Bang & Burn: The Spies Who Loved Her, #3

By Katrina Jackson

Lamont is one of the best agents in the Columbus ATF office. He runs all of his cases by-the-book and meticulously. Nothing matters more than the job; not even his boyfriend who gets fed up with being second best and kicks Lamont out of their home. Becoming suddenly homeless and single should be the highlight (or low light) of Lamont's week until he gets a phone call from his former partner Kenny, the spy.

Lamont doesn't trust Kenny, but he can't just hang up the phone when he offers the opportunity to close a case that's been frustrating Lamont for over a year. Over the next few days, the usually solitary Lamont works with Woodhouse, an FBI agent who's not what he seems, and Caleb, a hacker with a wry smile and a distracting mouth, to dismantle a gang of backwoods gun runners in league with the Albanian mob.

Bang & Burn is a mission set in the middle of Private Eye, book 2 in The Spies Who Loved Her series. It's also the first in a sub-series called The Spy Who Loved Him. These erotic romantic suspense novels are all about sexy secret agents and the cunning civilians who bring them to their knees. This book is meant to be read with Private Eye and the romantic story between Lamont and Caleb ends on a cliffhanger to be concluded in their full-length novel, Brush Contact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katrina Jackson
• Release date: Feb 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393956334

Katrina Jackson

Katrina is a college professor by day who writes romances by weekend when her cats allow. She writes high heat, diverse and mostly queer erotic romances and erotica. She also likes sleep, salt-and-pepper beards, and sunshine. I'm super active on twitter. Follow me: @katrinajax

Book preview

Prologue

three years ago

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One of Lamont’s earliest memories was of his mother, leaning down to him with a grin on her face. She ran her thumb over his smooth cheek and said to his father, My baby got your smile. He’s gonna be a heartbreaker. He could remember his father’s big boom of laughter crystal clear in his head, even after all these years. And his mother had been right; he had inherited his father’s smile, but he’d never been a heartbreaker. Not really. Because unlike his father – or at least all the stories he’d heard of him – Lamont didn’t smile nearly as much. He didn’t like too much attention and that smile he’d inherited wouldn’t let him smile and fly under the radar at the same time. And there wasn’t anything Lamont wanted as a child more than to be as anonymous as possible. The workaround had seemed obvious; he simply smiled less.

Everyone had just assumed it was grief and maybe at one point it had been. Lamont could still remember his grandmother rubbing his cheek almost exactly the way his mother had. She’d whispered to him just before dropping him off at school one day that he didn’t have to talk or smile for anyone or on anyone else’s timetable. Not even hers. He’d smiled then for her – just a small grin really – because he knew what it meant for her to say that to him, to tell him that he didn’t ever have to smile again if he didn’t want to. It might mean that the only place she’d ever see her son’s smile again would be in pictures rather than on his son’s face, because Lamont was all she had left of him.

But still, smiling didn’t come naturally to Lamont as much anymore. Smiles were small victories these days. Victories that dragged those memories of his mother’s and grandmother’s hands on his face and his father’s laughter to the fore and conjured a dull ache in his chest, reminding him that he was truly an orphan now.

But the less frequent his smiles, the more obvious they were when they did appear. And the more special the person who could lift the corners of his mouth into the near unfamiliar shape. As it happened, smiles were becoming a new acquaintance and that dull ache only grew sharper with time.

What’s this smile about? Tony asked, pulling Lamont out of his daydream. My coffee’s not that good. Trust me.

Last night had been their fourth date. They’d gone to dinner, then to see a production of A Raisin in the Sun at the local Black repertory theater. Afterward, they’d gone to a local ice cream parlor ostensibly to talk about the show, but really because neither of them had been ready to say goodnight just yet. It was a perfect date. Actually, it was the fourth perfect date in a row, and Lamont had smiled more in the past couple of weeks than in the previous six months combined.

But his smile had dipped when the tired teenager behind the counter had announced they were closing. There really wasn’t anywhere else to go and they both had to be at work the next morning. They’d walked out of the shop and a kind of sadness had descended over Lamont, unexpected but poignant.

But Tony’s smile – soft and playful, capped with a neat dusting of hair on just his upper lip – hadn’t wavered. He’d looked over his left shoulder and said in the deep timbre Lamont was already obsessed with, You wanna come back to my place?

Lamont had been so choked up with emotion and arousal that all he could do was smile and nod.

And as it happened, there was so much more to smile about the morning after, sitting in Tony’s impeccable kitchen in his downtown loft apartment – which made Lamont’s three-story walkup in the suburbs look outdated and boring – with the sun filtering in through the large windows. Not the coffee though. Tony was right about that.

