Page 22 of Saving Noah

Zach laughed at Connor’s words but wondered if his friend was right. Had he lost himself along the way? Other than the time he spent with Connor, he rarely feltalive…until Noah. What was it about his neighbor that shook the foundation he’d worked so hard to build? More importantly, did he want the foundation shaken? He currently followed a good life-path. Living the way he did, he would never turn into a man like his father. On the other hand, was he really living?

“Why now, Con? Why are you getting so involved now? The last time I checked, it took me six years of medical school to get where I am. You’ve just now decided to shake up my bag and see where the pieces fall?”

Connor’s current enthusiasm over Noah seemed odd; not many hours had passed since Connor had warned him to steer clear of Noah St. Claire.

“Because, dumbass, this kid has brought a spark back to your eyes I feared I’d never see again. Noah did the ‘hut, hut’ and I’m gonna take the ball and run with it.”

Rolling his eyes, Zach countered, “You’ve only seen us interact one time, Conn. I doubt you’re the expert on the Zach/Noah dilemma.”

Connor let out a devious laugh. “You’re falling in love with him, Zach. You’ve tried so hard to hate the kid, but he is your kryptonite; your superpower of blocking and deflecting is useless against his sad blue eyes and tight ass.”

“That’s bullshit,” Zach argued, but his cheeks flamed from embarrassment.

“Nope, it’s truth-shit. Pretty boy next door brought a spark back to your eyes, and I’m forever in his debt. He might not have the balls to kick your ass into his bed, but I do. I’m not letting this go.”

“First of all, I’ve already told you to stop calling him a kid. Secondly, he won’t even talk to me, so I’m guessing the bed thing is out of the question.”

“First of all, stop treating him like a kid and I’ll stop calling him one. He’s a grown man; open your eyes. Secondly, leave the fucking ‘opportunity’ to me. I’ve got a plan.” He frowned and added, “You, Mr. Goody-goody, probably won’t approve of my plan, but it’s all on me. I’m still man enough to pull stunts to get my way, regardless of how unethical the stunts may appear. In my world, the end justifies the means.”

“I don’t think it is supposed to be that way in a cop’s world,” Zach teased. His friend toed the line at work, but still Zach didn’t want to miss the opportunity to give him shit.

“This isn’t cop world, Zach. This is wingman world. I’m going to get you an opportunity to nail Noah’s ass.” Connor bent over and pulled a stack of files out of his backpack. “An opportunity, Zach; you’ll have to get into his bed all on your own. And, Zach, I’m going to give you another bit of advice: when you get into his bed, let it be with the real you, not this clean-cut doctor man you’ve created to prove you’re nothing like your old man.” He opened one of the files and said, “Now, let’s go over the homework you gave me last night.”

Zach looked at the thick pile of files and wondered if Connor had gotten the first wink of sleep. Sure, he looked bright-eyed, but then again, a zombie would look bright-eyed compared to Zach. He felt like somebody had banged his head against a tile floor for six hours straight.Bang. Bang. Bang.Sitting outside Noah’s door had been a total waste of his time, but he hadn’t been able to make himself walk away. Part of it was the doctor inside him. But his heart made him stay for another reason entirely.

“Let’s talk about Dr. Robert Jones and Cameron Maverick,” Connor said, his voice switching from playful friend to cop in an instant. “Dr. Robert Jones can be best described as the pantywaist of doctors. He owns several pain clinics in Florida specializing, in my humble opinion, in providing prescription medications to people already addicted to pain killers—legalized drugs for the druggies. He has a medical license in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee and writes scripts for anybody willing to pay for them. I have no idea how he and Noah crossed paths, but I intend to find out. I also intend to whisper his name into the ears of some folks I know who love to tear these places apart and acquaint those involved with our judicial system…but that’s a different story for a different time,” he muttered irritably. “Bottom line is Dr. Jones is a fraud and has absolutely no credentials to treat a patient with Noah’s phobia.” Connor shuffled through his files until he found the one he looked for.

