Kidnapping the WRONG Brother [MAN X MAN]

Raise

E r o s

When I woke up, I had expected to be alone since I was pretty sure Cole probably would have gotten up by now but to my delight he was still nestled in my arms, snoozing away.

Looking at the clock on the night stand, the reason why he was still asleep became quickly evident. It was five in the morning, almost six which was usually when he woke up.

The sun had already began to rise and I just took my time admiring Cole's features since they were up close. His lashes were pretty long and like his hair, they curled up a bit.

Despite all the changes to him, I could still see his old self right in front of me. Just like back when we first met, I had been able to tell that he wasn't his brother. For starters, Cole was clearly well built compared to Noel who resembled a tree branch. I only met Noel a few times but I remember always thinking about how he lacked a presence. Cole also had a sharper facial structure, and something that immediately made me catch on were his eyes. They were a darker shade of green and at the time, they pretty much lacked that light of life that should have been there.

But now, it was slowly coming back to him and anytime he smiled, I could surely see it.

When the alarm on the nightstand started ringing, I shut it off and though I intended to let him sleep for five more minutes, Cole's eyes were already opening.

"Mornin'..." a sleepy smile adorned his features and even though I knew it had to be because he was still half asleep, his cuteness was shining heavily and it made my heart throb.

"Morning" I whispered back, reaching up and taking some of his dyed hair in my fingers and twirling it. It was a little something to get used to but I think it suited him, the dark blonde being better than a bright one.

My phone ringing made me want to make it become one with the wall. Who the hell was calling at six in the morning?

Begrudgingly, I picked up the phone.

"Eros?" Mikhail's voice flooded in from the other side.

"The one and only" I said sarcastically.

"Oh good, I thought I had that wrong number" he quipped back.

"I assume whatever you're about to say to me is something of great importance if it requires my attention at the crack ass of dawn" I said and Mikhail laughed, though I was completely serious.

Cole was just quietly listening as the two of us conversed so I moved closer so he could at least hear Mikhail.

"Good news and bad news" Mikhail started.

"Spill it" I said.

"Good news is we found Adler. Found him hiding out in some old building, we have him at the warehouse" Mikhail said.

Fuck yes. I need to give this man a raise or maybe a vacation.

"That's great. And the bad news?" I continued.

"It's about that Elzheim guy. Caleb and I were looking into his name to see if we could find some info on him. Turns out he was a private investigator that mysteriously disappeared around the same time Preston was murdered, which is surely Gabriel Limosa's doing. Preston was probably going to hand those drugs to him as evidence to solidify the case" Mikhail explained.

"Well that's unfortunate" I mumbled.

"Yeah, it was his way of giving it to the proper authorities without actually having to get involved with them" he said.

"Well, we can always deliver evidence anonymously" I said.

"Yeah but who knows how long it would take them to process that stuff" Mikhail said.