Double Heat [Twin Ties: 3] (37 page)

There were no more knocks, no buzzes of the doorbell. It was quiet.

Evan went to the window to look down at the street. Grabbing his phone from the table, Evan dialed and said a moment later, “Yeah, Carter? Can you come by a little earlier? Someone was just buzzing our bell and I have no idea who it was. Thanks.”

Evan hung up and looked at Brennan. “He’s on his way. He said to keep the door locked and that he’d call when he got here.”

Chapter 30
Armed and Dangerous

“You should take some college classes. Get Charlie to foot the bill,” Carter said, swirling his coffee cup. They were sitting on a bench at the fringes of campus, waiting until Brennan was finished with his Microbiology class. When Carter had arrived at the apartment, there had been no sign of anyone below, or who it might have been ringing their doorbell. Evan tried to tell himself it was nothing, but the whole thing gave him the creeps. He tried not to think about it though, or humor the paranoia.

“Classes in what?” Evan laughed. “I was awful at school. Straight C student, all the way.”

“Maybe you just had too much shit to deal with to concentrate.”

“And I don’t anymore?” Evan countered, slightly flabbergasted.

Carter shrugged. “You’re eighteen. You should get training in something while you’re young.”

“I did. I’m a mechanic.”

“Mm,” Carter hummed, giving him a sideways look as he sipped his coffee. Evan rolled his eyes a little, but glimpsed the bulge in the back waistband of Carter’s jeans.

“You’re fucking ridiculous.”

“Why am I ridiculous?”

“What do you think you’re gonna do with that thing? Are you even licensed to carry?”

“What am I, stupid? Of course I am. Some sick motherfucker threatened and abducted you, brought you to an abandoned warehouse and raped you on camera. I’m carrying my fucking gun.”

“You’re my hero, dude,” Evan said with exhausted sarcasm, fighting a strong need to correct Carter’s terminology. Nothing about what Drew had done felt like rape. He wished people would stop calling it that. “Should I be paying you for all of this protection you’re providing?”

“You’re not scared of him?” Carter asked with some disbelief, reading between Evan’s lines. It said a lot, in Evan’s opinion, that Carter now knew him well enough to do so.

“He’s just a twisted sort of ex-boyfriend, man,” Evan sighed. “I know you all don’t see it that way, but that’s how it feels. I don’t hate him. Sure he’s kind of a perv, but he’s not the oldest guy I’ve ever fucked around with, and he’s not even the one I’ve done the freakiest shit with. He’s
never
been mean to me. It’s just circumstances.”

“Damn, you’re a fuckin’ perfect match for the Popović twins, aren’t you?”

“I’m going to choose to take that as a compliment,” Evan replied. “And no, I’m not scared of him. Not the way you mean. He’s just hard up is all. You can’t fault someone for that. At least I can’t. He’s never actually hurt me.” Evan knew that wasn’t technically true, and Drew did unsettle him a little. “I guess I’m more scared of what he’ll be able to get me to go along with. It’s always been so rare to actually have a guy interested in me; I have a hard time saying no when someone
is
interested.”

“Even though you’re in
many
relationships at the moment?” Carter countered, looking right at him. “That doesn’t factor in at all?”

Evan avoided eye contact and looked at his hands instead. “Not really used to that either.” He probably should have stopped there, but Carter was so easy to talk to, and it felt so good to say things that had been trapped in his head, he found he couldn’t stop. “That day, after Jimmy picked me up and dropped me at home? I was so afraid of Alek seeing evidence of what I’d done with Drew in the way I was acting, like the guilt was something he’d be able to smell or see, I threw myself at him. But sex wasn’t good enough to hide everything, so when I got upset, it was because of how I felt about my part of what happened with Drew rather than being traumatized by anything Drew had done.”

“
We
don’t see it that way,” Carter whispered, pointing at himself. He looked as angry as ever. “That guy brainwashed you, Evan.”

“No, I don’t think he did,” Evan argued.

“And,
that’s
exactly why I’m carrying,” Carter said defensively.

It would have been nice, Evan thought, if he could pull his guilt off like an old coat and hang it up for Carter to take aim at. He could blast it full of holes so the bad feelings would seep through instead of staying stuck inside.

“You really don’t think he’s going to come after you for payback?”

“Why would he? He’s the one who left pictures and videos and shit lying around, collecting his trophies. He’s gotta stay hidden if he doesn’t want to end up behind bars. The last place I’d want to be if I was him is out in public, coming after people.”

“What about that thing this morning with the person at your door?”

Evan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m trying to be careful, expect anything. I’m sick and tired of being a victim.”

“Good. Thank god for that.”

Evan gave Carter a tentative smile and clapped him on the back. “Thanks for doing this, and watching out for us.”

“No problem, man,” Carter nodded. “That’s what friends are for.”

Maybe going to band practice had been a bad idea. Evan sat on an old, ratty couch with Brennan at his side, thumbing through some materials he’d brought back from class. The band was tuning up and debating which song to do first. Some groupies were there too, women in criminally short skirts and low-cut tops, flashing their brightest smiles to the guys in the band and laughing at all of their jokes, even the ones that weren’t particularly funny. Everyone kept glancing at the twins on the couch. Evan figured their identical appearance was a visual oddity too blatant to ignore, but understanding the reason for the stares didn’t make them any more comfortable.

