Sup dweeb? Miss you. I’m talking with the folks about a dinner sometime. You in?
The last two were to Everett, whom Caleb loved, and would always love, no matter their differences.
Something’s come up and we’re going to be delayed getting home. No one’s hurt. We’ll fill you in on what happened when we get in.
I love you. I’m so glad you’re mine.
“Hey.” It was Jayne, who’d concluded his conversation and come to stand in front of Caleb. He tapped the back of his black leather shoe on the pavement and rested his arm on the metal frame of the car door. The cotton button-down shirt he wore billowed as it caught the same gentle breeze tickling the back of Caleb’s neck, and Caleb couldn’t help but be enchanted by the image. Jayne’s tongue was razor-sharp, and even when he was at his weakest, he held himself together with near superhuman strength, but he could be soft and subtle, too. There was a dreamlike, almost ethereal cast to his appearance that made him look gentle and vulnerable.
“Hey,” Caleb replied. He looked into Jayne’s eyes and smiled. “What’s the story?”
“We’ve got the go-ahead to leave if we want. I’ve given them a full report and all my contact information. They’ll be back in touch when there’s movement on the case.”
Caleb traced the side of his phone with his fingers, taking comfort in the familiar position of the buttons. Then, preferring Jayne’s company to momentary distraction, he put the phone away. “You’re pressing charges?”
“Yes.” Jayne spoke without hesitation. “If this is ever going to end, I need to be the one who steps up and does something about it—Bastian’s made it clear that he’s not interested in giving me up anytime soon, so if I want anything to change, I need to be the one who takes charge. Besides,” Jayne gestured across the parking lot at a silver Honda Civic, its windows equipped with blackout window film, and the paint on its driver side door scuffed, “I’m not fighting just for me anymore. I’m fighting for you, Everett, Parker, and Shep.”
Caleb glanced at the Honda. From the corner of his eye, the silver paint on the Jag’s broken wing mirror gleamed.
“He said something to me when he had me pinned,” Jayne continued. “It made me think that everything that’s been happening lately hasn’t been a random string of bad luck. I don’t think any of us are safe.”
“You think he’ll come for us?” Caleb reached out and took Jayne’s hand, tangling their fingers together. “You don’t have to worry about that. Bastian doesn’t scare us. The last time he came for you, we took care of him, and we’ll take care of him again if we need to. You’ve been taking care of your own shit for so long that it’s time we took care of you.”
The fierceness in Jayne’s eyes did not diminish—rather, it was tempered by gratitude and adoration. A spark lit in his eyes, and while it was dampened by exhaustion and worry, there was love there, too. The chemistry between them thickened, and Caleb felt the warmth of that look seep through him until no part of him was left untouched. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. The night at Circuit Rush was a fluke. Bastian didn’t think he’d run into any opposition then, but he does now. He’s learned his lesson, and he’s too prideful to repeat it.” Jayne glanced at the Honda again. “I don’t think he wants to kill me. What he wants more than anything else is to gain power over me again—to know he can destroy everything and everyone I love and still have me groveling at his feet. I didn’t see it before, but I do now. My social life, my familial bonds, my apartment, my lovers…” Jayne let out a slow, pained sigh, then looked into Caleb’s eyes. The light played tricks with the pigment of his irises, turning the star-fire bursts of brown around his pupils amber, and coloring the surrounding blue-green pools as bright as the shallow ocean. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them. After what Bastian has shown me over the last few months, I don’t want to risk it. He’ll come for you and Everett. The more I resist, the harder he’ll try to hurt me. He won’t stop until he takes away everything—and everyone—I love.”
Love?
Caleb bit the inside of his lip, his eyes fixed on the man who stood in front of him. The slow, steady thump of his heart beat heavily in his chest.
Love.
As if realizing the effect of his words, Jayne bashfully looked aside. “So you can fight for me and protect me all you want, but know that while you do, I’ll be fighting for you, too. For you and Everett both. For my family.”
Caleb raised Jayne’s hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles, causing Jayne to look back his way. It felt fitting that they would have this conversation as they were, with Jayne standing and in command, and Caleb seated before him. For years, Caleb had thought that what he and Everett needed was a submissive partner to indulge their wants and needs, but since Jayne had come into his life, he’d learned otherwise. What Caleb had needed was someone to put him in his place—someone who wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself, and who could deflect Caleb’s bullshit and return fire with his own.
What he’d needed was someone like Jayne.
“What he doesn’t understand,” Caleb held Jayne’s gaze as his heart beat faster, his pulse thrumming in his throat, “is that for the men I love, there is no limit to what I’ll do. He can come for me, or Everett, or anyone in our household, but I’ll be there, and I’ll be waiting for him. For their sake, and for yours.”
Color kissed Jayne’s cheeks. He carded his fingers through Caleb’s hair, then shook his head as if in disbelief. Whatever doubts he had didn’t last long—in the next second, the uncertainty disappeared from his face, and he bent at the waist to press a tender kiss to Caleb’s lips.
Caleb kissed him back.
There wasn’t enough time to hold back on saying what needed to be said—not enough certainty from one day to the next to ever hide love. Caleb’s heart had spoken, and he wouldn’t ignore it any longer.
He loved Jayne.
Bringing him into his relationship with Everett had been the right choice.
“Let’s go home,” Jayne whispered against Caleb’s lips as the kiss ended. In that moment, Caleb’s heart beat to the same rhythm as Jayne’s pulse, like the universe had linked them together and told them in subtle ways,this is right.“There’s someone we love waiting for us there, and I don’t think we should keep him waiting.”
Everett.
A new wave of happiness pulled Caleb into its currents, and he gladly drowned in it.
What had started as a nightmare had turned into a dream. If it meant he got to keep his two wonderful men, Caleb would spend the rest of his life chasing out whatever bogeymen came their way. It seemed a small sacrifice to make for the people who had changed his life.
* * *
