Page 8 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

“We need to know who did this to you. If you let us swab you, we can find out.”

They heard the door, and Corbin slunk down into the bed to hide.

“It’s me,” Gene said. “Can I come back in?”

That stopped Corbin’s slide.

“Yeah, we’re talking about a kit,” Ethan said, clueing his partner in as he came around the corner with Ethan’s go bag.

Gene was honest.

“We need that kit,” he stated. “Desperately. If we’re going to find the people who did this, we need to get their DNA.”

Corbin said nothing.

But he was shaking.

Honestly, they couldn’t blame him.

“How about I do the kit?” Ethan asked. “Would you feel better if we did it off the record and the FBI ran the information so we could control who saw it?”

At that suggestion, Corbin opened his eyes, and stared up at Ethan.

“Promise?” he asked.

Blackhawk reassured him.

“You have my word, Corbin. I promise,” he said, reassuring him.

At that, Corbin gave in. Slowly, he nodded, giving him his consent.

Well, that was the hardest part.

While Ethan wasn’t a forensic scientist, he didn’t have to be one-hundred percent accurate. He just needed to swab Corbin’s thighs to see what they pulled up.

In case they couldn’t nail this down, that might help them in the long run.

At his words, Gene began pulling out some comfortable clothes from the bag. Ethan had his less formal clothes in there for when he wanted to work out.

“Where are the clothes you were wearing?” Gene asked.

He shrugged.

“I don’t know. I was found naked,” he whispered, as tears slipped down his face. “Maybe they were in the dumpster where they left me.”

Jesus.

Gene wanted to be sick. It was best if he excused himself from the room to handle a few things.

“Okay, Corby,” he said, placing a pair of sweats and an FBI T-shirt on the table next to the bed. “I’ll get the kit, and I’ll keep the nurses outside. We’ve got you. I promise too.”

And that was the only reason he agreed to the kit. They would make sure he was safe, and that was what Corbin needed right now more than anything.

With Gene handling that part, Ethan appreciated it. That allowed him to focus on the man.

When he was gone, Corbin looked exhausted, and no one could blame him.

“I’ll be incredibly gentle,” Blackhawk admitted. “I’m just going to swab your thighs. I promise it won’t be invasive. We don’t need to be thorough. We just need any DNA they left on you.”

Corbin’s voice was so low.

He knew the truth.

“I need another favor,” he said.

Ethan waited.

“I need you to tell me how bad it is,” he whispered. “I need you to tell me how badly they damaged me. I can’t look myself, and I don’t want a stranger touching me. I know it’s a lot to ask…”

Ethan stopped him.

“Hey, I’ll look for you, not as a Fed, but as someone who loves and cares about you. Gene and I will take care of you now, Corbin. You just breathe and heal.”

He relaxed.

Ethan knew why he was asking, and he could do that.

“Absolutely, Corbin.”

When the door opened, in came Gene, and he had a kit. He placed it on the table next to the clothing.

“Do you want me here?” he asked. “Or do you want me outside?”

Corbin sniffled.

“Where is Alice?” he asked, not answering.

Gene was honest.

“They are out there. They are in the lounge, and she’s pacing like a caged animal.”

Corbin made up his mind.

“Can you make sure the door is locked, and they stay out?” he asked. “Then, I need you to get me out of here,” he said.

His voice was an octave higher, and they could see the panicked look in his eyes.

Gently, Ethan lifted his chin with his fingers so that he was focused on his face and nothing else.

“Hey. It’s okay. We’re here and we’ll keep you safe. Breathe. Focus on me, Corbin, and Gene will make sure the door is locked, and I’ll check to see how badly you’re injured,” he said.

The man did as he said, and he matched his breathing to Ethan’s, so he didn’t hyperventilate. His eyes were locked onto Ethan’s, and he didn’t look away for a single second.

The whole time, Gene watched, and he saw that his partner was being the lifeline that Corbin would need to get through this.

In that moment, he loved him even more for his compassion.

And his heart.

As Gene made sure to lock the door, Ethan pulled back the blanket for Corbin, and slid his hospital gown up. He saw the bruising and the brutality of what happened to him.

“How bad is it?” he whispered, his eyes closed, as tears dripped from the corners.

Ethan opened the test tubes that had the swabs in them, and held them in his hand.

