Page 124 of Butterfly

Rory struggled to sit up straight. “Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?”

His outburst triggered a coughing fit that made the machine he was attached to scream and flash. Sebastian was all over him, but instead of a sympathetic expression, he looked pissed, shaking with anger.

“Keep that damn mask on,” he growled.

Rory stuck out his bottom lip. “Stop snapping.”

“I’m snapping because you keep taking it off.”

“No one can understand what I’m saying with it on.”

“Well, maybe,” Sebastian said through his teeth, “you should stop talking, start listening, and lie there and breathe.”

He took the mask from Rory’s limp hand and held it over his mouth.

“Please,” Sebastian murmured, exasperated. “If not for yourself, then for me.”

Rory sank into his pillow, and instead of nodding, he replied to Sebastian with a slow blink.

“Thank you,” Sebastian breathed, adjusting the straps around Rory’s ears for the mask to sit more comfortably. “You need to do what the doctor says.”

Rory reached up to squeeze his hand, then he looked to Ollie, the desperate plea in his eyes for information obvious.

“It’s a long story,” Ollie whispered. “But Pichard wanted to kill me to hurt Teddy.” He pulled at the jacket he was still wearing. “He must’ve thought you were the one who left with Sebastian and that I was still inside the house. He set fire to it with you inside.”

“Thank God he didn’t get round the back,” Sebastian mumbled. He’d laced his fingers with Rory’s. “I still would’ve gone in there, though. I would’ve gone in there to save you no matter what.”

Rory’s brow twitched. His eyes shone, and he mouthed ‘I know’ beneath the mask.

“I was about to call a taxi, but then Captain called me.” Ollie shot a questioning glance Captain’s way. There were still pieces of what happened that hadn’t been filled in for him too.

Captain took over. “Jarvis turned up at my place, and he was rambling—”

“I did not ramble,” Jarvis interrupted. “I was worried. I wanted to know where you were, Ollie. I knew Pichard had returned home early from his holiday. His husband put a post on social media, and I had a horrible feeling it had something to do with you.”

“We were driving to the house,” Captain said. “I managed to get you on the phone, but then it went dead. When we turned up, they were still putting out the fire, but there was no sign of you. Then I spotted your phone.” Captain shook his head. “Jarvis called the police, and we started searching for you. I heard the scaffolding, then the thud.”

Rory tugged down his mask. “Wait a minute, rewind—”

“I swear to God,” Sebastian hissed. “If you keep removing that mask, I will duct-tape it to your face.”

“There was me thinking I might get some sympathy being laid up in a hospital bed.”

Sebastian shut his eyes. When he reopened them, they’d lost all their ice. “Please, Rory. I was worried about you. I still am worried about you. You have no idea how scared I was.”

Rory put the mask back over his mouth. “Sorry.”

“Lie there, listen and breathe,” Sebastian pleaded. “That’s all you’ve got to do.”

Ollie waited until Rory and Sebastian were ready for him to continue. “When I was on the phone to Captain, Pichard came up behind me. He pushed a needle into my neck, took the phone from my hand, and dropped it to the ground.”

“Your neck?” Sebastian asked.

Ollie tugged the jacket down so they could see the purple mark. The doctor had been more concerned about the tiny dot on Ollie’s skin than his nose. He’d taken blood samples to test just in case.

Rory struggled up to see but kept one hand on the mask over his mouth.

“He made me walk up the apartment block. We stopped on the fourth floor, and he told me to step out onto the scaffolding. He told me about Teddy, how they knew each other. Teddy never started that fire. Pichard did, but he convinced Teddy to take the blame.” Ollie looked at Sebastian. “And Teddy never hurt Ryan; it was Pichard that gave him that pill. He said it would help with Ryan’s migraine, so Ryan took it. He told me everything and then said the needle was his plan B. He said no one would’ve been surprised at an ex-convict dying from experimenting with drugs, especially not one as messed up as me.”

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