Page 102 of The Wounded Warrior

“That was Rory being drunk and inappropriate. Those fuckers tried to ruin him, Matty.”

“Looks like they still are, Lu. Why would they send this around? They got careless and showed faces. This had to be Harris’ personal jack-off reel and he’s not savvy enough to take it to digital.”

“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know. Come get me. I can’t find him.”

“You still at Jake’s?”

“Yessir. Hurry.”

“I’m on my way, Lu.”

He sat there on his ass and called Rory again. “Call me, Rory. Please.” Luke hated to beg, but what if Rory was doing something really stupid? “I’m going to head to your place, look for you.”

He hoped Rory would be waiting for him. They needed to talk, needed to connect.

He wanted to see his lover, tell Rory this shit would never happen again. Harris was going down for this.

Once and for all.

Chapter Thirty-Two

He ended up in a hotel room in west Round Rock with a blinding headache, a bottle of Crown and a 6-pack of Snickers bars.

It was the best he could do.

Rory couldn’t even look at his phone. He knew Luke had been calling, but the thought of talking to Luke made him want to vomit. It was one thing to tell someone what had happened. It was one thing to have seen a few graphic photo stills.

The video was like it had just happened all over again. Shit he didn’t remember or even know about…

He made sure the curtains were pulled, the lights down, and he toed off his boots and curled onto the bed. He knew that he couldn’t run forever, but he could hide for right now.

His phone rang again—Pop this time, and he just turned his phone off.

Then he turned on the TV for noise before going to the shower. He opened both complimentary bars of soap, the one from the sink and the one from the tub. He was going to scrub all his skin away.

He didn’t know if it would help, if he was ever going to get clean, but he had to try.

The nice thing about a hotel was pretty much endless hot water and no one to interrupt you. He had so many apologies to make, so many hurts to soothe, but all he wanted to do right now was forget what he hadn’t remembered.

He closed his eyes once he stepped into the spray, tilting his head up so water washed over his face. That way, if tears joined the spray, who would know?

Chapter Thirty-Three

Luke arrived at Rory’s folks’ place at about seven a.m. They’d talked the night before, both of them trying desperately to get a hold of Rory, who had left without even telling Lori where he’d gone.

Dread had lodged in Luke’s belly all night, and even Matt wasn’t laughing and teasing him. What if Harris had gotten to Rory and he was dead in a ditch somewhere? Luke was going to kill something himself if that was the case.

He was shocked as fuck to see his momma’s truck parked in the drive.

“Have you heard from him?” Helen was right there at the door, Momma behind her.

“Momma?”

“I brought muffins and coffee.”

“She’s been a huge help,” Helen said, tired lines etched around her mouth and eyes.

“I was hoping y’all had heard.” Luke grabbed his arm crutches.

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