Page 8 of Damaged

“Yeah,” I responded, ignoring the little itch in my stomach at the concern in his voice. I hated it when people pitied me, but I knew his worry wasn’t because he knew what lasting physical damage my time in the army had left me with. No, he was worried about the whole me, and I couldn’t really blame him considering the way I’d rushed out of the lodge so I wouldn’t be forced to mingle with the funeral goers. “Listen, about that kid you guys had with you… the one with the weird eyes?”

“Have you seen him?” Jace asked, his voice carrying a hint of desperation. I knew a lot about Jace, but I’d only ever heard him mention the young man next to me once and that was shortly after he’d returned to the States with his infant niece. That wasn’t the case with Caleb. Jace had told me about his soulmate many times when we’d been out on my boat and he’d had a little bit too much to drink. Jace might not have known anything about love and soulmates at the time, but he sure knew it now.

The sound of Jace putting me on speaker had me forcing thoughts of my best friend’s love life out of my mind. I figured he wanted Caleb to hear our conversation.

“Yeah, he’s with me,” I responded.

“What?”

I nearly laughed at the shock in my friend’s voice. Jace Christenson wasn’t a guy who was used to surprises. He had a way of knowing things before others did.

“I picked him up when I saw him walking along the interstate,” I answered.

“Thank God,” Jace muttered in relief. “Where are you? We’ll come to you.”

“Um, yeah, well…” I began, not exactly knowing how I was going to explain the situation to Jace. It wasn’t like I picked up strangers and offered them money for sex—or in this case, pretended to pay for sex—all the time.

Or ever.

Fuck, I couldn’t even remember the last guy I’d been with. I knew there’d been some guys after I’d enlisted but not many.

“What?” Jace asked, his voice shifting to something that was less relief and more suspicious.

“He only agreed to get in my car if I promised not to take him back to the lodge. I tried to find out why, but he won’t talk to me. Just told me to take him to the nearest bus station. I asked him if he even had money for a bus ticket.”

“What did he say?”

“Said it wasn’t a problem. Said he’d be able to earn some,” I returned. I reminded myself to keep my voice down despite the anger swelling inside my stomach.

“Don’t take him there, Dalton. We’ll come get him. We’ll talk to him.”

I hesitated because this was the part that was going to get a bit ugly. “I got him to agree to come home with me, Jace. Back to Elkton. He fell asleep a few minutes ago, so I wanted to call you to give you a heads-up.”

“You’re taking him home with you?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to let him fucking do what he was gonna do to get money for a bus ticket,” I snapped. I immediately looked at the young man to make sure my outburst hadn’t woken him up. It wasn’t often that I expressed anger in any kind of way. I’d learned a long time ago that expressing my feelings, good and bad, had never changed anything.

“What are you planning to do with him, Dalton?” Jace asked.

“No fucking clue,” I said softly. “But the kid is messed up. Only way I could get him to agree to come with me was to promise I’d give him the money he would have earned at the bus station.”

“I don’t understand.”

I pulled in a deep breath, but it did nothing to quell the vision of the kid on his knees in a dirty bathroom stall, his beautiful lips wrapped around a strange dick that was using him like he was no different than the toilet he was kneeling next to.

“He thinks I’m buying him for the night, Jace,” I whispered harshly.

“Dalton—”

“Don’t, Jace,” I snapped. “You know I wouldn’t?—”

“I know that. That wasn’t what I was going to say.”

I could hear the speaker being changed back so that it was just me and Jace. It meant whatever was coming wasn’t good. Jace wasn’t one to hold back when he talked to me about my current condition, despite how hard I tried to hide it from him. Thank God I’d managed to downplay it.

“Dalton, I know you’re hurting right now… more than usual. Silver isn’t your responsibility. Let me come get him.”

“Silver? That’s his name?” I asked softly. I fell silent and looked over at the young man in his passenger seat.

---