Page 264 of Good Boys Don’t Bite

“Nothing.”

“Elliot.”

He looked at him.

“If that’s what they’re doing…”

Ronan waited. Elliot’s voice dropped.

“It’s working.”

Ronan’s face hardened.

“Fuck you.”

But he didn’t deny it. And that scared Elliot more than anything else had.

Chapter Twenty-Two — Good Boys Don’t Bite

RONAN

TUESDAY · 1:34 A.M.

Ronan had imagined Rebecca finding out about him and Elliot before. Not often. Imagining disaster had never been particularly useful, and there were enough actual disasters in their lives now without inventing more. Still, the possibility had existed. A door opening at the wrong time. A hand lingering too long. One of them forgetting where they were. A text appearing on a screen. He had imagined shouting. Disgust. Confusion. Maybe crying. He had never imagined walking downstairs at one thirty in the morning while two police officers searched the backyard because someone had climbed a tree to photograph him asleep beside her son. Apparently life had lost interest in subtlety. Elliot walked beside him. Not touching. Ronan noticed that too.

They had spent weeks learning how to touch each other when nobody was looking. Now they were learning how not to. Rebecca stood in the kitchen. Thomas beside her. Fantastic. Ronan stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Elliot stopped too. Thomas held Detective Vance’s phone. The photograph filled the screen. Ronan immediately wanted to die. Not because of what the image showed. Because there was absolutely no believable explanation for it. He was shirtless. Elliot was half on top of him. Ronan’s arm was around Elliot’s waist. Elliot’s face was pressed against his chest. They were not sleeping like brothers. Stepbrothers. Whatever. Nobody with functioning eyes would look at that photograph and think familial affection. Thomas looked up.

“What is this?”

Ronan opened his mouth. Elliot answered first.

“We’re together.”

Ronan turned. Of course. No easing into it. No strategic wording. Just detonation. Rebecca closed her eyes. Thomas stared.

“What?”

Elliot’s expression remained calm. Too calm. Ronan recognized the performance immediately.

“We’re together.”

Thomas looked at Ronan. Ronan sighed.

“Yeah.”

Silence. A police officer walked past the kitchen window carrying a flashlight. The timing felt insulting. Thomas put the phone on the counter.

“How long?”

Ronan looked at Elliot. Elliot looked at him. That question was somehow more complicated than the murder investigation.

“Recently,” Ronan said.

Rebecca laughed once. Not humor. Disbelief.

“Recently.”

“Yes.”