Alex POV

For two straight weeks, things were quiet.

No one was kidnapped. No one shot at any of us. No one threatened any of us. And there were no trips to the emergency room.

It had to be some kind of record.

For thirteen days in a row, we'd worked on consults and cold cases, courtesy of MCS and the 2-7.

We'd expected that Ross would want to use us, but it seemed that Lt. Van Buren was a fan of ours now, too.

Apparently, Bernard and Lupo had sung our praises to her, so she was filing the paperwork to throw cases our way any time that she could.

Our meeting with Ross had taken both Bobby and me by surprise. The commissioner wanted to make us both captains.

I never thought I'd see the day.

I mean, at one time I had thought that I might get the nod, but I never thought that the brass would recognize Bobby for his skills.

Crime-solving, sure. Everyone knew that he was great at that, but most people didn't consider that he had any leadership skills.

Which was crazy, really. He was organized, open-minded, and inspired loyalty, all of which were characteristics of a good leader.

And it was tempting to accept the offer. Because I'd love to see Bobby shine in that position.

It would be a lovely fuck-you to everyone who had ever doubted him, my father included.

But despite that intriguing pull, we respectfully declined.

We were happy right where we were.

And Ross' suggestion to the commissioner to contract out more consulting work meant more work for the business, so we currently had more than we could handle. We were actually able to pick and choose a little more carefully.

Mike and Carolyn hadn't left for their honeymoon yet.

Even though they'd planned to go sooner, it took Mike longer than expected to fully recover from his head trauma. He'd experienced painful headaches for nearly a week after the incident in Steve-O's, and he'd had considerable nausea and dizziness in association with that, so they'd postponed it.

Now their plan was to leave for Rio on Monday, two days from now.

Carolyn had come into the office every day, but Mike was hit and miss while he tried to recover. He'd worked from home a lot, and still managed to get quite a bit done.

"I'm going to be heading out in a few minutes," Bobby said to me as he came into the kitchen.

I was pouring myself a glass of wine, preparing to kick back and relax for the evening. Carolyn and Liz were both coming over, and possibly Cathy as well. My sister had been noncommittal when I'd invited her, so I figured that it depended on whether or not her new Mr. Wonderful allowed her to come.

"How much money do you have?" I asked him as I turned around to look at him.

And for some reason, my breath caught at the sight of him. I mean, he's a good looking man. I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't recognize that fact the very first time that I saw him.

Of course I recognized it.

And over the years, the more I got to know him, the more attractive he became to me because it wasn't just about physical beauty. It was about who he was on the inside.

And as far as I'm concerned, he's a gorgeous man, inside and out.

But from time to time, the realization of that hits me really hard.

So when I turned to look at him, and found him standing there in snug-fitting faded jeans and a plain black t-shirt and his camel-colored suede jacket…well, let's just say that I wanted to have him blow off this whole poker night so that I could spend the next four or five hours just worshipping every inch of him.

"We set a limit," he replied, apparently unaware of his effect on me. "A hundred bucks."

I continued to stare at him, mentally stripping him down and…

"Alex?"

"Yeah, sorry," I said with a shake of my head.

What has gotten into me? It's not like I hadn't just seen him naked only an hour ago.

And not just seen him naked, but enjoyed him naked.

Thoroughly.

But for some reason, I seemed to have a one track mind tonight.

"A hundred dollar limit? Good, so John won't break you guys," I teased, forcing myself to pay attention to the conversation.

Strathmore had been released from the hospital after a two-night stay, and was recovering nicely from the gunshot wound he'd received courtesy of Rhonda Hagen. The bullet had fractured his collarbone, so he still had a sling on his right arm to keep the area immobilized, but other than that he said he felt back to normal.

Better than normal, he'd said.

I think connecting with Mike had immeasurably made his life better.

And John wasn't just focused on Mike. He'd made it a point to connect with Bobby as well. All of us, really.

He'd gone back to Atlantic City after being released from the hospital, but I'd seen him several times over the past two weeks, and I loved that he was making such an effort to be involved in Mike's life.

The poker game that was originally scheduled for the Saturday following the bust had been postponed until tonight. Mike hadn't been ready to be out so soon, and neither was John, so Lewis said that he'd put it off for two weeks.

