15. Rami
Rami
My plan had been to drive around the corner, park my car, and fly back to hover over Ethan’s home. Just as I’d done the past few nights.
But before I could drive off, I felt Ethan through the mark. It had me hesitating. With those fucking wards in place, I didn’t usually feel him. Whatever he was experiencing right now was strong enough to break through.
I got out of the car, staring at the vacant space that hid my mate from me. What was happening?
A minute passed.
A second.
A third.
I was seconds away from phoning Ferry and demanding he come and remove the wards, to hell with the consequences, but just then Ethan stumbled across the wards.
The full force of his emotions hit me. Anger. Hurt.
Betrayal.
“Ethan?” I rushed up to him, cupping his reddened face. “What happened?”
He stared up at me, blinking in confusion. “You’re still here.”
“Had to take a call,” I lied easily. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer me. “Are you sure you want to be my friend?”
Friend? I wanted to be his everything. “Yes. Of course.”
“Then take me away.” A shudder went through him. “Please, Rami. Just get me out of here.”
He didn’t need to ask me twice.
I opened the passenger side door and got behind the wheel.
Then I drove and drove and drove.
I didn’t have a plan. Not really. Just to get Ethan as far away from whoever was in that house as possible. From whatever had both sorrow and rage coming off him in waves.
Ethan didn’t seem to care where we were going. He stared silently out of the window, rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip.
How I wanted to pull his hand away. To press a kiss to his palm and promise to fix whatever was broken. To right however he’d been wronged.
I’d only asked Ethan one question, when we were on the outskirts of London. “Do you want to talk about it?”
The shake of his head had me falling silent again. Ethan would talk when he was ready, or he wouldn’t. Whatever he needed, whatever he wanted, I’d be here to give it to him.
I suspected I already knew what he’d walked in on.
Didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.
I tried not to focus on it though. If I did, I’d be turning the car around and removing Dave’s bones one at a time for daring to betray Ethan in such a way.
How the fuck could he do that? Didn’t he realise how blessed he’d been to share his life with a man as wonderful as Ethan?
I didn’t think about what this might mean for me. I refused to let it even enter my mind. How could I even consider it when my mate was hurting?
Darkness was falling by the time Ethan finally shifted in his seat and peered owlishly through the windscreen. “Where are we?”
I glanced at the map on the centre console. “We’ve just passed Colchester.”
“Oh,” he said quietly. “I’ve never been here.”
“It has its plus sides. There’s a beautiful castle. And a zoo. I hear there’s a haunted hotel too. Most of it was razed to the ground by Boudica during Roman times.”
That had been a clusterfuck of a century. In fairness, I didn’t blame her. If they’d done to my children what they did to hers, I would’ve murdered everyone responsible too.
“The city itself is a bit rough around the edges these days,” I continued.
“Like Southampton?”
I glanced over at him. “Worse.”
“Blimey,” Ethan murmured. “Not the kind of place I should be walking around on my own at night, then.”
“You’d be okay,” I said. Because there was no fucking way I’d ever let anyone hurt him. Not like that, anyway. Because Ethan was currently hurting, and there hadn’t been a damned thing I could do to stop it. “Definitely nicer during the day.”
Ethan drummed his fingers on the door. “Where are we going?”
I shrugged. “I’m just driving.”
“You are?”
“You said to take you away. So that’s what I’m doing.”
Shame he didn’t know what I was. With my wings, I could’ve flown us to another continent in the time it’d taken us to get to Essex.
“Thank you.” Ethan reached out to touch my hand where it rested on the steering wheel. I turned to see gratitude on his face, the same emotion radiating in my chest. “Seriously.”
“It’s what friends do,” I said, distracted by the sensation of him touching me. “You’re there for the good times and the bad.”
Ethan’s hand lingered a few more precious seconds before he withdrew it. “Thank you. If there were more people like you, the world would be a far nicer place.”
That was the whole point of angels. We were meant to be role models for humans to look up to. The epitome of grace, kindness, and humility.
Shame God gave us all the other qualities to. Selfishness. Vengeance. Possessiveness. A propensity to violence. The idea had been well meant, it was the execution that left a lot to be desired.
I shot a sideways glance at Ethan. His hand was tapping his leg now, his expression pensive. From the bond, I could tell he was calmer now…which also made him more difficult to read.
I fucking hated that.
“What do you want?” I asked suddenly, needing to know. “Silence? Music? Audiobook? Distraction?”
He chuckled. “You don’t need to worry about me, Rami.”
As if I could do anything else. “Humour me.”
“Fine,” he sighed. “Why don’t you distract me by telling me a funny story about your housemates? I’m sure you must have a couple about the twins.”
“A couple? Try hundreds.”
“After today, I can totally see why.”
