Inferno (6 page)

“It’s important that you are in the best of health, Danny.”

Danny stared.

He had been lied to his entire life, told that the people he had lived with were his family only to learn that they weren‘t. He had heard Charles talking about money being transferred to his account. Despite what Charles and the others wanted to believe, he wasn’t stupid. He knew Charles had been paid to take care of him. He didn’t understand why if he had family out there somewhere they didn’t raise him unless they didn’t want him.

“Can I have my bags, please?”

“I’ll carry them for now.”

Danny felt the screams of frustration at the back of his throat but he kept his mouth firmly closed, refusing to let them out. He just wanted to go home and pick up the pieces of his life. “They belong to me.”

“I understand that, Danny.” Abe’s voice was deep and timbered. “I’m not trying to take them away from you. I just want to make it a little easier for you.”

“Why?” Danny asked, his voice a little awkward. There had to be a reason. He knew that there were a lot of good people in the world. He had even met a few in his time, like Betty and Vinnie. But anyone that had anything to do with Charles O’Shay couldn’t be all that good.

“You’re important to me,” Abe replied.

And you’re lying through your teeth
. Danny wanted to say the words. They were on the tip of his tongue. But the knowledge that he could have his head handed to him if he insulted the bigger man kept him silent.

Danny stared at the bags Abe carried, wanting to rip them off of the man’s shoulder and leave. They were his bags. More importantly, some of the stuff in those bags were his prized possessions. He didn’t even have the option of just walking away.

“Is your brother going to be much longer?” Danny asked. “I really need to head home. I have a prescription I need to get filled.” And he needed to do it while he was thinking about it or he would get wrapped up in work or his studies and never go to the pharmacy.

“Why do you have a prescription?” Abe’s eyes became hooded like those of a hawk. “Are you sick?”

Danny held up his cast. “Dr. Jones always prescribes me antibiotics when I end up in the emergency room. It‘s a precautionary thing.”

“Just how often have you been to the emergency room?”

Danny bought his good hand up to stifle his giggle. He hated it when he giggled. People looked at him funny…kind of like Abe was looking at him now.

Danny’s mouth slid into a thin-lipped smile. “Since my presence doesn’t seem to be needed here anymore, I need to get going.” Danny held out his hand for his bags. “Thank you for holding them for me.”

Abe wouldn’t relinquish them. Instead, he grabbed Danny’s uninjured hand and tucked it around his arm. Danny had no choice but to follow the powerful man as he walked out the back door and headed for the street. Somehow, the humungous truck that Abe walked toward fit the man. Danny would need a ladder just to get into the passenger seat…if he was so inclined to get into the passenger seat.

The truck was dark green, maybe a hunter green color. Danny wasn’t sure. He just knew it was dark green. It also had four doors, although the two back doors were a little smaller than the front doors. And a long truck bed in the back that seemed to go on forever.

An antenna rose up from the middle of the roof, which Danny found fascinating. He had always been intrigued by CB radios and HAM radios. Communication devices that ran on a different frequency than most modern radios were amazing.

Abe opened the both passenger side doors, setting Danny’s bags on the bench seat in back before turning back to Danny, holding out his hand. “It’s kind of high up. Why don’t you let me help you until your wrist is a little better?”

Danny was too startled by Abe’s suggestion to offer any objection. He stepped forward, his face flooding with color when Abe’s hands landed on his waist and he was lifted up onto the front seat. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Ben and I are going to drive you back to your apartment. We’re going to get your prescription filled, get some lunch, and then we are all going to sit down and talk.” Abe’s expression became tight with strain. “And we really need to talk, Danny.”

“Okay.” Danny had no idea what he was agreeing to but he’d pretty much say anything to get the agonized expression off of the man’s face. He didn’t know Abe but no one should look that upset.

The silence that seemed to surround them was uncomfortable. Danny wiggled in his seat as he tried to think of something to say to fill the void.

“How did you injure your wrist?”

Danny almost blew out a breath of relief when Abe spoke. He hated small talk because he never knew what to say. He smiled as he held his cast up. “Trying to read while walking up some steps. I tripped and down I went.”

“You ever think you shouldn’t walk and read at the same time?”

There was a trace of laughter in Danny’s voice when he replied. “You wouldn’t be the first person to tell me that. Dr. Jones already chewed me out for it. And this time I was lucky.”

Abe’s eyes widened as they landed on Danny’s cast. “You call that lucky?”

“Oh yeah. I switched from hot coffee to iced coffee recently. It might be cold but I don’t end up with second degree burns.”

Abe’s eyes went from wide to narrow little slits. “You’re speaking from experience, aren’t you?”

Danny’s expression stilled and grew serious. “Yeah, sort of.” He held his cast up again. “This wasn’t the first time I went to the ER because I tripped.”

“Just how often do you trip?”

“About as often as I walk.”

“Sounds to me like you need a keeper.” Abe seemed to study Danny’s face unhurriedly, feature by feature. “Ben and I would like to apply for the job.”

The heavy lashes that shadowed Danny’s cheeks flew up. “What?” Surely he hadn’t heard what he thought he did. “You want to be my keeper?”

What exactly did that mean?

Abe’s eyes roamed over Danny’s face approvingly. “Keeper, mate, lover, there are many names for the position.”

All of Danny’s loneliness and confusion welded together in one upsurge of devouring yearning and then plummeted to his feet just as fast. His misery was like a steel weight holding him down.

Danny was suddenly assailed by a terrible sense of bitterness. He had been elated when he learned that he wasn’t related to Charles and his children, but only because it meant the same hatefulness that ran in their veins didn’t run in his. If he ever decided to have kids one day, he didn’t want to pass that craziness on to them.

