Elliot wasn’t sure if it would be a good joke, or if Knight would kick him out for it, but he sat up and pulled off his turtleneck. “This guy.” He pointed to the middle of his chest where he had the large portrait of William Fane tattooed in an ornamental frame held up by cherubs. It was also another test of Knight’s attraction. There. Elliot was now naked and if they were to fuck, Knight would see him sooner or later. He either liked Elliot’s body or not. It wasn’t like it would change overnight.
Knight’s face soured, and he rolled on the mattress so his face was buried in the pillow. With a muted voice he said, “Not him again.”
Elliot laughed and fell back next to Knight. “I like that he’s always next to me this way. As if he’s inside of me.”
Knight’s brows lowered, and Elliot expected yet another criticism of his choice of ink, but it wasn’t coming. Knight curled his fingers around Elliot’s wrist and stretched out the entire arm, his gray gaze following a ladder of scars climbing Elliot’s flesh.
Elliot tried to pull away, but Knight wouldn’t let him, so he just groaned. “It was a long time ago.” Only that it wasn’t. He’d only stopped cutting a year ago. Very not-coincidentally once his shitty dad disappeared from his life.
Knight swallowed and moved his rough fingertips over the pale lines. Some were flat, others not so much—a constant reminder of the hell Elliot had been through.
“You’re not allowed to do this here. And I will see you naked every day. I’ll know, so watch it,” Knight said, eventually letting go of Elliot’s wrist.
Elliot bit back a smile. He wasn’t sure if this was just an excuse for Knight to see him naked, or if Knight really cared, but it didn’t matter, since both versions of reality suited Elliot.
Chapter 10
“She was admitted to the asylum because of nymphomania. Reportedly had sex with patients and staff but could never get pregnant, even though she expressed that desire often. She was born infertile. And then, after ten years at the hospital, she suddenly appeared with a newborn baby.”
Knight blinked and looked away from the chessboard that lay on the coffee table between him and Gray. “What?”
Laurent looked up at him from above the folder of newspaper printouts he’d obtained at the local library. “April 14th, 1954. A report about a suspected child abduction case at the asylum. The patient claimed the baby was her own, but her body showed no signs recent pregnancy or birth recently. She’d been monitored, and there was no way she could have had enough time to reach Brecon and take someone’s child, even if she managed to somehow leave without being noticed. No child abductions reported anywhere in the area at that time either. Isn’t that strange?”
Knight looked at Gray who only briefly nodded at Laurent before returning to contemplating the chessboard. He was taking this game way too seriously for Knight’s patience. At least Laurent provided a welcome distraction, even if the info was likely only tabloid-level nonsense.
“She must have had an accomplice then. Maybe a family member abducted the kid and smuggled it into the asylum somehow?”
Laurent licked his lips. “There are eleven articles about this case in total. Social services ended up putting the child up for adoption. There are no DNAs left of the baby or the mother”
“DNA samples,” Gray corrected, without looking away from the game. “DNA is like a program inside a person that predicts how they develop. You can check it and compare with another person if you take a sample through blood or saliva. I can get you some basic literature about it. It’s a big thing nowadays.”
Laurent nodded with a sigh. “Do I have a DNA?”
“Everyone has DNA.” Jake snorted and looked up from where he kneeled in front of Knight, polishing his boot with the dedication of a bird cleaning a crocodile’s teeth. After shining Gray’s boots to perfection, it seemed like Jake wanted to do an even better job with Knight’s. Knight certainly enjoyed having his feet handled this way.
“If everyone has it, and everyone is different, what good would it do if they had it from the mother and the baby?” Laurent adjusted his glasses, looking as serious as a scholar in front of his notes and clippings.
“Because you inherit parts of it from your parents so you can trace relatives thanks to it. But this technology was only available from the 1980s. They couldn’t have done the comparison back then,” Gray said and lifted his hand over the chessboard, gently touching the tip of his bishop. Adrenaline started gently spiking in Knight, only to fall flat on its face when Gray took away his fingers, still undecided about his next move.