Page 100 of Two for Joy

“Shouldn’t I be the one who’s lost his mind?”

Romeo snorted. “I always hated my name. Romeo, named after a character from some tragic romance, but here I am, starring in my own version. We’ve fallen for each other despite being from different sides of the track, and for one heart-stopping second, I thought you were dead.”

Chad leaned back, then touched Romeo’s swollen cheek. “Would you have joined me?”

“Yes.”

“I guess I’m your Juliet then…” he smiled, despite his trembling lip, “O Romeo, Romeo—”

“Please don’t say I make you foam-eo.”

Chad scrunched his face and started to laugh. It was more a splutter than a laugh, but it reached his eyes, and through the tears, and redness, Romeo saw them brighten. He pulled his gaze from Chad’s face, and looked at his chest, the numbers, big and small, all different angles, some of them were dripping. His whole torso looked red raw sore, all apart from a patch in front of his heart. The place where a number one was to be branded.

“Marc Wilson.” He mumbled.

Chad shuddered. “It was a gut feeling. The articles he wrote about you, it was more than shock and horror to sell newspapers, there was obsession, envy, excitement. He had offered Neil all sorts to get information on the case. Neil told me he had a Jekyll and Hyde personality. He’d been at the first crime scene, sniffing out a story he said, but the DI told him it was a tragic accident, a live wire in the wall. He’d set up James with the drugs months ago, knew he’d fallen on bad times, knew his electricity had been cut and those cameras weren’t operational. I know it was stupid to confront him.”

“More than stupid, moronic. Hadn’t you learned from the first time?”

“No one would’ve believed me. I didn’t have any real evidence, just my gut. They’d all turned on me, everyone turned on me.”

“I know.” Romeo said, raking his hand up into Chad’s hair and pulling him into a firm hug.

“I drove here, the place was empty, and I thought I’d have a look around, see if I could find any evidence. The articles, the cigars. Next thing I know, a needle’s being shoved in my neck, and I woke up in the garage, chained to the bed.”

“I tried to fight him, but I think he’s been drugging the water. I feel so weak.”

Romeo glanced at the glass on the bedside table. He wasn’t sure the water was responsible for the weakness, he’d seen the bed, the red stains Chad’s body had hidden. His grip on Romeo was softening, his eyelids were drooping. Chad needed to be in the hospital, the place he’d just escaped from.

“You’re okay now, I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”

“I thought you’d been sharing secrets with the killer. I thought you told them about the magpie—about you. How did he know?”

“He read the article Holly Stevenson was writing on me. I told her extra details.”

“Even the magpie?”

“No. that was curtesy of Will in the neighboring cell listening in on my dreams.”

“You dream about magpies?”

“Nearly all the time, apart from when I was with you. They stopped.”

“What did you dream when you were with me?”

“Nothing. It was like my mind was clear. It was peaceful.”

Chad sighed against his neck. “You’re actually here?”

“Yep.”

“How?”

“I had a stroke.”

Chad tugged himself from Romeo’s arms, and looked at him. “Are we dead, is this what heaven looks like?”

“Of course not. When we die, we won’t end up in the same place. This is now, we’re both alive, both here in this messed up room.”

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