Page 46 of Headcase
David looked around again, like he was afraid there was a hidden camera crew. “I saw him a few days after that. He was waiting for me by my car at the end of my shift. He asked me if he could borrow some money. He looked rough. I…gave him what I’d made in tips, which was only, like, a hundred bucks. I never saw him again.”
Zane frowned. “You gave him a hundred bucks with no expectation of getting it back?”
“Man, I work here for weed money. My parents are loaded, but they like to think having a job will keep me honest.”
“Tell me about it,” Asa muttered.
Zane snorted. “Do you have any idea where we could find Eric? Any idea at all?”
David shook his head. “Nah, man. I haven’t seen him. I don’t think he wants to be seen.”
“Do you think people were really after him, or do you just think paranoia started to get the best of him?” Asa asked.
David shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Five people are dead. I don’t know how many were playing the game, but I’m pretty sure Eric was, and something spooked him bad enough to go off grid. Maybe there were others who quit the game and stuck around, but I just don’t know. I don’t know anything more than I’ve already told you. I gotta get back to work. Don’t—” He shook his head. “Don’t come back. Okay?”
David didn’t wait for them to respond, just turned and went back inside, leaving Zane leaning against Asa, whose arms snaked around his waist. “Did we learn anything from that interaction?”
Zane shook his head. “I honestly can’t tell. It definitely sounds like there was a game. But it also sounds like these deaths were all self-inflicted. What are we supposed to do with that?”
“I’d give you my opinion but you already think I’m a monster,” Asa said, humor lacing his voice.
Zane shivered. “Tell me anyway.”
“If there is a game and that game involves driving people to their breaking point, whoever controls that game is a murderer and should be treated as such.”
Zane nodded. If his brother had played the game…if somebody pushed his happy-go-lucky brother to the point where he felt taking his own life was the only way out…fuck them. Asa could have them. He could tear them to pieces for all Zane cared.
Zane turned in Asa’s arms, voice grim. “I think I’m ready to meet your father now.”
Asa sighed, shifting in his seat once more, watching Zane from the corner of his eye. They sat in Asa’s SUV just outside his father’s house. Beside him, Zane sat with a death grip on the door handle, like he was worried somebody might wrench it open and drag him out. Asa found it both confusing and amusing.
This had been Zane’s idea, yet he’d been stalling for at least fifteen minutes. All the bravado he’d had when he’d told Asa to bring him to Thomas appeared to have disappeared in the thirty minute drive across town. Asa understood his apprehension but didn’t know if he should push the issue or wait. He had never had to worry about somebody’s feelings before. It was…weird.
“So…did you want me to have my dad meet us out here or…” Asa teased.
“I just need a minute,” Zane snapped.
“A minute to, what?” Asa asked around a laugh. “You get that my father isn’t the one who kills people, right? That’s me. You know, the one who’s been inside you. Twice. The one whose bed you willingly handcuffed yourself to last night? I’m the one you should be afraid of.” Zane gave him a pissy look, arching one brow, leaving Asa to roll his eyes. “You know what I mean. Listen, my dad isn’t going to be mad at anybody but me.”
“Yeah. Okay,” Zane said. “Let’s just do this.”
Asa stifled a laugh at Zane’s sudden fake gusto but exited the vehicle, going around the car to open the door for him. He laced their fingers together, walking directly up the walkway and up the stone steps to the wide glass double doors.
Inside, Asa called out, “Dad?”
The house was enormous but the acoustics were fantastic. Besides, at this time of day, his father was usually in his office. Except today. “Kitchen,” Thomas called back.
Asa led Zane to the kitchen, stopping short with a grimace when he realized his father wasn’t alone. His brother, Adam, and his fiancé, Noah, sat on the bar stools at the island.
Shit.
As soon as they caught sight of Zane, Noah and Adam began to smile, Noah’s gaze instantly dropping to where their hands were joined. Asa resisted the urge to drop Zane’s hand. They knew. They definitely knew. Fuck.
“Who’s your friend?” Noah asked, voice full of mock innocence, a grin spreading across his face when he saw the hickeys on Zane’s throat. “Jesus, Asa. You really are an animal.”
Yeah, they knew. Jericho told Atticus, and Atticus had told the others.
“What? What’s going on?” Thomas asked, looking between the two.
