The plane was a Cessna Citation apparently. Daniel had confided that bit of information as they were traveling in the car to Fort Myers airport. It had two Rolls Royce engines and could climb to 51,000 feet.

Ben tried desperately to be impressed and knew Daniel was trying to distract him, but he just felt sick and shaky and had never been more thankful for anything in his life than the fact that Zach was next to him. Zach was different. He wasn’t sure how exactly, but sometime over the past day, he had stepped back into the protector mode he excelled at. He’d always nurtured Ben, to the point that once he had spent hours researching protein shakes for him when he had been modeling then Ben had disappointed him because he had just stuck to caffeine.

He was full of regrets.

“What are you thinking about?” Zach was quiet. Daniel and both detectives were watching a game on TV a few feet away, and Ben was so grateful. It was as if they all sensed he needed some time to be alone with Zach, and they had left them to it.

“That I wished things had been different, and I had realized how wonderful you were,” Ben replied honestly.

Zach waggled his eyebrows which made him smile weakly. Zach reached over and took his hand. “I told you how things worked out between me and my mom and dad.”

Ben nodded, holding onto his hand tighter.

“And obviously, I was very hurt, but when I was a kid, they were great.”

“Eighteen isn’t so old.”

Zach just looked at him, and Ben shut up. He wasn’t going to think about what he was doing at eighteen.

“It makes you question everything though. As if all the love I got from them wasn’t real because they only loved me when I fulfilled their ideal. It wasn’t unconditional.”

“I guess you can’t change them though. Just think it’s their loss, not yours.”

“Mom used to adore black and white films. Love stories. And there was this one—no idea what it was called or who was in it or anything—but the man, instead of telling the woman he loved her, went off and joined the army. It seemed completely nuts to me, and I asked why he would go and waste all that time. She told me that sometimes time wasn’t wasted because when they did get together, their love was stronger, and their future was brighter because it had been fought for.”

Zach passed Ben the tissues without asking, and Ben pressed it against his eyes that had seemed to leak permanently since yesterday. “How did you know?” he accused.

Zach reached over and pressed a kiss against each of Ben’s eyelids. “I’m psychic.”

“Huh,” Ben grunted, not especially appeased.

“Can I get either of you a drink?”

Ben dipped his head automatically, but not before he had seen the curious way the young man who was serving them had stared at him.

“No, we’re good with the water, thank you,” Zach replied politely, sitting back, and the flight attendant nodded and went to ask the others.

Ben tried to shrink into his seat. What he really wanted was to be held by Zach, but the seats were huge leather armchairs which were obviously luxurious but designed so they had nearly two feet of space in between them. He glanced over at Zach longingly. “C’mere,” Zach ordered as if he had seen and lifted his arm. Suddenly not caring what anyone thought, Ben stepped over and let Zach pull him down to sit on his lap. Zach sighed.

“That is so much better.”

Ben let out as equally long a breath. It certainly was.

Ben stared at Zach an hour later in awe. He had been right about something changing—no. Zach hadn’t changed, he’d simply shrugged off the depression he had brought to the island with him. He was quiet, at ease, and even though Daniel had to help him locate certain things, you would never know that Zach’s eyesight wasn’t a hundred percent perfect. He’d even changed his sunglasses for a regular pair which he guessed because it was a cloudy day, he could get away with. The detectives picked up their car at the airport, and despite being offered a ride, Daniel elected to use a car service he was familiar with.

“Much as I respect both of them, I wouldn’t ride in the back of their car if you paid me.”

Zach grinned at Daniel’s dry tone. “At least not without handcuffs on?”

Daniel chuckled. “What you do in the privacy of your bedroom is nothing to do with me.”

“Thank you,” Ben blurted out much louder than he had intended. He’d suddenly realized he hadn’t said it.

Daniel’s eyes twinkled at him. “Let’s just say it’s payback.”

“For?” Ben was confused.

“The mangos”

Ben could feel the heat in his face and was ashamed to be relieved Zach couldn’t see it.

“Mangos?” Zach asked.

“I didn’t know you knew about that,” Ben said.

