Fic: See You in the Dark | Part 2 of 3
Title: See You in the Dark
Type: AU
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Kris Allen | Adam Lambert
Warnings Strong language | violence
~*~*~*~*~
A Modern Myth
Santa Monica | G-Man’s Watering Hole
Kris sat sullenly in the corner, back to the wall, eyes on the door watching warily as agents filed in. Cale sat close to his side, both men aware of the way the other agents gave them a wide berth as they laughed amongst themselves.
“Sucks being the newbie,” Cale stated.
“They’ll warm up,” Kris said automatically
And they would. It never failed. Kris and Cale would go into a regional office and all the field agents would hold their noses up and ignore them, feeling threatened. It didn’t help that the two of them had the reputation, as the Bureau liked to trot them out in front of the cameras and promote the work of the agency. Until they proved themselves to be just like them, just ordinary agents working for the common goal, the regional field agents and the other operatives would be leery.
“It’s different this time,” Cale argued. He looked up and smiled at the waitress who dropped off their dinner. “They’ve closed rank.”
“No, they haven’t.”
“Dude, really? They barely look at us. Only talk to us when forced.”
Kris took a long pull from his beer bottle, “I’d be more apprehensive if they welcomed us with open arms. It’s only been a couple of weeks.” He pulled his plate closer to him and picked up the burger. “Plus, we’re not here to make friends. We’ve got a job to do.”
“Yeah,” Cale agreed. “I suppose. Still can’t wait to get home, though.”
They ate in silence, quietly watching the bar fill up. After the waitress dropped off another round of beers, Cale picked at the label.
“You talk to Adam yet?”
“No.”
“You going to?”
“No.”
Cale leaned his chair back against the wall, carefully balancing it on two legs, “Why not?”
“He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“Have you tried?”
Kris slammed the bottle down and raked his fingers through his hair, “Yes! Yes, okay?” he whispered furiously. “I’ve tried and he won’t talk to me. He’ll barely look at me, so I’m not going to try anymore.”
“Kris…”
“Stop it, Cale, okay?” Kris slumped into his seat. “I just… I can’t anymore.” He got up and went to the bar and motioned for the bartender.
Matt approached him, “Hey, man. You with the BPI?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Cool. Nice to meet you, I’m Matt. Matt Giraurd, I own this place,” he said offering his hand. “Welcome.”
Kris took it and smiled, “Thanks, man. I’m Kris. Kris Allen. Nice to meet you.” Kris looked around again, “It’s nice in here.”
Matt beamed with pride, “Yeah. It was tough at first, but then the BPI guys started coming in, so it kinda became, like, their unofficial bar. Funny shit, how the name fit.”
“G-Man’s,” Kris laughed. “Definitely fitting.”
“And to think, I was just goofing with my last name,” Matt laughed back. “Anyway, what can I get ya? Didja like your burgers?”
“Oh, yeah, totally great burgers, man. Uh, I just wanted something a little stronger? Beer’s not doing it for me.”
“Sure thing. Whiskey or vodka?” Matt asked bending over to grab a glass. He glanced around the room and chuckled, “The guys take a while to warm up to newbies, but you’ll be hanging out and getting trashed with them in no time.”
“That obvious?”
“They can be huge assholes at times, but they’re good people,” Matt answered. “Just give them some time.”
“Uh, it’s not a big deal.”
At Matt’s questioning face, Kris replied, “Cale,” he pointed to Cale who was flirting with the waitress, “and I are here on temporary assignment. Came in to help the guys out with what’s going on.”
Matt nodded, “Ah, gotcha. Well, come on in whenever, Kris. You and Cale are always welcome.” He started to pour Belvedere and club soda over ice and squeezed in a couple of lemons. “Here, man. Let’s start you off with this.” He tilted his chin to Cale, “He gonna be your designated or are you guys staying in the dorms?”
Kris smiled, “No dorms for us, corporate housing. And, yeah, he’s driving, so keep ‘em coming, please?”
“No work tomorrow?”
“Not unless something happens, and if it does, I’ll be a major bitch because my hangover won’t be pretty.”
Matt barked out a laugh, “You probably won’t have anything on Lambert when it comes to being a major bitch with a hangover.”
Kris’s head shot up, “What?”
“Oh,” Matt laughed. “You’ve met Adam Lambert, haven’t you?”
Kris nodded, voice suddenly lost, but a sudden burst flared in his stomach at getting unprompted information about Adam.
“Yeah, boy can drink. He doesn’t drink often or a lot, but, like two…no, three times a year? And, when it’s that time, man, he comes in and goes on a major bender.” Matt shook his head, “Poor Anoop, man. Don’t know how he puts up with it. At least it’s only a few times a year.” Matt pursed his lips, “Wow, didn’t think about that. Huh.”
“What?”
Matt mused, “Ah, nothing. Just never thought about it is all.” He started to wipe down the bar, “I’m just rambling.”
“Thanks for the drinks,” Kris said, not pushing his luck. No, now that he knew Matt knew Adam as more than just a casual customer, he was a person who would be able to talk freely to about Adam. Kris just needed to be strategic about it. He just hoped he wouldn’t run out of time.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Carson | BP-Arco Refinery
The caravan of black vans rolled into a dark, hidden driveway highlighted by bright lights blinking in and out off the metal cylinders and columns. The black tinted windows threw off the red and blue beams of police cars. As the vans turned the corner, it showed the bright yellow police tape wrapped around twisted metal beams that ran across the street.
Adam jumped out of the van before it stopped, heading to the group of officers who were pale and obviously shell-shocked.
“You guys doing okay?” he asked as he approached them.
One nodded, but couldn’t speak. Adam patted him on the back, “It’s okay, no one ever gets used to it. Where are they?” The man pointed a shaky hand to a dark corner, away from the ultra-bright lights the coroner’s office used. “Thanks,” Adam said and headed to where the officer indicated.
Adam heard his team behind him as he made his way across the mangled trash cans and car parts. It wasn’t a typical car accident. From the looks of the torn metal and tires that were ripped from the vehicles, the people here were obviously street-racing on this stretch of the road, until something other than speed and reckless driving disrupted their fun.
“Jesus,” he whispered. Picking his way over the spray of fire-retardant foam, Adam stepped carefully between shattered glass and melted metal that had melded onto each other. Seven bright blue tarps stood out starkly in the edges of the darkened environment, the covered lumps that he guessed were the victims.
“Crap on a cracker,” Anoop said as he stood next to Adam. “It’s escalated faster than I had anticipated.”
“Still no pattern, but from the looks of this, these guys are good and pissed about something,” Adam replied. He watched Anoop snap on gloves and gingerly pick through the destruction. “You see anything?”
“I think I have something,” Anoop replied distractedly. He pulled out a couple of clear plastic bags and placed some innocuous looking pieces of metal and plastic into them.
Nodding, Adam went to the bodies and lifted up the tarp. He shuddered as he dropped it quickly and turned away. Bracing himself, he crouched down and pinched the corners of the thick plastic again. Kids…they were fucking kids. He furrowed his brows, scrunched his face and looked closer. He scooted over to study the other bodies. These deaths were no less brutal than the others, but they had different markings.
“Anoop!” Adam called out. Standing up, he waited until Anoop approached before showing him what he was looking at. Prodding the gaping wounds with his gloved fingers, he peeled back the pieces of skin around the throat and chest for each of the victims, not saying anything until he was sure Anoop saw what he did. He watched Anoop’s face carefully, then replaced the plastic at his nod.
“You saw it?” Adam asked standing up.
“Yeah,” Anoop said, scribbling furiously into his notepad. “I’m heading back to the office to get this,” he held up the plastic baggie, “into the lab. I…” he looked around. “I think I have something.”
“I’ll see you there,” Adam replied grimly. He motioned to the rest of the team to start the clean-up process.
**
Cale pulled up next to Anoop and held up a few more clear plastic bags, “I think these might be the same as the ones you found over there, but I’m going to have them analyzed.”
Anoop nodded, “Either they’re getting sloppy or one of them is leaving behind clues.” He stepped into the back of the van, Cale following.
“My gut is leaning towards clues. I think one of the guys is getting sick of this,” Cale said. “It means he hasn’t truly bought into it and wants out, even if the evidence states the contrary.”
“I trust your gut more than science,” Anoop replied. “Always have.”
They logged in the evidence bags and started typing into the systems, backs to each other.
“I’m pulling up the video from the freeway exits and the CCTVs in a three mile radius,” Cale said.
“Got it, I just got into the BP system. Let’s see if any of their cameras caught anything,” Anoop answered. “Hopefully these oil guys spent some of their profit money on technology.”
Cale snorted, “Not counting on it. And even if the resolution is better, I don’t think these guys are dumb enough to show their faces.”
Anoop stretched over and tapped at the window, indicating to the driver to head out. He and Cale continued to work as the van pulled away and onto the freeway. After fifteen more minutes of furiously entering data, freezing frames from the data received and sent, they leaned back in their seats.
“How’ve you been doing?” Anoop asked.
Cale blew out a breath and placed his feet up on the console, “Keeping busy. You?”
Anoop chuckled, but with no humor in it, “Same.”
“They need to talk,” Cale said ominously.
“Up to them,” Anoop responded flatly.
“Too many years, too many feelings.”
“Yeah.” Anoop rolled his chair back and faced Cale, “You know what happened?”
