Authors: j. leigh bailey
Chapter Thirty
Brad sat in the back of the family’s town car, his mind empty and his emotions blank. Or as empty and blank as he could make them. He’d only been in town for four days and already the cold, sterile environment of the family home and his parents’ pretentious demands were wearing thin. Every minute he spent in their presence killed a little more of his soul.
Melodramatic? Probably, but it was still true.
He’d done everything his parents expected of him without comment. He spoke civilly when required, but kept to his room most of the time. Thankfully, except for a few demands regarding his appearance, his mother mostly ignored him. Probably she regretted letting him find out about her father. He’d gotten the haircut she had demanded, wore the suit and tie she had bought for him. The cheap, disposable phone he’d bought three months ago never left his hand. He’d almost given up hope that Danny would call him. It had been five days since he’d last seen Danny, lying pale and still in the hospital. More than once, he’d picked up the phone and dialed Danny’s number, only to disconnect the call before it could ring. Danny wouldn’t approve of the decision Brad had made, but Brad had to do it. After everything the Ortegas had given him, and everything they’d taught him about what it meant to be family, he’d do it again.
The money didn’t mean anything to him, it never had. But the opportunity to smooth things over for the Ortegas, that was important. Ray was a dumbass, but he didn’t deserve to be hurt. More than that, though, Brad knew if Ray couldn’t come up with the money, he’d have to go to his family eventually, and with what Danny had told him about the company’s financial strain, the Ortegas didn’t have ten thousand dollars to pay off towny loan shark thugs. They’d do it—no doubt Mr. Ortega could take out a loan against the house or the business—but Brad could do it easier and with less impact on anyone else.
For the Ortegas, he’d sacrifice more than a couple of weeks with his parents and the distasteful task of “supporting” his asshole brother.
The marble halls of the courthouse echoed with the steps of dozens of people, from nervous looking twenty-somethings and rough-around-the-edges thugs, to impatiently pacing attorneys and giddy couples getting married. With every clack of his mother’s heels and every slap of his father’s leather shoes, Brad’s body turned colder. The idea of facing his brother again after all this time and everything he’d gone through...well, it didn’t sit well.
“Stop it,” his mother hissed, and he realized he’d started popping his knuckles.
He fisted his hands at his sides and his steps slowed. His parents stopped at a set of double doors and entered.
Brad hung back. Jesus, he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t walk in the courtroom and pretend to be someone he wasn’t. His stomach lurched and the croissant and fruit he’d had for breakfast threatened to come back up. Bile stung the back of his throat.
I’m going to be sick.
He searched frantically up and down the hallway, looking for a restroom sign. There had to be one somewhere, didn’t there?
A flash of color in the sedate surroundings caught his eye. His gaze passed by it once before returning. At first he didn’t believe his eyes. There, walking toward Brad with his arm in a brightly striped cast, was Danny.
Nausea forgotten, he jumped up from the bench and ran to meet Danny. Without stopping to think about it, Brad threw himself into Danny’s arms and squeezed him as though the other boy was the only thing between him and a fall off a cliff.
Danny grunted at the impact, but held Brad just as tightly with his one good arm.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Brad pulled back and stared at Danny. “You
are
here.
Why
are you here?”
“You didn’t think I’d let you face this alone, did you?”
“How did you know?”
“Between Ray and me, we worked it out. You and I are going to have a long talk about your habit of running away and thinking you have to handle everything yourself.”
“I wasn’t running away.”
“You left without a word and took all of your stuff. What else was I supposed to think? And you left when I was in the fucking hospital. And, yeah, we’ll be talking about that later.”
Oh, yeah, Danny was pissed. “If I promise to let you yell at me later, can we run away together now? I don’t think I can do this. I thought I could, but now I don’t think so.”
“We can do whatever you want. I’m here for you.” Danny grabbed Brad’s hand, lacing their fingers together.
“Bradley? What are you doing out here? It’s about to start.”
His mother stood at the door, looking at him expectantly. Her gaze sharpened when she saw Danny. “Why is he here?”
“He’s here for me,” Brad said.
“This is none of his business.” She turned to Danny. “You don’t belong here.”