I searched my brain. Not that it was difficult recalling one—it wasn’t. Trying to find one that didn’t involve any hints of my true nature though? That was a tad tricky.
Finally, my brain gave up the goods. “Okay, so it helps to know that they’re both obsessed with the American version of The Office.”
“Oh god,” Ethan said immediately. “Who did they prank?”
“Everyone.” I shuddered as I thought about it. “Noah has really long hair and is notorious for taking lengthy showers. The twins thought it would be funny to put chicken stock cubes in his showerhead. Poor Noah kept washing his hair but couldn’t figure out why he smelled like Sunday dinner.”
Ethan cackled. “That’s brutal but genius. What else?”
“Nate is really into technology. He installed a macro on Micah’s computer so every time he typed ‘report,’ it changed it to ‘arsehole.’ Unfortunately, he didn’t notice until after he sent an email out with the subject line: Feedback on the Scottish Diplomatic Arsehole.”
“Stop.” Ethan’s giggle had me grinning. “How many people did he send it to?”
“Far more than he was happy with.” I shook my head ruefully. Micah’s fury following that had been something to behold. “That’s not even the worst. With Ez, they kept stuffing toilet roll in the ends of his shoes.”
He frowned. “What’s the point of that?”
“They added it over time,” I explained. “Ez genuinely thought his feet had randomly started growing. He bought six new pairs of shoes in ever increasing sizes before he figured it out.”
“Bet he made them train with him after that.”
Actually, he’d choked both of them to death with said toilet paper, but that was in the pre-Sam days. “Sure did.”
I spent the next thirty minutes telling Ethan more stories of the twins’ shenanigans. Each one removed more of the tension from his body, until he was almost relaxed.
“My god, they really are nightmares,” Ethan said as I finished yet another tale. “As much as I hate to say it, we should probably head back. I need to look at getting a hotel for the night.”
I glanced at the clock. “It’s getting late. Why don’t we find somewhere around here to crash tonight?”
“We can’t do that.” Ethan sounded appalled, but underneath that there was a sense of longing. A quiet desperation to be out of the city, at least for now. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t.” I flashed him a grin. “I offered. Don’t worry, we can get two rooms. Your virtue is safe with me.”
Ethan laughed weakly. “Honestly? That didn’t even occur to me.”
I tried not to let that sting. Of course he hadn’t been thinking that. For all I knew, he was still in a relationship.
I didn’t allow myself to consider the fact that it was likely over between him and Dave. Ethan didn’t need me pursuing him right now.
He needed a friend.
I handed him my phone. “Here. Passcode is 2501.”
“That’s odd,” Ethan said.
“What is?”
“Your passcode,” he said. “We must share the same birthday. Twenty-fifth of January, right?”
My mouth was suddenly dry. “Um, yeah.”
Another lie. Fuck. But how could I tell Ethan that I’d picked that number randomly? That I used it for everything, despite Nate nagging me to mix it up every now and then?
“Why did you give me your phone?”
“Can you look up the nearest place to stay, please? I’m running low on fuel.”
I could do it myself, of course. Unlike humans, using a phone while driving wasn’t going to distract me. My reflexes were far superior to even the best Formula One drivers. But, for the sake of appearances, it was better for Ethan to do it.
“There’s somewhere close by,” Ethan said, brows furrowed as he read the screen. “Looks kind of pricey though. Has a three-night minimum stay too.”
Even better. “Do you have anything you need to get back for?”
“We have our shoots.”
“You know what’s great about living with the guy who organises the shoots? The ability to tell him to reschedule.”
“We can’t do that,” Ethan protested. “Sam might fire me.”
“Trust me, that’s never going to happen.”
I pulled off onto the side of the road and took the phone from him. With a few clicks, I had a two-bedroom cottage booked in my name. “Says they have complimentary toiletries, plus a washer and dryer. Perfect.”
Ethan gaped at me. “Rami, you can’t just book that. Did you not see how expensive it is?”
I snorted as I rejoined the carriageway. “I don’t mean this to come out braggy, but you’ve seen where I live, right? I’m not hurting for money.”
“Doesn’t mean you should be spending it because of me.”
I laughed internally. Little did Ethan know that I’d spend it all on him if it made him happy. “Look at it this way—I’m getting a few nights chilling in a beautiful spa cottage. It’s not a hardship, Ethan.”
“What about your schedule? Don’t you have other shoots coming up?”
“Nope.” I flicked my indicator on as we approached a sign for the Wilderness Retreat. “I cleared my schedule for you. I’m free as a bird. Now we can get a head start on that friendship we discussed.”
I parked outside a small hut with a chalkboard sign declaring it as the reception. Turning to Ethan, I smiled. “Ready to be pampered?”