Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
FRANKIE
It was odd to go from walking on clouds to feeling like he was stuck in a mud pit, but that was exactly what happened when Lucas stopped answering his texts. Frankie got home from work a little late, so he shot Lucas a heads-up that went unread and unanswered.
He tried not to panic. He took a shower, double-checked their reservation, and then, when six thirty came and went, he walked over and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. Something was wrong.
Everything felt off, and while he wanted to panic and believe that maybe he’d just gone too far the night before by getting into feelings, he didn’t think that was it. Lucas was not the kind of person who would ghost him over something like that.
He would hurt Frankie’s feelings and carve out his heart before icing him out.
So he went back home and paced. And worried. He drank tea and tried to watch TV, but he had no concentration. He FaceTimed Fenton and Elodie, who were working on a homemade felt shapes book, but they were too distracted to keep conversation going, so he hung up and paced more.
An hour passed. Then two.
And then came a knock at the door.
Frankie all but ran for it, but when he flung it open, it wasn’t Lucas waiting for him. Fallon was standing in front of him, shaking like an autumn leaf, tear tracks drying on his face.
“What happened?” He pulled his brother inside and led him to the couch.
Fallon hugged his middle, rocking as he sat, his eyes closed. “Charlie.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him—”
“He was arrested, trying to break into the wedding I was shooting.”
Frankie froze. “Are you serious?”
Fallon opened his eyes and looked up at him. “He was screaming about me cheating on him. The whole wedding was ruined. I had to refund the bride.”
Frankie let out a soft breath and walked over, taking a seat in front of his brother. The table beneath him creaked but held his weight, and he took Fallon’s hands into his. “How close did he get to you?”
“I didn’t even know he was there. The couple got through the vows, and then when they were walking out, I was following them with the videographer, and Charlie was in the lobby. He was already in handcuffs, but he started screaming and saying…saying horrible things.”
Frankie didn’t need to ask what kind of horrible things. He knew, and Fallon didn’t need to relive them aloud. “One officer told me I should get an order of protection.”
“Of course. Yes. We can do that in the morning.” He squeezed Fallon’s hands, then stood up. “Do you want something to help you sleep?”
“Yes, please,” Fallon whispered. “Can I use your bed?”
“You don’t have to ask. Go in there, and I’ll get you a pill and some water.” His sleeping pills were low dose, but Fallon rarely ever took anything besides melatonin, so it would knock him right out.
He put a pill in his hand, then filled water from the fridge and found his brother curled up in the middle of the bed with all the pillows around him like a little nest. It made him think of Lucas for a second, and his heart squeezed tightly with pain.
First, Lucas went missing, and now this?
“Here,” he said.
Fallon sat up and dry-swallowed the pill the way he always did, then chased it with water. “Thanks. I let Fen know I wouldn’t be back. I didn’t think I could take Elodie tonight. I’m sorry. I know I’m a bad brother.”
“You are an amazing brother, and no one is judging you for needing quiet after all this.” Something had to be done about this fucker.
Frankie couldn’t actually murder him, and he didn’t exactly have money for a lawyer, but he wasn’t going to sit on his ass while this man tormented any part of his family.
“I’ll be in the living room if you need me. ”
Fallon nodded, clearly done with words, so Frankie showed himself out and sat on the couch.
He was still in his date clothes and felt ridiculous about it, but he wasn’t going to go disturb his brother to change. He could crash on the couch in his boxers.
Leaning against the cushions, he put his feet up, then pulled out his phone and began to scroll for pro bono lawyers. Maybe someone could help them. Maybe he could get a consultation to figure out what to do about this.
A restraining order was nothing more than a piece of paper. It wasn’t going to stop Charlie if he was going to take shit this far. He had no idea if more could be done, but he had to try.
He got through nineteen query emails before his eyes started to feel crossed, and he glanced at the time on his phone. Shit. It was nearly eleven, and he still hadn’t heard from Lucas. Something felt unsettled, and it wasn’t just his brother.
“I should go over there,” he told himself. “Just to check. Just one more time, and if he’s not there…” He trailed off and yanked the door open, and a body tumbled into his arms.
“Oh, fuck.” Lucas scrambled to get his footing, and Frankie felt the sudden urge to let out a laugh. Or maybe a sob. “Frankie?”
“Yeah. Hey, I—oh my god.” Lucas had stepped back, and now Frankie could see him. And his face. His cheek was starting to turn dark purple, his eyelid swollen and fat, and there was a cut a good inch long. “Oh my god, what the fuck happened?” His voice darkened. “Who did this?”
