17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Saying goodbye, even for a short time, wasn't easy for either of them. Dex kissed him for ten straight minutes before Prince started back to the camp.

Silvio greeted him along with four very hyper boys in Cabin C. They were bouncing off the walls, and Silvio wasn't harried a bit. In fact, the crazier the kids got, the more chill Silvio got. He pulled Prince into a corner and asked, "So?"

"I'm definitely moving to Montana, but…I'm coming back next summer. Unless none of you are."

"We are! I'll come here until I am in med school."

Prince hugged him and Nat came right over to tug on his shirt. "Are you okay?"

Prince kneeled and took both of Nat's hands. "Little man, I'm coming back next year. You better come back too, okay?"

"I will!"

He ran off and Prince stood, laughing. "He told me he loved me," he confessed.

Silvio's brows snapped nearly to his hairline. "Already?"

"Yes, and I know it's fast."

"Well, yeah, a bit. But I'm happy for you, if you are."

Prince saw the skepticism in his eyes, but he shook that away with, "I'm not marrying the guy."

"Just always be careful."

"I promise."

Silvio shook his hand and said, "That's all I can ask, my friend."

Prince went through the rest of that week sad for missing Dex, but that sadness was stuffed behind all the fun he'd had with his friends and the kids they watched.

The end of that week, he was called into the office by Sabrina. He worried it was some terrible news from his father, but he got a big surprise when Sabrina pulled him out of the chair and hugged him. She wasn't exactly the cuddly type of woman. "I don't know how, but I know you did this."

"Did…did what?"

She went back behind her desk, and though he was hesitant, he sat again in the chair in front of her desk. "We got this in the mail today, and I…Prince, I am overcome."

More curious than ever, Prince asked again, "What are you talking about?"

"Stop acting so innocent! Prince, the camp has been purchased and placed into my name, and there is also an endowment for the next twenty years for all the money we could ever use for upkeep and upgrading. Prince, this is…it's too much, but everything inside me says not to turn it down."

Prince then knew what had happened. While Dex was taking care of his own business, he also took care of the things Prince had wanted. "Oh, well…how do you know it has anything to do with me?"

"Prince, sweetheart, we have had donors over the years, and they give generously, sure, but only enough to keep us in swim trunks and patches for the holes in the boats. And the only other rich person we have around here is Toby, and, well…we've begged him to donate, and his family has, of course, so Toby could pick his cabin and other advantages. Still, it was the least amount necessary for that. This is far and beyond more generous than anyone else has been to us since this camp's inception. It says the donor wants to remain anonymous, and I'll honor that to the rest of the world. To you, Prince, I had to thank you."

Prince was happy she was so excited, but he didn't want that recognition. "Please, don't tell anyone. And I don't want special privileges. I just want to be here for the next few summers. I love this place. It's given me more than I could ever give back."

"It's special. It is. It's helped a lot of kids. Well, and a few adults too."

"I'm gonna get back to work, and you will stay silent on this, right?"

Sabrina nodded. "Between us, yes. Not even Harry knows, and I'm…not telling him until after the season is over. He'll blab it all over and if we still want the other donors to help, we need it. Oh, that's not being greedy, I swear!"

"No, I understand!"

"We might get a computer center going. I know, not exactly what we do here, but a lot of kids don't have access to them in their schools at home."

"I hope you get all the money you can to make this place better for the kids. No worries."

Sabrina hugged him tightly, so tightly he couldn't take in a breath. When she let go, her smile was huge. "Go…do whatever. I have no idea what Cabin C is doing today, or any of them. I'm a little…"

"Excited, yeah. I'm glad, Sabrina."

Walking through the camp, he looked around at all the patches in the walls of the place, the roofs that needed fixing, the equipment that had seen better days. If he could help, for once, that was all he wanted. That night at the campfire, he sang loudly, laughed often and felt better than he had most all his life. Having real friends, a real purpose and to have a say in his future, it was freeing.

He called Dex every night after the campfires. Dex answered every time, and that alone surprised Prince. Each night before they ended the call, Dex told him those three words again, and again, they made him fly.

Dex was going to be gone for most of the rest of the summer. As upset as Prince first was about it, he understood because he had unfinished business, too. He wanted to make every second of the time he had left at the camp focused on his friends.

Toby kept his distance for weeks. Prince worried that he had been warned by Dex or one of Dex's family members to stay away from Prince. While that was sweet, it wasn't how he wanted to be cared for. He didn't want Dex crashing in, being the big hero. Prince wanted more than anything to handle one thing for himself.

So, when they were two weeks out from the end of the summer for the camp, Toby quashed all those worries.

