This entirely original, exclusive free-to-you story features hot-man-love, explicit sex, explicit language, explicit violence, and… explicit fabulousness! If you’re NOT an m/m fan, check it out anyway… you might enjoy it.

Please read chapters one and two, if you haven’t already.

Presenting Forsaken by Jamie Craig…

Five years since Detective Xavier Landis walked away from the man who loved him.

Four weeks looking for the stalker nobody but he believed existed.

Three years of his life Detective Jeff Keyes wishes he could get back.

Two cops, both brilliant, both determined, trying to move on from a past neither can forget.

One dead girl.

And now…

Chapter ThreeIt was his own fault. Jeff knew it. He’d let his curiosity get the better of him, and he’d nosed around for a taste of how Xavier lived, like some kind of recovering alky scrounging for a drop of anything to sate the blistering thirst. He had known Xavier was dating women; hell, it had been half the reason he’d left Jeff in the first place.

I don’t need to live like this.

But he didn’t need to see the face of the latest smiling up at him in a perfect Kodak moment.

Without a word, he stuck the photo back onto the fridge, but as he turned away, something odd struck him.

“Why don’t you have her framed?” He fixed his gaze on Xavier. “You frame fucking everything.”

Xavier shrugged. Even such a casual gesture made Jeff want to stare at him, to drink in the sharp features, the intense eyes that missed nothing, the new lines in his wide forehead. “I haven’t had time to get a frame for it. She gave it to me before she left for LA.”

“LA? That’s six hours away. Since when are you satisfied with long distance relationships?”

“Since never. And it didn’t work out this time, either. So I guess, technically, she isn’t my girlfriend anymore.”

The matter-of-factness to his tone pierced right through Jeff. Like being alone was something Xavier couldn’t avoid, something he deserved. In spite of what they’d been through together, Jeff wanted to take him in his arms and tell him that wasn’t true, but he knew he couldn’t. He didn’t have the right anymore. Xavier had made it plenty clear he was turning his back on that entire part of his existence.

The knowledge didn’t stop the words from coming out, though.

“Maybe you should go back to finding boyfriends, then.”

“Yeah, because that never made anything complicated and painful, right?” Xavier ran a hand over his dark-blond hair and shook his head. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Jeff held his tongue until they were both in the car again. “The only one who ever made it complicated or painful was you.” The engine roared to life, but the blast of heat from the vents did nothing to warm his voice. “We had it pretty damn good until you ran away from us.”

“So who are you dating now?” Xavier asked without looking at him.

“I’m not.”

“Why not? You never did alone too well.”

“I don’t do idiots very well, either.”

Xavier snorted. “I’m sure you do idiots as well as you do everybody else.”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel. He wasn’t entirely sure what exactly Xavier meant by the comment, if he referred to Jeff’s intolerance of most people, the fact he’d never been very discriminating about his sexual partners before and after X, or something else entirely. But the tone wasn’t snide, and if Jeff had been a betting man, he would almost think Xavier meant it as a compliment.

“Well, as it turns out, college guys can be just as dumb about personal shit as the rest of us. I’m finally starting to figure out I don’t have to date a guy to fuck him.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. Have you…have you had anything serious since we broke up?”

Xavier was the last person he wanted to have this conversation with. As irony would have it, a part of Jeff wanted him to be the first, too.

“Not really. I dated this guy who studied history at Berkeley for a couple months once, but that fell apart.” Because Tony thought dating a cop gave him permission to break as many laws as he wanted, including possession with intent to sell. Jeff corrected the mistaken notion right away by making sure he got the maximum sentence possible. “Nothing’s ever come close to what we had, X.”

“You know what I always wondered? What you have against using my name.”

Jeff glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “I always liked that your name started with an x.” He paused. “I thought you liked it.”

“I did.” Xavier shrugged. “I do. A girl I used to date called me X once. I don’t think I was very nice when I told her not to do it again.”

Molten memories drove Jeff’s eyes forward again, his cheeks flaming as he struggled not to think of how many times Xavier had begged him for the dirty talk while they fucked, shooting harder, faster, more, the dirtier Jeff got. That’s when the nickname had stuck. Calling him Xavier in the heat of the moment was too much of a mouthful.

“Can I ask one question without you getting all self-righteous or defensive on me?” he asked carefully.

“I guess I can keep the self-righteousness and defensiveness in check for one question.”

“Have you been with any other guys since us? Or just girls?”

“Honestly? One-night-stand-wise, I’ve been with guys. Relationship-wise, it’s just been girls.”

For some reason, that hurt more than hearing he’d just been fucking women in the past five years. Because it meant Xavier was all too aware of his attraction to other men, and Jeff wasn’t good enough to help satisfy his desires.

“Well, I hope you end up finding the right one to settle down with. And I mean that. You deserve whatever you want, X.”

“So do you.” Xavier cleared his throat. “What hotel are we staying at?”

“The Holiday Inn near Chinatown. I figure it keeps us centrally located, and the tourists will be out of the way during the day seeing the city. I can get some sleep then.”

“I’m glad one of us will be able to sleep.”

