When the Dead Speak, Bailey Bradford [new ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Severo grinned and winked again. “Brendon tell you my name? Guess he must have.” He shrugged and leisurely swept Laine with a heated gaze. “I figured you’re gonna run a check on me, be the big, bad protective sheriff and all that. Plus, I think you’re hot.”

The and gay went unspoken, but Laine could see the knowledge in Severo’s eyes. The need to keep his sexuality secret kicked in as Laine worked to hide his panic.

“No. I don’t think so.” And that was as much as he was going to protest. “And I meant, why are you here, as in, why are you in McKinton?”

“I felt like I needed to be here, Sheriff. Make of that what you will, though when you pull a report on me—you were still going to do that, right?”

What did that mean? “Of course.” And he would not feel bad about it, either. Laine opened a drawer and took out a notepad and a pen, pushing them across the desk. “You can give me a head start by writing out your full name, birth date, license number, and social.”

“I don’t have a license, but the rest, sure. Anything else you want? Need?” The man had the audacity to lick his lower lip and look up flirtatiously at Laine through thick lashes. “You just let me know.”

Laine refused to shift despite how uncomfortably hard he was. Why was he reacting this way to this man, for Christ’s sake? “That should be more than enough to get me started.”

“Okay.” Severo stood and walked around the desk, handing the paper to Laine, his thighs brushing against the arm of Laine’s chair. Laine couldn’t look away from the desire burning in those pale green eyes, couldn’t stop himself from inhaling deeply, taking in Severo’s scent. The mix of soap, sweat and a faint lingering cologne had Laine’s cock leaking, and he realized too late that Severo was now in a position to see just what effect he was having on Laine. His words confirmed that he had, indeed, noticed.

“I could help you finish, too. No strings attached. I don’t do strings.”

“Shit,” Laine muttered before he caught himself, heat spreading throughout his body. It’d been so long since he’d gotten laid, not since Conner. So long that even the thought of Conner didn’t dampen his desire, a fact that confused Laine more than it unsettled him. “I’m not… I don’t—” No strings? Could he do that? He never had before, unable to shake the thought that one-night stands just weren’t for him.

That he was even considering it was a testament to how hard up—pun intended—he was. He couldn’t do it, of course, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to lie, not while he was pinned by those eyes, his cock obviously hard and wanting what he was denying it. “No. I’m not interested, sorry. Not my thing.” Severo could interpret that however he wanted to.

“Okay.” Severo’s lips tipped up just the slightest bit as he stepped back. “It must be pretty difficult, being in your position.”

Laine refused to comment, a confirmation would be an admission he wasn’t yet prepared to make, and he’d already decided he didn’t want to lie.

“You’ll probably have questions once you run that.” Severo tipped his chin at the paper in Laine’s hand. “I’m right down the road at the motel, room one-fifteen, if you have any questions or if you need anything.” He turned and left Laine’s office without looking back, leaving Laine to wonder what, exactly, Severo meant with that last statement.

* * * *

Once Doreen was gone for the day, Laine seated himself at her desk and tapped at the keyboard until he opened the program he wanted. He didn’t question why he hadn’t asked Doreen to run a search on one Severo Adulio Robledo. Laine wanted to do the search, as though he could keep the man to himself. Something about that impish face and those thick-lashed, barely green eyes had stirred feelings in Laine he didn’t dare think about.

Laine drummed his fingers on the desk and waited for the printer to spit out the information on Severo, trying to sort out just what it was that he was feeling. Nervous…and horny, damn it.

“No way. Not now, not still!” Maybe if he said it enough, it would be true. “No fucking way!” The man wasn’t even his type, nowhere close to it. Laine’s type—when he’d had a type—tended to be tall and rangy, much like himself, not small and damn near delicate looking, despite the broad shoulders. Not someone pretty enough to catch your eye and keep it. Not someone who didn’t do anything other than fun fucks. Maybe this was simply a case of an available lay—maybe if he drove over to Fort Worth, hit up one of the bars he’d heard about from Zeke and Brendon…but no. The very idea of doing that made him cold, while thinking of Severo damn near burnt him alive. Why?

The printer spurted and sputtered out the papers on Severo. Laine pushed and rolled the chair over to the printer, not trusting his legs to hold him up just yet. He picked the papers up between his thumb and forefinger, like they might be evidence and he was risking contaminating them. He rolled back over to the desk, put the papers down and started reading, shaking his head and feeling a sense of panic welling up. The man wasn’t a criminal by any means, though he was familiar with more than one police department. Laine leaned back after reading the last page and tried to think. The papers on the desk fluttered and Laine glanced up to watch them rise in the air and swirl around, his own miniature tornado courtesy of whatever Casper was hanging around right now.

“Christ.” Laine reached out and started grabbing at the papers. It wouldn’t do for them to be scattered all over and have Doreen find any of