Page 16 of Gold Rush
“Yes. Once. He got in with a rather shitty guy who ended up hitting him, and that, hopefully, will be the last boyfriend he ever hits.”
As he shivered, Dean said, “Whoa. Remind me to stay on your good side.”
“That would be good to do.”
Taking notes on a few things, Goldie and Dean walked along for hours, until the sun was long gone from the sky. Dean tookhim across the street from the abandoned shoe store the pimp used as his headquarters.
“That’s where the money is?”
“Yup. The upper two floors are where the hookers are kept. So, whatever you guys do, don’t hurt them.”
“You know more of them?”
“A few, yeah. They’re…dying. Being hooked on that shit, it is killing them. Slowly.”
“Okay. I’ll let the guys know, and I’ll start coming by here a few times a day.”
“I’ll come too.”
Goldie stopped him and looked him in the eye. “No. You showed me the place. I want you to stay at the pub.”
Dean nodded a little and smiled. “Sure. I like that you want to keep me safe.”
“Yeah?”
Dean ducked his head and said, “Yeah. I like you too, if you didn’t already figure that out.”
“I did.”
Chapter Five
Inthemiddleofhis confession that he liked Goldie too, Dean blushed wildly. For being a hooker, for some reason, Goldie thought that meant he could no longer blush. He was wrong about a lot of things, though. Preconceived notions never did him well.
They went back to the pub, and Goldie walked him to his room. As he was leaving Dean there, Dean said, “Want to come in?”
As much as he wanted to, he didn’t. He couldn’t. Starting something with sex had also never done him any good. “If I go in there right now, I’m going to stay the night, and…as much as I want to, I am going to stay out of there. For now.”
Again, Dean raised onto the balls of his feet and kissed Goldie, a chaste peck, but it heated him through. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I hope.”
“You will.”
The door closed, and Goldie couldn’t help but smile, but as he turned, he saw Abs, glaring hatefully at him.
“So, you’re together now?”
“Abs, listen…”
“No, it’s fine,” he said before turning on his heel and heading off to his own room.
His room was on the third floor with Haze and Cosmo. Goldie followed him up the stairs, calling him the entire way up to the third floor. “Abs,” he finally said, grabbing his arm tightly. “Talk to me!”
Abs spun on him right in the doorway, hissing, “I knew it!”
“Knew what?”
“That you liked him! Goldie, he is a liar and a hooker, and for all we know, he is really addicted.”
Abs stomped off to his room, and Goldie saw that Hippy and Haze were coming out of Haze’s room to see what the commotion was about. “Everything okay?” Haze asked.
