Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Gage

My heart hurt for both Xavier and Dexter.

After getting him up off the floor of the bathroom, I’d convinced him to let me cook something for the both of them before they headed off for an early bedtime. Whipping together something both comforting and good was tough, but I’d managed to make a homemade classic in the form of goulash.

By the time I’d gotten the food on Xavier’s plate, he’d already booked two plane tickets back to California for first thing in the morning. While it wasn’t my place to tell him how to handle a situation like this, I was sad to see him and Dexter leaving so abruptly.

I could understand from a parent’s perspective on wanting to take your kid back to the familiar comforts that they were used to in order to ground them back down into reality, but at the same time, I was also of the mindset that sometimes distracting yourself until you were ready to face your demons was the best medicine.

Xavier was always going to be overly protective of Dexter, no matter what his age. I found that admirable, even as sad as I was at the time. Putting his child first above all else was the kind of thing he’d only dreamed of a year ago when he’d still been addicted to the bottle.

Having anyone take priority over that was impressive in and of itself, no matter how you looked at it.

So really, who was I to judge in the grand scheme of things?

“Mmm, something smells tasty.”

Turning to the sound of the voice, I spotted Greyson wandering into the kitchen, his shoes still on from coming in. Normally, I’d yell at him to take them off but at this point, I was feeling exhausted myself.

Watching Xavier go through all of that and feeling the mental toll of him showing me his booked plane tickets had me wanting to crawl into bed for the next few days and only to come out to pee.

The other downside was tonight Xavier was sleeping in Dexter’s room just in case he woke up with a night terror.

“Leftovers are in the fridge,” I said, setting the pot down into the sink to soak it.

“Red sauce? Wow, someone was feeling fancy.” Greyson popped open the door to the fridge, fishing out one of the containers I’d used to store his portion. “What’s the occasion?”

“Nothing. Just wanted to make something for Xavier and Dexter.”

“Oh, they’re here? I didn’t even see them.” He tossed the container into the microwave and jabbed the buttons on the front of it after shutting the door. “They have a long day at the botanical garden?”

Sighing, I said, “Something like that. They’re taking an early night since they need to catch a plane in the morning.”

Greyson turned to me with a frown. “Wait, I thought they were staying the rest of the week?”

Turning back to the sink to occupy myself, I said, “Something came up.”

Greyson was quiet while his food was cooking, giving me time to turn on the sink and rinse out one of the pans I’d used to cook the ground meat in. Normally, I’d be bragging to the high heavens that I’d successfully cooked a meal without having to rely on a store bought base.

Expressing anything remotely close to joy felt wrong right now, though. My stomach was still churning with what Xavier had told me. He didn’t have much info about what exactly the priest had done to poor Dexter, but honestly, there wasn’t really a reason to force the kid into spilling more details.

It was pretty obvious what happened—given his reaction and the answers to a few of Xavier’s questions.

Not to mention that creep who was trying to peep on him got away with not one repercussion for what he was trying to do. Honestly, I had half a mind to call up some of my buddies in the police force and tell them to check the cameras.

Having a guy like that wandering a public space that usually had a lot of kids running around was dangerous.

“So... what happened?” Greyson asked just as the microwave went off.

“It’s not really my business to say.”

He shut the door after pulling the container out, the entire thing ghosting the air with water vapors. “You guys didn’t get into a fight or anything, right?”

I shook my head. “Nothing like that. Something... uh, happened to Dexter.”

Greyson looked concerned at that. “He okay?”

How was I supposed to answer that?

No, not exactly?

Or, yes, hopefully, he would be eventually?

Ugh, this is why I wished Xavier was at least staying up for a little while with me. My brothers could be such damn nosey twits, which made it hard for me to keep things to myself.

I wasn’t about to go around spilling all of the details that Xavier had told me about Dexter’s situation—he’d told all of that to me in confidence, and regardless of what tactics my brother used to try and weasel the info out of me, I wasn’t cracking.