Daniel turned to Zach. “Once a year, Matt goes away for the weekend, so he wasn’t there. Basically, it was Josh, Charlie, Ben, and a couple of guests. I believe Angie was also away. Josh had cooked some Asian stir fry that they all liked—and done Charlie’s separately of course.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain later,” Daniel waved Zach’s question off, and Ben realized he hadn’t shared Charlie’s food requirements with him, but then, they had never eaten with Charlie and Noah, so it hadn’t occurred to him to do so.

“The thing was, Josh had decided to make a salad a little more exciting as he put it, and added mangos, mandarins, and pineapple to it.”

Zach made a sound of approval.

“Except, Josh had never eaten mangos, and it’s one of those really weird things that some people can be severely allergic to, like peanuts.”

“I’ve never heard of that,” Zach admitted.

“No, it’s rare and apparently linked to a latex allergy. Anyway, Josh started getting stomach cramps within a few minutes. We have no medical facilities on the island, and there was no Matt to drive the boat.” Daniel looked fondly at Ben. “Josh tried to insist he was getting the flu and wanted to go to bed, but Ben wouldn’t hear of it and called the emergency services. Within ten minutes, they had sent a helicopter.”

Zach turned to Ben in understanding. “Essie Gavins.”

Daniel looked puzzled, but Ben explained. “I had a shoot manager called Essie that had a soy allergy, and someone hadn’t been careful with a coffee order. One of the models had ordered soy milk, and he got the wrong one.” Ben winced, shuddering. “It was the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life, and he even had an EpiPen to give himself. I’ll never forget that.” Ben flushed when he saw both of them watching him. “Essie was in agony with stomach pains, even before his neck started swelling.”

“The thing was that by the time the EMT’s got to Josh, he was already having trouble breathing,” Daniel said. “If Ben hadn’t insisted on calling them when he did, Josh might have died.” Daniel’s voice changed as he said the last sentence, and he quickly looked out of the car window. Zach took Ben’s other hand. He was already holding onto one.

“So, you see, Ben,” Daniel smiled, looking back. “I owe you for saving the life of the person I absolutely cannot live without.”

Ben shook his head but smiled. “I think we’re even now, though it wasn’t necessary.”

It was Daniel’s turn to shake his head. “A million plane journeys could never settle that sort of debt.”

Ben flushed, glad when the driver interrupted them. “Mr. Morgan? I can drop you at the door then go find somewhere to park until you call?”

Ben didn’t hear Daniel’s response, too busy gazing at the huge modern building. “Seventeen million I believe,” Daniel remarked.

Ben’s jaw dropped. “The building?”

Daniel nodded and smirked. “It was new two years ago. Our tax dollars at work, huh?”

Ben pulled his hoodie up and spotted Bryan Davis jogging down the steps from the huge glass doors. He must have been looking out for them. Bryan held out his hand and shook theirs. “Okay, I know you want to be as quick as possible, so we’ll get straight to it.”

Daniel and Zach surrounded him like guard dogs which had the double benefit of making sure he could gently steer Zach without it looking obvious. They walked through a few corridors where people greeted Bryan, but apart from a polite nod, to Ben’s eternal relief, they took absolutely no notice of him whatsoever. They walked into a larger space with a couch, a few chairs, and a coffee table. There was a coffee machine brewing in the corner. Bryan strode straight to it and offered them refreshments. Ben had sipped a bottle of water in the car, so he was good and refused.

“What happens exactly,” Zach asked.

“Honestly, if Ben recognizes one or both of the men who was with his mom the day she died, he just has to say, and we’ll take it from there.”

Cruz walked in along with another man and heard the question. He turned to Ben. “We need you to come with us—sorry, alone,” he said, looking apologetically at Zach. Zach bristled, and Ben knew he didn’t like it. “My colleague here—Detective Standish—is going to take you into a separate room with a large glass window. It’s one way, so you can see them, but they can’t see you.”

“Why aren’t you taking him?” Zach immediately wanted to know. So did Ben. As much as he had been frightened of the cops, he didn’t mind Cruz or Davis.

