Page 58 of Marked By Shadows
“They were following Joe’s phone. Got a hit off a cell tower nearby. Sounds like they were searching the area.”
“So they knew he was close…” I sighed, relaxing into Alex’s touch even though I felt sort of numb. Had they given me something at the hospital? I thought I vaguely recalled some sort of painkiller. “Was he alive? Is he alive?”
Alex sort of hesitated, but finally said, “Physically, yes.”
That was an odd answer. Alex reached for the towel, and carefully dried me off.
“What about you?” I asked waving at his body, though he looked clean.
“I showered while you were dozing. Want to brush your teeth?”
“Yes, please.”
“Will you fall asleep over the sink if I don’t hold you up?”
“Maybe. No promises.”
He helped me into my undies, then I leaned against the sink and watched him dress. Boxer briefs for him, and a T-shirt. Then we both brushed our teeth. The minty freshness helped ease some of my anxiety as the last of that acid was washed away. The stairs up to the loft felt like climbing Mount Everest. Alex helped me into bed, then vanished back downstairs, where the lights went out. He left the one near the door on, for which I was grateful, and returned to curl up next to me.
“Alex?” I had so much emotion floating in my gut, it began to well up, like a rising tide of anxiety. I was about to jump out of bed and start pacing when he rolled over, trapping me beneath his weight, and weaving his hand through my hair. It was a sudden stop to the anxiety, like he hit pressure points or something to turn me to jelly.
“In the morning,” he said. I reached up and wove my hand through his hair, delighting in his curls and the weight of it on my palm. Having him close helped. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on having him in my arms instead of the craziness of the past few hours.
Chapter 18
The morning arrived far too quickly. Alex rousing me with a huge cup of coffee and a handful of aspirin helped. I thought for a minute I’d have preferred a blow job to wake up, until my first sip of coffee, and realized Alex knew me better than I knew myself.
“How are you feeling?” He asked quietly. “Dizziness? Pain? Lightheaded? Nausea?”
“Tired,” I grumbled at him, sipping my coffee and relaxing.
I watched him move around the cabin, taking out clothes for us, putting away the things we had gotten from the store yesterday, cleaning and packing, keeping us organized. Alex did organized well when he focused. Him in skinny jeans and a Simply Crafty T-shirt hugging his shoulders did not help me focus. Had his ass always been so cute or was it the jeans accentuating the curves that helped?
“I feel like one of those anime characters drooling over a lover,” I muttered into my coffee.
Alex looked up and rewarded me with a sexy smile. He stalked the few feet to where I sat in a chair beside the door and leaned over to kiss me. Since I was already dressed and cleaned up for the morning, leaving coffee as my only flavoring, he lingered over my lips. I sighed into his mouth, wishing I could take him back to bed.
“You still want to go to the convention right away this morning?” Alex asked.
“Yes.” I was actually tempted to go today and then say screw it to the rest of the week and head home. If I could talk to a few people today, get contact information, and make a few connections, we wouldn’t need to attend with the bigger crowds and could leave behind the madness of the last few days. I was tired of being a suspect. Tired of having people stare at me like I knew stuff or was hiding things. Just tired of having to be the put together guy people remembered from a time long past.
“Drugs must be helping,” he said after a minute. “You’re not flinching when I kiss you.”
Had I reacted before? I could recall something prior to the coffee, but figured it wasn’t important enough to matter. “Does it look awful?”
“I hope people won’t think I’m beating you when we’re out and about,” Alex said. “You’re pretty colorful on that side.” He waved a hand to change the topic. “I have an Uber coming for us.”
“Huh?”
“Taking you to breakfast first, then the convention. Not a good idea for you to drive. So rideshare it is. What do we need with us?”
“We’re not going to the main house for breakfast?”
“No,” Alex said firmly. “I already sent a message to Freya. We’ll eat, then spend some time wandering around fabric. We could both use the distraction.”
“Okay,” I agreed, wondering what he had seen last night. “Are we going to talk about last night?” We actually had a lot to talk about. I had an endless cycle of questions on my mind.
He threw himself into the seat next to me, a frown defining the lines on his face. It was rare for him to look as old as he did in that moment. More the age of his soul seeping through than the physical age. The strain of life on his skin had always appealed to me about him. Small imperfections that drew my attention. Maybe I did have a daddy kink.