Where My Demons Hide

Chapter Eight - Eagle

Finishing my day, I changed into my regular clothes, and left the small medical center in the center of the city. On my drive there I called Dragon. When he answered, I could tell I was on speaker. That was new—aside from when he was riding, he would always pick up.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Khrap—heading out of town for a little while." He replied. "What's up?"

"I was going to invite you and your client out for dinner tonight." I admitted. "It's been a strange kind of day and I didn't want to go home yet."

"How about going to see Mae?"

"That wasn't the kind of company I was craving." I checked the mirror and switched lanes to get around a slow-moving motorcycle.

"I'm sorry, P." Dragon told me. "If you'd told me earlier, we could have planned something. But we're already on the road."

"It's okay. We can meet up again when you have a Wednesday off." I assured him. "We'll talk soon. And er—be careful."

Dragon agreed and I hung up.

I sighed.

Going home was the last thing I wanted. Though I lived in a beautiful house, it didn't much feel like home. At the end of the day, I had no one to go home to—I hadn't had anyone to go home to in a very long time.

My brother was killed when a drug bust went sideways. He'd been my rock, the shoulder I cried on when the world was being unfair. P'Win was my brother, my best friend, my constant warrior. I thought he was invincible. Then he was gone, and I realized just how many lives he'd been holding up. As a brother, he was always there for me. As a lover, he held onto Dragon, boosted him up. As a son, my mother was never in want of anything—be it love or otherwise.

I picked up some take-out and found my way to his grave where I stared at the daisies knowing precisely who had brought them there. My mother and I never cleared them away. We knew Dragon did it because his heart was lying there, and it seemed to break him repeatedly.

"He's lost, P." I admitted. "If I had any doubts about how much he loved you—they're gone now. He can't seem to move on from you and I know I'm supposed to be your nong and help him but I don't know how."

I rested backward on my palms and stared at the stone. "I just don't know how."

It took me some time to finish my meal and after I gathered all the packaging, I rose, offered my brother wai and headed back to my car. I stopped at a local desert place for some ice-cream and on my way out I crashed into someone coming in. It seemed neither of us were paying attention.

He fell and I hunched down to help him to his feet as he muttered his apologies. I smiled at his cut nose, brown eyes and dark hair that was styled neatly atop his head.

"It's okay, Khrap." I promised him. "I should have been more careful."

"No, P." He brushed off his butt. "I wasn't even looking up. If you hadn't opened the door, I would have definitely crashed into the glass."

I chuckled. "I'm Eagle Rattanon."

"Er..." He hesitated in taking my outstretched hand. But eventually did. "Ohm Privanit."

"Nice to meet you."

My cheeks heated. "You should get going before your ice-cream melts. The heat today is unbearable."

"I should." But I couldn't seem to just walk away. I wasn't sure if he was into guys, but I didn't just want to leave. If I did, I knew, deep down I wouldn't see him again. For some reason, that thought terrified me. "Um..." I dug through my wallet and found one of my cards.