Cale raked his fingers through his hair and dropped his feet, “Know as much as you, I guess.” He studied Anoop’s face, parts of it highlighted by the screens along the wall of the van. “You’ve been with him all these years, you should know more than any of us.”
Anoop shook his head, “Not really, and what I do know is only because he was drunk at the time and mumbling shit. Don’t know exactly what happened, he won’t talk about it. You?”
“He’s confused, has been all these years. As far as I know, they didn’t have a fight, everything was good between them.”
“Huh.”
“Up to them to fix it, I guess.”
“You’re not going to help?” Anoop asked, surprise in his voice.
Cale shook his head, “He won’t talk about it.”
“Maybe you should try to convince him,” Anoop said carefully.
“To do what? Talk to me? Or Adam?”
“Adam.”
“I doubt he’ll listen. What about Adam?”
Anoop shook his head, “Don’t think it’ll work.”
“I’ll keep trying,” Cale sighed. “No reason they shouldn’t since we’re all here now.”
“Yeah,” Anoop sighed with him. “Stubborn asses.”
The Fantasy
Beverly Hills | N. Robertson Blvd.
Kevin strolled down the street, sunglasses on, watching as unsuspecting humans lunched and shopped on this sunny Sunday afternoon. Fools, he thought. He grinned as he paused in front of a boutique and thought about how his reign of terror would come to an end.
Even the bitches that wouldn’t give him the time of day didn’t bother him anymore. They’d fight each other to get his attention once he became Alpha. The PacSun pack was the largest and strongest in the country, and until he met his mate and settled down, he would take advantage of everything and every woman. It was the least he could do, right? Until then, what the fuck did they know? Sure his face was a little messed up, but the scars were what made him stronger and more resilient. He wore them with pride. The two-faced whores would be lining up to be with him.
His phone rang, drawing him out of his dreams of a bright future. “Yeah?” he answered brusquely. He wandered into a doorway that provided some semblance of shade.
The growl he emitted scared off the people walking by. He turned his face into the building to help keep his conversation away from prying ears. “Find him, Billy. How the fuck did he get away from you?” Kevin seethed. “I thought you were keeping an eye on him. He’s weak, not dumb, you asshole!”
Kevin waited, listening to Billy try to explain what happened to Skeetch. It took everything he had to keep his claws sheathed, “I don’t care Billy. You find him. Get the other guys to help out. If he somehow gets an audience with Robert, we did this for nothing. We’ll all be dead, if I don’t kill you first.” He slammed the phone shut and banged his head against the brick.
“Fuck.”
**
Kris felt his spine straighten, his body tense, nerves suddenly on edge for no reason that he could discern. It was a sudden shot to his gut, every instinct screaming out to be careful and watch everyone around him carefully. He moved his eyes, shifting his body subtlety so that he could look around and find the source of the sudden uneasiness.
Cale and the other two agents also froze not a moment later. Kris would have laughed if he wasn’t trying to focus on every person walking by, trying to peer into shadowed corners. He should have known that all of them would feel how the air transformed from buoyant and bright to foul and malevolent in a matter of seconds. These gut feelings, the instincts that sharpened in less than a second, were what made them into elite soldiers for BPI.
A large man ambled by, oversized sunglasses perched on the edge of his nose while he stared at a group of giggling women sitting two tables over from them. His unwashed, brown shaggy hair had a texture that reminded Kris of his werewolf friends. Kris studied him discretely, as the aura of unpleasantness followed the man down the sidewalk, a tainted stench following in his wake.
Carefully positioning his phone on the table, Kris started to take pictures of the man, which was made easier as he leaned over the patio rail to talk with the women. Kris watched intently as the man’s body went from languid and good-natured to angry and barely restrained rage in a matter of seconds. Knocking over a spoon, Kris bent over and saw the brashest of the four women literally shoo the stranger away from them with a wave of a bejeweled and manicured hand. He swore he heard a hint of a growl, low and dangerous. Cale casually leaned back in his chair and stretched from side to side so he could glance at the man inconspicuously.
“You got him?” James asked quietly, using his outstretched hands to hide the small camera in his grip.
“Yeah,” Kris answered as he put the phone away.
Steve grinned grimly, “Let’s get back to the office.” He raised his hand to get the waiter’s attention.
R-Evolve
Century City | The Cellar
“What…” Adam inhaled and exhaled slowly. “What you said the other day…”
Anoop tilted his bottle up to take a drink, but remained quiet. While everyone else split up and went to happy hour at G-Man’s or JPs, Adam had pulled Anoop aside and asked him to The Cellar. It was a dark, dingy place; an Irish pub that reveled in the fact that it was a dive in the truest sense of the word, placed at basement level among the polished, professional high-rises of Century City.
They grabbed a corner table, barely discernible by the sparse lighting in the bar. It was a quiet Thursday night, investment bankers and lawyers hanging out in small groups, suit jackets off, ties loosened, trying to act like frat boys again. They ignored Adam and Anoop as they picked out their seats, making sure their backs were guarded, eyes on the entrance.
Adam nodded, more to himself than reacting to Anoop not saying anything, and started up again by sighing, “What do you know?”
“Nothing.”
“You said…you said you pieced stuff together.”
Anoop shrugged and put down his beer, “Something happened in Temecula. The three years before that everything was fine, but something changed right before you acted the fool and shipped out. Whatever happened, it had to have been bad for you to volunteer for that shitty gig in New Orleans. And the fact that you didn’t even tell me? Let’s not even get into that.”
“He was talking…I overheard something I don’t think I was supposed to,” Adam breathed out. He didn’t have to explain who he was referring to. Close to ten years of friendship and they had their own language, could read each other’s bodies and silences. Adam wrapped his fingers around the back of his neck and looked up to the ceiling. “I thought that maybe…we were so close, you know? The four of us?”
“Yeah,” Anoop said. “People hated us.”
Adam chuckled without humor, “What did they call us? Fabulous Four? Gruesome Foursome?”
“They were all lame nicknames.” Anoop nudged Adam’s foot with his own. “Go on.”
“Best of friends, that’s what we were, right? I think maybe,” Adam’s voice shook. “Maybe I misread everything. It was just friendship. Nothing more, nothing less. I guess I took it…”
“Not understanding, Adam,” Anoop paused. “Wait, what’d you overhear?”
“Kris…he was talking with Cooper. And,” he finally looked down and met Anoop’s dark brown eyes. They held no judgment, just love and support. “I heard him tell Cooper that I was just stress relief, that I was a distraction to keep him sharp.”
Anoop’s eyes narrowed, “He said that?”
Adam shivered and his stomach roiled as he thought back to that night. He hugged himself, feeling the stabs of pain in his heart again. “In not so many words. I…I didn’t know… I didn’t think…”
Launching himself from the chair, Anoop stood next to the table, body tense with anger. “No.” He ran his hands through his hair and over his face before leaning over the table, hands braced on the ends, nails digging into the soft wood of the table. “No, it wasn’t like that,” he growled quietly. He put his hand on Adam’s shoulder until he looked at him, “Don’t think like that.”
“Like what?” Adam asked. “How else was I supposed to take that?”
Anoop breathed out and sat down on the edge of the chair. He leaned and said softly, “It wasn’t like that. Everyone knew it wasn’t like that.”
“How do you know?”
“I know, and anyone who had eyes could see it. You two had something different, unique…amazing. He loved you, was ridiculously, preposterously in love with you.”
“Then why…”
“I don’t know,” Anoop interrupted. “Fuck knows why he said that, but he’s hurt, too, Adam.”
“What do you mean? How do you know?”
Leaning back into his chair, Anoop sighed. “He found me the other day during my run at UCLA.” He stopped to take a sip of his beer, “I think you two need to talk.”
“Nothing to say,” Adam scowled.
“No?” Anoop asked raising a brow. “So, I’m imaging the looks you give him when you don’t think anyone is watching. And, him being brushed off, then turning away hurt when you don’t give him the time of day, that never happens.”
“I told you to stop smoking that shit.”
“Funny,” Anoop maintained. He finished his beer and set his bottle on the table, picking at the label. “Seriously, if you don’t talk to him soon, I’ll lock you two up in a room until you figure this shit out.”
“And, I told you…”
“Stop it,” Anoop scolded. “It’s affecting the dynamic of the team. Everyone sees how you two are uncomfortable around each other. We need to trust one another, and how you’re acting is creating issues.”
“I didn’t realize…”
“So, learn to fucking deal with it one way or another.”
Adam sighed, “Yeah…fine.”
The Kill
Santa Monica | Water Gardens Office Complex
The training room held a small group of junior agents who had finished their session earlier, but stayed behind to watch the elite members go at each other.
“Who’s up next?” Devlin asked. He looked around at the dozen elite agents that had gathered in the gym, then down at his clipboard.
Kris chewed on his bottom lip as he assessed the room. Devlin Ashton, the Bureau’s senior trainer was running through the sessions with the senior agents. Adam and Anoop were nudging each other, joking with Carson and Marcus who had just finished. Cale stood to the side and spoke with Steve and James. They all had to take their turns. Kris stepped up to the center of the gym, “I’ll go.”
“Great, and who’s your target for our lovely little playtime this evening?”
He pointed to Adam, “Let’s go.”
Adam raised a brow and smirked, “Your funeral.” Getting a pat on the back from Anoop, Adam sauntered to where Kris stood.
Kris loosened his limbs and motioned with his fingers, “You all talk or just a pretty face?”
