A Walk Through Fire (19 page)

“Ash? Is that you?”

Tears stung his eyes. “Yeah, it’s me. Come on, talk to me. I’m not going anywhere.” He laid his hand firmly on Stevie’s back and rubbed it in a soothing circular motion. “It’ll be all right.” Behind him he heard Rachel and Mike. The whole protection squad was here to rally around this broken child.

When Stevie finally picked up his head, Ash’s breath caught in his throat. Both eyes were blackened, and his nose was swollen. Dark bruises mottled his throat and the top of his chest where his collarbone stuck out. The skin on his knuckles was scraped raw, as if he’d tried to defend himself.

For a moment everything went black before his eyes. Bile rose in his mouth, and a faint buzzing sounded in his ears. If he didn’t get control of himself, he’d pass out. Several deep breaths later, he had it under control. “Who did this to you? Was it Jimmy and Donny?”

Stevie shook his head. “No. I was jumped by some random kids. I swear.”

But Ash had seen the flicker in Stevie’s eyes and knew he wasn’t telling the truth. Those boys who should’ve been looking out for him had, instead, brutalized him.

“Did they hurt you any other place, Stevie?” Ash held the boy’s gaze, searching his eyes for the truth. But Stevie wouldn’t look him in the eye when he answered.

“No, I’m really fine. I don’t know why I came here. I didn’t wanna go home, ’cause my foster mom and dad are out tonight.” He shifted on the couch and sat up, wincing a little at the movement.

Ash spoke over his shoulder. “Jordan, you checked him out already?”

“Yeah. No broken bones. The nose will be swollen for a while and turn all sorts of amazing colors.”

Mike stepped up next to Ash. “Hey, buddy boy. Can I check your mouth?” At Stevie’s nod, he manipulated his jaw and checked his teeth. After he was finished, he stood back, hands on his hips.

“Hmm. I’d like you to come in for some X-rays tomorrow. I need to check to make sure your teeth are secure. Okay?”

Stevie nodded. He pulled on Ash’s shirtsleeve. “Can I talk to you and Dr. Drew?”

“Sure, kiddo.” He got to his feet and approached Drew, who was in the center of the group. And there was his girlfriend, in the middle of telling Rachel how Stevie had shown up at the apartment while they were eating dinner. Never one to care about what people thought of him, Ash interrupted her.

“Drew, Stevie wants to talk to us.”

The conversation halted in midsentence. Drew left the circle and came over to him. “Did he talk to you? The only thing he said to me was that he wanted to see you, but when he went to your apartment, you weren’t there.”

Guilt squeezed in his chest. Right, he’d been busy stalking Luke’s apartment building. Helping no one and failing everyone again.

“Hi, I’m Shelly, Drew’s girlfriend.” Her smile faded when he failed to return it with one of his own.

“I’m not here to make friends, sweetheart. This isn’t a dinner party.” It didn’t bother him in the least to see her face flame with embarrassment and her big brown eyes fill with tears.

“Don’t be such a prick, Ash.” Drew kissed Shelly’s cheek and murmured something in her ear. She shot Ash an unreadable look, then returned to the others.

“Was that really necessary? She didn’t mean any harm.” Drew’s exasperated tone bugged the shit out of him.

“Yes, it was. I’m not going to be her friend. I’m here for Stevie.” Ash glared at him. “I never would’ve come back here if it wasn’t for him. Christ, Drew, I’m barely your friend anymore.”

“Whose fault is that, you bastard? You walked out on me,” Drew shot back, obviously a little louder than intended as the room quieted around them.

Ash cocked his brow. “Are we done? I want to talk to Stevie and go home.”

Drew, pale and scowling, brushed by him to sit with Stevie on the couch. “What’s up, buddy? Are you gonna let Keith arrest those two now?”

Alarm flared in Stevie’s eyes. “No. It wasn’t them. I swear. Don’t do anything, please, Dr. Drew.”

Ash knew child services had again been to the house on Keith’s urging. Nothing untoward had been found. The home was neat, there was food in the refrigerator, and the fact that Stevie was doing much better in school as well as holding down an after-school job lent credence to his foster mother’s claim that everything was going well. There had never been any reports of abuse from either the children in the home, the school, or neighbors. In other words, as of now, there was no reason to remove Stevie from the home. Drew held the young boy close. “Please tell us the truth, Stevie.”

