Page 32 of Damaged

The man in question swam the length of the large pool, back and forth—staying clear of the three younger boys.

“If he doesn’t like people, why is he here at your house?” Wrath asked his brother.

Justice gazed at Stone instead of Wrath and Rogue squinted when several of the men seemed to suddenly find other things to focus on.

“What’s going on?’ Wrath voiced before he could. “You two dating?”

Stone gave an irritating sounding sigh and grimaced. “No. Dave thinks I need extra protection.”

“What?”

“Death threats are picking up.”

“Picking up how?” Rogue asked.

Since Dave was the former Secretary of Defense, it stood to reason that the man would receive his own amount of hate mail, but why target Stone?

Justice gazed at Stone. “You might as well tell them.”

“Picking up in the sense that some of the mail is directed at me.”

“Why is that?” Rogue frowned.

“I have no clue,” Stone growled and picked up his empty plate to disappear inside the house.

Wrath chuckled with a huff. “How long do you think Stone will deny he has feelings for Dave?”

“I don’t think that’s the issue,” Fisher said quietly. “I think they had a falling out over something.”

Rogue glanced at the closed glass door. Beyond, he could see Stone standing at the kitchen sink, gazing at nothing.

Turning back to the man constantly swimming laps, Rogue hoped Winter did a good job.

Stone and Dave had become important to him.

But shit always happened, Rogue silently reminded himself. Life wasn’t always filled with happy endings. Bad shit happened to good people and there wasn’t a fucking thing anyone could do about it.

A knot grew in his chest when he thought about taking a chance with Wrath.

Could they even be together when they were forever one step away from death?

Wrath reached beneath the table and linked their fingers.

And while everything inside of Rogue wanted to suddenly run from any sort of commitment, he squeezed his fingers back.

Just for today, he thought.

They could have today.

Three weeks later…

The last few weeks had flown by, and Wrath spent every spare second with Rogue—which turned out to be every night with the exception of two when Rogue had taken a job out of town and his own work had kept him local.

Wrath tried every once in a while to convince Rogue to take a permanent position with Erebus, but so far, Rogue hadn’t made the decision.

Their conversation had been an eye-opener for Wrath, and he had learned a few things about Rogue in the process.

Rogue couldn’t be pushed into anything. Ever.

---