Oh no, your coffee is terrible, he’d said with a laugh.

Tony frowned, which made Lamont’s smile widen.

Well, you’re welcome to get better coffee on your way to work.

Lamont’s eyes traveled over Tony’s cross face, his thick eyebrows angled, his dark brown eyes squinting and his beautiful mouth bracketed by the sexiest five-o-clock shadow he’d ever seen. Lamont sucked his bottom lip into his mouth as his eyes traveled down the other man’s neck. Tony’s Adam’s apple bobbed and his chest rose on a sharp inhale. Tony’s bare chest was strong but not built, a spray of tightly coiled black hair covering his light brown chest. Lamont remembered how much he’d enjoyed running his tongue through that hair last night and his smile fell away as his eyes moved determinedly south to other places his tongue had enjoyed. He drank in Tony’s flat stomach and the waistband of his pajama pants. And then his smile lifted again when his gaze settled on the sight of the heavy weight of Tony’s erection through his pants.

Lamont’s own dick began to harden. What time do you have to be at work? he asked in a suddenly rough voice.

Tony’s voice was equally rough, not just from this moment but from last night, the way he’d screamed and cursed and begged. Not for a couple of hours.

If Lamont let himself, he could remember all the ways Tony had cried out last night and early this morning. But why imagine it, he thought to himself as he stood from the breakfast bar, when he could hear them again?

He walked across the kitchen, his eyes lifting to Tony’s face and that smile that made him want to smile more and wider. He moved his hands to Tony’s waist and gently grabbed him there.

I guess my coffee ain’t that bad, Tony breathed in a playful tone, his right hand landing gently on Lamont’s dick.

Lamont closed his eyes briefly, enjoying the way Tony’s hand felt squeezing and stroking him slowly through his boxer briefs. His fingers dug into the skin at Tony’s waist. And then Lamont laughed as he opened his eyes and dipped his head toward Tony’s. It’s fucking terrible. But I’ll drink every cup you make, he whispered, and then kissed Tony the way he’d just been daydreaming about doing.

You’re late, Kenny said as Lamont slid into his chair.

Shut up, Lamont hissed and then leaned over their desk to whisper, Did Matthews notice?

Kenny scoffed. Nah, she’s not here yet either. Meeting with the PD chief about a case. Kenny sat back in his chair and frowned. You’re never late. What’s up?

Nothing. What’s the deal with the raid tomorrow? We still have a meeting with the joint task force or what?

Of course, we do. So, did you go out with Tony again?

Lamont rolled his eyes and then shifted his gaze to his computer, wanting to avoid Kenny’s gaze. I handled the personnel manifest before I left last night.

I know. I fixed it this morning, Kenny said smugly.

Lamont groaned. What did I tell you about fucking with my lists?

I don’t know, Kenny shrugged. I don’t listen when you get all type A. So, did you finally manage to convince Tony to give you a chance?

Lamont frowned at his partner. Last night was our fourth date. I don’t have to convince him to give me a chance. Not anymore at least.

Kenny laughed. Loudly. Oh, so you finally got laid. I’m proud of you. Lamont’s entire face warmed as Kenny started clapping, garnering attention from some of the other desks near them.

I will fucking shoot you on our raid, Lamont leaned over their desks to hiss.

Kenny clapped one more time and then shook his head, I’d report you to IA if I didn’t know you’re too good of a cop to ever.

Lamont frowned because Kenny was right. You know karma is a thing, right? Do you really want to open this can of worms? How long has it been since you had sex?

Kenny’s face froze and he shook his head. I’m not looking for a relationship and I don’t do casual sex. The job takes up too much of my time.

Lamont frowned, That’s pathetic. And if I can make time for… something, so can you.

Kenny frowned briefly and then smiled again. Something? Is that what you’re calling it now? Does Tony know that?

Lamont rolled his eyes and turned back to his computer. I hope I’m around when you meet a girl who brings your workaholic ass to your knees.

I’m not a workaholic, Kenny said. I’m focused.

Lamont chuckled lightly and pulled up their personnel request form, fixing what Kenny had adjusted. Tomorrow they’d be executing their warrant on the Green Dawn compound. They’d been investigating the radical environmental activists suspected of running a drug ring across the region to Canada for months. Lamont usually hated partners, but Kenny was so much like him he’d had to begrudgingly accept that with the right person, maybe the arrangement could work. If everything went to plan, in a few days’ time, they’d have the local leadership and most of the active members in custody. If it all worked out, they’d shut down almost all the major meth dealers in three states and across the Canadian border.

