The Grave Between Us (A Noah & Cole Thriller, #2)

by Tal Bauer

“Were you happy when I asked you to marry me?” “Deliriously happy,” Noah whispered. Cole could hear Noah’s smile, feel it spread against his own lips. “For months, I’d just been hoping I wasn’t screwing up so badly that you’d pack up and move back to DC.” Cole still remembered it, every detail vivid. He’d waited, tucking the two small boxes out of sight until the books and makeup and bottles of whiskey had been unwrapped. Katie was basking in the Christmas morning glow, Noah was fiddling with his new Bluetooth headphones, and Cole got down on one knee and pressed a square box into Noah’s palm. Noah had gone bone white, Katie had screamed, and Cole’s world had sharpened to a pinpoint, nothing mattering but Noah’s face and the feel of his pounding pulse against Cole’s fingers. “I want forever,” he’d whispered. “Forever with you. Marry me, Noah?”

“You will never understand me. I live for this. This is the sex I lust for, this is the water I crave to drink. My blood doesn’t pump with oxygen and iron, it pumps with hunger for pain and terror. You want to know me. You want to possess me. Possess my mind and my secrets.” His eyes were black, pupils fully dilated, like they had swallowed the world. “You don’t know what it is to possess another man. To own his life and his death. You play in the shadows, thinking you know what I mean when I say what I say. You will never understand me as long as you live.”

He inhaled Noah’s scent, closing his eyes for a split second before opening them back up to watch the road. No big rigs. Empty fields. Gray sky, as far as the eye could see. “I’m going to marry you, Noah Downing,” he breathed. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you.” Noah smiled. “I can’t wait.”

“You can’t…” Noah’s head spun. He shook his head, slowly, then faster, until his whole body was shaking. “And what if you never find him? What if you never catch him? You didn’t catch him before!” Cole flinched. “Michael thinks this is the best way to keep you safe.” “He thinks? Fuck what he thinks!” “I’m not willing to risk your life. I’m not willing to take the chance that he could hurt you. I love you, and I’ll do anything to keep you safe. Anything.” “Even leave me?” Cole said nothing. “Is this the end?” Noah whispered. Cole’s thumbs dug into the back of his hands, so hard he felt his bones shift. “Don’t do this,” Noah begged. “We’re supposed to face the world together. Face everything side by side. Aren’t those the vows we’re about to take? For better or worse, in sickness and in health? We’re supposed to face everything together.”

Noah kissed his cheek and squeezed his hand. “I’m here,” Noah breathed in his ear, as if he could tell Cole was standing in the black surf, looking up at the dark moon. As if he could sense when the grave between them was opening. And he was there, holding his hand out. Ready to guide him back. It was the definition of love: being there. And from love came life. Their life, together. A glorious, beautiful life unfolding before them.