Page 14 of The Big Fix

My brain was going to explode. How on earth had he come to that conclusion? I certainly had never spoken to Aaron Sutter about my relationship with Owen, so where was he getting that? Had Owen spoken to him about me? About us? That made zero sense, and even if he had, Owen loved me the same way I did him, as a friend. Loved? Where the fuck was that coming from?

When my phone rang, I saw it was Darius.

“Well?” Darius asked. “What did Sutter want?”

“You have great timing. He just left.”

“Why do you sound pissed off?”

Because I was reeling from what Aaron Sutter had just dropped on me, but saying that to Darius wouldn’t be helpful at the moment. There were far more important matters to discuss.

“I’m fine, just worried.”

“About what? Tell me what he said.”

“Owen’s missing.”

“What do you mean missing? Define missing.”

“He and his bodyguard have gone radio silent.”

“A thirty-two-year-old man and his bodyguard have gone radio silent. This is what you’re saying to me?”

“Yes,” I snapped at him. “Why don’t you sound—”

“Is the bodyguard a man?”

“Yes, he—”

“And what does the bodyguard look like?”

“The fuck does that matter?”

“You tell me.”

I had to think a second. And then, from a place of worry, I moved immediately to irritation. “You’re saying what? That the kid is off somewhere, fucking—”

“Not a kid,” he corrected me. “He’s not a kid. He hasn’t been a kid for a long time.”

“No, I know, but—”

“Do you?”

This on top of Aaron’s odd words about the man I loved. “I do,” I said tightly.

“Owen is a beautiful man with a smile that makes other men want to get naked and—”

“Why are you being disgusting?”

“How is that disgusting?”

I couldn’t answer without revealing that there’d been flickers of things over the past year. How I’d see Owen’s face, and the light would catch it a certain way, and I’d suddenly find myself unable to breathe. I would be transfixed by the play of muscles in his back, the line of his jaw, or the glint in his eyes. I’d been having trouble separating the person I thought I knew better than myself, from the surly one now haunting my house. The thing was, I was attracted to the man who didn’t want anything to do with me, which was my reasoning for allowing the gulf between us to widen. If it was time for him to go and spread his wings, so be it. That was better than him hating me. If he knew at all how I felt, my conflict and confusion, he’d be horrified. Keeping it to myself was the only thing that was saving our relationship. It was the reason why I’d been so pleased to have Shaw and Benji take over the office in Chicago for me, the reason that suddenly Torus International, instead of Torus Intercession, had my attention, because sticking around to see Owen date was not on my list of things I wanted to do. Being on another continent seemed like the best answer. But now I was scared he’d actually picked someone and run away.

Half of me wanted to find him and kill anyone he was with. The other half, the rational half, knew this had always been inevitable.

“Why are you being obtuse?” Darius broke into my thoughts.

Good question. If Owen was in love—and that was fast, yes, but still—better to leave it alone. “The hell is that supposed to mean?” I grumbled at my friend.