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Nate gave Walt the question. Walt’s expression grew hopelessly sad.

“Yes,” he said. “I was crying because of you.”

Leo waited, dread pooling within him.

“You’d died.” Walt’s voice shook. “By the time she took me down to that room, you were already dead.”

Chapter

Forty-Eight

“How did I die?” Leo both wanted and didn’t want to know the answer. Mostly he didn’t want to make Walt relive the memory, but the question was nagging at him too hard not to ask.

Nate relayed the question, and Walt rubbed both hands over his face.

“My brothers,” he said. “It was my brothers.”

Leo stared at him.

“They found us at the motel. We’d left home together after my family found out, and we were staying there until we could find work and get a place of our own. We had such plans.” Walt lowered his hands. “We’d paid for another week that morning. I remember you counting out the money.”

Leo tried to remember Walt’s brothers but there was nothing. From the way Walt made it sound, though, he could tell his family hadn’t been happy about Walt’s decision to go with Leo. “They wanted you back, didn’t they?”

“Yes,” Walt said when Nate told him. “Two of them came to the room and told me to get my things. Said my mother was crying herself sick and I’d had my fun.” He scoffed at the memory. “I told them I wasn’t coming home, but it was like they believed you put all these ideas in my head, and I’d be all right once they got me away from you. They didn’t want to hear anything I was saying.” His expression turned sad again. “You told them I’d made my choice and they needed to leave. Actually, you told them to ‘fuck off.’”

Yes, that sounded like something Leo would have said.

“Ricky hit you. You hit him back, and then Michael joined in. I tried to pull them off, but they knocked me aside. By the time the man from the office came out, you were on the floor and they were still kicking you.”

Walt stopped, pressing his lips together before he went on.

“He was shouting about calling the police. I got you up while they were arguing with him, and we got to the car.”

Leo stood. He couldn’t keep crouching there, looking up at Walt while he described the most terrible day of both their lives.

“How hurt was I?”

Had he really been kicked to death?

Jesus.

Walt thought about his answer. “I wanted to take you to a hospital,” he said. “But you told me to drive us here instead. We’d heard about this place from a friend and we were keeping it as an emergency option. You said it was closer than the hospital, and while you looked bad you weren’t bleeding, so I thought…” He shook his head. “I should have known better. You weren’t bleeding on the outside but you were bleeding on the inside.”

“You didn’t know,” Leo said. “How could you have known?”

Nate relayed Leo’s words, and Walt rubbed at his eyes. “I kept asking you how bad it was, on the drive. I was so worried. You were only worried about getting to the safe house, saying I needed to drive faster so they wouldn’t find us again.”

Nate drew an empty chair close and sat down. He looked a little pale around the nose. Leo hovered beside him.

“You couldn’t get out of the car on your own when we arrived,” Walt said. “I ran to the door, and the woman who lived here came straight out with me. We got you up the steps, but you couldn’t go any farther. You said you needed to sit down. We laid you in the hall.”

Leo turned toward the doorway.

There?

He’d died there?

“She was trying to help you. Somebody brought a blanket to put under your head. You were getting weaker so fast, but you caught the woman’s sleeve and asked if she’d let me stay. She said yes, of course she would, but you kept asking, saying I couldn’t go back with them.” Walt’s voice grew unsteady. “I was kneeling beside you, but you wouldn’t look at me, you were so focused on making her promise.”