Double Coverage by Mercy Celeste Read Free Book Online Page A

since we’ve been apart.” Bullet smiled, his lips stretched wide on his angelic face. He pulled Trig closer, pressing him against his chest, his breath on his face, his cheek grazing his as he whispered, “Trigger and Bullet together again, just like old times. I’m hard just thinking about it.”
    “Get off me, you son of a bitch.” Trig squeezed the wrist he still held, forcing Bullet’s hand back until the man’s face went white. “I can end your career right here, Bullet. Let me go.”
    *
    “Since when are you so defensive, Trigger? I’m just having a little fun, the kind of fun you used to like.” Bullet’s nostrils flared. He could smell adrenaline pumping through Trig’s body. And anger? What the hell? Trig knew he was harmless—he’d never hurt anyone off the football field. He’d never hurt any of the girls they’d shared either. So why the sudden aversion to a little fun for old times’ sake? More importantly, why the aversion to his touch? They’d always been Trigger and Bullet, the most powerful weapon on the team. They worked well together, always had—but they played so much better together, and he wanted more playtime. Was that so wrong?
    “Like I said, Bobby, I grew up. Now let me go, or I’ll break your hand.” The hard look in his eye said it all. Bullet had no doubt that Trig would do exactly as he threatened. He let go of Trig’s hair, letting his eyes linger over Trig’s half-dressed body just to freak him out.
    “That thing you think happened between us, Trig, didn’t. How many times do I have to tell you that,” he said when Trig continued to hold his wrist captive. “We were drunk and nothing happened. Why don’t you believe me?”
    “Because I know you, Bobby. I know there’s no stopping you when you’re drunk, and I don’t remember anything from that night.” Trig let him go finally, his eyes going dark; he looked everywhere but at Bullet. “I went home, back to school. I grew up. Why can’t you?”
    “Because I’m having too damn much fun, Trig, something you should reconsider abandoning.” Bullet turned to leave, his heart heavy. Leave it to Trig to suck the fun out of everything. “See you downstairs, Trigger.”
    He held up his right hand, pointer and middle finger extended, and pumped his thumb imitating a gunshot, Trig’s signature gunslinger move from back in the day. Trigger just stood there looking at him as he walked away.
    * * * *
    Bullet sat alone in the ballroom downstairs, drinking sparkling water while old memories drifted in.
    Trig Morgan had been his first friend when he moved to Alabama from Florida; they were paired up on their youth league football team before school had even started that year. The coach was Trig’s dad. His own dad had died the year before, and he had no one like Trig’s dad in his life. Trig’s dad hadn’t minded Bobby tagging along. In fact, Trig’s dad was the first to notice his speed and how he always beat everyone else downfield.
    “Trig, toss the ball to Bobby. Bobby, run, go long.” Bobby ran, and he’d never stopped running. Trig’s dad had first called his son “Trigger” their first season in middle school, an accidental slip of the tongue when Trig out-threw even the varsity coach one afternoon spent goofing off. “That’s my boy. Trigger, fire that ball”.
    Trigger had turned to him and said, “If I’m the trigger, then you’re the bullet. Go deep, Bullet.”
    That’s where it all began. Through high school they were Trigger and Bullet; they were a team. They always got the job done. Same thing at LSU. They’d been a team, right up until that night when one of those damn Ole Miss sons of bitches had ripped Trigger’s knee apart. They’d lost—first time ever that Trigger and Bullet had failed their team—Trigger because he was taken out by ambulance, Bullet because he went after the son of a bitch that cost his friend his career. He’d been ejected for unsportsmanlike behavior and