The First Time is the Sweetest (25 page)

“Good morning, darling!” Jimmy called as he came into the bedroom. She sunk back into the pillows and smiled at him, admiring his gorgeous body. He wore cut-offs and nothing else. She bit her lips at the sight of his chiseled abs and chest; then her eyes dropped to his groin, eyeing the zipper.

He laughed, enjoying her look. “Don’t get your hopes up, Sabrina. We have a meeting with Agent Patrick in an hour.”

Sabrina sighed in disappointment and ran her hands through her hair, trying to work out some of the knots. “Where’s Gabriel?” she asked. “I didn’t hear him downstairs and I sort of remember something about groceries?”

Jimmy nodded. “He went to town to pick up some supplies. We have one egg left and some toast for your breakfast,” he paused and smirked, “or should I say lunch?” Sabrina threw her pillow at him and laughed as he dodged. “He’ll be back any minute now.” She made a face at him, then turned as the door slammed downstairs.

“Guess that’s my cue to get out of bed.” Sabrina stood up, stretching her arms over her head. She was happy the cut on her arm didn’t even twinge as she moved around, gathering up her clothes. After a quick shower, she pulled on a white tank top with her favorite purple sweat shorts. It looked like it was going to be another hot day, and she wanted to be comfortable. She didn’t care if the FBI thought it was appropriate or not for their meeting. She wondered if Jimmy was going to put on a shirt and found herself hoping he wouldn’t. She hummed to herself as she ran a comb through her hair, then frowned when she heard raised voices from downstairs.

“What? Are you fucking serious?” Jimmy exclaimed. What was going on? Sabrina couldn’t hear Gabriel’s reply, so she moved to the stairs and ran down lightly on bare feet.

“Yeah, I’m positive it was him,” Gabriel was saying, running his hands through his hair and making it stand on end. He wore light brown shorts and a black T-shirt. Sabrina could see one gun tucked into a waist holster, sitting at the small of his back. It looked uncomfortable. His other smaller weapon was on the table among the partially unpacked stuff Gabriel had just brought in from town. Both men turned as she neared. The groceries were half spread in and out of three bags, but neither man seemed much concerned with putting the food away.

“What’s going on?” she asked, slipping up to Gabriel and wrapping her arm around his waist. He turned and gave her a firm hug, burying his nose in her neck for a second before letting go and sighing. He looked at her then, searching her face for something, she wasn’t sure what. Jimmy stood on the other side of the table, looking grim.

“I saw Agent Patrick in town talking to Miltos,” Gabriel finally said bluntly.

Sabrina wrinkled her face, confused. “Did he catch him?” she asked, thinking how great that would be, but stopped as Gabriel shook his head.

“No, he wasn’t in cuffs. It looked like they were arguing. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were really going at it. At one point I thought Patrick was going to hit Miltos, but he didn’t, and then Miltos left, looking pissed.”

Sabrina felt the blood leave her face. She clutched at his arm. “What? Are you serious?” Gabriel nodded soberly. “Do you think they’re working together?” she asked tightly. The FBI agent in charge of her case was talking to the shooter? Gabriel shrugged. He looked frustrated. “I don’t understand,” Sabrina murmured to herself, still trying to wrap her brain around what he’d said.

“Neither do I,” Gabriel admitted, squeezing her arms. She flinched slightly. It seemed appropriate that it hurt, the perfect metaphor for the sudden mess of her life. Gabriel immediately gentled his touch. “I was in the checkout of the small grocery store when I looked up and saw Patrick standing across the street in front of the post office, talking to Miltos. I’d met Miltos when I was undercover. He’s the head honcho for the drugs in the northeast, so I remembered his face. It’s a good thing I was in the shop and out of sight. I could barely control my shock.” Gabriel looked down at the food spread haphazardly on the table. “I think we should go. I don’t think we’re safe here anymore.”

Jimmy nodded grimly and looked at Sabrina. “Yeah, I agree. If Patrick is meeting with Miltos, that means the bad guys know where we are.”

“Shit,” Sabrina said succinctly, heart racing.

“And apparently Patrick is a bad guy.” He gritted his teeth. “Goddamn it! He was my partner! I’m supposed to be able to trust him,” he ground out, looking angrier the longer they stood there. “What the fuck is he doing?”

