Page 52 of Danger Close
Chapter Ten
The stars were juststarting to punch through the ink of evening sky when Ezra found Ricky sitting on the low stone wall behind the Ridge’s operations shed.A half-drunk bottle of water dangled from his fingers, and his eyes tracked something invisible in the darkness.
Ezra didn’t speak right away.The air smelled like cut grass and distant rain, and something about the quiet made it feel like breaking it would be a sin.He lowered himself onto the wall beside Ricky, close enough to touch, but not quite.
“You okay?”Ezra finally asked.
Ricky let out a breath that didn’t quite qualify as a sigh.“Yeah.Just thinking.”
Ezra let that hang.Then, carefully, “About Marsh?”
Ricky’s head turned just slightly.The lamplight caught the edge of his cheekbone, and for a second, Ezra could see the walls trying to go up.
He didn’t let them.
“I noticed something, that’s all,” Ezra said gently.“There’s distance.Between you and Marsh.There wasn’t before.”
Ricky didn’t speak at first.He tipped the bottle to his lips, swallowed.When he spoke, his voice was quiet.
“You want to know what happened.”
Ezra nodded once.
Ricky’s laugh was short and humorless.“Yeah.So do I, some days.”He set the bottle down between his feet.“It was the night you disappeared.”
Ezra stilled.“From here?”
“Yeah.”
Ricky’s voice was steady, but Ezra could hear the echo of something rough beneath it.
“You had left me, and although I get it now, back then it gutted me.And to say I didn’t take it well would probably be an understatement.”
A pause and Ezra felt that familiar edge of guilt roll through him.
Ricky sighed, reaching for his hand.“Ezra, baby, don’t.It is in the past and I am over it, and we are together, and all is well, but at the time, I was not in a good space.He found me after a particularly brutal session in the gym.It was past midnight.I’d been beating the hell out of the heavy bag for hours.Hands were bleeding through the wraps, and I didn’t even care.I showered and left and ran into Marsh as he came out of the comms and innovation center.”
