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  “Oh my God,” Sarah chimed in. She’d been watching her partner high-five Thayne and frowning the whole time. “You two are pathetic, Evans.”

  “And you’re jealous, Terminator.”

  Tim chuckled.

  “Great, you’re just as bad as all the rest of these twits,” Sarah said with a thinly-disguised glare at her partner.

  Jarrett walked up and hooked an arm around her shoulder, squeezing as he grinned down at her. “I say we team up and leave Darcy and Wolfe to flounder for themselves.”

  Thayne watched her grin as she looked up at Jarrett.

  “It’s tempting but… no, I need someone sane as a partner. Besides, Thayne trusts you with his life and I wouldn’t want to come between the two of you when there’s trust like that.” What Sarah hadn’t said was that Jarrett was also his lover but then again, she was the only one who knew what their relationship was outside of work.

  Jarrett looked down at the pretty blonde. Thayne knew Jarrett was aware that Sarah had the ability to be as lethal as the rest of the agents in their work group. He and Jarrett had seen her in action. She might just be the prettiest agent the LA field office had but she was scary good with hand to hand as well as with a Glock. Her scores at the gun range rivaled or exceeded any of the male agents in the office.

  “Thanks, darlin’.” Jarrett released her and then reached over to clap Thayne on the back. “I’m satisfied with what I got, I guess.”

  “Hey!”

  Thayne’s outrage was interrupted when SAC Stanger’s secretary, Carolyn, walked out of his office and lifted her hand to motion at the two of them.

  “SAC Stanger would like to see you two right away,” she said, staring straight at Thayne.

  “Coming,” Thayne said before turning to Jarrett. “Looks like we have a new assignment.” Jarrett sighed and reached up to straighten his red tie. Thayne liked that one on him. Jarrett’s hair was completely white, something Thayne found incredibly sexy, and the way his slashing black eyebrows contrasted with the hair on his head was fascinating. Of course, Thayne found everything about Jarrett fascinating from his rugged good looks to his snarky personality to his insane antics. At this point, he was pretty much convinced that the man had nine lives. At least, he seemed to be Teflon when it came to danger and Thayne counted that as a massive win for them both.

  “Into the lion’s den,” Jarrett grumbled as they walked into Stanger’s office. Stanger looked up at them and waved them into the chairs in front of his desk as they entered.

  “Sit. Sit. This won’t take long.” He reached out and handed Jarrett two plane tickets.

  “What’s this?” Jarrett asked, flipping the ticket out of its folder. “Louisville International Airport? Please tell me yer sendin’ us to bourbon country and this is only a stopover to Lexington.” His eyebrow rose just a little as he handed the tickets to Thayne.

  “No, I’m not sending you to Jim Beam country,” Stanger said. He looked just a little surprised. “If you’ll cool your jets for a second, I’ll tell you, Evans.”

  Thayne could see the clear irritation on Lloyd Stanger’s face but he had to smirk at his partner. He did his best to wipe the smile off his face. The boss was sending them to Kentucky for some odd reason and he wasn’t happy about it. That was clear. It certainly had nothing to do with good bourbon.

  “You’re being tasked out to the Louisville Field Office. There’s been an explosion in a mine in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, and the Louisville office serves that region,” Stanger said.

  “There are a hell of a lot of mines in West Virginia,” Jarrett said. “I’m sure Louisville has a ton of agents who know about mining accidents, so why us?”

  Thayne instantly detected something more in Jarrett’s question than the fact that they were being sent into his childhood backyard. He didn’t know what it was, but he intended on finding out at the earliest possible moment.

  “I’m getting to that,” Stanger groused. “The Director has asked me to send Evans because of his knowledge of mining and the community that serves the industry. There’s also a concern that the agents in Kentucky may be compromised. That means, as his partner, you go with him, Wolfe.”

  “Compromised?” Thayne asked. “As in… dirty?”

  Stanger sat back in his chair and blew out a long breath. His jaw was tight as he spoke. “Yes, it looks that way. Because mining conglomerates own and operate most of the large mines throughout the country, there have been some—shall we say—irregularities in the way accidents are investigated. Though the Director can’t be sure that’s the case here, the SAC in Louisville has asked for outside help. There are two agents from his office who are assigned to that region of the country and they work out of an office in Athens, West Virginia, which is very close to Bluefield, the main coal town in the region. The problem is that he’s afraid the explosion may not have been an accident and that his own agents might be trying to make it seem as though it was something innocuous.”

  “Explosions happen in mines. It’s part of why my family don’t go down into the mines anymore. It’s a fuckin’ dangerous place,” Jarrett said. “But you do have a point. Them folks are very close-knit.”

  Thayne was surprised to see how hard his partner was frowning. “As far as dirty agents go, that’s a stretch. It’s just an explosion, right?”

  “It’s an explosion that ended up putting five miners in the hospital with critical life-threatening injuries, Evans. That’s the problem. If this thing isn’t investigated with an unbiased eye, the Director is afraid there will be more explosions perpetrated by the same individuals if sabotage is going on. In any case, he wants you.”

  “So when we get there, I take it we won’t be greeted with enthusiasm,” Thayne concluded.

