Chapter 138: Eli Is Back?!?

Vincent’s first instinct was to check Dave’s residence if he couldn’t find him at work. It was the most obvious place to look, and with no other leads to follow, he headed there.

Still, an unsettling feeling accompanied him throughout the journey.

Something seemed wrong, though he couldn’t pinpoint what it was, and he desperately hoped Dave was all right.

He also hoped Dave hadn’t returned to his old mafia business. The thought of it irritated him, and he wasn’t particularly pleased by how much it bothered him.

Somewhere along the way, Vincent had grown accustomed to caring far about Dave, that he no longer questioned why he worried about him.

There was a simple explanation, though.

The three of them were now in a relationship, even if its foundation had been Bryce. That arrangement did not make Dave any less important, nor did it excuse either of them from looking out for each other.

They all had a responsibility to one another, if only for Bryce’s well-being. Whatever happened to Dave would inevitably affect Bryce, and Vincent had no intention of returning to the house without finding out where he was.

When he arrived at the residence, he parked outside the gate and approached it on foot. He found it unlocked, which immediately suggested that Dave was home.

At least, someone had left the gate open, and Vincent couldn’t think of a reason to assume it was anyone other than Dave.

He pushed it open and stepped inside.

That was when Dave’s familiar scent reached him, confirming his suspicion that he was indeed there. But another scent mingled with it, one that did not belong to Dave.

Vincent stopped dead.

For a split second, his heart seemed to cease beating. Then it began racing so violently that he could barely think past the sudden rush of alarm.

Was Dave with someone else in there?

Was he cheating on them, or was there some other explanation for the unfamiliar scent inside his residence?

Vincent couldn’t stand there wondering. He surged forward, using his supernatural speed to cross the expansive compound between the gate and the house in a second.

By the time he reached the entrance, his anxiety had become impossible to contain.

He didn’t bother knocking. He shoved the door open and rushed inside, desperate to discover what was happening.

The first thing Vincent saw upon entering was the living room, where two men were on the couch directly opposite the entrance.

One was positioned on top of the other, their faces pressed so close together that there could be no mistaking what they were doing.

They were kissing.

Vincent froze, unable to believe his eyes. He blinked, his heart pounding harder with every passing second, while something dark coiled inside him at the sight.

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

The moment his voice broke into the room, the man underneath shoved the other away.

In that moment, Vincent realized that Dave was the one underneath.

Dave’s eyes widened as they met Vincent’s. He scrambled to his feet, his hands suddenly trembling uncontrollably beneath Vincent’s fixed stare.

"Vince," he muttered, his voice barely audible.

He took a step toward Vincent, but Vincent immediately retreated, his fingers curling into fists as his jaw tightened.

"What the hell have you been doing?" Vincent demanded through clenched teeth.

"It’s not what it looked like," Dave insisted, his heart racing, Vincent could hear it clearly. "He kissed me. I didn’t kiss him. I was going to push him away. I had no intention of letting it go any further."

Vincent scoffed.

He either didn’t believe a word Dave was saying or was too furious to listen to his explanation. At that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to care which it was.

His attention finally shifted to the younger man Dave had just pushed aside, and Vincent froze all over again.

He looked at Dave, then back at the stranger, studying his face in disbelief.

The resemblance to Bryce was almost perfect. Their builds, their eyes, their blond hair, even the bewildered expression on the younger man’s face were so alike that Vincent struggled to comprehend what he was seeing.

Two possibilities immediately presented themselves, and neither offered him any comfort.

Perhaps this was another one of Dave’s attempts to recreate Bryce, or rather, Eli, the boyfriend Dave had claimed was dead.

The man whose loss had haunted Dave for so long, the one he had only recently begun to heal from.

Or perhaps this really was Eli.

The very man Dave had mourned. The man whose loss had shaped so much of Dave’s life.

Vincent couldn’t decide which possibility was worse. For reasons he couldn’t fully explain even to himself, the thought that this stranger might actually be Eli filled him with a sudden, suffocating fear.

If it really was Eli, Vincent had little doubt that Dave would run straight back to him without a second thought.

And the possibility frightened him beyond anything he could put into words.

What unsettled him most was that he couldn’t even tell whether he was afraid for Bryce, for himself, or for both of them.

"Explain this," Vincent demanded at last.

Dave hesitated, his mouth opening and closing without any words coming out, leaving Vincent staring at him, waiting for an explanation he desperately needed to hear.

"Is this the famous businessman, Vincent Walker, or am I seeing things?" the blond young man asked, sitting upright on the couch.

His gaze shifted back to Dave, then back at Vincent.

"Wait, wasn’t he married to a woman? Dave, have you been seeing Vincent Walker even though he has a wife?"

He shook his head, apparently deciding that this was not the most important issue.

"Actually, that’s beside the point. You just told me you hadn’t been able to move on from me and couldn’t bring yourself to be with anyone else. Was that all a lie?"

Vincent stared at Dave, struggling to process what he had just heard. He couldn’t decide which revelation was worse: discovering that Dave might have lied about something like that, or realizing that the man sitting on the couch was actually Eli.

"That’s not what I said," Dave protested immediately. "I said I struggled a lot before I could get through an entire day without you. I was going to tell you about what was happening now, but you didn’t give me the chance before you kissed me."

His explanation should have reassured Vincent, but instead of easing his fears, it left him feeling worse than ever.