However, straight up lying to my brother when I knew the truth about Dexter’s condition felt wrong. I wasn’t one to hide things from them, even if it was the brutal honest truth. The world was never going to sugar coat things for you as soon as you stepped into it as a fresh adult.

So why should I?

That would simply be setting my brothers up for failure in a system that was already wildly unbalanced.

“He’s... okay, I think. He had something happen to him at the botanical garden. So, his dad is taking him home tomorrow to be with his family.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Greyson fished a fork out of the drawer next to him to stir his goulash around. “What time are they leaving? I can get Asher up so we can say goodbye.”

I smiled a little. “That’s really sweet but I think they’re trying to get out of here as fast as possible. I can send them a text from all of us once they’re back home.”

He continued to stir his food around in the container, both of his brows pulled together. “I’m not really liking the sound of all of this. Are they both really okay?”

“Some guy tried to hurt Dexter today.” That was as much info as I was giving him. Even that I wasn’t sure if it was too much.

“Hurt, as in...” Greyson fished.

I shook my head at him, turning back to the dishes in the sink. He sighed at me but didn’t push it further, thankfully. Out of the two of them, Greyson was always good at knowing when to quit.

“Where’s your brother?” I asked.

“Out with someone.”

“A date?” I glanced over at him.

“Who knows. He says ‘friend’, so that could mean anyone.”

Too true.

If there was one thing Asher had going for him, it was his gaggle of ‘friends’ that were actually people throwing themselves at him. He was a good-looking kid, so I could understand the multiple crushes he had accumulated over the years. Couple that with the whole military thing and… well, no wonder he was out on his third day home.

“None for you?” I asked.

He grunted at me, stabbing down into the pieces of noodle and ground beef like he was trying to thatch a bundle of hay.

“Come on, you can’t tell me you haven’t had anyone hitting you up after finding out you’re home.” I chuckled.

“Yeah, well. No, I don’t.”

Okay, that was a total surprise.

Aside from them both being identical, they were both charming to a fault, which had gotten them in and out of trouble many a times during high school. Having to go down to that damn campus every other week had been a true testament to my patience as a caretaker and one that I’d welcomed in dropping the proverbial hat as soon as they graduated.

If Asher was getting plenty of action, then by default, Greyson would be, too. At least patterns from their past suggested as much.

Unless...

“Someone else entertaining you?” I guessed.

Greyson’s eyes widened briefly before he focused back on shoving a fork full of food into his mouth.

Bingo.

“Tell me.”

So that I can rag on you for it.

As brotherly payback and all seeing as how when I’d finally told them about Gage, they hadn’t dropped teasing me about it for weeks. While endearing that they were all for me finally finding someone I clicked with, after about the fourth week, I’d been over it.

“Tell you what? I’ve got nothing.” His tone was a little more defensive than usual.

“Greyson Torres, you tell me who’s keeping you preoccupied.”

He scoffed. “No one, okay? Maybe I want to be single and focus on my work at the ranch.”

The ranch...

Actually, wasn’t Asher saying something about his boss a while back?

Some handsome guy that had Greyson dragging himself out of bed willingly before the sun rose?

I was positive I wasn’t imagining that.

“Not your boss at the ranch?”

He choked on his food hard enough to toss the container onto the counter and pound his fist against his chest a few times. I doubled it up by slapping him on the back, finally getting the noodle loose from his throat so he could breathe again.

“ Fuck ,” he muttered.

“Wow, so was that a yes?”

He slammed his elbow into my ribs, causing me to yelp and shuffle away.

“Rude,” I said, grabbing my dishtowel to snap it in his direction. “You know, I can’t be a supportive brother if you don’t tell me things.”

“There’s nothing to tell, I’m serious. My boss is...”

I waited while he trailed off, sure he was going to finish his thought. All he actually did, though, was to sigh and roll his eyes while giving his goulash a glare that could rival my own.

“He’s what, Grey?”

“Just. Ugh, it’s hard to explain.” Waving a hand in the air, he snatched his food back off the counter and quickly finished it off.

I grabbed the empty container from him to dunk under the water in the sink. Well, if he wasn’t going to tell me anything, I was just going to have to bother Asher about it. One of them was going to have to let me in.

