Chapter 21 #2
“The same 50 per cent are eyeing you like they want to come over and congratulate you.”
Thomas smirked, then his eyes sharpened on Scott’s hand still clasped over the back of his neck.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Scott rubbed the skin, then let go. “Where were we?”
Russell – yes – that was it.
“Hi…”
Scott stiffened at the gruff voice behind him. He turned, and another guy held his hand up for a high five from Thomas.
Thomas hesitated, then slapped his hand.
“I knew you two were a couple in real life,” he said. “You could sense how much you cared about each other through the screen.”
Scott scratched the back of his head. “Well, this is awkward…”
“Your videos are hot as hell. Can I buy you a drink?”
“Sure…” Thomas said with a smile. He pulled Scott towards him in a clear off-limits gesture. Scott heard Russell’s curse, but Thomas didn’t seem to notice.
Men and a few women kept approaching them through the night, leering at Scott and gazing at Thomas like they would lick his feet if he asked them to. Thomas started turning down drinks, and a few men asked for photographs, posing between them.
Thomas tolerated the pictures until one man put his hand on Scott’s arse, and Thomas threatened to pummel him into the floor below.
“Enjoying the attention?”
Russell had come over alone, which was a good sign. He’d had enough of waiting for Thomas to go to him and observing their fan club coming and going.
Thomas spun toward him. “Hey…”
“I’m surprised you don’t need a chair,” Russell remarked, looking Scott over.
Scott bristled. “Why would I need one?”
“After the whole fainting incident.” Russell bit his lip, halting his smirk. His words had been said to mock, and Scott hated the flash of humiliation he felt in his chest.
Everyone who’d mentioned the fainting had looked at him with lust, but not Russell.
“You’re looking a bit pale, even now…”
Scott opened his mouth, preparing to tell Russell to go fuck himself, but then he remembered why they were there, what he’d promised Thomas, how actually, despite the rage simmering in Scott’s guts, everything was going exactly to plan.
“I need to use the restroom,” Scott said.
“I’ll go with you –”
“I’m quite capable of going to the toilet on my own.”
Thomas looked unsure. “Ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?”
“That’s how long until I come looking for you.”
In ten minutes, Thomas would’ve forgotten all about him. Scott smiled, leaning in to kiss Thomas on the cheek. Russell audibly ground his teeth.
“Back in ten,” Scott said, before leaving the room and making his way down one of the narrow corridors until he found a restroom. None of the cubicles looked the same; all the doors, seats and locks were different – one even had a carpeted floor.
Scott intended to wait a while, then spy on Thomas and Russell from afar to check everything was going well. He didn’t expect to be cornered by Lisa outside the restroom. She had her arms crossed beneath her breasts, and there were more notes poking out than earlier.
“Your boyfriend is looking for you.”
Scott checked the time on his phone. He’d taken exactly ten minutes, but Thomas could be over-the-top protective at times. It gave Scott butterflies, and his lips twitched with a fond smile.
“Thomas and I are just friends.”
Lisa narrowed her green eyes. “I wasn’t talking about Thomas.” She reached into her cleavage and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “He said you’d know him from this…”
Scott’s stomach dropped, and he refused to take the note. There was no way…
Lisa sighed and unfolded it to flash the unhappy face at him. She frowned, checked the back of the paper, turning it over in case there was something else.
Warren was there, somewhere in this mismatched building.
He’d followed them.
“Where?” Scott managed to force out. “Which room?”
Lisa shoved the note back between her breasts. She gestured to the darkened doorway he’d come through. “Through there, second room on the right. He’s at the bar, already bought you a drink.”
Scott swallowed hard, contemplating going through a different door and getting the hell out of there.
Lisa raised an eyebrow. “Well…”
“I’m going,” Scott whispered, heading in the direction she’d pointed, which meant going back into the room Thomas and Russell were in.
Ten minutes had passed, and Thomas hadn’t gone looking for him.
That was the plan. It was working exactly as Scott had hoped, but stepping back into the room and glancing over to see Thomas laughing sent a dagger straight into Scott’s heart.
He paused and watched them interacting from across the room while his brain chanted out the words, No, not again, and, You bloody idiot, Scott.
