If only Sterling could convince him itwastrue.
“Gabriel and I first met at The White Lotus,” Lucian explained. His eyes were on Marcus now, and Sterling saw the bond between them. Lucian turned to Marcus for strength, and Marcus rewarded him with attention. One day, Sterling hoped to share a similar connection with Adrian. “He was brought in maybe six months to a year after I was. We were entrapped the same way—Baylor pursued us online, made us think we meantsomething—”
“Stop.” Gabriel pushed away from Lucian suddenly. “He didn’t make usthinkwe meant something. Wedidmean something. Just because you and him didn’tworkout—”
“Gabriel.” Lucianfrowned.
Gabriel blinked away tears. “He loves me. He’s always loved me. I know that you’re upset—that all of you are upset—but it’s true. He wouldn’t have let me sleep in his bed if hedidn’t.”
“He wouldn’t have sold you to other men if he loved you.” Lucian’s frown grew, and he tried to reach out to take Gabriel back into his arms, but Gabriel pulled away. He sat back on the couch and pushed himself into the opposite corner, somewhere between furious andheartbroken.
Immediately, Adrian stood up and sat on the arm of the couch where Gabriel had settled. He looped an arm around Gabriel’s shoulder. With a shuddering sigh, Gabriel laid his head on Adrian’s thigh and closedhiseyes.
“Lucian,” Marcuswarned.
Lucian looked at Marcus, uncomfortable. “I’m only telling him the truth. Baylordidn’t—”
“Lucian.” There was no room for argument in Marcus’ tone. It was a final warning. Lucian shut down, and the topic of conversationchanged.
It was Adrian whospokenext.
“I know that we’re not exactly on friendly terms, and before I contribute to this conversation at all, I want to clear the air…” Adrian looked down at Gabriel, and Sterling watched the expression on his face change. Anger was still present there—little pinpricks of irritation that tightened his features and made him come across as mildly abrasive—but Adrian let it simmer into nothing. He took a deep breath, laid a hand on Gabriel’s head, and stroked his hair reassuringly as he spoke. “I’m sorry for what I did. I was jealous, and vindictive, and I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. You have every reason in the world to hate me, and youshouldhate me for what I made you go through, and for the pain I caused you, but… but don’t take that out on my brother. If you want to yell at me, degrade me, hit me, humiliate me, fine. All I ask is that you be kindtohim.”
There were a million ways that Adrian could have handled the situation. He could have pled for total forgiveness or pretended that nothing wrong had ever existed between them. He could have made the case that he’d done nothing that wasn’t deserved, or brought up Lucian and Marcus’ sins like they were worse thanhisown.
But hedidn’t.
The cocky young man with the mile-high confidence had grown past that. Adrian embraced his flaws and acknowledged his shortcomings. He accepted that he’d made mistakes, and he expressed regretforthem.
Sterling’s heart filled withpride.
“I’m not going to insult you.” Lucian tented his knees and ran his hands up his thighs. “I don’t think Marcus is going to, either. I’m here for Gabriel, and he’s hereforme.”
“If you were here for me, then you wouldn’t tell me that Garrison doesn’t love me.” Gabriel spoke so softly that Sterling barely heard the words. “You’d tell me where I could find him so we could be together again. I didn’t think you’d be sojealous.”
Lucian and Marcus exchanged uneasy looks. Sterling saw, but Gabriel’s head was pressed into Adrian’s side, and he doubted that Gabriel knew anything was going on. A look like that meant trouble. Like a bomb was about to drop, the room grew silent, and the mood becamesomber.
“Gabriel?” Lucian asked. He tucked his legs against his chest like they might shield him, and set his chin atop his knees so he could look in Gabriel’s direction. “Garrison Baylor is a bad man who did awful, terrible things. After the bust, when you were taken away, hewas…well.”
“He was found guilty of multiple federal offenses, and he’s currently in appeals.” Marcus took over for Lucian fluidly, like their minds operated on the same wavelength. It was the first time Sterling had seen them together as a couple outside of their play session at The Shepherd, and it was captivating to see the love between them, and how smoothly they integrated it into their lives. “…But in my professional opinion, the appeal will do nothing. He is going to be behind bars for a very, verylongtime.”
The hitched sound in Gabriel’s throat might have been a sob, but it was hard to tell, because as soon as he made it, he pressed his head against Adrian’s side and checked out from the world. Adrian stroked his hair and whispered something, and this time Gabriel did sob. It was a wretched, heartbroken sound that woke Sterling’s paternal instincts and made him want to root out the cause of Gabriel’s pain and do away with itforgood.
“It’s okay to be sad,” Lucian murmured. His arms tightened around his legs. “When the police came and liberated us, I didn’t know what to do, either. I was… I wasn’t in the right head space. Baylor did things to us that never should have been done and made us think things that we never should have thought. It took me almost six months into therapy to realize it. We don’t have to be his slaves, Gabriel. We don’t have to belong toanyone.”
“That’s easy for you to say.” Gabriel tore away from Adrian’s side with such ferocity that Sterling braced himself to intervene should there be a fight. It looked like Adrian’s temper was genetic. “You have an alpha to look after you. I can… I can smell him on you. I know that you’re together—that he’s… he’s touching you. Making you feel good. That he caresforyou.”
No one said anything. Even Adrian, who seemed most highly attuned to Gabriel’s mood, stayed silent andstill.
“It’s easy to tell me that I don’t need someone when you have all your needs being met. But I’m alone now, Lucian. I’m alone, and I don’t have someone there for me, and I’mlost.I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be freed. I wanted to stay with Garrison. Ilovehim.”
“I think that you’re in love with the idea of being loved and cared for,” Lucian murmured, gaze lowered. “That can happen again. You can find a good man to love you. I foundMarcus,and—”
Gabriel lunged at Lucian with a feral cry that harbored heartbreak. It pierced Sterling’s eardrums and sank straight down his spine, but his body instinctively knew what to do. He bounded across the coffee table in a heartbeat and grabbed Gabriel mid-lunge. As his heart raced and his vision refocused, he saw Marcus plastered on the couch in front of Lucian, shielding him fromattack.
Their eyes met. Sterling yanked Gabriel back as Gabriel lashed out and clawed at him. Marcus stayed in place in front of Lucian, chest heaving as he struggled to regain his breath. Marcus had jumped into action to keep safe the most important person in his life. His love for Lucian bound him as his protector. AndSterling?
As Sterling restrained Gabriel and blocked Adrian from harm’s way, he realized that he’d donethesame.
