Chapter Thirty-Seven

After a long look at Prescott’s lifeless body and then at Tucker standing guard before them, Vargas let his eyes fall shut. The adrenaline was fading fast and so was he. A short moment later, the sound of sirens filled the club, then shouts and Tucker’s voice from farther away as he addressed the cops and identified himself.

Vargas felt two hands repeatedly patting his face and upper body. “Are you okay? Please say you’re okay.”

“Yeah. I’m okay.” He opened his eyes, and immediately his head spun. Regardless, he forced himself to keep his focus on Seth, who was sitting on the floor before him. One very alive and safe Seth. Who was going to stay that way. For good now. “Are you all right?”

Seth smiled at him. It was a look filled with astonishment and relief. And love. “Yes.”

Vargas let out a long breath. Earlier, when Seth had said that Prescott was in the club, Vargas had never been so afraid, never felt so unbelievably helpless. No matter how hard he’d tried, he’d barely been able to move. It took all his effort to keep upright and try to walk with Seth. If anything had happened to him…

He grasped on to one of Seth’s hands. “You were alone with him?”

Seth nodded.

“Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Did he touch you?”

Another nod. “But I’m okay. Really.”

Vargas breathed deep again and pulled Seth into his arms. “God, I was so scared.”

“I know. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

“I love you.”

Seth held on to him tighter. “I love you too.”

Tucker cleared his throat as he crouched beside them. “Police are here. They’re checking the building. Ambulances are on the way.” He focused on where Prescott lay on the floor. “He’s still breathing, but just barely. I don’t think he’ll make it.”

As Seth pulled back, Vargas reluctantly let go of him. Then he held a hand out to Tucker. “Thank you.” They clasped on to each other in lieu of a formal handshake.

Tucker gave a nod before standing. “All the guards are down. Drugged in some way but breathing steadily. Wait here until someone gives you the all clear or the EMTs arrive.” He went to talk with the approaching officer, and more police arrived to attend to Prescott.

By the time the cops had the building secure, whatever Vargas had been dosed with had mostly warn off. His head throbbed like hell, but he could focus more clearly. The club’s security guards had all come to as well, and the police were gathering everyone in the dining room.

In addition to what appeared to be every uniformed cop and plainclothes officer in the city, several EMTs and ambulances had arrived. They checked Prescott over and loaded him into an ambulance. Vargas had hoped they’d be calling in the coroner, but apparently the bastard was hanging on by a thread.

The cops separated Vargas, Seth, Tucker, Carter, and the other security guards and took brief statements from each. A team of U.S. Marshals arrived and took their own statements. Anything more than that would have to wait. Vargas and the security guards were all transported to the hospital so tests could be run to determine what drug they’d been given and check for any side effects. Vargas also wanted them to examine Seth, and the only way he’d agree to get in the ambulance was if Seth was right there with him.

It was going to be a while before he took his eyes off him.

* * * * *

“Can you say it again?” Seth asked.

Vargas looked up from where he lay in a hospital bed in the ER, Seth seated in a chair beside him. How many times had the two of them been situated like that, their positions reversed?

They were waiting for the test results of his blood work. The cuts on his stomach had been cleaned and none required stitches, and he felt completely recovered from whatever drug had been in his system.

As they sat there in the ER, Vargas wanted Seth to come to him so he could hold him, tell him he loved him again, make sure Seth knew he was safe now, and then never let go of him, but he wasn’t sure that was the right call for Seth, not right then.

Seth seemed to be thinking something over, processing what had happened, and Vargas didn’t know if he needed to talk or needed more time and space with his own thoughts. The uncertainty of that sat heavy in every part of Vargas, but he wouldn’t force Seth to do one more thing he didn’t want. He owed him that much.

What he could do right then was repeat the words Seth obviously needed to hear.

“He’s dead. He can never hurt you again.”

“Okay.” Seth grew quiet once more. Same as he’d been since he’d finished telling Vargas what had happened with Henderson and Prescott in the club.

They hadn’t been at the hospital long before they’d found out that Prescott had been pronounced dead en route to the ER. They’d also learned that the police hadn’t uncovered Henderson or his body in the club. Instead they discovered a trail of blood leading to a back door. They began checking hospitals and clinics for gunshot victims, and also sent teams to Henderson’s home and office and other properties listed in his name.

They found him in his office. He’d bled out and died seated in his chair, facing the wall of windows overlooking the city. He was slumped sideways, his right arm hanging at his side, his phone lying on the floor below. On the screen was a photo of a boy seated in a canoe.

“They’re both dead,” Vargas said. “No one’s coming after you again.”

Seth nodded once more.

Vargas expected more of that pensive silence, so it surprised him when Seth kept the conversation going with a question.

“How did Tucker get inside the club?”

“He was working on finding a place to break in when he discovered an unlocked door at the back of the building, an employee entrance. They’re guessing that’s how Henderson and Prescott got in.”

There was a long pause. Then Seth asked, “The security guards knew who drugged them, didn’t they?”

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

“No way someone got that close to them without at least one or two of them hitting the alarm or pulling out their stun gun and using it on the guy.”