“Listen, lady,” Danny said, letting go of Brad’s hand and propping his fists on his hips. “I don’t know where you’re from, but where I come from, we don’t turn away our kids. You may have chosen your other son over Brad and discarded him like a puppy that shit on your fancy rug, but I won’t. I’m here as long as he needs or wants me.”
Warmth seeped into the cold, empty places in Brad’s chest at the words. Every frosty word or frigid look from his family had been burned away at Danny’s declaration.
With Danny, with the Ortegas, Brad was happy. The simple thought changed everything. Around them, he was the person he wanted to be, the person he was
meant
to be. Happy, generous, loving. Four days with his family reminded him of the hollow, emotionless person he had been for the last few years. If nothing else, this trip back to St. Louis proved to him where he belonged.
“Let’s get this over with. I made a deal to go to the courthouse to give you your image of a perfect family for Nolan’s appeal case. Danny being here doesn’t change that.”
His mother looked skeptically at Danny’s purple-and-green cast and his favorite red skinny jeans. He was a far cry from the conservative suits and knotted ties of the rest of the room.
“He stays or I go,” Brad said simply, and re-laced his fingers with Danny’s.
Her eyes blazed at the connection. “Why do you persist in acting in this deviant way? I had hoped military school would have cured you of that.”
“Deviant?” Danny snapped, releasing Brad’s hand to prop it on his jutting hip. Brad bit his lip. Danny looked like the worst—or the best, depending on one’s perspective—gay stereotype. “You’ll watch your voice or you’ll see how deviant I can be. I’ll take my gay, Mexican ass into that room and flame so bright, the place will erupt in rainbows and glitter.”
Brad’s mother checked over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening and stepped closer to Danny. “I will not put up with this behavior. What you do in the privacy of your own home is one thing, but you will not behave in such a way where respectable people can see you.”
Danny jerked his chin up and moved forward until he and Brad’s mom stood nearly toe-to-toe. “Excuse me?”
“If you do anything to embarrass me or my family, I will ruin you. Don’t you think we did our research when Brad moved in? You come from migrant workers and your father’s company is struggling. It wouldn’t take more than the slightest nudge to ensure the company failed completely. I’m sure you don’t want that.”
“Mother! You wouldn’t dare!”
“I wouldn’t hesitate.”
Brad thought of Mr. Ortega, a man whose heart often overshadowed his head. He thought of Mrs. Ortega, who tried to feed the world and had the best hugs in the universe. He thought of Veronica and her big brown eyes, who looked at Brad as though he were a superhero. Something inside him snapped.
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about Danny doing anything to embarrass you.” He grinned at her, though there was nothing humorous about the situation. “I can take care of that all by myself.”
“What do you mean?”
Brad dragged Danny with him to the courtroom. He opened the door and scanned the room. His father sat straight and proper behind a table at which Nolan and his lawyer waited for the hearing to begin. A judge’s bench sat empty, and a blank-faced bailiff watched the room.
“Excuse me?” Brad said loudly. When everyone looked back at him, he met Nolan’s eyes. “I’m gay. I’m in love with him.” He pointed at Danny, who looked as shocked as everyone else. “You,” he said, pointing to where Nolan sat at a table in the front of the room, “are a homophobic, misogynistic asshole who tried to kill my ex-boyfriend. You beat him and, when he couldn’t move, trapped him in a burning building. You deserve to rot in prison.”
Brad turned his attention to his father, who looked like he was going to have a heart attack. “You can keep my trust fund. I don’t want it. I’m not going to be part of this sorry excuse of a family.”
Silence filled the room. “That is all.” Brad spun around and dragged Danny with him.
He almost ran into his mother at the entrance to the courtroom. “From here on out, you’re going to leave me and the Ortegas alone. Otherwise, I’ll cause such a commotion, such a scandal you won’t be able to face your friends. And then I’ll track down your father and introduce him to everyone you’ve ever met.”
Brad didn’t wait around to see how his mother would react to his threat. He slammed out of the courtroom, Danny at his side.
“Brad!”
His angry stride slowed. It hadn’t been his mother or father shouting his name. He gripped Danny’s hand hard enough he might have cut off the circulation in Danny’s fingers. Swallowing hard, he turned to face his ex-boyfriend.
