Embracing His Syn (24 page)

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why the
hell did I say that?
As soon as Furi saw
the hurt on Syn’s face, he’d immediately wanted to take those
spiteful words back. Furi was scared shitless, and he was indeed
projecting, just like Syn said he was. It wasn’t Syn’s fault that
his life was so fucked right now. Actually, if it weren't for the
cop, Furi would be going through this on his own; honestly, he’d be
dead now. Syn was trying to stick by him, contrary to what Furi’s
mind was telling him. Syn was trying to put forth the effort to be
with him, and Furi wasn’t cutting him an inch of slack. Now here he
was in his apartment, under his protection and he’d just insulted
him so cruelly that Syn couldn’t respond.

Furi walked down the hall
and stood in front of Syn’s bedroom door. His hand was poised to
knock until he heard the shower running and chose to just let it
go. Furi needed to leave. This was his own shitty life. Furi was
supposed to be about taking back control, but what was he was doing
right now besides hiding behind Syn’s secured walls. He’d let a
crazy bitch run him out of his own home.
Fuck this.
Furi grabbed his duffle
and leather jacket and left out the front door.

Furi was feeling confident
until he left the apartment building and got to the street. Then a
fear like none he'd ever felt struck him. It was late and dark, but
people bustled by him like he wasn’t there; completely oblivious to
his unease. He was running right back into harm’s way. A crazy
person had literally just tried to kill him. Instead of staying
where he was safe, he decided it was a good idea to leave that
sanctuary and return to danger, unarmed. A car screeched to a halt
three lanes over, and the sound made Furi want to dive for
cover.
What the fuck am I doing?
Shit.
When Furi thought of Syn’s words,
'
Don’t let your stubbornness make you an
easy target
' he thought about going back
upstairs. That's exactly what Furi was doing. He heaved a breath
and threw his duffle back up on his shoulder, he looked across the
street and saw five or six guys stumble out of his uncle’s pub
laughing. Furi thought he’d just go over there to kill some time,
and maybe if his uncle wasn’t in one of his moods, he would let
Furi bunk on his couch for a couple days, or until they caught
Sasha.

Furi speed walked across the street
and hurried into the pub. His heart rate was elevated, and he was
pissed because all this anxiety was driving him insane. He thought
briefly of calling Doug, but he’d already told Furi that he was
trying to spend a little extra time with Cel, especially since they
were going to be putting in some hellish hours soon to get their
shop up and running. He inched his way through the crowd, hiding
his bag in the storage room so his uncle didn’t see it.

“
Can you use some help,
pretty girl?” Furi whispered in Candy’s ear as she hurriedly
punched the register. She jumped and slapped Furi on the shoulder
for sneaking up on her.

“
What are you doing here
on your only evening off?" she asked grinning at him, shaking her
head in disbelief.

“
I have no life.” He faked
a smile. “Need some help?”

She turned to look at him, giving him
her full attention, “Honey, are you all right?”

Furi felt the prickling of tears and
immediately got angry. How dare his emotions betray his attempt at
control? He wouldn’t cry about the situation, it was useless.
Crying didn’t do a damn thing but waste energy. “I’m fine. Can just
use a distraction is all.” He shrugged.

“
Well, knock yourself out.
You can take the far end. Shawn ended up having to go pick up his
daughter early, leaving me to tend the entire bar.” She rolled her
eyes, “And of course your useless uncle didn’t bother coming out to
help me.”

“
Yeah, I believe that,”
Furi said, while pulling his hair back. He didn’t have on the bar’s
shirt but he didn’t care, he was just helping Candy and trying to
occupy his mind so that it didn’t wander to the cop across the
street. The cop who had probably just gotten out the shower and
realized he was missing a houseguest.

Over the next couple of hours, Furi
fell into the easy routine and lost himself in the monotony of take
order, make order, run tab, refill, cash out, wipe bar, repeat. He
was sure some of the regulars noticed he was short on small talk
tonight, but everyone’s entitled to one of those days. It was
getting near closing time when Furi went in the back to stack the
trash at the service door. His uncle’s door was open, so he peaked
in, tapping on the frame. “Hey, Unc. Is this a bad
time?”

“
It’s always a bad time.
What do you want?” His uncle grumbled, not even bothering to look
up at him.

“
My place is being
fumigated can I crash on your couch?” Furi chewed his bottom
lip.

This time his uncle did look up at him
with a look of annoyance across his wide face.

“
Three days tops,” Furi
added.

