NOVEL: The Panic Pure, by Harper Kingsley [mm suspense] – Chapter Twelve

Title: The Panic Pure
Author: Harper Kingsley
Character: Daniel Worth/Marshal Newman, Arthur Conway, Joanna Starkweather, Sophia Hawthorne
Genre: mm suspense thriller

Summary: Daniel Worth, billionaire and CEO of Worth Enterprises is questioned by FBI agent Marshal Newman about the disappearance of one of his employees. They strike up a conversation and soon are regularly meeting and begin dating. However neither realizes just how close danger is lurking. }

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CHAPTER TWELVE

They continued their dinners together and weeks passed. Enough that Danny didn’t feel so much like spinning apart whenever he asked Marshal to sleep over. And all they ever did was sleep.

It got to be something Danny looked forward to. There was something about listening to another person breathe in the darkness that soothed Danny instead of completely terrifying him as he would have thought.

He was happy and that had everything to do with Marshal. It felt as though he had finally learned how to live.

“You’re smiling. A lot.”

Danny turned his head to give Arthur a grin. “I think I am. Do you think we should be concerned?” He widened his eyes humorously. “Maybe it’s fatal!”

Arthur nudged his shoulder gently. “I’ll take you to the doctor for a checkup later.”

They were in the study. Danny had been reading “Kirith Kirin” when Arthur decided to make his presence known by snatching the book out of his hands and flipping through it.

“Were you missing me? Is that what it is, you were pining for my company?” Danny waggled his eyebrows. “Just because I’m in a relationship now doesn’t mean I don’t have time for you, Artie. We’re best friends forever.”

“Oh, one look at you and anyone could tell you’re either in the midst of a relationship or a midlife crisis, and you’re a bit young for the latter.” Arthur paused his book flipping to raise his eyebrows. “What exactly are you reading here? Wasn’t this kid just like fourteen or something?”

Danny ran his finger across the waxed table, drawing lines and circles. “You should read it before you make a big judgment. It’s a beautiful story.”

Arthur read a few more pages before handing the book back. “Sorry, friend, not my bag.”

Danny groaned. “I know you think it’s funny, but whatever accent you’re trying to do is simply awful.”

“How do you know that’s not the response I want to get?” Arthur stuck out his tongue childishly.

Danny snorted a laugh. “Well, if that was the plan, then you succeeded beautifully.”

Arthur stood up from the couch he’d gracelessly flopped down onto and paced in front of the shelves of books. “I worry about you,” his voice dropped seriously. “I try not to, but I can’t help myself.” He turned to look at Danny. “I’m glad you’re doing as well as you are. I’m glad you found someone that cares about you and who you actually care about.”

Danny smiled. “Me too.”

Marshal had been wonderful, more so than Danny would have thought he deserved. He still couldn’t figure out how he had gotten so lucky to end up with someone like Marshal in his life, but he wasn’t going to waste it.

“I’m happy,” he admitted.

“Good,” Arthur said. “You deserve to be.”

“Now we just have to find someone for you,” Danny teased.

“Hey!” Arthur wagged his finger. “That right there is subject closed. You know I’m not ready to settle down. I’ve got another four years before I want to even think about settling down and raising babies or any of that stuff.”

Danny laughed before suddenly falling serious. “I really like Marshal. What would you say if I decided to keep him?”

“‘Congratulations, when’s he moving in?'” Arthur raised his eyebrows.

“Exactly.”

* * *

Being an FBI desk jockey meant dealing with the reality that sometimes things didn’t work out and there were some cases that resulted in dead ends. Janeane’s case was one such.

They’d tracked down the boyfriend–a young black man named James Southerfed–but he’d had a pretty solid alibi after Janeane left his apartment. They’d climbed into cabs side-by-side after a romantic goodbye and he’d gone straight to the airport. Two weeks in Florida for his job, and he came home to a missing girlfriend.

Marshal hated to admit it, but after awhile it didn’t even feel like his cases represented people anymore. Janeane had just been a name and a photograph.

Right up until he imagined what it would be like going away for work only to come back and find Danny missing, possibly forever. Murder would have broken something in Marshal, but to always be left wondering… the not knowing would have killed him.

Talking to James left him feeling disturbed enough to go up three floors and bother his old friend Hamilton Assanti.

“I’m telling you, Hammy, loving someone means seeing their face in every missing person’s case. I think it’s fucked up my brain.” Marshal slumped across Hamilton’s desk.

