Chapter 27
Liam:
Guess where I am.
Kai read Liam’s text message with bleary eyes.
He was still cocooned in bed with Nolan, the heavy weight of his arm draped over his waist. The sound of his snores told Kai that he was still deep asleep, and, even though the sun had changed direction, it was still pretty bright, which meant they hadn’t been asleep for too long.
Kai didn’t have a chance to respond when Liam dropped his location, except that it looked like he was at Nolan’s.
What? Kai’s sleep fogged brain couldn’t make sense of it.
He’d been super careful to make sure that Liam never had access to any information relating to Nolan.
How could he have gotten Nolan’s address?
It wasn’t like it was posted on the Internet like all of the other information Liam had gathered on him.
Liam:
Come downstairs.
Unease skittered through his belly, making his skin crawl and break out in goosebumps. If Liam was here, it meant he was up to some shit, and Kai needed to know what, immediately. He eased himself from under Nolan’s arm, grateful when he didn’t stir, and pulled on a pair of Nolan’s jogging pants.
Kai:
Where are you?
Liam:
That’s not fun. Come find me.
Kai fumed. He was going to beat the shit out of Liam for dicking him around. As soon as he was clear of the bedroom, Kai hit the call button.
“Where are you?” he hissed into the phone.
Liam laughed softly and that sick feeling in Kai’s belly worsened. “You’re no fun anymore, you know? Well, I guess not with me. You looked like you were having fun with everyone else today.”
A chill ran through Kai like a bad omen. Liam had been here all day? Maybe he should go get Nolan. Suddenly, he was scared. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that whatever happened next was not going to be good. Liam laughed that sinister little laugh again.
“You’re so fucking easy to read, Kai. Don’t go get him. I have something to show you.” Liam hung up.
Kai hesitated for one more second and then doubled back the way he’d come. He wasn’t going to take the chance. If Liam had something planned, he couldn’t leave Nolan asleep and vulnerable when he didn’t know what it was.
“Nolan!” Kai jostled him quickly and he jerked out of his sleep.
“What’s wrong?” Nolan asked, immediately alarmed by the panic in his voice.
“Liam’s in the house,” he said, grabbing a t-shirt and pulling it over his head. Nolan rubbed his eyes with one hand, while the other reached for his phone.
“Jesus, fuck,” he muttered.
“What?”
“He’s in the office. Do I need to call the police right now?” Nolan grabbed some sweats and pulled them on quickly.
“No! Just let me talk to him.” He grabbed hold of Nolan’s arm. Nolan gave him a questioning look, but Kai didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I’m so sorry.”
Nolan kissed him hard. “Let’s just go deal with this.”
The office door was ajar when they got downstairs. The Liam on Nolan’s security app was just lounging on his office chair, boots kicked up on his desk while he watched something on his phone. When they pushed the door wide, Liam gave an audible sigh.
“Why did you bring him? I thought you and I were going to deal with this ourselves.”
“Deal with what, Liam? Why the fuck are you here? You do realize sneaking into someone’s home is creepy as fuck?” Kai snapped, immediately angry.
“Well, I wasn’t invited, and I didn’t think that was very fair, so I came anyway.”
Kai could hear the trace of bitterness that he tried to cover up.
“You had other plans.”
“Liam, what do you want?” Nolan interjected. “Everyone else left over an hour ago, so why are you still here? How did you even get in?”
The corner of Liam’s mouth curled in a nasty smile.
“I just walked in, and I thought it was the perfect time to watch this video that Kai sent me.” He cranked the volume up and turned his phone towards them, treating Kai and Nolan to the sound of Kai being spanked loudly.
Dread flooded his system, his stomach bottoming out even as his face flushed with humiliation.
“What the fuck did you do?” Kai whispered, remembering, at the worst time ever, that he had never deleted the video from his phone.
“You sent it to me, Kai. I mean it’s really fucking hot. Have you guys thought about starting an OnlyFans? I would subscribe so fast.” He turned the phone back towards him so that he could watch. “Kai, I gotta say I think this is your best work yet.”
“I didn’t send it.” He turned to Nolan who was staring at Liam with a look of fury. “I swear to God, I didn’t.”
“Why does he have it then, Kai?” Nolan bit out.
“I airdropped it to my phone on Tuesday. He must’ve taken it. I was just fucking around. I swear to God, I didn’t send it to him, Nolan.”
“What is it that you want, Liam?” Nolan demanded. Liam didn’t answer but turned to look at Kai expectantly. He shook his head at Liam, silently pleading with him not to do this.
“Don’t,” he choked out.
“I don’t know why you’re acting like this isn’t what we do. Literally. Does he know?”
