enough to jerk Duo’s shirt over his head, tossing it to the floor with a violent motion. Renewing his assault on the pale skin, he heard a knocking that registered as out of place, but a firm hand sliding between their bodies to caress his straining erection did little to help his thought process.
When the knocking altered into banging, he finally comprehended the sound. Grasping Duo’s talented and busy hands, he practically growled, “Someone’s at the fucking door.”
Dazed cobalt eyes looked back at him, “What?”
“Someone’s trying to beat the door down, Duo.”
The jealousy Trowa had felt toward Zechs faded abruptly when Duo leaned forward to run a hot tongue up his neck, “Whoever it is will go away if we ignore them long enough,” was whispered into Trowa’s ear an instant before teeth found his earlobe, nibbling it in a way that had Trowa’s eyes rolling back into his head.
More than willing to ignore the insistent banging, Trowa released Duo’s hands, mouths clashing together as Trowa’s fingers delved into the hair at the base of Duo’s braid.
“I can hear you in there, Duo,” Zechs’ irate voice came from outside the door. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”
“Damnit,” the smaller man hissed as Trowa broke the kiss. It was clear their plan had worked just the way they had predicted, but Trowa couldn’t be happy about it. “He won’t leave until I let him in,” sighed Duo, leaning into the tall man for a moment before shaking his head. “Where did my shirt go?”
“In the floor.”
“Can I have it back?”
Carefully untangling his hands from the thick hair, Trowa eyed the faint marks his teeth had made on Duo’s neck and shoulders. “No,” he replied, meeting the other man’s surprised eyes. “I want him to see what he won’t be able to touch again. I want him to look at you and know you’ve found a new lover, one that is capable of meeting any and all of your demands.”
“We aren’t lovers,” Duo stated as he slid off the desk, the pile of mail falling to the floor and scattering.
“We will be.” Seeing the other man open his mouth, Trowa jerked their bodies together. Snaking a hand between them as Duo had done, he quickly found the other man’s hardness, rubbing it firmly through the jeans and making the braided man shudder. “If he hadn’t started beating on the door, I’d already have you naked, Duo. As soon as you get him to leave, I plan on getting you naked. I need to see you, feel you. I want to taste you,” he whispered with his lips touching the other man’s mouth, smirking when Duo’s breath came out in a stutter. “Get rid of him as fast as possible.”
Stepping back, Trowa snatched the shirt off the floor and lifted his eyebrows when the other man stared at him with a stunned expression. When Zechs began to beat on the door again, Duo nodded once and moved across the room, jerking the door open so fast the blonde almost fell inside; apparently, Zechs had been listening with his ear pressed against the door. “What do you want?” Duo demanded, visibly out of breath.
“I…I wanted to talk to you,” Zechs stammered, his eyes focused on the marks Trowa had left behind.
“Then talk. I was in the middle of something important, Zechs.”
“May I come in?”
Heaving a breath, Duo turned his back to the door and took a seat at his desk. Zechs followed, pausing when he saw Trowa leaning against the filing cabinet behind Duo’s chair. Holding blue eyes with a fierce gaze, Trowa sent the man a warning look, leaning over to touch Duo’s arm, showing that the blonde no longer had a claim to the braided man.
“What was so important you decided to beat my door in?” Duo questioned calmly, one arm stretched to the side so his fingers could run up the back of Trowa’s thigh before creeping to the front and getting dangerously close to where the majority of Trowa’s blood was pooled. “Like I said, I was in the middle of something.”
“So I see,” the blonde muttered. “Can I speak to you alone for a moment? This concerns business.”
Trowa wasn’t surprised when Duo looked up at him, “Can you wait for me in the living room? This won’t take long.”
Feeling uncharacteristically possessive, Trowa hesitated, frowning when Duo stood. He watched the smaller man intently as Duo moved close enough for their bodies to touch, “Wait for me, Trowa,” he requested quietly as he stood on his toes and nibbled on Trowa’s bottom lip.
