Page 2 of Lay It Bare

Go out.

He turned to the door. He hadn’t walked through a locked outer door without Sevastyan in years. It wasn’t done. He wasn’t a quasi agent and slave like Lisa who slipped between definitions and roles. He was an absolute slave.

And yet . . . he could make the case that he was serving Sevastyan and Alexi. It was a gray area.

Gray or not, he couldn’t leave Lisa to fall asleep or die.

Rei grabbed his coat and face mask and went to the door, shoving his feet into shoes. Sevastyan was going to discipline him for this. His heart beat in his throat. His hands shook. Tying his boots was almost impossible. The mask went on clumsily. On his knees, he pressed his forehead to the door, hand on the handle, and forced air through his nose and into his lungs.

All he had to do was go down the elevator, walk across the lobby, step onto the sidewalk, grab Lisa, and come back. Technically he’d only be three steps outside the building. Sevastyan’s cameras were everywhere. If anything happened, Sevastyan would find him.

His heart pounded in his chest. What if he panicked and couldn’t make it across the lobby? What if he was the one who made a scene and got them noticed?

Just think about Lisa.

That’s all he had to do. Think of Lisa. He’d get to Lisa. Once he had his hands on the other man, then he wouldn’t have to think about anyone else. He could ground himself on helping Lisa and nothing beyond him would matter.

Rei pulled the handle down and pushed up from his knees, passing through the door. The air in the open space in front of the elevator bay was cooler than inside the condo. He jabbed the elevator button, calling it. The number started ticking over in bright red letters above the door.

It opened. There were already people inside. He kept his head down, stepping in. Maybe they wouldn’t notice him. Back to the nearest wall, he kept his hands shoved in his pockets to hide how they were shaking. Everyone else seemed tall, dwarfing him. He managed a quick glance.

Fuck. Richard Reevesworth and Collin.

Rei’s face burned. Why now? At least his face mask was on and the hood of his jacket was up. He stole a second glance. Collin looked tired. There was little about him that resembled Sevastyan. He was turned towards Richard, clearly focused on him.

Attentive. The way Rei would have been towards Sevastyan. Did Sevastyan know?

What if he spoke now? Would they listen? What would he even say?

The door opened and one of Richard’s bodyguards went out first, then Richard, and lastly Collin and the final guard. Rei made himself move on legs that felt like they were formed from mush and jelly.

Just cross the lobby. Don’t try to speak. Don’t try to do anything except what he’d come for. That’s all he had to do.

Richard and Collin were walking away with their bodyguards. They were out the front doors before Rei was even halfway across the glass-walled lobby. Rei looked through the glass to the street. Lisa was fully in the snow now.

No, no!

Rei pushed himself through the doors, crossing the three steps to the pile of snow Lisa had collapsed against. His vision cleared as he touched Lisa’s light jacket, just as he knew it would. When it mattered, somehow, he could fight through the static that would try to take his senses. He’d pay for it later, but for the moment, his legs locked in place under him and strength returned to his fingers.

He pulled Lisa upright.

Lisa opened his eyes and smiled. “Rei-Rei.” He looked like he always did. Sharp chin, sharp nose as if he were fey. Long dark lashes beneath slender brows that never touched. His eyes were dark and lush but too deep in his face, like bruised flowers. Everything about him was sharper than it should have been, as if the softness had been pared away.

“You!” Rei growled at him in English.

Lisa grinned, letting Rei pull him to his feet.

“Are you hurt?”

Lisa’s hand went over his heart. He smiled like a lunatic but his eyes weren’t completely open. There really weren’t enough clothes on him: black, weathered jeans; a blue jean jacket over a cotton long-sleeved black shirt that had the words “Asshole” on the front in Times New Roman. “Ah, were you worried?” He spoke in Russian.

Rei sputtered. “Worried? You collapsed!” The shirt was accurate.

Lisa’s thin lips twisting to the side. “Had to ring the doorbell somehow.”

“I thought . . .” Rei slapped a hand over his mask and grabbed Lisa’s hand. “We’re going to be seen.”

Lisa let Rei pull him into the building. Rei’s stomach threatened to come up through his mouth. He marched straight for the elevators, refusing to look left or right. Sevastyan could do whatever he wanted to him for this stunt. He’d welcome it. Going out on his own was hell. Too many sounds. Too many smells. Too much movement and no grounding point to keep him from spinning off into the tingling, dizzy space that seemed to hover just above his head. All the possibilities and not enough air.