A low swelling of whoops and whistles filled the room.
“You gonna take that Lambert?” someone called out.
“Shit, Allen, you got a deathwish,” another murmured.
Kris ignored them and focused on Adam. He had a good six inches and at least 30 pounds of muscle on him, but Kris was faster, wilier. Bouncing on his feet, he waited for Adam’s first blow. If he couldn’t get Adam to talk to him, he’d get his attention another way. If he had to physically punish him to vent his frustration, well, there’s nothing that could be done about it.
Ducking the first punch, Kris moved right and swept his leg out and made contact with Adam’s left ankle, taking him down. Kris jumped back and crouched low, anticipating a low kick. Instead Adam leapt up and executed a roundhouse kick that landed with a heavy thud on his left shoulder. Reeling, but not knocked to the ground, Kris used the momentum to turn and landed a series of punches to Adam’s rotator cuff, deltoid and jaw.
They traded kicks and punches, each one landing on the heavily muscled parts of the body, careful not to actually break bones. Kris didn’t know how much time had gone by; only that he was getting tired. Being exhausted meant not thinking clearly, which was made obvious when Adam finally went low and tackled him at the waist, wrestling him to the floor. The motion pushed the breath from his lungs as Kris landed hard, the back of his head bouncing off the mat. Flipping him over, Adam pulled at his arm, locking them behind his back with a vicious yank.
“Yield,” Adam snarled.
“Fuck you,” Kris gritted out. He lifted his legs and with his ankles, wrapped them tightly around Adam’s waist and jerked his body backwards, wrenching him off his back as he pulled his arms away at the same time. They rolled over and away from each other, breathing hard. Kris got onto his hands and knees and tried to find his breath as his arms shook from pain. Adam was on his back, splayed out on the mat. The shocked silence in room was deafening, heaving breaths the only sound cutting through the stillness.
“Well,” Devlin said as he walked to the middle of the floor. “I think we can safely call this a draw,” he laughed. He helped Kris stand, then stretched his hand out to assist Adam up. “Hit the showers and call it a night, guys.”
**
Anoop watched as Cale and James helped Adam off the floor. As the gym emptied, he sat next to Kris, who had collapsed onto his back after standing shakily for a few minutes.
“You’ve got a death wish, Allen,” he said tossing a sweatshirt onto his chest.
“No less than any of you guys,” Kris heaved out. He sat up carefully, hugging the sweatshirt close. “What do you want?”
“You need to talk to him,” Anoop stated flatly.
“Aren’t you the one that told me to leave him the fuck alone?”
“I changed my mind.”
“Fuck off, Anoop,” Kris growled as he twisted the material in his hands.
“Force him. Make him listen.”
“How? Tie him down?” Kris glared at him as he shoved his arms into the hoodie. “There’s nothing to be said anymore. I know where I stand.”
“Why’d you tell Cooper you were only with Adam to get your rocks off? That there was nothing deeper between the two of you?”
“What?” Kris said standing shakily. “What are you talking about?”
“In your cabin, Lake Skinner, night before Adam shipped out.”
Kris blew out a breath and rubbed his shoulder, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. That was five years ago, you expect me to remember what I said to Cooper?”
“You didn’t say that?”
Anoop scrutinized Kris’s face as he thought back, his face still full of confusion until his memory provided him with the answers.
Kris’s eyes widened in alarm, a tremor shaking his body, “Oh my god,” he whispered. “I was…shit. I felt…oh my god. He heard that?”
“Yeah, he did,” Anoop said angrily. “Now tell me why you said it.”
“Cooper was…he had it out for Adam since we got there. I thought by lying…I didn’t want him using our relationship…Fuck.”
“Fix it.”
Anoop stood up and walked out of the gym, leaving Kris crumpled on the mats in silence.
Capricorn
Los Angeles | Briarwood Estates
The mansion was hidden amongst a copse of trees, pine, oak, ash and acacia stood grandly among the fruit-bearing ones, as if protecting them from harm. The land was green and lush, meticulously tended to resemble an enchanted forest in the bright Southern California sun, carefully hiding the barbed, razor-wire electrical fence that bordered the property.
Inside the house, in a bright room, the sun shined through the unadorned windows creating stark light and emphasizing the emptiness of it. Save a few utilitarian chairs and a table, the room held nothing of significance. The concrete floor didn’t soften the noise Robert made as he walked the length of it until he stopped and sat on the edge of the table. He stared at the man sitting on a simple metal folding chair in front of him. His lieutenants had brought him in a week ago. They had put him in a small cabin at the edge of the property, fed and clothed him, bringing him back to life. Today, he sat there in the empty room, surrounded by soldiers, head-down, neck exposed in a sign of submission.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you on the spot,” Robert said, voice casual as if he were speaking to a friend.
“You should kill me,” the man replied meekly. “I have betrayed the pack. Though I have come to make amends and will give you the information you need to stop him, a painful death is no less than what I deserve, sir.”
Robert crossed his arms and stood stoically in front of one of his son’s best friends. Shane had always been weak, a submissive by nature. Even the silly childhood nickname of Skeetch stuck, still being used to address him, even though he was a fully-grown adult. He was a good-natured man, would have been a fine member of the pack if he hadn’t started running with Billy and Kevin.
Motioning with his hand, Robert wordlessly told Damon, his first lieutenant, to get the information they needed. Shane had taken a gamble by breaking into his compound, the headquarters for the PacSun pack, but the guards erred on the side of caution and didn’t kill him on site. Now, Shane wanted absolution. Robert needed to think and assess the threat risk before coming to a final decision. Until then, Shane would live.
Another guard opened the door and Robert left the room, footsteps echoing off the walls in his wake.
“After you get the information from Shane, call BPI,” Robert ordered. He glanced over at his top two men walking slightly behind him, “Damon, you and Paxton need to go to their office in person and tell them everything. If we can help them before things get even worse, we will. Enough is enough.”
Hurricane
Santa Monica | G-Man’s Watering Hole
“Hey buddy,” Matt shouted out in greeting. “How’s it going? Haven’t seen you in here for a while.”
“Okay, I guess. Things are tense,” Kris answered as he took a spot at the bar. “I think we’re close, Anoop and Cale have been holed up in the lab looking over all the evidence again.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed the guys are barely letting loose.” Matt bent down and pulled a beer from the cooler, “Here. Try to relax, huh? You deserve it.”
“Thanks, Matt.” Kris said as he played with the bottle. “Just need to get these asswipes.”
“You will,” Matt nodded. “Cale out with Marissa tonight?”
Kris laughed, “What gave you that idea? The fact that I’m here alone and your head waitress is off tonight?”
Matt grinned as he wiped down the bar, “I’m kinda quick like that.” He left Kris to help out a small group that came up to the bar.
Kris turned in his chair and leaned against the bar with his elbows, bottle hanging loosely from his hand. He tilted his chin and raised his beer as members of his team came in and grabbed tables around the room. He shook his head at the invitations to join the different groups and remained at the bar. He was on a mission.
He paced out his beers and made casual conversation with Matt whenever he had a break from helping customers. In the few weeks since he had started coming to G-Man’s, Kris knew it was only a matter of time before Matt would start talking about Adam. It was cute to see how much of a man-crush he had.
“How crazed are Adam and Anoop? They haven’t come in for a while,” Matt asked as he leaned. “I can’t believe they haven’t burnt out, you know? I love them.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, they were one of my first customers after I opened. Then, next thing you know, they got the Bureau guys to start coming in and I’m not stressed out about making rent and making a living, you know?”
Kris nodded, “We have to get through this and they’ll be back. We’re close, and once it’s done, we’ll have a giant celebration.”
“I’m ready for it,” Matt said. “How are you liking it here? In LA? After this is done, you leaving or maybe considering staying? You can transfer, yeah?”
“Don’t know yet,” Kris answered carefully. “Haven’t really had a chance to think about it.”
“You should,” Matt stated emphatically. “Adam’s always saying that the Bureau needs good agents, and from what I’ve heard, you’re one of the best. Well, you and Cale. It’s like you two are just as strong of a team as Adam and Anoop. To have the four of you guys here in LA? Yeah, man, it’d be all kinds of awesome.”
“Anoop and Adam aren’t even tempted to leave? I mean, they’ve been working as a team forever, haven’t they?”
Matt shook his head, “They’ll never leave LA nor will they ever be separated as a team. They have their own language.” He sighed, “To have a best friend like that, you know?” He studied Kris closely, “Kind of like you and Cale.”
Kris smiled despite himself, “Yeah, it’s what happens when you’re tossed into something this intense and have to rely on each other.”
“Yeah,” Matt nodded. “I can only imagine. Though, I don’t know, it’s weird. Something’s been bugging Adam lately.”
This piqued Kris’s interest, “Yeah?”
“Adam’s usually bursting with energy, but he’s really wound tight right now. I want to say it’s this situation, but it feels like something else. He’s more subdued, quiet, like he’s waiting for something. Eh, I don’t know.” Matt grinned. “Sorry, man, didn’t mean to get all emo on you.”
“No, don’t worry about it,” Kris reassured. “It’s hard when you see a friend go through something. You want to reach out and help, but don’t know how.”
“Exactly!”
“All you can do is be there for him,” Kris said. “Just listen when he wants to talk, try to make him laugh.”
Matt laughed, “I’ve been trying to set him up with one of my closest friends forever, but he won’t go. Wouldn’t even consider blind dates from my friends’ friends, so, I gave up, no matter how much I bugged him about it.”