This was the biggest case of Lamont’s career so far and he needed to focus on that. He began typing and tried to remind himself of everything at stake; to keep his mind on track and off Tony and the way he’d felt in his mouth this morning. He didn’t feel the smile spread over his lips until he heard Kenny’s laughter. His mind had wandered off again and his partner had caught him.

He forced his mouth into a scowl. Shut up, Lamont mumbled just barely loud enough for Kenny to hear. He started typing again, although it was slow going keeping his mind on the job and off Tony, while also tuning out Kenny’s teasing laughter.

Lamont might smile less now than ever before, but he knew not to take good things for granted. And this day – with Tony on his mind, a partner he was shocked to realize he could trust and a case just about to break – was full of some of the best things he’d experienced in years.

today

There are so many ways people can change throughout their lives spurred on by new experiences, good and bad. The past three years had been moments of growth – and atrophy – for Lamont. He was still at his core the same man; patient, even-tempered, still and deliberative. But he was also closed off in ways he hadn’t been before. He was tentative and unsure where he’d once been brash and confident. He’d shrunken in on himself – only trusting himself at the end of the day – in a way he hadn’t before.

Although maybe this wasn’t a full sea change in who he was, but simply a refining of who he’d been most of his life. Self-reliance was something he’d certainly learned at home. When his paternal grandmother had taken him in after his parents died in a car accident, he’d seen what the double whammy of grief and age had done to her. She’d been old – too old, she’d muttered to herself as she’d rubbed his back and wiped the tears from his face that first night. Too old to be a parent again. Too old to have to bury her only child and a daughter-in-law. But she’d pushed all her own trepidation to the side and raised him the best way she knew how. Which was wonderful, by the way. Considering the life he might have lived without her, being raised in rural Georgia in his Nana’s quiet and very much God-fearing house was a dream childhood, only sometimes marred by the lingering grief of his parents’ absence and the stark reality of her aging. He could have grown into an angry, haunted man. But he hadn’t. He was just a bit of a control freak who didn’t know how to ask for help.

He’d thought he’d managed to isolate those traits to his professional life – especially after he and Tony got together – but in this moment he wasn’t so sure. So he sent a silent prayer of thanks to his grandmother in heaven for teaching him the kind of patient calm that made it possible to weather this particular trying moment because on the inside he felt not patient or even-tempered or still. He felt like a frazzled ball of frustration and he had no idea what to do with these emotions. But he swallowed all that the best he could as he gathered up the detritus of his life. Literally.

When his cell phone rang, he ignored it. Whoever was calling could wait. His possessions strewn over the small lawn in front of his condo, however, could not. He’d been throwing his clothing and books and whatever else Tony had managed to get his hands on and chuck out their front door into his trunk and backseat haphazardly, stopping every now and then to knock on his front door, since his key no longer worked, for over an hour. He scanned the lawn one more time and slammed the trunk closed. He walked up the path to what had been his front door just this morning and pressed the doorbell one more time, leaning on it long and hard, hoping Tony might answer this time. He was shocked when he heard the locks turn.

The door cracked open just enough for Tony to slip an envelope through to him and slam it closed in his face, all before Lamont could splutter a word.

Tony, he sighed pathetically to the closed door and rested his forehead against the wood he and Tony had spent an entire afternoon painting red before they’d even moved in. His only answer was the sound of the locks turning again. Lamont thought he heard a moment of hesitation before Tony slid the chain into place, but that was probably his own heart’s wishful thinking.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, leaning against the door, shut out from his home and the man he’d thought he was building a life with, looking like an abandoned, stray animal. Long enough that his phone rang a few more times, each call unanswered. Long enough that a few of the neighborhood kids jeered at him as they rode by on their bikes. Long enough that the sun had begun to set. Long enough to be certain that this was the end of the road with Tony.

He finally put his palm against the door one more time and let it rest there for a few seconds. He turned and walked back down the path to his car. In the front seat, he ripped open the envelope expecting – hoping – for a letter. What he found instead was his birth certificate, passport, social security card, and another envelope with all the pictures he had left of his parents and grandmother. It was so heartbreaking that Tony was, even during a dramatic breakup, still practical and thoughtful. His clothes and books, he could wash or replace. But these pictures were everything to him. Tony knew that and mercifully hadn’t thrown them on the lawn with the rest of Lamont’s belongings. He turned to look at their house again, hoping for a rustle of their front curtains or some indication Tony was watching him. But there was nothing. This envelope was apparently Tony’s final loving act and it broke Lamont’s heart. But who did he have to blame for any of this besides himself?

His phone rang again.

He exhaled loudly and checked the screen. When he saw a restricted number, he shook his head and declined the call immediately. He tapped his phone screen and saw that all his missed calls had been from