“Let’s sodding find out, shall we?” Joel was fizzing with something—rage, hope, a good fuck, who knew. “What do we have to lose? You’re fucked, and what am I supposed to do if I run away? Sit around wondering if your murderous boss has murdered you yet, and if he’ll come after me next? Change my name and find something completely new to do with my life, for the however-manyth time it is? I’ve started again so many times—after prison, after my hand, after being kicked out—and I’m bloody tired of it!”

Aaron winced. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need you to be sorry, I need you to be fighting! I want— Oh, bloody hell, I’m just going to say it. All I’ve been doing for so long is living with things. Keeping on with them, putting up with them. And then I met you and now this, you and me, it doesn’t feel like ‘living with’ at all. It’s living. Actually having things that matter instead of the days just passing. I want more of that. I want all I can get, even if we can’t get much.”

Aaron’s lips had parted. Joel set his shoulders and pushed on. “I don’t know if you feel that too. Maybe you don’t, and we barely know each other really, and probably if we had longer, I’d annoy the hell out of you. But even so, I want more time with you, and if we have to fight for that, then let’s fight, all right? You’re a good copper, I’m a graphological genius, we can try.”

“And if we fail?”

“Then let’s fuck DDI Colthorne right up on the way down. Because—” He took Aaron’s hand. “Because you and I deserved a chance.”

“Joel.” Aaron’s eyes were wide.

“If that’s too much—”

“It’s not too much,” Aaron said, and grabbed his face. His lips hit Joel’s hard, and they were kissing again, as hungrily as before, awkwardly tangled on the settee in a chaos of bare flesh, inconvenient cloth, stickiness, and just for now, it was perfect. Just for now, Joel could cling to his hard biceps and feel Aaron’s desperate clutch, and neither of them was alone.

Aaron pulled away after a moment. He looked slightly stunned. “Joel. Are you serious?”

“Yes,” Joel said stubbornly, because he was aware of his nerves jangling behind the bravado. “I want you for as long as I can have you, and I want to fight this because it’s not right and I’m sick of these bastards getting away with murder and bullying and the rest. Not to mention that was four quid I won’t see again.”

“You’ve no idea what you’re getting into.”