“He’s been single all this time?”
“Huh,” Matt mused. He pursed his lips, “I guess he has been. I mean, I’ve heard that he’s gone out here and there, but never heard of anything serious. Man’s private, so it’s not really surprising. I don’t even think his team knows where he lives, man. He crashes at the dorms a lot, so no one knows where he calls home.”
“Weird.”
“Yeah. It’s funny,” Matt said as he tossed a dirty rag into a bin, “Some of the guys thought it’d be funny and made a game of trailing him a few times, trying to figure out where he goes, see where he lives, but he outsmarted them all. Never been caught.”
Kris nodded to himself as Matt went down the bar. Adam was smart, but Kris knew how to play the game.
Was It A Dream?
Culver City | The Jasmine Complex
Adam cricked his neck and stretched out his arms as he tried to get them back into working order. He stepped out of the garage elevator and waved at the security guards in the lobby before taking the second set of elevators up to his condo.
Three straight nights of going through charts and maps, another two studying the results from the lab had led him to the point of exhaustion. They slept on cots or on the floor, ate out of cartons and picked through cold congealed fast food and survived on coffee and energy drinks. At least he was getting the weekend off. Anoop refused to leave the office, frustrated yet excited because he felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough, needing just a little more time. Adam left him with a carafe of freshly-brewed coffee and sandwiches from Capriotti’s.
Three weeks of silence, no reports of injuries or deaths. Despite what news reports said, these rogues were keeping a low profile. There would be another round, Adam was sure of it, and they all needed their rest to be prepared when it happened. After the last horror show in Carson, the city was on edge. Government officials were discussing curfews, police officers and EMT personnel were trying to get out of night shifts, psychiatrists working overtime to help ease the nightmares of everyone involved; Los Angeles County was a mess.
However, Adam didn’t care. All he wanted was his bed and uninterrupted sleep for at least 24 hours. He’d deal with reality after he was able to think and see straight. He unlocked the door and the fuzz in his brain cleared enough for him to realize his alarm was deactivated. Shaking his head, he stared at the alarm console then back at the locks on his door.
Carefully pulling his gun from his waistband, Adam flinched as he clicked the safety off, the sound loud in the silent room. He turned around slowly and squinted, waiting for his eyesight to gradually get used to the dark.
“Your security system sucks,” Kris drawled as the living room lit up from the lamp next to the couch.
Adam straightened up and clicked the safety of the gun back and placed it on the accent table next to the door. He took his time taking out his phone and keys, putting them on the table deliberately and slowly to catch his breath and regulate his heartbeat. Flicking on the light switch, the entire entryway and the rest of the living room were bathed in bright lights.
Ignoring Kris, he toed off his shoes as he walked into the kitchen, leaving them on the floor in a scattered mess. He opened the refrigerator and peered inside, leaning one arm against the freezer door as he bent over.
“Move,” Kris said from behind him.
Adam jumped from both the voice and the contact of Kris’s hand on his back. He shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip; bolting away from the refrigerator as if burned.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered as he backed up until the wall stopped him. “How’d you get in?”
“Do you want pasta or soup and a sandwich?” Kris asked as he went through the cabinets and pulled out a couple of pots and placed them on the stove.
“Answer me.”
“Tell me what you want to eat first.”
“Get out.”
“We need to talk. And I’ll make pasta. You probably need the carbs, you look like shit.”
“You break into my place so we can talk? Make me food? How’d you even know where I live?”
Kris shrugged as he started mixing spices into the canned sauce, “I know how to find information.” He turned around, “You should sit.”
“I should call security.”
Snorting, Kris went back to mixing and chopping. “Like the old fools downstairs will be able to do anything.”
“I’ll call the cops.”
“I have a Bureau badge. I’m here to discuss our strategy. There’s no sign of forced entry, so good luck with that.”
Adam blew out a frustrated breath, “You have all the answers, huh?”
“Not all of them,” Kris replied softly.
**
Kris knew it was a risk breaking into Adam’s place, but after their training exercise a few days ago, nothing had changed between them except their bruised and battered bodies. The other agents did give him more respect as word spread how he went toe-to-toe with Adam and not only survived, but was called a draw. He and Cale got more invitations to join their happy hours and lunches were spent getting to know more members of the LA office and laughing.
It was ridiculously easy to hack into the system and grab Adam’s residential address, and even easier to break into the condo. He knew Adam wouldn’t be home for a few hours, so Kris had taken his time to dig around and see what he could learn about Adam’s life.
Adam’s condo was spacious, a three-bedroom loft-style space with large windows and minimal furniture. It was almost bleak, the opposite of the large and vibrant personality of the actual person. The only touches of character in the condo was a converted bedroom that was a comfortable makeshift den, giants cushions that a grown man could sprawl on, rugs, books on the floor, posters of bands, movies, Broadway shows, and a line of mismatched dressers and console tables, where a cluster of framed photos sat atop them.
Kris recognized a few of the photos, but instead of the four of them, only a smiling Anoop and Adam were in the pictures. Kris sighed and smiled sadly as he glanced at the laughing faces of Adam’s family and other friends. Not a single photo of the two of them, which shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it still hurt.
He grabbed a Diet Coke and a bottle of water, then sat on the couch in the dark and had waited.
As he stood at the stove, keeping his back to Adam while checking the boiling water and making sure the sauce didn’t burn. He heard Adam finally move off the wall and the scrape of the chair as he took a seat.
“Almost done,” Kris said cheerfully. He hoped Adam wouldn’t notice the forced brightness in his voice.
“Why are you talking like you’re happy and shit? You enjoy breaking into people’s homes?”
So much for that. “How much cheese do you want on the pasta?” He drained the pasta and ladled sauce on it. Grabbing a fork and parmesan cheese, he placed it in front of Adam who looked at it and him with suspicion in his eyes.
“Aw, come on,” Kris huffed. “You saw me make it.”
“You broke into my house and bypassed my security system, who knows what else you can do?”
“Just eat, asshole.”
Adam picked at the pasta and cautiously chewed, “This is good.” A pause as he continued to chew, “You’re not eating?”
“Ate before I came over,” Kris said as he started to clean up.
They didn’t speak while Adam finished eating and Kris washed and dried the dishes. He waited for Adam’s plate before he wiped his hands on a dishrag. As he started to wipe down the table, Adam stepped up behind him and covered his hand, stilling it.
“Wha…” Kris cleared his throat, “What are you doing?”
Drawing him up, Adam tightened his grip on Kris’s hand and slid his free arm around his waist, clutching tightly. Kris didn’t even try to hold back his shiver as he let out a soft moan. Adam’s touch hadn’t lost its affect on him after all these years.
Adam whispered along his ear, “You wanted to talk, we’re going to talk.”
**
Kris leaned back into Adam’s body, moving his hand along the arm wrapped around his waist. If nothing else, he wanted to at least have this moment.
“Come on,” Adam said and moved them, shuffling them into the den.
Their bodies were still pasted together, back to chest, standing right inside the door. Taking his hands, Adam turned him face-first towards the wall, hands and forearms splayed on it. He pushed his chest into Kris’s back, sliding hands down over Kris’s skin. Shivering again, Kris pressed his cheek to the coolness of the wall, hoping it would ease the heat that was spreading through his body.
“Kris,” Adam dragged out in a low groan. “Why…” Then he slammed his hands on the wall next to Kris’s head. “Why?” he asked again in a furious whisper.
Kris jumped at the impact, the violence of the sudden movement next to his head, the sound bursting through his ears. Adam had backed away immediately afterwards, leaving Kris to miss the heat of his body at his back. He turned around slid down the wall, staring up at Adam who was trembling on the other side of the room, arms wrapped around his stomach. Kris watched him back into a corner and slide down the wall himself, but instead of looking at Kris, he lowered to head into the crook of his elbow.
“Adam,” Kris said softly.
“I’m tired, Kris,” Adam sobbed. “I can’t do this. You can’t be here.”
“I’m sorry, Adam.”
“Just don’t,” Adam said lifting his head.
Kris’s heart broke at the tears and the ache he saw in Adam’s eyes. He crawled over to him, hoping Adam wouldn’t push him away. Taking Adam into his arms, Kris whispered, “Adam, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeated it over and over while rubbing his arms and neck until he felt Adam melt into him, face buried into his chest, tears wetting his shirt. Hugging him tight, Kris bent over him and pulled him in tighter.
As he sat with Adam in his arms, Kris explained the misunderstanding, stuttering over his words, clarifying what went on in the cabin. Crying and blubbering through it all, he needed to make it clear that in his stupid, asinine, selfish way, he was protecting Adam. It wasn’t a justification for what he said, but he wanted Adam to know. Whether it changed anything or not, Kris needed him to know.
After he finished, Kris leaned his head back against the wall, raking his fingers through Adam’s hair. Thinking he fell asleep, Kris tried to move, hoping to settle Adam in more comfortably, instead Adam draped his arms over Kris’s hips.
“Don’t move,” Adam choked out, voice hoarse and gravelly from crying. “Please.”
“Your back,” Kris whispered roughly.
“Please…Kris, just…”
“Okay, Adam, okay,” Kris rasped out and continued to touch him. “I love you, Adam. I hope you know. I always have and always will…” he paused. “No matter what happens, know I love you.”
