Free Crush (Hard Hit #5) by Charity Parkerson Page A

with his driving need to speak to the man who’d killed his brother, but Orlando didn’t like lying to himself. Today, it wasn’t the biggest factor in seeking Gannon out, but it was right up there in the top reasons.
    “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Alex barked the second he caught sight of Orlando hovering over the table he shared with Gannon inside Café Augusto.
    Orlando held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not here to cause problems. Promise.” He met Gannon’s gaze. “I just really need to talk to you. In private, if at all possible.”
    Alex was having none of it. Not that Orlando expected anything less. “No fucking way, dude. Have you lost your mind?”
    Orlando held Gannon’s stare, pleading with his eyes for the man to hear him out. Gannon looked helpless.
    “I can’t ask Alex to leave us alone. He’ll go ballistic.”
    It took everything Orlando possessed not to smile at the way Gannon openly spoke about Alex, as if the man wasn’t sitting right beside him. In spite of the way the man could turn psychotic in an instant, it was obvious Gannon wasn’t afraid of him.
    “If he wants to sit a few tables over and try killing me with his death stare, I’m cool with that. But for this, I can’t have him breathing down my neck.”
    Gannon glanced over. The insane glint in Alex’s eyes couldn’t be missed. “Don’t ask me to do this, Gannon.”
    “Please?”
    “Fuck!” In spite of his cursing, Alex stood. His crazed stare fell upon Orlando. “I’ll be right there,” he said, pointing toward a table by the window. “If you make the slightest move, even if I think you’re about to lean in, you won’t walk out of here. Understood?” He didn’t wait for an agreement before storming off.
    Orlando flashed Gannon a wry look as he claimed the seat across from him. “Quite a head case you’ve got there.”
    Gannon’s features hardened in a way Orlando had never seen before. “Don’t talk about him. You have no right to judge.”
    “True that,” Orlando said, seeing Gannon’s point. “I need to ask you about Seb.” Now that Orlando was here, sitting across from Gannon, it was harder than he expected. The words sounded stilted, even to his ears.
    “You already know all there is to know.”
    “No.” The word came out louder than Orlando meant, and Alex came to his feet. Gannon waved him away. Orlando tempered his voice. “I need you to tell me everything he confided in you. Andrei says you’re a nice person, and if I ask, you’ll tell me. I’m hoping he’s right.” Gannon’s shoulders fell and Orlando could smell victory.
    “Why do you want this, Orlando? I didn’t want it, but someone had to help him carry it. Jesus, you realize I’m not weak, right? At any time, I could’ve gotten out, enlisted Kieran to help me, but I didn’t know what the right thing to do was. If I’d said anything to anyone about what he’d told me, I honestly don’t think he would’ve lived to the end of that day, but staying quiet didn’t help either. You have no idea the guilt I carry. Do you really want the burden too when it’s too late to help anyone?”
    The bitter taste of his pride almost choked Orlando, but he’d walked into this, swearing to do right. “You couldn’t save him, Gannon. No one could save him. Let’s give him the vindication in death he didn’t get in life. He’s not here to see it, but I need to know it all, so I can show I would’ve stood with him.”
    For an unguarded moment, Orlando caught a glimpse of Gannon’s soul. It was shattered. Kieran was right. There was nothing anyone could do to Gannon worse than he did to himself. Still, he’d come to speak his piece, and he might never get a chance again. Squaring his shoulders against the pain in Gannon’s eyes, Orlando said something that had eaten away at him for the past two years.
    “You don’t deserve to be happy.”
    Gannon nodded. “I know.”
    Orlando waved away his agreement. “Just let me get this out