Sabrina grimaced. “I bet it’s money. Didn’t you say he went through a messy divorce?” Gabriel jerked his head in agreement. “Did his ex take a lot of his money?”

Gabriel looked at her. “Yeah, yeah, she did,” he breathed. “She divorced him because he freaked when he found out their son was gay, hitting the kid, threatening to throw him out. He had to undergo some sort of anger management and non-discrimination training after that. I’m not sure what all it entailed because it happened while I was undercover.”

“Jesus,” Jimmy breathed. “Did he know you were bi? Why would they assign him a partner like you if he had a history like that?”

“I’m not sure anyone really knew about my orientation. I mean, I never hid it, but it just never came up, either. It wasn’t like I went out of my way to tell everyone, you know? The powers that be either didn’t know my preferences or if they did, they figured that it would be good for Aaron to deal with his issues head-on.”

“Agent Patrick was acting really strange the night those guys broke in my house,” Sabrina offered. Both men looked at her. “He was really weird about warning me to be careful and saying that I should watch out even with you two around. He looked really wigged out at the time, but I didn’t really think about it because I was so tired and freaked myself. I even noticed him flinching slightly when you came to the table, Jimmy. He must have known about you by then.”

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, we had complete files on the both of you. Shit. Even if he knew and hated my orientation, that still shouldn’t be enough to make him turn. Knowing about Jimmy never seemed to bother him. There has to be more to this than we’re seeing right now.”

“It’s gotta be the money,” Jimmy said. Sabrina nodded and Gabriel sighed again, sitting down and running his hands through his hair. “Isn’t it always the money?” Jimmy added cynically.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. He needed cash and that operation was rolling in it. But what does that have to do with shooting you?” Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, then rubbed his eyes before dropping his hands.

“Maybe Miltos is screwing everything up because he’s distracted. I mean, it was all about revenge on my father, right? How do you run a ‘business,’” Sabrina used air quotes to emphasize her point, “while you’re running around trying to shoot someone because of what happened with your girlfriend? Maybe he was neglecting things and the bigger boss, whoever that is, got pissed.” Jimmy nodded while Gabriel just looked thoughtful.

“You could be right. I know Miltos was in charge of most of the drug trafficking in north Jersey, but we knew that there was someone else who pulled the strings in New York City. Before being transferred to New Jersey to work with me, Patrick worked out of the Manhattan office. Maybe he’d been taking money from them, messing with the FBI’s operation, and when he moved, he had to deal with Miltos, who had this little revenge thing going on. The money dries up because Miltos is distracted, or maybe the big boss tells Patrick to deal with Miltos and get the situation under control and offers more money for that.” Sabrina nodded. What Gabriel said made sense. “And it all plays into Patrick’s homophobia.” He banged the table with his fist. “Even so, it doesn’t change things now. We have to get out of here.” Gabriel rose and swiftly packed the food back into the paper sacks. Sabrina moved to help him, running her hand over his back soothingly when suddenly the window over the kitchen sink shattered.

“Get down!” Gabriel cried, grabbing her and shoving her onto the floor before she knew what was happening. Was someone shooting?
That must have been what broke the window
, she thought vaguely, lying on the floor. Gabriel had his gun out and was making his way over to Jimmy’s side when several more shots rang out. Sabrina crawled under the table. Gabriel crouched down but kept popping up, trying to see out of the window. Jimmy grabbed a paring knife off the counter and was kneeling beside the cabinets under the sink. Sabrina didn’t know what to do. Then she saw a dark shape move behind the old glass on the front door.
Shit!

“Guys, incoming through the front!” she said sharply, then remembered the gun Gabriel left on the table. Despite her fear, she reached up from underneath and felt around as several more shots flew inside. Some potato chips fell to the floor as she ran her hand along the table.
No, no, not the eggs, not the cookies, wait, gotcha!
She closed her hand around the gun just as three men wearing black ski masks crashed through the front door. Jimmy threw the paring knife at one of them, and the intruder went down, the hilt protruding from his eye.

