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“So he attacked you one night, and then he just left you alone?”
“No, I…” He rubs a hand over his short hair, gaze going distant. “I left town. Went to a group home for a while.”
“And then you came back, and…? Simon left you alone?”
He frowns. “Yeah. Soon after, Zane found me, took me in as apprentice.”
“Why would Simon go through all that trouble to recruit you and then just let you go?”
He frowns harder. “I thought he just gave up.”
We both consider the possibility for a moment.
/> “No way,” I say.
“No,” Jesse says quietly. “The guy gets obsessed. He wouldn’t just let me know. That’s just what I wanted to believe. But then why?”
“What did Jason tell you not to tell anyone? I bet you…” I consider my shitty finances, “fifty dollars that it has something to do with Simon’s interest in Jason.”
“I can’t break my word to him.” He shakes his head. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“Damn right I will. And if meanwhile something happens to him, it’s on you.”
“Not fucking fair.”
“Life generally isn’t.”
“Dammit, Raine.” Jesse huffs and sits down on the table. From the corner of my eye I catch Ocean approaching and glare at him.
He backs away.
“Long before the night of the attack,” Jesse says, voice like sandpaper, “Jason told me that he and Simon had some history. I think… I think he settled for me because Jason refused him. He could, back then, when our pimp Kaia protected us, and Jason was her favorite. Rumors ran rampant that he was her son, but I doubt it. In any case… Jason refused him, and he turned to me, because I’d been away long and didn’t really belong to Jason’s gang.”
“But something changed afterward.”
“Kaia got sick. She died. Jason’s gang was left without protection.”
And then Jesse left the streets, and Simon got exactly what he wanted: Jason. Still, why? Even if Simon Gomez is gay and wants Jason as his prize, something doesn’t add up.
“What sort of history did Simon have with Jason?”
He grimaces. “They’re related. As in family. Jason said Simon Gomez claims to be a distant cousin.”
My head is starting to pound, the tension from my shoulders making me hunch over. “Cousin? You shitting me?”
“Hey, you asked.” He jabs a finger at me as he pushes off the table, his green eyes stormy. “And this had better be important. I don’t enjoy breaking promises to my friends.”
Is it important? Hard to tell, but something in my gut tells me this whole story is key to how Jason’s thinking works, to whatever is binding him to Simon Gomez. A scary cousin Jason refused, who then went after Jesse, and then…?
I watch Jesse Lee go, the solution to the puzzle just out of reach, and wonder if he’s managed to free himself from the ghosts of his past.
And I vow to help Jason break free, too.
No use lying to myself that after work I’ll stay for the party, despite what I promised my brother, or that I’ll head straight home. I can’t focus on anything but Jason—and meeting up with Jason is the last thing I should do. I know from experience I shouldn’t push too much. That he needs time to process things, and that I should let him come to me. I shouldn’t go look for him on the street—and yet I couldn’t stop if my life depended on it.
I have to see him. The black pit of fear in my stomach has only grown bigger since I talked to Jesse. Losing him—to Simon Gomez, to drugs, to violence—is not an option. Keeping him safe—and alive—is my number one priority.
I’ll do whatever it takes to show him that I’m here to stay, that there are ways out of hell if he’ll only trust me.