“Next, we have a Cameron Maverick—all around asshole from what I could find on social media.” When Zach arched a brow at him, he added, “Don’t knock it, dude. You’d be surprised at what you can find on a person’s social media site. People put all their shit out there for the entire world to see, whether it’s worth looking at or not. So, Cameron Maverick, other than being an asshole, works for the district attorney’s office here in Atlanta. He’s fairly low on the food chain and will probably remain there since all of his employee evaluations indicate he’s rather lazy. He barely skates by but hasn’t fucked up enough to get fired yet. He moved here about six months after John Doe moved into this apartment building and has a supplemental income impossible to trace…which means it’s probably FBI. My guess is he’s paid to take care of Noah.”

“He’s doing a fucking bang-up job with that,” Zach hissed angrily. “He doesn’t even pretend to care about Noah’s mental or physical health.”

Connor frowned at Zach and said, “He may not give a fuck, but he has the authority to make medical decisions for Noah. He wasn’t lying about that. The papers were filed with the courthouse, and Noah, aka John, signed them. You’ve got to tread lightly with him, Zach. He could yank the rug out from under you in a split second. Until we know what role he’s really playing in Noah’s life, we can’t rock his boat. Got it? Play nice or don’t play at all.”

“I bet Noah doesn’t know Cameron can make medical decisions for him. You can’t convince me Noah willingly signed anything.” Zach sat back and massaged the bridge of his nose. Cameron’s role, whatever it was, was dangerous to Noah’s wellbeing. “How am I supposed to work around a court order? Can you take care of something like that?”

“What do you want me to do? Dig around in the files, wad it up, and throw it in the trash? No, Zach, I can’t make it disappear. We’ll have to do this the legal way, and the legal way, for right now, means keeping Cameron happy.”

“No need to be a smartass about it.”

“How often does he come around? Could we just dodge him? Do you think Noah will be on board with getting a new doctor, letting you fuck him rough, and keeping Cameron, his only link to the real world in a total blackout? That shouldn’t be a tough sell, right?”

“You’re hilarious,” Zach grumbled. “I’m going to go out on a ledge and say I might fall short in convincing him to agree to the rough fuck. The rest should be easy-breezy.” Zach got up and poured himself another cup of coffee.

“No, you should really push for the rough fuck. The kid’s up to it; trust me. I saw it in his eyes. He wants you…really bad. He stood outside in the hallway with his entire body trembling like some sort of wild animal testing the waters with humans for the first time. He was as nervous as a virgin, but still looked at you like you were a giant-sized cupcake. With sprinkles.” Connor stood and went to the fridge to pull out another diet Coke—breakfast of champions. “As for the rough part; he dressed for it. I’m assuming he’s into that scene?”

“No, he isn’t,” Zach said through gritted teeth. It amazed him how quickly he could get pissed when he imagined those other men touching Noah, even if it was just a job. “He was dressed for a photo shoot.”

Frowning, Connor asked, “Photo shoot? What do you mean photo shoot?”

“He does some sort of erotic porn, without the sex, for an online group. It’s how he makes his money.”

Connor’s frown deepened. “And the FBI allows this? With someone involved with WITSEC? That doesn’t make sense, Zach. If he’s supposed to be in hiding, he wouldn’t be doing online photo shoots…even for exclusive chat rooms with paid memberships.”

“Yeah, I questioned that, too,” Zach answered. “He says they never show his face. He always wears a mask of some sort and they put different tattoos and things on him to help disguise his appearance.”

“But still….”

“It’s happening, Conn. I don’t see how they could deem it safe, but they apparently have. His FBI contact sets up the entire thing. Like you told me, we have to make nice with Cameron, so it is what it is…for now.” Zach shrugged and added, “Back to your original comment; he was dressed that way for his job, not pleasure. I hardly think Noah would be one to enjoy his sex with a side of rough.”

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