“Can you let me out please?” I asked quietly. I needed air desperately.
James and Garrett exchanged glances that I was sure meant something, though I didn’t care exactly what at the moment. He got up from the table, and I was right behind him. I walked away from the table, and before I made it past Garrett, Salem asked one more thing that nearly shattered me as I stood.
“Were you a patient of his too?”
My pace stalled for a moment, but then I kept walking toward the parking lot. I wanted to go home and hide for a while. James had caught up to me by the time I reached the back of his car. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into a hug.
“I’m proud of you, Brandon, and I’m sorry that was so painful for you.”
“I want to go home.”
“We’re going, pup.”
My legs bounced nervously all the way home. If it was possible, I thought I was more nervous now than I had been on our way to the restaurant. So much raced through my mind. I knew James had heard her ask if I had been a patient too. I was sure his head was about to explode. He hid it well. Shrinky people were great at concealing everything.
I wondered how many young people Eli had this racket going with. He built trust, became their friend, made them feel as though the world was out to get them and that he was their only friend, then boom.
I meant nothing to him. Ever.
Fucking hell! These goddamn tears!
The pain that I felt in my chest was so bad that I almost told James that maybe I should go to the emergency room. I knew it was nothing more than a combination of the crap I was born into from my addict mom and heartache.
“Relax, pup. Tears are okay.”
James covered my balled up fist that sat on my thigh with his hand. At the next stoplight, I opened my hand so his would naturally fall against mine to hold.
“I love you, Brandon.”
“I love you too.”
As always, when we pulled into the garage, I thanked him for bringing me home with him. I tried to let go of his hand so I could get out of the car, but he tightened his grip on my hand.
“I will always bring you home with me, Brandon. This is your home too.”
11
James
I hadto exercise extreme control on our drive home. My mouth tightly held several questions, but suddenly Brandon’s negative reaction to me having a psychology background began making sense.
Seeing Salem’s reaction to the photos of Eli made me certain that he not only had something to do with Brandon’s disappearance, but hers too. I was sure Garrett was climbing the walls trying to get information, and with his career background, he’d probably push Salem quite a bit until she would break and give him more information. Like Salem, Brandon had a breaking point, but right now he needed to relax.
When we got inside, Brandon went straight to our room and pulled his pup cushion out from under our bed. He toed off his toes, flopped down on the fluffy bed, and curled up. I picked up his bear blanket from our bed and pressed it against his chest when I sat beside him.
“Thank you,” Brandon murmured.
He wrapped his arm around the bear’s blanket body and closed his eyes. He was mentally exhausted, and his head was probably spinning with memories. I draped a fleece blanket over his body and rubbed his shoulder.
“You’re welcome, pup. Rest, Brandon. I’m not going anywhere and will be right here when you wake up,” I assured him. I hoped it would bring him some comfort to hear that, but he needed a promise, which I didn’t mind at all to give him.
“Promise?”
“I promise, Brandon.”
During the hour that he slept, all I could think about was the son of a bitch who got Brandon to eat out of his fucking hands and then sold him. If that wasn’t enough to disgust someone, toss in the fact that the man who did it was some sort of psychologist or counselor. Suddenly, words from Russell came storming their way into focus.
Maybe the brainwashing began before he was sold.
