by Joe Lechene
Tristan’s head quickly straightened up and he asked, “What the fuck? We’re not expecting guests, are we?”
I let go of his hand and started to get up from the couch. “I may have asked a friend to come over for some advice.”
He crooked his head and looked at me while I walked around the couch and went to the door. Tristan knew nothing about what I realized this morning and I wasn’t planning on telling him without someone else there for support. I knew that he would blow a gasket and there was only one person I knew with the experience for this. However, I knew that one person was the last person that Tristan would ever want to see again. After unlocking it, I opened the door. On the other side was the person that I had been texting off and on throughout the afternoon. She was more than willing to come over and talk to us about the letter I read earlier in the day. The lady walked inside and I closed the door behind her. After giving her a quick hug, she followed me through the room and around the couch.
As soon as Tristan saw her, the blood drained from his face. He cowered back into the couch leaning away from us. “Ian, what the fuck is she doing here?”
I sat back down on the couch beside him while our guest took a seat on the recliner. I grabbed his hand and rubbed my thumb over the back of it. “Tristan, we have a problem. Lori offered to give us some advice.”
Tristan looked at her terrified. Of course, the last time that he saw her was when the doctor told us the Erik had passed away in surgery. I wanted to tell him that I asked Lori to come over earlier, but I knew what his reaction would be.
Tristan grasped onto my hand and asked, “What kind of problem? And why her?”
I looked directly into his blue eyes and said, “Ms. Embersole, um Lori, was there for both of us when you were in the hospital. I’m sure that I would have lost it if it wasn’t for her. That’s why she’s here to try to help us now. Tristan, I have reason to believe that the attacks on yourself and Erik were orchestrated.”
He asked, “Huh?”
I sighed heavily before telling him, “Tristan, I have good reason to believe that David was behind both attacks.”
Tristan responded, “No, there’s no way.”
“Tristan, he knew your schedules. He told you to leave early the night that you were attacked. He told you that he would let me know and he didn’t. And today, I received a strange letter in my fan mail.”
I pulled the folded piece of paper out of my pocket and handed it to him. Tristan unfolded it before reading it. When he was done, Tristan laid the letter on his lap and I watched a tear run down his cheek. Using my free hand, I brushed the tear off his cheek with my thumb. I watched as his face went from sad to angry in an instant.
Tristan yelled, “That mother fucker.”
He tried to get up from the couch, but his casts were limiting his ability to move. Still, I tried my best to keep him seated so he didn’t hurt himself. As I held his shoulders against the back of the couch, Lori got up and rushed over to the other side of him. She put her hands on both sides of his jaw and directed his face towards hers.
Lori said, “Tristan, you have every right to be mad at David for this. We need to come up with a plan though.”
He replied, “What do you mean?”
She answered, “I called a detective friend of mine today and explained the situation. She pretty much told me that under the circumstances, they couldn’t press charges without a confession.”
Tristan stated, “You have got to be shitting me.”
Lori replied, “Sadly, I’m not. Without concrete evidence, they won’t be able to do anything. Everything that we have right now is just coincidental.”
He slumped into my side and I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, pulling him tight against me. I could feel his skinny body trembling under my grasp. He had every right to be mad, maybe even more so than myself.
“So, what do we do now?”
“Well,” Lori said, “does anyone besides us and the hospital know that Tristan was discharged?”
“Just Tristan’s mother, nobody else.”
She replied, “Good, we need to keep it that way for the time being. In fact, I’m going to call in a favor and make it look like he was never discharged.”
Tristan asked, “Why?”
Lori answered, “Two reasons. First, leverage. If he believes that you’re still in a coma, then he’ll be more willing to go after Ian. Second, it’ll be safer for you if he doesn’t know that you’re here.”
Tristan turned his head and looked at me. “Okay, I think that I’m starting to like her.”
I squeezed his shoulder before leaning toward him and kissing his cheek. “I told ya, babe.”
Tristan asked, “How are you going to get a confession out of him then?”
Lori replied, “Well, I think I have an idea. But, I don’t think that you or Ian are going to like it.”
As Lori explained her plan to us, I cringed at the thought of it. This was going to be by far way more difficult than I thought. And the worst part was, all of it was weighing on me. Tristan would be forced to wait in hiding in our apartment while I did all of the dirty work. I didn’t like what Lori was proposing one bit, but there wasn’t really an alternative. We listened as she laid out the plan in front of us as I held Tristan tight against me.
When she was done, Lori excused herself and walked into the kitchen to make some calls. Tristan laid against me in silence as I ran my fingers through his hair. I noticed that it was starting to get rather long again. The natural color of his roots matched the dyed hair almost perfectly. Getting it trimmed though was now on my to-do list when this whole ordeal is over.