~*~*~*~*~
...and then... head to Part III
*
Part I...if you need it
Type: AU
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Kris Allen | Adam Lambert
Warnings Strong language | violence
~*~*~*~*~
A Modern Myth
Santa Monica | G-Man’s Watering Hole
Kris sat sullenly in the corner, back to the wall, eyes on the door watching warily as agents filed in. Cale sat close to his side, both men aware of the way the other agents gave them a wide berth as they laughed amongst themselves.
“Sucks being the newbie,” Cale stated.
“They’ll warm up,” Kris said automatically
And they would. It never failed. Kris and Cale would go into a regional office and all the field agents would hold their noses up and ignore them, feeling threatened. It didn’t help that the two of them had the reputation, as the Bureau liked to trot them out in front of the cameras and promote the work of the agency. Until they proved themselves to be just like them, just ordinary agents working for the common goal, the regional field agents and the other operatives would be leery.
“It’s different this time,” Cale argued. He looked up and smiled at the waitress who dropped off their dinner. “They’ve closed rank.”
“No, they haven’t.”
“Dude, really? They barely look at us. Only talk to us when forced.”
Kris took a long pull from his beer bottle, “I’d be more apprehensive if they welcomed us with open arms. It’s only been a couple of weeks.” He pulled his plate closer to him and picked up the burger. “Plus, we’re not here to make friends. We’ve got a job to do.”
“Yeah,” Cale agreed. “I suppose. Still can’t wait to get home, though.”
They ate in silence, quietly watching the bar fill up. After the waitress dropped off another round of beers, Cale picked at the label.
“You talk to Adam yet?”
“No.”
“You going to?”
“No.”
Cale leaned his chair back against the wall, carefully balancing it on two legs, “Why not?”
“He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“Have you tried?”
Kris slammed the bottle down and raked his fingers through his hair, “Yes! Yes, okay?” he whispered furiously. “I’ve tried and he won’t talk to me. He’ll barely look at me, so I’m not going to try anymore.”
“Kris…”
“Stop it, Cale, okay?” Kris slumped into his seat. “I just… I can’t anymore.” He got up and went to the bar and motioned for the bartender.
Matt approached him, “Hey, man. You with the BPI?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Cool. Nice to meet you, I’m Matt. Matt Giraurd, I own this place,” he said offering his hand. “Welcome.”
Kris took it and smiled, “Thanks, man. I’m Kris. Kris Allen. Nice to meet you.” Kris looked around again, “It’s nice in here.”
Matt beamed with pride, “Yeah. It was tough at first, but then the BPI guys started coming in, so it kinda became, like, their unofficial bar. Funny shit, how the name fit.”
“G-Man’s,” Kris laughed. “Definitely fitting.”
“And to think, I was just goofing with my last name,” Matt laughed back. “Anyway, what can I get ya? Didja like your burgers?”
“Oh, yeah, totally great burgers, man. Uh, I just wanted something a little stronger? Beer’s not doing it for me.”
“Sure thing. Whiskey or vodka?” Matt asked bending over to grab a glass. He glanced around the room and chuckled, “The guys take a while to warm up to newbies, but you’ll be hanging out and getting trashed with them in no time.”
“That obvious?”
“They can be huge assholes at times, but they’re good people,” Matt answered. “Just give them some time.”
“Uh, it’s not a big deal.”
At Matt’s questioning face, Kris replied, “Cale,” he pointed to Cale who was flirting with the waitress, “and I are here on temporary assignment. Came in to help the guys out with what’s going on.”
Matt nodded, “Ah, gotcha. Well, come on in whenever, Kris. You and Cale are always welcome.” He started to pour Belvedere and club soda over ice and squeezed in a couple of lemons. “Here, man. Let’s start you off with this.” He tilted his chin to Cale, “He gonna be your designated or are you guys staying in the dorms?”
Kris smiled, “No dorms for us, corporate housing. And, yeah, he’s driving, so keep ‘em coming, please?”
“No work tomorrow?”
“Not unless something happens, and if it does, I’ll be a major bitch because my hangover won’t be pretty.”
Matt barked out a laugh, “You probably won’t have anything on Lambert when it comes to being a major bitch with a hangover.”
Kris’s head shot up, “What?”
“Oh,” Matt laughed. “You’ve met Adam Lambert, haven’t you?”
Kris nodded, voice suddenly lost, but a sudden burst flared in his stomach at getting unprompted information about Adam.
“Yeah, boy can drink. He doesn’t drink often or a lot, but, like two…no, three times a year? And, when it’s that time, man, he comes in and goes on a major bender.” Matt shook his head, “Poor Anoop, man. Don’t know how he puts up with it. At least it’s only a few times a year.” Matt pursed his lips, “Wow, didn’t think about that. Huh.”
“What?”
Matt mused, “Ah, nothing. Just never thought about it is all.” He started to wipe down the bar, “I’m just rambling.”
“Thanks for the drinks,” Kris said, not pushing his luck. No, now that he knew Matt knew Adam as more than just a casual customer, he was a person who would be able to talk freely to about Adam. Kris just needed to be strategic about it. He just hoped he wouldn’t run out of time.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Carson | BP-Arco Refinery
The caravan of black vans rolled into a dark, hidden driveway highlighted by bright lights blinking in and out off the metal cylinders and columns. The black tinted windows threw off the red and blue beams of police cars. As the vans turned the corner, it showed the bright yellow police tape wrapped around twisted metal beams that ran across the street.
Adam jumped out of the van before it stopped, heading to the group of officers who were pale and obviously shell-shocked.
“You guys doing okay?” he asked as he approached them.
One nodded, but couldn’t speak. Adam patted him on the back, “It’s okay, no one ever gets used to it. Where are they?” The man pointed a shaky hand to a dark corner, away from the ultra-bright lights the coroner’s office used. “Thanks,” Adam said and headed to where the officer indicated.
Adam heard his team behind him as he made his way across the mangled trash cans and car parts. It wasn’t a typical car accident. From the looks of the torn metal and tires that were ripped from the vehicles, the people here were obviously street-racing on this stretch of the road, until something other than speed and reckless driving disrupted their fun.
“Jesus,” he whispered. Picking his way over the spray of fire-retardant foam, Adam stepped carefully between shattered glass and melted metal that had melded onto each other. Seven bright blue tarps stood out starkly in the edges of the darkened environment, the covered lumps that he guessed were the victims.
“Crap on a cracker,” Anoop said as he stood next to Adam. “It’s escalated faster than I had anticipated.”
“Still no pattern, but from the looks of this, these guys are good and pissed about something,” Adam replied. He watched Anoop snap on gloves and gingerly pick through the destruction. “You see anything?”
“I think I have something,” Anoop replied distractedly. He pulled out a couple of clear plastic bags and placed some innocuous looking pieces of metal and plastic into them.
Nodding, Adam went to the bodies and lifted up the tarp. He shuddered as he dropped it quickly and turned away. Bracing himself, he crouched down and pinched the corners of the thick plastic again. Kids…they were fucking kids. He furrowed his brows, scrunched his face and looked closer. He scooted over to study the other bodies. These deaths were no less brutal than the others, but they had different markings.
“Anoop!” Adam called out. Standing up, he waited until Anoop approached before showing him what he was looking at. Prodding the gaping wounds with his gloved fingers, he peeled back the pieces of skin around the throat and chest for each of the victims, not saying anything until he was sure Anoop saw what he did. He watched Anoop’s face carefully, then replaced the plastic at his nod.
“You saw it?” Adam asked standing up.
“Yeah,” Anoop said, scribbling furiously into his notepad. “I’m heading back to the office to get this,” he held up the plastic baggie, “into the lab. I…” he looked around. “I think I have something.”
“I’ll see you there,” Adam replied grimly. He motioned to the rest of the team to start the clean-up process.
**
Cale pulled up next to Anoop and held up a few more clear plastic bags, “I think these might be the same as the ones you found over there, but I’m going to have them analyzed.”
Anoop nodded, “Either they’re getting sloppy or one of them is leaving behind clues.” He stepped into the back of the van, Cale following.
“My gut is leaning towards clues. I think one of the guys is getting sick of this,” Cale said. “It means he hasn’t truly bought into it and wants out, even if the evidence states the contrary.”
“I trust your gut more than science,” Anoop replied. “Always have.”
They logged in the evidence bags and started typing into the systems, backs to each other.
“I’m pulling up the video from the freeway exits and the CCTVs in a three mile radius,” Cale said.
“Got it, I just got into the BP system. Let’s see if any of their cameras caught anything,” Anoop answered. “Hopefully these oil guys spent some of their profit money on technology.”
Cale snorted, “Not counting on it. And even if the resolution is better, I don’t think these guys are dumb enough to show their faces.”
Anoop stretched over and tapped at the window, indicating to the driver to head out. He and Cale continued to work as the van pulled away and onto the freeway. After fifteen more minutes of furiously entering data, freezing frames from the data received and sent, they leaned back in their seats.
“How’ve you been doing?” Anoop asked.
Cale blew out a breath and placed his feet up on the console, “Keeping busy. You?”
Anoop chuckled, but with no humor in it, “Same.”
“They need to talk,” Cale said ominously.
“Up to them,” Anoop responded flatly.
“Too many years, too many feelings.”
“Yeah.” Anoop rolled his chair back and faced Cale, “You know what happened?”
