Ex's and O'S (22 page)

Bailey Bradford

141

be his friend. Once he was assured the man would check the alley, Les called Adam and cautioned him to be alert to any sign of a threat. He promised to explain more when he got home. Maybe, if he got up the nerve, he would explain a few other things as well.

“Pacing isn’t going to do anything more than wear the shine off the floor.”

Adam was glad his back was to Charlene so she didn’t see him roll his eyes. “I can’t help it. I feel like all I did by coming here was put more people on Rollins’ radar. What if he hurts Les, or Nick or—”

Tires crunching on gravel stopped his verbal spew. He raced to the door and peered out of the peephole, his heart stuttering when he saw Les’ truck.

“I’m just going to go into the kitchen and get dinner started, let you two talk.”

Adam grunted as Les got out of the vehicle. His mouth watered as he peered through the little hole. It dawned on him he could be seeing Les much better if he opened the door, so after unlocking the deadbolts and the knob, he pulled the door open and was rewarded with an up close and personal view of his man.

Despite the lines of strain around Les’ eyes and lips, he was fine. Adam found himself hoping Les’ idea of talking involved his big bed and lots of lube. His cock perked up as Les opened the screen door and stepped inside. Adam didn’t even think, he simply launched himself at his lover, moaning as his dick pressed against one thickly muscled thigh.

The strained expression on Les’ face fled, replaced with a heated look that shot sparks of arousal through Adam’s nervous system. Les cupped his hands under Adam’s butt and lifted him. Before Adam could so much as say ‘hi’ his mouth was taken, crushed under Les’

and devoured until Adam was quivering with need.

“Mom’s cooking dinner,” Adam purred against Les’ lips, “we could slip off to the

bedroom for a while since I don’t have to be at work until—what?” Adam’s stomach dipped as Les shook his head.

“You’re off for a few days, per Mr Talbot. He’s still going to pay for your shift, though.”

EX’S AND O’S

Bailey Bradford

142

Adam frowned as he untangled himself from Les. “Why would he do that? And why

do you know this instead of me knowing it?”

Les sighed and took Adam’s hand then led him to the couch. “Because I started

thinking, if Rollins was involved, he was probably going to try the same shit he did in Montana. So I called Talbot.”

“God.” Adam groaned and let himself be pulled down beside Les. “Let me guess, he

got an offer on the Xxchange?”

“Yeah. Pissed him off, since he wasn’t interested in selling. Also made him

suspicious.” Les chuckled as he looped an arm over Adam’s shoulders. “Then he went from suspicious to furious when I explained to him about Rollins and everything he’d done. I think Talbot’s hoping the man shows up at the club. I’ve heard rumours about

Talbot’s…fondness for whips. Using them, anyway.”

Adam didn’t know why that surprised him. Mr Talbot screamed Dom from the top of

his dark head to the toes of his leather boots. Not that it mattered. “Rollins isn’t gay, so I don’t see how Mr Talbot would manage to do anything like that to him.”

Les shrugged, jostling Adam a bit. “I don’t think he’d try to get Rollins’ consent. I’m not sure I’d try to stop Talbot, either.”

Surely Les was joking. Adam looked at his lover. Maybe he wasn’t. He decided not to ask. “And how did that conversation result in me getting a little paid vacation?”

“I guess Talbot’s not such a bad guy.” Les shrugged again. “He said you deserved a break, and he didn’t want to risk something happening to you while you were at work.”

Adam wondered if Les had encouraged Talbot to make such a decision, but he

discarded the notion as soon as he thought it. Mr Talbot wasn’t someone who could be intimidated.

“Did you call and check on Chase?”

“Yeah, but he was asleep,” Adam said. “Josh told me he’d let me know if there were any complications. He also said they were keeping a close eye on him to make sure Chase doesn’t pull a disappearing act again.”

“He said a friend of his, a lawyer, was missing. That’s why he left the hospital in Montana.” Les gave him a questioning look. “He thought maybe this guy was hiding out here with you.”

EX’S AND O’S

Bailey Bradford

143

Adam heard what Les wasn’t asking. His stomach twisted into a fiery knot as he

wondered where James was and if he was alive. “James Stratton was kind of a friend, that’s all. He used to represent Rollins Sr until Mitch tried to assault me. Then he put the whole plan in motion to bring Mitch down. I imagine Rollins hates him at least as much as he hates me.”

