Five years after his disappearance, Elijah began to bleed back into the limelight. Articles about an indie film he starred in, social media accounts reactivated, pictures of him smiling on set with the random cast and crew members. It was all useless for Shep’s purposes. All except a single post on a subreddit called r/truecrimla. There were thousands of posts about the many crooks and con men preying on people in Los Angeles, but only one mentioned Elijah’s name. A single line that made the hair stand up on Shep’s arms.
Hollywood’s filled with predators… ask Elijah Dunne.
Shep seethed as he tried to find more on the person who’d made the post but found nothing. He wasn’t a computer genius by any means, but he had a basic understanding of the deep web. He opened the Tor browser and tried diving deeper. Again, he found nothing. No police reports. No lawsuits. No articles. Nothing. What the fuck had happened to Elijah and why was there no record of it? Elijah had said the police were just as corrupt as the criminals. Had a police officer hurt him? He needed more information.
He considered texting Linc, but it seemed… unwise. This wasn’t a present-day threat to Elijah’s safety. It was about finding the coward who had dared to touch something that belonged to Shep and showing him there were consequences for those actions, even if it happened years ago. Shep would lay waste to all of Elijah’s demons if it meant the boy slept easy.
He snagged his phone and pulled up Webster’s number.
Shepherd: It’s Shepherd. I need a favor.
Webster: I’m assuming it’s a matter of life and death, considering it’s four-thirty in the morning and we’re not friends.
Shep ignored the question.
Shepherd: I need your help to find something, but I need you to keep this between us.
Webster: You want me to keep something from Linc and Jackson because you, a virtual stranger, asked me to?
Shep didn’t have time for this.
Shepherd:Yes. I need you to do whatever it is you do and find out what made Elijah Dunne leave Hollywood ten years ago. Can you do it or not?
Webster: Yeah, piece of cake, brother. I’ll try to have something for you before the end of the day.
Shepherd: Thanks.
He finished his conversation and switched back to Elijah, replacing the phone against the bowl and toggling back to the subreddit.Hollywood’s filled with predators.Elijah had said almost the same thing just hours before. But what kind of predators? The other posts were all over the place from conspiracies about old Hollywood murders to people warning of phony photographers and unsavory casting agents, but nothing that gave any clue who had harmed Elijah. Did it have anything to do with his reaction to the card from this morning? What did ‘the camera loves you’ mean to Elijah?
“Is that my room?”
Shep turned at the sound of Elijah’s sleep-soaked voice, glancing back at his phone’s screen, examining the security feed to see the boy’s blankets still piled in the center of his bed, clearly without him in them. Shep had been so entranced in his search, he hadn’t noticed him get up.
“Yes.”
Elijah drifted closer, silent as a ghost with his bare feet. Shep could smell him, the rosemary scent of his shampoo, the clean sharp scent of his soap. He longed to touch Elijah, to bury himself in that scent. The pull was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
Somebody had hurt Elijah because Shep hadn’t been there to protect him, and it didn’t matter that they hadn’t even known each other when it happened, it didn’t matter that it was years ago. To Shep, it was fresh, and it was like he’d let Elijah down, had left him vulnerable. It was insane, but he couldn’t shake the thought.
The boy was his… just his, and the world needed to know. They needed to understand Elijah was under Shep’s protection. He wanted to mark him, scent him, brand him even. Anything to let the monsters of the world know Elijah had a monster of his own.
“So you just… watch me? All night?” Elijah asked, hesitant like he didn’t believe him.
“Yes.”
“Even when I’m changing my clothes… even when I’ve just gotten out of the shower?” Now his voice sounded raw, breathy.
“Yes.”
The boy’s voice caught on a sharp inhalation. “Oh.”
Shep said nothing more, waiting to see what Elijah did next. The weight of the boy’s upper body pressed against Shep’s back as he reached past him for something. For a moment, Shep thought he was reaching for the phone, perhaps to turn off the feed, but that wasn’t it. Shep would have let him. He didn’t think he’d refuse Elijah anything.
What did somebody do to let another person know they’d been claimed? Dates? Flowers? Dinner? He forced himself not to grimace. None of those seemed enough for Elijah. No, Shep needed Elijah to know he’d taken him. That he would protect him. The boy was his now, and that felt like it needed a gesture with weight. A ritual. A sacrifice. Elijah deserved that. He deserved the justice he’d spoken of earlier and Shep would give it to him. Hell, he’d hunt down the man who hurt Elijah and carve out his still-beating heart if that’s what Elijah needed to feel safe at night.
When Elijah’s fingers closed around Shep’s half-empty coffee cup, he took advantage of the proximity, letting his nose graze across the boy’s cheek, inhaling. Elijah sucked in a surprised breath but didn’t resist, just continued about his task, letting go of Shep’s arm to grip the mustard-colored cup with both hands.He moved to the opposite side of the counter and Shep mourned the loss. The boy chewed on his lower lip, before flicking his gaze to Shep. “Can I?”
Shep blinked at him, not sure what the boy was asking for but sure it didn’t matter. “Can you what?” The boy smiled, lifting the cup. “Of course.”
