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It happens suddenly.
Tommy is standing in the kitchen, looking through the pantry for the cookies he knows Josh likes when the front door slams open with a loud BANG!
His eyes widen and he crouches down, spotting two men standing in the doorway. His breath catches when he sees their eyes glowing— one pair blue and another gold.
“We know you're here Haigh,” one of them says. The one with the blazing yellow eyes. Tommy sighs to himself. Of course this has to do with whatever mess his brother got wrapped up in years ago. “So, just come out now and don't make this any harder than it has to be.”
“Who's Haigh?”
Tommy's head whips around to see Evan standing behind him, along with Josh. They must have come back in from where they'd been waiting outside.
Tommy holds a finger to his lips and gestures for them to duck down.
Evan frowns. “Wh—?”
Tommy shakes his head and mouths the word “quiet.”
Evan looks like he wants to argue but must decide against it and ducks down next to Tommy, pulling Josh with him.
He wishes he could explain but if these men are any way associated with his brother he knows they can't be good news. Especially not with the way they came barging in here.
“We can hear your heart beating, Haigh,” one of the men says. “And we know you're not alone. So, unless you want your friends to die, you'll come out now. Nice and easy.”
Tommy’s eyes narrow and his hand clenches into a fist at his side. It's one thing to threaten him, but Evan and Josh? No. Absolutely not. They don't deserve to be wrapped up in this.
“Or maybe they're not just your friends, hmm?” The other man says. Tommy catches sight of him picking up a picture off the bookshelf. It's from a few months ago, when, after a few revelations and long discussion, Tommy and Evan had worked up the nerve to ask Josh out. It had been a risk, but one they were ready to take. And to their relief and happiness, Josh had been too.
And now, here these men stand, threatening the men he loves more than anything else in this world. He can't let that go. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything happened to either of them.
He turns back to Evan and Josh, careful to keep his voice down. “Listen to me. I don't think I'll be able to buy you much time. And once I go out there, the clock starts. So the second you hear us fighting, I want you to run. As fast and as far as you can.”
Evan's eyes widen. “What? We're not leaving you.”
“You have to,” Tommy says. “I don't have time to explain, but these men are dangerous.”
“Which is exactly why you shouldn't go out there,” Josh says.
“I don't have a choice,” Tommy says. He takes Evan's face in his hands and kisses him, slow and deep before he turns away and pulls Josh in, kissing him just as deeply. “I love you both.”
Before either of them can argue, Tommy gets to his feet and steps out to face the men waiting in his living room.
“Well, well, look who's finally decided to join us,” one of the men says.
“I don't know who you think I am,” Tommy says, keeping his arms raised in front of him, trying not to appear as a threat, even as he inches closer to the table next to the couch, just out of their sight. “But you've got the wrong person.”
The second man snorts. “Nice try, Haigh, but that won't work on us. Not after we spent years trying to track you down.”
They must not have tried that hard, Tommy thinks. If they had, they'd have found his brother in a tiny cell in a prison in California. But he holds his tongue.
“I'm not Haigh,” Tommy says. “My name is Tommy. Tommy Kinard.”
Blazing gold eyes glare at him. “Nice try. But we all know you could have just changed your name.”
“True,” Tommy says. “But I didn't. If you really want Haigh, you can find him locked up in prison. Not here. Not me.”
The two men look at each other, both frowning. “He's telling the truth,” the man with blue eyes says. “His heart didn't skip.”
“That doesn't mean anything,” Golden eyes says. “Even if he isn't Haigh, he clearly knows him. He's like his twin or something. We could use him to send a message. Show him what happens when you screw us over.”
Tommy swallows. Shit. He hadn't thought of that. Not that it would matter. It's not as though he and his brother are particularly close. He hasn't had anything to do with him ever since his brother tried to kill one of his fellow deputies by locking him in his police cruiser and setting it on fire.
“Yeah, guess we'll just have to kill him,” blue eyes says. “Maybe cut out his eyes and bring them to Haigh.”
What the fuck? These men are clearly out of their minds. As much as he might not like it, Tommy knows that he's not going to get out of this without a fight. He just hopes that Evan and Josh actually listened and left. At least they'll be far away from here and safe.
Tommy's hand inches to the right slowly and he grabs the gun he keeps hidden there. He always hoped he'd never have to use it. But like hell is he going to let these assholes try to kill him without a fight. He at least has a chance of taking one of them down with him.
Before he has a chance to raise the gun though, there's a buzzing near the door and one of the men slumps forward, landing with a heap on the floor.
There standing, taser in hand, is Evan.
The other man growls, and he spins towards Evan, wrapping a clawed hand around his throat and slamming him back against the wall. The taser falls to the floor.
“No!” Tommy shouts.
He acts on instinct, raising the gun and pointing it at the man's head and firing without another thought besides saving Evan. Then man's body goes limp and Evan shoves him off.
Tommy rushes towards him and pulls him into his arms. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“That I couldn't just stand by and let them kill one of the men that I love,” Evan says.
Tommy sighs and rests his head against Evan's. “But he could have killed you.”
“But he didn't,” Evan says. “You saved me.”
“We saved each other,” Tommy says.
Tommy spins, positioning himself with his back to Evan's chest when a loud roar sounds behind him. “What have you done?! Murderer!”
Tommy thinks that's pretty rich coming from someone that was just threatening to kill him and take out his eyes. But he doesn't get a chance to speak before there's a loud clang and the men once again slumps forward, not moving.
This time it's Josh that stands there, glaring down at the man with a shovel in his hands. “That's for threatening my partners.”
Tommy holds out his hand and Josh drops the shovel and rushes forward, taking Tommy's hand and letting himself be pulled into both Tommy and Evan's arms.
Tommy kisses the top of both of their heads and holds them closer.
“The police are on their way,” Josh says.
Tommy nods. He figured as much. Josh probably called 9-1-1 as soon as they got outside.
“What did you tell them?” Tommy asks him.
“That two men broke into your house and threatened to kill all of us,” Josh says. “And you fought them off to defend yourself and us.”
“Which is the truth,” Evan says.
“What did they want anyway?” Josh asks. “And who is Haigh?”
Tommy sighs. “He's my twin brother. He's not a good person, got wrapped up in some dark and twisted stuff. I haven't spoken to him in years.”
“But they thought you were him?” Evan guesses.
“At first,” Tommy says. “And after I convinced them I'm not, they wanted to use me to get to him. Not that it would have mattered. Not to him.”
“It would have mattered to us,” Evan says, and Josh nods.
Tommy sighs and sinks further into their embrace. He knows that any moment now, their world is going to be thrown into chaos once again once the police show up.
But for now, he lets himself have this— lets himself just exist in this moment with Evan and Josh— in the safety and comfort of their arms.