Both Ryan and Clay laughed. Williams, one of the new guys on their team, spoke up, and the subject shifted away from Miguel. Hector was glad for the change. Miguel was already heavily on his mind. Talking about him was only going to make it worse. He’d driven to work this morning full of regret. Regret for letting things get out of hand last night, regret for the way he’d blown out of the apartment afterward, and regret for not speaking to Miguel about it this morning.
He should have. But he needed to be clear-headed for work. Having what he was sure would be an emotional and possibly confusing conversation right before he had to come in was a bad idea. He needed to put last night and Miguel out of his head so he could focus. His job was too dangerous to do otherwise. The talk with Miguel would have to wait until tonight.
“Okay, boys and girls. Ready to help these Narcos take down some drug scum?”
Two hours later, they were working with Narcotics on a drug raid. Their goal was to corral the perps with minimal collateral damage. They’d be using the element of surprise to swarm the place, which would hopefully keep them from dumping or destroying any of the evidence that Narcotics wanted to collect.
Hector adjusted his grip on his rifle. “I’m kind of tired actually. Is it cool if I nap in the truck while you guys handle this one?” He was ready, but he took the moment to tease his sergeant. Joking around was how they stayed loose and relaxed before an operation.
Jody gave him her patented new Sergeant Stillman does not have time for your shit look. “No. Get your ass into position.”
Hector winked at her and hustled off, with Brady right behind him. For this mission, the two of them were assigned to set up on the rooftop of the building across the street. From that vantage point, he’d be able to keep watch on the entire operation, and if necessary, take out anyone who was a threat to their team. Once they were set up, he let Brady confirm they were in position to the group on the ground while he scoped out their target.
“How’s it look?” Sergeant Stillman’s quiet voice sounded in Hector’s earpiece.
“Nothing’s changed from our earlier surveillance,” Hector responded. “Layout and entrances are still the same. I count five visible suspects in addition to the two guards—one at each entrance. Both guards and a perp on the second floor are open carrying.” He took a moment to look everything over one more time. “Okay. You’re good to go.”
“Roger that.”
Hector quieted and watched his team move in. SWAT went first, with Narcotics right behind them. Hector stayed alert, but he wasn’t expecting anything wild to go down. These operations were normally fairly simple. It wasn’t like a hot situation with a desperate, unhinged culprit thinking they could firefight their way out. These guys were smart. They’d recognize there was no way out with both SWAT and Narcotics there. They knew their best shot was to go along quietly and let their lawyers do the fighting afterward.
After everyone in the building was cuffed and kneeling, Hector let his attention drift. The memory of Miguel’s face from last night slipped into his mind’s eye. He’d never in a million years thought he’d see Miguel look at him with fear. Hector had always been the one to protect and watch out for him. Miguel had never looked at Hector with anything but friendship and trust. And, for the first time last night, desire. Hector swore under his breath. What a mess.
“Heads up, I think we’ve got something happening on the second floor.”
Hector snapped to attention, quickly locating the problem. He saw one of the kneeling men shake his head as though he were signaling to someone. A closer look showed a flash of movement behind the cracked closet door. Hector had to make a call. He could wait and see who would come out of that door. But would that give him time to determine if whoever was hiding was a threat? Would his teammates have time to react and protect themselves?
He didn’t want to risk taking a shot with his guys and kneeling suspects in the room. All of that went through his head in a split second. His decision made, Hector pushed his communication link. “You’ve got a bogey in the room. Closet behind Bennett.”
In the room, Ryan quickly spun around. He dropped down to one knee and took aim as Clay moved in from the right to slide open the closet door. Their shoulders visibly sagged when they saw who was in the closet. A little kid, about six years old. She must have been playing in there before SWAT arrived because neither Hector nor any of the scouts had realized there was a kid in the house.
Hector cursed under his breath. That could have gone sideways and was exactly why he needed to stay focused. He and Miguel were going to talk this out as soon as he was home so Hector could get his head on straight.
***
Miguel tried not to watch the clock, but he couldn’t help it. He grew more and more tense as it got closer to the hour when Hector normally returned home. At six thirty-five, Miguel heard footsteps approaching the apartment. He sat on the couch with his arms crossed, so nervous his stomach felt as if he’d swallowed a dozen live butterflies then swallowed a bowling ball to try and kill the butterflies. When the front door opened, Miguel quickly stood up from the couch.
“Hey,” he greeted Hector uncertainly. Miguel looked him over, trying to see any hints of aggression. When Miguel realized he was trying to read him just as he’d done with Santos, he forced himself to stop. He didn’t know all of Hector’s moods, but Hector wasn’t that type of person. Things were clearly uncomfortable between them, but he didn’t believe Hector would use any sort of violence against him. He was pretty sure of it.
“Hey.” Hector quietly returned his greeting. “Let me put my stuff away and we’ll talk.”
Miguel nodded, swallowing hard. Those damn butterflies tried to take flight up his throat as he waited. He clasped his hands together in front of him when Hector came back into the living room.
“Before you say anything, can you let me apologize? Please?” His words came out as a plea, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want to lose Hector’s friendship. It might be too late to save it, but he had to try. Hector met his gaze with a frown, his jaw still just as tight as it had been that morning. That sent his stress shooting up even higher, wondering what that tight jawline meant for him. “I shouldn’t have done that, any of it. That was unacceptable. I won’t do it again, and I swear I won’t tell anyone.”
“If apologizing makes you feel better, fine. But it’s not necessary. You didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to. I said yes, and I was into it. So stop blaming yourself. Okay?”
“Okay?” Miguel didn’t mean to voice that as a question. But he was confused. Wasn’t Hector pissed at him?
“But.”
Here it was. Miguel steeled himself, ready for Hector to tell him he had to go.
“You’re right it shouldn’t happen again. And I appreciate you keeping it between us.”
Miguel relaxed slightly. Hector wasn’t kicking him out.
“What happened between us…” Hector hung his head low, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I don’t know why that happened. But I won’t lie and say I didn’t enjoy it. Hell, I should be apologizing to you for leaving you hanging like that.”