  Stanger looked at him and sighed again. “Sadly no, you won’t.” He slapped the thin file he’d been holding on the desk, close to Thayne’s hand. “This is our file. Just get there and look into it. Hopefully there won’t be anything to SAC Howard’s suspicion at all and you can turn right around and come back. God knows I can find a case in LA for you. This isn’t my doing. This comes from the Director. Now get going. Your flight leaves LAX in two and a half hours. That leaves you barely enough time to grab some clothes from home and get through airport security.” He waved a hand at the tickets Thayne still held.

  Thayne took the file and stood up. Jarrett did too. “Okay, SAC, we’ll call you when we get to West Virginia.” He glanced at Jarrett who was still frowning. He wondered how all this was sitting with his partner. Thayne knew Jarrett had a strained relationship with his family and this trip would be taking them right to their doorstep.

  “Good, call me then,” Stanger said, “And whatever you do, be careful down there.”

  “Will do,” Jarrett said, offering Stanger a slight nod.

  When he turned back to look at Thayne, all Thayne could read in his eyes was resignation. He wondered just what Jarrett was thinking. Was it concern about going back to his childhood home or perhaps being in close proximity to his brothers and father who, from the little Jarrett had shared with him, weren’t exactly supportive of his sexual orientation, or was it something else? He decided he’d wait until they were alone to quiz Jarrett about all of it. He spun on his heel after giving a quick nod to his boss, and followed his partner out the door.

  ****

  LAX had the usual traffic as they approached the Delta terminal where they’d be departing. They’d gone back to Thayne’s apartment and Jarrett had packed a sturdy pair of boots, telling Thayne to do the same. They’d also packed 501 denims, flannel shirts, thick socks, and long underwear. If they were going down into the mines, Jarrett told Thayne they’d need the warm clothes. That part of the country got damn cold, even in early fall. Jarrett finally packed one of his good suits for his meeting with the SAC in Louisville, a dar
k charcoal-gray pinstripe he loved. It was well-tailored to his body and hid his shoulder holster just fine the way it was cut. He couldn’t change his anatomy but for Jarrett, it didn’t matter when he had an expert suit maker in Italy, a country he’d visited a few times.

  He’d tried to pick up on the language while he was there, with a little success due to his knowledge of Spanish. At least he knew the important things like how to ask where the bathroom and bar was. For this job though, he’d be required to speak a very different language, one he was also familiar with, and he was thrumming at the prospect of talking to miners, something he hadn’t done since he was a kid before joining the Marine Corps. He’d actually worked down in the coal mines for two years while finishing high school before going into the military. He knew the miners they’d encounter wouldn’t be receptive to the ATF’s presence… hell, folks who lived in flyover country had been barely tolerant of the ATF at all after the Ruby Ridge standoff and the infamous Gunwalking scandal, debacles the agency had been involved in over recent years.

  The agency had come under scrutiny and had a rather tarnished reputation as it was vilified in the media, not entirely without reason. A lot of people hated the involvement of any Feds in their business and local authorities in small towns like the one where they were headed, were often suspicious of outsiders. Jarrett knew that they already were at a disadvantage when dealing with the people they’d soon encounter, simply by virtue of who they worked for. The mining community was a close-knit group of families, so close they called themselves a brotherhood, even referring to fellow miners as their brothers. Jarrett and Thayne would be walking into the investigation as outsiders from so many angles it wasn’t funny. First, they were Feds, second, they were from California, and third, they weren’t miners. Those would all be strikes against them before they even started the investigation. Jarrett knew the miners, the local law enforcement agencies, and the mine operator would all be against them before they even got off the ground. He sensed sending them in to investigate two of their own was going to be a really bad idea right from the start.

  Jarrett glanced at his partner who walked beside him from the parking garage into the airport. There was no man he’d rather have at his back than Thayne. He’d proven himself to be a good partner and a better man and Jarrett knew Thayne would put his life on the line for him. Losing Thayne was one of the things that Jarrett feared most. His partner would be on very unfamiliar ground but he trusted him implicitly. In fact, he’d pulled Jarrett out of some really sticky situations already, including saving his life not once but twice on their last case. The fact that his partner had been able to do that with no military training made him even more impressive.

  What Thayne had learned, he’d learned on the job and not many people were as good as he was even after they’d been decades on the job. Jarrett realized that a lot of Thayne’s real-world experience had come from being undercover for two years with Mills Lang’s crew, but the fact that he’d come out of that alive, Jarrett chalked up to his higher than average intelligence and purely good instincts, something one couldn’t learn.

  “So how long has it been since you’ve been back home, Jarrett?”

  Jarrett glanced at Thayne as they stood in line to get their boarding passes. They each carried a duffle bag slung over one shoulder and had their e-tickets in hand. Thayne also carried the garment bag with their suits, something they were planning on leaving with checked baggage. “Don’t really know, Thayne. I suppose it’s been close to three years or more.”

  Thayne’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? That long? I thought your military service was up two years ago. Didn’t you go home to visit when you were discharged?”

