“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Wish you’d not gone there now you know where it’s been?”
He took the coffee and walked away to sit with the woman near the door. She had her head on her folded arms, straggling hair spread over the table, and didn’t look up at him.
Ledger fixed his coffee with a normal amount of sugar and milk. Then he took it with him as he went to stand next to Wren.
“That wasn’t… I just don’t like to think of Earl…”
He supposed he didn’t need to finish that thought. It was a full sentence.
Wren downed his coffee. “Don’t worry,” he said as he leaned back in the chair. “He doesn’t want to be the one who gets fucked.”
The coffee was sour enough to start with. Combined with that visual, it clogged in Ledger’s throat and sat queasily in his stomach. He set it down next to the woman’s hand, her bitten blue-green nails nearly touching the styrofoam.
“Yeah, I could have guessed that,” Ledger said. “Enjoy your coffee, Wren.”
He left him there and walked out. A few minutes later, Wren caught up with him on the stairs to the second floor.
“I’m not here for your tight ass,” Wren said as he grabbed Ledger’s arm to stop him mid-step. “Earl’s not happy.”
The obvious retort stung Ledger’s tongue. Since he’d already shot himself in the foot once this morning, and that was his limit, he bit his lower lip until the urge passed.
“Cat got your tongue?” Wren asked.
Ledger leaned down and kissed him. One hand cupped Wren’s cheek, stubble prickly against his palm, as he demonstrated that the cat did not, in fact, have his tongue. When he pulled away, Wren stared at him, a frown on his face and dark, straight brows creased together over his nose.
“What was the fuck was that for?” he asked.
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
Wren’s face closed up. That had been the wrong thing to say. Ledger didn’t know why, but obviously, it had been. Wren took a backward step down the stairs and wiped his hand over his mouth.
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
Ledger started to speak, then thought better of it. Sometimes it was best to stop while you were behind. He started up the steps.
“Earl isn’t my problem.”
“Said no one. Ever.”
Ledger reached the landing and turned to look down at Wren. “Earl made a deal with me,” he said. “He even set the penalty clause. If he interferes with me inanyway that makes my job harder, that could nullify the contract.”
“Bullshit,” Wren snorted. “Who’s gonna stop him?”
Ledger cocked his head to the side and stared at Wren for a moment. Of the two of them, Wren was the one who should know. He was the one who was… something else. Ledger had just listened at the keyhole for a while.
“There’s rules,” Ledger said. “And there’s laws. Something like Earl? He’s scary enough that no one is going to stop him if he breaks the rules. But breaking laws puts you in front of an entirely different court. Especially when contracts are involved. Earl’s my problem on the equinox. Until then—”
“He’smyproblem?”
See? Ledger raked his hair back from his face with one hand and sighed. There it was. The consequences of a bad decision come home to expect things from him.
“I guess,” Ledger said. He checked the ground to make sure it was cleanish and sat down, his knees bent at a sharp angle. “OK, what’s he unhappy about?”
“He doesn’t trust you.”
Ledger hung his hands off the shelf of his knees. “Can’t help him with that.”
“He wants to talk to you. In person.”