Tristan gently sighed and said, “Ian, I would completely understand if you don’t want to go through with this.”
“Babe, whether I want to or not is irrelevant. Your safety is more important than anything else.”
He replied, “I know, but it would kill me if something happened to you.”
“Tristan, I can hold my own you know. Besides, it’s me that he wants. I don’t think that he’d hurt me.”
Tristan rocked his head back toward me and I heard him start to lightly sob. Gently turning him so he was facing me, I pulled Tristan into me and he rested his face against my shoulder. I could feel the fabric of my shirt getting wet as he cried on my shoulder. I knew that this news was going to take a toll on him and I was as prepared as I could be for it. Tristan let his tears flow as I held onto the back of his head.
Lori walked back over to us and sat down on the couch beside Tristan. She started to gently rub his back through his black tank top. I was ever so grateful that she agreed to help us with this. There was no way that I could have handled it by myself. Between the two of us, Tristan calmed down and the sobs came to a stop. He lifted his tear-stained face off my shoulder and turned to look at Lori.
Tristan said to her, “Thank you for doing this. I’m sorry for being mean earlier.”
Lori chuckled, “It’s quite alright Tristan. The last time you saw me wasn’t exactly under the best of circumstances.”
After wiping the tears away from his cheeks once again, Tristan relaxed back into the seat between us. I could tell from the look on his face that he had enough excitement for one day. Too much more would probably send him over the edge. Not to mention, it was getting rather late in the evening.
Lori said, “I spoke to one of my friends in administration. The best they could do for us was to set Tristan’s status to ‘private.’ If anyone calls or stops in the hospital asking about him, they aren’t allowed to give out any information at all.”
“Sweet, how long can they keep that up for?”
She replied, “Indefinitely, we only use it on high profile cases. His status will stay like that until one of the administrators changes it to ‘public’ again. They won’t do that without clearing it through me first though. That should buy us plenty of time to enact this plan.”
Tristan asked, “When are you guys making this al
l happen?”
Lori answered, “I would suggest waiting until next weekend. That should allow time for the dust to settle and draw some suspicion away from Ian. In the meantime, both of you need to stay in this apartment. Don’t chance being seen outside by anybody. If you need supplies, groceries, toiletries, whatever, just call or text me. I’ll make sure you get what you need. And Ian, tell nobody that both of you are camping out here. Not your editor, not his doctors, and don’t even think about having a pizza delivered.”
I gulped at her last statement. This was going to be one long ass week if I couldn’t have a pizza delivered. “Now just hold on one seco…”
Lori cut me off, “Relax, I told you that I would take care of anything you needed. If you need a pizza delivered, just call me and I’ll handle it.”
I relaxed after hearing that. Pizza was a staple in this apartment and it would be torture going without it for a week.
Tristan asked, “Ms. Embers… I mean Lori, why are you doing all of this for us?”
She sighed before she answered, “My dear Tristan, my job at the hospital is really shitty. I spend all of my time at work telling families that their loved ones didn’t survive whatever brought them in. Believe me, this isn’t the job that I had envisioned myself doing when I got my degree in therapy. At least with this one opportunity, I have a chance to make a real difference in someone’s life. A chance to intervene and hopefully prevent another senseless act of violence.” She stopped and took a deep breath, “Besides, I really like you guys. The two of you make a cute couple and deserve to be happy together.”
Tristan said, “Thank you!”
Lori replied, “Not a problem at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s getting rather late.”
“Yeah, he’s starting to get tired and getting him ready for bed is no easy task with these casts.”
Lori yawned and said, “I could only imagine. Ian, I’ll text you tomorrow once I get the rest of the details ironed out. Have a good night guys.”
Lori gave Tristan a hug, which he actually responded back to, before standing up from the couch. I walked Lori to the door and gave her a hug myself before she left. After locking the door behind her, I returned to the couch to find Tristan already nodding off. Since I didn’t feel like fucking with the crutches, I picked him up and carried him to the bedroom.
After laying him on the bed, it didn’t take much effort to remove his tank top and basketball shorts. At this point in the evening, I didn’t feel like showering before bed. Both of us could take the time to bathe in the morning. I stripped off my clothes and laid down beside my man. With the covers draped over both of our naked bodies, I snuggled up against my sleeping twink. He was already gently snoring as I draped my arm across his chest and rested my face against his shoulder. Slowly inhaling his scent, I drifted off to sleep beside him.