There was no way he could’ve made the same mistake twice and fallen for the fantasy of being with the unattainable. He’d only just got Thomas to admit they were friends.
Thomas laughed, and smiled, and drank his beer, never once looking over, never once even checking the time. Scott wanted him to look over; he stayed in case he might.
Lisa cleared her throat from behind him, and his feet began moving again, taking him to the room where he knew Warren would be waiting. He was numb before he’d even got there, trailing his eyes on the floor rather than looking at anyone.
“Hello, Scott.”
That cool, smooth voice was one he heard in his nightmares.
Warren wore black polished shoes, black smart trousers, and a white shirt with an unfastened black waistcoat hanging from his shoulders.
“Up here,” Warren said until Scott looked at his face, his masculine jaw, his stylish stubble, swept-back hair, dazzling eyes and sharp eyebrows. Like Scott, his shirt was undone, flashing the top of his chest and the rug of dark hair beneath.
“Take a seat,” Warren said, patting the stool beside him.
Scott slipped onto it wordlessly.
“Are you enjoying your night?”
Scott didn’t answer, but Warren didn’t seem overly concerned. “It’s a quirky place, isn’t it? Lots of interesting characters, that’s for sure…” He eyed Lisa, who moved behind the bar. “But I think I’m most interested in the one you arrived with.”
“Thomas is not a character.”
“Ah…” Warren raised a finger. “But the Beast is, as is Beauty.” His eyes sharpened, reminding Scott of a shark. “That sure is an interesting channel you two have made.”
“I had to come up with something after you tried to trap me, then scared off all my clients.”
“Has he told you about my requests?” Warren asked.
“What?”
“I guess not.” Warren smirked. “You should ask him.”
“Look, I know I made you angry, taking your money, then vanishing for three years, but I was desperate. My sister, Megan –”
“I know why you needed the money, Scott. I paid it directly to The Priory. I know your sister was supposed to be there eight weeks but only lasted five before she gave up.”
Scott curled his toes in his shoes.
“I know that she went back to living in squats with her junkie friends, and I know that nineteen months later, she was found dead in some farm building in the middle of nowhere after prioritising drugs over a warm place to stay and freezing to death.”
Scott jumped at a glass hitting the bar and looked over to Lisa giving him an apologetic look. She left the bar, rushing out of the room.
“I know that your sister wasn’t found until three weeks after she’d died; thawing, she attracted the attention of some school kids on a bike ride. I know the sight of her rotting with the needle still in her arm scared them shitless, and they ended up in therapy.”
“Shut up,” Scott growled through his teeth. His eyes were burning. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“But I do. I know you didn’t go to her funeral.” Warren shifted his stool closer. Scott instinctively leaned away. “I know that barely anyone turned up to it. I know because I was there.”
“You bastard.”
Warren shrugged. “I was hoping to see you so I could tell you our agreement still stands, and for every day I’m made to wait, the worse it’ll be for you.”
“I’m going to pay you back, every penny – a month. You gave me a month.”
“The month is almost up.”
“I’ve told the police about you.”
Warren gestured to himself. “And yet I’m still here. There’s nothing to charge me with. You’re the criminal, remember? Tried to blackmail one of your clients, and now here you are, trying to break off an agreement with me after stealing my money.”
“I didn’t steal it, and I’m making it back.”
“By using him in the other room.”
“Don’t bring Thomas into this.”
“You brought him into this when you locked yourself away in his mansion like a Disney princess. Beauty, right?” Warren chuckled, rubbing his chin. “I see a pattern emerging.”
“What pattern?”
“That you think you can walk all over anyone with money, use them at will, and I’m here to remind you that you can’t.
There will be consequences. I’m not just doing this for myself, or that politician, but for Thomas too.
I’m going to make you bleed for him. I’m going to make you scream out an apology to all of us.
” Warren lifted his beer to his lips, speaking across the rim.
“Do you remember the things I whispered to you?”
Scott pressed his lips together, refusing to answer.
“I know you do. You described them so well when you emailed me. I might have closed that account, but I kept the emails; they’re my defence if you try to arrest me afterwards.
You wanted me to cut you, force objects into you, hit you, break you, tie you up and leave you helpless, and if I take things too far, if something goes wrong and I end up killing you…
” Warren bit his lip. “My money, my status, my influence… I think… I think I’ll get away with it. ”
“You won’t.”