“Shut up, Liam!” Kai shouted, panicked, his heart racing. He was going to throw up. Liam grinned and picked up a plain, white envelope from the desk that Kai hadn’t seen until that moment. He opened it and fanned through it before looking at Nolan curiously.
“Do you always have ten grand just lying around?”
“You think I’m just going to give you ten grand? How about I call the cops and let them deal with your ass? Did you fail to notice the security cameras, or did you think they were just for show?”
Kai turned towards Nolan in alarm. He couldn’t call the cops.
Liam would get into more trouble than Nolan understood, and though Kai knew it was so fucked up, he couldn’t let that happen to him.
However else Kai felt about him, especially at that moment, when he hated him with everything in him, they’d gone through everything together and Kai owed him debts that could never be repaid.
Liam glanced up at the cameras, unbothered. He kicked his feet off the desk and came around to stand in front of Nolan, the envelope still in hand.
“Sure. But do you really think he’s going to let you do that?”
Nolan turned to look at Kai, the question in his eyes.
“Don’t call the cops,” Kai whispered.
“He’s fucking blackmailing me, Kai! What the fuck do you want me to do here?”
Kai’s whole body shook as Nolan raised his voice, his heart already splintering, already knowing there was only one way for this to go.
“You know I wouldn’t ask…,” he pleaded. For the first time ever, Kai wished he had confessed all of his sins to Nolan so that he could understand why he needed this from him. Kai knew it was unfair to ask, but he had to.
“Did you plan this? Was the video your back-up plan?”
“No! I swear to God! I wouldn’t do that to you,” Kai choked out over the rock lodged in his throat, willing Nolan to believe him, even though he was looking at him with disgust, like he was seeing him clearly for the first time.
“But you’d stand here and let him do it. You understand that what you do right now decides what happens next, right?”
He didn’t know how to do what Nolan needed him to do, and all he could do was plead for mercy.
“Please,” he whispered.
Nolan turned back to Liam. “Delete the video. I want to see you do it. You too,” he said to Kai, barely turning his head to look at him.
Kai fumbled with the phone, pulling it out of his pocket quickly, his hands shaking so badly that he could barely open the app. He deleted the file, then scrolled to his bin to delete it from there as well. Nolan took his phone, checking that it was gone.
Kai saw something like regret in his expression, but he just shook his head, his shoulders sagging, as he handed it back to him.
“I told you I can’t be with you if I can’t trust you, and it is clear that I can’t trust you.”
Kai couldn’t even blame him. This whole situation was his fault.
“Nolan, please,” he started again, but he didn’t know where to go from there.
“Get him out of my house.” Nolan stalked out of the room. Kai was sure all the air went with him.
Liam grabbed his arm. Numb, Kai let him pull him into the hall, and then he looked down and remembered he was still wearing Nolan’s clothes. He didn’t have his backpack and that didn’t make a difference, because he couldn’t just leave. He needed to find Nolan and make him understand.
He jerked out of Liam’s grasp.
“Get the fuck out, Liam, or, I swear to God, I’ll let him call the cops.” Then he turned and ran. When he hit the upstairs landing, Nolan was coming out of his room, holding Kai’s ratty backpack.
“I’m not leaving.” Kai said tremulously.
“You made your choice,” Nolan said, shoving the backpack into Kai’s arms and brushing past him.
“Can you listen to me for a second, please?” Kai scrambled to keep up, but Nolan strode away like he couldn’t be rid of Kai soon enough.
“There’s nothing for you to say, Kai.”
Kai grabbed his arm forcing him to come to a stop as they made it to the living room. “Please. I lo—”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Nolan spat venomously.
Kai snapped his mouth shut like he’d been slapped.
Nolan took him by the arm, frog-marching him to the door and then propelling him onto the front step.
Kai spun around to face him, his heart slamming, like it was trying to escape the agony of shattering.
He stared at Nolan as it finally penetrated into his brain that this could be the last time he ever saw him.
Pain flashed in Nolan’s brown eyes just before he closed the door with a soft click.
Suddenly, Kai was sixteen again watching the door to the only home he’d ever known close against him. It felt like someone had put their fist right through the centre of his chest. Some distant part of his brain whispered that this was right. Like things were back to how they should be.
He didn’t know how long he stood there, dazed, his brain trying to make sense of everything that happened.
Eventually he became aware of the phone in his hand that wasn’t really his phone.
It was Nolan’s. He set it down on the low column that held one of the large plant pots that framed the front porch.
He put his backpack on his shoulders, then one foot in front of the other.
“Kai!” He heard Liam’s voice, and it just spurred him on. Liam called again, and Kai broke into a run and then he just kept running.