Chapter 4
Chapter four
Scott called a taxi to take him into the city.
He asked the driver to go through the centre, over endless crossings and round as many roundabouts as possible.
It was midnight, and the crowds of people stumbling across the road, rushing out and breaking up traffic were exactly what Scott had been hoping for.
If Warren was trailing him, he would struggle to keep Scott in his sights, especially when Scott paid the driver, slipped out of the car and hurried down the pedestrian street with the most nightclubs and bars.
The mass of people swallowed him up, hiding him from the roads.
He stopped in the alcove of a shop, yanked a hoodie from his bag and shoved it over his head before continuing to the next taxi he’d booked.
Scott kept his hood up, and once he’d given the driver the address to Thomas’s place, he lay down on the backseat. The driver adjusted his mirror to keep glancing at Scott but didn’t ask him why he’d keeled over onto his side.
By the time Scott got to Thomas’s place, it was two in the morning.
There were lights on around the gate and leading all the way up the stone path to the mansion. The downstairs was dark, but there were a few windows illuminated on the top floor.
Scott stepped up to the intercom on the smaller gate meant for people. Two cameras pointed down at him from tall pillars that were painted black to match the main gate. He didn’t know which one to look at as he buzzed the mansion and kept turning his head between them.
Thomas didn’t answer.
Scott tried again.
And again.
He poked the button over and over as his shoulders and head both drooped. It had been a long day. All he wanted to do was curl up in a safe place and hibernate for a million years.
The speaker crackled, and Thomas spoke one word. “No.”
Scott held down the button. “What do you mean no?”
“I mean, whatever it is, the answer is no.”
“But –”
“Stop pressing the button. I’m trying to sleep.”
Scott buzzed, and buzzed, and buzzed until Thomas hissed through the speakers, “Go home, Scott.”
“That’s the thing, I can’t do home right now.”
“Why not?”
Scott’s heart thumped behind his ribs. He didn’t want Thomas to know the truth, to pass judgement, to sneer or shake his head. “They’re doing maintenance on the building. A sewage pipe burst in my apartment, ruined everything. It’ll take time to fix.”
“What about your date? Why can’t you stay with him?”
Scott bit his tongue. “He only paid for the afternoon.”
“Then maybe you should’ve offered him the night and the morning after for free so you had a place to stay.”
“I don’t want to stay with Anthony –”
“Why come here?”
“I…” He slipped his bag from his shoulder, and it dropped to the ground with a thud. “I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“It’s so nice to hear I’m the last resort.”
“You’re both my first and last resort.”
Something barked in the darkness. Scott shuddered and huddled closer to the intercom. “Come on, Thomas, there are wolves out here.”
“There are no fucking wolves, Scott. You probably heard a deer.”
“As I said, there are vicious man-eating deer out here.”
Thomas groaned. “I’m going back to bed now.”
Scott rattled the gate. “Let me in first.”
“No. The only reason you’re here is because you’ve found out I live in a huge mansion and I have more money than I know what to do with it. That’s why you’re here. To scrounge off me. To take advantage.”
“That’s not it –”
“Isn’t it?”
Scott took a step back and ran his eyes up the colossal gate. A tall wall surrounded the property, tipped with savage-looking spikes. The place looked safe. That’s why Scott was there, to feel safer, which was exploiting Thomas’s wealth in some way.
Maybe he was taking advantage, or at least attempting to.
Scott pressed the button. “Thomas, I…I’m sorry.”
He released the button, grabbed the long strap of his duffel bag and eased it onto his shoulder with a dull groan.
Scott didn’t have a plan B, but he didn’t want to stand outside Thomas’s mansion all night, and he didn’t want to walk in the direction the weird bark had come from. He set off with his head down, hoping to find an accommodating bush or a park bench.
The speaker crackled. “Wait!”
Scott stopped and turned around. He shook his head, unsure whether he was still in sight of the camera. He’d come up with something – something that didn’t involve Thomas.
Scott took a step.
“I told you to wait!”
Scott held up placating hands and did his best mime of a man saying it was okay, he understood, and he was leaving and never should’ve bothered Thomas in the first place.
“Not one more step,” Thomas hissed. “I’m coming down, and you’d better still be there.”
Scott scrunched his face in an exaggerated frown and squared off to the only camera that could possibly see him in an ‘or what?’ gesture.
“Or I’ll get in my 4x4 and run your arse down.”
Scott snorted softly as he strolled back over to the gate. He dropped his bag onto the ground and rested his forehead against the bars while he waited.
He heard Thomas before he saw him. Thomas’s Crocs clacked as he walked.
