Page 111 of Back Room Host

I should’ve known. Given this is about his bro, I’m sure there’ll be an interrogation. After all, this is about his bro.

Noé opened the door and let me in. I left my shoes and jacket in the hallway and followed him into the living room.

“Have a seat. Would you like something to drink? Tea? Coffee? Water?”

I sat on the couch, clutching my bag. “Coffee, please.”

Noé soon placed two cups on the coffee table and sat beside me. Awkward silence set in, and I shifted in my seat. Noé seemed almost too calm to me. But the longer I looked at him, the more I saw the concern in his face.

“He’ll act like nothing happened,” he said, shrugging. “But the fact is, he still hasn’t processed it and probably won’t anytime soon.”

“I know I should’ve respected his wish not to be filmed, but …”

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what happened about ten days ago.”

Noé's voice had taken on a deeper, more threatening tone. I swallowed hard and then cleared my throat.

“What are you talking about?”

Somehow, I sensed I didn’t want to know, but it involved Juri. The past few days had shown me that he had become more important to me than anything else.

“I found him outside Hyde. Covered in blood. Someone drugged him and … I don’t know what else they did to him.”

The words made me freeze, and my brain slowly started working again. “Someone … So … a client?”

“There were three of them and they really messed him up. He slept almost two days straight afterward.”

“Does it have anything to do with his profile picture?”

“I blacked that out. If I hadn’t taken him off the grid, he’d probably have gone back to work three days later.”

I clasped my mouth, grimacing. “If only I had—”

“That won’t change anything,” Noé interrupted me. “He handles it his way. Considers it part of the job.”

“Did they … rape him?”

Noé stared at me for a long, thoughtful moment.

What a stupid question.

“That’s bullshit!” I exclaimed angrily. “Did you at least take him to the hospital? Did he report it?”

Noé shook his head. “That doesn’t change the situation itself.”

“Damn it, it does! Guys like that belong in prison!”

“They have too much money. Someone like Juri doesn’t stand a chance against them.”

I didn’t need a long explanation and understood anyway. Both of them had learned early on in their lives that the system didn’t help them. Everyone fought for themselves. And Juri did it his way. Maybe that was why he lived by his self-imposed rules. They gave him stability and structure. He probably just brushed off a nightmare encounter with a client as a stupid incident and continued as usual. It was admirable, but it mademe furious. I stood up and paced back and forth, my hands clenched with anger.

Calm down!I admonished myself when I saw Noé, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back on the couch.

“Where is he then? You said they. Is he with someone?”

“With Alex. Juri started working as a photographer.”

“Juri? What? What about the escort thing?”

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