I think he just had another date with Erica, but I didn't call him out on it.

Although I did make a mental note to take a stroll through her department sometime soon. Maybe take her a cup of coffee and have a nice little girl chat.

I can't help it. I'm a curious person, and I care a lot about Lewis, so I wanted to hear how she felt about what was going on between them.

"Your dad wanted to make it two hundred, but Sean talked him down," Bobby said with a grin as I stepped closer to him and put my arms around him. I put my face against his chest and inhaled deeply.

He smelled so good.

"My dad talks a big game, but…"

"I know. Sean told me how he likes to go all in."

"What else did Sean tell you?" I asked, my interest piqued since Bobby had quoted Sean twice in as many sentences.

I knew that my brother liked Bobby a lot. In fact, he was probably the only one in my family who had supported my decisions all along.

But Sean also liked to rib me mercilessly, and I was suddenly a little nervous about Bobby spending several hours with the men in my family.

"He just said that he couldn't wait to tell me some stories," Bobby teased.

"Oh, that's just great," I mumbled.

But I couldn't muster enough outrage to actually pull away from Bobby. It felt too good just holding him.

He had his arms around me, one hand idly rubbing up and down my back.

And then he slipped his hand into the back of my jeans, squeezing my butt and pulling me tighter up against him.

"It is great," he agreed, his voice a hushed whisper against the top of my head. "I can't wait to hear all about my wild little Eames."

I chuckled against him, glad that whatever the reason, he was looking forward to spending time with my family.

A knock on the door forced me to finally let him go, but I couldn't resist running my hand over his butt when he turned around to answer the door.

"Don't have too much to drink tonight," I warned him. He cast a glance over his shoulder and gave me a questioning eyebrow. "I don't want you to have any equipment issues that might hamper your encore performance tonight."

"Equipment issues?" he asked.

He turned quickly and came back to me, picking me up and holding me firmly against the side of the refrigerator. He kissed me hard, and the arousal that had been lingering in me for the past several minutes went from mild to insistent in about three seconds.

"When have you ever known me to have equipment issues?" he asked, his voice a low seductive growl.

"Come on, Goren!" Mike shouted from the other side of the door.

"In a minute!" Bobby yelled back, but he made no move to step away from me.

Instead, he pushed harder against me creating a need-inspiring pressure that added fuel to my already raging fire.

"Never," I admitted breathlessly while Bobby proceeded to move his lips over my neck. "And you'd better not start tonight."

"I'll be home by one," he promised. "And you will…"

"Have everyone cleared out before then," I finished with a smile.

"Goren! Open the damn door!"

"You think that blow to the head caused him to lose the censor between his brain and his mouth?" I asked smartly as Bobby finally set me down and turned to answer the door.

"No, he lost that a long time ago," he answered.

I straightened my shirt as Bobby unlocked the door and then opened it up to find Mike and Carolyn waiting in the hall.

"What took you so long?" Mike asked with a grin.

"Good to see you, too," Bobby replied. He stepped back to let them both into the apartment, and then he gave Carolyn a quick hug.

"Ignore him," Carolyn said. "He's had a little bit of cabin fever, I think."

"Hey, I've been in the house more than not for the past two weeks. That's enough to drive anybody crazy."

"Did you get the cigars?" Bobby asked him.

"Yeah I got 'em. You ready to lose your shirt?"

"N'yeah, I don't think so," Bobby retorted.

"How's the head today?" I asked Mike as I gave him a hug.

"I think it's finally back to normal," he answered.

I ran my hand over the top of his head, feeling the fuzziness of the super-short haircut. He'd been keeping it short since they'd had to shave a section of it to access the damaged area. I stepped around behind him to look at the spot that had been stitched and saw that his latest haircut had finally been enough to get all of his hair back to the same length.

"It looks good," I told him.

"It doesn't," he argued. "But thanks for lying."

"Now don't start anything with my brother tonight," I said as he turned to leave.

"Sean?"

"Kevin, and don't try to pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about."

