Page 101 of Grind
“You’ll find my contact info on the fence. On your way out.”
KP backed off, but the leader snorted, entering his car. “Pleasure doing business with you!”
“Likewise,” Frank lied and watched the intruders retreat the same way they came, in a neat cavalcade. Only when the back lights of the last one disappeared from his sight did he take a deep breath of gasoline-scented air and returned inside.
Ezra was shaking when he met Frank’s gaze, and while Frank’s body erupted with rage at the sight of blood around his mouth, he soon realized it had to be Paul’s.
“Is it safe?” Ezra whispered, as if he were afraid someone might overhear him.
“Yes,” Frank said on autopilot, unable to shake the tension out of his body. But he didn’t wait and unlocked the damn cuffs from the hook in the ceiling.
He enfolded Ezra’s trembling body in his arms with a deep sigh. He was safe. And Paul would never get to him again.
Ezra rolled his wrists, as if his hands had died a little in the upright position, but then his arms were around Frank, pulling him in as if it was Frank who needed sympathy, not him.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“I’m fine. Are you sure you’re not injured?” Frank stroked Ezra’s warm back, soothing himself by touching his lover’s warm skin, but Ezra kept watching him as if Frank were a frightened animal in need of coaxing.
“I’m all right. You protected me.”
“I promised.” Frank kissed the side of his head, slowly relaxing into their embrace. “I’m sorry you had to see it.”
But his muscles instantly tensed again at the rumble of an approaching car and he peeked through the shattered window where the curtain had fallen off its pole. One glance to the glass-covered floor made him pick Ezra up and sit him on the table.
But when he was about to grab his gun, Shane’s voice made him relax.
“Frank? Ezra?”
Relief ran deep in Frank’s bones as he watched Ezra cover himself with the coat he’d left across the back of the chair. Frank would much rather take care ofhimnow, but with Shane here, explaining what happened took priority.
“We’re fine,” Frank said and stood in the doorway, looking out at his friend, who stared at the dead body resting with its face in the dirt.
Shane relaxed too and gestured at Paul. “I passed three fucking Hummers on the way here, and now this? What the fuck?”
Frank rubbed his forehead. “Well… It’s done. You wanna help or what?” he asked, waving the wad of cash in the air.
Shane raised his eyebrows but nodded. “Let me just tell Ros I’ll be home late.”
Chapter 31
Ezra
Ezrafeltnumb.Theevening had seamlessly turned into night, and now there was a dark red glow at the edge of the horizon, predicting the upcoming dawn. He didn’t think about changing into anything suitable and wore the same neat leather shoes and Burberry coat he’d gone shopping in. Now he felt not only overdressed but also comical.
He was a clown. A well-dressed one, but a clown nevertheless.
Frank had suggested Ezra could stay home and not witness any of the aftermath, but he was done hiding from the truth. It was unlikely he would do this kind of work himself, but if this was what his man did, he needed to see it with his own eyes.
“Can’t believe he would do something like this after everything you two have been through,” Dex said, once again adjusting Paul’s position in the back seat of the car the bastard had come in, as if it mattered now.
“We’re not turning him into a mummy. He doesn’t need to look pretty. The compactor’s gonna rearrange that precious pose anyway,” Shane said, blowing out a cloud of cigarette smoke.
Frank was smoking too. Something he rarely did, and never around Ezra since the one time Ezra had expressed his displeasure about that habit. Tonight though, he wasn’t going to say a thing.
Dex gave the corpse one more glance before backing away. “Can you teach me that kind of neck-break power combo?”
Frank took his time inhaling, then exhaling smoke. “No.”
