Page 30 of Shades of Henry
Lance took a deep breath, his eyes burning. “I don’t know… I don’t know if your brother really understands how bad it was, himself,” he said softly, feeling like a traitor. “His… your brother-in-law… he did a number on him. When Henry picked his promotion over….”
“Over Malachi.” And Dex’s face—it closed down. Suddenly he looked like he could kill a man, and Lance normally would have put that in Kane’s court. “Explain what you mean by number.”
Lance looked away. “Don’t make me betray a confidence, David.”
“Don’t make me beg, Galahad. I am worried for my brother. He won’t talk to me. And I don’t know why.”
“He’s ashamed!” Lance burst out. “He… he did what he had to, you know? To pass? To live up to your father’s expectations? And… and in the end, he was trying to pick the honorable thing—and he lost it all.”
“He didn’t lose me,” Dex said. “I am still in his court. I amalwaysin his court. Make sure he knows that, okay?”
Lance nodded, still not able to look Dex in the eyes. “I will. I—he just wants to do something useful. He’s so lost. And he’s so betrayed. I…. Malachi was a rat bastard, you know that, right?”
Dex’s eyes sharpened. “What do you mean?”
“Henry took a promotion so he could feel like he could say no.” Well, shit. “It didn’t work.”
Dex sucked in a breath. “I’ll kill him. I’ll tell Travis. Travis will beat him until he has pulp for a face. They have thirty-thousand acres in the middle of bumfuck, USA.They will never find the fucking body!”
Lance had trouble finding his balance. On one hand, he wanted to tell his friend to calm down. But on the other, the look on Henry’s face, the way he’d been trying so hard to be strong….
The utter devastation.
“I’d help you,” Lance said, voice rusty. “But it’s not going to help him. Not right now.”
It was Dex’s turn to nod, and then he scrubbed at his face with his hands. He took a few deep breaths and peeked out at Lance with some semblance of the Dex that Lance knew.
“Sorry,” he said automatically. “Sorry. This went from me telling you that we wouldn’t abandon you, to you wanting to run away screaming. I didn’t mean for that to—”
Lance shook his head, and the burning in his eyes spilled over. “I was worried, you know,” he said, swallowing. “I don’t know if this is the end for me at Johnnies. I’m still not sure what happened today. But I… you know. I fit here.”
“You didn’t want to lose your family,” Dex said. “It’s… it’s the hard part about making this a good place to work. I…. Reg didn’t have a plan after porn, you know? We had to give him one, because he was ready to stop but he didn’t… didn’t have a plan. You’ve got a plan—you walked in here with one. But that doesn’t mean we want you to just walk away.”
Lance wiped his eyes again with the back of his hand. “Sorry. I don’t know why….” He gestured to his face. “I’m having the weirdest month.”
Dex cocked his head. “Why? What happened, besides meeting my stupid brother?”
Lance raised his eyes to meet Dex’s, and Dex made an “ooh” face.
They both laughed wretchedly.
“God. This business.” Dex pulled in another one of those ragged breaths. “I used to think, ‘Show up, do a guy, have some fun, day over.’ It gets harder than that.”
“I… I don’t know why he’s got me so nutted up,” Lance said. “I don’t even know if he wants to kiss me.”
Dex let out a brief bark of laughter. “Thatis probably the least of your problems.”
Lance made to stand up and then frowned. “Oh, hey, since Henry’s being a closed-mouthed bastard, I was wondering, did Reg tell you about Scott?”
Dex’s surprise would have been comical—if his horror hadn’t been so palpable. “Scott?”
Oh God. Lance wasnotgoing to tell him all of this one. Just no. “He showed up at the flophouse—trying to deal. He sort of scared the shit out of Reg.” Lance had to smile a little. “Henry threw him in the dumpster. It was very caveman-like, and a little hot, I’m not going to lie.”
Dex let out a strained chuckle. “God. Scott. That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. Okay. I’ll keep an eye out for him and let the guys here know. We run a clean house—we’ve got help if guys get hooked, but God. Drugs—” Dex shuddered. “—do not make good porn.”
“You’re a purist,” Lance said affectionately.
“It’s only worth making if it gets people off.” They seemed to have shaken their worry—and theirfury—over Henry, and Lance stood, grateful for the wafers, for the talk.
