Neon Rush {M/M} ❀

Ch.14.2 A Tool, A Puppet, A Weapon, A Son

Gray's shoulders stiffen. He shoots Zef a baleful look. "What're you on about?"

"I'm not leaving you to fight Rylan alone."

The deadened look to Gray's eyes flashes with something steely. "Not asking you to stay."

"And I'm not asking you to let me. I'm not going. You can't force me to, either. So if you want to face her, you face her with me. Or—" Zef swallows the lump in his throat. "Or you can run away with me."

Gray sneers, but for the first time, Zef thinks he can see through it. Nothing but a guard. A veneer. "Don't gimme that romantic horse shit, darlin'. You 'n me both know it weren't real."

"It was for me," Zef says. He sees those words alight in Gray's heart like a fledgling sparrow taking seeds out of his open palm. Zef pushes on. "I gave my dad emergency money to buy train tickets out of here in case everything with Rylan went to hell. I asked him to buy four of them. One's yours."

Quietly. "Fuck off..."

"I'm serious. All you have to do is abandon this stupid vengeance plot and come with me."

For a long, long time, Gray stares at him. It's a look two parts assessing and two parts cornered animal. Zef's gamble hinged upon Gray's protective nature overriding his hatred for Rylan. He didn't want Zef here when they clashed, that much was clear. He'd been unsubtly pushing Zef away. Hoping if he hurt Zef hard enough, maybe Zef would leave and he wouldn't have to feel guilty about dragging him through this mess. Or, at least, Zef thinks so. Hopes he's not wrong.

For Zef's gamble to work, Gray has to believe he'll stay.

Gray stares at him, and slowly, subtly, the tension in his frame relaxes.

He says, "No."

"No?"

"You ain't about to help me kill Rylan," he says with conviction. "You can just about drink and punch a screw, but murderin' ain't in you."

Zef's voice pitches high. All the testosterone in the world can't stop it from cracking. "You're willing to bet both our lives on that?"

"Mine. Not yours. You're leaving. Get outta here, Zef."

Zef feels cold in all his extremities. Ollie not answering Zef's calls. Ollie giving him short, one-word answers to all his questions. Ollie pushing and pushing and— "I'm not leaving you!"

"Yes you fucking are, now go!" Gray punctuates his words by shoving Zef towards the door.

The knock to his chest winds him, but he seizes the opportunity of their proximity to grab Gray's hands. Gray freezes. It's the first time Zef touches him without asking.

Gray says, "Don't."

"She can't find you if you're halfway across the country."

"Zef, I'm warnin' ya—"

"You asked me what things I wanted to do that'd make me happy, well I'm adding one more to the list. I want you to come with me."

"Shut up!" Gray wrenches free. Chest heaving, he says, "You still don't get it, do you? I can't just run and hide, she'll find me—"

"So we keep running—"

"She's under my skin," Gray screams, the sound rough as a rake dragged over concrete. "I can't escape this as easy as you, and you don't get to ask me to try like I haven't already. For years. I gave you all the rest. All the other things you asked for."

Zef's heart sinks. "And there's nothing you want that I could give you in return?"

With finality, in a wretched voice bursting with horrible feeling, Gray says, "The only thing I want is Rylan dead."