A Long Way Back (Unfinished Business Book 2) by Barbara Elsborg

Author:Barbara Elsborg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: MM contemp
Publisher: self
Published: 2020-09-28T04:00:00+00:00

THEY WENT TO BED NAKED and Tay fell asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. Ink pulled on his shorts and went to let Dog out. It was a warm night and he sat on the steps, staring out into the garden as Dog checked for intruders. Why did happiness have to be so fleeting? Why couldn’t it just…last? Joy was so delicate, like a snowflake. Beautiful and precious, but there one moment and gone the next.

Could he spend a few weeks with Tay, help him sort himself out, share his flat, his life, his bed? Could he have more than that? He knew Tay was already curious about him, about some of the answers Ink had given to his questions. Could he convince him not to ask more, not to push? Ink thought not. This was a guy whose work involved looking for tiny irregularities in accounts, for incorrect practices, for fraud. Tay already knew Ink was hiding something big and didn’t want to come to the notice of the police. It was obvious he’d done something.

Except he hadn’t.

Be fucking alive, Ruari!

Except he wasn’t.

Ink could never completely let go of that tiny fragment of hope, but, against all odds and the face of overwhelming evidence—what was more definitive than his father identifying Ruari’s body? —if Ruari had been alive, he’d have resurfaced by now. Once he realised what had happened to Ink, he’d have spoken out. Wouldn’t he?

Those thoughts didn’t surface very often. Ink might like to hope for the best, but he wasn’t a fantasist. He’d stopped waiting for Ruari to magically reappear. His brother was dead. The more important question was whether Ink was doing the best he could with the life he had.

Dog bounded back to his side and climbed onto his lap. Ink wrapped his arms around him and carried him back inside.

He took off his shorts and climbed into bed.

Tay opened his eyes and stroked Ink’s face. “You weren’t supposed to leave me.”

“I took Dog out.”

“You look upset.”

“I was thinking…about my brother.”

Tay said nothing, but under the sheet, Ink felt fingers wrap around his.

Be careful. No names. No ages. No places. Nothing that might allow Tay to find the twisted truth before I pluck up the courage to tell him everything.

As if that was ever going to happen.

But some things he could say without risk. “My brother was killed when he was a young boy, but…I…” He sighed. “Everyone thinks he’s dead.”

Tay frowned. “Because that didn’t make sense, I’m assuming you don’t think he’s dead?”

“I do think he’s dead, yet I can’t give up hope entirely. Mistakes are made. People turn up, don’t they? After years? Remember that Margate couple, James and Edith Bannister? When the police found those kids imprisoned in their cellar?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“I wanted so much for my brother to be one of them, even though they’d gone through hell, because at least he’d still be alive.”

“Why does everyone think your brother’s dead?”

“Because my father identified his body.”

“Ah.”

What was left of him.

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