Jack tried the door. It wasn’t locked so they walked in, Jack first, Robbie right behind him, and Darren bringing up the rear. A man scrambled to stand from where he was napping on his chair and narrowly missing falling on his ass. A near empty bottle of whisky sat on the desk. A suit in plastic hung from a window hook, the smell of mold pervaded the room, and the man himself was rough-looking, over fifty with a paunch and a comb-over.

Clinton made a move to his desk drawer, but Robbie beat him to it, slamming a hand down on the desk right where Clinton had been reaching.

Clinton subsided and he had very real fear in his expression. The three men had dressed the part, cowboy to the core, as big mean and intimidating as they could manage. Neither Jack, Vaughn, nor Robbie were small men.

“I don’t have any money,” Clinton defended. He had his hands up like one of the men in the room was about to draw a gun.

“Sit the fuck down,” Vaughn growled. Then with a firm shove, he had Clinton sitting back in his chair.

Jack made a deliberate check of the single chair opposite Clinton, brushed off some dirt, then sat down and faced the man.

“Clinton Asprey,” Jack said. “I hear some things.”

“What things? I didn’t do anything.” The fear was now evidenced in a slick of sweat and the way Clinton tugged at his shirt collar. Jack considered backing off the intimidation a little. What if the guy had a heart attack?

“Simple,” Jack began. “I hear you’re taking the stand in the Castille case.”

Clinton blinked a little, then with a sly smile he seemed to relax. “Yep,” he said. That was all he said, as if he was daring Jack to say a word. “And I already passed on all what I found to my client, so if you think you can intimidate me into—”

Vaughn laid a hand on Clinton’s shoulder and just the weight of it there had Clinton go silent and instead look up at Vaughn apprehensively. Jack didn’t blame the man, Vaughn was a big, broad-shouldered, scary-looking cowboy in his worn denim with his black Stetson low on his forehead. Add in the scowl and the stubble, and you wouldn’t want to get in a fight with Vaughn.

Jack continued. “When you get on the stand, you’re gonna say that you found nothing about those kids Hank abused. That you were mistaken.”

“I wasn’t. At least one of them sold himself for sex,” Clinton spat. “Deserved everything he got—”

Vaughn pushed again, and Robbie took a step closer. Clinton abruptly looked like he wished he was somewhere else.

“You talking about a kid who had no family and nowhere to go,” Jack said equably. “Doing what he had to do to survive. One of them, just one.”

“Don’t pay no mind to how many kids were selling it, not sure he even was, but most of these fags use their bodies to get on,” Clinton said. He was being very brave considering who was up in his space. And if he only knew all three of the men in his office had men as lovers, that would surely make him shut the hell up.

“Well you should. Because what if one of them had been your brother…” Jack deliberately trailed away and felt more than a little satisfaction when Clinton paled in front of him. He had his own file from Jim and Riley’s research, and he knew way more about Clinton than the guy would want, including a younger brother who was thrown out of the house and ended up dead after a hate crime outside a bar.

“I want you all to go,” Clinton snapped, his voice urgent.

“Not going anywhere,” Vaughn growled as he clenched his hand on Clinton’s shoulder.

“Don’t kill him yet,” Jack said.

Vaughn released his grip with another growl, but the small exchange had Clinton looking past intimidated and on to full-on terrified.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Look into your heart,” Jack said. He leaned forward in his chair. “You know what Hank was, the same person as your dad.”

Even with Vaughn’s hand on his shoulder Clinton stood up, his hand shaking as it pointed at Jack. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“You’re wrong,” Jack said calmly. “I know a lot about you, your brother, and your dad. You wanna go up on there and give the jury any reason to doubt so a man like Hank can go free, after what he’s done…”

Clinton subsided into the chair and Vaughn underscored the movement by patting him on the shoulder.

“We’ll let you think on that,” Vaughn growled.

Jack was really very impressed with the growl, as impressed as Clinton was terrified. He placed the papers on Clinton’s desk, pictures, reports going back a long way, everything to do with Clinton and his family.

“I’ll be watching you,” Jack said.

Then Robbie moved to the door, opened it, and Jack left with Robbie close behind. They left Vaughn for a moment but he quickly joined them in the car.

“You okay?” Jack asked Vaughn.

“Warned him I knew where he lived,” he mumbled. “And yeah, I know that’s stupid.”

The comment lightened the situation. They wouldn’t know what effect it would have that they had done this. They could just hope it was enough.

Chapter 7

Riley was never happier to count down to a call from Jack. Even though they’d talked on the phone, and skyped with the kids, today had been stressful and all he wanted was to hear Jack’s voice. He closed the door to the twins’ room and walked past Hayley’s empty room. She was on a sleepover, and that was probably what was half of the problem tonight. The twins were asleep, Carol had gone to bed early, and Max was settled with a DVD of Thomas the Tank Engine. Riley just felt lonely. Actually he’d moved past lonely a few days ago. And how bad was that? He had more than most people: four kids, his best friends Eli and Steve just down the road. Hell, Eli was literally a few steps away. Just… there was a Jack-sized hole in his heart. I’m a damn sap.

“We’ll be home in a couple days,” Jack said on a yawn.

As far as Riley was concerned, it was a couple days too many, but he didn’t say that. Instead he pushed his mood to the back of his thoughts and focused in on his husband.

“You tired?”

“Miss you in bed with me,” Jack admitted. “I’m finding it hard to sleep without you.”

“I miss you too. I’m not sleeping.”

“How’re the kids?”

Selfishly Riley didn’t want to talk about the kids. He wanted to discuss them, have them time, maybe even get it on with some phone sex. Yep, losing it big-time. Then his daddy switch flipped, and suddenly he couldn’t shut up about Hayley’s A on her Cold War history project, about how Connor was pushing a tooth, about the fact Lexie had slept through an entire night, and how Max had figured out how to change the DVDs all by himself instead of just sitting and staring.

Jack was laughing at something Riley said, and Riley couldn’t even recall what it was, instead he focused on the tone of Jack’s voice and sat down on the edge of his bed. He needed to tell Jack something, and it wasn’t good. That was probably why he was feeling the strain today.

“I’m not going to be here when you get back. They moved the meeting up at the field.”

Jack didn’t say anything immediately, and the silence spoke volumes. “I thought it was two weeks away.”

“Tom is more efficient than I thought. He’s pulled us up by a month at least, and I’ve been asked to accompany the team looking at the fields over the border as an industry expert in ethical issues and with a view to widening the support for the population in that area.”

“Wow, Riley, that’s amazing.”

Riley lay back on the bed and sighed heavily as he did so. “Is it wrong that all I want to do is be here when you get back?”

Jack chuckled. “Is it wrong I wish I was there now and that I didn’t have to do the grown adult thing and stay in Laredo for the whole trial?”

That made Riley smile, and the chuckle was that soft, deep, sexy sound Jack made that just kicked Riley in the chest every time he heard it. “I’m leaving Wednesday.”