Dane grinned and hugged the man. “I love you either way. Unicorn or pony. Poop or cookies.”
Bas’s sigh of relief said it all.
They pulled into the driveway, and Ru ended up half carrying Bas inside to one of the spare rooms. Dane made him as comfortable as possible. Ru sent Adam home with his parents to pack some stuff for them. It sounded like they’d be staying for a few days. Dane hopped up on the side of the bed and sat propped up beside Bas. He worried that if he woke up alone he’d be afraid, panic, or hurt himself trying to get up.
“You want some tea or something?” Ru asked as he brought in a blanket from Bas’s room.
“Yeah. Something warm would be good. Thanks. I don’t want to leave him.”
“It’s okay. I’ll be back in a few.”
Ru was only gone a minute or two before Dane heard a car pull up, screeching to a stop. It couldn’t be Adam already since they’d just left. The door banged open, and Dane heard, “What the fuck?”
Tommy.
“Keep your voice down. Bas is sleeping,” Ru said.
Dane grabbed his crutches, stuffed pillows around Bas, and hobbled toward the living room.
“What the hell is going on? I get a call from my manager, Katie, telling me that something big happened. But none of you bother to call me?” Tommy looked like crap, worse than he’d ever been for his many visits to Dane in rehab.
“We’ve all called you many times in the past few weeks, but you’ve been ignoring us. Today has been a little busy since Marissa was stabbed a half dozen times and left to die in the cold, and Bas and Dane were injured trying to find her.”
Ru slammed the cast-iron teapot down a little harder than he needed to. “Where were you when we were all terrified of finding our friend dead? When we were called out at six in the morning to search for her body? Don’t come in accusing me of keeping you out of the loop. You did this to yourself, Tommy.”
Dane limped to the counter, taking a seat between them. “Don’t fight, please.”
Tommy dry washed his face. “What happened to you, Dane? Are you all right?”
“Just a sprain. Nothing big. Bas has a fracture in his arm and a dislocated shoulder they had to pop back into place. We’ll both be fine in a few days.”
Physically at least. Dane couldn’t get the image of Marissa lying in the snow out of his head. He remembered sitting there a few seconds just watching her, fearing the worst, until he realized she was taking shallow breaths. His heart nearly stopped in relief at that moment. And that’s when Bas had come falling down the hill after him.
“And Marissa?”
“We don’t have all the details yet. We just know there were multiple stab wounds. She lost a lot of blood. She wasn’t conscious.” Those were all things he’d heard from the nurses who were trying to comfort them and treat them at the same time. “Maybe hypothermia. No idea how long she was out there. The cold might have slowed the blood loss.”
Ru took hot water from the microwave and poured it into the teapot. He set a little white timer and came to sit beside Dane.
“I can’t do this again,” he told Tommy. “Can you fix this before it becomes a problem?”
“I don’t have a problem,” Tommy said.
“Yeah? What where you on? ’Cause that first morning we went to pick up Dane for Dimitri’s, you were higher than a kite.”
“Look. I was just under a lot of stress. It was a onetime thing. Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s what you said when I caught you snorting a line during my tour. No drugs, Tommy. That’s not okay. You’ve seen what they do to people.”
“And I’m telling you it’s not a problem.”
“Itiswhen you don’t return our calls. Itiswhen you miss out on important life events, like Dane’s improvement or the fund-raiser we’ve organized for prom to raise money for LGBT youth. Or that a sixteen-year-old girl goes missing in the middle of the night to turn up with a bunch of stab wounds. Tell me, Tommy, what part of this is okay?”
The timer dinged. Ru got up and set out two cups and poured the tea. He set one in front of Dane and took one for himself.
“We can’t help you until you see you have a problem.”
Tommy gripped the edges of his coat and hugged himself tight. Dane wanted to reach out to him, but Tommy turned, stalked out the door, and left without another word.
“That’s not good,” Dane said.
“No,” Ru agreed. “Let me hold your tea. I’ll bring my tablet. We’ll watch something while staying close to Bas. I don’t want him alone for too long, either. I don’t know how you’re not a mess after finding her like that. And she wasn’t dead. That’s unbelievable. Out there in the cold, bleeding for who knows how long. Who would do that?”
But Dane had a strong suspicion that he knew. He remembered angry eyes in the park. Feared what they meant aimed at Bas since the moment he’d recognized that look. But with Marissa unconscious, who would know? And how could Dane keep Bas safe until the person was caught?
