“You should get checked out—”
“No.” The last thing he wanted was someone else poking at him. He just wanted somewhere quiet and peaceful where he could sleep the worst of this off, curled up with Dave.
Blondie nodded. He looked like a kicked puppy.
“Justin,” Dave said, and it sounded cautious. Like Dave was stepping on eggshells. Or nutshells, maybe that worked better for a vegan. And what thefuckwas wrong with Christian’s brain?
“What we talked about before, the pack up on the cliff. D’you know if anyone laid them to rest?”
Blondie shook his head, staring at the ground. “Don’t know. Didn’t go back there.”
Dave reached out, gripped his shoulder. “You should go to Portland,” he said, and even by Dave’s standards, that was a weird thing to say. What had Portland done to deserve Blondie and his soulful eyes and his puppy-dog yearning for Dave?
“I mean it, walk away, start something new,” Dave said.
Blondie nodded, before turning away.
“Let’s go home,” Christian said.
Chapter Thirty-one
CHRISTIAN
There was only one thing Christian hated more than flying and that was airports. This airport was worse than most because it was some big-ass international one.
Actually, scrap that—there was something even higher than airports on his shit list. Flamingoes.
Normal ones might be okay, but not the rainbow-hued ones he was currently sporting in retina-searing cotton. He’d made a tactical error and said something about not wanting crap from TSA about the bloodstains on his t-shirt. Dave had instantly rooted around in his bag and offered one of his shirts.
He’d had no choice but to borrow from Dave, because he had no realistic chance of getting his stuff back from where he’d left it at the pack house. The loss of those bootshurt, but probably less than showing up there to reclaim them would.
Despite the fact they were at an airport and his eyeballs were threatening to melt from the relentless glare of rainbow flamingoes,he was beginning to feel better. The two hours’ sleep he’d gotten in the car had helped things along. He was stiff as hell, it felt as if a miner with a pickaxe had taken up residence in his cheekbone, and he’d be black and blue all over before long, but it didn’t matter. Not when they’d possibly found out what they’d come for and Dave’s eyes were as warm and happy as they were. What had happened in that shithole of a town had changed things between them.
“We should come back here for our honeymoon,” Christian said once they were through security. And then he stopped dead, causing some woman to ram her case into the back of his legs on the crowded concourse, because what the everlastingfuck?
“I’m beginning to think you should get your head checked out,” Dave said.
“Just need coffee,” Christian said, and was relieved to find he seemed to be back in control of his words.
They ended up in a coffee shop, where Christian went from longing for coffee to the smell of espresso hitting him like a gut punch. Suddenly, he wasn’t craving coffee so much as trying not to throw up.
Dave was studying the selection of teas on offer, and there was something almost like desperation in his face.
“You okay?” Christian asked.
Dave didn’t look up. “They only have chamomile.”
Christian winced. Tea-related trauma. Devastating.
They settled at a table, Christian with water and Dave with something Christian didn’t dare ask about. Christian’s head still hurt, but his brain was beginning to work again, picking through everything that had happened.
“You trust Blondie’s word about not burying them?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do. Which means if he didn’t go back and take care of them, someone else did.” Then Dave rolled his eyes, impatientwith himself. “Obviously. What I mean is, we have no idea who, but itmightbe that one or more of Jesse’s pack survived.”
“Maybe,” Christian said, unsure whether he believed it or not. Maybe he didn’twantto believe it and be disappointed. Unlike Dave, who’d rather think the best and risk the letdown. They probably balanced one another out.
He popped another of the pain pills and decided Blondie hadn’t been wrong to insist he have them. They were definitely taking the edge off. He left Dave staring into his teacup as if it held the meaning of life while he went in search of a bathroom.
