“There was nothing else for me to wear. What’s your point?” Dane hummed, staring at the anti-diabetes poster hanging on the wall across from them.
Shane shrugged. “If he made these for you, then he must like you.”
Dane stalled, because that was the last thing he’d expected to hear. The inquisitive eyes kept staring at him until it felt as if they were stripping away bits of his guard, so he looked away, increasingly tense. “I wouldn’t know. Maybe he just had those on hand.”
“Whatever fight you had, I’m assuming you didn’t mean to stab him, because you would have left him for dead instead of coming to us. But he’s our friend. We can’t have you going to the cops. Could you dismiss the whole thing as an odd little vacation?”
Dane’s brain fizzed, and he stared back at Shane, convinced it was some kind of trap. Frank might have claimed he didn’t murder people unless he ‘had to’, but the word murder itself implied menacing intent, not self-defense of any kind. But just like it was in Shane’s interest to keep Dane thinking he was safe, it was in Dane’s to fool Shane that he’d swallowed the lie.
So he exhaled, produced the tiniest smile, and nodded. “I mean… yeah. I like Jag.”
“Good.” Shane hummed and smirked at Dane. “So you’ve been having fun? I tried to get him a date, but looks like he managed to find a man on his own.”
Yeah. In a carpet, Dane thought but didn’t voice his complaint and shrugged, determined to continue the freaky conversation as if there was nothing strange about ‘dating’ by force. “He’s… different from anyone I’ve been seeing before.”
Shane snorted. “Oh, he sure is different. He’ll be happy to see you when he wakes up after surgery.”
An offhand comment or a mind game to keep Dane pinned to the chair with guilt?
Still, when Dane pushed out his next question, he barely made a sound. “Will he be all right?”
“Frank texted me that the rod went in right at his side, so the docs are optimistic. How did it happen?”
I wanted to run and he caught me. “We were play-wrestling, and I accidentally pushed him too hard,” Dane muttered.
“So you want to go back with him when he’s okay to leave the hospital?”
Dane’s mouth dried. The previous questions had been meant to put his suspicions to sleep, but this was the question the other man had been preparing to ask this whole time. “I mean, my ex tried to kill me, and I’m having great sex now, so—”
Shane nodded and patted Dane’s thigh. “Good. Why spoil a good thing, huh?”
Dane’s throat tightened, but he shrugged. “So… I won’t be a problem? To you?” he tried, because as carefree as he wanted to seem, this was something he needed to find out sooner rather than later.
“Jag did ask not to hurt you. But you will need to stay with us for a while until we establish what the deal is with your biker ex. That’s non-negotiable. I didn’t even know the bastard was gay.”
“He is most fucking definitely gay,” Dane muttered, remembering the first time Rob had kissed him, all lustful and demanding, as if he believed no one was too good to deny him.
Jag was such a sweetheart in comparison, regardless of the misguided way he’d chosen to go about finding his perfect partner.
“He’s dangerous and won’t be happy to find out things went sideways on our part of the bargain.” The bargain being disposing of Dane’s body. “But since you said you have great sex with Jag, we’ll have time to smooth out the wrinkles, right?” Shane laughed and nudged Dane with his elbow.
The sex was great.
Not because Jag was a particularly skilled lover, or because he was wild and saw the act as an expression of dominance and care in ways people generally didn’t. There was something very primal about it, like being ravaged by a real beast… which could later chat to you or make you dinner. It was the strangest combination that Dane had found addictive enough to sometimes forget the collar he’d worn on his neck for so much of the time they’d spent together.
He smirked, and Shane let out a rumbly laugh.
“I’ll be damned. Jag’s found his female.”
Everything in Dane protested against being mocked that way, but there was a note of tenderness in Shane’s grin that ended up shutting him up.
“If you stick with us and keep your head down, we’ll work out the thing with your ex. Just enjoy yourself for now.”
“I’m not his ‘female’,” grumbled Dane, unable to hold it in any longer, and when the dam burst, he squeezed the sides of his seat and blurted, “He’s just… wild.”
Shane smiled, and even his eyes sparkled this time. “So what if you like him? Big deal. I can tell you from experience that you can find a guy in the oddest circumstances. You just gotta be open to it.”