A minute later, Sebastian walked back into the open-plan living area with the last person Ryder expected to see: Sam. He was aware Deacon and Max had suddenly flanked him, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Relax, guys, I’m not gonna swing for him. Well, not yet anyway. It depends what he’s going to say.”
Sam visibly paled. To be fair to him, it took some balls to walk into a room of six angry men, all of them taller than you.
“What’s he doing here?” asked Ryder.
“He’s here to tell you what happened,” said Sebastian. “Go on, Sam. Like we discussed.”
There was a flash of annoyance from Sam, but he sighed heavily and turned to Ryder.
“Nothing happened. I kissed him. He didn’t reciprocate. He threw up and then hit his head on the ground. I just stayed with him so he’d be okay, as Laura wasn’t coming home and he didn’t want to call you. We shared a bed, but that was it. The next day, he wanted to boot my ass out of there. I was just taking a shower to head home when you turned up.”
“Why didn’t he call me if he was sick?”
“I don’t know. He did nothing but talk about you all night.”
That made him smile. He couldn’t help it.
“Do you know where he is?”
“No, but if he’s not with Laura, try Annie. She’s the only other friend from college he used to talk about. You know about his family, I assume?”
“Yes, he told me,” he growled. “He came out. They kicked him out,” he said to his friends.
They all looked pissed, but Max the most. He’d had the worst experience of his parents rejecting him.
“Look at this,” said Ethan, stepping forward with his phone.
It was the picture of Felix and Sam kissing. He didn’t want to look at it, but Ethan told him to scroll. There was a stream of images which showed what happened next. Felix pushed him off, then swung for Sam, threw up, passed out, and was then carried into the apartment building by Sam.
Before anyone could stop him, he lunged at Sam and gripped him by the collar.
“You better not have done anything to him when he was like that.”
“I swear, I didn’t touch him. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
“What were you doing there?”
“He blocked my number. I wanted to talk to him.”
Ryder was aware of Sebastian’s presence behind him. He didn’t let go of Sam, but he knew if he went any further, he’d be stopped.
“What did you want to talk to him about?”
“I wanted to get him back. I . . . fucked up. Letting him go. I wanted to see if I still had a chance.”
“Why haven’t these pictures been posted online?”
“They have,” said Sebastian. “Yesterday.”
“So why is Felix still in hiding?” he snarled at Sam.
“Because the world thinks you topped yourself and they’re blaming Felix for it.”
Ryder relaxed his grip with shock. Sam yanked himself free and backed away.
“I’ve lost my job because of all this. Felix had people camped outside his apartment, and you’re sitting in your multi-million dollar apartment oblivious to the destruction you caused.”
