That scared him… but not enough to call it quits. The stakes were too high, the reward too grand. Wyatt had to see this through, and he’d have to keep his guard up the entire time.
He looked around the narrow room he’d been given, a circular window above the bed letting in some of the bright moonlight that filtered down from a cloudless sky. The lamp on the desk was on, Wyatt’s laptop open to a Google search on the Tome of Tomorrow.
Mustang had driven him back home so he could grab some things and say bye to his sister, which ended up being more emotional than he had expected. He tearfully promised her that he’d be okay and back home in a couple of weeks and let her know that she’d be protected the entire time. He told her to stay with an aunt and uncle on their cattle farm in central Florida, the closest familial ties they had. He was confident that she’d be safe there, regardless of how it all turned out. The drive back to the aquarium had Wyatt fighting back tears, filled with doubt and questions. Had he just lied to his sister? Was he making a mistake by agreeing to all this?
He sat down at the desk and clicked through the pages of terribly made websites that seemed more concerned with pop-ups asking for his email address than sharing any valuable information on the book. Wyatt had heard of it when the exhibit was first scheduled at the museum, but no one ever alluded to how valuable it really was. Wyatt wondered if the curators at the museum even knew, and if they didn’t, then how the hell had Roman figured it out?
In the midst of all the hows and whats, Wyatt was sure of one thing: he wasn’t coming up with any answers that night. A body-shaking yawn took over as he shut the laptop. With an exhausted sigh, he dropped his head in his arm cave and shut his eyes, his batteries drained down to empty. He figured he should get at least a few hours of sleep before boarding a plane and flying across the country.
How the hell did this happen to me?
He kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks, and was working on his pants when a knock on the door made him freeze mid-thigh. He pulled them back on and went for the door, opening it to see a smiling Bruno ‘Bang Bang’ offering him a dew-covered bottle of beer.
“I think you need this,” he said, letting himself in and handing the beer over. Wyatt blinked a couple of times and gave a fuck-it shrug before taking a chug of the bubbly golden drink. Bang Bang was right—he definitely needed this.
“How you holding up?” Bang Bang asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed. His massive size made it seem like furniture belonging inside of a dollhouse. Wyatt was normally intimidated (and slightly turned on) by bigger, stronger, testosterone-filled men, the ones who could either be fight-thirsty bullies or gentle gay giants, depending.
It seemed like Bang Bang was more of the latter, and that was something Wyatt could appreciate.
“I’m alright,” Wyatt said, taking another swig. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“Funny, I tend to hear that a lot.” He gave a cocky wink, and Wyatt rolled his eyes, both of them laughing while a crack formed in the ice between them.
“So, how do you know Roman?” Bang Bang asked. His big blue eyes glittered under a direct beam of moonlight, competing with the golden crosses that dangled from either ear. “Feels like you two had a past.”
“Things were messy.” Wyatt wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep going, but Bang Bang pulled off an impressive puppy-eyed look for someone who resembled a full-grown bulldog. The words fell out without any more coaxing. “We knew each other when we were kids, grew up only a few blocks from each other. We were best friends, always had each other’s backs, even when that meant both of us getting in trouble even when it should have been just one. We spent nearly every day together, and at some point during our senior year of high school, things took a more physical turn. We both got accepted to our dream college, Yale, and I felt like nothing could take away my happiness. I thought I’d ride that ecstasy all the way to the finish line.
“I was such a fucking idiot. Everything came tumbling down a year later when Roman convinced me to hack into the grading system and change his grade so that he could keep his scholarship. I did it, and I got caught, and everything else after that somehow got worse and worse. It was like a domino effect of life-altering fuckery, all kicked off by Mr. Rainbow’s Seven himself.”