“It won’t be for long,” he said gently. It was a mild relief to know Xavier was taking this seriously enough now to be a little scared. “But I’m still on nights and if I don’t get at least a couple hours, I’ll be useless to you.”

“No, not to me. Don’t make this about me. It’s about Robin. She was just…fuck, Jeff, I don’t even remember what it’s like to be nineteen.” There was a short pause, and then the crack of Xavier’s fist meeting the dashboard.

“It’s about both of you,” Jeff corrected. “The best thing we can do for Robin is find this guy before he gets to you, too. Or other girls. You can’t be kicking yourself over this. Nobody else would even listen to her.”

“I should have advocated for her. I should have made them listen until somebody was formally assigned to her case, complete with security detail. You wouldn’t have let something like this happen on your watch.”

“You’re a good cop, X. There’s nobody smarter.” He couldn’t stand listening to Xavier beat himself up over Robin’s death, though he knew it was unavoidable. Xavier had always taken the losses too personally. The professional losses, anyway. “I told Andrea to give you access to anything you want. While I’m napping, you can go through everything. Cross-reference to see what kind of overlap we might have.” He shot him a smile. “You always kicked my ass in the details.”

The concession drew a smile from Xavier. A small one, granted, but it was undeniable. It was the first entirely unself-conscious smile Jeff had seen from the other man that day. “Who’s Andrea? Your partner?”

“Yeah. She’s good. Smart. Knows when to ask questions and when to back off. You’d like her.”

“Well, she must have a genius-level IQ if you think she’s smart. I probably will like her.”

“I got spoiled early.” He pulled into the parking garage for the hotel. “Anybody who’s not as smart as you isn’t worth my time anymore.”

“Jeff…”

Jeff opened his car door and stepped out, cutting Xavier off before he finished his protest. The silence continued between them as they crossed the garage to enter the hotel lobby. In fact, Xavier didn’t speak until the man behind the counter handed him two keys. For one room.

“Are you serious?”

“What?”

“We’re sharing a room?”

“It’s safer.”

“Safe for who? This isn’t going to work for me. I want my own room.”

“Sir? I’m sorry, but we’re fully booked right now.”

Xavier’s eyes narrowed. “I swear, you planned it this way.”

Jeff hadn’t, but he wasn’t going to have this fight in the lobby, in front of God and everybody. “We’ll talk about it upstairs.”

“At least it has two beds,” Xavier muttered as Jeff let them into the room. He went directly to the bed on the left, dropping his bag on the mattress.

Jeff balled his hands into fists and shoved them into his coat pockets. If he didn’t, he was going to grab Xavier and shake some sense into him. “You know, I realize you must think I’m pretty pathetic, but do us both a favor and cut this crap, thinking I’m doing this just to get into your pants. I’m not. I have no illusions we’re not over, but fuck if I’m going to let that get in the way of keeping you alive.”

“I don’t think you’re…never mind. It doesn’t matter.” Xavier dropped to the bed with a heavy sigh. “So how is this going to work? Are you going to be my shadow? Am I going to be yours?”

“Until we catch this guy, we’re partners. You have access to all my intel, I get access to all yours.” He jerked his head toward the bathroom. “We’ll figure out how exactly we’ll work shifts later. Right now, I need a shower and then some shuteye.”

“I’ll be here,” Xavier promised, propping the pillows behind his back, and stretching his feet in front of him.

Jeff was halfway in the bathroom when he turned back. “I just don’t want to see you hurt, okay?” He didn’t quite meet Xavier’s eyes. “And I’m tired. You know I’m always bitchy when I’m tired.”

He fled the room before Xavier had time to reply.

* * *

Xavier didn’t know why kept poking at Jeff like a bored kid with a chained dog. He knew Jeff wasn’t going to take advantage of the situation. Jeff was a professional. They had been over for a long time. They both had bigger concerns than their cocks. It didn’t matter if they were both technically single, and Jeff hadn’t gone out of his way to hide his attraction to Xavier.

Though he supposed if he kept goading the larger man, he wouldn’t have to worry about some unknown person killing him. Jeff might be pushed to do it himself.

“We’re partners,” Xavier muttered, partially to test the words, partially to remind himself. “Not enemies. The past is behind us.”

It sounded nice, but it obviously wasn’t true. Jeff was still hung up on him. And could Xavier meet Jeff’s eyes and insist he was completely and utterly over their relationship? Given the fact Jeff was his longest relationship to date, and every single person he had dated after always failed to measure up to Jeff’s example, he knew insisting would make him a hypocrite.

Robin. She’d never had the chance to find, love, and lose somebody like Jeff. She’d never had the chance to make the sort of mistake that could completely alter the entire course of her life. When Xavier needed to concentrate, he would remember that fact.

And he would try to stop taking his frustration out on Jeff. Even though a little voice in the back of his head assured him it was all right, Jeff could take it. The reasonable part of him, the mature part, knew it was not all right at all, and he was sorry. Maybe he would tell Jeff as much when he came out of the bathroom.

His resolve faded when the shower quit. It disappeared entirely when Jeff emerged.

