Texas Fall by RJ Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

hungry at all. In fact, he felt nauseous.
    Finally Marcus spoke. “Everything
will be okay.”
    So many people had said
that to him. Riley had said it with a swift hug and bone-breaking pats on the
back. Carol had said it with a kiss to the top of his head as he sat at the
table last night. Even Hayley had sought him out to tell him the same damn
thing, slipping a tiny teddy into his pocket and saying it would give him luck.
Add in Jack and Robbie and their whole right is right crusade, and Liam was
convinced that fate would deal him exactly the opposite.
    Talk about glass half-empty,
you idiot, he berated himself.
    “So you said,” Liam found
himself saying. He bit his lip. Why did he say that? He should have just agreed
with everything anyone said to him. Once the floodgates were opened, Liam
couldn’t stop himself. “Everyone says that to me, but what if I get there and
I’m sitting on that witness stand and I just lose it?”
    “You won’t—”
    “How do you know?” Liam
stood abruptly and knocked the table, which sent Jack’s coffee cup spilling
onto Marcus’s fries. Frustrated, Liam pointed at the spreading liquid. “See?
I’m a mess.” Then before anyone could give him platitudes, he left the air-conditioned
restaurant and stumbled out into the Texas heat. Liam sensed someone following
him, so Marcus wasn’t far behind. Liam stopped at the car and turned to face
Marcus, only it wasn’t his boyfriend who had tracked out into the parking lot.
    Jack had on his patented
understanding look, the one that said, you can fuck up, but we’ll always be
here to catch you .
    “I said Marcus should give
you some space,” Jack said. His tone was gentle and matched his supportive
expression. “He’s worried about you.”
    “I’m not a kid,” Liam
defended. “You don’t need to tell me he’s worried.”
    “He loves you.”
    “I know that,” Liam
blurted out.
    “And we’re all here for
you.”
    “What did I do to deserve
this? How come you and Riley are so nice, how come Robbie is here? I’m just a
kid who fucks things up, and you can’t want to get involved in that.”
    “You need to stop saying
that. You’re not a kid, Liam, you’re a man who had a childhood stolen from him
by adults, and you’re strong.”
    Liam slumped against the
car. “Everyone keeps saying that to me, like if they say it enough I’ll believe
it’s actually true.”
    Jack joined him in leaning
on the car. He’d parked it in what little shade there was, but it was still
heated metal against their jeans.
    “What is worrying you at
this very moment?”
    “That I spilled coffee in
the fries,” Liam admitted.
    Jack laughed. “I meant
about the case.”
    “The questions, and me
being twisted in knots I can’t find myself a way out of.”
    “Did it hurt?” Jack asked.
“Were you humiliated?”
    Liam glanced at his boss.
“What?”
    “When Hank raped you?”
    Liam’s mouth fell open. He
didn’t want to talk about that with the man he owed his living to. Fuck, that
was way out of his comfort zone. What did he do? Did he answer Jack, who was
still looking at him, or did he tell Jack to leave it alone? Would he lose his
job over saying what he thought?
    “You can’t ask that,” he
finally said. Anger grew inside him.
    “I can and I will. Did you
ask for it to happen?”
    Liam pushed away from the
car. “Fuck no.”
    Jack held out a hand and
rested it on Liam’s arm. “That’s the worst of it,” Jack said. “The kind of
thing they’ll ask you. Doesn’t matter if you answer me or not, but you’ll get
asked that kind of shit. You just have to know that I’ll be there in the front
row supporting you and listening to what you say. And whatever you say, I won’t
think less of you or judge you. I’ll be looking at Hank, and I will be judging
him. We’re on your side—Robbie, me, Marcus, Riley… we’ll always be on your
side.”
    “But why? What if you
didn’t know the whole story? What if it was true