Page 13 of The Long Game

Jack tried to smile at Barnaby and Garrick, but it ended up more of a grimace. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

Barnaby frowned. “Please don’t apologize, Jack. You needed to leave, so we left. That’s of no concern.”

Garrick nodded, expression earnest. Jack believed them, though he still felt like an ass.

Normally, this would be the point when he’d say the necessary reassuring words with just the right smile and shepherd everyone out the door.

But the words, the smile, thebullshit, wouldn’t come.

His therapist would probably call this a breakthrough. Mostly it felt like the time he got salmonella poisoning.

He pressed a hand over his sternum, the sting of almost-healed skin giving him something to focus on when his thoughts wanted to scatter. The ink no one could see reminded Jack that he had a lot of good in his life and he was capable of change. That the good, the bad, and the ugly had all made him into who he was and brought him to this point. Not just okay, but good, even.

Barnaby’s gaze lingered on Jack’s hand. “You can tell us anything, Jack. You don’t have to,” he added, meeting Jack’s eyes, “but you seemed frightened tonight and we all want to help you any way we can.”

And fuck Barnaby for always being willing to say what no one else dared. He asked and he pushed and he managed to do it all so kindly, so genuinely, soinnocently, that Jack hadn’t recognized how different this friendship was, how differenthewas in this friendship, until it was too late.

Not that he’d change a thing. He’d just been caught off guard by how one friendship could turn his world upside down. He read books and watched movies and it was always lovers or villains or wars that rocked a person’s world. But pale, brainy, terribly English PhD students for whom Jack’s feelings were entirely platonic weren’t supposed to show up out of nowhere and throw his life into chaos.

And he definitely wasn’t supposed tolikeit.

“A man came into Quigley’s tonight and I”—Jack didn’t know how to explain, howmuchto explain—“I needed to leave. I had to not be in the same place as him.”

Barnaby nodded, while Garrick’s eyebrows went up. They both had questions, but not even Barnaby dared ask.

Grady twisted on the couch to face Jack fully. “Did this person threaten you?” His voice was hard, clearly ready to get down to business if Jack needed that.

Fucking action hero.

“No, nothing like that.” The knee-jerk instinct to let that be the end of it kicked in but he forced himself to continue. “He didn’t even see me until I was almost out the door. Then he definitely recognized me. He looked…” Fuck, he’d lookeddelighted.

Jack’s stomach churned and he carefully set his beer down on the table.

“Angry?” Grady guessed.

“No, more surprised,” Jack allowed, swallowing again. He could do this. He could tell Grady the truth. “I don’t want—I don’t want him to know where I live.” He let out a harsh breath and touched his chest again, this time in an effort to ease the hard knock of his heart against his ribs. Fear was such a stupid, useless emotion sometimes.

“Did he follow you?”

“No,” Garrick said.

Jack looked at his friend, surprised by his certainty.

Garrick shrugged. “There was no one behind us once we left downtown.”

Jack breathed a little easier. That was good. But he was no fool. It wasn’t hard to find someone if you knew what city they lived in.

Grimacing, Jack turned back to Grady. “I don’t want to overstep, but—”

“Tell me what you need,” Grady said before Jack could finish formulating his preemptive apology. “If I can do it, I will.” His long, lean body was coiled, ready to spring into action.

“His name is John Babcock,” Jack said, sweat prickling along his hairline and his mouth going dry. “He and I were in prison together. I haven’t seen him since.”

Grady sat straighter, totally focused on what Jack was saying. Jack didn’t look at Garrick or Barnaby. He didn’t want to see how they reacted to what he was about to say. His instinct would be to not burden them, to try to make them feel better—tofix it—and he wasn’t going to be able to do that.

This was a story he’d never thought he’d tell. One he’d long feared would make his friends see him as less. Broken. But Garrick had proven his loyalty time and again. Grady had never once judged. And Barnaby had always,alwaysbeen willing to listen to anything Jack had to say with an open mind and a kind heart.

So Jack stepped off the cliff.

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