Warnings and disclaimers in first section.
I was hoping to never have to see Chester again until we met in hell, but it was a welcome relief when people moved out of his way as we moved through Shine until we reach the Little Sister. Lifting my eyes to Trowa I saw the questions on his face. It was not the time to explain what was going on, mainly because I didn’t have a damn clue. We followed Chester through the main room silently, his expression not encouraging questions, whores of both sexes waiting for their next clients and following our progress with their eyes without a word. Clearly, he assumed we’d follow instead of bolting for the door.
It was tempting, let me tell you. It would have also been pointless. Chester’s reach extended much farther than the arm of the PSP; a fact I already knew. Trowa was close to me as we got in the private elevator, his hand on my arm as the elevator silently moved up through the building. I didn’t have to look at Chester to know he was staring at me like I was a piece of prime meat; he’d always looked at me that way.
At one point, I had found that attention intriguing. That was before I really learned what Chester was. After that, the idea of being around him disgusted me.
As the elevator door opened into a private suite, Chester chuckled, a low noise that did nothing to alleviate my worries. “I was hoping you would be happy to see me again, Duo. It’s been a long time.”
“It hasn’t been long enough,” I corrected him, my voice hard.
He gestured for us to sit on a leather couch and I did so reluctantly, wishing Trowa hadn’t been pulled into this aspect of my past. His green eyes were watching Chester closely; it didn’t take long for them to grow wider as Chester stared at me again. Maybe he was wondering how in the hell I got mixed up with a killer, an assassin, in the first place.
If he hadn’t figured out my past relationship with Chester, Chester left no room for doubt, “Duo, you have to admit that our time together brought us both great pleasure. If you were willing, I’d be more than happy to share my bed with you again in the future.”
“No one shares a bed with Duo other than me.”
Chester’s eyes flicked to Trowa and stayed there for a long minute, eventually moving to where Trowa’s hand rested on my thigh. “I was wondering why you hadn’t reached out for a bit of help with your problem before this, but considering the company you’re keeping these days, I suppose I shouldn’t have ,” he noted quietly, taking a seat across from us and smiling. “I never though I would see the day when you seduced a Preventer, Duo.”
“I didn’t seduce a Preventer. My partner is - ”
“Don’t give me any bullshit.”
Erk…yikes? Chester, in spite of the stupid ass name, is an extremely handsome man. He isn’t as tall as Trowa, but he has wide shoulders and slim hips. He’s built like a model while Trowa is sleeker, like a swimmer. Chester has a face like some artist’s ideas of the perfect man, angles and planes that only accentuate the large, dark grey eyes that watch the surroundings from under dark blonde hair.
At that moment, however, his eyes were cold and he was glaring at me like I was going to be the last man to be stupid enough to lie to him. He could have just been pissed that I dared to lie to him in the first place. I knew, all too well, what he was capable of, so I put my hand over Trowa’s and lifted my eyebrows. “What do you know?”
“Duo…”
“If he was going to kill us, he would have done it already,” I replied to Trowa’s warning. “What do you know, Chester?”
Our host leaned back in his chair, a smile crossing his face. He was looking at me normally again, like he wanted to eat me in one bite. “I know your partner is still an active agent, regardless of what the files say to the contrary.”
“What do you plan to do about it?”
“Not a damn thing.” Chester laughed at my dumbfounded expression, waving a hand in front of him. “I’ve kept an eye on you, Duo, even since you told me you weren’t interested in sleeping with me again. I had hoped to…persuade you to change your mind.”
“That wasn’t going to happen.” Not after what I had found out about him.
“I can be very persuasive and I found you a very pleasing lover.” Chester sent Trowa a smirk, “Does it bother you to know that I had Duo before you? I’ve run my hands all over his body, many times, and he liked every second of it.”
“Obviously not too much or he wouldn’t have left, no matter what you are.” Trowa leaned forward with a smirk, shocking the hell out of me, “Does it bother you to know that Duo has touched me in ways he never did you?”
“Why would you think that? He touched me.”
“I’m assuming that sex with you was sex, nothing else. I have more than that with Duo, though he won’t admit it.”
Chester fell silent, challenging Trowa, but my lover didn’t falter or look away. Damn, I was a lucky, lucky man…for the time being. It was a shock when Chester smiled, “I see why he believes in you, although I wouldn’t put my trust in a whistler.”
“I didn’t put my trust in a whistler; I put my trust in Trowa. Enough of the pissing contest, Chester. Why did you come to meet us?”
“Witches Shoe has gone to hell in a hand basket lately, Duo. I’m sure you’ve heard rumors.”
When Trowa leaned back, I leaned against him, glad to know he was there with me. “I’ve heard the PSP are up to their eyeballs in businesses here and using that leverage to do things that are likely to bring unwanted attention to the Shoe. I’ve seen proof of it in the last few days, too. The Shoe has never been this bad, it’s like everyone is desperate here, more than before.”
“That’s a very good way to put it. The PSP isn’t going to just go away, unfortunately. Their presence here guarantees that the Preventers are going to take a more active look at this place,” Chester looked at Trowa as if that proved his point. “There are people here, like myself, that don’t want that to happen. The Shoe is my home. I have power here and respect, things that I didn’t have before coming here. I have no intentions of losing either.”
