Rhino Ash (Saturday Barbies Book 2)

by Lindsey Black

  ‘Whatever, it’s gross,’ Ashley moaned, flopping into Hale’s lap and curling up against his chest, wishing he could crawl inside the man. Actually, he really wanted to be inside the man, but he knew Finn was not having sex with him while he looked like a hippopotamus, blue and bloated.

  ‘What the fuck happened to you?’ Dave came crashing through the front door and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Finn and Ashley on the couch cuddling. ‘He … he didn’t do that, right?’

  ‘What?’ Ashley, Finn and Freya shouted in union.

  ‘No!’ Ashley frowned. ‘A fuckin’ house fell on me!’

  ‘Exploded on you,’ Finn corrected and Ashley glared at him. ‘What? It’s the truth.’ He had a thing for the truth, apparently.

  ‘You look … terrible.’ Dave came closer to get a better look.

  ‘Gee, thanks.’

  ‘No, seriously … I’ve never seen you look bad, let alone terrible. It makes me feel more human. I don’t feel so bad about looking like roadkill whenever I have a hangover now.’

  ‘No, really … thanks,’ Ashley rolled his eyes.

  ‘No, thank you.’ Dave moved to kiss Freya hello but kept stealing glances at him as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. Ashley didn’t blame him; he really did look like hell.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Because it seemed early for Dave to be coming home.

  ‘We had a work brunch,’ Dave bemoaned. ‘It was so awful the boss gave us the rest of the day off.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Freya frowned at him. ‘How could it be that bad?’

  ‘The boss’s wife turned up with photos from her private investigator showing him sleeping with the secretary, who was also there, subsequently outing them to Gina, the advertising manager, who the boss was also apparently sleeping with …’

  Finn was in hysterics. Freya was horrified. Ashley was too sore to laugh. He shook his head, grateful he worked at a firehouse. Not that it didn’t have drama, but they had two women on the team at the house and everyone actually behaved and made an effort to treat them equally so the usual locker room crap didn’t happen, and no one was stupid enough to try and sleep with them so that drama was off the table too.

  ‘I don’t have to go to work ’til noon. Wanna go get a coffee with me?’ Freya asked hopefully and with no further agreement she was running to change out of her pink pyjamas, leaving Dave in the kitchenette staring after her.

  ‘Are you really okay? I’m not joking, you look dead. But with your eyes open.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Ashley promised, waving him off. ‘Go have coffee, I’ll be fine here.’

  ‘Oh, I can see that.’ Dave shook his head and followed Freya into their bedroom, muttering about the Wizard of Oz.

  ‘I really like them,’ Finn admitted. ‘They’re good people.’

  ‘Yeah, they are,’ Ashley agreed. ‘But for now I just want to take you back to my bed and use you as a pillow. Is that okay?’

  ‘I just followed you out here,’ Finn shrugged. ‘Or I followed the screaming, and found you out here.’

  Laughing, Ashley let the man help him up and pulled him back to bed.

  9

  Kisangani, Barney

  ‘Uncle Ash!’ Emma gasped at him when he came through the front door. ‘You look like Barney!’ She took a step back, slow and careful as if trying to make sure he didn’t notice, and then she turned and ran screaming for the back door. ‘Uncle Taaaaaay! Ash looks like Barney!’ She was very loud.

  Ashley sighed and closed the front door before making his way through his parents’ house. It was Saturday and unsurprisingly everyone had been summoned to the family home for a barbeque. He’d tried to say he didn’t feel up to it, but then his mother had suggested they all come to his place. He’d quickly agreed to be there at noon, and he was.

  ‘Ash.’ Daniel, his father, was dressed as usual in suit pants and a nice shirt, top few buttons undone and sleeves rolled up past his elbows. His eyes were paler than his sons and his brows drew down in concern as he took in the array of bruising visible around the shirt and shorts Ashley was wearing.

  ‘It’s fine, really, they don’t even hurt now.’ It had been three days since the house blew up on him and he was feeling better. Unfortunately, Finn had swapped shifts to see him and had been on shift ever since as a result and he had to admit he was going through withdrawals. He wanted to see him, badly. The barbeque was actually a good distraction.

