CHAPTER 1
Marry me.
The words echoed through Benji’s head as his dad kept yelling. He was getting louder, making everyone in the art maze look over at them. Including Noah’s bodyguards, who grabbed Benji’s dad by his shockingly tidy jacket and dragged him away.
Noah touched the small of Benji’s back. It was enough to drag Benji out of his shocked stupor. He tuned in just in time to hear his dad, Chet, yell, “I can’t believe the kind of life he’s exposing my son to! I’ll get him back, you’ll see!”
“Dad,” Benji said weakly. “I thought you were in Missouri selling stolen cars.”
“That’s a dirty lie,” yelled Chet Caulfield, struggling against the bodyguards who had him in a headlock. “You were always a liar! Max shouldn’t be around you.”
Benji stared at him, confused. Was this the same man who left them on their aunts’ doorstep after their mom left to “make it big” in Vegas? Itlookedlike him, but he was…suspiciouslytidy. Benji had never seen him so dressed up, even during his more flashy cons.
“Get off me,” Chet snapped, shoving at the bodyguards. He freed one hand and pointed at Benji and Noah threateningly.“I’ll get Max away from you!Bothof you! He shouldn’t be around such bad influences.”
“Bad influences,” Benji repeated, incredulous.
Noah cleared his throat. “Mr. Caulfield. I think it’s time you left. Boys?”
The bodyguards nodded and hauled him around the corner. Benji watched him vanish into the maze, yelling indignantly.
“Bad influences,” Benji repeated again, his head still foggy with shock. “He tried running a dogfighting ring out of the basement, but the dogs he kept buying were too friendly. He got beat up for stealing an old woman’s sandwich on a train. He tried to talk Aunt Nat into investing in his brewery business, which turned out to be a front for a drug den!I’ma bad influence?”
Noah rubbed a gentle hand down his back. “Come on, baby. Time to head out.”
Benji nodded numbly. He shot a look behind them at his painting, all the longing and dripping gold suddenly making him cringe. So many people hadseenthis. Oh god, did his dad see it?
He kept his head down as Noah led him out the back exit. People were staring and whispering, and he even saw one of Noah’s security guys take a phone out of someone’s hand. He caught a glimpse of Tia and Daphne walking around the corner and stopping to stare in surprise at all the security who were crowding around them as they headed out the exit.
Daphne raised a hand to wave at Benji, confused.
Benji waved back distractedly. He would tell her later. Unless the tabloids let her know first.
“Nobody’s going to hear about this,” said Noah soothingly as they stepped out into the warm evening air. “There’s barely anything to gossip about, anyway.”
Nothing to gossip about, Benji thought with a scoff. His painting was almost sabotaged by his jackass classmate, Noahhad asked Benji tomarryhim, and then his dad showed up. Benji felt like he’d aged a decade in the last two minutes.
Noah ushered Benji into the backseat and motioned for Riona to roll up the partition.
“Going dark,” Riona said, muffled. She had been eating a sandwich when they climbed in, and she was still chewing when she rolled the partition up.
Noah waited for it to settle into place, then turned to Benji. “Are you okay?”
He rubbed Benji’s arm. He hadn’t stopped touching him once, Benji realized dimly. Ever since his dad showed up, he’d been guiding Benji with a hand on his back or holding his elbow or stroking his arm comfortingly.
“Benjamin,” Noah repeated.
Benji blinked. “I’m fine. That was so weird. I haven’t seen Chet—I mean, my dad—since he showed up at Aunt Nat’s wake asking for money.”
He stopped. Then he laughed so loudly that Noah’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“What?” Noah asked.
Benji shook his head, still giggling. “He knows I have money! Shit, that’s hilarious. Wait, why does he think yelling about Max will get him money? Shouldn’t he be sucking up to me?”
He frowned, trying to puzzle it out. There was no way in hell Chet was genuinely worried about Max’s welfare, and there wasdefinitelyno way he had such a moral problem with sex work, even if it was his son doing it with another man. In Chet’s mind, money was money and “a hole was a hole,” as he so disgustingly put it when Benji made the stupid mistake of asking what being gay was in kindergarten.
Maybe he just wanted attention? No, Chet had to have some sort of plan to get money out of it. He always had a plan toget rich quick. An endless string of stupid, senseless plans that somehow never ended with him in prison.