He had his arms folded across a black silk dressing gown, and his expression lacked any warmth.
It was always hard to gauge emotion in Thomas’s face thanks to the snake-skin tattoo that even went part-way up his nostrils.
His thin lips were tattooed in a shapeless black line, and they weren’t smiling.
“Scott,” he murmured, coming to a stop on the other side of the gate.
Scott looked up at him. Only one of Thomas’s eyes resembled a snake eye; his other, the one he had vision in, shone an icy blue. It was tired, and hard, and instinctively Scott backed up a step.
“It’s fine, I’ll find somewhere else.”
Thomas answered by pulling a huge key from his pocket and unlocking the padlock around the gate.
“Inside,” Thomas ordered.
There was another bark in the darkness, and Scott jolted, bursting through the gate. Thomas rolled his eye, sighed tiredly, then refastened the padlock.
“It’s a deer,” he repeated.
Scott shook his head. “Deer do not bark. Dogs. Wolves. Dingoes. Coyotes… They all bark, not deer, though.”
Thomas started on the walk back to the house, and Scott fell into step beside him.
“What noises do deer make then?” Thomas asked.
Scott frowned, giving it far too much thought. “They neigh.”
“Like horses?”
“A deer is closer to a horse than a dog. It makes perfect sense.”
Thomas shook his head. “I can’t believe we shared a cell for three years…”
“I can’t believe you own this place, you’re rolling in cash, and you still did time for tax evasion.”
Thomas bristled. “It was the principle. The assumption that I knew my accountant was being dodgy when I didn’t have a clue.
I didn’t want to pay it back when it wasn’t my fault, and I didn’t want to draw attention to myself by arguing against the charge, so it was easier to just accept the prison time. ”
“How much did you owe?”
“￡10,000.”
Scott tripped over his feet. “You served three years for ￡10,000 when you’re clearly a millionaire?”
Thomas shrugged. “I have my pride too, and that’s worth more than millions.” He turned his blue eye on Scott. “Pride is something you probably don’t possess in your line of work.”
“Hey, I’m proud of what I do.”
“Yeah?”
“I’d like to see you bounce on a Viagra dick for six hours straight.”
Thomas grimaced. “That’s an image I didn’t want.”
“You asked for it.” Scott sighed through his nose. “I get it, you hate that I’m an escort. You think it makes me a lesser person, dirty, disgusting. Whatever. I hoped that those three years inside had changed your opinion on that – on me.”
Thomas stopped. “I don’t think it makes you a lesser person. I don’t think you’re dirty or disgusting.”
“Then what is your issue with me?”
“I don’t have one.”
Scott rolled his eyes. “What is your issue with escorting?”
Thomas stared at him for a long time, then continued walking. “Do you want a place to sleep or not?”
“I was eyeing a bush over there,” Scott said, glancing over his shoulder.
“What bush?”
“The one with the small, oval leaves.”
Thomas nodded. “It’s best you don’t sleep in there.”
“Why not?”
“The deer love that one.”
Another bark sent Scott crashing into Thomas.
“Why the hell are there so many?” Scott asked.
“There’s a herd that lives in the woods across the road. Domestic, of course.”
“Domestic? Who the hell would want to own a herd of man-eating – oh my God, they’re yours, aren’t they?”
The edge of Thomas’s lips lifted into a smile. “Yes. They are mine, and they haven’t had human flesh in a long time…”
“That’s not terrifying at all.”
Thomas tipped his head back and laughed. It came out in rushes, like he was hissing. For the first few months they’d been cellmates, Thomas’s laugh had been a rarity, and Scott was grateful; the sound creeped him out, but gazing at Thomas, Scott found himself smiling.
He’d missed Thomas’s laugh.
Thomas pushed open the huge front door, and Scott followed him in.
Their footsteps echoed in the giant entry hall. The doors that had led into the auction rooms the day before were both closed, and the red velvet rope that had blocked the top of the staircase was gone.
Thomas locked the door, then turned a key in a white box attached to the wall.
“Alarm system,” he said. “State of the art. We need to get up the stairs within fifteen minutes.”
“What happens if we don’t?”
“The floor opens up, and we fall into the shark tank.”
Scott blinked. “I’m sorry? What?”
“If we’re not up the stairs in fifteen minutes, the system will be triggered and the police will be automatically called. They’re supposed to get here within ten minutes.”
Scott followed Thomas to the stairs. “A lot can happen in ten minutes…”
“This way,” Thomas said, leading Scott to the left once they’d got to the top of the stairs.
Thomas pushed open a huge oak door, waited for Scott to pass into the corridor, then locked it behind him.