“It was one of my security personnel.”

“Neil?”

Vargas nodded, not surprised at all Seth had figured that out. “The last thing each guard remembers is Neil approaching them.”

“Did Carter know he was involved? He said Neil was his nephew.”

“No. Carter stopped in here earlier while you were talking to the cops. He was pretty shaken up about the whole thing. I guess Neil turned himself in and confessed everything to the police. He’s been dating a member for a while now. The guy works for Henderson. Jarrett Gates. Neil said he drugged the guards for Gates. It was supposed to be a robbery, and when it was done, they were going to take off together. Apparently Gates lied to Neil. Gates said he and I had a thing before the two of them met, and that I broke his heart and kept something valuable from him, something that meant a great deal to him, and he wanted it back. According to Neil no one was supposed to get hurt. He said he was just trying to help the guy he was in love with.”

“He’s been arrested?”

“Neil? Yeah. They can’t find Gates. They think he took off.” Vargas shook his head. “I should’ve known.”

“How could you?”

“You did. Your instincts were right about Neil.”

“I didn’t know he would drug people. Besides, I had the same feeling about Ian. I thought he was also lying to you.”

Vargas grinned. “He was.”

Seth gave him a questioning look.

“Ian knew who Neil was dating. Neil told him I wouldn’t like it and asked him to keep it a secret from me, and Ian felt bad about that. But he’s been friends with Neil for years. He didn’t want to betray him. I’m guessing you could sense how uncomfortable and conflicted Ian felt about all that. Which means there’s no reason for you to second-guess yourself. You know who to trust.”

“The same goes for you.”

Vargas harrumphed skeptically. “Well, I can tell you one thing. There’s a new policy. The guards aren’t allowed to fuck or date members. Period.”

Seth chuckled, but it wasn’t a genuine laugh.

They grew quiet again. What could Vargas say? He’d made mistake after mistake, and it had nearly cost Seth his life.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Seth said without looking up from his hands that were clasped together on his lap.

“Do you?”

“Yeah, and you’re wrong.”

Vargas tilted his head back to rest on the pillow. “I should’ve figured out that Henderson was going to get Prescott out no matter what. That our deal was bullshit. That the appeal was a ruse so Prescott would be transferred to the jail where Henderson could bribe a guard and then use you as bait, getting one of my own fucking guards to help him.”

“Vargas—”

“I failed you.” He stared Seth down. “I promised to keep you safe and never let him near you again. Then I took away all your control. I locked you up against your will in the one place you were the least safe, the Haven.”

“I chose to leave the safe room. That was my decision. He never would’ve gotten to me if I hadn’t unlocked the door. Besides, it’s not possible to keep someone safe from everything 24-7. That’s unrealistic.” Seth shook his head, then shrugged. “Bad stuff happens in life. It’s going to happen to me sometimes. That’s life. The good and the bad. I never needed you to protect me from the bad shit. I needed you to listen to me. To be there for me. I needed to know you cared, and I even needed you to hold me up until I could do it for myself. You did all that, and more. You have never let me down or failed me in any way.”

“Seth…” Vargas wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. That he needed help? That he couldn’t seem to get past this on his own? That he was afraid he—and his guilt—would ruin things for them?

Just then a woman with the U.S. Marshals Service parted the curtain that covered the opening of Vargas’s exam room. “Excuse me for interrupting, but Mr. Fisher, we’d like to ask you a few more questions.”

Without a word, Seth got up, gave Vargas a long look packed with disappointment, then turned and left with her.

Vargas never wanted to be on the receiving end of that look again. He dropped his head back to the pillow once more. How had everything gotten this messed up?

Fuck that. He knew exactly how.

Several minutes passed. Then the curtain parted again. This time Dylan and Tucker entered.

“You guys okay?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Tucker said as he hung back near the doorway. “Aaron’s in the waiting room with Kevin and Walter.”

Dylan came to stand beside the bed. He shook his head, smiling down at Vargas. “You so gotta get over this obsession with us. I mean, you’re in love now. You can’t be paying all this attention to other guys, no matter how hot we are.” He winked.

In the doorway, Tucker ducked his head and laughed.

Dylan glanced back at him, and the two eyed each other for far longer than the moment called for. There was an odd, focused expression on Tucker’s face as he stared the other man down.

Another ten seconds of that intense look between them, and Dylan returned his attention to Vargas. “Seth’s okay?”

“He is.”

“I mean emotionally?”

“He will be.”

Dylan sighed. “I told him going to the club like that was a fucked-up idea.”

“Yeah?”

“His entire plan was stupid. I mean, if he wanted to get laid so badly he should’ve just talked to you about it. It was beyond obvious that you were into him.”

“That’s why he came to stay with me? For sex?”

Dylan stepped closer. “Hey, I didn’t mean to make it sound so cold like that. I tried to tell him sleeping with you wouldn’t just be about sex, that what you felt for each other was way more than that.”

It was. It always had been. Always would be.

Vargas wasn’t about to ruin that. Or let Seth down.

“Hey, Tucker, can I use your cell?” He’d put off making this call for far too long.