“I’m sorry. I need to go help James look for Brandon. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I love you,” I said. I leaned in to kiss her, but she grabbed the bowl and brushed by me. She slammed the sliding glass door, and the blinds on the kitchen window rattled. I sighed and jogged to my car to start my trek up to Malibu.
1
Sam
Andrew was at James’home when I arrived, and I sat and talked with him while we waited for the others to come back. He always had a pleasant and upbeat outlook on life, despite a series of unfortunate events that claimed the lives of his mom and two brothers. We had been chatting about the coffee house he owned and operated with his father when I heard James’ garage door open.
“Yeah, my dad wants to build a new location,” Andrew said as his head rolled to the side of the back couch cushion so he could look at me. He looked dead tired.
“Any idea where the new location will be?” I asked him.
“Not exactly. We’re looking into a place in downtown L.A., but he’s close to the Huntington Beach area, so we’re looking there too,” he explained.
“What about down in Riverside where you just moved to? Anything down there worth looking at?”
“Elise would like that a lot. But to be honest, there isn’t really a good market for it in Riverside. There are a couple big national chains down there, and the community trusts them. They don’t like taking a chance on something new, so putting the new location in Riverside wouldn’t be a good business decision. We’re still looking into it, though,” Andrew said as James, Josh, and Alison walked in chattering.
Andrew recently moved out of Josh’s place and moved to Riverside to be with a woman whom I simply didn’t care for. I was on duty the night he came into the emergency room bloodied from that woman’s fit of rage. When James informed me that she played in anger and ignored Andrew’s safe word, I immediately wrote her ass off the page.
Supposedly, she got help and continues to work through her grief over the loss of her husband. But I’m sorry, at some point common sense and restraint kick in. You don’t play recklessly with someone’s mind and body and get a free pass when you beat them senseless and ignore their safe word. It was simply unacceptable. Even though the attack didn’t happen at Oxygen, James was able to talk to the owner and get him to ban Elise from playing there. And rightfully so.
Andrew was a submissive at Oxygen, and he had a heart bigger than his brain at times. In my opinion, he should have pressed charges against her. He was more forgiving than he needed to be. Regardless, he was still one of the nicest guys around, and he was profusely loyal to James … as were Josh and Alison.
“Hi, Sam,” Alison said as she came into the room and sat next to Andrew. “How was the housewarming party?” Alison asked Andrew as she leaned against him.
“Thank you for coming over, Sam,” James said as he hurried on his way to the kitchen.
“It’s no problem, James,” I assured him as he picked up a cell phone from the charger. I assumed it was Brandon’s phone.
“Hey, Sam.” Josh nodded his head upward in greeting as he playfully punched Andrew’s knee before he sat beside him. I narrowed my eyes at Josh when he flung his arm across the back of the couch and tousled Andrew’s hair.
“Josh, can’t you see that he’s a little tired?” I asked.
“Oops! Sorry, Andrew. My bad,” Josh replied and softly patted the top of Andrew’s head.
It was interesting to watch these three together. At one point they were all under James’ protection, but Josh and Alison both clearly deferred to Andrew. I hadn’t seen Brandon around Andrew too much, but from what James had said, Brandon was definitely submissive. Andrew was the alpha sub of James’ sub crew even though he had flown the coop.
James had his hands full with Brandon, and it wouldn’t take someone with a psychology degree to see that James would really prefer Brandon only. I realized it when the FBI brought Brandon into the hospital after that human trafficking raid. James stayed with that boy nonstop. He fell hard for Brandon. Only an ignorant fool would fail to see it.
Andrew was in a committed relationship, and I thought if he were ever to find himself on his own again, he would be fine. I watched Josh immaturely flick Alison in the ear and then quickly put his hand on Andrew’s head as if he weren’t the culprit. Alison reached across Andrew and punched Josh in the thigh.
“Knock it off, dickhead,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m tired and in no mood for your shit.”
“I keep wondering why you’re single. Not!” Josh laughed. Alison made a face at him and then flipped him off.
“Andrew, when are you leaving?” Alison asked.
Andrew told her that he wasn’t sure but thought he was going to sit and talk to James for a little while. I actually thought that would be a very good idea for both of them. Andrew looked like he had something on his mind, and I knew James was worried sick about Brandon. I didn’t think James needed any added stress of Josh and Alison’s antics tonight.
Alison flopped against the cushion of the couch. They were all coming down from the adrenaline rush of the search. Alison sighed and with half closed eyes, she said, “I was going to offer to buy you a coffee if you drove me home.”
“I own a coffee shop, remember?”
Josh burst out laughing so hard that he started coughing.
“You’re shit at negotiating.” Josh coughed hard again. “Ali, watch.”
Josh coughed and cleared his throat while I exchanged glances with James. By the quirk in his brow, it seemed he was quickly approaching the end of his rope. Josh tapped Andrew on the shoulder and said, “Andrew.” That’s all he managed to get out before he started laughing again. He cleared his throat and tried again. “If I suck your dick, will you drive me home, Andrew?”
