Page 50 of The Question of Us (Fisher & Church #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Nick

I was herded into a bathroom and quickly cleaned up per Marty’s instructions.

To say I was shocked at the sight of my sorry face in the mirror was putting it mildly.

I barely recognised the man staring back at me—one eyebrow caked in blood, the lid swollen half-shut, and a patchwork of bruises covering the side of my face.

It was all I could do not to whimper as Freddie roughly scoured the blood off, but when he was done, and with a cap pulled low on my head, it was doubtful anyone would look at me twice. The same couldn’t be said for Gazza who needed two men to keep him moving in what was at best a stumbling walk.

I prayed to any deity who might be listening that we would pass at least one curious partygoer with a conscience, but it wasn’t to be.

The men took us down the service staircase and out the side entrance, avoiding the partying guests.

Aside from a couple of servers too busy balancing their trays to pay us much attention, we didn’t run into another soul.

In under a minute, we were back in the garden.

“Wait up,” Freddie called us to a stop as the door banged shut behind us and then opened again almost immediately.

Lee gasped and fought against Clarence’s hold. “Aaron?”

I spun to find two men added to our little group. A burly Freddie wannabe led a blank-faced Aaron, who looked slightly better on his feet than Gazza, but not by much.

Freddie stepped between the brothers and eyeballed Lee. “Keep that up and I’ll be sure to hurt him. Is he cuffed?” Freddie asked the new man, who nodded.

“Jacob wasn’t happy, just so you know.” The man surveyed our little group. “You need some help?”

Freddie shook his head. “Keep an eye out front. We might be getting some visitors.”

The man’s eyebrows peaked. “Who?”

“None of your business,” Freddie answered in a tight voice. “Just do your job.”

“Yes, Boss.” The man shrugged and headed back inside.

During the exchange, I’d been studying Aaron closely, not happy with what I saw.

Gone was the charming, flirty young man I’d watched at the party.

In his place stood a bedraggled, hastily dressed kid with tear-stained cheeks, mascara smudges under both eyes, and no shoes.

He stared at the ground with a blank expression and didn’t move.

I suppressed the fury that surged in my chest and whipped my attention to an ashen Lee who was staring at Aaron with an unholy rage simmering in those blue eyes.

“What the fuck did that bastard do to him?” Lee slipped free of Clarence’s hold and headed for his brother. “Aaron? Aaron, talk to me.”

Aaron lifted his head, eyes vacant, a vapid smile hovering on his lips. “I’m okay.” An obvious lie.

“Aaron—” Lee spun, fighting Clarence’s attempt to pull him away until Freddie stepped in and fisted his shirt, pulling Lee up on his toes until they were face to face.

“Shut that fucking mouth,” Freddie barked.

“If you don’t, I’ll send your precious brother back to Jacob to finish the job.

I knew it was a mistake to bring you back, but he wouldn’t listen, would he?

He’s so besotted with you that he’s blind to the cunt you really are.

Fucked if I know why. You’ve been nothing but trouble since the first day you arrived. ”

Lee stopped struggling and huffed out a laugh. He looked Freddie in the eye and smirked. “Aw. What happened, Freddie frog?” The contemptuous tone was accompanied by a cruel smile.

And oh shit, I didn’t like that look one bit.

For whatever reason, these two men did more than hate each other, they loathed and despised one another.

But aggravating Marty’s PA wasn’t going to help us one little bit, and my gaze flitted nervously between them as Lee foolishly continued to taunt the other man.

“Did you finally come to realise that Marty has never fancied you in the slightest, even after I was gone?” Lee tut-tutted.

“It really couldn’t have come as any surprise though.

I mean, Marty’s never once looked at you the way he does me, and he’s had plenty of opportunity over the last few years, right?

Marty takes lots of men to his bed—” Lee studied the other man with a pitying look.

“—but never you, Freddie. Never you. Do you know Marty and I used to laugh about your little crush behind your back?”

Freddie stiffened, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, which only goaded Lee further.

“It must suck to know you never made the grade and you never will,” Lee added in gleeful wickedness. “Because you’ve got it bad, don’t you, Freddie? You really wuv the old fucker, right? All the way down to your tippy toes.”

I couldn’t stop the groan that rumbled from my throat because one look at Freddie’s thunderous expression and I knew Lee was right.

Freddie was in love with Marty Klein and Lee was poking a bear we couldn’t fucking afford to.

