Page 53 of Hard Rain
The man he loved.
Not a realization.
Just a fact.
One he’d been collecting evidence for ever since Boone partnered them together. Sure, he’d been attracted to Axel through the years, but attraction was easy to ignore when somebody drifted in and out of your life. That got a lot harder when Axel became part of everyday life.
Axel made a noise, frowned, and opened one eye.
“Why are you staring at me?”
Whip pulled his hand back.
“Making sure you’re still alive.”
“Good. Keep doing that.” Axel closed his eyes again. “If I die in this cabin, tell Boone I blame him.”
He huffed a laugh.
“Smartass. Coffee?”
“A gallon.” Axel stretched, arms bumping him, the back of his neck digging into his thigh.
“Ya gotta move so I can make it,” he rasped.
Axel groaned like he had personally ruined his life.
Some mornings getting him vertical took more effort than most warrant arrests.
The cabin wasn’t much to look at in the daylight. One room. Small kitchen. Potbellied stove beside the woodpile. A rickety bed and a dresser along one wall. It looked like a hundred other hunting cabins he’d stepped through over the years.
These structures were scattered all over Oregon timberland. Logging shacks and places people used for a week and forgot about the rest of the year.
He’d been inside dozens of them. Most sat empty year-round. Which was why the instant coffee and canned goods Axel found in the cupboard bothered him.
Cutter had been here.
The question was why he’d left in such a hurry.
He opened his mouth—
A sharp crack echoed somewhere beyond the cabin walls, sharp enough to cut through the rain.
Axel rolled to his feet instantly, and Whip followed, reaching for his SIG.
“Take the window,” he ordered.
“I don’t have my shoes on,” Axel growled, hopping on one foot as he shoved a boot on.
“Jesus Christ. Again with the shoes?”
“You suck,” Axel groused, jamming the second boot on.
“You have no idea.”
Whip slid along the wall and used the barrel of his pistol to ease the old ratty curtain aside.
“Could’ve been a deer.”
