Page 71 of A Simple Mistake
Fridayeveningtrafficwasthe usual snarl of people coming home from work and those heading for a night out.Jack followed the line of cars from Kingston to Clapham, eyes on the road and mind elsewhere.Ever since Raf had yanked him off his flight, he’d been waiting for explosions.
So far, Gareth had been the calm in the eye of the storm, and Daniel and Nico hung on by the skin of their teeth—nightmares notwithstanding.They ate when it was time to eat.They answered when Jack asked questions.And they’d made their own choice where to spend the night.
Yet the itch between Jack’s shoulder blades hadn’t lessened.He’d been on first-name terms with rage since he’d allowed himself to be recruited to take down Jericho.And he’d been ready and waiting for fallout.
This morning, as he’d watched Gareth sleep on the sofa, he’d wondered how that fallout would materialise.He’d expected the first move to come from Nico—and Nico had run true to form, though not with rage, but with frustration.Much easier to defuse and deal with.Daniel would take longer or only talk to Nico, but he would react eventually.And Gareth…
Jack had known Gareth wouldn’t let this go.Gareth controlled his environment and watched over the welfare of those around him.He’d see the attack on his home as a personal failure.And while he held definite opinions of Jack’s need to take responsibility for events in his vicinity, when it came down to it, he wasn’t any different.
A fight, though…Jack hadn’t expected that.
Gareth loved to box.He was skilled at hand-to-hand combat.Jack had served with him, had fought by his side, yet could count on one hand the times when Gareth had lost his cool.Jack wished he’d been there to see him cut loose and wondered for the rest of the drive who’d been at the receiving end of all that ire.
Rio was waiting as Jack parked his bike, his smile fond and touch mischievous.“You didn’ hang about.Record run?”
“Didn’t even break the speed limit.”Jack set his helmet on the Gixxer’s seat and unzipped his riding jacket.“Did you have to bail him out?”
“No.We left before the law arrived.He’s spittin’ mad.”
“He would be.The boys had to hide on the roof.”
“Yeah, Ah can see tha’.An’ he’s like you and thinks it’s his fault.”Rio nodded in a way Jack remembered, as if he had it all sorted out and classified, with no mysteries left to unravel.“You gonna fight with him?”
“When that was me a time or five?Don’t be stupid.”
“You’ll do.Both of you.”
Rio’s hand landed on his shoulder, and Jack took the comfort without complaint.If Gareth thought Jack was mad at him… He followed Rio inside and found Gareth standing in the living room as if he didn’t know how he’d ended up there.Jack could sympathise.He was familiar with the confusion of trying to trace a line of reasoning and not finding a scrap of thought that made sense.
“Your ride is here.”Rio’s grin got wider as Gareth flinched.He held out his hand for Jack’s bike keys.“Ah’ll keep your bike for you.”
“I can drive,” Gareth said quietly.
“You can,” Rio agreed.“But Ah’m not sure you should after tha’ bop to your head.Tha’s why Ah called Jack, righ’?”
Gareth said nothing, just followed Jack outside.
They made the drive home in silence.Jack kept one eye on the traffic and the other on Gareth, who sat stock-still and staring forward, seeing neither cars nor pedestrians.
“Say it already,” Gareth rasped when they stepped into their kitchen.
Jack went for beer and ice packs first.As well as the twice-bruised knuckles, a bruise was spreading on Gareth’s jaw.And as he had during the drive, Jack wondered what Gareth needed to hear when Jack wasn’t of the ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’ persuasion.And when he knew all about rage.
“Next time,” he said, as he set the bottles on the table and passed an ice pack to his lover, “make sure you have decent intel.Getting you out of the clink is easier if you aren’t charged with beating up random civilians.”
“They weren’t random civilians,” Gareth admitted.“I went to Purple Line.”
“Whatever for?”
“I wanted to see for myself.What you did, I mean.Why you did it.”
“Fuel for the fire?You don’t need to leave the house to find that.”
“I know.I just…” Gareth knuckled his eyes as if trying to erase what he’d seen.“Fuck knows why I went.”
Helpless rage.The reason was helpless rage.Not that Jack would say that.He dropped a kiss into Gareth’s hair, smelled the club-appropriate mix of sweat, smoke, and cheap beer, and couldn’t hold back a smile.They were alike in every way that mattered.He loved it.
“Any damage that needs more than ice?Pain pills?”
