Page 5 of Aftermath

"Yeah, yeah," Cam grumbled and pulled himself up. Giving Austin a hand, he helped him up, too. "Sorry I attacked." He adjusted the towel on his hips.

"I can take it."

The two men stood before each other, close enough to touch, and maintained eye contact. It made Cam wonder if Austin found their relationship odd. 'Cause closeness was as easy as breathing to them. So was touching. Personal space was usually so fucking important to Cam, but with Austin…

Austin broke the spell, clearing his throat, and plopped down in his chair again. Then he pulled out a bottle of painkillers from a side pocket of his shorts, and Cam gave him a cocked eyebrow.

"Headache," Austin answered. "These glasses are taking some getting used to. Plus, the sun…" He shook his head and sighed. "You know how it is."

"They look good on you," Cam commented before thinking.Fuck. He sat his ass back down in the chair and rolled his eyes at himself. "Only thing missing is the suit, Mr. MBA."

Nice save, jackass.

"And you're a dick," Austin said, removing his glasses to rub his eyes.

"You wanna go inside instead?" Cam was already standing up. While he'd had issues adjusting to the sun, too, it wasn’t as bad as the man next to him. "Come on—bet there's a game on or something. You hungry?"

"Not really, but a game sounds good." Austin followed him inside. "So, mind telling me why there's a bed in here?" He waved a hand at the living room.

"My bedroom's fucking tiny," Cam lied. His bedroom was just fine, but he still felt like he was locked in. "There's a chair over there if you prefer that. I'm just gonna get some snacks." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the kitchen. "You want anything other than beer? Coke, water—think there's some decaf iced tea that Jules left, too."

"Coke, thanks." Austin nodded and moved toward the entertainment center while Cam headed to the kitchen. "Jules is your sister-in-law, right?"

"Yeah." Cam opened his fridge, having not gotten over his newfound greed for choosing his own meal. Justlookingat food felt nice. "Annoying as fuck, but you gotta love her, I guess. They're having twins in a few months." He pulled out some fixings to make a few sandwiches.

His brother Landon was pale with dark features, same gray eyes as Cam, and Jules took after her Mexican mother. She was also fucking tiny, so it was a little amusing to see her walking around with a big bump on her belly. And she wasn’t even close to term yet.

He'd been shocked to see the baby bump on Jules when he'd been reunited with his family after the kidnapping. He knew about the IVF trials, obviously, but not that Landon and Jules had gone through another round in…what, January? Anyway, that shock had quickly morphed into excitement for his brother and sister-in-law.

Austin hummed, then went quiet for a beat before he chuckled. "Well, your porn stash wasn’t hard to find."

Cam laughed and figured Austin had taken a guess on the one cabinet in the entertainment center that came with a lock. "Wouldn’t wanna freak out my mom. Dad and Landon advised me to lock it up." His father's exact words had been,"Let's not give your mother any ideas."

"You don’t think Lily's ever seen porn?" Austin snorted.

Cam was impressed. After having only met his parents briefly at the hospital, Austin had evidently formed a fairly accurate view of Lily and Jonathan Nash. Well, at least Lily, who was very free-spirited and carefree. She'd been the Irish hippie from San Francisco who'd fallen for a more conservative architect. Not that there was anything conservative left in Cam's dad. Now he was the mellowed-out voice of reason who kept Lily grounded. And in return, Lily made sure Jonathan never forgot how to spell "fun."

Grinning to himself, Cam took the food and drinks and returned to the living room. "Not porn with dudes doing each other." He set down Coke, beer, chips, and the sandwiches. "All right. Let's see what's on." He sat on the edge of his bed and grabbed the remote. The large flat screen flickered to life; meanwhile, Austin sat down next to Cam, and he appeared to be confused.

"Dudes?"

Cam gave him a sideways glance. "Yeah." He left it at that, not wanting to elaborate, and faced the TV, quickly finding one of the sports channels. "You mind if I…?" He pointed to the smokes and the ashtray on the coffee table. All the windows and the patio door were still open, but he didn’t know if Austin was okay with it.

"Go ahead." Austin shrugged.

It looked like he was somewhere else. Miles away, in fact. That worried Cam, 'cause he knew firsthand where he involuntarily ended up when his mind wandered.

"What the fuck?" Cam scratched his scruffy chin and scowled at the paper. "It says here that I'm a deadbeat punk hiding behind a smile."

This was just a nightmare, right?

"It's not a schedule." Austin was scanning his own paper, absently spinning the wedding band on his finger. Like in old prison movies, there was a hatch in the door. That was where their kidnapper had slipped in the papers. "It's a script." In the faint fluorescent light, they saw what were obviously instructions for characters. Nothing "schedule" about it. There were traits, hobbies, and vague descriptions.

"He's gotta be certifiable." Cam looked around himself warily.

In the small cell, they were surrounded by metal. Only the back wall was different; it was drywall strengthened with metal panels. Even the dirt floor was enhanced with a metal net—to prevent digging, he supposed.

Nothing around them could be used as a weapon.

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