Monnie and Nat had just left him to head to lunch, and Prince was sneaking away to the cabin across the lake. Before he could get past the boathouse, Toby called to him and Prince spun around to see Toby and Fabian walked toward him.

"What do you want, Toby?"

"Nothing much. Just wanted to catch you before you headed around to visit your boyfriend. You know, the mafioso."

Prince froze, his mind splintering. Finally, he managed, "What…what are you talking about?"

As Toby neared, he said, "I hired a private investigator. I know all about your boyfriend and his…family."

Prince wanted to scream, to choke the man and run off screaming. He'd been so happy, only to have another obstacle. "Toby, I already know you're going to run to my father with this. It doesn't really matter. I'm not going home when I leave here."

Unflinching, Toby continued to stare at him with a smile playing on his lips. "I can get that entire family of his put in prison. And if you're with them, you'll be thrown in too."

The anger he felt in that moment was making him shake, and seeing that, Toby grinned wider, like the villain in a superhero movie. "No. I won't."

"Getting scared? I don't know why," Toby sneered, and behind him, Fabian chuckled darkly. "Guys like you like prison, right? Free ass sex whenever you want it."

As he turned to Fabian and they had a good chuckle over that, Prince's hand curled into a fist. The shaking got worse, his entire body trembling in the rage that he feared would overtake him. When Toby's head righted, and he laughed in Prince's face, he no longer cared.

He swung his fist as hard as he could, aiming right for Toby's jaw. It all felt like it happened in slow motion, and yet it was so fast, it was a blur, even to him. That conundrum of time was possibly why he didn't notice Fabian coming for him as Toby's body fell backward.

Hit hard, Prince stumbled back, but he didn't fall. Not like Toby, who was lying on the ground, rubbing his jaw. "Get him!"

Fabian kept attacking Prince, and though he fought back and kept Fabian from besting him, he couldn't keep up once Toby got up and they both attacked Prince together.

He was hit repeatedly, and once he'd become unable to stay on his feet, they kicked him.

The third kick to the head and Prince was knocked out, the light disappearing from his sight like a curtain was closing.

When he woke, he was alone in the woods, just ten feet from the trail and fifteen from the boathouse. Trying to raise his head was impossible. It felt a thousand pounds too heavy for him to lift. And it hurt.

It hurt so badly he didn't think he could stand it.

In fact, his head wasn't the only thing that was bothering him. He had a bad pain in his side, likely a cracked rib, but making it worse was the nausea he felt.

He vomited after he barely turned on the side that didn't hurt. He was still coughing, which hurt his head and side ten times worse. He remembered the phone in his pocket, the one he was taking to the cabin to call Dex. He got it from his pocket after getting onto his back and he prayed there was a signal.

He didn't know any other numbers by heart, so once he saw those beautiful two bars, he pressed send to call Dex, hoping like hell he'd be able to help him.

"Hey, baby, I was wondering where you were!"

"Dex," he croaked. "I'm…hurt. I don't know the number for the camp."

"Hurt? What the hell, baby? What happened?"

"Can you call someone, please? Someone close? I'm," he stopped, feeling the nausea coming over him again. The phone dropped in the dirt as he turned to vomit again, then the dizziness came over him.

When he remembered the phone and could get it into his hand, he brought it to his ear and whispered, "Dex…I can't…"

There was no one on the line. He barely saw the phone again before he passed out, and the call had been dropped for lack of signal.

He hadn't told Dex where he was. That was his last thought before the world went black again.

As Silvio and Anton were helping Henry on with his lifejacket, Sabrina came running over to them. "Sil! Where is Prince?"

Silvio squirmed immediately, knowing he was supposed to be helping the kids as they were about to head to the boathouse. "He…uh…"

Then he noticed her terror. "He's hurt somewhere!"

Silvio and Anton both started looking toward the cabin across the lake. "He was heading to his boyfriend's checking the place and to call him," Silvio told her quickly while Anton started to run.

"I'm heading there now!"

Silvio told Sabrina, "Did he say anything? How did he get hurt?"

"He just told his boyfriend to call someone. He passed out or lost the call or something. His boyfriend is freaking out right now. We must find him!"

Silvio's heart was in his throat, so he started tracing Prince's steps from the mess hall to the cabin, and the kids were given to other counselors while Sabrina recruited more to help in the search.

The woods were searched, and Anton ran up to him to tell him that Prince had never made it to the cabin. "Where the fuck is he? What could have happened?"

"Sil, don't freak. He probably just fell and hit his head or something."

Silvio knew that wasn't it. He thought fleetingly that the mafia guys might have changed their minds and tried to hurt him, or maybe his father had kidnapped him to keep him from the mafia guys. While he was searching the thick woods around the lake, he'd thought of a thousand scenarios.

