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.”“And then so did you,” Reed said sharply.“Reed…baby—please.” Keith turned his face with a hand cupping his chin.“There’s no replacing you—I don’t want to replace you.”“Yeah, I know.It’s just…it’s been a while.I forgot the dynamics.How it can be in the beginning.”“I was jealous as hell when you and Bobby started fucking,” Keith reminded him, and yeah, the man had been a bear, had often taking his worry and frustration out on Reed when it was their turn.And Reed had loved it—responded to the rough-and-tumble fucking—had made Keith fall in love with him equally as hard as Bobby had fallen with him.“I guess there’s room for all of us,” Reed said finally.“Of course there is, if that’s what you want.And if you don’t—”“What? You’d let him go?” Reed asked.“I’d do anything for you, Reed, you know that.But you need to tell me now, before we get in any deeper.And if we decide to move forward, you can never ask me that again,” Keith warned.“I know.That wasn’t fair.” Reed shifted in his chair and pulled something out of a drawer.“I found this yesterday.”Keith opened the envelope and read the contents.Now, he understood where Reed’s admissions were coming from—this was enough to set anyone on edge.“We’ll take care of this.”“We have to.And I don’t want him to go.Never did.”“I know.You’re just…”“Scared to be with him alone,” Reed finished for him.“And how fucking ridiculous is that?”“It’s not,” Keith told him softly.“I don’t want to screw this up.”“You’re not.I want you to be comfortable.I thought you were.”“Yeah, I did too.And it’s not Shane’s fault.It’s mine.” Reed took the envelope back.“No matter what, we have to deal with this, and fast.”“I think we should wait to tell him.”“You think he’ll run?” Reed asked softly.“Yeah.I think he would now.”Reed looked at the envelope in his hand and then dropped it back into the drawer.“Then we make sure he’s ready to stay before we show him.”Chapter TwentySeveral weeks passed in a heartbeat.Keith went on another mission, Shane helped to track him this time, along with a very restrained Reed.At first, Shane chalked it up to stress but he had to wonder if Reed wasn’t happy that Shane had slept with Keith.“Hey Shane, can you come here a minute?” Keith called from the living room.Shane was in the kitchen, grabbing a soda.He looked out the kitchen door and saw them standing together, trying to look like everything was completely normal, and they sucked at it.They had something to tell him—it was about as fucking obvious as the snow outside.But Shane steeled himself for whatever it was.He was getting stronger.Training twice a day to get back into prime condition.And he almost had himself fooled that everything was going to be all right.“What’s up?” he asked, pretending he was all fine.“We have something to show you,” Reed said.Keith walked over to him and held out an envelope.Shane took it, forced himself to draw a breath before he opened it.“Tell him to stay quiet, and none of you will have any problems.”Guthrie.He’d been here, to Shane’s sanctuary.He’d threatened the men who’d saved him.“When?” he asked quietly, and when he got no answer, he demanded, “When, dammit? How long ago?”“Three weeks ago,” Keith told him.He looked at Reed, who was stonily silent.“Three weeks? And I suppose you think you had a good reason why you didn’t tell me?”“Several, actually.I just don’t think you’re going to be able to get over yourself long enough to hear them.”Keith was right about that but Shane didn’t care.Shoved away from Keith’s touch to his shoulder.He was angry.Prepared to fight.“Shane, we wouldn’t have let him get to you,” Reed told him.“Now you’re talking to me?” he asked, and Reed flinched.“Yeah, you think I’m walking around here in some kind of cloud, not noticing shit? I notice everything.And this—” he held up the letter, “—is my ticket out of here.”“I didn’t think you wanted out,” Reed said.“It doesn’t matter what I want.This dictates where I go.And you should’ve told me when it happened.”“You weren’t ready to deal with it,” Keith said.“You don’t get to make those decisions for me, goddammit,” he roared, and Keith crossed his arms and stared him down.“Just because I’ve given you my submission in the bedroom doesn’t mean I’m going to give it to you in every area of my life.”“I didn’t say you had to,” Keith said.“So what exactly would you have done? Gone after Guthrie before you were well enough? Let him ruin your recovery and your possible happiness? Tell me, Shane, what you would’ve done three weeks ago besides freak the fuck out.”Keith spoke calmly and that pissed Shane off more than anything.He was spinning, the roar in his ears was like an oncoming hurricane pounding through his brain.Before he knew it, he’d pushed the big man squarely in the chest, over and over.The man didn’t move, stood like an elephant being bothered by a fly.It pissed Shane off when all he wanted was an I’m sorry, any kind of goddamned reaction instead of the ever-present smugness.Pissed him off even more than Reed did at the moment and, for whatever reason, it was safer to go off on Keith for now.Finally, he got his wish.Keith’s patience expired and he did explode, pinned him to the floor, rubbed his scruff against Shane’s cheek.“You want a reaction, baby boy, you’ve got it.I didn’t want you to be any more hurt than you were.I wanted to protect you, although when you act stupid like this, it’s hard to remember why.”“Then teach me.”Keith’s body went tight on his.“You want a lesson?”“Yes.” He put his forehead against the carpet, his eyes stung with tears of humiliation.“I need it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]