Les’ gaze sharpened as he started asking questions about James. Adam answered as

best he could, but he really didn’t have a clue where the man could be, and he was more than a little scared James might be dead. Rollins was a crazy fucker, intent on blaming everyone but his son for Mitch’s crimes.

“Any idea on why Chase would be so intent on finding James?” Les asked.

“No, I really don’t know either of them well at all.” He didn’t think anyone knew Chase well, for that matter.

Charlene stepped into the room and gave them a warm smile. “Les, thank you for

letting us stay here for a while. I have dinner ready and on the table.”

Les went rigid beside him. Adam looked at him. The man was several shades paler.

His gaze was locked on Charlene and his breaths were coming in short pants, almost as if he were beginning to have a panic attack. “Les? What’s wrong?” Adam felt on the verge of a panic attack himself, watching this strong man unravel.

“I… I d-don’t—” Les shook his head as if to clear it then swallowed noisily. He took a long, shaky breath and seemed to gather his nerve as his glanced back and forth at Adam and Charlene.

Charlene made a soothing sound and came further into the room. Les tensed even

more, feeling like a cement statue at Adam’s side. In that second Adam understood that Les was not just uncomfortable around Charlene, he was terrified of her. Pieces of conversations from the past few weeks flitted through his head. He never heard Les speak of his own mother, he’d mentioned he’d had a brother who was dead…

Jesus! “Les,” Adam whispered, smoothing his hands over his lover’s chest. He slid a hand up to Les’ cheek and, with not a little force, turned his head, encouraging Les to look at him. “I don’t know what your mother did, but my mom isn’t like her. You know that, don’t you?”

EX’S AND O’S

Bailey Bradford

144

Les took so long to answer, Adam didn’t think he was going to. Then Les shuddered, the springs in the couch squeaking under the force of it. “I know,” Les rasped, the words barely ripping free. “I know,” he repeated, louder, his eyes searching out Charlene’s. “I’m sorry, I’m kind of fucked up.” Les’ cheeks darkened, whether from the admission or cursing when he knew Charlene didn’t care for such language, Adam didn’t know. But he wanted to hug his mom when she merely shook her head and said, “No, you’re not,” then sat across from them in the big recliner. She watched Les with so much compassion in her eyes that Adam’s burned with tears. “Tell me what I can do to help you.”

He had the best mother in the entire world.

EX’S AND O’S

Bailey Bradford

145

Les felt his past swelling up in him, forming into two tight balls of pressure behind his eyes. It grew, pushing down, demanding release, and Les was helpless to stop it. His throat ached as he started speaking, words held in so long they’d grown barbs that ripped at him.

“I had a brother, Lenny—Leonard,” and Lenny had hated being called that. “He

was…three and a half years younger than me, born with a hole in his heart that nearly killed him.”

Adam’s hand slipped in his, giving him the strength to continue when the words

clogged in a spiny ball in his chest. Les averted his gaze from Charlene’s. The sympathy he saw there was too much, threatening to send tears spilling down his cheeks. “When he was born, there was a news story done about him, about our family. Well, our mother and us. We never did know who our fathers were.” He doubted his mother knew, either. “There was a lot of attention, you know, the poor struggling single mom, how brave she was being, how strong…she was an instant celebrity in our town. Once Lenny’s heart was fixed, though, that kind of stuff stopped.”

Les struggled to draw air in, his vision hazing over as memories he’d kept buried rose to the surface. “Lenny was such a happy kid, just so loving and…and all I wanted to do even when I was just five was keep him safe. We’d almost lost him, and I remember looking at him through the window of the NICU and promising him I’d keep him safe. I didn’t know how badly I’d fail.”

“Les, no.” Adam stroked his cheek then rested his head on Les’ chest. “Whatever

happened, you were just a kid. If your mother—”

“She did,” Les said when Adam faltered. “Once the publicity stopped, once she was just a single mom with two boys, I guess she got to missing all the attention. Lenny was about a year and a half when he started getting sick. Doctors couldn’t explain it. Lenny would get out of the hospital, our mother would be praised for being such an attentive, concerned, loving parent. Then it’d start all over again once Lenny got home.”