“It’s a procedure we adhere to. The detective isn’t involved with the case, and therefore doesn’t know the suspect. It makes the lineup more believable in court.”

“Like the photographs,” Daniel confirmed, and Cruz nodded.

Ben sighed. He didn’t like it but couldn’t fault the logic.

“Okay,” Ben said, suddenly wanting the whole thing over with.

Zach leaned in and whispered, “I have plans for when we get home.”

Anticipation and heat shot down the length of Ben’s body, and he was desperate to get it over with so Zach could make good on his promise. It was the shot of courage he needed to step confidently after the detective.

It was a different story once he got in the other room. He walked into the bare room with the full-length glass windows down one side and noticed the other man standing in the corner with a notepad looking bored. If TV was anywhere near accurate, he guessed this was the defense attorney assigned because of the rape charge, but it could simply be some clerk making sure things were done correctly. He had no clue, and the detective didn’t so much as glance at him, so Ben didn’t either.

On the other side of the glass, the door at one end opened and six people trooped in. When he saw the third man, every bit of oxygen left Ben’s body and he was back in the campervan as if he’d never left.

The leaky window and the black mold that spread every year. The smells; damp, cigarettes, beer. He used to pick up the empty bottles rolling around the floor, so she wouldn’t trip when she got off the low bench seat she used as a bed. After a while, he just used to step over them himself, knowing she would pick them up eventually to check there weren’t any drops left when she ran out.

He watched as the man with the pig-like eyes and the shuffling steps walked and stood next to the wall. The same half finger that he remembered clutched the number he carried, but Ben wouldn’t have even needed to see that to know. He was older—he seemed a lot older—but it was unmistakably him. He quickly scanned the others until his eyes fell on the last one. Just as old, just as pathetic. Not so scary now. There was no drunken swagger in his movements like he remembered, and he recognized dispassionately that Cruz was right; he was petrified.

“Number three and number six,” he said, swallowing the nausea that rolled through him. “Numbers three and six,” he said louder, in case they hadn’t heard him the first time. “There’s no mistake,” he croaked out before anyone could ask him and turned and headed to the door they had come in. There was only one thought in his mind—Zach—and he wanted to get back to him as quickly as possible. He nearly burst through the door at the end as Davis held it open and ran into Zach’s arms.

“Baby,” Zach murmured and held him tight. Ben buried his face in Zach’s shirt and breathed him in, desperate to banish the scents that the memories clung to.

“Can we go now?” Ben’s need to escape the situation was bordering on panic.

“I understand,” Cruz replied, stepping closer to them, and Ben took a breath and looked up at the detective. “Just one thing. There’s been an arrest on the Gill murders.” Ben looked confused then he remembered something that had been on TV a few weeks ago.

“The home invasion?” Daniel asked immediately.

Cruz nodded, his lips tightly pinched, and Ben understood. This was momentous. There had been a home broken into and an entire family had been slaughtered when there hadn’t been either the cash or the jewels the gang had expected. The elderly grandmother had watched as her son and daughter-in-law and their three small children were shot one by one in the head when the men didn’t find what they were expecting in the million-dollar home. It had been cruel and senseless, and the grandmother had only lived long enough for the detectives to get a brief description before she had succumbed to the gunshot that had meant to kill her.

It had taken three months, and a huge reward posted by the grandfather, who had been away playing golf that day, to find the culprits. The saddest thing was, it had turned out the daughter-in-law’s brother actually staged the whole thing but didn’t know that all the jewelry was sent for valuation only that day, and the thugs he hired killed everyone in a fit of evil spite. Three beautiful children, their parents, and grandparent had been killed for less than three hundred bucks and two plain gold wedding rings. The detectives had worked around the clock on this one, so making an arrest would be huge.

Daniel walked to the window and looked down. He turned to Ben. “It looks like a circus out there.”

Ben’s heart nearly gave out on him.

“We can cover your head,” Davis said. “But trust me, that’s the very last thing you want to happen. It paints a target on you immediately because the reporters know instantly it’s someone that doesn’t want their picture taken. Your best chance is to walk quietly out with everyone. There’s so much attention on the arrest and press conference that will follow, the likelihood of anyone identifying you is minimal.”

