A Fluffy Tale 2: Warm & Fuzzy (16 page)

“Really. I don’t care. I’ve managed just
fine without anyone’s help since Mum and Dad died, and I’ll get through this
too. Everyone wants me to fall apart because Tony stuck his dick up my arse
without permission. I’m telling you, that’s
nothing
compared to getting a call from the police to tell you your parents are
unrecognisable smears of bloody meat under three tons of concrete.
Nothing.
”

“Daniel—”

“Shut up. My turn.” He pushed his plate
away. “Why didn’t you tell me you were investigating him? About the drugs?”

“Because you’d made it clear you didn’t
want to know. I didn’t know what we had until we had it, and then I didn’t have
a choice any more. I had to go to the police.”

“And today? With Julian?
Why not just tell me what you were doing, what the police were doing?”

“Because...we didn’t want you to
accidentally tip him off.”

Daniel’s lips thinned dangerously. “And why
the hell would I do that to someone planning to rape me, Spen?”

“I...didn’t think you were acting all that
rationally. You were in denial. You were,” he insisted as Daniel glared. “You
wouldn’t bring the police before....”

“For perfectly good reasons.”

Spen made a “well, okay, then” gesture.
“What do you want me to do? What can I say to make it better?”

“You can’t.”

Daniel took his plate and glass to the sink
and started to wash them up with what seemed like a good deal more splash and
noise than was strictly necessary. Spen waited, out of his depth and not at all
sure coming over hadn’t made it worse.

When Daniel finished, he threw the tea
towel at the hook and turned around to glare at Spen. “Okay, you apologised. I
think you’ve done enough for one night, don’t you? Go home.”

“What about you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Mum said I should bring you back.”

“No thanks. I’ve been coping on my own, and
I can keep on doing that.”

He scooped up Kani and walked out. Since he
didn’t come back after five minutes, Spen figured he was dismissed. Okay, so
now
things were as horrible as they
could be. He hadn’t done enough. He hadn’t done anything like enough. He
couldn’t leave Daniel like this, so brittle and furious and with so much hurt
in his eyes. He wasn’t the right person to help but there wasn’t anyone else
who could. Julian would be better than this. His mum would be better. But they
weren’t here.

So, knowing he wasn’t wanted, he went in
search of his friend. He found him in the living room, on the sofa, his knees
under his chin and giving the world a thousand yard stare. Kani lay alongside
Daniel’s thigh, ignored but refusing to abandon his human. Spen sat down beside
the two of them. Myko climbed down his arm and gave Kani a cuddle. Spen wished
he could do the same for Daniel.

“You’re wrong about one thing, you know. I
don’t see you as a victim. Not just as a victim.” Daniel didn’t react. “You
really are a friend. I’d do this for anyone I thought was being set up for
assault. But I wouldn’t be so upset that they were angry at me.”

Daniel glanced sidelong at him. “Only what
you deserve.”

“I guess. So, how have you been, really?”

“None of your business.”

“For God’s sake, Daniel. Throw me a bone
here. You’re behaving like it’s been a ball of laughs for me to find out what
Noble’s been doing to you and the others.”

“You never liked him.”

“No. But that’s different from knowing he
was drugging and raping people.”

Daniel buried his chin lower. “Poor Spen.”

“Yeah, poor, poor, pitiful me. And now
someone I really like, who my mother really likes, who one of my closest
friends really likes, thinks I’m a shit because I give a damn about him. Sucks
to be me.”

“Yeah, doesn’t it.”

Spen shook his head. “Right. Well, when
you’re ready to talk, you know my number. I want to help you, but I guess you
really don’t need it. See you around, Daniel.”

He stood up. Myko protested, and kept his
possessive hold on Kani. Daniel said nothing, didn’t even move. “’Night,” Spen said, and headed towards the door. Myko
didn’t go with him, but Spen trusted him to do what was right, even if no one
else knew what it was.

He heard Daniel say something. “What?” he
asked without turning.

“I don’t hate you. I just...wish....”

Spen turned. Daniel was still in the curled
up position, face half-buried by his knees. “What do you wish, kiddo?”

He half-expected Daniel to gripe about the
nickname, but he didn’t. “I wish I could go back to before.”

Spen came closer. “Before...?”

Daniel looked up, his eyes brimming with
tears. “To when I didn’t know,” he whispered.

