Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(63)

“Hello?”

“Hello, I’m sorry I’m calling so early. Is this Corbin Lange?”

“Who wants to know?”

“My name’s Cole Singleton…”

The man’s tone changed immediately once Cole told him what had happened. “Holy hell. Thank you for calling me, Cole. I’ll call Louise for you. I have her number.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night, but the police have his phone and I needed to find his address book here at the condo. It was so late when I got back—”

“It’s okay, son,” the man said, a gentle tone that nearly took Cole’s knees out. “We couldn’t have done anything last night, anyway. Let me get some coffee in me and I’ll be over to the hospital in an hour or so.”

Kim had their bagels ready. They quickly ate and headed out, and Cole even remembered to grab Mason’s wallet and slip it in his pocket in case they needed any of his information.

They’d just walked into the waiting room when Tilly hurried in, homing in on them, Landry not far behind.

“How is he?”

“We just got here,” he said.

They went back and the nurse in charge of Mason’s care for the day got the on-call doctor to come in and give them an update. No changes from earlier. He was still listed as critical, but stable. His vital signs were good, and all they could do was wait.

Cole noticed Kim’s earlier strength seemed to disappear now that they were there with him. Tilly hugged them. “I’ll go out to the waiting room and catch anyone who shows up and hold them there.”

“Thanks. We’ll be out in a couple of minutes.”

The nurse gave them privacy, so Cole pulled the sliding door closed, as well as the curtain. He sat in the chair at Mason’s right and reached over to curl his fingers around Mason’s.

Then, without taking his eyes from Mason’s battered face, with his other hand he snapped his fingers and pointed at the floor in front of him.

Kim dropped to her knees, her head in Cole’s lap as she softly cried. He stroked her hair with one hand and stroked Mason’s fingers with the other.

“I promise to do the best I can, Mase,” he told him. “I’ll take care of our pet, but I’m absolute shit at training her. We need you for that.” He was pleased to hear her shnurfled laughter against his jeans. “We need you, buddy. I hope you can hear me say that. We need you, and we love you.”

He caught one of her hands and made her stand up. She leaned in and kissed Mason’s cheek, whispering to him before getting out of the way for Cole.

Cole stood and leaned in, stroking the stubble on Mason’s cheek. “You’ve got a boyfriend and a pet eager to have you home. Don’t disappoint us. We love you.” He pressed his lips to Mason’s cheek, lingering.

After a deep breath he draped an arm around Kim’s shoulders and led her out of the unit and back to the waiting room.





Chapter Twenty-Four


Corbin Lange apparently gave Mason his good looks, although Mason hadn’t inherited the man’s blue-grey eyes. In his mid-sixties, at Cole’s best guess, he was nearly as tall as Cole and had aged well.

I wonder if Mason will look like that at his age.

That was a wistfully painful thought he shoved aside as he, Kim, and Tilly talked with the man, alone, in the consultation room.

The older man sat and traced the fake wood pattern of the conference table while Tilly went through the litany of Mason’s injuries and the current holding pattern in terms of prognosis. No one could or would give them any indication of what the future might hold.

He didn’t look up from the table. “So don’t bullshit me.” He finally met her gaze. “We looking at full recovery? Life as a vegetable? What?”

“We don’t know,” Tilly honestly said, her palms flat against the table. “Either of those, or somewhere in the middle. It’s impossible to say until his cranial swelling goes down and they can do detailed neurological testing.”

Kim had snagged a box of tissues on their way in and was working on her third from it.

He glanced at her and then at Cole. “You’re his boyfriend?”

“Yes, sir.”

He slowly nodded. “And that makes her, what? Mason’s submissive or slave or whatever?”

Cole felt heat and then cold flash through him at the same time. “I…I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Corbin leaned back in his chair. “The truth.”

He glanced at Tilly, who was unhelpfully stunned into silence, apparently.

Cole took a deep breath. “Mason said Friday night he wanted to talk to us about planning for the future, together, and—”

He waved him quiet. “Simple question. You his boyfriend? Yes or no.”

“Yes.”

He pointed at Kim. “She his girlfriend, too? Or whatever you want to call it?”

Cole nodded. “Yes, sir. She’s our girlfriend.”

He nodded. “Thank you. That’s what I needed to know. His momma’s not against him being gay, but not sure how she’ll feel about this. I needed to know to run interference. Louise gets something stupid in her head, hard to change it.” He snorted. “I won’t cause trouble for you guys. I’m guessing you’re something special to Mason, from the way he was talking about you.”