Lover for Pay: The Escort & the Teacher (manxman)

XXIII - Blaze

Chapter Twenty-Three

Time was up and Marbell's worry for London hadn't gone down a notch yet. No matter how many times he called his lover's phone, it went to voicemail, never once picking up to relieve him of this stress. This was not like London to leave him, or his brother and sister for that matter, without a say as to where he was going, or a given time of his return. The first thing that was always on London's mind was making sure he got back to Joyce and Henry...and he was gone without a trace.

Marbell's next idea was to go to the police when something hit him. London has been missing now for at least an hour, and given he was over the age of eighteen, authorities wouldn't care even a little until after 24 hours was up, and even with the time, since he was a grown man in perfectly good health, they wouldn't take it as seriously. Children were the only ones police put more focus on when missing cases came up, and London, in no way, fell into that category. If Marbell went to the police, they would send him away and tell him to wait.

Seated in the living room at the dining table, Marbell picked up his cell phone and stared at the lit screen. His lock screen was a picture of London with his lip snarled, tongue sticking out as he held up two backwards peace signs. Marbell smiled down at the attractive picture, running his thumb across it. "Where are you?" he said under his breath.

Without London here, Marbell knew there was no way he could go into work like this. He wouldn't be able to make it a full day if the tattooed boy didn't come back tonight. For a quick moment he wondered if London could have gone to Wonderland. It was a Monday, but a nightclub like that would still be open to the public. No, Marbell swore to himself, he wouldn't go back to a place like that, even just to have a mildly good time. They were too focused on packing this house up to move. There was no room in either of their minds to party.

Dialing London's phone one more time, he held himself back from chucking the phone when it was forwarded to voicemail again.

Wait. Marbell pondered the few times before when he left behind messages, he sat through all of the rings until voicemail picked up the call. Forwarding like this after the first two rings...was done manually...so did that mean London wasn't taking his calls on purpose? Why would he be doing that? Trying once more, Marbell didn't know what to think when the call was blocked again after the first ring.

Breaking his train of thought, a rough knocking came to the front door then. With haste, Marbell rushed for the door and threw it open. His heart stammered when he locked eyes with a tired Henry Dawncraft. He was dressed in jeans and a wrinkled gray shirt with black short sleeves. His dark hair was tucked under his favorite purple beanie, and he was clearly exhausted. "Henry?" Marbell said, flustered, "What are you doing – how did you – did you run the whole way here?"

Henry made his way into the house under Marbell's arm, "No," he said, noticing all of the piled cardboard boxes in the living room, some of them with his and Joyce's name on them, but he was too mentally frantic to give a shit about what they were for. Clearly they were packed, so were they moving? "I called one of my friends since I was sure you wouldn't bust me out of that sterile hellhole. Is London still not back?"

Marbell almost couldn't believe Henry had defied the hospital, leaving ahead of schedule and without permission.

"Don't worry," the boy said, "I left a note saying I couldn't stay."

"Henry, I don't think that matters, but, no, I still haven't heard from London. I was thinking of going to the police but—."

"Please...they would type his name into their data base," Henry said, "see who he's related to and then call everything off. Being our father's sons, the police have never really cared about us. Like with the accident I was in, do you seriously think they were going to put all their efforts into finding who hit me? One less Dawncraft, I'm sure they'd say." He stormed down the hallway towards his bedroom, hoping that at least a few things were still unpacked.