Two blood-roughened fists hauled Spook upright.“Spook?”When he managed to focus in roughly the right direction, an impish grin was beamed at him from a distance of an inch.“Talk to me, Spooky-man.”The clasp under his pits, holding him aloft, morphed into a shake.“Did that bastard… Do I need to go back and cut off…?”
“Hey, back up there, big guy.”
Calm arrived in the form of black silk and leather, and a whiff of Giorgio Armani for men.Two strong arms caged him in a protective embrace, while a pair of cat’s eyes hypnotically scrutinised him.“I’ve gotcha.”
Xane.For a moment, peace burned away his anger and indignation.“Xane.”He reached desperately for the other man.
“Right here.”Xane swaddled him in an embrace, then backed up.“Let me have a look at you.”Xane gently inspected his face.“I don’t think stitches are going to be necessary.Can you focus?Look at me.Your head okay?”
He nodded, even though he wasn’t entirely sure.
“What do you say I get you cleaned up and out of here?”
He gave another nod, pleased that Xane wasn’t insisting he talk or answer dumb questions about how many fingers he was holding up.Xane would get him out of here.Keep him safe.When he chose, Xane was an organiser extraordinaire.He had a way of making people jump to attention and get shit done.He didn’t exactly snap his fingers and teleport them, but they did reach the exit without a single person getting in their way.
“The limo’s out front.Sorry, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to magic the crowd away.”
Spook flinched.
Xane contemplatively turned the hoop piercing his lower lip.“Okay, let’s just hang tight a moment and let the others catch up.”
Spook wasn’t sure how that would help, but he was all for staying put.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
No.Yes.Like you don’t already know.“Some piece of pond life jumped me.”
“And?”
And there was nothing else to say about it.His face hurt, his brow stung, and he felt weirdly detached, like his mind wasn’t anchored inside his skull properly.“I’m fine.It’s not like it’s anything new.I’ve been groped a zillion times.”
Xane—heaven curse him—saw right through him.It had always been his talent, right from the day they’d met.Forget the masks that everyone accepted, Xane had soul specs.He saw right into the hearts of people.Leastways, he’d always seen right into the heart of him.
“Spook.You haven’t been fine in all the time I’ve known you.So if you’re fine now after you’ve just been assaulted, there’s something seriously off.In any case, I can see you’re not okay.You’ve a bust lip and the makings of a black eye.Plus, I can feel you shaking, so how about you don’t spin me a bunch of shite?”
“What the fuck do you want me to say?”he snapped.“Some guy decided to try and make me his fuck toy?So, no, I’m not feeling overly jolly at the mo’, but I’ll cope.I’ve been through worse and survived.”
Xane didn’t actually respond to that, but Spook could virtually hear the words running through his head.“But only just.”
“Fuck off,” he muttered.
Xane just lifted his brows.“Want another hug?”
“No.”Yes.Maybe.
“How about you tell me what you can handle?”Xane suggested, again seeming to pinpoint exactly what was running through his head.Fucker.And he needed to quit with the neutral, altogether reasonable tone he was adopting.It was pissing him off.He ought to be telling him what an idiot he was for screwing up so catastrophically.No one had put him in danger.He’d done that to himself.It wasn’t as if he was part of some break-out band who weren’t clued up on how the world worked.Making that phone call had been stupid on every level imaginable.
“Spook, listen.”Xane continued, maintaining that unsettling even tone.“There’s a whole gaggle of fans out there, and this meet-and-greet corporate party bollocks to attend.But, I don’t give a shit what Sally Kettering or anyone else says.If you need to bail, then we’re bailing.Here.”He grabbed a wad of tissues off the reception desk and awkwardly offered to clean up Spook’s temple and busted lip.
Spook made himself stand semi-still for it.If it’d been anyone else, he’d probably have shoved them through a window for getting too close, but Xane, he just had a way about him that made compliance easy.Also, he was surprisingly gentle, which Spook appreciated.His head felt like there was an ice-pick embedded in it above his right eye, and his throat…it seemed to be clogged with gravel.Speaking around that was a fucking effort.
“Like I pissing care about some party.”
“I know you don’t.Do you want to go somewhere… talk?”
Spook shook his head.Oh, the hell, no.“I don’t want to analyse this shit, and you know it.”There was only so much talking over things one person could stomach, and he’d reached his capacity before he’d hit his twenties.Xane knew it too.Never did stop him from occasionally trying to chip holes in Spook’s curtain wall though.
“If we bail it’ll only cause a hassle,” Spook muttered.A party was the last place he wanted to go—too many people—but he couldn’t think of an appealing alternative.Also, true fact: going along with what Sally Kettering wanted was way more expedient than switching plans on her.If they showed their faces at the party, then at some point he’d be allowed to escape to wherever the hell he decided he might want to escape to.