“We can keep you here on the off chance it quiets down, but that makes the risk of you being seen worse,” Cruz said.

“Hiding in plain sight,” Zach murmured.

Ben focused on breathing. He could do this. The worst had already happened. He just had to keep his head down and get out of the building, so they could get home.

“I’m going to go first, and I want Zach behind you,” Daniel said like he was mounting a military campaign.

“You ever been in the army?” Cruz asked with a semi-innocent expression.

“I have over ten thousand people that work for me, so I guess you could say I own my own.”

Even with the shitty day he was having, Cruz’s jaw drop was very funny. Ben shivered and was grateful that Zach crowded him. He gripped the sleeve on Zach’s jacket to make sure they were securely anchored together, both for him and so Zach didn’t need to worry he couldn’t see where he was going. Cruz went ahead of them and Davis behind.

Daniel had been right. It was a circus. Davis had originally suggested they go out at the back, but there were even more reporters and photographers there, so they had no choice but to leave the same way they had entered, through the large glass doors at the top of the steps outside. And they nearly made it as well. Ben was two steps from the door that Daniel had already stepped through when a man was led out of a corner office with his head covered, and all the reporters surged forward. Ben would have been okay. He managed to get free, but in the crush, his hand was ripped from Zach’s jacket, and they were torn apart. Cruz beckoned him forward, but there was no way in hell Ben was going to leave Zach, and he twisted around just as a photographer got in his face. Three quick shots and despite the shoving and sheer blind panic of what seemed like everyone, Ben was cornered, and there in front of him, lowering his camera and staring at Ben in complete horror, was Steven Dunne. “Ben?” he croaked out in complete disbelief. “Levi?” Ben didn’t have a second to even process the man’s presence before his arm was yanked, and he was suddenly outside and bundled into the waiting car.

Steven Dunne.

“Look, it’s not my fault, they gave me the wrong lens.”

Ben eyed the new photographer in suspicion. It was one of the most ridiculous things he’d ever heard, but that didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t true.

“Then what do you want to do?” It was already after seven, and the shoot had started thirteen hours ago. Ben was exhausted, and everyone else had gone home. Zach would be waiting for him, and he’d promised him they would go meet Seth and his girlfriend for dinner. If he was late, Seth would be convinced he had done it on purpose.

“The lens is at home. I have a studio all set up there, and it would be quicker if we both just went to my apartment rather than me keeping you waiting while I go get it.”

Ben had no intention of going to Steven’s apartment. The guy had made it clear on more than one occasion he was willing to help Ben’s career in exchange for certain favors.

“I’m sorry,” Ben smiled sweetly. “I can’t. It’s my boyfriend’s brother’s birthday, and we have a meal booked.”

“Yeah,” Steven said, coming way too close to Ben for his liking. “Boyfriend, huh?”

Ben took a step back.

“I understand it’s inconvenient, but every decent model knows they have to make hard decisions to help their career. It’s dog eat dog, you know that.”

He did, and it was true. And had it been any other photographer, he was ashamed to realize, he might have wavered on his promise to be home in time for Zach.

“And I wanted to talk to you about some other shots. I have this contact with GQ, and they’re looking at working with me on the June cover.”

Ben hesitated. GQ? That was big, really big. He was still at the stage in his career where he couldn’t turn down any work. GQ could mean breaking into the big time. Steven stepped right up to him then, and with one finger, ran a line over his jaw. “I could make this face star in every commercial I work on.”

Without thinking, Ben slapped his hand away, and Steven’s face went from teasing to furious. He grabbed the front of the shirt Ben was wearing and pulled him forward. “Just be careful you little shit. All it takes is a few words from me and every designer will drop you so fast you will be lucky to get a job selling magazines, not appearing in them.” Then he clasped Ben’s shirt tighter and kissed him. For a few stunned seconds, Ben didn’t move then pushed at him hard, and Steven just ignored him.

