Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Warren
My entire body ached as I woke, feeling like I had been trampled under the hooves of one of the carriages in the Quarter. It took me a minute to remember what had happened, and I cursed as I recalled the vitriol on my own brother’s face as he enacted his violence. So much like our father.
After a few tries, I became aware that my right eye was swollen, but I could open it just barely, the world a blurry mess from it.
I carefully sat up in bed and swung my legs over the edge, only for my feet to be met with the plush material of a rug that I did not own.
A frantic fear settled over me; I looked around the room and saw that I was not at home.
I had collapsed on the street, if memory served me correctly, which meant someone had taken me and brought me here.
“Lord, please keep me safe,” I whispered as I struggled to my feet.
As I passed through the threshold of the bedroom door, I glanced back at the ornate bed I had been laid on. Rich, luxurious materials covered the golden four-poster bed and stood center against a room full of colors and decadence. I had never seen such a beautiful resting place.
“Hello?”
“Ah, mon cher ami, you’re awake.” Levette came out of one of the other doorways, a gentle smile on his face. He wore his regular suit pants, though his white shirt was unbuttoned at the top to reveal a slither of skin at his chest. I looked away, fearful I had caught him in a state of undress.
Levette, however, was not so shy. He paced over to me in that leisurely way he walked, stopping in front of me. He placed his hands on my biceps, squeezing gently. The contact sent tiny shockwaves up and down my arms; I had never felt something quite like it.
“How are you feeling? Come, let me get you some water, yes?” he asked as he guided me into the room he had come from.
We entered a lounge with deep red walls, accented with golds and black.
Two large couches sat as a centerpiece for the room, and I groaned as Levette deposited me on one, my body sinking into the soft cushions.
As I sat back and allowed my aching bones to rest, Levette busied himself with getting me a glass of water and some bread I knew I would be unable to eat.
He set them before me on the table with a smile before sitting beside me on the couch, leaving an indecent amount of space between us.
It was both exhilarating and anxiety inducing; such a simple act creating such strong emotions.
“How did I get here?” I questioned, sipping my water as I awaited his answer. I groaned as I swallowed the water, my throat resisting the action; every part of me ached.
Levette leaned back against the sofa, his arm resting over the back.
“I was on my way back home when I saw someone laying on the ground.
I went over to check that they were okay, and I saw you laying there, covered in blood.
Oh, Warren, ca m'a fait mal de te voir comme ca! I brought you back here immediately so that I could look over you and make sure you got the rest you needed to begin healing.”
“How did you get me back here?”
“I carried you, of course.”
I gawped at the man, my jaw hanging slightly. While Levette seemed muscled and strong in appearance, it still astonished me that he would have been able to carry me for some distance to reach his apartment.
“How is that possible?” I questioned. “And, oh my, you must have been covered in grime and my blood!”
Levette shook his head and waved away my embarrassment. “I am stronger than I look, trust me. And pay no more thought to my dirty clothes; I can replace them.”
“I will pay for them! Please, accept my sincerest apologies. And my thanks, too. You saved me, Levette.”
“Nonsense. I have too many suits as it is; one ruined is nothing. But your gratitude…well, I graciously accept it. I am glad beyond measure to have found you and been able to help. I would have been greatly saddened to have suffered the loss of my only friend.”
I blushed under his compliment, the color flooding my pale skin. Tucking my hair behind my ears, I looked up to see his gaze had never left my face. To have the undivided attention of someone like Levette was extraordinary and bewildering.
My brain stuttered as I tried to think of something to say, some way to respond and fill in the silence between us.
“How was your business in Baton Rouge?”
He winced, shifting uncomfortably where he sat. “It did not go as planned. I did not find what I was hoping for, I’m afraid. A wasted effort. Next time will be better, I’m sure.”
“May I ask what you were looking for?”
“The answer to a question,” he said, forcing a chuckle. “I was trying to find a person I’ve been seeking for some months now, but it was to no avail.” He forced a smile, trying to hide the obvious pain in his eyes. The lack of answers was devastating to him, it seemed.
I was curious about who he was searching for, but the man had saved my life and while a friendship had formed between us, I was not willing to inquire so much and make him uneasy in my presence.
Levette shifted closer to me, resting his hand on my arm with a gentle touch. “Mon ami, who hurt you? I would very much like the opportunity to repay their violence tenfold.”
It felt like a stab to my gut when I remembered the face of my attacker, the coldness to his voice. I had grown up hearing his laughter, but one night had erased every good memory I had of him.
“My brother, Robert.”
“Putain!” Levette spat, his free hand balling into a fist in his lap. “Why would he do such a thing?”
I had already told Levette more about myself and my family than I ever had with anyone else, but sharing what Robert had done to me was nerve-wracking.
Being able to speak to someone about life, being able to keep a friend, was something I’d wished for— but the thought of chasing him off with my darkness made me feel sick.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m okay, thanks to you.”
Levette shook his head again, moving around to kneel on the rug at my feet. He took my hands in his, squeezing them gently. His skin was soft against mine, dark against light in the low lighting of the apartment, and I longed to reach out and touch his face to see if it was soft too.
