Page 305 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘If you don’t leave with me now, your father will find out. I can’t guarantee who’ll be punished and who won’t, but I can tell you that anyone who bleeds because of this, it’s on your hands only, Julian. So please come with me right now so we can get you home.’

After five seconds, Julian gets up and grabs his things.

‘Fine.’

Lachlan guides him down the external fire escape, where Danya is waiting below. They make it just in time. Danya scans Jules all over.

‘He’s fine,’ Lachlan declares. ‘We’re leaving.’

They walk in painful silence to where Lachlan and Danya parked their cars. Snow is falling lightly, settling in thin sheets here and there.

Jules has no jacket.

He’s shivering, arms around himself.

Lachlan drapes his jacket over his shoulders, noting that Jules must be seriously cold not to shrug it off out of spite.

At the cars, Lachlan retrieves his gear from the concealed compartment while Jules wipes his nose on the sleeve and types a message to his friend, telling her he’s sorry and that he’s OK, and he’ll pay everything back tomorrow. Lachlan will make sure of it.

‘I wanna go with Danya,’ he says.

Lachlan rolls his eyes. ‘Fine.’

‘Sorry to ruin what I’m sure would have been a beautiful night for you both,’ Jules mutters under his breath.

Unexpectedly, Danya makes a loud groan of frustrated anger that contains an excellent slew of Russian curses and slams the passenger door shut before Julian can get inside.

‘What are you—?’

Danya shakes his head. ‘This is too much. I don’t care what Blaire says. Charlie Foxtrot, if you think I would fuck the man you love, you do not know me at all.’

Lachlan makes a face. ‘Fuck you, Yashin.’

Danya flatly ignores him.

Jules stares at Danya, frowning deeply. ‘What?’

‘He lied. He is lying still. We had no sex. Zero sex. I am…’ Danya balances his hands like scales. ‘Mostly for girls.’

‘You didn’t…’

‘I would not do that to you,’ Danya informs him confidently. ‘And if something did happen that was forced by your father, I would tell you that myself, but it was just blood and cuts and poems. No sex.’ He lifts dark brown eyes to Lachlan, impressively impassive for the bombshell he just delivered. ‘I don’t fuck cowards anyway.’

Lachlan is debating punching him when Julian bends double and vomits all over the snowy sidewalk.

✴

The first sunrise of the New Year is grey and cold.

Lachlan only sees it in passing through the windows as he makes his checks, confirms with Rook and Zaitsev that they’ll be able to contain what went down, and tries to decide what to do about Holtz.

All while avoiding Danya.

Not like Danya is chasing him down to talk, but he just can’t see that look in his eyes again. He couldn’t take that.

Jules is in bed after a hot shower.

Lachlan won’t have to avoid him for a while yet. He’ll sleep until midday or so. In the meantime, he has Rook take care of Megan’s mom’s credit card and remove the street footage of Lachlan and Danya from downtown.