Page 81 of A Life Imagined
“Tell me.”
“Thought you didn’t need words.”
“Tell me,” Rayan whispered.He felt Mathias move so he was above him.Rayan opened his eyes, meeting the man’s steady gaze.
Mathias cupped Rayan’s face, his thumb running softly across his cheek.“Because you’re my family now.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
“Furthermost limits.”
“How many?”Mathias asked.
“Four across.”
Not parameters, then, or boundaries.
“Ends,” Mathias said, taking a sip from his mug of coffee.Rayan sat beside him on the sofa, filling out the boxes of the crossword in his careful hand.Mathias noticed the date at the top of the newspaper.“That’s yesterday’s paper.”
“René hasn’t been yet.”
“One job.That kid has one fucking job,” Mathias muttered.
The next time he saw René, he figured, a touch of friendly intimidation might do the trick.If they ever saw him again.There was no logic to René’s so-called service.
“How do you feel?”Rayan asked.
Mathias’s head was still fuzzy, and his whole body ached.He’d inspected his face in the mirror that morning and concluded that nothing was broken.But he did look like he’d run headfirst into a pole.
“Fine, considering.”Mathias raised his fingers to the small purplish bruise on the side of his neck and recalled the sting of the needle going in.“Not a trip I’m in any hurry to repeat.”
Rayan observed him quietly.They hadn’t touched on his familiarity with the subject.“You were surprisingly mellow.I used to tail my brother around the city to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid.Not that I was any good at stopping him.”
“You were pretty good at stopping me.”
More had come back to Mathias about the events of the previous day.The scenes felt like dreams, crudely sketched, but Mathias knew—with a spike of humiliation—that he’d given Rayan permission to do as he pleased.He’d placed his pride in the man’s hands, and Rayan had gently handed it back.
Rayan gave him a guarded smile.“I figured you might feel differently once you’d sobered up.”
“How chivalrous.”
Despite the flippancy of their exchange, an unspoken shift hung between them.He saw it in Rayan’s eyes.Mathias had opened a door that hadn’t been open before.And he wasn’t sure he wanted to close it.
“Heylen asked me to run his new business,” Mathias said, deftly changing the subject.“As a partner.”
Rayan lowered the newspaper.“When?”
“A couple weeks back.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“Look, you don’t get to know everything.”
“Even if it’s something that might get you killed?”Rayan asked.
“Please, Heylen’s as tame as they come.And if you’re referring to that business with Marsela, I was never in any real danger.”
