Free Run This Town 03 - (Watch Me) Unmask You by Avril Ashton

thigh. “I’m fine. He’s just a harmless client who came in late for a consult.”
    Chad didn’t say anything, and Lucky dropped his head back, eyes closed. He’d shared the hottest night with Elias, given himself to him, and like every other time, Elias disappeared while Lucky slept. No word, nothing to let Lucky know he was alive. Now he just pops back up and what? He expected Lucky to still be pining for him, to still be waiting for him? Lucky gave up on waiting. Elias’s abandonment that night had broken something in him, sending him straight to hunting for someone to take away any memory of Elias. He’d whored around before finally wising up and settling down with someone significant.
    Chad was his second long-term boyfriend, after Michael. They had a good thing. Lucky could trust Chad to be home at nightfall. Lucky never stopped wanting what he wanted from Elias, but he’d finally understood he’d never have it. That freed him up some to allow other men into his heart. At least as much as he could with Elias’s ghost still taking up residence there.
    He touched a hand to his chest, over his heart. His heartbeat was fast, thundering under his palm.
    Elias.
    Once again, his presence fucked everything up.
    ****
    He should have expected it. Why he didn’t, Elias could only attribute to his ego. He sat in his car in the parking lot of Lucky’s tattoo parlor and watched as the taillights of the car Lucky and his boyfriend drove off in disappeared.
    There’d always been the possibility of Lucky moving on. Hell, in some ways Elias wanted him to. The reality though, that was a bitch to deal with. Part of him wanted to find that Chad guy and stomp him out, but that wouldn’t help his case with Lucky, and Elias wanted Lucky more than he wanted to smash that fucker Chad’s face in.
    The last time he’d seen Lucky, Elias had been sneaking out of the hotel, Lucky’s scent all over him, his scratches all over his skin. It had taken superhuman strength, but somehow Elias had managed to walk away. He wanted to give Lucky more time to figure things out, to live, to experience life.
    Elias gripped the steering wheel with a growl. There was no more waiting. No more holding himself back. There’d be no more other men touching what he’d claimed for himself so long ago.
    “Fuck. Fuck.” He slammed the heel of his right hand on the steering wheel. He’d been in Saudi Arabia for the past few years, where his boss had settled, the longest time they’d spent in one place thus far. Elias couldn’t refuse to go, couldn’t say no. Not if he wanted Lucky safe. So in order to protect Lucky he had to hurt him, break his heart. Wasn’t as if he could sit Lucky down and explain the whys. That was guaranteed to send Lucky running, and Elias couldn’t let that happen.
    His boss, Haimon Konstantinou, was back in the States, settling here for good this time. So of course Elias would be here for Lucky.
    His phone went off in his lap and Elias answered. “Tek.”
    “How did it go?” his friend asked.
    Elias screwed his face into a grimace. “It didn’t. Why didn’t you tell me he was seeing someone?” He’d tasked his friends Tek and Israel into looking out for Lucky whenever Elias wasn’t around to do it himself.
    “Figured it was best you handle that head on.” He heard Tek’s shrug. “What are you gonna do?”
    “What do you think?”
    Tek chuckled. “You can’t kill your competition, Elias.”
    “Can’t I?”
    “No, you can’t.” Israel Storm’s voice came over the phone as if he’d taken it from Tek. “Leave the kid alone.”
    Yeah. That wasn’t going to happen. “Fuck. You two know how long I’ve waited for this. I can’t walk away.”
    “Aight. I hear you,” Israel said slowly. “But I’m with Tek. You can’t kill the boyfriend.” His voice turned hopeful. “We could rough him up, threaten him into leaving town.”
    His Jamaican friend was not a fan of Elias’s lifestyle and Tek’s… What