Hamilton had been doing something busy with sensitive information and looked a bit as though he wanted to tell Marshal to get lost. He refrained.

“How long have you been in love for?” Hamilton asked curiously. He’d loosened his tie in the privacy of his office and he was in his shirt sleeves, though it would take a lot more for him to seem slack. He just had one of those faces that seemed perpetually on the job.

“I don’t know,” Marshal said, “forever? We’ve only been dating a little while, but I had a complete case of the instants the first time I saw him. I think I’m losing my mind.”

“It sounds like it.” Hamilton steepled his hands in front of his chin. “How does he feel about you?”

“It’s not one sided,” Marshal said. He didn’t know if Danny loved him, but he knew there was something there. “He’s got issues.”

Hamilton made a murmuring hum in his throat. “I’m really not that surprised. You’re someone that thrives on the kind of drama that would send me up the wall. He at least knows you’re dating, right? Each other?”

They’d known each other since college, so Hamilton had seen Marshal in his most stupid of moments. Still, Marshal wasn’t thrilled about being treated as though his being in love meant he’d lost all touch with reality.

“Yes, he knows we’re dating. Each other,” he added off Hamilton’s raised eyebrow. He flopped into one of the chairs in front of the large desk. “I’m telling you Hammy, he’s complete damaged goods, but he’s sweet and maybe a bit naive. I feel like he needs me, and I need to be needed, but it scares me too.”

“Why would you be scared?” Hamilton asked. He looked like he was trying to maintain his disinterest, but he had always been the go to guy and it was a role he’d reveled in as long as Marshal had known him. Whenever someone needed a keg, or a ride or anything, Hamilton had been the man to turn to.

“He’s been hurt.” Marshal clasped his hands together on his knees. “You just gotta look into his eyes and you can see he was hurt and not put back together right. I don’t want to be another chink in his armor.”

“You’re scared you’re going to break his heart. Good.”

Marshal blinked in surprise. “It’s good that I might end up hurting him?”

Hamilton shook his head. “That part’s not good, but the fact that you care is. It’ll make you more careful with him, which is good if he’s as damaged as you seem to think.” He raked a hand through his dark brown hair with a sigh. “Look man, no one wants to spend their whole life alone, so if he’s letting you in that’s a really big honor, one you shouldn’t waste by being stupid and careless. Treat him like precious goods and never forget that you don’t want to hurt him.”

“I really don’t want to see him hurt,” Marshal said. “He’s been through too much and I don’t want to add to everything that’s been bad in his life.”

“Then don’t.” Hamilton sighed heavily. He’d never been very fond of giving romance advice, but he was good at it. “The fact that he’s let you into his world at all is a sign that he wants more in his life than what he has now. If he lives as strictly regimented as you suggest, then maybe he’s searching for some way to break out.

“He wants to live and enjoy his life. And it looks like he’s open to letting you be part of it.” Hamilton gave Marshal a piercing look. “Don’t screw him up more. This might not work out between the two of you, but don’t let yourself become another scar on his psyche.”

Marshal shook his head. “I don’t want that either.” He wasn’t going to insist that he and Danny were going to be together forever all roses and ponies. He knew that every relationship came with the risk that it wasn’t going to work out.

But he knew that he wanted to have something with Danny. Something real.

* * *

-THE SPACES IN BETWEEN-

Tracking Lauren Green felt a bit stalkerish, but there was no way Arthur was going to let her show up and surprise them. That way lay madness and giving the enemy the upper hand.

She’d left the airport for a five-star hotel far enough away from anything Worth related that Arthur could almost hope she wasn’t going to cause trouble. But he’d met her and he’d seen her pull off frightening levels of deviousness and what could only be taken for outright EVIL.

So he felt no qualms about calling Vanessa and having her send someone to follow Lauren Green wherever she went. He wanted to know her every move until she returned to whatever rock she’d crawled out from under.

“Why don’t you ever call her ‘doctor’?” Sophia asked. She was sitting in the guest chair in front of his desk and had been listening to him give commands over the phone.

“Because a doctor is someone trained to help people. I don’t see her helping anyone else but herself.” He didn’t mention all of the terrible things he’d seen her do to Danny; Sophia suspected enough, she didn’t need the confirmation.

“Hm.” Sophia stood, smoothing out her skirt. “My break is over. Would you like to have lunch tomorrow?”

