All of the Voices by Bailey Bradford (book recommendations based on other books TXT) 📕

“What kind of trap? Something to do with your job, or was there a naked woman waiting in there trying to get in your pants?”

Matt wished he could look at Carlin, see what the man’s expression could tell him. Probably better that he couldn’t. “No, it wasn’t a woman. We were working a case. This sick fuck had been stalking Sheriff Stenley back when Stenley was a Houston PD detective. Tortured and killed his lover, and everyone thought it was a random thing. Stenley and Conner—that was his lover’s name—were both in the closet, so no one had any reason to think someone might really have been after Stenley.”

Now Matt glanced at Carlin long enough to catch his shocked expression. “That poor man. And Conner, oh my God. I can’t imagine. No wonder Sheriff Stenley is so…so stoic most of the time.”

“Yeah,” Matt agreed as he focused his attention back on the drive. “Might be, but I think he’s always been the strong, silent type. Anyway, he left Houston and came out here. He’d been here a few years when Severo popped up out of the blue.” Matt chuckled as he thought about the early days of Stenley and Severo’s relationship. Severo had quickly wrapped Stenley around his pinky, and Stenley had loved every minute of it.

“And then the guy who killed Conner found Stenley again?”

“Well, it’s more complicated than that, but to get down to brass tacks, Stenley’s former partner at HPD, Rich Montoya, came to McKinton and, uh, I kind of felt—thought, maybe…” Matt shook his head. “But I was wrong. James McAlister, another HPD detective, was the sick bastard who’d killed Conner, all because McAlister wanted Stenley. McAlister showed up here and abducted Rich. I got worried when Rich didn’t answer his cell, or the motel phone, and I went charging in when I should have called for backup. Ended up face to face with McAlister while he shoved a knife into my gut. And, uh, that’s why I couldn’t bring myself to go into another one of those motel rooms.”

Carlin didn’t speak so Matt finished the rest of the story. “McAlister left me there, bleeding out on the floor. Told me to call Stenley and tell him to come to Stenley’s house alone or McAlister would finish the job he’d started on Rich. Stenley went, and a few minutes later, Zeke, Brendon and Severo showed up loaded for bear. McAlister had three bullets in him—any one of them would have been fatal. So that was the end of McAlister.”

“And Rich? What happened to him?”

Matt pulled into the drive and wondered at the odd note in Carlin’s voice. “Rich was fucked up. McAlister had a thing for knifes, and he’d had Rich for hours. Doctors didn’t even think Rich would make it, and they were almost right. He died twice in the hospital. Took the staff a while to bring him back the last time, so there were some concerns about brain damage. I figured he didn’t have any when he told me to get my ass out of his room ’cause he couldn’t stand the sight of me. He got better, then he left. That’s all I know.”

“He hurt you,” Carlin muttered. “Maybe he was out of it still, or he—”

“No,” Matt bit out, cutting Carlin and the engine off at the same time. “That wasn’t all he said, and he and I hadn’t…we hadn’t done anything. Guess the sparks coming off us when we were together really were from our personalities clashing. I thought it meant something else.” But he’d been wrong, and after having spent several sleepless nights at Rich’s bedside, his head and heart aching for the man only to be so thoroughly rejected, that had shaken every bit of Matt’s confidence. It had also made him doubt his blooming attraction for men, period, or at least his judgment in choosing a man.

“You’ve never been with a man, have you?”

Carlin’s perceptiveness shouldn’t have surprised Matt, but it did, enough so that Matt didn’t have time to answer any way other than with blunt honesty.

“No. I wondered, but there wasn’t anyone, any man, who interested me. I’d had sex with women, found it enjoyable but not… It didn’t rock my world, you know? I just figured I wasn’t a sexual person. Happens, or so I’ve heard.”

“And Rich changed that? Lit you up and left you hard every time you were around him?”

Matt thought about it for a minute. “Not to that extreme, but I was interested. I thought there could be more, but obviously I was wrong.”

“I still think he must have been brain damaged,” Carlin said. “He’d have to be to turn you down. You’ve never done anything with a man at all?”

Matt wanted to say he hadn’t, but he was pretty sure his cheeks were flaming, and Carlin would know, the perceptive little shit, if he lied. “Did stuff when I was a kid, jerking off with another boy. Did the same with a guy I used to work with, even sucked him off a couple of times.” And it still pissed him off that he’d been such a fool. “Fucker quit when it came out Stenley was gay. Said he wouldn’t work for or with queers.”

“Oh.” Matt looked at Carlin as the blond unbuckled his seatbelt. “He was one of those. Closeted and hating everyone else brave enough to come out because he was too scared to do it himself. Those are the worst ones. I’m sorry he happened to you,” Carlin whispered, then Matt’s seatbelt was unbuckled and he suddenly found himself straddled by a very sexy attorney. Matt’s heart fluttered in his chest, his breathing stuttering as he looked in Carlin’s eyes, then down to his plump lips.

“You ever kissed a man, Matt?” Carlin asked, his breath ghosting over Matt’s lips.

Matt grunted as he watched the pink tip of Carlin’s tongue dart out to slick Carlin’s bottom lip. He couldn’t bear to look and see if there was