Page 37 of The Long Game

“Same reason you did.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

Colton scowled. “Neither did I.”

Grady nodded. “Okay, fair enough. So, you came out to them?”

Colton barked a harsh sound that almost passed for laughter. Apparently, a certain tone of bitterness could be familial, if not genetic. “No, I didn’tcome out. Catching me in the hay loft, bare-ass naked and rolling around with my friend Bobby clued them in, though.”

Grady cringed, because he could imagine how that had gone down. Colton was fronting anger, but his knuckles were whitewhere he strangled the edge of the cushion by his knee. Grady knew the damage still festered. How could it not?

He suddenly, desperately, wanted Colton to heal. He wanted to help Colton, even if he was two years too late. Hell, maybe he was fourteen years too late. What if Colton had been able to turn to someone like Grady, older and out of the family? What kind of difference might he have made?

Though he had no idea how he would have stayed in the lives of children whose parents had declared him dead.

The barest touch, just the stroke of fingers over his knee, tugged him out of his self-recriminations and back to the present.

“Did you leave right away?” Jack asked Colton.

Colton shook his head. “I didn’t know—” His voice cracked and he stopped, clearly trying to compose himself.

Jack frowned. Grady held his breath.

“I didn’t know what they’d do,” Colton said, voice choked.

Grady’s own throat closed up and he literally could not bring himself to ask. He’d been in countless interviews where he’d had no choice but to compel victims to recount their experiences, but right then he couldn’t force the words past his lips. His coffee churned in his stomach, rancid.

Jack touched his knee again and Grady grabbed onto his fingers. Holding Jack’s hand was the only way he was getting through this and fuck the haters.

Jack squeezed Grady’s fingers tight—too tight, but it helped him focus—and turned a level, sympathetic gaze on Colton. “What did they do?”

Colton shook his head and stared at his knees. “I don’t want to get into all that. I was stubborn, and pissed off, so when months of prayers and penitence didn’t work, they packed up everything in my room—posters, the rug,everything—like I hadn’t ever been there. They told me they were sending me to aspecial school that would make me right.That’s what they said—it wouldmake me right. So I ran.”

Grady gulped against the sear of acid in the back of his throat. He wanted to shout that conversion therapy wasn’t legal in Canada. Jump to his feet and…what? Fuck if he knew. All he knew was this helpless rage.

He made a mental note to ask for the name of that school. It wasn’t the most important thing right now, but he’d be damned if he didn’t do what he could to see it burned to the ground—at least, proverbially speaking.

For now, he looked Colton right in the eye and said, “Good.”

Colton looked surprised, almost pleased, until a cynical twist to his lips soured his expression. “Yeah, well, I’ll never know if it would have been worse than what I got.”

Grady could only guess what might have happened to Colton since that decision, but he wasn’t nearly so naïve that it didn’t break his fucking heart.

“I’m sorry, Colton.” Grady’s voice was hoarse. “I wish I’d known. When I—when they—” Grady stuttered, trying to find the words and failing.

“Whatever,” Colton said with a glower. “It’s not like it’s your fault.”

Before Grady could tell Colton he still wished he’d done more, Jack gave his hand a sharp yank. Blue eyes caught and held his. “You can’t change the past. It’s what you do next that matters.”

Grady stared at Jack, swallowing hard. He was right.

Grady turned to Colton. “I know you don’t know me, Colton, but I’d like to propose something. You don’t have to answer right away, all I’m asking is that you consider it.”

Colton eyed him. “If you suggest I try to reconcile with the family, you can fuck off. I’ve had all the flagellation I’m evergoing to take. And if you try to force it, I’ll be gone before you know it.”

“No,” Grady said quickly, bile rising in his throat. “I amnevergoing to do that. And I’ll never do anything to help them get you back. I give you my word.”

Colton studied Grady. “Okay, good,” he allowed, clearly unconvinced. “Then what?”

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