Page 14 of Bent, Not Broken

“Sugar pie,” she said, her soft Southern accent flowing over me, almost like another hug, this one for my soul. She beamed, and instantly I felt a little better. “You stink to high heaven. What have you been up to?” She glanced behind me at River, and her expression shifted. I knew that one. Cougar Mom.

“I know I do. He’s gay,” I said quickly, and she pouted, but shrugged. Her good mood easily flowed back. We were a lot alike that way.

“Lovely to meet you.” She held out her hand, and River easily slid next to me and shook with her. I made the introductions fast because I was starting to feel weird and antsy and hot again.

“Mom, I need to go shower and unwind,” I said, and she nodded along while I talked.

“Oh yes. Brunch tomorrow, sweetness?” She draped her hand on my forearm. Her request was more of a demand. I rested my hand on hers.

“Tomorrow’s a weekday, Mom. I work, remember?”

“Oh, honey pet, why?” She rolled her eyes. “Dinner, then?”

“Yes, Mother.”

She beamed and leaned in to kiss my cheek. She was brave that way. I realized too late I was a stepping-stone as she slid her hand around River’s elbow and dragged him to her side. He made it look like it was his idea to move with her. “Dear, why don’t you stay and entertain me? Who are you again?”

River shot me a look, but I only laughed and turned toward my apartment over the pool house. The downstairs doors were open and someone inside was working the bar with people coming and going, but my apartment upstairs was dark. I went around the side of the building and up the stairs. The door to my place wasn’t locked, and thankfully no one had snuck in from the party. I flipped on the lights, locked the door, and immediately went over to the big windows in my living room. The view looked out over Lake Ontario, and I stared at the dark softly tossing water visible in the distance. The moon rose, fat and silver, and seemed like I should be able to reach out and touch it.

“Do not take drugs from strangers again,” I said out loud and rubbed my temples. My head was pounding, and my mouth was so fucking dry. I went into the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge. I downed the first one and then sipped the second. I took an ice pack out of the freezer, just to hold the coolness to my neck, and then lay right down on the chilly tiles of the kitchen floor. My heart hammered so fast I felt like I’d been running forever. My dick wasn’t perking up anymore. Maybe I’d been feeling this bad all along, and the good part of the drug had worn off. This was how people got addicted. If I had more, I might have been tempted to take it to ward off this crash.

“No more fucking drugs from strangers,” I muttered again, slapping my hand holding the ice pack over my chest. My heart didn’t calm down, and for half a second I considered calling an ambulance, but that was stupid. What would they do? Nothing, probably. And I would be fine. While I lay there, talking myself out of a ride in the wee-woo wagon, I closed my eyes and remembered every second of Slater destroying me. It was so goddamned good. Maybe that was why my heart wouldn’t behave. Maybe it had gotten stuck on high speed while he was banging me. Laughing, aware enough to realize I was still fucked-up, I drank more water and waited for this shit to clear my system.

After all, I had work in the morning.

Chapter 5

Evan

Waking up the next morning left my head spinning and my gut churning, not because I’d drunk anything that made me nauseous, but I realized what I’d done. I’d fucked Madden Polunin. Hell, I could get over the fact he was a guy, but not which guy it was.

“Fuck.” I let my head fall between my arms and slouched over the small, round dining table I’d bought from a yard sale a few years back. It wobbled under my weight, and creaked some too, but held firm. “What the fuck are you doing?”

It was the same question I’d been asking for the last hour, since I managed to pull myself out of bed and into the shower. As I sat here, after devouring a protein shake that felt heavy in my gut, I really began to wonder if I’d gone nuts. I’d never been interested in a guy before, and I hadn’t drunk enough to use the excuse of intoxication. There was no denying that I’d had sex with a man, and not just any man, but Madden fucking Polunin.

My phone buzzed beside me and I grabbed it blindly, tapping the green icon and slamming it to my ear. “What?”

“You have received a call from Allenwood Maximum Security Correctional Facility. Do you wish to accept the charges?”

The familiar automated voice made me flinch. “Yes.” This was the last thing I wanted right now, but if I didn’t accept his call, he’d keep trying. The man didn’t know when to quit.

“Evan, hello!” My father’s jovial voice made my skin itch, and I clenched my fist around my phone tighter.

“What do you want?” I bit out, in no mood to entertain him. I stared through the back window of my home, which looked out into the yard barely big enough for a clothesline and a small garden. The fence connected to the house behind me was wire, and the elderly neighbor was in his own yard, yanking out weeds in the small bed of roses. I never understood the joys of gardening, but I’d never had the time to have a hobby, either. When I wasn’t working, I stalked the clubs looking for my next lay, or watched whatever sports were in season.

“Is that any way to talk to your father?”

“No, it’s how I talk to murderers,” I hissed, my hand curling into a fist on the thick wooden tabletop. My stomach clenched, and if I could have reached through the phone and strangled him, I would have. “Because that’s all you are to me, Archie. A murderer.”

“That’s not very nice.” He laughed and it sent a cold shiver down my spine. I used to enjoy listening to my father laugh, it was comforting to the child version of me, but now it made me want to vomit.

“What do you want?” I got to my feet and threw the bottle from the protein shake I’d just finished into the sink, the clatter loud enough that he’d be able to hear it on the other end of the line. “I have to go to work.” The lie came easily, any reason to stop talking to him.

“A policeman’s duty is never finished.” His calm tone always irked me. I hated how the man was in prison, but he acted like it was a vacation.

“If that’s all you have to say—”

“Come visit me. I miss my only child.”