It was a waste, really. Cooking steak that would only be an avenue for the poison. But maybe we'd get a few yummy bites before it happened.
I pulled the baked potatoes I had cooking out of the oven and put them next to the big salad that was waiting on the kitchen table.
Lucian walked in just as the front doorbell rang. He raised his eyebrows at me, but I shrugged and feigned ignorance. "No idea."
"I'll go see," Lucian said. I watched him walk out of the kitchen and down the hall. When he opened the door, both he and Adam shouted obscenities at each other.
Soon, he reentered the kitchen with his arm around Adam's shoulders. I reminded myself to think of him as Adam in my mind tonight so that I wouldn’t accidentally call him Michael.
"Hey, Adam, long time no see." I cocked my head at him behind Lucian's back and widened my eyes.
"Hey,Connie." He looked around the room. "Oh, man, I didn't realize the time. I'll go, we can hang out another time."
"Nonsense," I said. "Have you eaten?"
"No, but I see you're making steaks. That's not the kind of dinner you can easily add a person to." He smiled blandly as Lucian looked between us.
Luc pursed his lips at me as if asking me for permission for his friend to come over and play.
"You're in luck. I had one steak left in the freezer. Somehow, we ended up with an uneven number. I already have it in the pan,andI even put an extra baked potato in the oven. I was going to send it for Luc's lunch tomorrow."
Lucian clapped Adam on the back. "I guess I'll have to deal with a ham sandwich, my friend."
Adam ducked his head and grinned. It was so cute. I'd seen that same smile many times over the years. But I hadn't known then who he really was.
I finished cooking while they sat at the table and talked. I intentionally forgot the steak sauce. If Adam hadn't had a chance to poison Lucian's plate by the time I asked for the sauce, he could then.
When everything was dished out and everything was settled, I sat down to cut my steak. "Oh, shoot. Luc, will you grab the steak sauce?"
He rolled his eyes. "You kill me, Conn. How you can eat a strip steak like this with sauce, I'll never know. It totally covers up the flavor."
"Yeah, well, at least you aren't lecturing me about it being well done."
He snorted as he stood. "I should. You ruined yours."
Adam poured a clear liquid all over Lucian's steak, and it blended in with all the juices before Lucian returned with my sauce.
Butterflies swarmed my stomach as I watched Lucian take a bite of his steak. Nothing happened.
Michael...Adam and I took bites of our own. Mine tasted heavenly. I cooked it to well-done perfection. Three or four bites in, Lucian was happy as a clam, chowing down on his steak and potato, which he'd covered liberally in toppings. I glared at Adam, who shrugged.
A few seconds later, Adam made a strange gurgling sound. His eyes turned bloodshot in seconds, and he began to wheeze. I widened my eyes at him. I'd watched him put the poison on Lucian's plate. How could it have possibly ended up on his own?
He lurched from his chair and ran to the sink, retching the whole way. Thankfully, he made it to the sink that had a garbage disposal in the bottom before emptying his stomach.
I rubbed his back, trying not to act too familiar with him as I comforted him. He kept throwing up until there couldn't have possibly been anything left in his stomach. He flipped on the water and buried his face under the faucet, washing out his mouth and letting the water cool his heated skin.
"I'm going to go home," he whispered after I handed him a towel to dry off. "I don't feel good."
"Of course," I said. I wanted to go with him and take care of him. I had no idea what poison he'd used or if it would cause any lasting damage to him.
Lucian stood behind us, bouncing from one foot to another, worried about his friend. "What happened, Adam?"
He took one of Adam's arms and I took the other as we helped him to the front door. "Luc," I said. "Walk him down to his house. I'll get rid of the food. Something in it made him ill. We'd better not try to eat it."
"Good call, Connie. Be right back."
A few minutes later, Michael popped into the kitchen just as I finished scraping all the food into the trash. "Lucian is on his way back," he said. "I'm going to get Gabe's help with this. I don't think this poison could kill me, but wow does it hurt." He was half bent over with his arm around his waist.