Spen knelt in front of him, and put his
hands over Daniel’s. “I know. Damn it, I wanted to be wrong. I wanted not to
find what we did. I wanted...it almost sounds worse...but I wanted you to have
slipped out of the hotel for an anonymous shag or
something. I knew that wasn’t likely, but the truth was worse.”

“Yeah.” Daniel wiped his eyes on his knees,
then looked up again, not really at Spen, but
something in his inner thoughts. “He seemed so kind. I mean, annoying, but he
seemed to care about...you know. I wanted to believe it wasn’t him, but part of
me must have known. When you told me what they’d found, I wasn’t really
surprised. I was just angry.”

“At me.”

“Yeah. But I should have been angrier at him. I can’t seem to get that angry at
him. I’m numb. I believe it was him but I don’t....”

“Know it?”

“No. I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it for
myself.”

“No.” He squeezed Daniel’s hands. “Want me
to hang around for a bit?”

Daniel shrugged, so Spen climbed up on the
sofa. He kept a small but distinct space between them, not wanting to appear
intrusive. “Daniel, there are people who can—”

“I don’t want people. I don’t want to tell
some stranger about this. I don’t want to talk about it at all. I want to get
past it.”

“Pretend it never happened?”

“If I have to.”

“That’ll be hard with the court case coming
up.”

“Maybe they won’t charge him with rape. The
inspector said they might not be able to.”

“Right. What did Zachary say?”

“The same. He wants the company to pay
compensation for putting me in danger. I don’t really care.”

“You might later. Listen to his advice.
They want to help.”

“Yeah. Now people want to help. Where were
they—” He stopped short and covered his face with his hand. “Sorry. Wrong
tragedy.”

Instinctively, Spen reached for Daniel’s
unoccupied hand. “It’s all wrapped up together, Danny. Noball targeted you
because you were vulnerable and needed the job. If your parents hadn’t died,
you wouldn’t have been there.”

Daniel jerked his hand away. “Don’t you
dare blame them!”

Fuck
. “I’m not. I just mean...you can’t separate the two like that. You
don’t have to. Noble’s a predator. He looks for young guys like you. Jan’s
mother was dying of cancer when Noble hired him. The one
before that? Had been in a car accident in which his boyfriend was
killed.”

“Lovely.”

“Yeah, only not. So if you need to talk
about your parents—”

“I don’t. I don’t need anything. I manage
just fine.”

Spen’s temper snapped. “Did it ever occur
to you that the reason people didn’t help you when they died is because every
time someone tries, you slap them away? I keep telling you there are people who
want to help you—people like Mum and Dad who aren’t just offering, but
who are
doing
—and still you’re
whining about no one helping you. Even a saint would get sick of that shit
after a while.”

Daniel gave him a teary, startled look. “I
never...no one offered, except our grandparents. Not practical offers we could
use. You and your Mum...you’re the first.”

“And the last, if you keep pushing me away.
Danny, I’m here. I want to help. I care.”

“You think I’m a pathetic kid.”

“No. I think you’ve had a hell of a lot of
bad luck, but you’ve done more than most could have. You’re not pathetic.
Annoying, ungrateful, rude and contradictory, yeah, but not pathetic.”

Daniel’s eyes widened in
surprise. “Wow, I’m really feeling the
sympathy.”

“You don’t want sympathy. You want it all
to go away. Well, I can’t make that happen. I can talk,
I can sit with you, even all night if you want. I can listen to you yell or cry
or talk or whatever you want. I can make you coffee or cocoa or tea. I can get
you drunk, or keep an eye on you while you sleep. I can do a lot of things,
Danny, but making the bad shit not happen isn’t one of them. I don’t think
you’re weak or pathetic or stupid or that you did anything to bring this on
yourself, but it happened, and pretending it didn’t won’t work.”

“No, I suppose not.” Daniel rubbed his eyes
again. “I’m so tired,” he murmured. “It’s funny. I’d almost been looking
forward to going to the hotel because I might sleep.”

“Not sleeping here?”

“No. Not in my bed. Down here sometimes.”

“Nightmares?”

“No. Something...something
worse. I lie in bed and...I don’t want it to
happen, but it just does. I start replaying what I remember of what happened
just before...in the bar, I mean.”

“When you went for drinks with him and the
others?”

