Tommy slept curled up in his chair, a blanket pulled up around him in a way that meant someone else must have put it there. But Katie was awake. She glared at her phone like it was going to bite her. Ru dropped into the seat beside her. “What?”
“AJ found Adam.”
“What? How do you know?” Ru tried to look at the screen of her phone to read what she was seeing.
“I have a friend at one of the celebrity rags. She forwarded me this.” Katie turned the phone his way. It was a picture of Adam kissing someone else. Not just someone else,Nate.
“What the hell?”
“Don’t get all upset over this, Ru.”
“What do you mean, don’t get upset?” How could he have let himself trust Adam? Didn’t he remember how much it hurt the last time?Oh God.
“Stop rolling this over in your head, Ru. Adam’s not cheating on you. Look at his posture in this picture. He’s on the defense. And the bigger guy has got a pretty solid grip on him.” Katie thrust the picture closer. “Could this be how he got hurt?”
Ru studied it for the things he normally saw from Adam, but everything about the young man said he was being forced. Forced. His stomach sank and he wanted to throw up.
“You don’t think that’s what happened, do you? That he’s in the hospital because Nate forced him to...” Ru couldn’t even think the word. “Oh my God. I knew that guy was a freak, but I never thought he’d actually do something like that.” Once again Ru was back to pacing the plane. He tugged mercilessly on his hair, wanting to rip it out because he was there, flying over the middle of nowhere, and not close enough to help Adam. “I shouldn’t have left him.”
“This is not your fault. And truly, if it were that serious, wouldn’t his father have been more worried?” Katie as always was the rational voice. She tugged him back down into the chair beside her and ran her fingers through his hair to straighten the mess. “Adam’s father said he’d be okay, right?”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t say anything about there being something awful they needed to tell you when you got there? Or suggesting that Adam might need counseling?”
“No. He just said he didn’t want me to stew on it.”
“So don’t. As soon as we land, we’ll call and find out where they are. Now sit down and get some sleep.”
“I can’t. Every time I close my eyes, I dream something horrible has happened to him.” And something horrible had happened, hadn’t it? Because Ru hadn’t been there.
Katie grabbed his backpack off the floor and dug through it like the pro she was. A few seconds later she handed him his songbook. “So write it out. But we have another hour in the air.”
The jumble that Ru put to page might never become a song, a lot like his sailor rant. But Herb had told him to keep writing even if it was about spiders.
Ru let it all out. He filled pages with aggressive angry words, fear of not being there, and some unknown curse that seemed to follow him. He was halfway through composing the score when the plane finally set down. The second they were taxiing to the gate, Katie had Adam’s dad on the phone.
“I understand. Of course. Call us as soon as he wakes up. Thank you.”
“What?” Ru demanded when she hung up.
Tommy stretched and looked at them sleepily. “We there?”
“We’re going to Tommy’s place.”
“But I have to see Adam!” Ru was about to go nuts.
“Adam is asleep. His dad just put him to bed. He’s going to call as soon as he wakes up. Now let’s go get some sleep ourselves. We’ll see them in the morning.” Katie glanced at her watch. “Well, later in the morning.”
“What happened?” Ru demanded.
“Not much,” Katie said. “Not what you’re thinking. It didn’t go very far, though it did scare Adam pretty bad. He was at the Homecoming game with some friends. Someone named Bas?”
Ru nodded.
“Apparently Nate cornered Adam when he went to get food. Got a little pushy. Bas went looking for Adam, so they got interrupted. It wasn’t anything more than the kiss and, well, Nate broke Adam’s wrist.”
“What?” Ru cried.