Lucas grimaced. “Can I come in?”
“Actually…” Frankie hesitated.
Lucas’s ears pinked. “Do you have company? Oh shit, did you get another date when I—”
“Baby. Princess. No. There is only you, but my brother’s here, trying to sleep. Some shit went down tonight.”
“Charlie,” Lucas said quietly. He stepped back into the hall, and Frankie followed him.
“Yes.”
Lucas took a deep, shaking breath, then said, “He did this to me.”
Frankie felt like the world was falling beneath his feet. He felt a mixture of shock and rage coursing through him like a literal hurricane, and he had to keep his hand on the wall to stay steady. “Charlie,” he rasped. “Charlie did this? He hurt you?”
Lucas’s tongue dragged over his lip, and he squeezed the rubber handle on his cane hard enough to leave fingernail prints.
“Yeah. He found me at my food truck this afternoon. Kind of went ballistic and punched me twice in the face before I got it locked up. He did some damage to it too. Uh…then he ran off. I was going to call you, but I was in the ER for X-rays, and I didn’t have my phone.
Then when I picked it up, it was dead. I am so, so fucking sorry I missed our date. Please don’t be angry. I—”
Frankie cut him off with a kiss. It was desperate but soft because he didn’t know where else Lucas was hurt. The younger man sagged against him and whimpered softly against his mouth. After a short forever, Frankie forced himself to pull back.
“I am not angry. Well, I am. I have never been more furious in my life, but not at you.” He glanced up and down the hall, then said, “Fallon is in my bed. Can we go to your place?”
“Will he be okay there alone?”
“For a little while. We can crash on my couch tonight, but I need a moment with you, and I don’t want to worry about waking him up.”
Lucas took a breath, then nodded and turned, leading the way to his door.
The moment they were inside, Frankie closed it a little too hard, making Lucas jump.
But he soothed him immediately, pulling him against his chest and brushing tender, soft, careful lips over the spreading bruise on his cheek.
“I want to kill him.”
“There’s kind of a long line for that,” Lucas said. “My dads were really fucking pissed, and when Gage finds out…” He trailed off and pulled back.
It was then Frankie realized Lucas wasn’t wearing his prosthetics. He cupped his face and brushed thumbs over his soft eyelids. “Did he hurt you here too?”
“What? Oh.” Lucas let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “This really obnoxious customer was accusing me of not being blind. She was like the fifth one. Then when Charlie implied the same thing, I kind of lost it and pulled them out. That was before he hit me.”
“It sounds like your day was shit all around.” It was all he could say that wasn’t plotting Charlie’s murder aloud.
Lucas laughed, but the sound was closer to a sob, and he rested his uninjured cheek on Frankie’s shoulder, wrapping arms around him. “It was the most shit. Like the most absolute and complete and utter shit. And I’m so fucking sorry I ruined our date.”
“Our date was delayed, not ruined.” Frankie rocked him gently from side to side until some of the tension left his body. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Bath.”
“Mm.” Lucas didn’t put up a fight when Frankie took his hand and tugged him down the short hallway and into the main bedroom.
The lights, as usual, were off, but Frankie hit a few switches as they made their way through the room.
He left the bathroom lights off. The dark was more soothing, though he kept the door cracked so he could see.
In the dim light, he eyed the tub, which looked like it had never been used.
“Toilet.”
Lucas jolted. “You want me to…use it?”
Frankie chuckled and kissed him softly on the chin. “No, princess. Sit on it. Your tub looks like it’s got a year’s worth of dust in it.”
Lucas grimaced as he shuffled forward, found the toilet, then turned and sat on the lid. “Yeah, I don’t really do baths.”
“You hate them?”
“I never have time. Gage bought me a bunch of bath bombs, which are probably still on the shelf. They might be expired. If they expire? I don’t know.” He let out a shuddering breath, then bowed his head and started to rub his face, hissing in pain when his fingers made contact. “Shit.”
Frankie froze halfway through digging into the linen closet. “Sweetheart? How bad is it?”
“My face?” Lucas shrugged and prodded at his cheek. “Hairline fractures in my eye socket and my cheek. They brought in an ophthalmologist at first, and I swear he was trying not to swallow his own tongue when he realized I didn’t have eyes. Poor bastard.”
Frankie smiled a little as he wet a washcloth and soaped it up. “Sounds eventful.”