“Carson?”
Next to Danny, Brad stared. His gaze tracked over the other boy with an intensity that tightened Danny’s gut.
This was the ex?
The image on the computer monitor hadn’t done Carson justice. The dude was gorgeous. Athletic body, thick black hair, bright blue eyes. He could have come off some advertisement for a sporting goods store. All-American athlete. After Brad’s stories, Danny would have expected to see burn scars or some other indication of the injuries he’d gotten. A long-sleeved button-down shirt hid whatever scars Carson had from view and his face was smooth.
Danny looked at Carson’s obviously expensive clothes, then at his own T-shirt and jeans. How was he supposed to compete with that?
Carson scrubbed his hand through his black hair, making it stick up in patches. “Hi.”
Brad blinked. “Hi.”
Neither said anything else.
Danny watched Carson carefully. Brad had been convinced Carson hated him, blamed him for what had happened. Maybe he did, but nothing in his stance or face showed anger. In fact, he looked happy to see Brad. This could be good, right? Like closure. “You two should probably talk. That’s why you chased after us, right? I suppose you were in the courtroom for the hearing.”
For the first time, Carson’s piercing blue eyes left Brad. “Oh, yeah. When I heard about the appeal, I had to see what happened with it.”
More silence.
Danny rolled his eyes. “Go. Sit. Talk.” He made a shooing gesture toward an empty bench.
Shaking his head as though he were clearing away cobwebs, Brad looked at the bench. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess we should.”
As they moved toward the bench, Danny stepped back and turned to go the other direction.
“Where are you going?” Brad grabbed Danny’s sleeve above the colorful cast. “You’re not leaving. Are you?” The hesitation and fear in the question eased some of Danny’s tension.
“No, I’m not leaving. I’m going down the hall to the other bench to give you guys some privacy. You two have some heavy stuff to talk about and you don’t need me getting in the way of it.”
They talked for more than half an hour. While he waited, he texted Ray to let his brother know he’d found Brad. He didn’t mention Carson. His stomach knotted at the thought of the other guy. He and Brad had some serious history, the kind of history that tied people together. Not only was Carson hot, he came from the same kind of background Brad did. They made sense together.
He’d popped two knuckles before realizing he’d picked up Brad’s nervous gesture.
He tried not to watch them, but every couple of minutes his eyes would stray. At one point he looked over and they were holding hands.
What if Brad decided to try to work things out with his ex-boyfriend?
Danny would deal, that’s what. He wanted what was best for Brad. And if that meant walking away, there was the “if you love something let it go” saying.
Which was bullshit. If Brad said he wanted to try to work things out with Carson, Danny would have to convince him otherwise. He hadn’t spent all summer pursuing Brad only to walk away without a fight. Besides, Brad had said he loved Danny and that had to mean something.
Brad and Carson stood. They hugged and Carson walked one way while Brad walked over to Danny, smiling happily.
“He looked good, didn’t he?”
Acid rose in Danny’s throat. “Yeah.”
Brad wrapped his arms around Danny’s arm and rested his head on his shoulder. “He doesn’t blame me. I was so afraid, for so long...”
Sucking in a breath, Danny tried to prepare himself. He had to ask the question, but the answer might destroy him. “Are you...are you going to stay here?”
“
What?
” Brad straightened abruptly. “Why would I stay here?”
“Carson seems like a nice guy. And, well, this is your chance to see how things—”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” The words echoed down the marble hallway and a couple of people even looked at them. Brad didn’t seem to notice. “What, you came all the way to St. Louis to dump me, to pass me off to someone else? You couldn’t have done that from Northfield?”
“No! I...I love you and want you happy and if that means staying here with—” Danny choked on the name. Shaking his head, he used his good arm to grip Brad’s shoulder. “You know what? Fuck that. I tried to be noble, but I can’t do it. Even if you think you’ll be happier here with him, I’ll do everything I can think of to make you realize I am the only one who can make you happy.”
Brad tugged Danny close and shut him up with a kiss. Danny had only a second to think
Oh
,
gracias a Dios
before his brain fogged.