Freddie loosened his grip on Lee’s shirt and shoved him against the house, his meaty hand around Lee’s throat just tight enough to hold him in place.

Then he handed his shotgun off to Clarence, who looked at him questioningly, then shook his head and stepped away.

Things were escalating fast, and a quick sweep of the other guards revealed a mix of shock and amusement, likely reflecting those who knew about Freddie’s little crush and those who didn’t. But clearly no one was keen to get involved.

I tried to catch Lee’s attention, signal for him to calm down, but he only had eyes for his nemesis. And as for Freddie, the giant of a man looked ready to twist Lee’s head from his shoulders. Lee was either immune to that look or he didn’t care. Either way, he was on a roll.

“Yeah, I saw you watching us,” he croaked through the hold Freddie had on him.

“Wishing it was you in his bed and not me. You on his arm. You that he showered with gifts. You that he fawned and obsessed about. You that he wanted to fuck him and... oh—” A shit-eating grin stole over Lee’s face.

“You didn’t know he liked to be fucked, did you?

Huh. Maybe that was because Marty didn’t tape those sessions. ”

“Shut your mouth,” Freddie ground out, the light they were standing under highlighting a dark stain creeping up his neck.

His hold on Lee’s throat tightened. Things were escalating and the guards glanced uneasily between them.

Their concern mirrored that of Aaron’s, who was groggily watching his brother with something between confusion and awe on his face.

“Or what?” Lee sneered in response. “There’s not much you can do to me that he hasn’t done already and a lot worse. I know you played Marty’s tapes on the sly. You watched the two of us fucking. I imagine you even took copies.”

Freddie’s eyes widened and his hand twitched around Lee’s neck, the stain on his neck deepening to a bloody crimson.

Lee was running close to the wind, too close for my liking.

I wasn’t sure how much more Freddie would take or what Lee was hoping to achieve other than rile the man up and suffer the consequences.

But it felt like this standoff had been coming a long while, and Freddie had been waiting for just the right time and excuse to finally put Lee in his place.

Maybe he was giving Lee some rope because he hoped this might be it.

But there’d be hell to pay with Marty if he touched Lee, so Freddie was caught in a quandary.

At the sight of Freddie’s blushing cheeks, Lee’s blue eyes lit up in victory and he went in for the kill.

“Yeah, I thought so. Poor boy. I almost feel sorry for you. All those lovely muscles and you were still never gonna be pretty enough for him. I bet that hurts. I bet it pisses you off. Even when I left and you were right here for the taking, he never even looked at you, did he? And then I come back, and regardless of everything I’ve done, I slide back into his number one spot without even trying. ”

Freddie growled deep in his throat.

“Ah, Boss?” Clarence tried. “I’m not sure?—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Freddie roared.

Clarence raised both hands up and turned away. “Whatever. It’s your funeral. But Marty won’t be happy.”

“No, he won’t,” Lee mocked, his voice growing thinner in Freddie’s hold.

“Because it’s me Marty wants, and it’s me he’ll do anything to keep.

But you?” Lee considered Freddie with a look that said the other man wasn’t worth his time.

“Marty can replace you anytime he wants and feel nothing but a slight inconvenience. You’re faded wallpaper in his life, Freddie, that’s all.

You’ll never be the main attraction. That’s my spot.

And the irony of it all is, I don’t even want him. ”

The crack of skin on skin split the air as Freddie’s free hand connected with Lee’s face in a blistering slap.

Lee grunted, his eyes rolling back in his head, but he recovered quickly, regarding Freddie with a smug smile.

“Naughty, naughty, Freddie frog. Marty’s not gonna like this.

You better hope you don’t leave marks. Damaging the goods without his say-so?

” Lee tut-tutted. “You should know better than that. No one touches me without Marty’s say-so. Especially not you, arsehole.”

Freddie’s hand lifted to repeat the strike, but then his eyes flicked up to the second floor and he dropped it again. Lee’s warning had been enough to pull him back from the edge. Uncertainty clouded his expression along with a lick of fear. His hold on Lee’s throat eased and he stepped away.

Lee snorted. “Fucking boot licking coward.” Black hatred filled those icy blue eyes. Enough to make me wonder exactly what fuelled it. What Freddie had done to Lee in the past, and likely under Marty’s instructions. Nothing good, I knew that much.