“
Whatever. Just bring your
own washing detergent and food, because you’re not using mine.” His
uncle waved him away and Furi gladly left. He really hated asking
him for anything, but unfortunately, he was all the family Furi
had.
Nothing beats family.
He came back out to the front and gasped at the
large dark figure sitting at the bar. Furi’s chest constricted at
the sight.
He came.
Furi got his legs working and slowly made his way behind
bar.

“
Um. Candy can you grab
that order right there?” Furi pointed at the stern face staring
angrily at him.

“
No, thank you. I’d rather
you took care of me, Furious.” It was spoken casually, but the
hard, piercing glare said it was a command.

Candy's head darted back and forth
between them and Furi decided it was best to leave her out of it.
He walked slowly to the end of the bar and stood in front of his
fuming customer.

“
I left for a reason,”
Furi leaned in and whispered, “I have nothing to say to
you.”

“
Oh, I think you have a
lot to say to your husband, Furious.”

Silly, ignorant,
bull-headed, stubborn, high-maintenance, jackass, little
prick.
Syn was grumbling under his breath
as he tucked his S&W into the small of his back.

When Syn came out of his room an hour
later, he’d been livid to see that Furi had left. At first he threw
his hands up, thinking it wasn’t going to be his problem anymore.
Furi didn’t respect him and he refused to be called names and
rebuffed repeatedly when he was trying his best. But the more he
sat and stewed, the more his heart told him to go find the idiot
and bring him back so he could protect him. No matter how much the
gorgeous bastard irked him, he wanted him in the worse way. Syn
threw on his coat and left his apartment.

He was heading to his
truck when a cold feeling of dread ran up his spine. It was his
instinct telling him something was wrong: really wrong. Syn looked
up and down the busy street looking for the source of his unease.
His eye’s landed on the lit-up sign of the pub across the
street.
Are you in there, you
fool?

Syn jogged across the street, pulling
the door open with too much force, quickly scanning the bar area.
Sure enough, Furi was behind the bar, working. Syn sat down in his
usual seat, noticing that the place was slowing down since it was
closing in about a half-hour. There were a few booths occupied, and
at the bar were only three people still sitting, nursing drinks.
Two men dressed in expensive business suits sat nearby while he
waited for Furi to turn around and acknowledge him. He gave a quick
head nod to the two men, thinking they were over-dressed for this
place. They looked like corporate types, but were built like Mack
trucks.

Furi turned to face him
and Syn immediately saw the fearful eyes, the closed-in-on-himself
posture, and most of all, the relief that flashed across his face
at seeing Syn. He jerked his head for Furi to come down to him.
Furi took a napkin from the holder and placed it in front of Syn
with shaking hands.
Okay, something is
very wrong.
“Furious. Why did you
leave?”

“
I thought you wanted me
to,” Furi leaned in, speaking quietly.

“
If I’d wanted you to
leave, I would’ve told you to,” Syn said directly. He was watching
Furi closely and saw him cut his eyes down to the two men in the
suits. “Furious. What’s the matter?”

“
It’s ... it’s ...
nothing,” Furi insisted.

Syn looked down at the men who were
casually talking then turned back to Furi. “You’re coming back with
me. Now. Let’s go.”

Furi shook his head no.

“
Furious, I’m not going–”
Syn’s phone rang cutting off his words. He didn’t break eye contact
with Furious as he pulled out the phone. “Syn.”

Syn listened intently to his
Lieutenant while watching Furi dart his obviously frightened eyes
back and forth from the bar to those suits.

“
Yeah, Day. I’m at the pub
across the street, alright. See ya’ in ten.” Syn hung up, tucked
his phone into his pocket and waited for Furi to look back at him.
“Come on we’re leaving.”

“
I gotta put the trash
out. I’ll be back,” Furious told him distractedly.

What aren’t you telling
me?
Furi’s body language was screaming his
discomfort, but Syn didn’t know the man well enough yet to know
exactly what it was. So he wouldn’t keep guessing. He was getting
Furi out of there period. Syn’s phone rang again this time it was
Ronowski. “I’m going to take this out front. Meet me outside as
soon as you finish.” His eyes caught Furi’s again, but only for a
second. “Five minutes.” He told him and got off his stool to wait
for him out front.

Syn waited by his truck while talking
to Ronowski. Ro told him that Sasha Pain had been picked up along
with two other girls. Sasha and one other female performer,
Angelica were being real tight-lipped, but Ronowski believed he
could get the other one to talk. He wanted Syn in on the
interrogation.

“
Yeah, Day and God are in
my area and are coming by to get me. We should be there shortly.”
Syn disconnected the call and checked his watch. It’d been seven
minutes. Syn followed his first instinct and headed back inside the
pub.