The kids shook their heads. "Sam went off with some guy just now," Lara said and pointed down the street.
"Someone you know?" Wyatt asked.
Lara shook her head. "Nope. He might have been lost. He kept looking around like he was."
Wyatt didn't like the sound of that. Since he had noticed how the boys were eying the frozen treats Lara and Gloria were eating, he turned to Raquel. "Could you buy the boys something frozen?"
She could tell something was up, so she just nodded and took them away. Lara sent Gloria with them too. While they went to stand in line, Wyatt motioned Lara to step out of earshot and have a word with him. "Tell me about this guy Sam went off with. What did he look like?"
"Light coloring. Good build," she said. "Not bad looking."
That didn't tell Wyatt much, but he decided to go look for Sam anyway. "OK, tell Raquel to watch the boys for me. I need to find Sam."
"Sure thing," she told him while giving him a questioning look.
Wyatt was starting to get really worried, but he reminded himself that he had lost sight of Sam only for a few minutes. Still, why would Sam just ditch them like that and go off with some guy.
And Sam thought he saw his ex only yesterday. Wyatt had to assume it was him. That's why he rushed, pushing his way past people, even calling Sam's name a few times. How the hell was he going to find them in this crowd?
Chapter 31
Brian had Sam by the arm as he dragged him into the alley behind Ted's Tool Repair Shop. Stumbling alongside him, Sam flashed back to the last time Brian beat him bloody in the alley behind the restaurant where he worked. Remembering the blows, Sam started to gulp air.
The sounds of the festival snapped his mind back to the present. Despite the way Brian shoved him to the end of the alley, he willed himself to keep breathing and stay on his feet.
Blinking, he forced another breath. Then he noticed how Brian was blocking his way, making sure he couldn't go back to the street.
"What the hell do you want? Why did you come here?" Sam asked. He knew the answer. Brian just wanted to hurt him, to ruin everything for him.
With pure contempt, he sneered at Sam, leaning in to get right in his face. "You thought you could run from me, you little bitch, after everything I did for you."
"Did for me?" Sam breathed. Brian always did want gratitude. Even right after a beating, he expected Sam to be thanking him.
"You were a fucking charity case. If I didn't take you in, you would have been selling your ass on the street. I was too good to you, you fucking, ungrateful slut. I should have kicked you out on your ass." Getting right in his face, Brian snarled in that way that used to signal to Sam it was time to shut his mouth or get hit. Not this time.
"You got everything you're going to get from me. Just leave me alone," Sam told him.
Brian always had the upper hand with him, always. But that was when Sam was alone and afraid. He wasn't that way any more.
He set out on his own and the darkness didn't swallow him up. He was stronger. He didn't have to put up with this abusive asshole.
"You think you have it made with that new daddy to take care of you. He doesn't know about you. You got him fooled, don't you?" Brian said.
"You shut up about him," Sam warned him, but he had nothing to back that up. That's when he heard Wyatt's voice behind him.
"What the hell is going on here?" His voice boomed and Sam jumped. He watched Wyatt stalk over and come to stand between him and Brian. From his attitude, he must have figured out who Brian was.
"You're the boy's new mark. Did he play the sweet, young, helpless thing with you?" Brian asked while looking Wyatt up and down like he was getting ready to make a move on him.
It made Sam sick, but he didn't know what to do. "Shut up!" he screamed at him, but Brian just kept talking like he was the wronged party.
"I cherished that boy, took care of him and now he doesn't even want to know me," Brian said doing a bad impression of being hurt. "The whole time I was giving him a roof over his head, he was fucking around on me."
Sam was shaking. He didn't want Wyatt to hear this. He wanted to disappear.
***
"I treasured that boy," Sam's ex claimed. "I took care of his every need."