“Yeah. I get to a certain point and then
there’s this...nothing.” He shivered. “I feel like I’m falling into the hole
where the memory should be. Being swallowed by the nothing.” He shrugged. “Then
I get up and come downstairs, read until I sleep. Sometimes it takes a while to
happen.”

“You could have taken time off.”

“Yeah, right. I thought I’d already
labelled myself a drunk. I didn’t know the man I was trying to prove something
to was behind it.”

Spen touched his shoulder, then remembered
why that was a bad idea. He pulled his hand away. “Sorry.”

“Why? I don’t mind.” As if to prove the
point, Kani climbed up onto Daniel’s shoulder and looked at Spen, as if to ask
him why he couldn’t make such a natural gesture of comfort. Spen patted Kani,
but was careful not to touch Daniel again. Daniel turned to look at him.
“What’s wrong, Spen?”

“I don’t want to be...you know, like him.
Always patting you.”

Daniel grimaced. “That I won’t miss. I
hated that. I thought he was just friendly, but I guess he was feeling out the
territory.”

“Yes, he was. Softening you up. I hated
seeing him do it.”

“That night! You saw him on the security
video, didn’t you?”

Busted.
“Yeah. And while I’m being honest...I knew about your family before
you told me. Luke, uh, had been investigating. Because he’d heard rumours not
everything was on the up and up with your recruitment.”

“Oh great. More people to
avoid. But I suppose I don’t have to worry about that now. I mean, since
I won’t be going back.” He said it without any nastiness in his tone, just the
resignation of someone used to hearing bad news.

“Doesn’t mean we have to lose touch,” Spen
said.

“Oh sure. We can get together and reminisce
about how Tony hired me to be his boyfriend, and how you thwarted his evil rape
plans. Yeah, a barrel of laughs for young and old.”

Kani meeped at Spen, and
batted at his hand. When Spen lifted it away,
thinking it was annoying the little guy, Kani stamped his foot—and so did
Myko.
What the hell?
He put his hand
gingerly on Daniel’s shoulder, and Kani trilled, stroking his fingers with his
tail. Ah, that’s what he wanted. Not subtle at all, kems.

“That’s not all we can talk about.”

“Maybe,” Daniel said, leaning ever so
slightly into his touch. “I can’t think, Spen. Look, I’m just going to try and
sleep down here. You should go home.”

“I can stay. Mum doesn’t need the car in
the morning, and I wasn’t planning to go into work.”

“You shouldn’t....”

“What?”

“Rearrange your life for me.”

Spen squeezed Daniel’s shoulder. “I’m not.
I’m helping a friend out. You shouldn’t be on your own, Danny.”

Daniel’s eyes closed. Spen thought it was
in pleasure, but it might have been pure exhaustion. “Why do you call me that?”

“Dunno. You just look more like a Danny
than a Daniel. Not a Dan, though.”

“Never. Dad called me Danny.”

“You want me to stop?”

“No. Unless you’re being sarcastic, I don’t
mind.” He unfolded his legs and leaned back against the sofa cushions. “I don’t
mind if you stay, but where will you sleep?”

“Here? On the armchair?
Or next to you? What would you like?”

“Here,” Daniel murmured. “S’nice. Really,
really tired....”

“Get comfortable then. I’ll fetch a
blanket.”

“On the chair,” Daniel said, a massive yawn
half-swallowing his words.

Spen looked around and noticed two neatly
folded blankets and a pillow on the armchair near the window. He rose to fetch
them. Myko stayed where he was, lying against Daniel’s thigh, Kani cuddled in
his arms. So sweet. And too tempting
an idea.

He draped a blanket over Daniel, and shoved
the pillow under his unresisting head. He curled up at the other end of the
sofa, but his long legs weren’t made for that kind of position. Try as he might
to discreetly arrange himself, he couldn’t get comfortable. “Maybe we should
move up to your bed,” he grumbled.

Daniel’s head snapped up, and Spen realised
what it had sounded like as those green eyes bored into him. “Shit, I’m sorry.
Forget I said anything.”

Daniel continued to stare. He was starting
to freak Spen out a little. “Daniel? I said forget it.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Look, don’t you think I’ve apologised
enough—”

“I think it’s a great idea. If you don’t
mind.”

“I wasn’t really thinking.”