Free Shane's Fall (The Escort Series Book 2) by Sloane Kennedy Page B

further into him and her fingers started repeating a small, circular motion in the middle of his chest.
    “How did your brother die?” she asked carefully.
    It was an emotional line that he knew he shouldn’t cross, but he couldn’t stop himself from answering.
    “He killed himself.”
    She let out a gasp and then lifted her eyes from where they’d been watching her fingers draw on him.
    “Shane,” she began but he gently covered her lips with one of his fingers from his free hand. He didn’t want to hear her apology because everyone did that as soon as he told them his brother was dead. As if their apology could somehow make up for the agony and guilt he felt every time he thought of his big brother, his hero. He should have glossed over the truth with her like he usually did with everyone else and just say he overdosed, but for some reason the lies wouldn’t fall out of his mouth as seamlessly when he was around her. She seemed to get his message about the unspoken apology because she nodded slightly and then dropped her head back down on his chest.
    “He was a drug addict – heroin mostly, but he’d do whatever he could get his hands on.” He felt her stiffen against him but she didn’t look at him or try to speak. “It started when he was sixteen – pot mostly, then some cocaine here and there. By the time he graduated from high school, he was a full blown addict.”
    “Did your parents know?”
    He started to shake his head and then realized she wouldn’t be able to see it so he said, “No – he was able to keep his grades up and was good about keeping up with appearances and that was all they cared about.”
    “But you knew,” she observed.
    “Not at first, but then I started to figure it out because he started acting different – more agitated and paranoid.”
    “Did Gabe or Logan know?”
    “I think Logan may have suspected something towards the end, but Gabe had no idea – Michael had pulled back from Gabe a lot and Gabe was so busy with dealing with his mom’s bullshit that he didn’t see what was happening.”
    “She’s an addict too, right?” Savannah asked.
    “Yeah.” He realized the word probably came out more sharply than he had intended, but his body was starting to burn from Savannah’s innocent caresses. The pressure of her fingers had increased somewhat and his body was demanding more.
    “Why did he do it?” she asked quietly, clearly unaware of the effect she was having on him.
    “The drugs or the suicide?” he asked.
    “Both I guess.”
    “It started off the same way it does for most; he fell into the wrong crowd and got caught up in all of it. But he kept doing it because of the pressure he was under from our parents. They had his life all planned out – school, career, marriage.”
    “And he didn’t want the same things,” she stated.
    “He wasn’t sure what he wanted in terms of career and school. But he knew that the one thing he did want, they would never be okay with.”
    She was silent for a long time before saying, “He was gay, wasn’t he?”
    “Yeah, he was. He tried to tell our parents when he was seventeen or so. He was trying to feel them out I guess. Anyway, it didn’t go well and that’s when his drug use blew up. I told him I didn’t care if he was gay – he was still my big brother – but I guess it wasn’t enough. I’d find him sometimes, when he was high. He even blurted out to me once that he was in love with Gabe.”
    She inhaled sharply, but kept quiet. He felt her hand drift to his side as if she was trying to draw him closer to her. He needed to finish this because it was getting way too intense.
    “He knew Gabe was straight so he never told him. He finally told my parents just after he started his second semester, but they flipped out and disowned him on the spot. Told him they would take everything away. He wouldn’t even be allowed to see me anymore.” He felt her fingers bite into his sides but he pushed on.
    “My