Extremely morose, he pressed his face into the pillow he was hugging to his chest and waited for the stinging in his eyes to stop. If he was lucky, he might even get some sleep. No wait, if he was actually lucky, Vin would come back and explain himself.
***
“Hey Boss, you’re back early,” a lackey greeted him.
Vin stopped short and glared at him. “I feel like beating the shit outta someone; you volunteering?”
“Oh hell no!” The lackey blurted out as he backed away, his hands up to prove that he had no ill intentions.
A man emerged from a room off to the left. “Hey son – whoa! You look like shit! What’s the matter? Did the whore stand you up?”
Vin wrinkled his nose in distaste but didn’t say anything. In order to keep his dad and bodyguards off his back, he had claimed to be hiring prostitutes to meet him at a hotel, but even so, he hated when they unknowingly called Caelen a whore. Not wanting to explain what actually happened, he simply glared and grumbled: “Something like that.”
“Ah,” his dad murmured in understanding. “Well, just go visit your women and make them comfort you until you feel better.”
“Yeah no. I’m so pissed at the moment that I don’t think I could get it up.”
“That sounds serious, Vince,” his dad said in concern. “Are you so backed up that a whore standing you up affects you this badly?”
Rather than answer, his glare got darker, making his muddy green eyes look more brown than green at the moment.
Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, his dad was tempted to laugh. “Well, if you’re going to look like you want to murder someone, one of our clubs is behind with their protection money, and I was just about to send a few of the boys over to collect it. Why don’t you go with them and beat up whoever you want?”
“Yeah, I could go for that,” Vin agreed, his expression softening a hair or two.
“And then when you’re done with that, you and the boys could always go grab that disrespectful whore and drag her back here to work her over until you’re satisfied.”
Vin wrinkled his nose again. “Christ dad! That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?!”
His dad shrugged. “Whatever. While you’re out, I’m actually headed off to my mistress’ house, so – not that I think she will – but if your mom asks where I am, tell her I’m tagging along – no wait, tell her I have to oversee a body dump. She never wants to question that too deeply.”
“Sure thing dad,” he agreed because he was dead certain that his mother had stopped caring about his father’s other women a long time ago. She put all her time and energy into running a soup kitchen for the local homeless population and seemed quite content to only play the happy wife when her husband wanted to dote on her. It was an odd marriage that worked well for both of them.
Rolling out his shoulders in anticipation, Vin turned to the lackeys that had gathered around behind him. “Just give me a couple minutes to change.”
“Sure thing, Boss! We’ll go wait outside so we can smoke!” One of them informed him. He gestured permission even as he walked away.
About an hour and a half later, his fists were covered in the blood of others and he finally felt calm again. Even better, the club had actually paid up before it escalated to violence, and so, this was blood from genuine enemies in the form of a small gang that was trying to encroach on their territory, and so, was fair game. One might even say that it was his duty to beat them up and teach them a lesson.
All in all, when he flung himself onto his bed for the night, he was in a much better mood than he had been. Still, he wasn’t exactly happy. He was straight up depressed and probably would be for the foreseeable future. Sighing, he grabbed his burner phone and read Caelen’s message. After a moment, he replied.
I need to think about a LOT of things, so I don’t think I’ll be contacting you for a while. Sorry.
***
It was morning before Caelen noticed he had a text. He hadn’t exactly slept, but he had fallen into a zombie-like, almost meditative state in which he was awake but out of it. A swat team could have burst into the room and taken him into custody, and he’s not certain he’d have noticed.
After reading the text, he responded with: Yeah, I have a lot to think about as well…
So, think he did. For the next two months, he thought about all possibilities and came to the conclusion that there really was only one explanation for Vin’s behavior. He was a criminal. And probably not a simple car thief or convenience store robber, but… something worse.
Sighing for probably the millionth time, he tugged on his sweaty brown hair and considered ripping it all out just to feel something other than depression. It was one of his days off, and since those used to be reserved for Vin, he couldn’t help but dwell on the man. Honestly, he couldn’t take this anymore!
Marching to the privacy of his bedroom – in case his brother came home unexpectedly – he slammed the door shut and flopped onto his bed. Then he fished his phone out of his pocket and squeezed it in his fist for a moment. Eventually, he stopped fighting a war in his head and sent a text.
I get it, you’re a criminal. I’ve thought long and hard about it and decided that I just don’t care. The two of us never talked about anything anyway, so why change something that was working? We’re sex friends who only meet up when we want to get each other off, so let’s keep doing that.
After he sent that, he rubbed his finger across a tickly itch on the left corner of his nose. Then he pouted for a second. With a sigh, he gave in and added: I miss you.
***
That was the thing that crumbled all of Vin’s defenses. He slumped into the chair next to his bed and held his head in his hands. If Caelen had stopped with his proposition to resume their previous hookups, he probably would have ignored him, but Goddamnit! He missed that gorgeous bastard too, and he didn’t have it in him to resist such a heartfelt message.
With a sigh, he grabbed his actual phone that he used for everything other than communicating with Caelen. Tapping an icon, he waited. A moment later, his dad picked up.
“Yeah?” He asked curiously.
“Dad… how many men do you have following me?” Vin asked in a tone of utter resignation.
His dad huffed a laugh. “Actually, ever since I discovered the joy of tracking apps, I only have men follow you if I think you’re going to be in danger. The rest of the time, I let you decide when you need to bring men with you for safety and protection. If it came down to it, I could use the tracking app to send men after you to rescue you or just back you up.”
Vin sat up straight in surprise. “I didn’t know that. I really thought you had men following me constantly – ever since that incident when I was a kid.”
“Yeah, well, you were too young to protect yourself back then, so I HAD to have men follow you everywhere,” his dad stated. “But you took martial arts classes and became a black belt, so I’m pretty sure you can take care of yourself. … Why are we even having this conversation?”
Vin sighed as if he’d just been defeated. “It’s just that I want to be able to know when someone is following me, if they’re one of our guys or someone else’s.”