Sabrina flipped off the safety on the gun, checking to see if it was loaded first, then aimed at the door, suddenly grateful that Gabriel had shown her how to use a gun properly yesterday. She still couldn’t really hit what she aimed at, but she could try. She squeezed the trigger as the remaining two men started forward, hitting one in the shoulder to her complete shock. He went down, his gun skittering away. He didn’t move, and Sabrina felt a moment’s remorse, but then Jimmy muttered a “good job” under his breath as he scrabbled along the counter for another knife. She threw him a quick smile. Even though she knew the man was trying to kill them, she didn’t feel particularly good knowing that she’d hurt someone. She stayed crouched down, praying they could get out of this safely, but then more bullets shattered the lamp in the living area.

“Damn it,” she muttered, ducking down even lower as more bullets pocked the far walls with ragged holes. She glanced up and saw Gabriel pop up above the windowsill for a split second to fire some shots just as Jimmy closed his fingers around the chef’s knife on the counter. By now, the last man was really close. She tried to make herself as small a target as possible. He wasn’t carrying a gun, so she assumed he must have lost it in the melee, but he was a large man. He could do a lot of damage with just his fists if he got near her. She squeezed off two more shots, but neither came close to hitting the guy to her disgust. Sabrina figured they would be better off if she conserved the rest of her ammunition in case he got close enough for her to hit him. Surely she could manage at point-blank range?

“Don’t come any closer,” Jimmy said, voice low and angry.

Sabrina contemplated whether or not to try for another shot as she scrunched down on the other side of the cabinets near Gabriel’s legs, savoring the warmth of his bare skin. All the remaining shots seemed to be coming through the kitchen window, but that didn’t stop her from appreciating the warmth of his body. The man in the mask didn’t respond to Jimmy’s warning and kept stalking forward. She could see him grinning through the fabric and shivered as his eyes swiveled back and forth from Jimmy to her. Then, faster than she could process, he leaped forward and the two men were fighting. Jimmy’s face tightened with concentration as he moved, using a few brutal maneuvers she’d only seen in the movies. In a matter of moments, the other man was on the floor, groaning from a deep knife wound in his side. Sabrina shuddered as Jimmy dropped to his knees and violently ripped off the ski mask. Gabriel glanced down briefly, then squeezed off a few more shots as he saw Jimmy had the man under control.

“Who sent you?” Jimmy barked, smacking the floor beside the man’s face with his fist. The man spit at him, and Sabrina grimaced. Disgusting. Jimmy wiped his forearm on the injured man’s sleeve, looking grim.

“Only one left outside now,” Gabriel said in a tight voice. “If he pops out of cover again, I’ve got him.” He didn’t turn around as he spoke. Sabrina looked over near the door at the man she’d shot. He was lying perfectly still. Was he dead? She began to shiver, the adrenaline from the initial burst of violence draining from her body too fast for her to control.

“I don’t care how much you spit at me, you’re going to tell me what I want to know,” Jimmy muttered. He’d grabbed the intruder by the hair and was yanking back on his head, holding the chef’s knife at the man’s eye. The man didn’t look so defiant anymore.

“All right, all right!” he panted. “I was hired by some older guy, name of Patrick.” The three of them froze at his words, Gabriel chancing a look back.

“And what did he say when he hired you?” Jimmy asked menacingly. The man swallowed, his eye following the knife Jimmy circled in front of his face.

“He offered us fifty thousand to kill the three of you.”

Sabrina felt her blood freeze. Gabriel’s partner had paid someone to kill them?

“What about Miltos? You ever work for him?” Jimmy asked, looking even angrier than before, which Sabrina would have sworn was impossible.

“No, no, just that guy Patrick,” the man panted. “I’ve heard of Miltos, but never did any work for him.” His eyes were growing glassy, and she had to look away. Then the man passed out, and Jimmy dropped his head back to the floor in frustration. Sabrina looked at Jimmy, but he just stared back at her. Grim thoughts ran through her mind. Then Gabriel squeezed off a final shot.

“Got him!” He turned away from the window urgently. “We have to get out of here, now. Patrick will have more men coming, especially if some boss higher up in the organization is bankrolling him.” Gabriel was already walking toward the door. He wanted to scream with frustration, looking around at the bloody mess in the cabin. Sabrina was pale, but Jimmy just seemed grim. Gabriel worried about her for a moment, then made himself get moving.