He was true to his word. He wasn’t sleeping in his boxers. Instead, Jeff wore a pair of loose sweats that hung off his hips and a form-fitting black tank top. It exposed his muscled arms and every line of his marbled abs, while the sweats did little to hide the thick line of his cock. Even soft, Jeff had one of the most impressive cocks Xavier had ever seen.

Dropping his backpack to the floor, Jeff went straight to the empty bed and pulled back the heavy comforter. “If I’m not up by six, wake me, okay? I don’t want to waste the day away and five hours should more than do me.”

Unbidden, the memory of how he used to wake up Jeff floated to the surface of his mind. Jeff’s cock would thicken in Xavier’s mouth, becoming fully hard before Jeff even opened his eyes.

Xavier blinked, banishing the mental image. “Yeah. Six. Not a problem. Andrea is expecting to hear from me, then?”

“Yeah.” Jeff slid under the sheet. “She doesn’t know about our history, though. I just told her we went to the academy together. I figured, well, everybody at work thinks you’re straight, right?”

“Thanks,” Xavier muttered. He didn’t know if Jeff meant it as a chastisement, but he certainly felt reprimanded. “I appreciate that. And I’ll be sure to keep quiet and not disturb you.”

Something resembling a smile curved Jeff’s mouth as he rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his hand. “I think you’d have to drop a house on me to wake me up.”

“I don’t know. I remember a few times, all I had to do was walk into the bedroom and you’d wake up.”

“Different times,” he said softly. “Different circumstances.”

Xavier turned on his side, mirroring Jeff’s position. “Yeah, I guess a lot of things are different now. I’m sorry, you know, for giving you a hard time. Unfortunately, I can’t promise I won’t do it again.”

Jeff sobered, his eyes darkening. “I make an easy target. I know.”

“Yes, you do make an easy target. Because no matter how horrible I am to you, you keep insisting you don’t want anything to happen to me. You’ve always been too tolerant of my shit.”

“You know, you’re probably the only person I know who’d ever call me tolerant.”

Xavier chuckled. “I know. I guess I get to see a side of you others don’t. How many partners did you scare away before you were assigned to Andrea?”

“I don’t scare them away. I train them to be better cops.” Jeff paused. “Seven.”

Xavier’s chuckle turned into a full laugh. “Well, no matter how scary you are, I’m sure they’re better cops for it. I hope they realize how lucky they were to have you…training them.”

A hint of Jeff’s smile returned. “So do I, for all the shit they’ve given me.”

Xavier rolled onto his back. He was beginning to understand something he’d never admitted to himself before—he had been damned lucky to have Jeff.

“I guess I’ll let you get some sleep now.”

Jeff sighed. “X?”

“Yeah?”

“I always loved your shit.”

“I know you did. I…” I’m smart enough now to know how much I hurt you, and I never wanted to do that. “I always appreciated it. Get some sleep. You’re going to need your rest to keep up with me.”

“In your dreams,” came the playful response.

When he glanced over, though, Jeff’s eyes were already closed.

The silence held for several long moments as Jeff’s breath deepened. Xavier couldn’t resist turning on his side again and watching Jeff’s chest rise and fell. The day he had packed up his bags and left, it hadn’t felt like the right thing to do, but it did feel like the logical choice. No matter what Jeff said, they didn’t live in some sort of Utopia where openly gay cops were treated with respect and never discriminated against, were never harmed, were never hated and mistrusted.

Logic was a bitch of a mistress sometimes.

When his cell rang, it scared the hell out of him. He pulled the phone off his belt and answered before Jeff stirred.

“Landis.”

“Oh, good, I caught you. I wasn’t sure if you were going to be on the same sleep schedule as Keyes.”

“No, no. I work days. Is this Andrea?”

“Yeah. Andrea Villegas. Keyes told me I should call you if something came up.”

“Right. He told me you probably would.” Xavier sat up and reached for the hotel-marked stationery. “What have you got for me?”

“Does the name Clancy Ruhl mean anything to you?”

He frowned. No, it didn’t, and he had the sneaking suspicion it should have. “Who is he?”

“The jogger who found our body this morning. The one Keyes caught out in the lie. Turns out he teaches English at the same high school Robin Potter graduated from.”

His pulse accelerating, Xavier glanced back at Jeff. “Give us fifteen minutes. I want to be there when you interrogate him.”

Papers rustled through the line. Andrea took a second too long to answer. “Don’t rush. We went to pick him up, and…we can’t find him, Landis. I’m sorry.”

Stay tune next week for Chapter Four…

___________________________________________

Jamie Craig is the penname used for the collaborative efforts of Pepper Espinoza and Vivien Dean. Both successful authors on their own, they began working together in early 2006. Pepper lives with her husband and cats in Utah, where she attends graduate school, and Vivien resides in northern California with her husband and two children.

This an original story given generously to us by Jamie Craig. DO NOT post any part of this story on your site without attribution to Jamie Craig or a holla-back at her site. That’s not cool. Always give credit where credit is due, yo.

Note: Hey, other writer-types, do you want to contribute to The Serial? If so, email me and I’ll hook you up, yo.

Till, then… Love, peace, and snarkage, my babies. Peace!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 7:15 am and is filed under The Serial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.