Astonished at the move, Trowa waited until Duo sat back down, “I’ll give you ten minutes and then I’m coming to get you.”
“This should only take five,” the braided man vowed.
Once Trowa had left the room and had taken up a position where he would hear what was said, there was a moment of silence before Duo asked with surprising calm, “What business do you and I have to discuss, Zechs?”
“What in the hell were you doing?”
“A lot less than I would be now if you hadn’t shown up,” Duo drawled. “What I do is none of your business.”
“When we started working together, you told me never to get involved with a client…that it would end up bad for everyone. He’s your client, Duo.”
“You didn’t listen to my advice, so why should I? You’ve slept with a number of clients. I haven’t slept with Trowa…but I’m going to.”
“Duo, please don’t, for your own sake.” Trowa blinked at the true concern in Zechs’ tone.
“Why the hell wouldn’t I?” the braided man countered almost instantly. “He’s gorgeous, nice, and very attentive. If he wants to use me to get rid of stress, then I’m not stupid enough to argue.”
“What happens after you find his niece and he leaves? He’s the kind of guy you’ve always wanted in your life; I could never hope to meet those high standards, even if I had tried my best. If you get involved with him, you’re going to get hurt.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Duo hissed. “Trowa might be here for another week. Do you really think that’s long enough to become emotionally attached to someone? I hardly know the man.”
“You trust him,” Zechs’ statement was met by silence. “I didn’t get to see the inside of your living space until we had been sleeping together for several months and then it was only because I made a big deal about it. You met Barton less than a week ago, but he’s already familiar with your house. What makes you trust him when I’ve never known you to trust anyone?”
“It’s time for you to leave, Zechs. You obviously don’t have an actual reason to be here, so get out.”
“I’ll leave, but think this through before you go any farther with him, Duo. I’m an asshole, but I never wanted you to get hurt. I wasn’t worried about stealing your clients because I knew you wouldn’t hurt because of it. We ended badly. He’ll break your heart.”
Trowa had no idea how to feel about Zechs’ heartfelt plea. Was the tall blonde right? Would he cause Duo pain when he left to return home? On the other hand, Duo’s argument had been legitimate: how could you feel that attached to someone after knowing them only a short time?
Remaining in the same spot, he waited for Duo as he pondered these questions. He honestly believed the possibility of developing feelings for someone you had only known for a week was ridiculous; there could be affection or attraction, but to be emotionally invested was another matter entirely. He continued to believe that for another three seconds, until Duo pushed the curtain aside and Trowa’s heart skipped several beats.
Swallowing hard, he waited for the braided man to do or say something, hoping Duo would want to continue what they had started while at the same time fearing the same thing. He wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or frustrated when Duo shook his head, “Apparently, we were convincing. I doubt he’ll be watching the video feed again. He’ll probably break into my office later to retrieve the camera, though; that’s an expensive piece of equipment. I’ll have to remember to lock up my files,” he added absently before reaching into the fridge for a beer. “Come on and I’ll show you what I’ve found out so far,” Duo gestured Trowa toward the living room. “I don’t want to take chances using the office yet.”
Trowa felt the same way, but only because being inside the office would serve to remind him how the other man had felt against him. No mention was made of the incident before Zechs had interrupted, yet Trowa noticed the investigator wouldn’t meet his eyes, pulling his shirt on as soon as he was able. “Duo, about before…” the tall man fell silent when cobalt eyes firmly fixed on him, revealing…absolutely nothing.
“What about it? You helped me out,” the smaller man shrugged as he took a seat in the chair Trowa had napped in before. “I’ll admit it got hot and heavy there for a few minutes, but now that there’s been time to cool down, we can forget it happened.”
Although Trowa had reasoned it was a good thing that the tall blonde had stopped them, he was disturbed by Duo’s nonchalant response. Sitting down on the couch, he studied the braided man for a long moment, “That’s all you have to say about it? We forget it happened?”
