Marcus turned his head to the bed next to him.
There, hooked up to all these machines and tubes, was his mother. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn’t moving.
“Mom?” Marcus called. “Mom?”
“Your mom is in bad shape, kid,” one of the police officers said, giving him one of those sympathetic looks that most adults gave him when they saw him standing next to his mother.
It was sympathy. A look that said they were sorry, but there was nothing that they could do.
Marcus fucking hated them. He hated them all. Every fucking piece of shit who saw his parents and didn’t do a goddamn thing. Fucking useless. They all were.
“Is she dead?”
No one said a word.
“Try and get some sleep, son,” the other office said, giving him one of those looks as well. “You’ll need your rest to heal.”
His mother died sometime during the night. Marcus never knew whether his father made it to the hospital in time to see his wife one last time before she died. It wasn’t until the morning, when Marcus woke up next to an empty bed, that he found out that his mother had passed away.
Marcus was never sure how he really felt about his mother’s passing. Yes, she was his mother and gave birth to him. But she was also a mean alcoholic who never seemed to give a shit about him or his bastard of a father.
It was shortly after his mother’s death that Marcus made apromise to himself. If he ever got married and had a family of his own, he would be there for them. Protecting them and always doing what was best for his family.
He hoped that one day he would be able to keep that promise to himself.
19
GAVIN
Laughter erupted around the room as Lucas fell to his knees, imitating one of the many mishaps he had endured this past week while trying to educate his young students.
As Gavin was quickly learning, Lucas was not the most… gracious when it came to standing on two feet.
“Oh my god. You’re hilarious.” Gavin chuckled, lifting his sangria and taking another sip. “And I have to say, these drinks are fucking good!”
Gavin lifted his glass and waited for Ace and Lucas to join him in a cheer.
“Ace is the master of sangrias. He got me hooked when I first moved to town,” Lucas explained, crawling along the floor and reaching for his glass.
“That’s right. I heard that you moved here from LA. How was that?” Gavin asked, taking a sip of his drink.
“It was the best decision I ever made. I got out of an abusive relationship, met this hunky, straight biker dude, then somehow ended up becoming best friends with this Latino freak who insists on getting us drunk!”
Lucas raised his glass to his best friend and shot him an air kiss as well.
Sitting in Marcus’s living room, enjoying Saturday night drinks with his two new besties, Gavin almost felt normal.
It had been almost two weeks since the Valentine Killer had almost ended Gavin’s life, and the police appeared to be no closer to finding the madman.
Gavin still slept in Marcus’s room each night, but they hadn’t fooled around since that blow job in the woods.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Gavin kept grinding his ass into Marcus’s lap as they cuddled while they slept, to which Marcus usually just growled, then turned his raging hard-on away from Gavin’s horny hole.
He even tried accidentally walking out of the shower, naked, hoping that might get a rise out of the growly biker. All it managed to get was a set of wide eyes and a quick exit from the bedroom they shared.
Who knows. Maybe the man wasn’t interested.
“God!” Gavin exhaled sharply as he threw his head back against the sofa. “I’m so frickin’ bored! I miss going out to clubs and dancing and finding hot, sexy men to grind up against and flirt with till the wee hours of the morning.”