“I can be rather convincing when I need to be. Hopefully, it won’t come to that, though, but if it does, I doubt many will show up at your funeral. Don’t worry, I’ll pay my respects. I’ll come in the night and dig up you, your sister and your mother too. I'll have fun with the whole family.”
Scott slipped off the stool and rushed away through the labyrinth of corridors and rooms. Each one Scott flew down, he could sense Warren behind him, his gaze, his footsteps, his breath on the back of his neck.
There were too many people to squeeze past and fight through, and the low ceilings all added to the feeling of being trapped.
Scott pushed outside, gulping in the fresh air as his heart hammered behind his ribs. He couldn’t see Warren behind him, but looking up at all the windows with the hazy shapes behind them, it felt like he was up there, watching.
He hurried across the street, trying to remember the route Thomas had led him to get there. It was a part of the city Scott wasn’t familiar with, and its old-fashioned aesthetic was probably charming in the daytime, but at night, it had Scott in a panic not knowing which small alley to go down.
Arms gripped his waist, and he tensed up, fighting with his attacker, wanting to cry out for help, but struck mute in the face of Warren grabbing hold of him. He rammed his elbow back, but the attacker blocked him.
“It’s me!” Thomas shouted, spinning Scott around until they were face to face.
“Thomas…”
Scott dropped his arms by his sides and thumped his forehead to Thomas’s shoulders with more force than intended.
He breathed against him while his heart slowed from its frantic pace and carefully placed his hands on Thomas’s hips.
It wasn’t a hug, but it wasn’t not one either.
Scott needed a moment or two, and Thomas let him have as many as he wanted.
“Lisa came to get me, said some guy was upsetting you at the bar. She said he mentioned your sister.”
That’s why Thomas had come after him. Lisa had told him. She must’ve interrupted Thomas and Russell’s conversation to tell him Scott was freaking out elsewhere on the premises.
He forced a smile and leaned back, shaking his head. “It’s some guy, it’s nothing.”
“Scott.”
“Honestly, it’s fine.” Scott chuckled. “How’s it going with Russell?”
Thomas’s nostrils flared. Scott ploughed on regardless.
“It sounded like he cracked a tooth when he saw me kiss you on the cheek. You looked like you were enjoying yourself when I checked on you, though.”
Scott didn’t mean it to sound accusatory and cursed himself. He had no right to be jealous, no right to feel anything. The bell on the front door of The Frog & Toad sounded, and Scott shot an alarmed look in its direction, but it wasn’t Warren leaving the place, it was someone he didn’t recognise.
Thomas checked too, then turned back to Scott, frowning. “We’re leaving.”
“No, Thomas, please.” Scott squeezed his eyes shut in a harsh blink. “I don’t want to mess up your night –”
“Russell invited himself round the mansion tomorrow.”
Fuck.
“Oh.” Scott’s eyes grew round. “I’ll…I’ll spend the day somewhere else.”
“I told him no.”
“Wait? What? Why would you do that?” Scott shook his head. “It worked. I made him jealous, he dumped his boyfriend –”
“I don’t care about any of that. I didn’t want to come here tonight. I don’t know why I did.”
Scott averted his gaze. “You were laughing with him. You looked…happy.”
“I told him about the balloons, then you hiding my eye, and the salon visit.” Thomas held up his hand, twitching his nails.
“And these…and I…” He shook his head. “I didn’t know where you’d gone.
I went towards the restrooms. Lisa found me.
She was worried, told me a guy gave her the creeps when he started talking to you, that something was very wrong. ”
The door opened again. Scott couldn’t stop himself from looking to see who’d left. It wasn’t Warren. It felt like his face was behind every window, somehow able to see Scott through the frosted glass.
“Who is he, Scott?” Thomas’s brow twitched. “Why has he got you so on edge?”
Scott shook his head, refusing to answer.
Thomas stared at him for a long moment, then whispered, “Okay. You don’t want to talk about it, then we won’t, but you want to leave, right?”
Scott nodded.
Thomas looked ahead at one of the alleyways. “Then let’s go home.”
Home.
Thomas took Scott by the hand, not his wrist, and led the way.