"Mike is not going to start anything with anyone tonight," Carolyn said. "Right, Mike? Because your head can't take another hit right now, and if we have to postpone our trip because you tried to bait a fireman…"

"I got it, sweetheart," he told her. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss and then patted me on top of the head. "I'll be good, I promise."

"Bobby…"

"I'll make sure that he's good."

I kissed Bobby one more time before he left, wanting to make sure that he got the message that I would be waiting up for him and I would be expecting some action, and then the two of them were out the door.

"Wine?" I asked Carolyn.

"Yes," she replied emphatically. "Is Liz still coming over?"

"She should be here any time. I'm not sure about Cathy."

"How's that going?"

"Cathy and Steve?" I asked as I handed Carolyn a glass. "It's not. I thought that maybe I'd gotten through to her, but when I talked to her a few days ago, she basically told me to mind my own business."

"Well…"

"Yeah, I know. I should."

"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that maybe there's more to it than you know. I mean, everyone thought that you and Joe were great together, right?"

"That is true," I agreed. "But I don't get how she can just leave Nathan behind. That's the part that really gets me."

We sat down together in the living room, and as soon as I settled back against the cushion, my phone rang. I got up and went over to the side table near the door where I had left it.

"Goren," I answered.

"Alex? It's John. Is Bobby with you?"

It was Strathmore, and he sounded slightly off.

"No, he just left. He's on his way to the poker game. Aren't you headed that way?"

"I am. I'll be there in a few minutes, but I was hoping to catch Bobby before he left. He went with Mike, right?"

"Yeah. Is everything okay?"

"No. So Carolyn's with you?"

"Yes," I answered cautiously. I wasn't sure where this exchange was going, but I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt for at least a few minutes.

I wandered into the kitchen to finish the conversation, and the timing worked out well because about that time Liz knocked on the door, so Carolyn let her in and the two of them went into the living room to chat.

"Don't tell her that it's me, okay? Or, I mean, she probably knows by now, but you can't tell her why I'm calling. I can't talk about it with Bobby in front of Mike, and I didn't want to sit on it all night."

"Okay. What's up?"

"I just…I got some disturbing news a few minutes ago, and…I have a…well, I have a favor that I want to ask you and Bobby. But I don't want Mike and Carolyn to know about it because I'm afraid that if they find out then they won't take their trip. And they really need a break."

"We don't generally keep secrets from each other," I told him. I didn't want him to get the wrong impression.

"No, I know that you don't. And I respect that. And as soon as they get back from Rio, then by all means, we can bring them up to speed."

His explanation made me feel better about hiding the purpose of his call from Carolyn because I didn't want anything to postpone their trip, either.

But I was worried about what it could be that had him on edge.

"What is it?"

"You know about Heidi, right?"

"Yes."

"I got a call today from the Denver PD. They said that they had a recent murder, some high-level player in the drug running game. He was into it all: drugs, prostitution, money laundering…you name it, this guy did it."

"Okay," I encouraged, unsure of how this fit into the ten-year-old murder of his fiancé.

"The detective says the ballistics report brought back a match. The same gun that killed Heidi killed this guy, Ramone Cortez. Alex…now they're saying that her murder wasn't random. They're saying that she must have been involved."

"With Cortez's dealings?" I asked.

"Yeah. And I know it doesn't seem like it should matter…"

"No, it does matter," I interrupted. "I can understand that. What can we do?"

"I want to hire you and Bobby to go to Denver and solve Heidi's murder. I want it proven that she didn't have anything to do with that guy, or any of his gang."

"I'll talk to Bobby about it in the morning," I promised. I wasn't going to commit without going over it with him first, and I knew that John didn't expect me to. Even after only two weeks, he knew us better than that.

"But John," I continued. "Once we start digging, you never know what we'll find. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. Are you sure you want us to go through with this?"

"She wasn't like that," he insisted. "The only thing you'll find is evidence that proves she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had no ties to any gang."

"Okay. But you have to do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Go to the poker game. Have fun and don't think about this for tonight. Bobby and I will talk in the morning, and then we'll call you and we can go from there. If you act off tonight, Mike's going to know something's up. Got it?"

"I hear you. Okay."

"I'll call you tomorrow," I told him.

"Okay," he said again. "And Alex…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

TBC...