“You’re bruised up, but nothing is damaged permanently,” he said. “You have a burn on your inner thigh.”

Corbin knew how, but he said nothing. For now, he wanted to just get out of there. Slowly, he let out the breath he was holding.

“Just get it over with, please. I need to get out of here before I can’t.”

As Gene stood there, his back to the bed, staring at the door, Ethan did the one thing he never thought he’d ever do in his whole life.

He swabbed a friend’s thighs for trace of DNA from semen.

And it made his belly roll.

Somehow, he managed not to vomit, at how horrible this was to have to do, and the only reason was because Corbin needed him not to.

When the first swab touched his thigh, he jumped, and Ethan reassured him.

“It’s okay,” he said, swabbing along the inner thigh in hopes to catch the bastard.

“Did they use protection?” Gene asked, afraid to turn around.

Corbin shook his head.

“No,” Ethan said since his partner couldn’t see the acknowledgment.

Gene rolled his neck, and his fists were clenched by his sides as that rage overwhelmed him. He wanted to hurt someone in the worst way.

Oh, and that was a bad sign.

Corbin was going to have a long way back from this one. As in therapy, and HIV tests for the next year.

When Ethan got both sides of his thighs done, he helped Corbin up, and onto the side of the bed. It was time to give him what he needed.

An escape.

“Let’s get you dressed, and then, we’ll get you out of here,” Ethan said.

Corbin was watching him through his swollen face, and his one puffy eye.

“Thank you.”

Getting down on his knees, he helped put his legs into the sweats, and gently up his legs. When he stood, Ethan was grateful they were the same size, and that he could give him something comfortable to wear.

Taking the FBI T-shirt off the table, he helped get Corbin’s broken arm through it, and then over his head and re-set shoulder. As he did, he saw more terrible marks on his back.

There was that nausea again.

“He’s dressed,” Ethan said.

Then, and only then, did Gene turn around.

Corbin had on the grippy socks that the hospital gave him, and Ethan’s things.

Only, he needed something to keep him warm.

Taking off his zip up hoodie, Gene carried it to him, and held it out.

“It’s cold out,” he admitted.

Ethan helped Corbin into it, and it dwarfed his body, but it would keep him warm. Ethan could smell Gene’s cologne on it, and he hoped it would give Corbin a little sense of security.

Like a blanket.

When he was fully dressed, he looked over at Gene. Corbin was not going to make it on his own two feet, so one of them was going to carry him.

That someone would be Gene.

Since he could carry Ethan, that would be Corbin’s best chance of getting away unseen. If they had to help him walk to the stairwell, they risked getting caught.

“We need to slip him out of here. Can you make that happen?” he asked.

Gene nodded.

“Felonious escape? Absolutely.”

Together, they helped Corbin leave the hospital, despite probably needing to stay.

Gene saw a wet spot on Corbin’s leg.

“I think he’s bleeding,” he offered.

Ethan looked down.

“It’s the burn. I don’t know what it is, but it’s weeping,” he admitted.

Corbin finally admitted to it.

Well, to that burn.

“The one biker was wearing a ring. It was a skull. He heated it up with a lighter.”

That was all he had to say.

Gene actually growled from where he was standing, proving how pissed he was. He might look calm, but Ethan knew the truth.

He was going to blow.

“Then, he held it to my thigh. He said I was marked as the group’s property now,” Corbin stated.

The whole time, Ethan listened and made mental notes. Everything Corbin remembered would help them find who did this.

That made Ethan think one thing.

They’d planned on trafficking Corbin at some point.

“Only, it got so violent that they thought they killed me,” he said, his voice wavering. “They dumped me naked in the dumpster.”

“But you survived,” Gene said. “You already beat them,” he added, wishing he could make this disappear for Corbin.

At his words, as they were waiting for the hallway to clear, Corbin stared at him.

“Did I?” he asked. “Because they’ve taken everything from me. I’ll never be able to be with anyone ever again. I’ll have to let Will go, and I don’t know if I will have the ability to do my job. This feels like losing,” he admitted. “In fact, I’m already lost.”

How did they answer that?

They couldn’t.

What they did know was Corbin was going to take a long time to work through this.

It looked like their brother from another mother was about to be in their care.

As long as it took.