Page 52 of String Boys

Kelly gasped, and Seth pulled back and cupped his cheeks in his hands. “Your family’s coming,” Seth warned. “And I can’t… I just…. Believe the best in me, okay?”

Kelly nodded, adrift and in pain. “Always.”

“I’ll write you. If you don’t hear from me, it’s because the world came to an end, okay? ’Cause you’re the only thing keeping me on the planet, you understand? Otherwise, my head, it’s a thousand miles away all the time. So I gotta think about you or I’ll be in outer space.”

Kelly squeezed his eyes tight. “I like you here,” he said, thinking that on any other day, he could make that funny.

Seth’s lips on his again was his only answer. Then all that was left was the chill of the hospital air and the sound of Seth’s tennis shoes squeaking across the floor.

He opened his eyes and Seth had paused in the doorway, looking awful and sad and wrecked.

“I love you, Kelly Cruz,” Seth said, nodding like that would make this all okay. “I love you more than… than my fucking violin. You’re safe now. Get better. Write me back. I love you.”

And then he was gone.

Kelly’s parents came in about two minutes later, and Kelly wondered how Seth had known they were on their way.

They told him that Castor Durant was dead. His body had been found that morning in the nearby field. And they told him that Seth was leaving the next day.

But Kelly couldn’t stop crying to hear anything else. Because his boy had bruises and a bloody eye and cuts on the inside of his mouth, and he’d known. He’d known and he’d wanted to tell Kelly goodbye before his parents could tell him what happened.

And Kelly knew what happened. Knew what he could never tell them. Knew what nobody else could ever put together.

His boy. His beautiful, faraway boy.

He’d made Kelly safe. He’d done his best to make Kelly safe.

But oh God—the cost.

They’d be paying for that safety for years and years to come.

THAT AFTERNOON,a police officer came into his room. Young, he was young and pretty hot, when it came to that. Blond, green-eyed, and out of uniform.

His father greeted the man suspiciously. Apparently, Xavier Cruz remembered the cops who arrived when Kelly was found, and they hadn’t made a good impression.

“Officer Rivers,” Dad said, his face stony. “You bothered to follow up?”

The officer had super-fair skin, pitted a little from old acne, and it turned rosy in embarrassment. “My partner’s a dick,” he said, his mouth twisting in a way that said it went much deeper than that. “I’m sorry he was one to talk to you. I was worried about the boy.”

“And the boy you were supposed to find that attacked him got killed, so now you have a murder you want us to solve.” No, Dad was not going to forgive this guy.

But Rivers surprised them all. “I’m not on that case,” he said, shaking his head. “I wanted to be. But I picked up some info I thought you’d like to know.”

Dad cocked his head a little, like he was ready to listen. “Linda? You want to take the girls and Matty to go get sodas?”

“Sure, Javi.” Mom kissed Dad’s cheek before she left, and an ache bloomed in Kelly’s chest. His parents were still in love. They’d met right out of high school, and they were still in love. He could believe in them. Believe in love. Seth had done a bad thing and needed to leave. But he could come back, right?

His family filtered out—Agnes too, looking tired but apparently not feverish anymore—and Matty took the rear, glaring at the cop and at Kelly as he went.

Asshole.

Kelly had never thought a day would come when he’d trust a cop over his own brother, but Kelly was not interested in anything Matty had to say right now.

“So,” Dad said, sitting down in the comfy chair and gesturing for the cop to take the not-so-comfy one. “You got something important to say?”

Rivers nodded. “Two things. One, Castor Durant’s DNA matched the person who assaulted you, Kelly.”

“They said it would take months,” Kelly croaked, but Rivers shook his head.