Arthur glanced at the calendar on his desk. “Looks like I’m free. Call me before you come down?”

She nodded and strode briskly from the room, her back straight. The door clicked shut behind her.

Left alone in his office, Arthur seriously had to wonder what was going on. He almost would have thought she was interested in him, but she was Sophia Hawthorne. She was probably voted “most likely to eat her mate” in high school.

He took the small yellow pencil out of his desk drawer and wrote “Lunch” on his calendar. His secretary would know not to schedule anything else for him.

Sometimes being both Danny’s personal lawyer and chauffeur felt like too much, but he enjoyed his job. Besides, it allowed him to watch after Danny and make sure he was kept safe.

Danny had his demons from childhood, and Arthur had his own. Watching from the sidelines as terrible things were done to his friend… that was the kind of guilt and regret that would last him the rest of his life.

* * *

“There’s been another one.”

Marshal froze with a handful of files in his hand. “Sir?”

Director Kevin Crane’s expression was pinched tight. “There’s been another missing woman. You’ve already got the Brooke’s case. I want you and Starkweather to take this one too.”

Marshal set down his files and leaned his hip against the side of the desk. “Any reason to think it ties with the Brooke’s case?”

“Nothing hard. I just have a feeling in my gut.” Crane shook his head. “Maybe I’m getting old and seeing ghosts where there isn’t anything, but we’ve had a big jump in missing person cases lately. It puts me on edge. There’s something going on.”

Marshal kept his expression bland. “We’ll handle it, sir.”

Crane gave him a long look, then nodded decisively. He held out a file to Marshal. “Figure out what happened to her,” he ordered.

The folder was pathetically thin, which Marshal knew meant he and Joanna were supposed to fill it. All the mysteries of — he glanced at the name — Starla Jane Danville were his to unravel.

And God did he hope they weren’t really dealing with a serial killer.

 

Marshal knew he wasn’t quite the FBI agent that appeared in TV and movies, but he didn’t care either.

He hadn’t chosen his profession for the adventure factor or so he’d have book fodder to feed his retirement. No, all he’d ever wanted to do was help catch the bad guys and make the world better for good people given a raw deal. People like Danny.

He couldn’t help being amused when he realized how much of his life revolved around Danny. All unknowing, he’d let Daniel Worth crawl under his skin.

He hadn’t been happier in a long time.

“Hey, put on a sober face,” Joanna suddenly ordered. “Considering the kind of case we’re supposed to be cracking, you shouldn’t look so completely contented with yourself. It’s creepy.”

She sounded amused. So Marshal didn’t hesitate to snort rudely. “There’s nothing wrong with being happy with my life. It’s a sign that I’m a supremely awesome individual.”

It was Joanna’s turn to snort. She hadn’t even looked away from her computer screen; she was in “job mode.” The staccato clack of her keyboard came at such speeds that the sound of individual keystrokes was actually several keys hit too fast to differentiate.

Joanna really was a paperwork ninja, which is why he’d decided on first meeting her that she was the perfect partner for him. They were the agents that stayed in the office and didn’t get murdered in some guy’s butterfly hut with birds shrieking all around and rose petals falling like cinematic snowflakes. He’d never even fired his gun outside of training.

“Stop daydreaming,” Joanna ordered, her fingers still typing away. “I want to be able to go home tonight. Get your work done.”

Marshal sighed. “You’re a cruel task master. I think I’m feeling abused.”

“Keep wasting time and I’ll abuse you,” she threatened.

“All right, all right.” Marshal uncapped his favorite highlighter, which came in a truly obnoxious hue of green. He wasn’t allowed to use it on official documents, but he liked to see Joanna’s horrified face when the marked up files crossed her desk.

He caught a glimpse of her eyes glaring for a second at his pen, but she refrained from starting a fight. She had other means of making him rue his actions.

It was one of the amusing little games they played.

* * *

The FBI should have probably made him worried, and following a pair of them around should have been inconceivable. It was taunting danger, risking being caught for nothing more than simple amusement.

Except these Agents were completely pathetic and blind too. He actually felt a bit insulted that they had been put on his case — he deserved the best the FBI had to offer and instead he got these two. It was a bit insulting.

He was very pleased to discover Daniel Worth though. It almost made him feel grateful to his bumbling pursuers.

Daniel Worth was a diamond in the rough. And there was no doubt that until he was broken he would scream so pretty.

/CHAPTER

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