Scum (Wrong Side of the Tracks 1)

“Boundaries, Dex. You don’t have to fuck every single guy you meet.”

Ros was eager to stroke Shane’s arm, just to make it clear where he belonged. “Yeah, I’m taken.”

Dex rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I wasn’t gonna do nothing. Just admiring the view.” He winked at Ros despite Shane’s threats, which meant his self-control really was at rock-bottom. Had his hair been dark and flowing rather than short and bleached, Dex would have been similar to the boyish guys Rosen had been interested in before he’d met Shane, but once he’d went man, the prospect of kissing a boy, even one as charming as Dex, no longer held much appeal.

Frank exhaled, rested his hands on his hips and watched Ros long enough to prompt the need to become one with Shane and hide inside him. He wasn’t the type to say much with his mouth, but those dark eyes, shadowed by brows like grassy cliffs, expressed worries Ros didn’t want to acknowledge.

“I’ll take it from here. And if Dex is so eager for action, he can go clean up Rosen’s car. Shane, you can take him back in my truck.”

Dex sucked in air, but one look from Frank shut him up.

Ros swallowed, trying to organize his thoughts. “Thank you,” he uttered, but Frank shook his head.

“It’s not for you, boy. I’ve got a debt with Shane, and I will help him out even if he drops shit like this on my doorstep.”

Shane exhaled and gave Frank a slap on the arm. “I’m grateful, man. Won’t happen agai—”

“Do not say that,” Frank grumbled, shaking his head as he walked past them like a bear too sated to pay attention to humans. Ros wasn’t used to strangers handling his vehicle, but he had left the keys in the ignition, and the sense of relief of not having to be in the same place as Pete’s body made him melt against Shane.

He shut his eyes, calmly breathing in the sharp scent of Shane’s sweat, but once the door shut, and two pairs of boots banged against the steps outside, he glanced up to see his lover watching him.

“Done.”

“Then why do I have a feeling like it will haunt me forever?” Ros slid his fingers into Shane’s hand nevertheless.

“It won’t,” Shane said with such certainty Ros felt both reassured and scared. Because what would it have meant if he stopped caring about the way Pete disappeared from the face of the earth? His family would look for him. They’d despair and long to know what happened to him.

But they would never find out, because refusing them closure kept Rosen out of jail.

Ros bit his lip as they approached a beat-up truck in a washed-out shade of red. “I guess I thought I was a better person than I actually am.”

“What? Why?” Shane asked, following him in the darkness while Frank and Dex argued about something by Ros’s car.

Ros climbed into the cab, trying to keep his shoulders from slumping. “Because I’m covering my own ass instead of going to the cops.”

“So? What good would it do if this messed up your life?” Shane asked and rolled into the seat before taking off the air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. He tossed it behind his back, where it dropped to the floor. “Do you smell this? Pumpkin Spice. Dex must have put it in here!”

Ros snorted in disbelief. Pete was dead, his body soon to be gone off the face of the earth, and here they were, complaining about air freshener. It couldn’t get more surreal than this.

“Why? Is that his thing?”

“No, but Frank hates air fresheners. Dex could have gotten it as a thank you for a BJ, or whatever,” Shane said and started the truck, pressing on the gas pedal almost too hard.

Silence settled on the surprisingly clean cab for a while as they moved away from the warm light of the house and back into darkness.

“Did he hit on you too?” Ros asked.

Shane snorted. “I’ve yet to meet a man Dex doesn’t hit on. But he’s Frank’s nephew, so I’m banned from fucking him anyway,” he said, driving back down the winding road.

“How… um, I’m guessing you weren’t celibate in prison?” Shane not having a normal life for the past ten years was still a fresh thought in his head, and the scope of what it meant kept eluding Ros.

Shane’s shoulders dropped. “No. What do you want to know?”

“I don’t want to pry.” Ros rubbed his face, confused and overwhelmed with tonight’s revelations.

Shane sighed. “I mean… it was what it was. But I’ve got a clean bill of health, yeah?” He glanced Ros’s way, and must have been going too fast, because the next curve of the road had them both resisting the pull of gravity.

“Thanks, that’s good to know,” Ros said even if there were so many other questions he wanted to ask. Nothing felt appropriate, and instead of moving on, his thoughts kept circling Shane’s time in prison with more determination, sending him into a dark spiral where all he could do was ponder a future in which Pete’s body had been found and used as evidence to put him behind bars for life.