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saw
    something was wrong, baby. I didn’t just wander out with another
    guy and not think of you twice, I swear. “Yeah, I was worried. You…
    even if you’re not sleeping together, you can’t just take someone like
    Brian for granted.”

    “SO, YOU saw your boyfriend get beat up?” The dark-haired guy
    pounced, and Talker was backed up against the motherfucking wall.
    “We walked outside, and they were all coming with chains and
    shit, and…” Oh Christ… oh motherfucking Christ, this was true,
    “and I froze, cause I’m not strong, and…” twitch “and I spaz out so
    fucking easily, and I just… just fucking froze. And Brian shoved me
    Talker’s Redemption | Amy Lane
    39

    away and told me to go get Jed, and I did. I did and, we weren’t
    gone more than a minute, but it was… there were three of them,
    and Trev had a chain….”
    The cops suddenly went so still, it was like the hospital turned
    into a museum.
    “Who had a chain?”
    Lyndie’s hand tightened on Talker’s, and suddenly he was back
    to the last time he was back against a wall.

    “TREV grabbed my shoulders, you see. He threw me against the
    door, and I was reaching for the handle, and he grabbed my
    shoulders again and threw me so I was bent over the couch.”
    “Did you say anything?”
    Brian’s hands were cutting off the circulation in his fingers, and
    they weren’t tight enough. Dr. Sutherland’s voice was almost
    welcome, because it kept him focused, focused, ah, gods, it was so
    hard for Tate to keep focused.
    “I said I wanted to go home,” he whispered. “I said I wanted to
    go home, that Brian was waiting for me, and Trev said I should just
    take it like the sweet little bitch I was. And then his hands were… I
    was wearing this bizarre belt, you know, with spikes and shit, and
    he had a hard time with it, and I kept trying to get away but… Jesus,
    Trev’s strong. He finally had to twist my arm around my back and pin
    it there with his chest so he could pull down my pants.”
    “Did you say anything then?”
    “I said ‘Please Trev, let me go. I want to go home to Brian.’”

    Talker’s Redemption | Amy Lane
    40

    “DID I say a name?” he asked, just to keep himself in the now. Dr.
    Sutherland’s voice, his own voice, the terrible moment he was
    recounting, it was all pulling at him, twisting his brain around into a
    knot, and he was having a hell of a time keeping it straight.
    “You said ‘Trev’,” the blond cop with the wrinkles and lines
    around his eyes said. Tate was going to have to learn their names—
    hell, he might even have to look them in the eyes eventually—but
    right now, it was hair color and age, and he couldn’t make himself
    care about details. “Would that be the same Trevor Gaines who was
    beaten up at your bar about five months back? Because we dealt
    with that case, too, and Mr. Gaines refused to give us a name as
    well. But he did make a lot of threats about revenge. You wouldn’t
    know anything about that, would you, Mr. Walker?”
    “No.” Not until Jed had told him in the car, on the way over.
    “Are you sure?” Blond cop again. He was the only one Tate
    would look at. “Because if this is a revenge beating, you need to
    know it’s not going to stop. Your boyfriend will get back at him, and
    Mr. Gaines will get back at Mr. Cooper—these things tend to go on
    until someone’s dead, and your boy isn’t looking too good.”
    Tate moaned. “It wasn’t his fault,” he whispered. The blackness
    was all around him, swallowing him whole. He could see the cop’s
    face, and feel Lyndie’s hand, but there was a whole ocean of
    darkness between him and any human being who could pull him
    out.

    “IT WASN’T your fault,” Brian said softly. He’d given up on just
    holding Tate’s hand. He’d moved his shoulders behind Tate and was
    holding Tate’s upper arms and talking softly, like he was willing
    Talker to calm down with his body alone.
    Talker’s Redemption