Damian’s smiling eyes went to him as he put the phone to his ear. “Let’s just say I have somebody there who would do anything for me.”
“How?”
He held up a finger. “Yes… I would like to speak to Mrs. Thomas. Tell her it’s Damian Bourne. She’ll know. Thank you.” Waiting a bit. “Christine? Hi…. Yes… I know… sure…. Soon… Listen, I need a favor, sorry… after all these years… yes… I need a room… for an old relative… a nice, big one… well, the sooner the better… like yesterday...?” He laughed lightly, winking at Gabe. “Alright… I will bring her myself. I owe you one… See you soon.” He cut the call, smiling at that light in Gabe’s eyes. “Deal. Done. She has a room, so the old lady will be grand. You just need to explain to her that this is the best for her.”
“I see… Christine is a true friend.”
Damian stepped close, checking that Cassie was out of hearing range. His arms went around Gabe. “Jealous little fuck…”
“So what?”
“Mhm…” Kissing that stubborn mouth until it yielded to his teeth. Pushing in his mouth. Holding him tight. Eating his breath. He only let him go when Gabe was struggling to breathe, squirming a bit in his arms. “You have no reason to be jealous…”
“Ok…” His eyes glazed over.
“Let’s go and pick up my son…” He turned, overwhelmed a bit, and Gabe put his hand on his back, feeling him exhale. “Fuck…”
Cassie came over, ready to leave. “Let’s go?”
“Yeah…” Pulling his suit jacket on top of that black T-shirt. He tightened the belt on his jeans. Catching Gabe’s eyes. He smiled. “Having ideas?”
“Maybe…”
Damian stepped close and grabbed the hem of Gabe’s jeans, his lips close to his ear. “I’m not sure you’d survive if I beat your ass raw…”
“Try me…”
Damian grinned. “Let’s go. I rented a car. It should be downstairs.”
Cassie hurried after him in the corridor. “When did you drive last?”
“It’s like riding a bike, right? You don’t forget.” He grinned, stressed out of his mind.
“I’ll drive.” She smiled. “Just relax.”
Damian’s eyes went to the ceiling whilst they waited for the elevator. “What’s his name?”
“Oh… Armando.”
Armando…Tasting that foreign name, rolling it in his mouth, silent.
Watching the streets whilst Gabe was talking to the old woman on the phone. Cassie’s eyes on the road, in full concentration as she swerved that large black car in the traffic.
“You could have rented something smaller.”
“I had no idea… models changed in six years.”
She shot her an apologetic glance, cursing softly when another car cut off that large SUV.
“She is waiting… obviously distressed. I told her it would be hours.” Gabe reached to the front, to his shoulder. “All ok?”
“Sure…” Hiding that his heart was trying to bounce out of his throat, keeping his eyes on the rushing lamp posts.
The highway then, leaving the city. Cassie eased the car into the traffic, blowing a small breath. “Armando knows who you are. At least, he’s been told that you died… and now you’re back. The grandma kept a shrine for you and Maria, so he knows your face… your old face. She cut it out from the paper when your crash was all over the news. And I told him about you, as much as I could. He’s small though, I am not sure how he’ll react.”
Damian kept quiet, his eyes on the landscape. Trying to fathom what he was facing. How that child could exist out of sheer sex. Trying to conjure anything he could have felt for that woman whose face had blurred over the years. Her smile stayed, though, her eyes… and they didn’t stir anything. There had never been anything there for him. Just those casual fucks when they were home alone. Or sometimes with Maddie in the house somewhere. With her friends by the pool. He had ignored it, that light in her eyes, turning her head to kiss her neck. Not to see those large, dark eyes.And now this…He pinched his lips, almost thinking better of it, but he just breathed, a small fright in him. That he would be an utter failure. Again. His eyes darted to Cassie, relieved that she didn’t seem so fucked up. That tidal wave of remorse clutching his chest when he thought back at his words, which he had said in that whisky induced fog. He felt Gabe’s hand reach for his hand, and he left it, letting him pet that lame hand, glide his fingers on his skin, ease that stress. That dread. As the road ran, the trees and fields. Passing several towns until Cassie left the highway to take a smaller road. To that shabby outskirt of that small town, that large, gleaming car out of place on that cracked concrete, edging slowly to avoid kids playing on the street. Small houses with peeling paint, rotting porches. Eyes watching that large car stop in front of a dwindling house.
Damian got out, his eyes a bit wide, taking in that run-down house, the street, the yellow grass with wilting plants. The door opened then and an age-old woman with her bent back came to greet them.
