“This isn’t just anyone. This is my best friend.” Even if it had taken way too much time for Henri to figure that out.
He marched out of the hotel to a waiting limo, ready to tell the band to go out without him. He’d stay here and wait for Seb to come back. They’d worked hard, they’d earned a bit of excitement. A cab sat across the street, idling. The moment Henri’s foot hit the curb, the cab door swung open. He jumped and Arnulfo stepped ahead of him. In the dimly lit interior sat Sebastian, a little worse for the wear. Sebastian. Henri’s heart caught in his throat. “Tell the others to go on,” he said. “I have something I have to do.”
“Are you sure? I should stay with you.” Ah, Arnulfo the bodyguard was worth every penny they paid him—all six feet of him.
“I’ll be fine. I promise not to leave the hotel. Now, go, before I kiss you again.”
Arnulfo cracked a smile, swiveled his head from the cab and Henri, and wandered away.
Henri waited until the limo pulled off to approach. Had Sebastian come to say hello or good-bye? With each footstep Henri’s heart beat harder and harder, threatening to explode in his chest. He cleared his throat. “Sebastian.”
“Henri.” Pure misery shone from the man’s eyes. He’d lost weight. Not enough to label him skinny, but for a man terrified of changing his vocal tone, he’d sure dropped a few pounds.
Without a word Henri slipped a hundred dollar bill out of his billfold and handed it to the cab driver. “This cover the fare?”
The man stared at the bill a moment and grinned. “It will.”
“C’mon, Seb. Let’s get you inside.” Seb didn’t resist when Henri gripped his arm and helped him from the car. “Do you have a bag?”
“I can’t stay.”
Arm around Seb’s waist, Henri led the way into the hotel. Damn, he should have kept Arnulfo around to ward off camera-bearing tourists. Too late now. Anyone staring directly quickly turned away. Once they’d reached the brightly lit lobby, Henri discovered why.
Sebastian’s eyes were nearly swollen shut.
* * *
“Bruises, cuts,and cracked ribs,” the doctor pronounced. Seb lay sleeping in Henri’s bed. Outside the door Arnulfo stood guard, though technically his shift had ended an hour ago.
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“Someone worked him over. I assume he’ll press charges?”
“I’m not sure.” The doctor not asking if they weretheHenri Lafontaine ortheSebastian Unger didn’t mean he hadn’t recognized them, or that he couldn’t guess how such charges might affect their lives and careers. Would Sebastian finally break free from his abuser? Damn, what a beating. If Sebastian didn’t need Henri here, he’d hunt down the bastard responsible and give him a taste of his own medicine. It wasn’t just singing Henri’d done in clubs. He’d encountered, and won, his fair share of barroom brawls back in the day.
Or maybe he’d ask Arnulfo to pay a courtesy call, a la a B-movie mobster.
Henri showed the doctor out, sent Arnulfo home, and sat beside the bed, a cup of tea in hand.
“Henri?” Poor Sebastian’s voice came out barely a whisper.
“Yes, Seb.” Henri put the cup down and eased onto the bed. He forced himself to look at Seb’s poor ruined face. “Is this because of me? I’m sorry I showed up unannounced. I had no idea about Charles.”
“Yes and no. He didn’t take to kindly to me leaving. After you left, I…. I got scared. I went to stay with friends. Charles found me.”
Henri lay down beside Sebastian, not close enough to touch, but close enough to hear his husky words.
“I told him no more. He was my patron, and I’d sing at his parties, but nothing else. He didn’t own me, and he sure wasn’t entitled to my body.” Sebastian laugh held no humor. “He… didn’t take the news too well. He put the house, and everything in it, up for sale to force my hand. It didn’t work. No house is worth my soul.”
A tear leaked from the corner of Seb’s eye. Henri wiped it away. “Can you buy him out?” Better to let Sebastian think he’d saved himself than to hint of Henri’s intervention.
“One of the problems with being a rich man’s plaything is you never develop a credit rating. I tried. Believe me, I tried. No one will give me a loan.”
Sebastian showed no sign of closing the gap between them. Henri needed to feel him. He wrapped an arm loosely around Seb’s chest and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll help in any way you’ll let me.”
“All I want is for you to hold me, tell me things will get better.”
“They will. Especially if you let me help.”