But for Abe, a total stranger, to tease him like he was, offering a connection that Danny craved more than his next breath, and then to joke about it…that was unforgivable.

Danny swallowed the despair in his throat and turned, reaching over the seat for his bags. He needed to go and he needed to go now. Once he grabbed the shoulder straps on his bags, he turned and lowered his feet as close to the ground as he could get and then slid down the rest of the way.

Danny would thank the powers that be later for allowing him to land on his feet instead of face-first on the ground. He might be a walking disaster area but he did have some pride.

“Thank you for the offer of a ride, Abe.” He was so furious he could hardly speak. “But I really need to get going. I’ll just catch the bus.” Danny walked away, leaving Abe standing there with his mouth hanging open. It was the grandest exit of Danny’s entire life.

And the saddest.

The pain in his heart became a sick and fiery gnawing. Danny wanted nothing more than to go home and bury himself in his bed...with some double chocolate fudge ice cream. And maybe another romance novel. Someone, somewhere deserved a happy ending.

It sure wasn’t going to be Danny.

A hot tear rolled down his cheek. Danny angrily brushed it away. He wasn’t going to cry because some jerk was having fun at his expense. It wasn’t the first time that had happened and Danny doubted it would be the last. Some people just seemed to need to be mean and Danny was the perfect target.

Maybe he should take up martial arts?

Danny saw the bus coming and hurried his steps so he could reach the designated stop before the bus took off. His father’s neighborhood was far enough outside the city that the bus only came once an hour. Danny did not want to be sitting there waiting for it.

Knowing the way his luck went, Charles would come out of the house and demand he go back home. Danny almost started running faster at the dreadful thought.

His current streak of good luck seemed to be with him. Danny reached the bus in plenty of time. The ticket he had purchased to get to his childhood home was even still valid. Danny showed it to the bus driver and then climbed onto the bus, finding a seat near the back of the bus. He set his bags down in the seat next to him.

When the bus didn’t move right away, Danny pulled out the schedule. His heart sank when he realized that the bus was early and he actually had another ten minutes before it took off.

Danny chewed on his lower lip as he glanced out the window, praying that no one approached the bus, got on the bus, or even looked in the bus’s direction.

So much could happen in ten minutes.

“Where’s Danny?”

Abe winced and dug the toe of his boot into the grass. “I think I messed up.”

Ben’s mouth opened. “You think?”

“Look.” Abe spread his fingers wide then folded them together as if unable to decide what to do with them. “You know I’m not the smooth-talking one. You should have been the one to talk to Danny, not me.”

Just because Abe was right didn’t mean Ben wasn’t pissed at his twin. Of the two of them, Ben was much easier with words. Abe tended to just get frustrated and use brute strength to get what he wanted. It made his work as a firefighter and smoke jumper a little easier but it sucked when it came to interpersonal relationships.

Strangling his twin was out of the question because he needed the man in order to mate with Danny. For a true bonding, they both had to be there. They both had to claim Danny. They both had to accept that they would share a mate between them.

It was just the way things were done.

Reining in his temper, Ben stared intently at his brother before pulling his hand down his face. He suddenly felt very tired. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

“I was trying to get Danny into the truck so that we could take him back to his place to pack his stuff. We were talking and I mentioned that you and I wanted to take care of him.”

“And what did he say?”

“Up until that point, he just seemed confused.” Abe’s forehead wrinkled as if he was just as confused. “I even had him sitting in the cab of the truck.”

“And then what happened?” It was like pulling a truck with taffy. “What made Danny take off?”

“We were talking about his frequent trips to the emergency room because apparently this wasn’t the first time he’s been there. Danny says he trips a lot. I told him that it sounded like he needed a keeper and that you and I would like to apply for the position.”

“Abraham.” His tone was coolly disapproving.

A sudden chill hung in the air as Ben’s nostrils flared with fury. He turned and rested his hands on the edge of the pickup bed. His gripped the cold hard metal instead of wrapping his fingers around his brother’s throat.

“I fucked up, didn’t I?” Abe’s voice was low, resigned. Ben had heard that tone more than once since the day they took their first breathes. He doubted this would be the last time.

“Honestly? Yeah, you did,” Ben replied. “I don’t think Danny knows anything about us or our life.”

Abe stared for a moment then burst out laughing. “
Riiight
.”

“I’m serious, Abe. I got the impression that Danny has no idea what is going on here or what he means to us. O’Shay didn’t say anything to him. When I questioned him about it, O’Shay just gave me that smug smile of his.”

The color blanched out of Abe’s golden tanned skin. “Oh, shit!”

“That was my impression as well.” They had both seen that arrogant self-righteous expression on Charles O’Shay’s face more than once over the years. The man thought he was better than them because he was human and didn’t have to hide who he was from the rest of the world.

Ben actually felt kind of bad for the human simply because he could never lift his nose into the air and smell an elk a mile away or hear an eagle flying overhead before he could see it. O’Shay would never understand the joy found in a simple romp in the woods or a bath in the creek on a hot summer day.

“All right look.” Ben pushed a hand through his short hair as he glanced around. “Which way did Danny go? I’ll track him down and try to talk reason into him. You follow in the truck.”

Abe’s lips pressed together, the man simply pointing down the street. Ben took off, scanning both sides of the road as he hurried to catch up with Danny.

He understood how Abe could have messed up. Abe felt things deeply but that made him lock down his emotions so that they wouldn’t get the better of him. It was something he had to do when their father Isaac died. Abe had been particularly close to him.

The downside of that was that Abe tended to put a lot of distance between himself and others. Ben was probably one of the few people that Abe let close, and then only because of their twin connection. Abe wasn’t close like this with any of their other brothers.