“I get all of that, Chester. What’s your point?”
“You’ve been looking for someone, Duo. A certain blonde that’s been abducted and is being held on the Shoe.”
He knew about Quatre; was that good or bad? “I’m looking for Winner, yes. He’s a good friend, Chester. I won’t have him hurt so some assholes can make a point.”
“Ah, yes, the wonderful PSP, the long arm of the lawless.” Chester’s smile was suddenly predatory, eyes shining with dark humor, “I can help you get your friend off the Shoe safely, Duo, but my help comes with a price.”
“What is your price?” He wasn’t talking about money; he had more than enough.
“If I help you, you have to stay here, on the Shoe, until the threat from the PSP has been neutralized. Their presence here is bad for business.” Leaning forward, Chester smiled, his eyes drilling into me, “It’s simple, Duo. I help you and you stay here until every PSP member is off the colony.”
Well…shit.
“You aren’t actually considering this,” Trowa was watching me with narrowed eyes from his seat on the bed while I got our drinks from the small bar in the room. Say what you want about Chester, he had some nice digs. “It could take months or years to get the PSP off the Shoe. We don’t have that kind of time, Duo.”
“He only wants me to stay, Trowa, not both of us.”
“That isn’t any better, damn it.”
I knew Trowa was going to react like this as soon as those words had come out of Chester’s mouth. “You have a life to go back to. If Chester can help us, I’m willing to stay behind. With his connections, he likely already knows where Quatre is being held. Working on our own is taking too long and there’s too many people looking for you.” That had become a constant source of distress for me; what was going to happen if we kept working on our own and someone got lucky when they tried to take out what they considered an enemy? I couldn’t let Trowa get hurt, no matter what action I had to take to keep that from happening.
Handing him a glass of wine, I sat beside my lover, watching him closely as he took a long sip. “There has to be another way that doesn’t involve you having to stay here. I don’t want you doing anything like this. We can find another way. I don’t like the idea of you working with Chester.”
“Why not?” God, he was going to hate me when he realized what I’d done.
“He wants you in his bed. I don’t blame him for that, but I can’t trust him because of it.”
I didn’t say anything until his wine was gone, taking his glass and putting it on the table beside the bed. “Our time is running out, Trowa. There isn’t a choice in this. I have to do what Chester asks.”
“You mean ‘we’,” he corrected me, shaking his head slightly.
“I meant ‘I’. You won’t be here to help, Trowa. I’ll be going with Chester to get Quatre back.”
“Why in the hell would you think I’d let you go without me. The deal was that we go together.”
“That was before I realized how much danger you’re in. I can’t let you get hurt.”
“You assume I’ll stand back and let you go without me? What makes you think I would…agree to that?” his words were getting slurred and his eyes were growing unfocused.
I kissed him, making the contact last as long as I could before pulling away to look into confused eyes. I didn’t think this was going to be so damn hard, even though it had been an option since before we left the Ringman. It was one I never actually thought to use and it had killed me to have to do it. “I can’t let you go, Trowa. If something happened to you…” Peter’s warning was swimming in my head; he had been right. I would have died before letting Trowa get hurt worse any more than he already had. I would have gladly taken a bullet meant for him. “I can’t let you go with me.”
His confusion was clearing, being replaced with comprehension. He frowned and looked to where his empty glass sat on the table, “Duo, what did you do?” he asked before his eyes moved back to me, the tranq already working. When Peter gave it to me before escorting me to the smuggler’s hold, he assured me it would work fast and leave no bad side effects. “You drugged me? How could you?”
I expected anger, but I didn’t expect the hurt I saw in his eyes; I’d betrayed him and he was letting me clearly see how he felt. “I can’t let you get hurt. You have to understand. I had to make sure you wouldn’t get hurt and this is the only way. We can’t be together, but I can’t…I couldn’t live knowing you were hurt while you were with me.”
His body was getting heavy and he leaned against me, hissing as I lowered him to the bed. He was fighting the tranqs as much as he could, eyes heavy when he looked up at me. “I don’t want to leave you. How could you do this? Did you think I wouldn’t understand?”
“I have to get Quatre out of here and if you were there, I’d put you first, even at the expense of his life. I can’t take that risk. This was the only sure way to keep you out of danger.”
“Why did you bother? You clearly wanted me out of the way.”
“Not out of the way, just safe. I care about you too much to let you get hurt.” For someone that didn’t cry, I was doing it a lot since he had come aboard the Hellion, tears flowing down my cheeks as I smoothed the hair from his eyes.
“Why, Duo?” he blinked heavily, obviously struggling to stay awake.
I waited until his eyes closed, the strain in his voice making it painful to breathe for a moment. I leaned over him to brush my lips over his for the last time. I doubted he could hear me anymore, his body loose and relaxed, no longer able to fight the sedative. “I can’t let you go because you could get hurt. I love you too damn much to let anything happen to you. If you were hurt, it would kill me inside.”
