Then I heard it.
This time it wasn’t a cough.
I stilled as I acknowledged what it was.
A sob.
I shook my head because it couldn’t be. Guys like Luca didn’t cry.
It was a trick.
He knew I was in here and was trying to draw me outside so he could grab me.
I took another step back and heard another sob, softer this time… muffled.
Guys like Luca didn’t cry…but fathers who’d lost their sons did.
I moved silently forward, the glass still in my hand. I listened forany creaking of the floorboards that proved he was moving around, but there was nothing but the sound of crickets.
And that occasional muffled sound that I could barely make out now.
I saw him almost immediately when I reached the door. He was sitting on the steps leading to the grass. His back was to me and he was wiping at his eyes.
If he was aware of me, he was really good at pretending he wasn’t. There was something in his hand that he put to his mouth, and a moment later I smelled a hint of smoke.
He was having a cigarette.
Brian had smoked. The smell had always made me sick because he’d smoked almost nonstop and I’d smell it on his hot breath while he was making me his special boy.
Fucking you.
I closed my eyes at the voice in my head. Brian had never called what he’d done to me that but some of the other men had. They’d liked that word.
Brian hadn’t.
He’d said it was crude and uncouth. I hadn’t known what those things meant, but I’d known that nothing about what he’d been doing had been special.
I felt nausea roll through my belly as the memories of the first time he’d hurt me threatened to steal into my mind.
No, not here. Not now.
Not anymore.
I willed the blackness away and opened my eyes. I was startled to see Luca watching me.
I automatically stepped back, but he didn’t make a move to get up. I told myself to run, but his eyes were like Vaughn’s… something about them made it impossible to move. But with Vaughn it was more like I didn’t want to. With Luca it felt like I was staring into the eyes of a predator… moving would just cause it to hunt me down.
I was surprised when he turned his attention from me. He tookanother puff on the cigarette. “Don’t tell Con, okay?” he said as he held the cigarette up briefly. “He thinks I quit.”
I didn’t respond to him, but I took advantage of the fact that he wasn’t looking at me to check the screen door for a lock.
It had one so I flipped it.
If he noticed, he didn’t say anything. I started to back up.
“Aleks, can I ask you something before you go?”
His voice was so different than it had been earlier. The fury and rage were gone for the moment.
