Forever Promised Read Online Free PDF Page A

honeymoon, ” Martin emphasized, “and Collin wouldn’t have left me in charge if he didn’t trust me.”
    Collin, in fact, had told Mikhail that this boy was planning to come to California permanently once he’d graduated, where he would live in Collin’s old flat above his mother’s garage and assist Collin and Joshua with the business. Next June, he would be a high school graduate as well as an adult, and right now, he was practicing for the job. Mikhail had trouble believing that—the boy had been the next best thing to a delinquent when he’d first arrived at Levee Oaks, and he had certainly hated Jeff’s queer ass with everything inside him. But still, Mikhail was walking, irritated proof that people could indeed change.
    “This van is very special,” he conceded. “When I brought it home, my cop took one look at it and called everybody we know to come out and fix it. It took them four days.”
    Martin’s eyes got a little wider, and he looked under the hood of the van again. “You got off lucky, little man. If you’d brought that thing to me in any worse condition than it’s already in, I would have gotten Collin’s gun out of the safe and shot it dead.”
    Mikhail grunted and narrowed his eyes. “You say that, but you? You do not have the guts. It takes a Russian to make a mercy killing, but only on a good day. I have no mercy in me. You’d better fix it, or the damned thing is going to haunt you like whatever small city you ate for breakfast.”
    Martin grinned. “I frickin’ missed you, you grumpy Russian bastard.” He straightened up and wiped his hands with one of the cloths he and Collin seemed to sprout from their pockets. “Do you have a ride, or do I have to send you into the garage to make Joshua’s life a living hell?” Joshua was Collin’s other “employee,” who had started working in Collin’s garage mostly for the challenge.
    Mikhail pulled a corner of his mouth up in a sneer so he didn’t have to smile. “No. My cop is coming to pick me up after he is done grocery shopping.” Costco. They had ten lost children at Promise House now, as well as four other employees, and those kids each ate more in a day than Mikhail and Kimmy ate in a month. The dance circuit for the fairs didn’t start up again until late August, so Mikhail’s only workout was the one he did each morning in the little studio Shane had made out of their spare room now that Kimmy had moved out. Mikhail had always been aware of his own vanity, but he’d never realized how well it had served him until he’d been faced with eating Pizza Bites for lunch and pizza Hot Pockets for dinner, when he was taking his turn supervising at Promise House. He would not get fat for his cop!
    Martin shook his head. “You know, someday, you will have to tell me why you call him your ‘cop’”—and Mikhail frowned.
    “Because he was on the police force when we met. What a stupid question!”
    Martin frowned, obviously thinking hard. Mikhail knew his brother had been killed in the service—had chosen to be killed when he’d discovered he was HIV positive in a DADT corp. It had taken Jeff almost six years to get over Kevin, and part of that had been making peace with Kevin’s little brother. Of course Martin knew all about the ins and outs of strong men in a homophobic world.
    “How’d that go over?” he asked carefully, and Mikhail looked at him with distaste.
    “He was hurt a lot,” he said after a painful moment. “Why is it you ask?”
    Martin sighed. “Because Jon’s going to Washington to fight the good fight for you guys. I keep thinking I want to help like that—make the world a better place for people I….” He stopped and grimaced. Eighteen and mature, yes, but saying you loved a bunch of gay men when you were not gay, well, that was a stretch for eighteen at all. “My uncles here,” he finished, looking wryly at Mikhail. “I tell my family about my uncles here in California, and they start