Cale raked his fingers through his hair and dropped his feet, “Know as much as you, I guess.” He studied Anoop’s face, parts of it highlighted by the screens along the wall of the van. “You’ve been with him all these years, you should know more than any of us.”
Anoop shook his head, “Not really, and what I do know is only because he was drunk at the time and mumbling shit. Don’t know exactly what happened, he won’t talk about it. You?”
“He’s confused, has been all these years. As far as I know, they didn’t have a fight, everything was good between them.”
“Huh.”
“Up to them to fix it, I guess.”
“You’re not going to help?” Anoop asked, surprise in his voice.
Cale shook his head, “He won’t talk about it.”
“Maybe you should try to convince him,” Anoop said carefully.
“To do what? Talk to me? Or Adam?”
“Adam.”
“I doubt he’ll listen. What about Adam?”
Anoop shook his head, “Don’t think it’ll work.”
“I’ll keep trying,” Cale sighed. “No reason they shouldn’t since we’re all here now.”
“Yeah,” Anoop sighed with him. “Stubborn asses.”
The Fantasy
Beverly Hills | N. Robertson Blvd.
Kevin strolled down the street, sunglasses on, watching as unsuspecting humans lunched and shopped on this sunny Sunday afternoon. Fools, he thought. He grinned as he paused in front of a boutique and thought about how his reign of terror would come to an end.
Even the bitches that wouldn’t give him the time of day didn’t bother him anymore. They’d fight each other to get his attention once he became Alpha. The PacSun pack was the largest and strongest in the country, and until he met his mate and settled down, he would take advantage of everything and every woman. It was the least he could do, right? Until then, what the fuck did they know? Sure his face was a little messed up, but the scars were what made him stronger and more resilient. He wore them with pride. The two-faced whores would be lining up to be with him.
His phone rang, drawing him out of his dreams of a bright future. “Yeah?” he answered brusquely. He wandered into a doorway that provided some semblance of shade.
The growl he emitted scared off the people walking by. He turned his face into the building to help keep his conversation away from prying ears. “Find him, Billy. How the fuck did he get away from you?” Kevin seethed. “I thought you were keeping an eye on him. He’s weak, not dumb, you asshole!”
Kevin waited, listening to Billy try to explain what happened to Skeetch. It took everything he had to keep his claws sheathed, “I don’t care Billy. You find him. Get the other guys to help out. If he somehow gets an audience with Robert, we did this for nothing. We’ll all be dead, if I don’t kill you first.” He slammed the phone shut and banged his head against the brick.
“Fuck.”
**
Kris felt his spine straighten, his body tense, nerves suddenly on edge for no reason that he could discern. It was a sudden shot to his gut, every instinct screaming out to be careful and watch everyone around him carefully. He moved his eyes, shifting his body subtlety so that he could look around and find the source of the sudden uneasiness.
Cale and the other two agents also froze not a moment later. Kris would have laughed if he wasn’t trying to focus on every person walking by, trying to peer into shadowed corners. He should have known that all of them would feel how the air transformed from buoyant and bright to foul and malevolent in a matter of seconds. These gut feelings, the instincts that sharpened in less than a second, were what made them into elite soldiers for BPI.
A large man ambled by, oversized sunglasses perched on the edge of his nose while he stared at a group of giggling women sitting two tables over from them. His unwashed, brown shaggy hair had a texture that reminded Kris of his werewolf friends. Kris studied him discretely, as the aura of unpleasantness followed the man down the sidewalk, a tainted stench following in his wake.
Carefully positioning his phone on the table, Kris started to take pictures of the man, which was made easier as he leaned over the patio rail to talk with the women. Kris watched intently as the man’s body went from languid and good-natured to angry and barely restrained rage in a matter of seconds. Knocking over a spoon, Kris bent over and saw the brashest of the four women literally shoo the stranger away from them with a wave of a bejeweled and manicured hand. He swore he heard a hint of a growl, low and dangerous. Cale casually leaned back in his chair and stretched from side to side so he could glance at the man inconspicuously.
“You got him?” James asked quietly, using his outstretched hands to hide the small camera in his grip.
“Yeah,” Kris answered as he put the phone away.
Steve grinned grimly, “Let’s get back to the office.” He raised his hand to get the waiter’s attention.
R-Evolve
Century City | The Cellar
“What…” Adam inhaled and exhaled slowly. “What you said the other day…”
Anoop tilted his bottle up to take a drink, but remained quiet. While everyone else split up and went to happy hour at G-Man’s or JPs, Adam had pulled Anoop aside and asked him to The Cellar. It was a dark, dingy place; an Irish pub that reveled in the fact that it was a dive in the truest sense of the word, placed at basement level among the polished, professional high-rises of Century City.
They grabbed a corner table, barely discernible by the sparse lighting in the bar. It was a quiet Thursday night, investment bankers and lawyers hanging out in small groups, suit jackets off, ties loosened, trying to act like frat boys again. They ignored Adam and Anoop as they picked out their seats, making sure their backs were guarded, eyes on the entrance.
Adam nodded, more to himself than reacting to Anoop not saying anything, and started up again by sighing, “What do you know?”
“Nothing.”
“You said…you said you pieced stuff together.”
Anoop shrugged and put down his beer, “Something happened in Temecula. The three years before that everything was fine, but something changed right before you acted the fool and shipped out. Whatever happened, it had to have been bad for you to volunteer for that shitty gig in New Orleans. And the fact that you didn’t even tell me? Let’s not even get into that.”
“He was talking…I overheard something I don’t think I was supposed to,” Adam breathed out. He didn’t have to explain who he was referring to. Close to ten years of friendship and they had their own language, could read each other’s bodies and silences. Adam wrapped his fingers around the back of his neck and looked up to the ceiling. “I thought that maybe…we were so close, you know? The four of us?”
“Yeah,” Anoop said. “People hated us.”
Adam chuckled without humor, “What did they call us? Fabulous Four? Gruesome Foursome?”
“They were all lame nicknames.” Anoop nudged Adam’s foot with his own. “Go on.”
“Best of friends, that’s what we were, right? I think maybe,” Adam’s voice shook. “Maybe I misread everything. It was just friendship. Nothing more, nothing less. I guess I took it…”
“Not understanding, Adam,” Anoop paused. “Wait, what’d you overhear?”
“Kris…he was talking with Cooper. And,” he finally looked down and met Anoop’s dark brown eyes. They held no judgment, just love and support. “I heard him tell Cooper that I was just stress relief, that I was a distraction to keep him sharp.”
Anoop’s eyes narrowed, “He said that?”
Adam shivered and his stomach roiled as he thought back to that night. He hugged himself, feeling the stabs of pain in his heart again. “In not so many words. I…I didn’t know… I didn’t think…”
Launching himself from the chair, Anoop stood next to the table, body tense with anger. “No.” He ran his hands through his hair and over his face before leaning over the table, hands braced on the ends, nails digging into the soft wood of the table. “No, it wasn’t like that,” he growled quietly. He put his hand on Adam’s shoulder until he looked at him, “Don’t think like that.”
“Like what?” Adam asked. “How else was I supposed to take that?”
Anoop breathed out and sat down on the edge of the chair. He leaned and said softly, “It wasn’t like that. Everyone knew it wasn’t like that.”
“How do you know?”
“I know, and anyone who had eyes could see it. You two had something different, unique…amazing. He loved you, was ridiculously, preposterously in love with you.”
“Then why…”
“I don’t know,” Anoop interrupted. “Fuck knows why he said that, but he’s hurt, too, Adam.”
“What do you mean? How do you know?”
Leaning back into his chair, Anoop sighed. “He found me the other day during my run at UCLA.” He stopped to take a sip of his beer, “I think you two need to talk.”
“Nothing to say,” Adam scowled.
“No?” Anoop asked raising a brow. “So, I’m imaging the looks you give him when you don’t think anyone is watching. And, him being brushed off, then turning away hurt when you don’t give him the time of day, that never happens.”
“I told you to stop smoking that shit.”
“Funny,” Anoop maintained. He finished his beer and set his bottle on the table, picking at the label. “Seriously, if you don’t talk to him soon, I’ll lock you two up in a room until you figure this shit out.”
“And, I told you…”
“Stop it,” Anoop scolded. “It’s affecting the dynamic of the team. Everyone sees how you two are uncomfortable around each other. We need to trust one another, and how you’re acting is creating issues.”
“I didn’t realize…”
“So, learn to fucking deal with it one way or another.”
Adam sighed, “Yeah…fine.”
The Kill
Santa Monica | Water Gardens Office Complex
The training room held a small group of junior agents who had finished their session earlier, but stayed behind to watch the elite members go at each other.
“Who’s up next?” Devlin asked. He looked around at the dozen elite agents that had gathered in the gym, then down at his clipboard.
Kris chewed on his bottom lip as he assessed the room. Devlin Ashton, the Bureau’s senior trainer was running through the sessions with the senior agents. Adam and Anoop were nudging each other, joking with Carson and Marcus who had just finished. Cale stood to the side and spoke with Steve and James. They all had to take their turns. Kris stepped up to the center of the gym, “I’ll go.”
“Great, and who’s your target for our lovely little playtime this evening?”
He pointed to Adam, “Let’s go.”
Adam raised a brow and smirked, “Your funeral.” Getting a pat on the back from Anoop, Adam sauntered to where Kris stood.
Kris loosened his limbs and motioned with his fingers, “You all talk or just a pretty face?”
A low swelling of whoops and whistles filled the room.