  ‘Well, come on then. Your mother’s had a few shandies so at least she won’t have a complete meltdown when she sees you.’

  Sure enough, Chloe Jameson was sprawled on a sun lounge on the back patio, surrounded by her family, looking like a queen with her subjects. Dressed immaculately in a floral print sundress that hugged all the right places, her blonde hair was done up in a fall of ringlets around her shoulders. She had a bright red lipstick on under a wide brimmed straw hat with an elegant white ribbon on it and a half empty wine cooler in one hand. Even in her fifties, his mother was an impossibly attractive woman. She was also simply impossible.

  ‘My God, you do look like that horrid purple dinosaur.’ She sniffed at him and sipped her wine, leaving her children to gape at her.

  Hayley shoved an empty chair in his direction and he sat carefully, his back still the worst of the bruising. Taylor was sitting by the pool with Sietta, their feet in the water. Jamie was there, restringing a cello on the living room floor. Clay and Joel were playing backgammon on the outdoor table across from where Kelly sat with Jay on her lap in a vice grip, unsurprising since not long ago he’d literally blown up the kitchen by putting a deodorant can to cook in the oven. Brayden was cooking at the barbeque and Emma was sandwiched between Leila and Micah on another sun lounge. Benjamin Grant, one of his father’s colleagues and more like an adopted Uncle to them all, stood beside Daniel watching the sausages cook. It was quite the group, and they were all staring at Chloe as if unsure what she would do next.

  ‘Oh, don’t look at me like that. I begged him to come home so his mother could take care of him and he refused. Refused!’ There was the anger, the wine spilling as she gestured wildly in his direction. ‘My own baby boy, refusing to come home and let his mother take care of him. A house fell on him! A house! And still he goes home to that cold, dreary apartment by himself.’

  ‘I live with people, Mum. Good people!’ And he hadn’t been alone, but he wasn’t telling her that. He couldn’t even imagine what she would do if she knew he had a boyfriend who wasn’t at the family barbeque.

  ‘See how ungrateful he is?’ Chloe was in lecture mode and Ashley gave up, sinking lower in his chair and toying with the plug on his thong, since it looked ready to crack and fall out. He would have to buy a new pair soon.

  ‘Mum, he looks like Barney,’ Clay pointed out. ‘I think he’s suffering enough without the lecture. Next time a house falls on him, he’ll come home so you can fawn all over him, okay?’

  She frowned at him but seemed unable to argue with whatever logic she found in his words. As if he was ever likely to have another house fall on him. His family were insane, but he waited with his breath held for her answer anyway, hoping Clay had convinced her to drop it.

  ‘Fine. Next time,’ she admonished with another sip of wine.

  Things returned to normal. Hayley was raving about something she saw on the news other than the house squashing him, Brayden talked about a weird nurse who kept stealing the hospital jelly, Sietta and Jamie had a gig on the weekend at a popular bar they’d been trying to get into for weeks and everyone promised to go if they could. Kelly talked about a promotion she got at work, Joel complained about a paper he had to grade that wasn’t even legible. Ben joked about suing a guy who kept raving about anti-immigration policy in Martin Place near the offices of Jameson, Grant and London because he resented being forced to listen to his drivel every time he went past to his favourite coffee shop on the station corner.

  Ashley tuned them out and fell asleep. />
  ‘Uncle Ashy? You want a sandwich?’ He woke to Emma standing in front of him holding out a sandwich and looking very concerned, as if she thought he might break. He sat up and quickly took the offered sausage in bread, smiling brightly.

  ‘Yeah, thanks munchkin. Looks great!’

  ‘Course. I made it.’ Clearly. The bread was stained red with sauce and the sausage had been broken, and probably dropped on the ground but he didn’t care because she had made it for him and looked so damned smug about it. She skipped away to where Taylor was sitting with Sietta and threw herself on his back while he struggled not to choke on his own plate of food.

  ‘What’s the go with this boat people ring they keep talking about on the news?’ Ben interjected suddenly, looking hard at Clay and Taylor, who looked suddenly guilty. Which meant it had something to do with work, which meant Finn was involved. Ashley paid more attention.

