Unbroken

“We gotta talk.”

“Yeah.” Hunter’s breaths slowed. “We’ll have a drink first—”

“I’m not allowed in that pub.”

Hunter sat up, stifling a groan as he clutched at his bruised ribs. “We’ll drink out front. I gotta smoke anyway.”

And that was how they found themselves flat against the brick walled pub with a beer in hand and Hunter chimney smoking, bloody lips curled around his cigarette.

It was a cold one tonight. Leo could see their breaths cloud around them, but he didn’t really feel the sting of the wind as it picked up, ruffling their hair.

“Why do you have grease all over your shirt?” he asked him after a few swigs.

“Tire blew on the way to your place,” Hunter answered. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

Now, Hunter swung his eyes to Leo, cutting to the chase. “Why are you here?”

“To talk,” Leo answered truthfully, sounding weary.

“If this is about Skye—”

“We miss you, man.”

Hunter squashed the cigarette against the wall. “I’m figuring things out in my head.”

“What’s troubling you exactly?”

Now Hunt’s jaw locked as anger flared through him. “I love her, Leo.”

Leo’s heart quickened. “I love her, too.”

“I want herwithme.”

Leo shook his head. “We agreed she was safer at my place—”

“No, I never agreed with you, Leo. You just decided for all of us.”

Panic bit at Leo as he retorted, “I want her with me, too.”

A few moments of silence passed as they worked through their frustrations. Hunter’s face was tight, one hand fisting the untouched beer bottle a little too hard.

Leo wasn’t doing any better. He felt that panic grow. He admitted, “I don’t know how to fix this then, Hunt, because I want her as badly as you do. We knew this was going to happen, didn’t we? But we also promised we’d work through it, and you disappearing all the time isn’t working through it.”

Hunter sneered. “You have a leash on her, Leo, it’s kind of fucking hard to get close to her—”

“My door is always open to you—”

“Yeah, so I can spend time with her while your lapdog cunt driver watches over us?”

Leo stilled. “I trust him, Hunt. You know he’s been there for me—for you, too. He wouldn’t be intrusive—”

“I want alone time with her, Leo.”

His nostrils flared. “So, the issue is you want to be able to fuck her away from Shane’soverbearingpresence—”

“No,” Hunter cut in simply, his voice equally as tired as Leo’s. “No, Leo, it’s not so that I can fuck her. How fucking dare you presume I’d want to be alone with her just to have sex with her.” His words flooded out faster now as his emotions soared. “I spent countless nights with her without so much as laying a finger on her in that way. We hold each other, Leo. I soothe her and she takes away my pain—and you stole her from me.”

More silence.