Page 26 of Key Change

“No, you don’t. You’re an attention whore. You love the applause.”

Cillian lifted his hand, leaving only the tiniest gap between his thumb and finger. Even though they both knew he loved the applause much more than that. “His name is Anthony, and he’s thirty-six. Tall, dark hair, gorgeous.” And leaving him sleeping to practice, instead of waking him up for round three, had been very difficult.

“Does he have a gay brother?”

Cillian snorted. “His brother is an asshole.” He drew a breath. “If I give you his name, you’ll either remember or be able to search him up.”

“This does not sound promising… Who is he? What did he do?” Bevan already had his phone in his hand.

Cillian leaned forward and lowered his voice so the tables nearby wouldn’t overhear them. “White collar crime. He just got out.”

“Of prison?” Bevan hissed.

Cillian nodded and bit his lip, only half regretting saying anything. Everyone deserved a second chance, but did he need to be the one giving it? Not that Anthony had given him any reason to doubt.

“What is his name?” Bevan asked.

Cillian gave it to him and waited.

“Oh yeah, I can see why you went there.” Bevan turned his phone to show Cillian a photo that he had already seen a dozen times. It was ten years old from around the time of the trial. “This is not your normal… I mean… he made a royal cock up… and spent nearly a third of his life behind bars. Did that not fuck him up?”

“He seems lovely, and he admits to fucking up, and that he was angry at first, but he’s retrained and is looking for a fresh start.”

“Which is very noble, however, there are going to be people who love you, who aren’t so generous and may not approve.”

“They’re going to slam doors in my face.” That was a concern, given that he’d spent a long time getting those doors opened in the first place. How many years would it take before being seen with Anthony in public was acceptable, or was the answer never?

Then there was the Hayden situation, which could also result in his delicate house of cards collapsing under the weight of the scandal.

“Yeah… I can get away with tapping that… but you rub shoulders with the kind of people who clutch their pearls.”

“His family are those kinds of people. He comes from money, and they cut him off.”

“I guess the question you need to ask yourself is if he’s worth risking everything.”

That was the million-dollar question Cillian had been avoiding.

But it wasn’t even the most complicated part, and he couldn’t tell Bevan about that without explaining the whole Hayden situation. If he opened that Pandora’s box of worms, there would be no stuffing the slimy mess back in.

Before this thing with Anthony got any further, he should tell him. He’d wanted to tell him over coffee, but he hadn’t wanted to end the night on a sour note, and he’d been running out of time…

“Do you think he’s using you for your connections?”

If anything, he was the one using Anthony, because he was the one with the problem Anthony might be able to solve. He couldn’t solve any of Anthony’s problems. “I don’t know anybody who needs a graduate librarian, do you?”

“Librarian?”

“He’s not allowed to do his old job.”

“Oh. He has no job, no money, and no connections?”

“Correct…” Cillian knew how it sounded, and it wasn’t good. Anthony seemed like a great person, and they had a fabulous connection, but would that be enough?

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

Get up,go for a run, look for work. Check in with Mick, and tick the boxes to prove he deserved to stay out of prison. He’d made a routine for himself, and his only break was texting Cillian.

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