Sitting on the bed, I just looked at him, memorizing his features while my fingers traced the contours of his face. This was the last time I’d see him. I knew it was going to be hard when we said our goodbyes; it wasn’t made easier even though he couldn’t speak. As a matter of fact, I had underestimated the pain; it felt like someone was ripping me in two over and over again. “By the time you wake up, you’ll be on your way back to Earth. Don’t forget what you told me, Trowa. You have to move on, for your own sake. I don’t want you thinking about me anymore, although drugging you probably helped with that.” Damn it, I didn’t want to leave him. “One of Chester’s men is going to take you and Quatre through the barricade. There’s a doctor that will accompany you to a ship to the L1 colony, where you will be moved onto a personal transpo that will deliver you to Brussels. There should be an agent waiting for you there. Chester has promised you’ll both be delivered safely; he may be a killer, but he’ll keep his word.”
I barely glanced up when Chester entered the room, shutting the door behind him and blocking out the noise from the next room. His men were there, the ones that were going to help me rescue Quatre. “I see you took my advice, Duo. I don’t think taking him along would have been wise.”
“Trowa’s a damn good fighter; he could have been an asset.”
“Not if you were so worried about him you ignored the danger to yourself. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to that pretty face of yours.”
“Asshole.” I couldn’t put much heat into the insult; I just couldn’t bring myself to care what Chester had to say. “Once Trowa and Quatre are on their way to Earth, you’ll be able to stare at me all you want.”
“You’re really going to stay here to help remove the PSP presence?”
“That’s what I agreed to. I keep my promises. I need your promise that he’ll…that they’ll be completely safe on their way home.”
“You have my word.”
“If you let anything happen to him,” I didn’t bother to change my words this time. “If anything happens to Trowa while he’s under your care, you won’t live long enough to give me an explanation, Chester.”
“If you killed me, you wouldn’t live long enough to get off the colony.”
“I don’t care.” From the corner of my eye, I saw him jerk.
“I won’t let anything happen to your friends. Winner is an integral part of keeping the Shoe out of agency rule.”
Chester is as good at skirting the truth as I am; it’s a necessity in our respective businesses. Meeting his eyes, I said very slowly, “I’m not worried about Quatre making it to Earth safe and unharmed. Trowa, on the other hand, is a Preventer agent that will be unable to defend himself for a while and if your crew finds out who he is, he’s as good as dead. Nothing happens to him, Chester, is that understood?”
“What would you do to me is he was hurt?”
“I’d cut your dick off and watch you bleed to death.”
His eyes narrowed, studying me to see if I was serious. Apparently judging me to be sincere, he nodded, “Nothing will happen to either of them, I swear. Both Winner and the Preventer will make it back to Earth in the same condition as they are put on my ship. That also means I won’t harm him in any way, nor will my men.”
That’s all I had wanted from Chester, a reassurance that Trowa would be fine. With that vow, I knew Trowa and Quatre would make it back to Earth without being harmed, even if Chester’s men had to fight to get them there. “Thank you.” Letting my eyes drift back to my lover’s sleeping face, I kept my voice soft, “Thank you for that, at least.”
“Duo, what if I told you to go on the ship with your friends when it leaves?”
“I gave my word I would stay. A deal’s a deal.”
“I can’t believe you were foolish enough to fall for a whistler, Duo. I thought you had more sense than that.”
He came around the bed to sit at Trowa’s feet, his eyes on me. “I thought I had more sense than that, too. I didn’t want to feel anything for him. I actually fought it as much as I could, but in the end…I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“You could try to work things out with him later, after this is over.”
With one last kiss on Trowa’s forehead, I stood with a sigh. “Maybe there could have been something one day, if I decided to give up this life or he decided to switch sides, he’s actually made for this life. Now, though, that would be impossible. I betrayed him the second I put a tranq in his drink. He won’t forgive me for that.”
“You’d be surprised what people are willing to forgive when they’re in love, Duo.”
“If I were Trowa, I wouldn’t forgive me.” It was as simple as that. Not only did I drug his drink, I said nothing as he drank it. That was a double betrayal. “Is everything ready? You’ve made arrangements to get past the blockade?”
Chester stood, tucking his hands into his pockets as he nodded, eyes on me, “Some members of the PSP are smart enough to look the other way when they’re paid to do so. My ships have safe passage through any blockade and aren’t stopped.”
“Is that because of the bribes or the armed guards on your ships?”
“Does it matter as long as your friends are safe?”
“I guess not.” With one last look at my lover, lying on the bed, I pushed my shoulders back and checked my weapons, “If you’re ready, we should get going. The trap that was set for me has likely been sprung; the PSP will know I’m not on my ship. Once they realize that it won’t take long for them to figure out where I am.”
“My men are ready. Did you want another minute alone with him?”
“Anything that needs to be said has already been said.”
“Did you tell him you love him?”
“Not when he could hear me.”
“Duo, for what it’s worth, I wish things could have been different for the two of you.”
“We both knew what we were getting into. I knew it was gonna suck later.” Shaking my head, I stopped him from saying whatever was going to come out of his mouth. I already hated what I was doing, hearing my regrets come from Chester’s mouth was the last thing I needed to hear. “Just…make sure your guys take care of him for me.”