He’d murmured a warning to Brennan on the way to practice, telling him to keep his hands off and help keep the others from suspecting anything unusual about the brothers’ relationship. Brennan’s response had been a scoff, like Evan’s concern was ridiculous. He seemed offended Evan didn’t have more faith in him.

But now, Brennan was pressed right up against Evan’s thigh, leaning on him absentmindedly, obliterating any sort of personal space between them. Brennan didn’t even know he was doing it. Every time Evan shoved Brennan away or scooted in the opposite direction, Brennan always migrated back over.

“Stop touching me,” Evan murmured under his breath, trying to lean away from Brennan’s shoulder, nudging his leg.

“I’m not,” Brennan argued, chewing on a fingernail and frowning at a particularly dense paragraph of text in the open book on his lap. His hand fell onto Evan’s thigh.

“
Bren
,” Evan hissed, swatting the hand away.

“Hmm?”

“
Stop touching me
.”

Brennan flipped over the page he was looking at and put his hand right back where it had been, halfway up Evan’s right thigh.

People were looking at them—a girl with platinum blonde hair in a leather skirt and a Raed t-shirt, Jamie, and that girl Meadow that Evan had first seen at the gym with Luka.

“Okay, I give up,” Evan sighed, standing.

Right away, Brennan looked up, brow furrowed. “Don’t leave.”

“Can you even hear the words coming out of my mouth right now?”

“Of course. What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with
you
?”

The drummer started up then, pounding a driving rhythm. The guitars kicked in and everyone fell silent, listening avidly. Evan and Brennan were the only ones not really paying attention. The noise just meant they couldn’t talk or be able to hear each other. Evan raised his eyebrows accusingly at his brother, who was pouting like Evan had just horribly abandoned him.

Determined to stop giving the others a reason to stop looking at them suspiciously, Evan wandered away to lean against the wall instead.

But Brennan was just as determined as his twin. Halfway through the song, Brennan left to couch to sit at Evan’s feet, leaning against his leg like he was attached to it. Evan rolled his eyes and sent up a prayer of supplication. He caught the eye of the blonde, who was smirking at him. Maybe it wasn’t weird to her to see a pair of twins cozied up together, but it was weird to him. All of the instincts ingrained in him since grade school to not let anyone see him touching another guy, ever, made it hard to believe when they saw him and Brennan touching, they thought it was innocent. Or maybe he was just never going to learn to relax and not worry so much. Quickly, he looked away, wanting to be out of there.

“Yeah, this is Alek?” he said upon answering his cell. Alek walked up to his truck, parked in the hospital’s employee lot. The doors unlocked with a click and the lights flashed.

“Alek? This is Hailey. Brennan’s friend?” a female voice with a pronounced Southern drawl said.

“Hey, Hailey,” Alek replied. “What’s up?”

“Well, you’d asked me to let you know if I noticed anything with Tommy.”

“Yeah. What’s going on?”

“It’s just that no one’s seen him in a couple days. I know someone who’s in his calculus class and he didn’t show yesterday. He hasn’t been at his dorm either. I checked. Just thought you should know. It might not mean anything.”

“Shit. Okay, thanks for calling.”

“No problem.”

He hung up, cursing again and glancing around the lot like Tommy was lurking nearby, watching his every move. It was stupid and paranoid, but Alek didn’t like the feeling of uncertainty. He had to get home and check on Brennan.

He pulled the door handle of the truck and moved to get inside when his phone buzzed again. This time, it wasn’t due to an incoming call. It was a message.

He didn’t recognize the number but curiosity got him to open the message anyway.

“Oh, you mother
fucker
,” Alek snarled. As he stared at the image glowing in vivid color on his screen, he had an overpowering urge to reach into the phone and rip it apart.

It was a screen-capture image of a video of Drew having sex with Evan. The background was obscured, but it must have been taken at the warehouse Evan mentioned. Evan was on a bed, his legs in the air, pulled back with straps, and was being violated by Drew’s penis.

“I will fucking
kill
this bastard,” Alek seethed. More than anything, he wanted to delete the image, but told himself he’d need it as evidence. It didn’t matter that Evan didn’t seem to be in pain in the photo, or distressed. Drew had no right to touch Evan in any sense, and he had one hell of a set of balls to send Alek that picture.

Another message came through as Alek’s phone chimed with the message alert sound.

He didn’t want to look. He really didn’t.

This time it was a video file, just a couple of seconds long.

It was an image of the bed, with Evan bound to it. Drew’s hand was curled in a fist between Evan’s spread legs like he was crushing his balls and Evan was crying out, “It hurts!”

A third message popped up. Text only.

‘He’s going to regret that he talked.’

Alek couldn’t breathe. He had to do something. Holding his head in his hand, he tried to calm down and think, but he wanted to hit something, hurt someone, lash out, or scream. He needed to do
something
.

He could send a message in reply, but what? What good could that possibly do?

He could call 9-1-1, but what would he say? Where would he send them?

Before his thoughts got any further, he was dialing Evan’s phone, hoping to god it was turned on and he could hear it ringing. He knew Evan was supposed to be with Brennan at Raed’s band practice, so he told himself not to assume the worst when the call wasn’t picked up.

Fishing out his wallet, he found the business card for the detective assigned to handle the investigation of Drew. Alek called the number and hoped—prayed—that the detective would have an answer.