  ‘It’s nothing. More boat people getting in, that’s all.’ Clay was not great at deterring people from pursuing a subject.

  Ashley already knew that was a lie. It was about drugs, but it was interesting that Clay was very deliberately not mentioning that. To Ben, of all people. Ben the lawyer, whose parents happened to have been boat people.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Ben shook his head, his eyes shrewd as he watched their reactions. ‘I heard there’s been a lot more than have been reported, and that it’s increasing, and that there’s a monetary element that makes it a little more akin to imported slavery.’ Yeah, Ben knew everything. It was almost like he was testing Clay, trying to see how much he would tell. How much he would corroborate.

  ‘That sounds bad,’ Ashley frowned at Ben, wondering how he always seemed to know about things before they even made it onto the news. It was part of what made him good at his job, but it was still a mystery. Ashley suspected Ben had some rather unsavoury contacts, but he’d never had the guts to ask. Partly because Taylor adored Ben, and Ashley wasn’t willing to cross Taylor.

  ‘It is bad.’ Ben rolled his eyes at him. ‘Temporary migration for the purposes of employment is fine, if it’s on the books but this isn’t. How are they getting the workers in, and what leverage are they using to keep them working here? Worse, where’s the money going?’

  ‘Where the hell are you getting this from?’ Taylor was clearly displeased by the line of questioning.

  ‘I’m Vietnamese,’ Ben reminded them. ‘And the son of immigrants. It’s in my best interests to know what’s happening with immigration, especially when it’s potentially my friends and family being affected. What if my parents had been exploited in such a way when they first arrived?’

  ‘But your parents came here legally,’ Clay pointed out.

  ‘And if they hadn’t, what then? Everyone is distracted by refugees from Eastern Europe and the Middle East right now, it’s like we don’t even remember that most boat people are our next door neighbours. People are dying and it’s not even making the news.’

  Ash snickered at the expression on Clay and Taylor’s identical faces. Ben likely knew more than the police, but he wasn’t going to help them in case he needed to defend someone later. Not that anyone could afford to have Ben defend them, not an immigrant anyway. Still, it was disconcerting the things Ben knew, and how quickly he acted on things he found important.

  ‘We’re dealing with it,’ Clay protested, but Taylor was suspiciously quiet, which made Ashley think maybe they weren’t dealing with it as well as they wished. He wondered what Finn thought of it all, and what he was doing at work. If he was running, right that second. Ashley really wanted to see him. He wanted to know he was okay. He wanted to hold him and breathe in the scent of his stupidly cheap strawberry scented all-in-one shampoo.

  The conversation turned again and Ashley fell asleep once more, still drained and trying to heal. Leaving the house was taking a lot out of him but he felt a lot better than he had that first day.

  ‘Hey,’ Taylor squeezed his shoulder and sat down in the chair at his side. Everyone else was busy playing an impromptu game of cricket in the yard.

  ‘Hey. Sorry, still really tired.’

  ‘Hurts?’

  ‘Not as much,’ Ashley shrugged, unwilling to admit how much it had hurt even if it was obvious from looking at him.

  ‘How’s your thing going?’ He wasn’t looking at him, and there was the faintest hint of a blush on his cheeks. He didn’t want to know the details, which made Ashley smirk.

  ‘My thing with Finn, you mean?’

  Taylor nodded and then rolled his eyes at him.

  ‘You get the dumbest look on your face when you think about him,’ Taylor shook his head, reaching out to poke Ash’s cheek where he was grinning and his dimple was showing.

  ‘Well, you look ridiculous whenever Sietta’s in the room, so fair is fair.’

  ‘Fair is fair,’ Taylor agreed. ‘Finn seems really happy. So … You need to start talking to him, okay?’

  ‘We talk all the time, asshole. I’m dating him. He’s my boyfriend.’

  ‘I don’t mean like that.’ But Taylor was grinning, rubbing his jaw as he contemplated Ashley. ‘Though, that defensive thing you’ve got going on is very cute.’

  ‘Fuck off.’