Besides, this was all a nice distraction from the shit with Xavier and Dexter. Teasing my brothers over their love lives was a much simpler path than trying to sort through my tangled emotions regarding a teenage boy who was close to my own two brother’s ages being assaulted by someone that he was supposed to be able to trust.

That kind of shit sent me down into a spiral that I didn’t want to be dealing with. This world was already scary enough with the drugs, gang violence, corrupt government, and shitty healthcare. Adding predators on top of that was a layer of ‘fucked up’ that I really didn’t want to be thinking about.

Then again, was that a kind of privilege I was experiencing that Dexter didn’t have the luxury of?

My heart broke for him, absolutely. How this world could be so dark, I’d never know.

I held back another sigh, scrubbing at the leftover container with a kind of rigorousness that had my hands hurting. Whatever Xavier, and by default Dexter, needed in the future to help this transition easier on them, I would one hundred percent be there to help provide it.

Forget all of the bullshit surrounding my insecurities. That could all wait until Xavier got settled down into a good place again. And Dexter, too.

If they ever wanted to come back before the school year ended for a do-over of this turned-shitty vacation, my place had an open door and a warm bed waiting for them. No questions asked.

Hell, I’d pay for the goddamn plane tickets the minute Xavier called me to ask if it was all right to crash here again.

Hopefully, I wouldn’t be kept waiting for long. Because while I wanted Xavier to spend time with his family during this difficult situation, I also missed him, too. As selfish as that was.

“Gage?” Greyson hovered over my shoulder. “I think that thing is clean.”

“Oh shit.” Pulling it out of the water, the scrapper side of my poor sponge was mangled by how hard I’d been rubbing it against the lip of the container, cutting it up and shredding it into pieces that were now floating on the water’s surface.

“You good?” Greyson asked.

“Yeah, just got caught up in my thoughts.”

Like fucking usual.

He threw an arm around my shoulders, jostling me slightly to pull me close to him. “Hey, I know you’re sad about your boytoy leaving before the party, but at least you have me and Asher.”

Smiling, I set the container down and tossed the sponge onto the side of the sink. “Of course. I’m not complaining one bit. You two surprising me was the best Christmas gift you could’ve ever gotten me.”

He grinned. “Yeah? Just wait until your real gift.”

The shimmering mischief in his eyes told me exactly what I needed to know about the goddamn mystery box he and his brother had teased me with their first day back in the state. I supposed it would be a tradition to prank me after having been gone for so long.

I only hoped that it wasn’t another whipped cream pie this time around.

That shit was surprisingly hard to get out of your clothes.

“Uh huh.” Nudging him, I slipped out from under his arm to grab the towel hanging off the stove. “Listen, you two need to behave a little bit at the party. Some of my coworkers are a little on the reserved side.”

“What about Quinn? He seemed totally cool with Asher and I.”

Ugh, of course you think that.

I’d seldom brought the twins around the station when they were kids—mostly because emergencies could rarely ever be predicted and having them be in the way of some kind of chaotic go-go-go was a scene out of my worst nightmare.

Sure, they’d probably be fine, but there was always the possibility that they wouldn’t be. And I just couldn’t be taking that lightly. As they’d gotten older, they’d stopped by a little more frequently, but not enough to really know the newbies we’d gotten in recently.

Which tended to be a good thing sometimes.

“Quinn... will be preoccupied at the party.” Hopefully.

Knowing Quinn, though, both he and Jase would be getting roped into Asher and Greyson’s schemes in no time. Zander, too, probably.

Hopefully, Ellie didn’t put me on extra cleaning duty if the twins made a mess of the place.

“Well, either way, I’m excited to see all your coworkers. Asher, too.”

That really warmed my heart, even if I knew Greyson was most likely planning something ridiculous. “I’m glad. Why don’t you go change and we can grab a movie on the couch while we wait up for your brother to come back with his tales of his nightly escapades.”

Greyson flashed me a grin. “Hell yeah, count me in.”