EX’S AND O’S

Bailey Bradford

146

Les risked a glance at Charlene but quickly looked away when he saw the tears

flowing freely. He took another steadying breath and forced the rest of his nightmarish past out through numb lips. “Eventually, over the course of a couple of years, Lenny grew sicker and sicker, until finally he passed away.” Even saying it after all these years made Les ache, his entire body throbbing with the pain of loss. “He was just three, still a baby, and in the end he was so tiny, nothing but—” The sob tore from him, leaving a searing path of agony from his chest through his throat.

He remembered every detail of Lenny’s lifeless body, the unnatural thinness, the dark circles under his wide, unseeing eyes, the blue tint of his lips, his fingertips. Les clamped his mouth shut and bit his bottom lip so hard he tasted blood. He couldn’t lose it now, not when he was almost done, not when he might never have the strength to speak of it again.

Adam’s quiet sobs and sniffles rent at Les’ heart. He pulled the man onto his lap and wrapped his arms around him, then, with his cheek pressed to the top of Adam’s silky head, he continued.

“Our mother, she was just emotionless, until the authorities arrived, then she was the picture of the grieving mother. And she was once again showered with attention.” Wrong or not, Les hated her. He didn’t know that he could ever make any sort of peace with what had happened, but maybe, he could eventually quit letting it rule his life.

“How long until she started on you?”

Charlene’s question pulled Les out of his thoughts. He closed his eyes, unable to look at her as he answered. “Not long. Maybe even before Lenny’s funeral. I don’t remember when exactly I got ‘sick’.” He coated the word with enough disgust he wouldn’t have been surprised if it had hit the floor with a thud. “I went from being a healthy kid to nearly dying in under a year. Never having been to a doctor for more than an annual and shots to being hospitalised nearly constantly. It was always worse after I ate,” he pried his eyes open and glanced at Charlene, hoped she understood. “Didn’t matter what meal it was, but I was a kid, I had a sweet tooth, and suddenly, any time I ate dessert, I was puking, even, according to her, seizing.”

Charlene raised a trembling hand to her mouth, pressing as if to hold back words. Les rushed on, afraid she would apologise for doing something so normal, so nice like making him cookies. “And I saw her, when she thought I was asleep, when I was hooked up to so EX’S AND O’S

Bailey Bradford

147

many goddamned machines I felt more machine than human—I saw her. She had that same emotionless look on her face as she had when Lenny died. It scared me so bad I was afraid to let her know I was awake. That’s the only reason I saw her take a syringe from her purse, and a vial, and…”

And that same crushing terror was clawing at him, setting his body temperature to fluctuating hot and cold as goose bumps rippled over his skin. “I didn’t think, I just screamed, sure she was going to kill me. Two nurses came running in, they saw the vial, she dropped it. She couldn’t explain it away, couldn’t explain any of the drugs the police found in her purse, in our home. In me, once they knew what to look for.”

Les left off there. They didn’t need to hear about his brother’s body being exhumed or his mother’s claims that Les had been the one to murder Lenny—the authorities hadn’t bought that, but the fact his mother had even said such a thing had fucked with his head as severely as anything else. He didn’t want to explain that he couldn’t be placed in foster care since those were made up of two parents, and Les hadn’t been able to tolerate any sort of mother figure. The best the system could manage was a poorly funded home for troubled boys, run by several militant men.

No, Les decided as warm tears leaked from his eyes, he didn’t want to tell Adam and Charlene that, not now. Later, when he wasn’t so raw his insides burned as if he’d swallowed battery acid, then maybe he would tell the rest of it. For now, he clung to Adam, softly weeping, soaking that silky hair with tears as Adam did the same, saturating Les’

uniform shirt.

Eventually he calmed and became aware of another presence. He looked through

blurry eyes to find Charlene standing in front of them, an expression so warm and, if he dared to believe it, loving, on her face. She reached as if to touch him then let her hand drop back to her side.

“I know the psychiatrists and all those sorts have a name for what your mother did,”

Charlene said with a trace of steel in her voice, “but I don’t think that’s an illness. I think some people are just bad, and society wants to put a name to that, make it a ‘syndrome’