“Oh my God.” He pulled back and looked Jack over. “Are you okay? How bad were you hurt? I know they said you were okay, but I needed to see for myself.”

  “I’m okay. Some ugly bruising, a few cuts, lots of soreness, but I’m okay. What about you?”

  “Same.” Fitz cupped his face and ran his thumb over Jack’s bottom lip. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I woke up in the ambulance and had no idea what was going on. They said we were in a car accident, and I was terrified. I had no idea what happened to you.” His eyes welled with tears, and Jack hugged him close again. He ran a hand soothingly down Fitz’s back.

  “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

  “Red and Laz are waiting for us outside. How’s Joker? He must have been beside himself.”

  Fitz’s concern for Sacha warmed Jack all over. “I scared him pretty bad, but he’s okay now.”

  “I don’t understand what happened. The light was green.” Fitz let his head rest against Jack’s shoulder.

  “I called one of my top guys, Maury, and had him look at the traffic cams and security cameras in the area that would have captured what happened. He confirmed our light was green and stayed green while the traffic lights for both lanes of oncoming traffic switched just as those two cars were turning. Someone tampered with the lights.”

  Fitz pulled back, face paling. “Someone did this? Wait, it’s them, isn’t it?”

  “Whoever sent the photos and drugged you, put something in my drink tonight as well, but thankfully I didn’t drink much of it, but I did drink enough for it to slow down my reaction time. I think that’s why they messed with the traffic lights. It must have pissed them off things didn’t go as planned with the drugs.”

  Fitz put a hand to his head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “Mason’s going to talk to one of his detective friends, see what they can do. Fitz, the idea of you getting hurt because some bastard is obsessed with me… Maybe…” His heart hurt just at the thought of it, but he had to think about Fitz. “We could… stop seeing each other.”

  Fitz studied him. “And what? You never date again? Do you want to stop seeing me?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Right. This isn’t about us. It’s about someone who’s become unhealthily and dangerously obsessed with you. Something’s happened to set this person off, and whether it’s me or someone else, they’re not going to stop. I’m not giving them what they want.”

  “You’re amazing, you know that?”

  Fitz’s smile lit up his gorgeous face. “Not just a pretty face.”

  “Not just a pretty face.” Jack brushed his lips over Fitz’s, a brief but sweet kiss. “Come on. Let’s get you home.”

  Fitz worried his bottom lip. “Would you… would you mind staying with me tonight? I’d rather not be alone. Laz offered to stay with me, but I think I’d rather fall asleep in your arms.”

  “I’d like that.” Jack kissed his temple before leading him out into the waiting room, where Red and Laz sat. They stood the moment they saw Jack and Fitz. “Thanks for driving us, guys.”

  Laz waved a hand. “As if there was any question.”

  “Jack’s going to stay at mine tonight,” Fitz said, hugging Laz. “But thank you for offering.”

  “Okay. But you call us if you two need anything.”

  They promised.

  Both of them were so worn out, they fell asleep on the car ride to Fitz’s house. It was late when they arrived, and they were exhausted. When they got inside, they each took a quick shower. Jack borrowed one of Fitz’s loose T-shirts and a pair of his black yoga pants. They climbed into bed, and Fitz curled up against him. A few kisses in, and they’d both fallen asleep.

  Jack didn’t know how much time had passed when a phone woke him up. The bed moved beside him, and Fitz rolled away.

  “Hello?” Fitz answered groggily. “What?” He bolted upright, a hand going to his head, no doubt from the sudden movement. Jack sat up, his stomach tightening as the color drained from Fitz’s face. Before he could ask, Fitz handed Jack the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Who’s this?” a familiar gruff voice demanded.

  “Val? It’s Jack. Constantino.” An icy chill swept through Jack. There was only one reason the fire chief would be calling.

  “Jack?”

  “Yeah, um, Fitz and I are, uh… dating.” Jack’s phone went off, and he picked it up. “Shit, I just got an alert from Fitz’s salon.”

