Page 83 of Drift

One thing about Martin that always knocked Light off his feet was his damn sharp ability to take everything in and condense it into a single moment of understanding, over working out the why, the what, the…whothat had been left on a list of names. Of anyone here, he would have known Joanna was half Korean. But it was Gray going in and his whisper in his ear that had Martin shifting a sharp look to Gray—then back to Jude.

“Joanna’s?” Martin went over, and a grip to the back of Jude’s hair, he forced him to take a step back, tilting his look up. “Mine?”

Seeing them together, up close, the blood tie was undeniable.

“Oh yeah,” murmured Martin, a touch running Jude’s cheek. “Definitely Joanna’s beauty too.”

As Gray gripped Jan’s arm and stopped him from shifting and trying to break it up, Martin’s tight hold looked vicious, the act of keeping Jude still no more than a chew toy for the animal in play, but….

But?

“Th’fuck off—” Jude snarled as he tried to break free, and Martin shifted, keeping him still.

“Shush, shush-shush,” he whispered, Jude’s look forced up to his. Martin seemed to struggle to find what he looked for, so he shifted in a little closer, a touch running under Jude’s eyes.

Who did his vicious grip call out to come bite back at the brutality?

Jude?

Joanna?

Cutter?

Himself?

Was that why he’d never looked for a trace of kids? He could take the world on, just not a living, breathing offer of himself?

Martin’s frown went Gray’s way. “Even under threat, there’s no black in those eyes.” He eased back, all hardness lost from his aggression. “None.”

His push into Jude’s boundaries had been more physical than Gray’s. No kid gloves, all to try and find a trace of…

No black. No heritage over… psychopaths.

Wasthatwhat had really scared Martin? Heritage over being born… his way too?

Martin focused back on Jude, and another frown crept in. “Oh but look at the offer of what is in there. You’re no young lamb, either, not like Piper. The look in your eyes is so, so old….” He brushed at Jude’s cheek again, his head tilted slightly as he kept a grip in his hair. “That isn’t the look of a soft lad caught living in the pen. You…. Oh.” His look softened. “You’re neither welcome inside or out of it. Life lived in the void between, hm?” He brushed his cheek again. “The coat we both wear.”

Jude snarled, went to pull away, but Martin didn’t let the grip go in his hair. The silver had long since bled into black in Martin’s eyes, and like with Gray, Jude tried to back off, run. He seemed to pick up on their ill vibe despite them being no threat to him, which meant he’d been used to living with that… vibe. Or living life on the rooftops to hide from it at least. Yeah. He’d seen some things in his young life.

“Th’fuck?” Jude barely seemed to hear him. No family pictures were needed for anyone here, but Jude seemed to push against acknowledging anything beyond Martin’s eyes. Instead the waves on that beach seemed to crash in hard and fast with him, the sea rushing in and pulling him under. Bits of loose debris looked as though they cut deep, snapshots of potential history that had no real shape or form on their own beyond startling silver-grey eyes painted on the driftwood, like Gray’s eyes had with Light. They cut deep into Jude’s skin with the sharp, broken edges. And along with Gray, Martin was the sharpest out there.

Jude shoved Martin off and bolted for the door, colliding with Ray and knocking them both down as his scarf dropped from the tuck into his compression pants—then he was up, scrambling to his feet, trying to get out as Ray caught hold of his ankle, threatening to topple him again.

“Off,” snarled Jude. “Get the fuck—”

“Off,” snapped Simon. “Let him go.”

“What?” Martin went to step up nose-to-nose close with Simon as Jude disappeared, and Gray tugged him away.

As he looked down at the grip on his arm, Martin tore out of it, then shivered and the strangest look came to his eyes, followed by a look around the hall as if he’d been forced out the door andhe’d had to fight through mud to get back in. Tired. Silver eyes just looked so damn… tired. “Huh?” he mumbled.

Jan went in close. “You okay, Mart?”

A glance went Jan’s way that didn’t really see Jan, not properly, not as all feeling seemed to drop from silver eyes. “Not. Martin. Here.”

“Jack?” Jan startled, battling confusion, as Jack glanced around the hall, and Light was right there with him.

“Where’s Jude?” Jack didn’t even care that Martin was back? Would he even know? He didn’t seem to as he looked Gray’s way. “Where—”

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