Sidewinder 01 Shock & Awe Read Free

rush.
    He had always been closest to Nick. Nick had been Kelly’s best man at his wedding. He’d also been the one who’d taken him in briefly after he’d divorced. They were very much alike in temperament, compared to the others who were all fire and stone. He and Nick were water and smoke: patient and nebulous and easy.
    “I’m going to take a shower,” Nick said as he threw the last spare pillow on the bed. “You want anything from downstairs first?”
    Kelly’s breath quickened, and he blurted it out before he could think twice. “Why Ty?”
    Nick stopped short and cocked his head as if he hadn’t heard right. “What?”
    “When you came out to me, you told me you’d been in love with Ty,” Kelly explained. He held his breath, telling himself the answer would probably make his wound throb again and he didn’t really want to know. “Why Ty?”
    Nick blushed and lowered his head, chewing on his lip. He shrugged. “He was . . . like this big shining beacon. For a long time I was a little in love with the idea of him. The idea of that kind of loyalty and trust for the rest of your life, you know? I think it was mostly just being young and wanting to believe in something. You know Ty. He was easy to believe in.”
    Kelly nodded. “Are you still in love with him?”
    Nick was already shaking his head. He came around the other side of the bed and sat, leaning against the headboard so Kelly couldn’t see his face without twisting. “We went through too much. Nothing romantic about it. And the night I kissed him, the night I told you about everything, there was nothing there. We would have worked if we’d wanted to, I guess, if we’d never found anything else. But . . .” He shrugged and shook his head.
    Kelly turned to try to see Nick’s face. “So there’s nothing left there?”
    “Nah. It’s kind of a relief. Life changes what love means, you know? What I felt about Ty, it was a different kind of love.”
    “Have you found something else?” Kelly asked carefully, surprised by how nervous the question made him.
    Nick looked at him oddly. “I don’t know. Why are you asking me these things? This isn’t some sort of post-gunshot meltdown, is it, ’cause I’m not built to handle those.”
    Kelly began to snicker, holding his chest so it wouldn’t hurt. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
    “If it is, we’ll call Owen; he’s good at the meltdown stuff.”
    “I’m not having a meltdown,” Kelly assured him. “Are you seeing anyone?”
    Nick was silent, sitting there and looking confused for a few seconds before answering. “Sort of. We haven’t had a date or anything, but we’re . . . actually, I’m not sure what we are.”
    The indecisive answer bolstered Kelly’s courage and relieved him, which was an odd sensation. “Hey, Irish?”
    Nick turned to him, the beginnings of a smile on his face.
    “Will you kiss me?”
    The smile faded into wide-eyed shock. Nick’s eyes were so green he almost looked like a cartoon. Kelly began to laugh. He had to hold his hand over his wound, but he couldn’t stop laughing. He reached out to put his other hand on Nick’s arm. “I’m sorry I’m laughing,” he wheezed. “It’s the drugs, I swear.”
    Nick snorted and gently peeled Kelly’s fingers off his forearm. “From now on you only get halves,” he mumbled. He slid off the bed, beginning to chuckle.
    “Wait!”
    Nick turned, trying to look annoyed but still laughing. Kelly schooled his features, frowning dramatically. “I’m serious,” he managed to say.
    “Yeah, you look it,” Nick drawled.
    “I want you to kiss me.”
    Nick examined him, seeming dubious.
    “I want to know what it feels like to kiss a guy. And you’ve had a lot of practice, so I know you’re a good kisser.”
    “Are you simultaneously complimenting me and calling me a whore?”
    “I’m . . . I’m just impressed you can take half a Percocet and say simul . . . simultaneous.”
    Nick sighed heavily, fighting back