“Have you ever felt that way about another living thing… ever?”
“Yes,” he answered.
“When?” Mac asked, clearly not believing Shep.
“Now.”
Once more his brother sighed. “Exactly. What if the same thing happens here?”
“I’m not six years old anymore, Mac and Elijah isn’t a beagle.”
“No, now you’re a six-foot-six trained killing machine with a background in advanced interrogation techniques and no supervision.”
“You think I would hurt Elijah?” Shep asked, the thought striking him like a knife through his windpipe.
“No. But I think you might hurt anybody who you perceived as a threat to Elijah.”
Of course, he would. “Why is that a bad thing?”
“Because you can’t just go around hurting people because they hurt somebody you care about.”
This felt like they were talking in circles. His brother didn’t understand, he never could. Shep often felt that Mac had sucked most of the emotions from the womb leaving hardly anything for Shep. Now, he wanted to take Elijah too. “I know the rules. Besides, aren’t we supposed to protect our own?”
“Does he want to be yours? Have you even asked him how he feels? Does it matter to you what he wants?”
That brought Shep up short. He had asked Elijah what he wanted. Just now, in the kitchen. Elijah was upset that Shep hadn’t praised him for his performance. Elijah had wanted sex and Shep had given it to him. “I gave him a blowjob in the kitchen.”
Once more Mac barked out a laugh. “Well, that’s great, buddy, but I don’t think letting a guy suck your dick equals accepting a proposal of marriage. But, hell, what do I know about marriage proposals? Maybe it is.”
Mac made the last comment under his breath, so Shep ignored it. “Should I ask him?”
“To marry you?” Mace asked.
“No. Should I ask him if he’s mine?”
“I really think you should talk to mom about this. She knows about these things. She studied them.” Shep knew his brother really meant she’d studied him. But he didn’t say that. “You should probably touch base with her, anyway.”
Shep did not want to get his mother involved. “I’m asking you.”
A series of pops and hisses came across the line and then Mac asked, “How long have you been together?”
“Together?”
“Like dating? Hooking up? In a relationship?”
“I started guarding him a little over two weeks ago.”
There was a strange noise and then a garbled sound and then it sounded like his brother was choking. “What?” he sputtered. “You’ve only known him for two weeks? What do you mean guarding him? That’s not like code for stalking, is it? Jaynie, be careful.”
“Careful of what? I was an interrogator for six years. I know how far I can push a person before I break them. I’m not stalking him. I’m his bodyguard.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s an actor.”
“A famous actor named Elijah… Elijah who?”
“Elijah Dunne.”
