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Will nodded.
“Then you can easily say that you went over to the house of some old friends from your days in Paris,” Kairo stopped on a wince as if belatedly realizing that he was stepping on a sensitive area, but quickly pushed on. “You hang out here for the rest of the night. Ed and West are already grabbing some takeout. You turn off your phone and crash here. Tomorrow, you head to the clinic and act surprised like the rest of the world. Plus, you’ll have four guys to support your story.” Kairo placed a hand on Will’s shoulder and offered up a kind smile. “You need some plausible deniability, Doc Will. This option keeps the cops from digging too deeply into your life.”
It sounded good. Really good. Just one night of not having to worry. It bought him some time to mentally work on his story for the police. They’d been called to the clinic several times in the past for break-ins. People hit the place searching for drugs they could abuse or sell, but he’d learned long ago to keep very little on hand. It also didn’t hurt that the clinic’s neighbors were on the lookout for potential thieves. They couldn’t afford to allow service to stop at the clinic. They had too few other options.
“Okay. Thanks,” Will agreed with a nod, refusing to even direct his gaze at Charlie.
“Excellent! Everything will work out. Don’t you worry,” Kairo replied.
Will wasn’t convinced of that in the least, but at least he had a safe place to spend the night.
Edison and Westin arrived a few minutes later, heavily laden with food. The delicious smell stirred a disgruntled growl from his stomach. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. The clinic had been slammed all day, which was pretty damn normal. He usually took a break in the afternoon to cram a sandwich into his system, but he couldn’t recall even doing that.
Conversation around the table was awkward as they dug into the food. Charlie wasn’t talking. Westin never talked. And Will refused to talk about what he’d been doing over the past decade, mostly because he didn’t want Charlie to know anything about his life.
That left Kairo and Edison to hold the conversation together with a patchwork of crazy stories about weird things that happened in places they’d visited over the years. But as he listened, Will could tell there was so much they were censoring. Huge chunks of their lives that he wasn’t supposed to know about. And these were the people he was supposed to be trusting with his life. Including the man he’d given his heart to.
He was a fucking idiot.
As soon as the food was eaten and cleared away, Will escaped to the bathroom to shower. He couldn’t get away fast enough. The milanesa sandwich and provoleta were sitting heavy on his stomach, mixing with the anxiety he couldn’t shed after spending the past couple of hours with his ex. Kairo kindly loaned him a spare change of clothes since he was still trapped in his dirty scrubs from the clinic.
For several minutes, Will was simply content to stand under the lukewarm water as it hammered on the top of his head, letting it slowly wash away the miasma of dark thoughts and fears clouding his mind. Little by little, the worst of it sluiced off his too-slender frame and went down the drain.
When he exited the bathroom, he was feeling a bit more in control of his mind and emotions. At least, until he found Charlie leaning against the opposite wall, his arms folded across his chest and a neutral expression on his face.
Will carefully slid out of the doorway and motioned to the bathroom behind him. “It’s all yours. Even left you some hot water.”
“Come with me,” Charlie grumbled.
Will sighed. “I’m not in the mood to argue with you anymore.”
“Then don’t. Come on.”
Rolling his eyes at Charlie’s back, Will followed him down the hall and into one of the bedrooms. He needed to only draw in a deep breath to know this was the bedroom Charlie was using. Hints of his cologne and something that was just Charlie lingered in the air. His heart immediately sped up and a tingle started to spread throughout his body. How long had it been since he’d been alone in a bedroom with his man?
He opened his mouth to state that he was not sharing a room with him, but Charlie spoke before he could get the words out.
“You’ll sleep in here tonight. I’m taking the couch.”
Will closed his mouth and had to reorder his thoughts after that unexpected announcement. “You don’t have to do that. The couch is fine with me,” he replied, aiming for civil and polite.
The couch would be perfect. He couldn’t imagine being able to sleep when every time he rolled over, he was wrapped in the too-familiar scent of his former lover.
