But it was simply not there. Regret, anger on the male’s behalf, sadness, relief…he logged all of those. That was it, however.
“Here, let me check him out,” Doc Jane said as she put her black doctor’s bag down and knelt to the mosaic floor.
Blay shuffled back to give V’s shellan some room, but he stayed close, even though it wasn’t like he could do anything. Hell, he’d always wanted to go to medical school—but not so he could resuscitate ex-lovers because some cocksucking psycho had tried to strangle them in the front goddamn hall.
He glared up at Qhuinn. The fighter was still being held back by Rhage, like the Brother wasn’t entirely sure the episode was over.
“Let’s get you to your feet,” Doc Jane said.
Blay was right on that, helping Saxton up, holding him steady, heading him over to the stairs. The pair of them were silent as they ascended, and when they got to the second floor, Blay took them down into his room out of habit.
Shoot.
“No, it’s fine,” Saxton murmured. “Just let me sit down in here for a minute, would you?”
Blay thought about the bed, but when Sax stiffened as he headed in that direction, he settled for the chaise longue. Helping the male off his feet, he awkwardly stepped back.
In the silence that followed, violent anger hit him from out of nowhere.
Now his hands shook for a different reason.
“So,” Saxton said hoarsely. “How was your night?”
“What the hell happened down there?”
Saxton loosened his tie. Unbuttoned his collar. Took yet another deep breath. “Family tiff, as it were.”
“Bullshit.”
Saxton shifted exhausted eyes over. “Must we do this?”
“What happened—”
“I think you and he need to talk. And once you do, I won’t have to worry about being jumped like a felon again.”
Blay frowned. “He and I have nothing to say to each other—”
“With all due respect, the ligature marks around my neck would suggest otherwise.”
“How we doin’ there, big guy?”
As Rhage’s voice registered in Qhuinn’s ear, it was clear the Brother was checking to see if the drama was well and truly over. Not necessary. The instant Blay had told him to cut the crap, Qhuinn’s body had obeyed, sure as if the guy held the remote to his TV.
Other people were milling around, looking him over, obviously also waiting to see if he showed any inclination to race up after Saxton and resume the death-grip routine.
“You good?” Rhage prompted.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.”
The iron bars across his chest loosened and gradually dropped. Then a big hand clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “Fritz hates dead bodies in the front hall.”
“But there’s not a lot of blood with strangulation,” somebody pointed out. “Clean-up would have been easy.”
“Just a floor polish afterward,” another guy chimed in.
There was a heavy pause at that point.
“I’m gonna go upstairs.” As the hairy eyeballs started again, Qhuinn shook his head. “Not for a repeat. I swear on my…”
Well, he didn’t have a mother, a father, a brother, a sister…or a young—although hopefully, that last one was a “yet” kind of thing.
“I just won’t, ’kay?”
He didn’t wait for any further commentary. No offense, but a plane crash and a homicide attempt on one of his few remaining relations was enough for the night.
With a curse, he started for the second floor—and remembered he still needed to do a drive-by with Layla.
Hanging a right at the top of the stairs, he went down to the guest room the Chosen had moved into and knocked on the door softly. “Layla?”
In spite of the fact that they were going to have a young together, he didn’t feel comfortable just barging in without an invitation.
Round two with the knuckles was a little louder. So was his voice. “Layla?”
She must be sleeping.
Backing off, he went for his own room, walking past Wrath’s office with its closed doors, and then going down the hall of statues. As he went by Blay’s door, he couldn’t help but stop and stare at the damn thing.
Jesus Christ, he’d nearly killed Saxton.
Still felt like following through.
He’d always known his cousin was a slut—and he hated being right about that. What the fuck was Sax thinking? The guy had the ultimate in his bed every goddamn day, and yet somehow, some random in a bar or a club or the frickin’ Caldwell Municipal Library was better than that? Or even necessary?
Faithless son of a bitch.
As his hands cranked into fists and he entertained the idea of kicking his way into that room just to pound Saxton’s face into soup, he nearly couldn’t control the impulse.
Let him go, now.
From out of nowhere, Blay’s voice reverberated through his head once again, and sure enough, the violence was unplugged. Literally, between one moment and the next, he went from wild bull to neutral.
Weird.
Shaking his head, he walked over to his bedroom, went in, and shut the door.
After willing on the lights, he just stood there, feet glued to the floor, arms hanging like limp ropes, head lolling on the top of his spine. All about the going nowhere.
For no apparent reason, he thought of one of Fritz’s beloved Dysons, the thing rolled into a service closet, left in the dark until somebody took it out for use.
Great. He’d been reduced to the level of a vacuum cleaner.
Eventually he cursed, and ordered himself to carry on with getting undressed and going to bed. The night had been a ballbuster from the moment the sun had gone down, and the good news was that the sorry mess was finally over: Shutters were in place to keep out the sun. House was getting quiet.
Time for a REM-sleep reboot.
As he gingerly took his muscle shirt off and grunted at all the aches and pains, he realized he’d left his leather jacket and his weapons down in the clinic. Whatever. He had extras up here if he needed them during the day, and he could get his stuff brought up before First Meal.
Going for the fly of his leathers, he—
The door behind him exploded open with such force, it ricocheted off the wall—only to be caught on the rebound by the hard grip of one pissed-off motherfucker.
Blay was rip-shit as he stood in the jambs, his body trembling with such rage that even Qhuinn, who had faced off with a lot of things in his life, went whoa.
“What the fuck is wrong with you,” the male barked.
Are you kidding me, Qhuinn thought. How could the guy not have recognized that foreign scent on his own lover?
“I think you need to put that to my cousin.”
As Blay marched forward, Qhuinn moved around the guy to—
Blay snatched a grab and bared his fangs with a hiss. “Running?”
In a quiet voice, Qhuinn said, “No. I’m shutting the damn door so no one else hears this.”
“I don’t give a fuck!”
Qhuinn thought of Layla down at the other end of the hall, trying to sleep. “Well, I do.”
Qhuinn disengaged and shut them in together. Then before he could turn around, he had to close his eyes and take a little TO.
“You disgust me,” Blay said.
Qhuinn hung his head.
“You need to get the fuck out of my life.” The bitterness in that familiar voice went straight into his heart. “You stay the hell out of my business!”
Qhuinn looked over his shoulder. “You don’t even care that he was with someone else?”
Blay’s mouth opened. Closed. Then those brows dropped low. “What?”
Oh. Great.
In the rush of everything, Blay had clearly not clued in to the whys.