  “That’s why I was calling.”

  Jack turned to look at Fitz and the tears in his eyes.

  “My salon is on fire.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  Jack glanced up at Fitz as he paced his office above the salon, his arms wrapped around himself. The fire department was still poking around downstairs, but thanks to the alarm system, they’d arrived in time to put out the fire before it could destroy the whole place. The damage was mostly cosmetic. No damage to the structure and no need to rebuild. Fitz would need to bring in a cleaning crew, painters, and order new equipment, but he’d been lucky. With the amount of flammable material in the salon—everything from nail polish and acetones to aerosol sprays—the fire had been burning fast. Fitz had been so close to losing everything.

  Fire Chief Valentino “Val” Serrano was a good man and a close friend of Frank’s, what with both of them having been part of the same fire house back in the day. Val had been gentle in his questioning, especially when they’d first arrived. Fitz had taken one look at the smoke coming out of his salon and turned into Jack, burying his head in Jack’s neck as he sobbed.

  Val had years of experience under his belt, and he believed Fitz when Fitz insisted there was no way any of his staff would have been so negligent as to leave something on that could cause a fire. Fitz was extremely meticulous with his daily procedures and record keeping, so he was able to log in to his computer and show months of closing documentation showing his staff’s signatures. Jack was able to back up the staff’s compliance by showing Val security footage of Fitz’s manager double-checking everything in the salon, making sure nothing had been left plugged in or turned on, before she locked up the place and set the alarm.

  “I’m going to check the footage from around the time the alarm went off.” After running a check on the system that came back normal, Jack did a quick scan of the footage two hours before the alarm went off, his blood turning cold when the screen went blank, the words off-line appearing on screen. There was no footage after that. “What the hell?”

  “What is it?” Fitz hurried over. “Why is it off-line?”

  “I don’t know. That shouldn’t have happened, and the moment it did, I would have personally been notified. I have the system programmed to call me if something goes wrong.”

  Fitz glanced at him. “Since when?”

  “Since I installed it,” Jack replied, his eyes glued to the screen.

  “Wait, you installed my security system? Laz said it was one of your guys.”

  Jack cleared his throat. “It was supposed to be, but I decided to handle it personally. Not because I didn’t trust him to do a good job. My team’s great, amazing really. I just, um…” A chuckle caught his attention, and he arched an eyebrow at Serrano.

  “I didn’t know you were such a smooth operator, Jack.”

  “Shut up, Val,” Jack muttered. “Anyway, point is, I installed it and programmed it to call me, which it did.”

  Val stood from where he’d been sitting, the small round white table looking like a kid’s table compared to his huge frame. He was a handsome man in his midforties, dark hair combed neatly to one side, a silver streak running through the right side of his temple. His tanned skin, chiseled jaw full of stubble, and muscular frame turned heads when the man strutted by, whether he was in or out of uniform.

  “This has gone too far. There has to be something the police can do,” Fitz said, pacing the room. “Someone has to find this person.”

  “What person?” Val asked. “What’s going on?”

  Jack ran a hand through his hair before filling Val in on everything that had happened, including the car accident they’d been in just hours ago.

  “Shit. You need to go to the police.”

  “With what?” Jack asked, frustrated. “There’s no evidence.”

  Fitz blinked at him. “No evidence? No evidence! What about the disaster downstairs? This person tried to kill us, Jack! Look what they did to my business! My hard work destroyed because they don’t have the fucking balls to say something to you like a normal person. When’s it going to end?”

  Jack stood and quickly went to Fitz, who turned away from him. It hurt, but Jack understood. He could see Fitz was on edge, his nerves frazzled, and who wouldn’t be? Jack had faced worse situations, but navigating the emotions of someone he loved wasn’t something he was accustomed to.

  “I know, sweetheart, I know,” Jack said softly, relieved when Fitz turned and walked into him, allowing Jack to hold him.