“You gonna take that Lambert?” someone called out.
“Shit, Allen, you got a deathwish,” another murmured.
Kris ignored them and focused on Adam. He had a good six inches and at least 30 pounds of muscle on him, but Kris was faster, wilier. Bouncing on his feet, he waited for Adam’s first blow. If he couldn’t get Adam to talk to him, he’d get his attention another way. If he had to physically punish him to vent his frustration, well, there’s nothing that could be done about it.
Ducking the first punch, Kris moved right and swept his leg out and made contact with Adam’s left ankle, taking him down. Kris jumped back and crouched low, anticipating a low kick. Instead Adam leapt up and executed a roundhouse kick that landed with a heavy thud on his left shoulder. Reeling, but not knocked to the ground, Kris used the momentum to turn and landed a series of punches to Adam’s rotator cuff, deltoid and jaw.
They traded kicks and punches, each one landing on the heavily muscled parts of the body, careful not to actually break bones. Kris didn’t know how much time had gone by; only that he was getting tired. Being exhausted meant not thinking clearly, which was made obvious when Adam finally went low and tackled him at the waist, wrestling him to the floor. The motion pushed the breath from his lungs as Kris landed hard, the back of his head bouncing off the mat. Flipping him over, Adam pulled at his arm, locking them behind his back with a vicious yank.
“Yield,” Adam snarled.
“Fuck you,” Kris gritted out. He lifted his legs and with his ankles, wrapped them tightly around Adam’s waist and jerked his body backwards, wrenching him off his back as he pulled his arms away at the same time. They rolled over and away from each other, breathing hard. Kris got onto his hands and knees and tried to find his breath as his arms shook from pain. Adam was on his back, splayed out on the mat. The shocked silence in room was deafening, heaving breaths the only sound cutting through the stillness.
“Well,” Devlin said as he walked to the middle of the floor. “I think we can safely call this a draw,” he laughed. He helped Kris stand, then stretched his hand out to assist Adam up. “Hit the showers and call it a night, guys.”
**
Anoop watched as Cale and James helped Adam off the floor. As the gym emptied, he sat next to Kris, who had collapsed onto his back after standing shakily for a few minutes.
“You’ve got a death wish, Allen,” he said tossing a sweatshirt onto his chest.
“No less than any of you guys,” Kris heaved out. He sat up carefully, hugging the sweatshirt close. “What do you want?”
“You need to talk to him,” Anoop stated flatly.
“Aren’t you the one that told me to leave him the fuck alone?”
“I changed my mind.”
“Fuck off, Anoop,” Kris growled as he twisted the material in his hands.
“Force him. Make him listen.”
“How? Tie him down?” Kris glared at him as he shoved his arms into the hoodie. “There’s nothing to be said anymore. I know where I stand.”
“Why’d you tell Cooper you were only with Adam to get your rocks off? That there was nothing deeper between the two of you?”
“What?” Kris said standing shakily. “What are you talking about?”
“In your cabin, Lake Skinner, night before Adam shipped out.”
Kris blew out a breath and rubbed his shoulder, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. That was five years ago, you expect me to remember what I said to Cooper?”
“You didn’t say that?”
Anoop scrutinized Kris’s face as he thought back, his face still full of confusion until his memory provided him with the answers.
Kris’s eyes widened in alarm, a tremor shaking his body, “Oh my god,” he whispered. “I was…shit. I felt…oh my god. He heard that?”
“Yeah, he did,” Anoop said angrily. “Now tell me why you said it.”
“Cooper was…he had it out for Adam since we got there. I thought by lying…I didn’t want him using our relationship…Fuck.”
“Fix it.”
Anoop stood up and walked out of the gym, leaving Kris crumpled on the mats in silence.
Capricorn
Los Angeles | Briarwood Estates
The mansion was hidden amongst a copse of trees, pine, oak, ash and acacia stood grandly among the fruit-bearing ones, as if protecting them from harm. The land was green and lush, meticulously tended to resemble an enchanted forest in the bright Southern California sun, carefully hiding the barbed, razor-wire electrical fence that bordered the property.
Inside the house, in a bright room, the sun shined through the unadorned windows creating stark light and emphasizing the emptiness of it. Save a few utilitarian chairs and a table, the room held nothing of significance. The concrete floor didn’t soften the noise Robert made as he walked the length of it until he stopped and sat on the edge of the table. He stared at the man sitting on a simple metal folding chair in front of him. His lieutenants had brought him in a week ago. They had put him in a small cabin at the edge of the property, fed and clothed him, bringing him back to life. Today, he sat there in the empty room, surrounded by soldiers, head-down, neck exposed in a sign of submission.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you on the spot,” Robert said, voice casual as if he were speaking to a friend.
“You should kill me,” the man replied meekly. “I have betrayed the pack. Though I have come to make amends and will give you the information you need to stop him, a painful death is no less than what I deserve, sir.”
Robert crossed his arms and stood stoically in front of one of his son’s best friends. Shane had always been weak, a submissive by nature. Even the silly childhood nickname of Skeetch stuck, still being used to address him, even though he was a fully-grown adult. He was a good-natured man, would have been a fine member of the pack if he hadn’t started running with Billy and Kevin.
Motioning with his hand, Robert wordlessly told Damon, his first lieutenant, to get the information they needed. Shane had taken a gamble by breaking into his compound, the headquarters for the PacSun pack, but the guards erred on the side of caution and didn’t kill him on site. Now, Shane wanted absolution. Robert needed to think and assess the threat risk before coming to a final decision. Until then, Shane would live.
Another guard opened the door and Robert left the room, footsteps echoing off the walls in his wake.
“After you get the information from Shane, call BPI,” Robert ordered. He glanced over at his top two men walking slightly behind him, “Damon, you and Paxton need to go to their office in person and tell them everything. If we can help them before things get even worse, we will. Enough is enough.”
Hurricane
Santa Monica | G-Man’s Watering Hole
“Hey buddy,” Matt shouted out in greeting. “How’s it going? Haven’t seen you in here for a while.”
“Okay, I guess. Things are tense,” Kris answered as he took a spot at the bar. “I think we’re close, Anoop and Cale have been holed up in the lab looking over all the evidence again.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed the guys are barely letting loose.” Matt bent down and pulled a beer from the cooler, “Here. Try to relax, huh? You deserve it.”
“Thanks, Matt.” Kris said as he played with the bottle. “Just need to get these asswipes.”
“You will,” Matt nodded. “Cale out with Marissa tonight?”
Kris laughed, “What gave you that idea? The fact that I’m here alone and your head waitress is off tonight?”
Matt grinned as he wiped down the bar, “I’m kinda quick like that.” He left Kris to help out a small group that came up to the bar.
Kris turned in his chair and leaned against the bar with his elbows, bottle hanging loosely from his hand. He tilted his chin and raised his beer as members of his team came in and grabbed tables around the room. He shook his head at the invitations to join the different groups and remained at the bar. He was on a mission.
He paced out his beers and made casual conversation with Matt whenever he had a break from helping customers. In the few weeks since he had started coming to G-Man’s, Kris knew it was only a matter of time before Matt would start talking about Adam. It was cute to see how much of a man-crush he had.
“How crazed are Adam and Anoop? They haven’t come in for a while,” Matt asked as he leaned. “I can’t believe they haven’t burnt out, you know? I love them.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, they were one of my first customers after I opened. Then, next thing you know, they got the Bureau guys to start coming in and I’m not stressed out about making rent and making a living, you know?”
Kris nodded, “We have to get through this and they’ll be back. We’re close, and once it’s done, we’ll have a giant celebration.”
“I’m ready for it,” Matt said. “How are you liking it here? In LA? After this is done, you leaving or maybe considering staying? You can transfer, yeah?”
“Don’t know yet,” Kris answered carefully. “Haven’t really had a chance to think about it.”
“You should,” Matt stated emphatically. “Adam’s always saying that the Bureau needs good agents, and from what I’ve heard, you’re one of the best. Well, you and Cale. It’s like you two are just as strong of a team as Adam and Anoop. To have the four of you guys here in LA? Yeah, man, it’d be all kinds of awesome.”
“Anoop and Adam aren’t even tempted to leave? I mean, they’ve been working as a team forever, haven’t they?”
Matt shook his head, “They’ll never leave LA nor will they ever be separated as a team. They have their own language.” He sighed, “To have a best friend like that, you know?” He studied Kris closely, “Kind of like you and Cale.”
Kris smiled despite himself, “Yeah, it’s what happens when you’re tossed into something this intense and have to rely on each other.”
“Yeah,” Matt nodded. “I can only imagine. Though, I don’t know, it’s weird. Something’s been bugging Adam lately.”
This piqued Kris’s interest, “Yeah?”
“Adam’s usually bursting with energy, but he’s really wound tight right now. I want to say it’s this situation, but it feels like something else. He’s more subdued, quiet, like he’s waiting for something. Eh, I don’t know.” Matt grinned. “Sorry, man, didn’t mean to get all emo on you.”
“No, don’t worry about it,” Kris reassured. “It’s hard when you see a friend go through something. You want to reach out and help, but don’t know how.”
“Exactly!”
“All you can do is be there for him,” Kris said. “Just listen when he wants to talk, try to make him laugh.”
Matt laughed, “I’ve been trying to set him up with one of my closest friends forever, but he won’t go. Wouldn’t even consider blind dates from my friends’ friends, so, I gave up, no matter how much I bugged him about it.”
