"He's not my friend," Landen said. His voice was hollow. "I met him that night. Friday, at the promotion. He was there with our author; he was his date. The author introduced us. That's why I was talking to him."
He looked up at her.
"I never saw him before. I didn't know who he was. I didn't know…"
He couldn't finish. He pulled out his phone instead, fingers shaking as he navigated to his email. Found the mail from the author, sent Saturday morning, thanking him for the event and mentioning what a good time they'd had.
He handed the phone to Jenna.
She read it. Her eyes moved across the screen, taking it in. When she finished, she looked up at him, and something in her expression shifted.
"Shit," she said quietly. She lowered herself into the chair opposite him. Handed the phone back. Sat there for a moment, staring at nothing.
"Sorry, man," she mumbled. "I... I am sorry for what I said. I..."
Landen shook his head. "It's fine. You were defending your friend."
They sat in silence for a moment. The office hummed around them; the distant sound of phones ringing, people moving, the ordinary machinery of a workplace. It felt like it was happening in another world.
"He really thought I would do that?" Landen asked. His voice cracked on the words.
"He really thought I was capable of something so vile? So..." He trailed off, unable to find the word. "I thought he knew me."
Jenna shifted in her chair. When she spoke, her voice was gentler than before.
"No," she said. "No, look, Landen, it's not about you. Okay? It's..."
She paused. Seemed to be searching for the right words.
"Zach, he... he hurt him. A lot. He jerked him around for more than a year. He hid him, made him feel like he should be grateful for the scraps of affection he got. And Adriel just took it, just let him do it, because he loved him."
Landen's hands curled into fists in his lap.
"And then, at the end, he humiliated him. In front of a bar full of people. Pretended he didn't know him, insulted him, laughed at him. It broke Adriel. It took him years to recover."
The image formed in Landen's mind. The cruelty of it made his chest burn.
"And then he met you," Jenna continued. "And he was so scared, because he liked you. Because you made him feel wanted and cherished and... but Zach had convinced him he was unlovable. That he was undeserving. So when he saw you two together, it all came back. All thatshit."
She leaned forward, willing him to understand.
"But it wasn't because of you, okay? It was because of what that asshole did to him. You were just... in the wrong place, withthe wrong person. And Adriel's brain did what it always does; assumed the worst."
Landen nodded. He understood. He did. But understanding didn't stop the ache in his chest, didn't stop the images from forming, didn't stop the rage that was building there.
Zach Martin.
He wanted to find him. Wanted to hurt him. Wanted to make him feel even a fraction of what Adriel had felt.
"I… I love him," he said. The words came out before he could stop them. "I never said it. But I do. I would never hurt him like that. I would never…"
He stopped. His throat was too tight. His eyes were burning.
Jenna's hand covered one of his fists. "Let's go, then," she said quietly.
He looked up at her.
"Because you should. You should tell him."
