“Tell me.”
Diesel filled Maddox in on everything, including the drug runs, blackmail, sexual assault, and beatings. “Clay’s brother Auto followed Triton here to the bus station and attacked him.”
“That motherfucker. I’ll fucking end him.”
“Not before I get to him first,” Diesel silently thought.
“Can you call the local hospital here and give them Triton’s medical coverage info? His wallet was stolen,” he said instead.
“Yeah, will do.”
“Triton also told me that Clay and Auto deal in large quantities of heroin with someone named Sticks.”
“That might work in our favor. Hang on,” Maddox responded.
The phone went quiet, with only the sound of voices murmuring in the background.
“You there?” Maddox asked.
“Yup.”
“River knows a US Marshal here in Texas that might be able to look into Clay and Auto and this Sticks guy.”
“Let me know as soon as you find something.”
“I will. Can you keep Triton there with you? I’m still on base, but I’ll talk to Liam.”
“Yeah, I can do that.” He tried to keep the rush of relief out of his voice.
“Thanks, Diesel. I know the last thing you want is your home life disrupted.”
“It’s no problem.”
“It’s not?”
“No. Call me when you have info on either of the Martin brothers.” He hung up on Maddox and rubbed at his forehead.
“What is Maddox going to do?”
Diesel turned and found the lovely blond boy in bare feet at his doorway wearing his shirt. Triton chewed on the inside of his cheek and Diesel groaned silently.
“He’s going to confront your boyfriend.”
“He’s no longer my boyfriend!” It was the first sign of temper he’d seen from Triton and he was glad for it.
“Are you sure? You went back to him last time.” He squinted, testing the boy’s resolve.
“No, this is it. I can’t even work because of him.” Triton lifted his cast, a sheen of brightness in his eyes.
“Maddox will see to him.”
“He will?”
The boy’s eyes were wide.
“Yeah.” And Diesel would see to Auto. That fucker was going down. And if Clay comes here, I’ll kill him too.
Triton pressed his fingers to his lips.
“It’s going to be okay, come help me with dessert.”
Triton kind of sort of took over and Diesel, amused, let him. It was much more interesting to watch Triton flit around his kitchen getting pie and whip cream served on small plates.
The treat was damned good and he ate his before disappearing into his study for some alone time.
Only, it was too damned quiet, so he ended up back out in the hallway listening for Triton.
He stopped at the boy’s bedroom door and heard Triton talking to Molly and Cedar. Both had deserted him after the first day. He smirked and headed down to his bedroom at the back of the house and turned on the television. That was one of the benefits of living alone, he could have peace and quiet when he chose and go find entertainment when he wanted.
He had plenty of people in his life, and when he wanted to, he could seek them out.
Yet none of them had the soft lips of the boy in the next room. None of them made him feel protective enough to kill, and not one of them had ever made his cock so fucking hard he could pound nails with it.
He turned the television volume on low, just in case Triton called out and needed him.
Triton
Diesel didn’t want anything to do with him. He couldn’t do anything right, his arm was useless, and Diesel was babysitting him.
Ever since the kiss last week when he’d broken the glass, his words had become jumbled and stilted around Diesel.
He rolled to his stomach on the bed.
Cedar jumped up and purred. “Where’s your master?” he asked the cat.
The big male bumped it’s head against his and purred. Triton chewed on his lip while he ran his fingers over the cat’s fur.
Snagging his phone from the side table near the bed, he called Fraser.
“Hey! I was so worried. I haven’t heard from you since the one text that said you were with Diesel and would call me,” Fraser hissed.
Triton smiled. “Why didn’t you text me if you were worried?”
“You were supposed to call me, ya brat.”
Triton eased onto his side, and his smile died as he thought back to all that had gone on since leaving Fraser. “I had trouble at the train station.”
“What?! Tell me.”
“Clay must have traced my credit card purchase. Auto followed me to Oregon. He dragged me outside of the station. I think he was going to rape me,” he sniffled.
“Oh, honey, that fucker,” Fraser whispered. “What happened?”
“Some lady came out of the station and fired a shot gun at Auto, and he ran. They took me to the hospital.” He chewed his lip. “They called Diesel.” He filled Fraser in on Auto trying to kidnap him from the hospital and how Diesel and the sheriff, Memphis, had saved him.
“Oh, my god. I can’t believe this is happening to you.”
“I told you, I’m a shit magnet.”
“Stop it,” Fraser snapped, and then said, “Is Auto still in town?”
“I saw him outside of the doctor’s office last week, but nothing since.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, so all I can do is pray that he leaves or the cops get him.”
“Are you going to press charges?”
“I don’t know.” He hadn’t thought that far ahead. If they arrested Auto, he’d have to press charges, wouldn’t he?
“Are you kidding me? You better press charges as much as possible so that asshole pays for what he’s done to you.”
“Diesel said what Auto did was sexual assault, but it could have been a lot worse. Thank god he’d never tried to blackmail me into fucking him.”
“Well, the only reason he didn’t do that was because Clay would have killed him.”
“True. Clay is much worse than Auto.”
“But Clay isn’t there and Auto is. And they both assaulted you and need to pay. You need to press charges.”
“I transported drugs for him,” he whispered.
“By force!” Fraser hissed and then sighed. “Listen, honey, I’m about ready to start my shift. Call me later?”
“I will.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He hung up after wishing Fraser a good night and rolled to his back to gaze up at the slow moving ceiling fan. The dark wood slats were a contrast to the whitewashed ceiling. He smiled. It was so peaceful here. Somewhere in the house, Diesel was talking on the phone, or maybe it was the television.
His phone buzzed and he glanced at the text from an unknown number.
You fucking sic’d your cousin on me? You piece of shit. As soon as Auto finds you? I’ll be on my way. To Oregon.
With trembling fingers, he typed back the rapid reply.
Stay away from me!
Shit, shit! He gazed at his cell phone blankly, then jumped from the bed. Clay had used another phone because he’d blocked the bastard’s number.