Kairos - Blood (MxM) | Book 2 | ✅

50.The Other Side

If you didn't know there was a party going on in that building, you would have thought nothing of the luxury cars slowing down as they passed by. The area held tightly-knit structures, no more than three-stories high, with tall windows and old fashioned decorative moldings spread across brick walls and brimstone facades.

No vehicle stopped in the front of the crimson building, but almost all took a right into an adjacent dark alley.

My soldier held me tightly into his arms as I watched the place, peeking over his shoulder. We had been standing in a narrow street, across from the red brick building, cradled by the night and away from any light source. Garbage reeked close by from a dumpster where Henry had parked his teal Ford. But the fruity scent on my soldier's skin covered up any unpleasant smells.

I sighed against his neck and closed my eyes. It was almost time.

"If you go through with this," he uttered lowly.

But I interrupted him and whispered, "I am going through with this."

"Then if you get what you want, sir," he paused, running his fingers through my hair and squeezing my body against his before he said, "when we'll see each other again, we won't be standing on the same side."

My heart skipped and I swallowed a whimper as I buried my face into his shoulder.

Henry's words raked at my soul. Always by my side. I didn't want him to stand anywhere else but where he belonged. Yet I didn't even know his real name.

At my soldier's insistence, we had improvised a Christmas dinner. I had cooked some roast and he had tried his hand at homemade cookies.

And when night came, my soldier went back to his place, below mine. But that didn't last long.

I spread on the floor, staring up at the ceiling so when I heard a knock, I suspected that it was Henry coming to worry about me because he had seen me on his camera.

"I'm not depressed, I'm just," the right words failed to come so I went with a shrug.

"Use the bed, sir. You'll hurt your back or catch a cold."

"The bed's too large and," the word was there but uttering it irked me.

"Empty?" Henry guessed.

I scoffed and took a step back. "Will you help me with that?" the question slipped out on a whim.

We ended up in my double bed, both of us staring at the ceiling. His right hand in my left and I laced fingers with him, placing his knuckles to my lips.

"I wanted to tell you tomorrow. But now seems like a good time," my soldier spoke softly.

As my head turned, I locked eyes with him in the murky room and the neon lights outside my window changed from blue to red reflecting off his handsome face.

"What is it, soldier?"

"They're pulling me out from undercover. Henry Stiles will go to jail for aggravated assault. And since he has priors he'll probably end up spending a few years there."

My mind toyed with numerous questions so I paced myself before speaking.

"And the real you will go back to being a cop," I stated in the end.

His head moved in a nod.

"But they're not closing the case on Jack, are they?"

"No. The evidence I gathered will go into strengthening the case against the Braccios as they try a different approach."