  “No. I haven’t actually seen my father for a little longer than that—right before my final tour began—but I did swing by Lewisburg to see my brothers shortly after comin’ home. Daddy was in DC so I missed him on that trip home.”

  Thayne nodded. “Lewisburg is home?”

  “Mostly. I was born in Turkey Knob, my momma’s home town. My folks lived there until Daddy went to work the mines in Bluefield. That’s one of the large West Virginia mining communities where all the jobs are.”

  “This was before he started working for the government?”

  “Yeah. He made the change because Momma insisted that he do somethin’ that weren’t gonna get him caught down in a mine and buried there. My brothers were born in Pocahontas County, where Bluefield is. It’s where I mostly grew up and went to school. My momma died right after Jase was born.”

  “Lewisburg is where they live now?”

  “Yeah. Daddy moved us to Lewisburg from Pocahontas County when Jase was still a little kid. Daddy had just joined the Marine Corps and they put him in military intelligence, but because he was a widower with young kids, they let him work in Lewisburg. It’s an actual city compared to the small towns in Pocahontas County. You heard of Carnegie Hall?”

  “Hasn’t everyone?” Thayne asked.

  Jarrett smiled. “Yeah, I guess so. Well, it’s in Lewisburg and they had good schools for Jase and the others.”

  “Jase is the youngest?”

  Jarrett couldn’t help but smile as he thought of his youngest brother. “Yeah. He just turned twenty-two. He’s going to New River College studying mining science. He intends on working in the mining safety industry when he finishes up but he’s always been the smartest of all of us.”

  “Wow, mining science? I never knew there was such a thing,” Thayne remarked.

  Jarrett nodded. “Its popularity depends on the need for it. At one point, the schools were encouraging women to join the mining workforce. I think the mining companies felt they could save money by payin’ women less. Over the last ten years, environmental concerns have helped coal mining become a dying industry but some mining will always exist. They still need scientists willing to help improve clean coal technologies and develop alternative energy. Jase grew up without my momma and he kept his nose buried in a book from about three when he started to learn to read. Science has always fascinated him.”

  “It’s sounds like you’re very proud of him,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett looked over at his partner’s face. Thayne was studying him closely but it felt good to be able to talk about his family. He missed Jase and Steel something fierce. He and Elijah had a more strained relationship but he still longed for the days when he could throw the ball around with him, pulling pranks on their two youngest brothers. He really should just make more of an effort to pick up the phone and talk to his brothers and not worry that he was going to feel shut out. As soon as he’d started talking about them, he really started missing his family badly.

  “I’m proud of all of them,” he said, honestly. A smile tugged at his mouth as he thought of Steel, the second youngest. “Steel has always been the creative one in the family. He’s a gifted artist and he works with his hands. His real name is Stewart but we’ve always called him Steel because of the way he can work with metal. When he was a kid, he used to cut up Coke cans and build windmills. When he got older, he graduated to sheet metal. He spent a summer workin’ in an auto body shop learning how to repair metal and got really good at welding. He can do everything from cars to specialty welding for deep sea dive tanks. He learned how to build fancy metal fences and gates too but mostly, he’s an artist. He’s a sculptor. You should see the stuff he builds. He’s sold some of it too. There’s a large sculpture he’s done sitting in a public square in Lewisburg near Carnegie Hall. The city wanted him to donate it when they saw the specs but once he’d built it, they agreed to pay him. It’s really beautiful.”

  “So he’s started to make some money at it. He must be good,” Thayne said, sounding impressed.

  His partner was smiling at him as they moved along the check in line. “He’s really good. He just turns right around and buys more materials with the money he earns.
I ain’t never seen anyone as driven as he is to bring beauty to the world.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Just turned thirty,” Jarrett drawled.

  “And Elijah?” Thayne asked.

  The answer to that question was tricky. Jarrett knew Thayne was just being conversational, wanting to know about his family the same way Jarrett had wanted to get to know Thayne’s mom, Dot, when she came up to Modesto when Thayne had been in the hospital after being shot by Virgil. But talking about Elijah was probably the most painful because he’d always been closest to him growing up.

  “We’re only eighteen months apart and as really young kids we was inseparable, runnin’ the back hills and forests around Turkey Knob and later crawlin’ into abandoned mines in Pocahontas County. It drove Momma and Daddy crazy. They were afraid we’d get ourselves killed.”

  “It’s sounds like you were very close,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett smiled sadly. “Yeah, Momma used to say we was different sides of the same penny.”

  Thayne smiled at that. “So, what happened? I get the feeling you two aren’t close anymore.”

  “It’s hard to talk about. I guess things changed when I realized I was gay. It weren’t Elijah’s fault though. I was the one who pulled away. The fuckin’ truth was, I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn’t like girls the way Elijah did. Girls were all Elijah ever talked about once he discovered ‘em and when I left home and joined the Corps, Elijah took my closed-mouthed leavin’ as a personal hurt. When I came out to him a few years later, Elijah was pissed and said some pretty shitty things. At the time, I thought the homophobia came from my daddy and now that I think back on it, I’m not so sure Elijah really meant any of it.” Jarrett stared at the ground. “Could’a just been he was still mad I left the way I did.”