So he bit him. Steven howled and let go but backhanded Ben in a vicious move that sent him sprawling. Before Ben knew what was happening, he was manhandled out of the studio. He stood in the office building corridor in a T-shirt and low slung jeans with bare feet and nothing else. His wallet and phone were inside.

And it was January.

By the time he threatened to call the cops on Steven and Steven had tossed his belongings at him, another half an hour went by.

He had been late to get to the restaurant. Zach hadn’t said anything and even expressed concern about the redness and swelling on his cheek. Ben apologized and lied, saying he tripped. He knew he hadn’t been believed, but he also knew Zach wouldn’t call him out in front of Seth. When they got home, Ben managed to distract Zach very satisfactorily, and the next day, he used makeup to hide it, and Zach had forgotten about it.

“I was seen,” Ben croaked out, panicked in the hush of the car.

“You were recognized?” Zach clarified, and Ben nodded miserably.

“The reporter.” His voice cracked.

“Shh,” Zach soothed, and Ben saw Daniel get out his phone and call the airport.

“But it was the one who showed you the picture of me in that restaurant you were in with Seth.” He would never forget the disgust on Zach’s face. Steven Dunne was obsessed with finding Ben.

Ben buried his head into Zach’s shirt and shook. He was done. He had been about as brave as he could be and was ready to fall apart. He tightened his fingers in Zach’s, pressing his face into Zach’s shirt, wetting it, but not caring because he couldn’t listen to Zach admitting he was horrified at seeing him. If he had the strength, he would have gotten out of the car.

“Hush, baby,” Zach crooned. “He can’t hurt you anymore, no one can.”

You can. For a second, terror held him still because he was frightened the wounded words had spilled out.

“I’ll never forget being so angry, so damn jealous.”

Ben froze. “W-what?”

Zach put one finger under his chin, and Ben let him gently tilt his face up. “He found you. Some total scumbag of a reporter had succeeded when everything I tried failed. I wanted to kill him. He’s lucky just the camera hit the floor because I was so tempted to throw him off after it. I was furious because he’d invaded your privacy, but insanely jealous he’d managed to get near you and I hadn’t.”

Ben’s lips parted soundlessly in utter amazement. “I saw your face.” He swallowed. “I saw how angry you were and how disgusted, and I thought—”

“Oh, baby.” Ben heard Zach’s voice crack. The anguish. The jagged tear that ripped through his heart and bled into his voice “Not at you, never ever at you.” And then Ben was crying again, and Zach was holding him tight. His arms were like a promise, safe and secure, that he would never let him go. The sheer and utter relief made Ben light headed. All this time, he had been wrong.

Daniel leaned forward. “Hey, you two. I’m sorry to interrupt, but we’ll be there in five minutes, and I’m not going back with you. I’m already here, so checking on Sunset Charles is a given.” Ben raised his head—Charles? Then he realized, located in Boston, it was named after the river.

“Okay,” Zach agreed evenly. “No problem, but you’re telling Josh.”

Daniel huffed. “Don’t worry, I’m planning a trip to California—Napa Valley—next month with him that should make him happy.” Zach chuckled, but he didn’t let go of Ben once. Not in the car, the plane, the taxi, and definitely not in Matt’s boat. It was beautiful.

“I hope you’re hungry when we get home.”

Ben stirred. He was nearly asleep. He’d slept on the plane curled up on Zach’s lap in the same huge seat. Zach wrapped the seat belt around them both and ignored the requests from the flight attendant to get in another one. He smiled. “Maybe we can get takeout again?”

“Uh-uh.” Zach shook his head.

“What?” Ben asked, sensing Zach had already made plans.

“We,” Zach kissed him on the nose, “are heading to my room where our clothes have already been laid out for us to change into following a bath. Then we get to use the small patio, which has been marked private tonight for us, to eat. Josh is serving us something wonderful.” He hesitated. “And if it’s soup, you might have to feed me. After that, our driver is on hand to whisk us away to your—our—secluded cabin where we can make love under the stars.”

Ben was speechless. And in love. He couldn’t believe he might finally be getting everything he had always wanted.