XX
For the life of me, I never would have even considered doing something like this if it wasn’t for Tristan. If I wasn’t insanely in love with him, I definitely wouldn’t be doing this. Instead, I would be in the sanctuary of my office working on the smut scene that I started last night. But no, here I was walking down the street toward the restaurant that Tristan worked at. Tristan was safely tucked away at home while Lori tried to keep him calm. She has been our guardian angel throughout this whole ordeal and none of this would have been possible without her.
The all too familiar trip to the restaurant was almost complete as I rounded the last corner. The last time that I walked down this street was the night that Tristan was attacked. I cringed as the sounds of his screaming echoed in my brain. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, this will be the last time that either of us makes this trip. After this whole ordeal, Tristan wouldn’t be returning here to work. In fact, I had an entirely different career lined up for him. We just had to get this one last piece of business taken care of.
Once I was inside the restaurant, the host greeted me. Since I very seldom actually walked inside when dropping Tristan off for work, the tall skinny guy didn’t recognize me. I told him that I was meeting David and he escorted me to the back room. He led me to the back of the bar where only one table was occupied. As soon as I saw him sitting there, I coughed and tasted the bile that I spit up. The asshole was just sitting there, messing around with his phone like he didn’t have a care in the world. My fist clenched in my pocket as we approached the table. This was going to take more self-restraint than I originally thought.
He remained glued to his phone right up until we reached the table. As I started to pull the chair out, he finally sat his phone down and said, “Ian, it’s good to see you.”
I had to take a breath before blurting out what I really wanted to say to the mother-fucker. I sat down and looked at him with that smug ass look on his face. “Thank you for agreeing to dinner, David. I needed to get out of there for a while.”
He replied, “No problem. How is Tristan doing?”
‘Good enough to beat the shit out of you himself,’ is what ran through my mind. Instead, I lied, “He’s still in a coma. The doctors don’t know if he’ll ever wake up again. And if he does, there’s a good chance that he’ll have severe brain damage.”
He took a sip of his wine before saying, “I’m so sorry to hear that, Ian. Such a senseless tragedy. I hope they get the culprits.”
Yup, that’s what I’m here for. I reached for the glass of water sitting on the table and took a sip. There was a glass of wine sitting beside it, but I ignored it. My head needed to be clear to get through this. Alcohol might lead to an untimely fist to his face.
“I hope they do too, David. Before someone else ends up in the hospital or morgue.”
David said, “Well, you can get anything that you want from the menu. Dinner is on me tonight.”
“David, you don’t have to…”
He cut me off mid-sentence, “I insist. It’s the least I can do.”
He has no fucking clue what the least that he can do is. I glanced over the menu before deciding on something. Honestly, I was still sick to my stomach and wasn’t even sure if I could eat anything. Right after I laid the menu back down on the table, the waiter came over to take our orders.
“I’ll have the porterhouse, medium, with a baked potato.”
The waiter nodded and picked my menu up from the table before turning to David. He ordered a steak as well, but I didn’t care enough to pay attention. After the waiter walked away from us, I decided to ask the question that had been weighing on my mind for weeks.
“David, why did Tristan leave early that night.”
He answered, “We were slow that night and I told him that he could leave early if he wanted to. I told him to use the office phone to call you.”
I could feel my blood pressure starting to climb and my face was heating up.
David continued, “I take it that he didn’t?”
“Nope.”
He said, “Maybe Tristan wanted to surprise you.”
“Well, I guess it was a good thing that I left the apartment early to come to get him. He may very well be dead if I didn’t throw the attacker’s off him.”
David asked, “Have the police found any leads yet?”
“The last that I heard, they haven’t found any suspects. However, there are a few avenues that they are investigating.”
He questioned, “Such as?”
“There have only been two reported beatings in that alley during the past two years. The first was Erik and the second Tristan. So, they are pursuing both now as hate crimes. Of course, how hard they are pursuing it leaves much to be desired.”
David stated, “After a death and a near-fatal beating, you would think that they would be taking it very seriously.”
“Oh, believe me, I’ve made that point more than know to them. I even called the chief of police. He told me that he’d personally investigate it. Haven’t heard from them since.”
David replied, “Of course you haven’t. So, otherwi
se, how have you been holding up?”
“Eh, this is only the second time that I’ve left the hospital since it happened. I can barely get any sleep in the chair beside his bed between the nurses checking on him. I’ve been living off the cafeteria food and vending machines. The rest of the time, I sit beside him and hold his hand. Waiting for it to squeeze my hand back.”
David sighed and said, “Ian, I’m so sorry that you have to go through all of this. It must be horrible seeing him like that. You know, you’re more than welcome to call me anytime if you need anything at all.”
