Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
“ H owdy everyone!” Cowboy said as he came through the front door. “Kade, I got the laptop here for you.” He handed over the computer to Kade, who was slumped in one of the recliners as he rubbed at his eyes and went to hug Sanem as she grinned at him.
“What did you find?” Kade asked softly. He could feel a migraine coming on and wanted this over before it hit and rendered him useless.
“Nothing good, that’s for sure. Looks like Doctor-boy was being paid by the local government to kill their problems.” Cowboy winced and looked over at Leo, who stared at him wide-eyed. “Sorry, Leo.”
“Do we know why?” Kade asked as he put in his earbud for it to read him what Cowboy had found.
“Drugs.” Cowboy shrugged. “What else?”
Kade cocked his head as he listened to the monotone British male voice read him what was found. “Sounds like Daegan got hurt and got addicted to painkillers. He went through the supply that was for the little hospital he ran. When the police found out instead of arresting him, they supplied him with the meds as long as he would take care of those who opposed the dictator.”
“Where was his hospital?” Torres asked.
“N’zeto, Angola,” Kade answered.
“That’s in Africa,” Leo said, shocked. “He told me his last rotation was Romania. I can’t remember the city.”
Kade nodded. “That’s what it was supposed to be from the looks of it, but he switched with another Doctor.”
Leo sat back to think for a moment. “Was it Dr. Jacob Shepard?”
Kade nodded. “I take it, you know him?” He raised a brow.
Leo sighed and folded his arms over his chest as a shield. “No, not very well, at least. I’m not exactly sure, but I think Daegan cheated on me with him during one of his rotations. The man was extremely hostile towards me anytime I was near.”
“Hostile, how?” Torres asked softly, his thumb gently sliding over Leo’s neck in support.
Leo sighed and shook his head. “He was just extremely rude to me, would say things whenever I was near and start arguments. It got to the point where Daegan told him he needed to back the fuck off. The man looked so hurt. At first, I didn’t want to believe Daegan would cheat, but he always looked so guilty after that day and would get upset anytime I brought it up.” He shrugged. “After the last incident where Daegan told him to back off, I haven’t seen or heard about him.”
“Do you have any idea why they might have switched?” Kade asked.
Leo shook his head. “Jacob is from Poland, so Romania would have been closer to his family is my only guess.”
“Do you know where all Daegan was sent to? I want to make sure the file is right.” Kade asked.
“Yeah.” Leo thought back and tried to remember them all. “Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt, Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. He only did four-month rotations.”
Kade nodded. “They didn’t have Yemen and Sudan.” He added the new information to the file for later, hoping that he would be able to make a timeline of Daegan’s movements so he could check and make sure he hadn’t done anything else.
“Those were his most recent rotations. It takes them forever for them to update anything.” Leo mumbled and leaned into Torres’ touch.
Kade set aside the laptop and leaned forward, facing Leo directly. “I’m gonna ask you some questions so I can get a better feel for Daegan, ok?”
Leo sighed. He had a feeling that was coming. “Ok.”
“I’ve already written down about the other Doctor so we can check him out. Do you know if he knows about Daegan’s passing?” Cowboy asked Leo.
Leo raised a brow. “I would assume so, so I sent him an invitation to the funeral.”
Kade snorted. “Jesus, sorry.” He waved a hand.
Leo shrugged. “I wasn’t trying to be a dick at the time, but looking back, yeah, that was probably a bit much.” He said sheepishly.
Kade smiled as he pet Valk, who came over to check on him before laying at his master’s feet. “I understand. Did Daegan have an issue with drugs when you were together?”
Leo shook his head. “No, he did have an addictive personality, though. His father was addicted to painkillers and his mother was an alcoholic. He always swore he’d never be like them.”
“Growing up in that atmosphere, it’s extremely hard not to fall into the same patterns.” Kade said gently.
“Yeah, he broke his arm one time when we were on vacation and he refused to let the doctor give him any meds. He used to be very anal about it. I wasn’t allowed to even have Tylenol at home.” Leo said. “Does it say how he got hurt?”
Kade paused for a moment. “From what’s in the file, he got roughed up by the local gang for helping a man that had been brought in that had been beaten almost to death. Sounds like the guy did eventually die from his injuries. Daegan had several broken ribs and contracted pneumonia. Which is probably where the addiction started.”
Leo sighed. “That’s not surprising. Daegan didn’t get sick, but if he was hurt, he’d be more susceptible to it.”
“He may not have really had a choice.” Cowboy chimed in. “If he lost consciousness, he may have been given the meds without consent.”
“Seems to be the likely cause. The beating left him very bruised and with a few broken bones, it's likely someone found him and took him to another hospital to be treated. Especially if they knew he was the doctor. Most of the people in those communities will try to protect the doctors because they get help from them. It would be kinda bad to kill the help, ya know?” Kade explained.
“That makes more sense. I don’t see Daegan voluntarily taking the meds. Not to say the doctor made the wrong choice because if he was hurt that bad, then yes, he needed to be treated, and there’s no way the doctor could have predicted the outcome.” Leo stated sadly. While it made him feel a little better than Daegan had probably not taken them voluntarily, he still felt a pang of sadness for the man he’d lost.
