Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
El took a deep breath and ran his fingers through Trig’s hair. “I can’t even tell if it’s creepy or adorable.”
Trig’s eyes shut as he leaned closer, focused on the slim digits massaging his scalp. There was something irresistibly familiar in the gesture, and it sent Trig back to the morning after they’d made love for the first time. It had been so awkward, but El had stroked Trig just like this once they’d woken up, as if to reassure him that he hadn’t hurt El or fucked up in some other way.
“Did you miss me?” Trig asked, smirking.
“You were my whole life.”
Trig’s chest tightened, as if his ribs had caved in, squashing his heart. He’d been on the verge of revealing his presence once before, when El had returned home from God-knew-where and broken down crying in the silence of his shabby bedroom. Trig hadn’t known the cause of his distress, but it didn’t matter, because all he wanted was to hug him and make sure he was all right. Maybe it wasn’t too late to make amends.
“I want you back with me,” he said, squeezing El’s hand.
El shook his head. “You make it sound so simple. We’re different people now. You… you seemed to know what you were doing with those knives,” he said carefully, yet his voice didn’t express fear or disgust, only curiosity.
“We can get to know each other as those new people. I’ve trained a lot. You saw that I can protect you,” Trig said, sliding closer. His free hand moved over the tabletop until it reached El’s bandaged forearm.
“So… what? You’re a killer now?” El whispered, eyes searching. “Are you okay with what happened?”
Trig stalled, his muscles turning into concrete as he awaited judgment. He and El had been up to lots of illegal shit back in the day, but they’d never seriously hurt anyone. A part of him wished he could turn back time and take El away from there before the attack, but there was no erasing what happened, so he cleared his throat and spoke, “It was you or them.”
El’s expression turned thoughtful and he entwined their fingers. “But are you okay?”
Trig couldn’t help but get his hopes up at the gesture, and he swallowed, giving El’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Yeah. It’s… it wasn’t the first time.”
El processed that for a while, but never let go of Trig. “I can’t go back to my house after what happened. Hell, we shouldn’t stay in the state, maybe even leave the country. Let’s do it. Let’s just go, leave all this shit behind and disappear, huh?” he asked, kohled eyes lighting up with hope.
Trig almost leaned in for a kiss, because this proposition meant that he wasn’t the only one who saw the possibility of a future together, but he restrained himself and spoke, “There’s no need for that. I’ll get my guys to clean everything up. This won’t be traced to either of us.”
El’s fingers stiffened before he pulled away altogether and stared Trig down with a deep frown. “Your ‘guys’? How can you trust them to not keep some evidence and hold it over your head in the future?”
“I know what you’re saying, but it’s been five years. I trust them to have my back, and if I bring you in, they will have yours too.”
El rose, and the glance he sent Trig’s way was so icy it could have frozen a weaker man on the spot. “I hate that you’re tied to them, do you not understand that? It was supposed to be the two of us, and even now, you already have to take into account some guys I don’t even know!”
This again.
El had been against hanging around the MC from the start. Tooth, their current club president, had been out of the closet but kept his sexuality on the down-low. And while the Coffin Nails didn’t seem as awfully violent as some of the other biker clubs out there, El had presumed they were homophobic and therefore not safe for two young gay men with nowhere to call home. Still, work wasn’t easy to come by so Trig had ventured into the lion’s den, to find a community that might just suit their needs. Still, El had refused to come over and see for himself.
By the time Trig had gotten accepted as a prospect, El was already gone from his life.
Trig took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke. “You’re saying it as if I had no choice. I like to be around them. They gave me skills, and a way to make enough money to… pay for your treatment today, among other things. It’s good to have a community. Why won’t you give it a chance?”
“Maybe because my own fucking parents tried to get me abducted and shipped off to god knows where! Or like that time we stayed with the vanlife people and they disappeared on us overnight, taking our shit? They took my favorite pillow and our cat. I only trust you. Or I did, at least.” He crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the floor while his eyes moved, as if he were reading invisible text. “Fine. Let’s go,” he spat, heading for the door.