“He’s been single all this time?”
“Huh,” Matt mused. He pursed his lips, “I guess he has been. I mean, I’ve heard that he’s gone out here and there, but never heard of anything serious. Man’s private, so it’s not really surprising. I don’t even think his team knows where he lives, man. He crashes at the dorms a lot, so no one knows where he calls home.”
“Weird.”
“Yeah. It’s funny,” Matt said as he tossed a dirty rag into a bin, “Some of the guys thought it’d be funny and made a game of trailing him a few times, trying to figure out where he goes, see where he lives, but he outsmarted them all. Never been caught.”
Kris nodded to himself as Matt went down the bar. Adam was smart, but Kris knew how to play the game.
Was It A Dream?
Culver City | The Jasmine Complex
Adam cricked his neck and stretched out his arms as he tried to get them back into working order. He stepped out of the garage elevator and waved at the security guards in the lobby before taking the second set of elevators up to his condo.
Three straight nights of going through charts and maps, another two studying the results from the lab had led him to the point of exhaustion. They slept on cots or on the floor, ate out of cartons and picked through cold congealed fast food and survived on coffee and energy drinks. At least he was getting the weekend off. Anoop refused to leave the office, frustrated yet excited because he felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough, needing just a little more time. Adam left him with a carafe of freshly-brewed coffee and sandwiches from Capriotti’s.
Three weeks of silence, no reports of injuries or deaths. Despite what news reports said, these rogues were keeping a low profile. There would be another round, Adam was sure of it, and they all needed their rest to be prepared when it happened. After the last horror show in Carson, the city was on edge. Government officials were discussing curfews, police officers and EMT personnel were trying to get out of night shifts, psychiatrists working overtime to help ease the nightmares of everyone involved; Los Angeles County was a mess.
However, Adam didn’t care. All he wanted was his bed and uninterrupted sleep for at least 24 hours. He’d deal with reality after he was able to think and see straight. He unlocked the door and the fuzz in his brain cleared enough for him to realize his alarm was deactivated. Shaking his head, he stared at the alarm console then back at the locks on his door.
Carefully pulling his gun from his waistband, Adam flinched as he clicked the safety off, the sound loud in the silent room. He turned around slowly and squinted, waiting for his eyesight to gradually get used to the dark.
“Your security system sucks,” Kris drawled as the living room lit up from the lamp next to the couch.
Adam straightened up and clicked the safety of the gun back and placed it on the accent table next to the door. He took his time taking out his phone and keys, putting them on the table deliberately and slowly to catch his breath and regulate his heartbeat. Flicking on the light switch, the entire entryway and the rest of the living room were bathed in bright lights.
Ignoring Kris, he toed off his shoes as he walked into the kitchen, leaving them on the floor in a scattered mess. He opened the refrigerator and peered inside, leaning one arm against the freezer door as he bent over.
“Move,” Kris said from behind him.
Adam jumped from both the voice and the contact of Kris’s hand on his back. He shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip; bolting away from the refrigerator as if burned.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered as he backed up until the wall stopped him. “How’d you get in?”
“Do you want pasta or soup and a sandwich?” Kris asked as he went through the cabinets and pulled out a couple of pots and placed them on the stove.
“Answer me.”
“Tell me what you want to eat first.”
“Get out.”
“We need to talk. And I’ll make pasta. You probably need the carbs, you look like shit.”
“You break into my place so we can talk? Make me food? How’d you even know where I live?”
Kris shrugged as he started mixing spices into the canned sauce, “I know how to find information.” He turned around, “You should sit.”
“I should call security.”
Snorting, Kris went back to mixing and chopping. “Like the old fools downstairs will be able to do anything.”
“I’ll call the cops.”
“I have a Bureau badge. I’m here to discuss our strategy. There’s no sign of forced entry, so good luck with that.”
Adam blew out a frustrated breath, “You have all the answers, huh?”
“Not all of them,” Kris replied softly.
**
Kris knew it was a risk breaking into Adam’s place, but after their training exercise a few days ago, nothing had changed between them except their bruised and battered bodies. The other agents did give him more respect as word spread how he went toe-to-toe with Adam and not only survived, but was called a draw. He and Cale got more invitations to join their happy hours and lunches were spent getting to know more members of the LA office and laughing.
It was ridiculously easy to hack into the system and grab Adam’s residential address, and even easier to break into the condo. He knew Adam wouldn’t be home for a few hours, so Kris had taken his time to dig around and see what he could learn about Adam’s life.
Adam’s condo was spacious, a three-bedroom loft-style space with large windows and minimal furniture. It was almost bleak, the opposite of the large and vibrant personality of the actual person. The only touches of character in the condo was a converted bedroom that was a comfortable makeshift den, giants cushions that a grown man could sprawl on, rugs, books on the floor, posters of bands, movies, Broadway shows, and a line of mismatched dressers and console tables, where a cluster of framed photos sat atop them.
Kris recognized a few of the photos, but instead of the four of them, only a smiling Anoop and Adam were in the pictures. Kris sighed and smiled sadly as he glanced at the laughing faces of Adam’s family and other friends. Not a single photo of the two of them, which shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it still hurt.
He grabbed a Diet Coke and a bottle of water, then sat on the couch in the dark and had waited.
As he stood at the stove, keeping his back to Adam while checking the boiling water and making sure the sauce didn’t burn. He heard Adam finally move off the wall and the scrape of the chair as he took a seat.
“Almost done,” Kris said cheerfully. He hoped Adam wouldn’t notice the forced brightness in his voice.
“Why are you talking like you’re happy and shit? You enjoy breaking into people’s homes?”
So much for that. “How much cheese do you want on the pasta?” He drained the pasta and ladled sauce on it. Grabbing a fork and parmesan cheese, he placed it in front of Adam who looked at it and him with suspicion in his eyes.
“Aw, come on,” Kris huffed. “You saw me make it.”
“You broke into my house and bypassed my security system, who knows what else you can do?”
“Just eat, asshole.”
Adam picked at the pasta and cautiously chewed, “This is good.” A pause as he continued to chew, “You’re not eating?”
“Ate before I came over,” Kris said as he started to clean up.
They didn’t speak while Adam finished eating and Kris washed and dried the dishes. He waited for Adam’s plate before he wiped his hands on a dishrag. As he started to wipe down the table, Adam stepped up behind him and covered his hand, stilling it.
“Wha…” Kris cleared his throat, “What are you doing?”
Drawing him up, Adam tightened his grip on Kris’s hand and slid his free arm around his waist, clutching tightly. Kris didn’t even try to hold back his shiver as he let out a soft moan. Adam’s touch hadn’t lost its affect on him after all these years.
Adam whispered along his ear, “You wanted to talk, we’re going to talk.”
**
Kris leaned back into Adam’s body, moving his hand along the arm wrapped around his waist. If nothing else, he wanted to at least have this moment.
“Come on,” Adam said and moved them, shuffling them into the den.
Their bodies were still pasted together, back to chest, standing right inside the door. Taking his hands, Adam turned him face-first towards the wall, hands and forearms splayed on it. He pushed his chest into Kris’s back, sliding hands down over Kris’s skin. Shivering again, Kris pressed his cheek to the coolness of the wall, hoping it would ease the heat that was spreading through his body.
“Kris,” Adam dragged out in a low groan. “Why…” Then he slammed his hands on the wall next to Kris’s head. “Why?” he asked again in a furious whisper.
Kris jumped at the impact, the violence of the sudden movement next to his head, the sound bursting through his ears. Adam had backed away immediately afterwards, leaving Kris to miss the heat of his body at his back. He turned around slid down the wall, staring up at Adam who was trembling on the other side of the room, arms wrapped around his stomach. Kris watched him back into a corner and slide down the wall himself, but instead of looking at Kris, he lowered to head into the crook of his elbow.
“Adam,” Kris said softly.
“I’m tired, Kris,” Adam sobbed. “I can’t do this. You can’t be here.”
“I’m sorry, Adam.”
“Just don’t,” Adam said lifting his head.
Kris’s heart broke at the tears and the ache he saw in Adam’s eyes. He crawled over to him, hoping Adam wouldn’t push him away. Taking Adam into his arms, Kris whispered, “Adam, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeated it over and over while rubbing his arms and neck until he felt Adam melt into him, face buried into his chest, tears wetting his shirt. Hugging him tight, Kris bent over him and pulled him in tighter.
As he sat with Adam in his arms, Kris explained the misunderstanding, stuttering over his words, clarifying what went on in the cabin. Crying and blubbering through it all, he needed to make it clear that in his stupid, asinine, selfish way, he was protecting Adam. It wasn’t a justification for what he said, but he wanted Adam to know. Whether it changed anything or not, Kris needed him to know.
After he finished, Kris leaned his head back against the wall, raking his fingers through Adam’s hair. Thinking he fell asleep, Kris tried to move, hoping to settle Adam in more comfortably, instead Adam draped his arms over Kris’s hips.
“Don’t move,” Adam choked out, voice hoarse and gravelly from crying. “Please.”
“Your back,” Kris whispered roughly.
“Please…Kris, just…”
“Okay, Adam, okay,” Kris rasped out and continued to touch him. “I love you, Adam. I hope you know. I always have and always will…” he paused. “No matter what happens, know I love you.”
~*~*~*~*~
...and then... head to Part III
*
Part I...if you need it