  ‘You’re serious about him, right? This isn’t just you trying something new?’

  ‘Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I’m serious about him. He’s mine, and I intend to keep it that way. What is wrong with you?’ Because Taylor was supposed to do the whole protective big brother thing with Ashley. Finn was the one who was supposed to get the lecture, but instead Ashley kept getting the earful and it was starting to do his nerves in.

  Especially when Taylor looked at him and he knew he was being judged.

  ‘You better fucking mean it, Ash.’ He carefully placed a newspaper cut-out in his lap and left, calling out to Sietta at left of field and jogging over to help him.

  The article was a few years old, and faded, but there was no mistaking one of the faces looking up at him. One of six faces, like profile shots like you took for a passport. Finn looked so young, barely out of school, missing the wary caution he carried these days. But it was the words that made his heart stutter and his breath freeze in his chest.

  Five Australians killed in Kisangani, one taken alive. Ransom demanded.

  He searched for a date but the article had been removed from its paper and there was nothing to tell him when it had been written. The article only said it had been more than twenty-four hours since Parliament had confirmed contractors for a mining company had been intercepted in a small town near the Ugandan border. Five of the victims were confirmed dead and the other was expected to follow. Negotiations had failed.

  He looked up, searching the yard for Taylor who met his gaze with a cold glare and held his fingers up by his ear, mouthing ‘call him’. He wasn’t getting any more answers from his brother.

  The bomb in his hand was answer enough. He needed to talk to Finn, and stop guessing at what had happened. Guessing? He wasn’t guessing anything. The article made zero sense. Finn had been in Africa? He’d been a contractor? With a mine? What the hell? Ashley felt like his brain was going to explode, a headache beginning to pound between his ears.

  Finn had been kidnapped and held for ransom in Africa. Now he was a police officer in Sydney. That was all he knew. The question was what had happened in between, and right then it seemed like a big fucking question.

  He forced himself up and went to kiss his mother on the cheek, claiming he was too tired to stay. It wasn’t a lie. He needed to lie down and pull himself together enough to tear someone else apart. No wonder Finn hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

  He pondered the article all the way home. He couldn’t get Finn’s young face out of his mind. He wanted to call and demand the man come over and talk about it, but that wouldn’t be right. He was on shift, and he’d call Ashley when he could and until then Ashley would be patient.

  Patient. Jesus fucking
Christ, he was going to lose his mind. What the hell happened to Finn? What was he doing in Africa? How old was he? He couldn’t have been a year out of school! There were so many questions, and no answers at all.

  He fell asleep and dreamt of rainbow coloured rhinos in tutus doing turns over a canyon filled with blood with a rainbow of Australian dollar bills flying overhead like banners with increasingly strange demands scrawled on them while Finn floated in the sky on a lifesaver like Monkey Magic on his cloud. He probably shouldn’t have taken an Endone, but he’d thought it would help him sleep.

  ‘You look like shit.’ Keller waved a hand up and down the length of him and Ashley had to agree. As the bruises healed they were turning a sickly green, entirely unflattering and making him look part alien and part snot monster.

  ‘Says the man with one leg to stand on.’ He didn’t feel up to doing much of anything. He’d woken with a headache, but he hadn’t wanted to call in sick when he was supposed to be able to return to duty, so he’d come in and found Keller on the couch.

  ‘I thought you were supposed to be on leave. Your ankle is broken.’

  ‘Your everything is broken and you’re still here,’ Keller pointed out. ‘Besides, when I heard they dropped a house on my favourite minion, I had to come back to work to supervise. I’m on truck; I can drive, but I can’t fight the fire.’

  That was more than Ashley would have thought they’d allow and he grinned, clapping the man on the shoulder and squeezing, quietly thrilled to have him back. Keller had been the one to train him, and no matter how hard he tried to make it work, no one else clicked the same with Ashley. Keller always seemed to know exactly where Ash would be, and what he would do. It was good to see him back so fast.

  ‘Nothing’s actually broken,’ he corrected the man, in case he thought he was as hurt as he looked. ‘It’s just bruises.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Then why do you look so dark?’

  ‘Seriously?’