Love Lies Bleeding by Remmy Duchene (carter reed txt) 📕

"Son of a bitch!"

Before he got back to the front door, a frazzled Coach Jessops met him coming up the front. "What's going on?"

"Anderson was coming down the hall to our room and… Leo, he took Anderson!"

Leo growled. He paced before his former mentor, trying to keep the cry bubbling inside him down. A pain he'd never felt before surged within him from his heart, pulsated off his spine, and pushed him to one knee. Coach gripped his shoulder.

"Leo…"

"I tried playing by the rules," Leo whispered. He couldn't muster a louder voice for all his energy was going into staying in control. "I tried…"

"Leo, what are you going to do?"

Leo pushed to his feet and walked by the coach. He stopped with a hand on the door handle. "Do you really want to know?"

He said nothing else. He took a moment to call in the bodies then checked on Mildred. When he burst through the door, she swung a giant knife at him. "Millie! It's me. It's Kim!"

She hugged him, sobbing. Leo gritted his teeth, took a breath, and helped her to a seat. "I have to go. There'll be other officers coming to you. Don't open the door for anyone else other than the officers."

"Leo. Maybe you should hold off on going after this man. You're angry."

Leo looked at coach Jessops but shook his head. "The longer he's out there with Anderson, the more likely I won't get him back alive."

"You really love this man—this Anderson," Coach Jessops said.

Leo had no words for a reply.

"You be careful," Mildred told him. "I don't want to have to bury you."

Leo kissed her head but didn't say anything.

Chapter Sixteen

Everything was throbbing, starting from the very crown of Anderson's head to the tips of his toes. His head felt as though someone had held it under water then tossed him across a room. There was a burning sensation at the back of his neck but he lifted his head and tried to take a breath. Opening his eyes, Anderson tried looking around but the room was just too bright. Groaning, he tried moving his hands to cover his eyes but he couldn't. They were bound at the wrists against a cold, hard surface.

Anderson tugged at them because he knew what it all meant. It meant the man was going to use him as bait to get to Leo. He never thought he'd see the day when he got kidnapped because the man he was sleeping with was a cop and someone was out to get him. Either way, he had to get free and get out of there. There was no way he was going to let this joker get anywhere near Leo. But no matter how hard he tugged at the restraints, they wouldn't budge. Each movement jarred his body, sending pain shooting from his head down his spine. Anderson bit against his lower lip and held his breath.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed down and strained. The restraints cut into his wrist fiercely but didn't break. His chest heaved.

"You should stop that."

The voice sounded behind him. Anderson twisted his head as far as it would go to both sides but he couldn't see the face. He knew the voice though—it was so familiar to him. His hazy brain couldn't decipher from where. "Did you drug me?"

"Well, duh!" the man replied. "You wouldn't have come willingly."

"Man of understatement. What do you want?"

"For you all to die. Simple, right? Actually, that's what I want now. Before, my wants were only carnal."

The man stepped around then and Anderson frowned. "Daniel." Anderson's instinct told him to lurch forward and rip the man's head off and he tried forgetting he was tied down. His wrists snapped awkwardly forward and he cried out in pain. "You son-of-a-bitch!"

"Professor! Do you teach your students with that mouth? No wonder Leo likes you so much. You have the kind of mouth a man could get used to."

"Now you know what I can do with my mouth, why don't you untie me so I can show you what I can do with my fists?"

Daniel moved close to Anderson. For a moment, the cop just stood there staring at Anderson's face then down his neck. After a while, he caressed Anderson's cheek. He lifted Anderson's shirt and trailed a finger down his chest, over his defined abs, and stopped only at the waist of his pants. Though he tried arching away from the invasive finger, there was nowhere to go. Anderson felt dirty and violated.

"I'd much rather see what you can do with those beautiful lips."

Anderson shoved forward again but Daniel only laughed at his failure and stepped back.

"When I first met your father, I was a kid. He took me away from my father and sent him to jail. A month later he was dead—my dad, I mean. I had no one left in the world. Sure I was adopted by some wonderful people—but having your father dragged out of a courthouse kicking and screaming then having the same happen to you, changes a person."

"I'm playing the world's smallest violin for you."

Daniel growled and backhanded Anderson across the face leaving it throbbing along with his hurting head. Anderson grunted. "I'm the victim!" Daniel yelled.

"No. My father is the victim! All the people you've hurt, or worse, are the victims! You are just a cold-blooded, egotistic asshole."

"Why couldn't he have looked at me the way he looks at you? That may have been the one thing to save all of us."

Anderson blinked blankly. That question caught him off guard. "What? Who are you talking about?"

"Leo."

"What are you talking about? You're not gay. You're married."

"That means nothing." Daniel walked across the room to where a stool was and pulled it across to him. He sat on it and rubbed his hands against his thighs. "When I became a cop, it was to get close to Jazmon. I had every intention of becoming a court cop. But then