Page 10 of Doubling Down

Oh damn, stupid fingers. He’d let go of Eric’s jacket. It had been soft. But Eric. Ezra liked the way Eric was looking at him. The anger that Ezra had seen earlier was gone, replaced by warmth.

“Ezra, baby, I need to know if he hurt you. Please?”

“I’m…” He licked his suddenly dry lips. “I’m okay. He didn’t touch me.”

Eric’s shoulders relaxed.

Ezra hadn’t realized how much tension Eric had been holding.

“Good. I’m sorry that I didn’t get here in time to stop him from following you.”

“How did you know?” Ezra asked. The one time that Dom had found Joey harassing him had been pure coincidence. Ezra had left one bag of trash and Dom had grabbed it and brought it out as Joey had cornered Ezra against the dumpster.

“I was signing out of the cameras when I spotted you in the hall. On the monitor next to that one I noticed that Joey was heading in the same direction. I thought it was suspicious.”

“Oh.” And Eric had come to his rescue. Damn, there were so many fantasies that Ezra could play later in his head. A real knight in shining armor. Ezra had always loved playing the prince that was locked up waiting to be saved. Yes, he had always wanted a savior. No judgment needed. It was a thing. He’d checked.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt. He won’t come near you again. I’ll make sure of it.”

Ezra smiled. “I appreciate it but he—”

“No,” Eric said sharply. “You don’t have to put up with that.”

“I can’t afford to lose my job. We all know how Joey is, and we need to be careful being alone with him.”

“What the hell? This is happening to more than you?”

Ezra shrugged. It was mostly him but some of the others had been harassed before Ezra had arrived. It was just in the six months that Ezra had been there that Joey had decided to target him.

“Fuck!” Eric lowered his head until his lips pressed against Ezra’s forehead. “I’m going to fix this for all of you. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Ezra found himself wanting to comfort Eric for some unknown reason.

“It’s not but someone should have been watching over all of you better.” He sighed. “Jesse needs to know.”

“No!” Ezra grabbed the front of Eric’s shirt desperately. “I need my job. Please!”

“You aren’t going to lose your job.”

Ezra was shaking his head. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! “I’m begging you. Please don’t tell Mr. Lambert. Please!” Tears start to gather in the corner of his eyes. Had he ruined his entire life just because he had trusted some hot guy?

“Woah, woah.” Eric hugged Ezra to his chest. It was nice there. Eric smelled like spice and coffee. Ezra might have taken a big breath just to pull that scent in deeper. “I won’t say anything. Not yet. I swear. And you won’t lose your job.”

It was too late to do anything else but trust Eric’s words.

Ezra had gotten burned before trusting someone else to do the right thing, but hadn’t he thought that Eric was different? He might not know him well but in Ezra’s heart, he wanted to believe everything that Eric was promising. “You swear?” He tried to make his voice firm.

“Yes, baby. I swear.”

Baby? Eric had said that earlier. Did this mean… What did this mean? Ezra was confused.

His watch blared out his alarm.

Ezra jerked back. Shit! He’d lost track of time. “I have to go.”

Eric scowled. “But—”

“Sorry.” Ezra was already backing toward the door. No matter what, he always left at the same time. He had to keep a schedule or there would be a massive meltdown. “I really do need to go.”

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