child coming from inside, so he made his way and rang the bell, feeling his gut twist until it opened.
“Can I help you?” The man’s voice was unfamiliar, but he assumed it was Adam’s brother-in-law.
“I’m hoping you can tell me where to find Adam,” he said, his voice sounding stronger than he felt.
The guy was quiet a minute. “Uh. Adam?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, is Stella here?”
“Oh,” the guy said, then huffed a laugh. “Sorry, man, they don’t live here anymore. We moved in like six weeks ago.”
Nik’s stomach hit the floor, and he struggled to find breath. “Sorry to bother you.”
The guy tried to call him back, but Nik hurried to the car and gave the address to his last-ditch effort to find Adam. He’d already tried Jay three times, but the phone was going straight to voicemail, and he’d long-since lost Seth’s info. He felt adrift and terrified, and if he had to return to Rome empty-handed, he wasn’t sure Cedric would welcome him with open arms.
Maybe they wouldn’t be so cruel, but maybe…
“Last stop?” the driver asked, interrupting his thoughts.
“Yes. I think so. I’ll call for another ride anyway.” He made sure the payment was posted, then climbed out and tried to find his bearings. He felt more lost after a few months away than he had after his years in New York, but he got through the doors and let the smells wash over him. It was the same—and different, all at the same time.
The sounds of low chatter, kids laughing, feet tapping along the polished tiles. He could smell pretzels and Chinese food and the tang of the sub place and their marinara sauce. He bypassed it all, walking the familiar path toward his piano, toward the tattoo shop, and it took him only a moment when his cane didn’t meet the piano bench where it had been sitting since he was a child.
Panic gripped him, and he walked in a circle, wide sweeps with his cane, but all he met was empty air. He choked back a sob as he found the front of the shop, but instead of open doors and shag carpet, there were closed bars and a piece of paper taped to the front he had no hope of reading.
“Shut down about two months ago,” came a voice to his left—familiar enough, but he couldn’t place it. “I thought he would have told you.”
Nik thought so too. When he’d timed his careful goodbye to Mitchell so Adam wouldn’t be at work, he assumed the man would have said something. “I didn’t…I didn’t know. I didn’t come here for him, though.”
“You lookin’ for Adam?” the guy said. Then Nik recognized who he was talking to. Vincent. “He doesn’t work here anymore. He took off out of town with a couple friends of his after his lease was up.”
Nik felt his knees start to buckle, but he locked them to keep from going down. He had known Adam’s lease was up at the very end of October. He’d known that, but he’d been so fucking caught up in the details, it hadn’t occurred to him that Adam would leave when it was over. Cedric had been right—Adam had only been putting down roots for him. Fuck.
“Do you have his number?” he chanced.
“Sorry,” Vincent told him, “we didn’t keep in touch.”
He wasn’t sure if the man was lying, but he had no way to prove it, and he wasn’t about to start making demands for answers he didn’t deserve. His heart clenched, and he eventually found a bench to sit. He was pretty sure Vincent was gone—or maybe he was sitting there watching. He didn’t much give a shit.
Everything that had truly mattered had been ripped out of his grasp, and he was flailing. He had enough international minutes to call Cedric, but instead his thumb found Van’s name, and he didn’t hesitate to interrupt his sleep.
“Someone better be dead,” Van said by way of answer.
Nik let out a choked laugh. “I know you don’t mean that.”
Van sighed into the phone. “No, I don’t. What’s going on? Why are you up so late?”
Nik pressed his thumb and forefinger into his eyelids and let out a shuddering sigh. “I’m in the States. I went home.”
At that, Van sounded more awake. “Why the fuck…?”
“I came for Adam,” Nik said, his voice now cracking. “I came to beg him to come home with me, to forgive me, but he’s not here. No one has his number, his sister’s gone.