Page 101 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

“No, I’m not,” Ro said firmly. “I’m telling you he was just trying to help.”

Syn laughed, ugly and hollow. “Men who wanna help, talk to their partners. They don’t sign legally binding contracts and lie about it.”

Ro took that hit without flinching. “You’re right.”

Syn looked at him then.

Ro held his gaze. “He should’ve told you. He should’ve given you the chance to be mad before he did it, not after. I’m not taking that from you.”

Syn turned his attention back to the neighborhood. “Then why does everybody talk like I’m supposed to just understand? Let it go.”

Ro’s expression softened. “Because understanding isn’t the same as condoning. And because we all know Furi.”

“I know he wanted to help. I know he loves me. I know all of that,” he said, the words muffled against his palms. “But I’m the one who had to see him on that screen. I’m the one who had to read strangers talking about me and him like we’re done. Do you know how embarrassing it was to find out from Mason?”

Ro was quiet.

Syn dropped his hands. “Y’all keep telling me why he did it, but nobody wants to talk about what it did to me.”

The street began to blur at the edges.

He wasn’t going to bleed out on Ro’s porch like some wounded animal. But the truth was pressing hard now.

He wanted Furi. He wanted to go home and yell at him, to touch him, shove him away then drag him close again.

A loud motorcycle roared in the distance and Syn’s entire body reacted.

That custom engine was impossible to mistake.

Syn stood fast.

Ro stood slow. “Syn.”

It was too late, he was already moving.

“You gotta stop running, brother.”

“I’m not doing this right now.”

“Syn.”

He didn’t stop, his pulse beating hard.

He went inside, through the front hall, past the living room where Johnson’s laptop and work files sat on the coffee table, around the kitchen, until he was at the back door.

A few moments later the motorcycle cut off outside.

Syn braced both hands on the patio railing and stared out over Ro’s quiet backyard.

He didn’t want to talk to or even look at Furi.

His heart ached too much to face the man who’d broken it into pieces.

Furi

Furi couldn’t hold out another day.

Four days of walking through their house, of sleeping in an empty bed. Four days of checking his phone so often the battery gave up before noon, waiting for a message or call that never came.