Page 91 of Freak Camp
***
When the guard camein with Tobias trailing him on the leash, Jake almost reeled in shock.
It hadn’t occurred to him that he had never seen Toby in anything but the gray shirt and pants provided by the facility.In jeans and one of Jake’s button-up shirts, Toby appeared like a person Jake had never seen before, one with the look of a long-term survivor who didn’t have the resources to survive much longer.Jake’s shirt on him was baggy, several sizes too big for Toby’s skin-and-bones frame.
“Here you go, Hawthorne,” the guard called as he shoved the door closed.He carried Tobias’s leash like it was just another weapon, like the club he also held.“Dressed up and pretty like you wanted.Madison get that paperwork to you yet?”
“Not yet,” Jake said.
“Can’t leave until you get that.”The guard grinned.“Always better to inspect the merchandise before you sign the contract.’Specially secondhand goods.”He slapped Tobias on the shoulder, and Tobias winced and swayed.
Jake swallowed hard, his hands clenched.He wanted to get a look at Toby, a good look.He looked rail-thin and pale, like he hadn’t gotten as much sun as he used to, and there was something else about him, something brittle that Jake hadn’t seen the last time he saw him six fucking months ago.Jake wanted to put his finger on the difference, but first he needed this asshole to go away.Otherwise he would never get Toby to look at him, wouldn’t be able to see if Toby could forgive him for taking so goddamned long, for not even telling him where Jake had gone.He was getting Toby out, that wasn’t a question, but whether or not Toby would stay with him ...that was up to Toby.
“Can you leave us?”Jake asked.“Maybe check on where the forms are?”
Lonny’s grin faded, but only slightly.“Yeah.Sure.Hey!”He extended the leash.“You want this, or should I check it on the wall?”
Jake felt his jaw jump, and the guard must have seen some of the rage on his face, because he backed up to the door, ran the leash through the hook on the wall, and left through another set of doors to the Reception desk behind the bulletproof glass.Tobias’s head followed the lead, his body leaning back toward the door, but he didn’t move his feet, didn’t move in any way that wasn’t necessary.
Jake waited until the door shut behind the guard before he moved forward.Toby cringed away from his hands, a slight movement that Jake might not have noticed if he weren’t looking, but he couldn’t balk or hesitate now.He caught Toby’s face between his palms and pushed him back with the same movement, moving him closer to the wall so that the leash wasn’t twisting his head around.
“Toby, you okay?”You okay?Seriously, that was the best he could do when he had justleft him?But Jake had nothing better.
Toby stared at him, some kind of shock in his face, and then he almost smiled.It was a slight flicker in his mouth, in his eyes, gone in an instant, but even that softening notched Jake’s tension down.But then his eyes fell from Jake’s to his shoulders.“Jake.”
Jake figured that was about the best he was going to get.“Let’s get this fucking rope off you.”He reached under Toby’s chin for where the line connected to the collar.
Toby took a deep, shaky breath, but tipped his head up, eyes closed, while Jake’s hands fumbled with the clips.When he got the head of the leash off Toby’s collar, Jake threw the fucking thing as hard as he could against the wall.
When Toby jumped, Jake laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.“You never have to wear one of those fucking things again, Toby.I promise.”
Toby nodded and then smoothly stepped away from him, out from under his hand, when the door opened to let in the first guard, Madison, and an older man with his hair fading to gray at his temples and a small smile not quite reaching his eyes.
***
Tobias didn’t knowthe woman—pretty, well-fed, dressed in a business jacket and skirt, carrying a pile of papers—but with the Directorand Jakein the same room, he had a hard time breathing.
It had been easy to forget, if just for a second, what he was and what he could expect when Jake was touching him, sliding his hand beneath Tobias’s chin, resting his hand on his shoulder—not to restrain him but, as far as Tobias could tell, for the contact alone.He had been able to forget the next logical step after a hand on his shoulder—the fist in his gut, the order to go to his knees—and he let the small voice in his head say Jake’s name over and over again, the shock, thejoyso overwhelming that it squeezed his lungs.
Oh my God, you’re seeing Jake again.Even one more time was more than he had any hope left for.
But now: impossible, unthinkable, to forget anything with the Director in the room.
Jake looked at the other real humans, tension in the line of his neck, but not the stark panic that Tobias felt.Jake looked ready for a fight, a fight he knew he would win.It was the same brash confidence Tobias had seen from the first day they met, and the first time that Jake had smiled at him and made him feel almost like a real person.
The woman hung back, eyeing Tobias warily, but the Director strode forward.It was everything Tobias could do not to run, not to call attention to himself.He had already pulled away from Jake—the Director hurt everything he loved, Tobias couldn’t risk Jake being too close to him—but it was hard not to drop to the floor or to fumble the leash back around his neck to prove that he hadn’t meant to pretend to be something he wasn’t.
To Tobias’s relief, the Director ignored him completely.To his tight-throated horror, the Director reached out a hand to Jake, smiling, and Jake took it, still tense even without realizing who it was he was touching, not realizing how close he was to pain, death, and a calm voice directing the whip.
“Jake Hawthorne,” the Director said, shaking Jake’s hand and never dropping the smile.“It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.I’ve heard good things about you.Sally’s son, of course.”When Jake stiffened, the Director’s face fell into the clear lines of sympathy, mouth down, eyes sad.“I’m sorry, that was callous of me.Jonah Dixon, Director of the FREACS facility and the ASC.May I call you Jake?”
Jake nodded.“Sure, Mr.Dixon.”
The Director laughed, and Tobias shuddered.“Please, call me Jonah.Though most around here just call me Director.It seems I gave up first names when I stepped into Uncle Elijah’s shoes.”The Director’s smile invited Jake into the joke, shared with him the pressures of responsibility.“Some days I wish I could just get back out there where the worst I had to worry about was a mated pair of wendigos and no backup.Now I have to deal with politicians and law enforcement.”
The more the Director talked in that bright, conversational tone he reserved for reals he wanted something from, the more Tobias had to fight the urge to flinch or whimper, but the words seemed to loosen something in Jake, easing a line of tension in his shoulders.
“Cops,” Jake snorted.