“I am. I swear. I was jumped coming home from the bus stop.”

Maybe his story was true. Ash knew the neighborhood was a dangerous one, and for a slight boy like Stevie, it made him an all too easy target.

Ash smiled at Stevie. “How about you spend the night at my house tonight? Call home and tell them you’re with a friend from school.” He put his arm around Stevie, and after the boy said his good-byes, they left together.

Ash didn’t say good-bye to Drew, as his little girlfriend had plastered herself to his side. But when he glanced up at the window of the apartment after he shut the car door on Stevie’s side, he saw Drew watching. His figure, silhouetted in the lamplight, was shrouded in shadows, but Ash knew. Like a sixth sense, he always knew where Drew was when they were together.

He got in the car and drove away.

Chapter Sixteen

He’d missed his last Sunday visit with his grandmother, as Shelly had gotten tickets to a ball game, so it wasn’t until Monday night after work that Drew made it for a visit. It had been the source of his and Shelly’s first argument.

 “I told you not to make plans for me, Shel, especially on a Sunday.” He’d never raised his voice to her before, but she had to understand his priorities. “Sundays I visit my grandmother. She always comes first.”

First all he heard was sniffling, then, when he glanced over at her, tears were rolling down her face. “I’m sorry, Drew. I know how much you wanted to see the game.” She hung her head. “I wanted to do something nice for you.”

Guilt sliced through him like a hot knife through butter. Shit. Once again, he was the bad one. “C’mere.” He held out his arms, and she threw herself into his chest. “I’ll tell her I’m coming over tomorrow night instead, but please don’t do it again.”

All this ran through his mind as he parked his car in front of his grandmother’s house, noting that her grass had been freshly cut. That was nice of Mike. He knew his friend and Rachel had been over yesterday.

After he rang the bell, he heard her steps tapping on the hardwood floor and the rattle of the inner door being unlocked. A wonderful smell of baked cookies greeted him as she opened the front door.

“Come in, sweetheart.” She gave him a kiss, and he hugged her. “I made your favorite. Chocolate chip.” She looked behind him. “The girlfriend isn’t with you?”

“She had to work late. I’m happy it’s the two of us.” He reached the kitchen and lowered himself onto one of the wooden chairs, covered in a flowered cushion. A platter of cookies sat on the table, as well as coffee mugs, milk, and sugar. The cookies were the way he liked them, soft in the center and a little crisp on the edge with lots of big chunks of chocolate.

Biting into one, he moaned his pleasure. “Nana, no one makes these better than you.”

She didn’t answer him, and he opened his eyes. “What’s wrong? You’re looking at me strangely.”

“What’s really the story of you and this girl?” She stirred her coffee and took a sip, then put the cup down as if she wasn’t really interested in it. “Tell me the truth.”

The coffee was strong and bracing. Leave it to his grandmother to cut straight to the chase. “There’s no story. We’re dating. We have fun together.”

After studying his face for a moment, she shook her head. “You don’t love her.” Not a question, merely a statement of fact.

Horrified, he choked on his cookie. It took two large swallows of coffee before he could speak again. “Love? Of course not. We’ve only been dating a month or so.”

With a fond smile, his grandmother shook her head. “How long you know the person doesn’t matter when you’re in love. It could happen the first time you see them. But when you’re apart, the time stands still until the person you want to be with is with you again.” She took his hand. “You don’t feel that way about her, do you?”

With a heavy sigh, he shook his head. “I’m not going to either. I shouldn’t lead her on like this.”

Nana patted his hand. “She was in love with you from the first. I could tell the moment I laid eyes on her. She didn’t know you, but she loved you.”

Reflecting on what she said, Drew knew it was true. Shelly was so much more into the relationship than him. She was the one forever planning and setting up their dates. With a start, he realized what his grandmother had said before was true. He didn’t miss her when she wasn’t there. In fact, he could go a whole day without hearing from her, and he wouldn’t think twice about it. He sipped his coffee, savoring its heat.

“What does Asher think of her? I couldn’t get a straight answer from him yesterday.”

He choked again, this time sputtering coffee on the table. “Sorry, Nana.” He wiped up the drops with his napkin. “Ash? Was here yesterday?” The thought made him dizzy, as did all his thoughts about that infuriating man.