"I have a bad feeling, Anton. I've had a pit in my gut all week, and now this happened."

"Silvio, he's messing with scary people. Maybe we should have warned him away from them. I guess we were just happy for him."

Silvio had thought all the same things. He and Anton were heading farther around the lake when they heard someone yelling, they'd found him.

Taking off in a run, Silvio went to the sound of the voice and he and Anton found themselves in the woods near the boathouse. Two of the other counselors were running toward camp and Sabrina met them in the woods where another of their friends, Freddy Ortega, was kneeling over the body of Prince.

Silvio stopped, seeing Prince so still, and Anton dropped to his knees. "No way, man. No way he's not dead," Silvio whispered to himself.

Prince's face was swollen, bruised, his lip split and both eyes puffed and blackening. He was barely recognizable.

Then Prince coughed, and he could breathe again. "Claire and Monte went to get the backboard and we've called the ambulance. We're just taking him out of the woods."

They all had first aid certificates and Sabrina was a certified EMT. She checked him over and when his eyes fluttered open, she grabbed his hand and asked, "What happened?"

Prince's eyes filled with tears, but he whispered, "They…"

Silvio took his other hand. "Was it Dex?"

Prince sobbed and shook his head. "Toby. Toby and Fabian."

Sabrina's eyes met his, and he saw his own fury mirrored in them. He was up and running even as she called after him to stop. Anton ran to him and caught him, skidding them both to a halt. "Stop, man!"

"I'm gonna fucking kill them! Look at him!"

"We can't. We're gonna get the cops on him, or…" he dropped his voice to barely a whisper. "Or we let Dex and his…friends handle this."

Silvio looked across the camp and saw the kids lining up to head into the mess hall. "They'll kill him."

"Maybe. But better they do it than you. You can't get into medical school with a felony murder on your hands, dude."

Silvio's head hurt. It felt torn into shreds. "Prince is a good guy, Anton. He didn't deserve this. He's been so fucking happy. It's like…he finally found himself."

"He still has, Sil. He still has! He's not dead. He's tougher than we give him credit for."

"No, he's tougher than Toby and Fabian gave him credit for."

Silvio and Sabrina went to the hospital in Sabrina's white Toyota truck. The entire ride was mostly quiet, but being a forty-minute ride, it couldn't stay silent. Sabrina confessed something to him, something that just made him angrier. "He did something…Prince did something that he didn't want me to repeat."

"What?"

"He made an endowment for the camp, Silvio. The most generous endowment we have ever gotten times ten. He wants the place to last for another generation at least. He did that, Silvio. He didn't have to do that."

Silvio's heart pounded in his chest as he was about to lose it. "Of course he did. He's…dammit, Sabrina, he's a good guy. I never in my life thought I'd be friends with some rich asshole, you know? I knew I'd have to deal with them if I ever become a doctor, but I'd force myself through that and come to only silently hate them. He changed my mind."

"Then Toby changed it back. I feel the same, Silvio. I had an aunt that married a rich guy and though she came from dirt, she acted like it had never touched her. Prince is not them."

Sabrina laid her hand on the seat between them, and Silvio took it and held it tightly.

When they got to the hospital, the doctors were looking Prince over, so they weren't allowed to see him. Silvio paced the waiting room while Sabrina went to the desk every few minutes to ask about Prince.

When the nurse came through the double doors, they were both rushing over to her.

She held up her hands and said, "He's got a lot of injuries and a pretty nasty concussion, so he'll be here for observation, and he's getting an MRI right now. The doctor thinks he may have some internal bleeding. After the scan, he'll know better."

The news wasn't what they wanted to hear. Sabrina asked, "Will he need surgery?"

"If he has internal bleeding, yes. The concussion, the bruises, none of it is good, but he's awake and talking. The police were here speaking to another patient, so they've taken his statement. Do you all know anything more?"

Sabrina opened her mouth, but Silvio grabbed her arm and said, "No. He never said a thing to us."

After the nurse left, Sabrina demanded to be told what that was all about, and Silvio said simply, "He's got people to handle this. If he wants the cops to deal with it, he'll say it."

"Where is that coming from?"

Silvio moved closer to her and whispered, "He's dating a guy in the mob."

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. So, let's not step on any toes."

"Is that where the money came from?" She asked, panicking.

"Do you care?"

Sabrina, he could tell, wanted to stand on morals and deny it, but she wanted the money for the camp. Half her life was spent trying to raise money for it. "Damn."

"Something coming from a bad place can still do a lot of good, Sabrina."

"Yeah. Fine. But if he dies, Silvio, I'll use every penny to hunt down those two assholes."

"You won't have to. Believe me. His boyfriend…he's…"

"Don't tell me! I don't want to know."