Kade shrugged. “Shit happens. Daegan had a choice, and he made it.”
Leo nodded. “That he did.” He really liked Kade’s no-nonsense attitude. While it might put others off (especially the subject of the conversation), he liked that the man wasn’t treating him like some damsel in distress.
“Was there anything else that was strange about him at the end?” Kade asked, shifting again to stretch out his long legs.
Leo sighed. “Other than the aggression and lies not really, pills explain that, though. I would have never guessed he had killed someone. He didn’t show any signs that would have led me to believe something traumatic had happened except the hostility when I would ask about his trip, but there were no nightmares, no talking to himself, no zoning out. When he was home, he acted mostly normal. He still went to work. He saw his siblings. No one came to me and asked if something was up because he acted normal until he was behind closed doors.”
Kade nodded and gave Leo a sad smile. He hated what the sweet man had been through, but he was happy Leo and his best friend seemed to be happy together. “I’m sorry, Leo.”
Leo gave a slight smile, knowing the man could sense it. “Thank you, Kade.”
“We’ll take a break from the questions, but if you remember anything that would help let me know.” Kade said with a raised brow.
“Will do.” Leo said, thankfully. Talking about the things that had happened was hard. He’d never told anyone what had happened at the end of Daegan’s life and in a sense, he felt like he’d basically failed his husband. Not knowing how to help or even what was wrong still hit him like a knife in the gut. While his love for Daegan had changed from a deep emotional and romantic love to more of a platonic love, he still loved the man. He’d grown up with Daegan. They had dated for years before they had gotten married, and it still hurt that he was gone.
Torres gently ran his hand through Leo’s hair, seeing the deep frown on the man’s face. “I’m sorry Leo. I know you still had love for him.” He whispered into Leo’s ear.
Leo shivered when Torres’ warm breath coasted across his neck. He looked up and smiled gently at the man. The fact that he wasn’t trying to make Leo feel guilty for still loving his husband and allowing him to talk about him meant the world to him. Most men would have felt threatened if he’d even mentioned his husband or had tried to talk things out.
“I want to make it clear that I know you will need to talk about him. I won’t feel threatened or jealous about that. You will need to grieve him and I understand that, and I would never take that away from you. You wanna continue to hang pictures of him up in your place? Do it baby, I’ll understand.” Torres murmured for Leo’s ears only.
Leo could feel his eyes get wetter. “Thank you.” He said shakily.
Torres smiled sadly. “I got you Leo, don’t worry.”
Leo grinned. “Ditto.”
“Whatever happened Leo, just know we won’t push you but we just want to know you’re ok. It’s hard for your mom and me to grasp the depth of shit that happened with you and Daegan, especially after having known him since he was a damn child.” Bram pointed his finger at his son and narrowed his eyes. “But I won’t tolerate you hiding shit or lying to protect us. Do you understand, me son?”
Leo nodded immediately. He’d always felt guilty for not telling them sooner. “Yes, sir.”
Bram sat back, throwing his arm over his wife and pulling her close. “Good, I may be slower lately, but I’ll still hold you down so your mother can spank you with the spoon.”
Saint snorted.
“I’ll spank you to Gideon.” Sanem said, easily shutting Saint up.
Leo grinned. “I promise I’ll do better about keeping you guys in the loop about what happens. Some of the stuff that happened before will take me a while before I can talk about it. I still need to reach out to his parents and make sure they’re ok. He was their only son and the youngest.”
Torres jerked his chin at Cowboy. “He can check on that for you first before you call them. Maybe that will be easier in the long run.”
Leo winced. “Yeah, probably. They knew about the divorce and believe me, they were not happy about it at all. They wanted me to just ignore all Daegan was doing. They even told me to have secret affairs of my own. They just didn’t want to ruin the last name.” He shook his head in disgust. He would never forget the look in Daegan’s mother’s bloodshot eyes when he told her he was divorcing her son, and keeping him away from his family. That had been his biggest fear, that Daegan would turn on his family. His dad had just had a heart attack and didn’t need the added stress.
“Not surprising from what I remember of the mother.” Ram said, his deep baritone soft and firm.
Leo snorted. “Saint, remember that time we found her naked in Ram’s bed?”
Saint laughed out loud as Ram rolled his eyes.
Kade’s brow reached his hairline in shock. “I’m afraid I’m gonna need that story for technical purposes.”
Saint giggled. “She’s wanted Ram for years. She didn’t even try to go after Dad because she’s afraid of Mom, but she assumed Ram was lying when he told her he was gay.”
Ram had to take a deep breath when Kade’s rich laughter filled the room. He was glad the little shit was enjoying his embarrassment.
“What happened?” Kade demanded.
All of them started laughing.
“He went and got Mom and she ran her out of the house in her birthday suit with a spatula.” Saint wheezed as he bent over laughing so hard he almost choked.
“Fuck all of you.” Ram grumbled, then rolled his eyes when more laughter rang out.