feel free to stay here and have pizza and welcome K-Ski home.”
“Hold up,” Henry said. “I’ll follow you out. Let me make sure Billy here is settled.”
They waited, Jackson making small talk to fill in the rather awkward silence as Christie tried to draw Billy into conversation and Sean just stared at him like a man slaking his thirst after a long dry spell. By the time they’d left, Sean was managing entire words but no complete sentences, and as soon as the door closed behind them, Ellery smacked him in the arm.
“Ouch!” Jackson complained. “What was that for?”
“That,” Ellery growled, “was for hiring a porn model as your friend’s live-in nurse and not warning him!”
“Heh heh heh heh….” Jackson was practically dancing on his toes he was so proud of himself.
“That was pretty sweet,” Henry added. “Oh my God, I thought he was going to swallow his tongue!”
“And you!” Ellery continued, leaning heavily on his crutches. “You just sort of threw that poor kid in like a lamb to the slaughter. You know Sean’s going to find out what he does for a living and—”
“Oh no,” Jackson said, shaking his head. “I’ve seen that look. Sean knows. Believe me, Sean knows.”
Henry started to laugh too. “Heh heh heh heh….”
If Ellery could have managed it without falling over, he would have whapped them both with a crutch. “You two are supposed to be Sean’s friends!”
Jackson took a deep breath and rolled his eyes. “Look, Ellery, Sean has had a positively miserable week in the hospital and getting dumped by a boyfriend he thought was one of the good guys. I knew some of Henry’s boys are mostly trying to get through school, so I thought, you know. A pretty nurse. And I’ve met the guys. They’re all sweet as hell. A pretty nurse who’s not an asshole and who knows how to be kind to someone having a shitty month. What’s so bad about that?”
“And Billy is so ready to get out of the flophouse,” Henry added. “Jason was touch and go for a little while. One of the other guys has sort of taken on his care and feeding full-time, but it’s crowded in there. Billy’s one of the guys who’s been there the longest, and he’s so ready to get his degree and an apartment of his own. And probably to get out of the business too. But first—”
“Graduation and a job,” Jackson said, and Henry nodded.
“Yeah. So this is sort of like a rent-free vacation for Billy: one fairly reasonable guy to take care of and his own room with his own bed. It’s win-win.”
Henry’s boyfriend, Lance, had worked as a porn model for a couple of years during his residency. He’d roomed with a revolving roster of other models, and the place had been—according to Henry—every bit as sexually charged as one might imagine. Lance had pretty much left that life behind when Henry had been forced to room in the flophouse for financial reasons and they’d fallen in love, but Henry had gotten to know the guys pretty well and had sort of taken on the role of big brother, along with Lance. The two of them had since moved out of the flophouse, but only to the downstairs apartment. Jackson had sent Jason Constance to the flophouse to heal because, in his words, the last place anybody would expect to see a special ops officer was in a two-room apartment that was balls-to-the-walls sex workers and starving students.
Also, he’d added, all the guys were incredibly muscular. They wouldn’t be easy targets.
Ellery let out a sigh. “Fine. Whatever. If this ends badly, I’m blaming you two. Both of you. Because apparently you’ve corrupted Henry beyond all redemption.”
This time they both laughed. “Heh heh heh heh heh….”
“Where you guys off to?” Henry asked when they caught their breath.
Jackson narrowed his eyes. “You know where we’re off to. We’re going to the hospital to interview coma boy.” They’d called into the office that morning; Henry would have been briefed.
“Well, yes,” Henry admitted. They were drawing near the parking lot, and Ellery saw the town car parked next to his Lexus. “I was sort of angling for an invite. I, you know, want to see how this ends.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jackson said with a shrug. “Climb in. We’ll drop you off back here.”
Henry grinned. “No worries. I left the keys with Billy. Drop me off at the office and play musical cars later.”
Ellery regarded him through narrowed eyes. “Awfully