  “I’ll start the investigation,” Val informed them, “but even if we find evidence this wasn’t an accident, and it’s becoming pretty obvious we’re looking at arson here, we may not find evidence of who was responsible. Even if we do, you might not be able to connect what they did tonight to what they did previously.”

  “As long as we get them for something,” Fitz growled. “How long before I can start putting things back together?”

  “Depending on what we find and what your insurance company says, it could be several weeks before the scene—your salon—is released.”

  Fitz closed his eyes and nodded. “I understand.”

  This wasn’t going to go well, but Jack had to try. He rubbed Fitz’s arms in the hopes of offering comfort. “Sweetheart, I know you don’t want a bodyguard, but please let me assign you one of our guys. You won’t even know he’s there. His job is to protect you without being intrusive.” Jack held his breath as Fitz seemed to consider it. At least he hadn’t outright refused.

  “Who?”

  “Santos Cavallero. He’s ex-Navy Seals. One of King’s best.”

  Val’s head shot up. “Saint?”

  “You know Saint?” Jack asked, bemused.

  “I, um, met him at Frank’s. Saint was working a job that night.”

  Jack waited for Val to elaborate, but he didn’t. He just stared down at his tablet before shaking his head. Okay, Jack had no idea what that was about. Turning his attention back to Fitz, he continued to rub his arms.

  “Please, sweetheart.”

  Fitz let out a heavy sigh but nodded. “Okay. What about you?”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you. The man who this person is obsessed with. Who’s going to watch your back?” Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Fitz narrowed his eyes. “And if you’re about to tell me you don’t need anyone because you’re a big tough Green Beret, I suggest you rethink that response.”

  Jack held back a smile. Fuck, he loved this man. “I was going to say, I have five other big tough Green Berets to watch my back. Believe me, King’s going to make sure of it.”

  “Why don’t you two go home. There’s nothing you can do here,” Val said. “I’ll call you as soon as I have any information.”

  Jack escorted Fitz downstairs. They walked outside to the small parking lot where Jack had parked Fitz’s Galactic Aqua Mica Toyota Camry Hybrid. He reached for the passenger side door, but Fitz’s hand on his arm stopped him.

  “Would you be upset if I stayed with Laz and Red tonight? I can drop you off at Joker’s.”

  “Oh, right. No, of course I’m not upset.” Jack opened the passenger door and climbed inside. His heart hurt from the awkwardness that had settled between them.

  “Are you sure? You look upset.”

  “Just tired,” Jack promised. “I know you are too.”

  The car ride over to Joker’s was uncomfortably silent, and Jack hated it. He wasn’t upset with Fitz. It was perfectly natural that he’d want some time on his own to process all this. First someone had invaded his privacy and taken photos of him without his knowledge or consent, then they drugged him and put him in a dangerous situation, then they endangered his life in a car accident before setting fire to the business he’d poured so much of himself into.

  “Text me when you get there so I know you made it, okay?” Jack said, turning in his seat to kiss Fitz. He cupped Fitz’s cheek and tried to convey all the love he felt for him in that one kiss. The words were there, a breath away from tumbling out of him.

  “Goodnight, Jack.”

  Jack nodded and got out of the car. He stood on the sidewalk as Fitz drove away, waiting until he’d turned the corner and disappeared, then headed upstairs to Joker’s tiny apartment on the second floor of the converted beach house. Chip’s quiet bark alerted Joker to Jack’s presence. It was amazing how Chip always knew it was him or one of the guys before they even reached the door. It swung open, and a bed-rumpled Joker with hair sticking up all over stood in a faded AC/DC T-shirt and black boxer-briefs.

  “What happened?”

  Jack grunted as he stepped around him and headed straight for Sacha’s bed, falling face-first onto the warm sheets. The door to the bedroom closed and a cold nose pushed against the hand Jack left dangling over the side.

  “Jack?”

  “Someone set fire to Fitz’s salon.”

  “What? Is Fitz okay? Shit, no, of course he’s not. Where is he?”

  “He went to stay with Laz and Red.”