“Pretty much.” Looking up from the notebook he held in his lap, Duo sighed, “I appreciate you helping me out with Zechs, all right? I’m sure you heard what he said and he wasn’t wrong. I don’t get involved with clients, not emotionally or physically. It really can cause unforeseen problems later.”
Trowa wanted to ask if Zechs had been right about anything else, like trusting Trowa or being able to feel something for him. Realizing the possible answers frightened him, he gave a short nod and looked away. “What have you learned about Kaitlin?” he questioned instead, reminding himself that she was the reason he was here and the only thing that was important.
“I talked to Holmes cellmates, both of them. Holmes was moved out of the first after he told the warden about his cellmate’s night-time activities with a number of the guards. It was the first mutually beneficial favor between Holmes and the warden; the prison got rid of the guards and Holmes got a new cell in a lower security ward. He has been planning this, Trowa. His second cellmate said he was obsessed with the idea of getting revenge on your sister. His original plan was to break out of prison and torture your sister, but that changed when he heard that she had gotten married. I don’t know how he found out about that; he’s not supposed to have access to news. I have a hunch he still has contacts in the area that give him information. I’m looking into it, but I really don’t think it matters.”
“Was his cellmate able to tell you anything that could help find Kaitlin?” Trowa didn’t give a damn about Kendrick or what had happened at the prison. He wanted to know where the man could be found.
“He gave me the names of friends Holmes mentioned and some places he had heard Holmes talk about.”
“What locations?”
Flipping the notebook closed, Duo shook his head, “I’m not telling you. If you go nosing around and Holmes sees you or even hears about somebody that bears a resemblance to you, he’ll be in the wind, with Kaitlin. You can’t go anywhere near any of those places if you want your niece home again.”
“You’re this close, yet you tell me to sit idly by and do nothing?” Trowa demanded as he leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“I’m asking you to trust me. I’m good at this,” Duo replied softly. “I know how to do my job and I need you to believe I know what I’m doing. She’ll be home soon.”
“What do you suggest I do, Duo? I can’t sit in my hotel room and wait; I’ll go crazy.”
“Go buy your niece something nice for when she comes home, spend time with your sister, or get some rest. It doesn’t matter what you do for now, but you need to be prepared for when Kaitlin is found. She may need counseling and therapy when this is over. Make sure your sister and brother-in-law are ready for that possibility.” Standing, Duo went to a cabinet and dug in a drawer for a minute, coming back and sitting beside Trowa, holding out two business cards. “Your sister might have some places in mind to take Kaitlin, but I recommend these two. One is a child psychiatrist; she’ll help Kaitlin open up and work through any problems caused by this whole mess. The other is a family counselor; he’s a specialist that deals with traumatic events. If she decides to use one, or both, tell them that I recommended them. They’ll probably take Kaitlin on as a favor to me instead of charging anything.”
“That’s very kind,” the tall man commented as he took the cards. Recognizing the dismissal for what it was, he tucked them into his pocked as he stood. “You’ll call me?”
“As soon as I find out something definite, I’ll let you know.”
Being ushered to the door, Trowa couldn’t help but feel that he had made a mistake in some way. Duo was being friendly and helpful, yet rarely dared to meet Trowa’s eyes, as if scared of revealing too much. Chalk it up to a hunch, instinct, or intuition, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t see the braided investigator again.
Trusting his gut when he couldn’t rely on his emotions, Trowa dared to touch the side of Duo’s face gently, bringing the cobalt eyes to his own, “It could have been good, Duo.”
There was no need to explain his meaning, the smaller man giving a clearly sad smile, “It could have been, but there are some risks that not even I dare to take. This is one of those.”
Walking down the sidewalk to his car, Trowa had the nagging sensation he was leaving something behind. Sitting behind the steering wheel, he checked for his wallet, keys, and business cards Duo had given him, rechecking when the feeling persisted. Baffled, he put the car in gear and looked at the porch, where Duo was leaning casually against the door frame.
Comprehension dawned when his stomach dropped, finally understanding why he had that sensation of loss. Unfortunately, he wasn’t forgetting anything, although he was definitely leaving something important behind.