Make me believe it will be okay. If I know the three of us are all right, everything else will be, too.
“Where were you?” was the first thing Tristan said to him when they were in the apartment.
“I’d just left.” You shouldn’t have to ask me that. I should have been here.
Tristan looked at Mateo. Teo only held his gaze for a second before finding Josiah. “Dios, you coulda been hurt, Jay. Don’t do that shit. You shouldn’t have fuckin’ left us like that.”
“Don’t do what? What else was I supposed to do with the way you two were acting? We’re losing it! I just...” want to know everything will be okay.
Maybe Mateo and Tristan were right, because it hurt to keep believing just to have the rug yanked out from under him.
The coffeehouse was more than just a dream. It was a part of them. It was proof that if you loved enough and worked hard enough, you could do anything. He got the men he loved, and together they were building his dream. And now fear squeezed the life out of him, making him think he would lose it all.
“Shit. Lo siento. I’m sorry, mi precioso.” Teo stepped closer to him, as did Tristan.
“There’s insurance on the building. I will fix this for you, Josiah. You have my word,” Tristan told him, but Josiah wanted more than that. He wanted it fixed for them, not just for him.
“I’m sorry, too. I just... I’m tired. I just need to go to bed.”
Josiah didn’t say a word when neither of them followed him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Tristan
Tristan fell into the chair in his office, Mateo sat across the room from him. Christ, he couldn’t believe they were dealing with this. Leaning forward, his elbows rested on the table, his forehead in his hands. Josiah’s coffeehouse had been burned down. They were fairly certain it was arson. And even though they didn’t have evidence on Josiah, and hadn’t charged him, they questioned him. “Did I cause this?”
He tapped his foot to keep from counting his pulse. What did it do, anyway?
“Fuck that. This isn’t your fault. Javier didn’t do this. He wouldn’t fuck around with shit like that. He’d want me to know it was him. It’s just a coincidence.”
Tristan appreciated the sentiment, but he heard the question in Teo’s voice. He wasn’t sure, and he thought the same thing Tristan did. Javier could have found out, and the fire was his way of getting back at Tristan.
“You give the guy your name?” Mateo asked.
Tristan looked up at him. “Of course not. I was as cautious as possible. Even with the money. I know what I’m doing.”
But that didn’t mean that if his contact got caught he didn’t say what he knew. If Javier was smart, he would know where Mateo was, because of their past. Jesus Christ. “He’ll think it was you.”
Mateo shook his head. “Nah. He knows I won’t have money. He doesn’t know shit. Trust me. What did the cop say?”
“There will be an investigation. Josiah wasn’t at his hotel, and of course he was at the Wharf, so he doesn’t have an alibi. It’s a long shot, and I don’t think they will push it, but I’m making a phone call in case.” Christ, just the thought of them even glancing Josiah’s way with something like that made him sick.
“I’m worried about him.” Mateo crossed his arms from the chair across the desk. “You didn’t see how he looked at me. He’s fuckin’ dying inside. Screw everything else. We gotta fix this for Jay. He’s all that matters.”
Yes. Josiah was what mattered here. He loved the coffeehouse. It made him feel like he had something that was his for the first time in his life, something he worked for. He’d told Tristan that over and over. “It was more than a coffeehouse that burned to the ground tonight. It was his dream.”
Mateo nodded, but then said, “It was more than that. He looked lost. I’ve never seen him look that way.”
Because Mateo had guided him when they’d been together. They’d kept each other from getting lost. Tristan had seen him look that way, when he first met Josiah. “Go to him. I’ll be there in a few minutes. I’m going to get ahold of my guy in New York and call this shit off, and then talk to Ben.”
He never should have done it. All he wanted was to take care of the men he loved. To avenge Josiah for what had been done to him, the way Mateo had. To keep Mateo’s past from being able to surface again.
Tristan could see the relief in Mateo’s eyes. He would always be like that, always need to make sure Josiah was okay.