  Silence.

  The bed dipped and a hand landed on his head, followed by a knowing sigh. “I’m sorry, man.”

  “He needs time to process all this. Poor guy’s been through more shit in the last month than most go through in a lifetime, and all because he made the stupid mistake of being my boyfriend.”

  “I’m all out of cake.”

  Jack frowned. “What?”

  “For that pity party you’re throwing.”

  “Fuck off,” Jack said with a chuckle as he petted Chip. “I’m tired, Sacha.”

  “Get some sleep, then.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. You were in a car accident tonight—”

  “Technically yesterday.”

  The bed shifted and the lamp turned off. “Don’t make me tell Chip to sit on you.”

  “Might help loosen some of the knots in my back.”

  Joker chuckled, the bed moving as he settled in next to Jack. They’d been sharing beds since they were in high school, so Jack didn’t so much as blink when Sacha lay down next to him.

  “Val working on it?”

  “Yeah. He called Fitz, and I spoke to him. He was there when we arrived, and we filled him in on what’s going on. I know it’s them. I just don’t get why all the cloak-and-dagger bullshit.” Jack rolled over to face Joker. “If this person is obsessed with me, why not approach me? Since when is attempted murder and arson a better option?”

  “You’re thinking about what a rational person would do, and we’re not talking about a rational person here. To them, this behavior makes perfect sense. They wanted your attention and they got it. My guess is they were hoping Fitz would be out of the picture by now.”

  “They might just get their wish.”

  “You really think so?” Jack couldn’t see Joker’s eyes, but he heard the concern in his best friend’s his voice.

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t, but that’s me. If I loved the guy, nothing would stop me from being with him.”

  Chip whined and Jack huffed.

  “No. You do not get a snack just because you’re awake. Go to sleep. Ooh, look at him giving me the stink-eye.”

  Jack chuckled. He patted the bed and smiled when Chip jumped up and lay on Jack’s feet. He wrinkled his nose and squirmed when Chip licked the bottom of his foot. “Your dog has a foot fetish,” Jack teased.

  “My dog is a dog. Licking things is what dogs do.”

  “Chip, go give daddy a kiss.”

  The bed shook as Chip scrambled on top of Joker, who tried to stop Chip from licking his face.

  “Oh my God, no! Gross! Chip, no!”

  Jack chuckled and fell asleep to the comforting sounds of Sacha cursing him and arguing with his furry friend.

  NINE

  Four weeks.

  It took four weeks for Fitz’s salon to be released back to him, and only because King put in several calls to the insurance company. Val’s investigation confirmed arson. Someone had launched a Molotov cocktail through Fitz’s salon window. The breaking glass had set off the alarm, but the sprinklers had been disabled.

  For days after the salon was released, Fitz stayed away from it. He couldn’t stand to go in and see the charred remains of his blood, sweat, and tears. It could have been so much worse, but that didn’t mean the damage hadn’t hurt his soul, especially knowing it was because some sick bastard had taken offense to his being with Jack.

  Jack…

  Fuck, he missed him, which was ridiculous because he talked to Jack almost every day, but he hadn’t seen Jack in days, hadn’t kissed him, touched him. Jack was determined to find whoever was responsible, and to make matters worse, they had a tropical storm moving in. Ah, the joys of Florida in the summer.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Laz promised him, handing him a cup of chamomile tea.

  “Thanks.” Fitz’s phone rang, and he picked up, his heart skipping a beat at Jack’s smiling face popping up on his caller ID. “Hi, Jack.”

  “Hey, sweetheart. How are you?”

  “Okay. One sec.” Fitz motioned to Laz that he was going outside to talk. Sliding open the condo’s glass door, Fitz stepped out onto the balcony. He closed the door behind him and went to Laz’s favorite chaise lounge, where he placed his cup of tea on the glass-topped wicker table beside it. He sat down, the ocean breeze ruffling his hair. Legs curled up under him, he smiled into the phone. “Hey, handsome.”