“It matters to me, Warren. You matter to me.”
I barely knew this man. A few weeks of absentminded talking at my workplace and a night of blurted out, traumatic truths…
Yet, I wanted to tell him everything. I didn’t trust that I mattered to him—if I didn’t matter to my own family, why would I matter to him?
—but I knew that he mattered to me. And so I let myself blurt out all my secrets once again.
“I was around ten when I first started to realize that my interests were not the same as everyone else’s.
The boys at school would tease each other about childhood crushes on the popular girls, and I couldn’t relate.
My mind never seemed occupied with which was a beauty, if you understand?
” I asked. Levette nodded in response, his eyes glued to mine, his hands still gripping me like he didn’t want to let me go.
“Frederick Baudoin was my best friend. Our parents knew each other, and he was allowed to come over and play after school sometimes. He’d often help me get my chores done and his impeccable manners captured my mother’s heart.
One day we were playing in the alleyway between the apartment buildings, hitting each other with sticks and pretending we were nobility, when I tripped over a rock.
I went stumbling and Frederick, in his bid to help, came tumbling down on the dirt with me.
“We were giggling the way children do, but something in me felt brave. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. It could only have lasted for a second, but by then it was too late. I could not take my actions back. I looked up to see my mother at the entrance to the alley, watching us with disgust and fury. She dragged me into our apartment and sent me to my room until my father returned home from work. When he did, he bellowed at the top of his lungs about how wicked I was. Unnatural, too. And then he grabbed his belt…” I took a second to breathe, feeling my throat clogged with unshed tears.
Levette had begun to trace circles on the back of my hands with his thumbs, soothing my pain slowly. His touch calmed me, it appeared.
“La pauvre,” he whispered, still caressing my hands.
“That was one of the worst beatings he ever gave me, but what I remember most was my mother and brother standing in the doorway, watching. Disgusted and ashamed of me. Apparently, that shame has lingered in my brother and only grown since the last time I saw him.”
Levette tilted his head and pursed his lips for a moment. “He caught you…with someone? That is why he did this to you?”
I laughed bitterly, wincing when my body tensed up in pain.
“No, nothing quite as scandalous. I was going home from work and decided to walk through the Quarter. For whatever reason, he was also there and he caught me off guard. He assumed I was there to associate with the—what was the word he used? Ah, deviants! When I questioned him about why he was there, he lost his mind. I saw flashes of my father in him as his respectable mask slipped and he became an angry, possessed imitation of the brother I had loved once. He told me if I ever told anyone that I had seen him there, he would tell everyone about what happened with Frederick.”
“Ce salaud!” Levette cursed, his face contorting in disgust. “Your brother is a shameful man. To beat you almost to the point of death just to cover his own sordid tracks! épouvantable! And your father? He should not even be considered a man. Anyone who lays their hands on their child in such a manner is inhuman. Je suis désolé, mon ami, for you should not have had to endure any of that.”
I closed my eyes, letting his words sink in.
Someone so new to me thought I was worthy of better, that I didn’t deserve the way in which my family had treated me.
I had spent my life internalizing the words my parents had spat at me, the beatings I had got for my apparent disgusting ways—trying to change that perspective would be difficult.
Levette, however, made me want to try. He looked at me like I was deserving of better.
I was deserving of better.
“If I were to meet your brother…Robert Hayes cannot be a common name in New Orleans. I would like to pay him a visit and return to him what he gave to you, and more!”
Levette practically vibrated with anger and I opened my eyes, capturing his gaze with mine.
His eyes, normally violet in the light, were a deep purple hue.
I knew it was a trick of the light—it had to be—but I was always mesmerized nonetheless.
I was lost to those irises and the multitude of emotions I found in their depths.
“He is not worth your rage, friend. The wounds will heal in time.”
“Rage? Non, this is fury. I cannot tell you the ways in which I would like to enact vengeance for you,” Levette confessed, his voice soft but laced with intention.
He let go of my hands carefully, watching me with caution as he slowly brought them up to my face.
He placed one on each cheek, cupping my face with a surprising tenderness.
“But my priority right now is helping you to heal. I would like for you to stay with me until you’re better. ”
I nodded into his hands, my breath caught in my throat at his touch.
At that moment, Levette looked like a fallen prince, offering his fealty to me.
My tender heart ached at the image and I had to stop myself from diving forward, the same way I had when I was ten-years-old.
While Frederick had been a childhood peck on the lips, I knew that tasting Levette would be my end and my beginning.
It would change everything, and I didn’t have enough courage for that yet.
Levette smiled, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Incroyable! You will stay here and heal, and I will stay by your side and get you whatever you need.”
“Merci, mon ami,” I replied, weakly smiling back. “Your kindness is beyond what I deserve.”
“Nonsense! You are more deserving than most. And I have met many people.”
I rolled my eyes, suppressing a grin and hoping my blush stayed at bay.
“And Warren?” Levette asked as he got up, heading to the door with my empty glass to get me more water.
“Yes?”
“I long for the day when your beautiful bravery returns.”