“Yes. He comes by at least once a week. We have lovely visits.” Her eyes glimmered. “That boy is very special to me.”

“Was he the one who mowed your lawn?”

“No. Some boys came by and offered to mow the lawn and trim the hedges. Why not? Usually one of you boys do it, but you shouldn’t waste your visits doing yard work.”

His mind still couldn’t wrap around the fact that Ash came by to see his grandmother even though they weren’t really friends anymore.

Still, curiosity gnawed at him. “What did he say about Shelly?”

She gazed out of the window for a moment. “What really happened between you and him that you don’t talk anymore?”

Drew swallowed. Leave it to his grandmother to answer a question with one of her own. How could he tell her the truth? Her bright blue eyes stared back at him, unwavering and full of love. “We became too close too fast, and it got a little overwhelming. Ash can’t trust anyone, and I can’t have a friend who doesn’t trust me.”

“Sometimes you need to give people a little time to learn how to trust. Especially when they have been hurt so badly.” Nana took his cup to the sink to rinse out the cold dregs, then brought him a fresh hot cup. “Asher does care about you; he’s not sure how to show it.”

The bittersweet memory of Ash’s mouth on his cock, that wicked flickering tongue sliding down his hard length, confused him as always. The sharp pain of hurt, of a friendship gone as quickly as it arose, mixed together with his never before imagined desire for a man. “Nana. Trust me when I say he knows how to show it. He cares for Stevie, the young man in the clinic we’re all trying to help. I didn’t give up on Ash; he gave up on me, on our friendship.”

He stood and took both their now empty coffee cups to the sink. “Why don’t you let me take you out for dinner?” At her hesitation, Drew sat next to her and hugged her.

“Come on. I’ll buy you a nice corned beef sandwich and a big pickle.”

She sniffed, but her eyes twinkled. “You think you know me so well.” As they passed through the front door and he locked it for her, she said, “I may get pastrami this time.”

He grinned and took her hand as they walked to his car.

* * * *

At seven at night on Thursday, he and Shelly sat in the coffee shop around the corner from his apartment in Brooklyn Heights. He’d wanted to meet in his apartment, but she couldn’t stay long so they were having a quick date.

Every day this past week he’d planned on calling her, to set up a time to get together and have a talk. The talk that would more than likely end their relationship. Without a doubt he couldn’t continue to see her; he didn’t feel right leading her on, letting her believe they had a relationship when he knew he’d never fall in love with her. Hell, he thought she’d get the hint when he told her it was too soon for them to have sex.

They’d sat at the table for only a moment when his phone rang. He looked at the screen but, not recognizing the number, didn’t bother to answer it. The coolness of the iced latte quenched the dryness in his throat. Ever since his conversation with his grandmother, guilt ate away at him. He knew he should break it off with Shelly, but something always managed to prevent them from having “that talk.”

Drew sipped his coffee. “How’s your week going? You’ve been busy, huh?” An incoming text buzzed, but he ignored it as well. Why couldn’t people leave him alone? “You’re looking tired.”

As a menswear buyer for one of the major department stores, Shelly had explained to him how she was responsible for what clothing he saw in the stores. It was all Greek to him, since he cared very little about fashion.

She nodded. “They’re running us ragged planning the Christmas season sales already. I have to work late all this weekend, so we won’t really get a chance to see each other.”

“That’s okay. You have to do what’s best for work.”

She shot him a strange look but didn’t say anything and drank her coffee.

His phone rang again, this time with Rachel’s familiar tune. “I’m sorry, Shelly. I have to take this. It’s Rachel.

“Hey, sweetie, wh—”

“Drew, where are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone?” Her voice, normally so cheerful, sounded strained and on the verge of tears.

“What’s wrong?” His heart bottomed down to his stomach.

“It’s Nana. She’s in the hospital.” In the background he heard Mike’s voice; then his friend came on the phone.

“Drew. Get over to Methodist Hospital right now. We’re in emergency.”

He shoved the phone in his pocket and stood so abruptly his chair overturned. Shelly’s alarmed voice seemed to come from a great distance.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s my grandmother.”
God please, please don’t let anything happen to her
. “She’s in the hospital. I have to go.” He took off, not paying attention if she followed him or not. But she was there as he raced to his car and flung the door open. Without a word, she jumped in the front seat next to him and they took off.