RAW Deception (Round 2 in the RAW Instinct Series)

Shane

Listen to the Music: Sophia Symphonic Orchestra - Never Back Down. Battle Cry from Two Steps From Hell. 

Tuesday

Joe left Canton's Cottage just before dawn. I very nearly made a huge mistake and if Greg hadn't stopped the fight, Joe would probably have killed me.

The argument started because he wanted to leave immediately, and I had my mind set on Thursday. He wouldn't take no for an answer and made it abundantly clear that I had no option but to return with him. When I said I didn't love him, he turned into the devil himself, a side I had never seen.

I was clear about one thing. If I had gone with Joe, there could be no going back. In time, I would forget Greg, and I wasn't prepared to do that. If only he'd given me a chance to explain Joe's illness by listening. It was time to follow my heart.

I woke up disoriented, sore and feeling sick as sunlight streamed across the bed. It felt as if I had been kicked by a horse.

I was still drowsy when Gregory approached the bed with a mug of green tea. Green tea of all things. Vile.

"Where's Joe? What are you doing in my bungalow?" I asked, thinking I was in my bed.

"Joe's gone. He left early this morning."

"What the fuck? Am I in your bed?"

"My bed, my bungalow."

"I need to be with Joe. He hasn't got long to live and he needs me."

"I know he's ill, Edward told me. I just don't understand, Shane. After what he did to you, you still want to be with him?"

"I need to be with Joe even if he beats me up, it won't last forever."

"You cannot live with an angry, aggressive, violent man. I won't let you and you have to stop thinking that he needs you. He doesn't, and never will. I need you, Shane. I fucking need you more than you will ever know and if you leave me, I'll be lost. Up to now, everything has been about Joe. I'm also here. I'm fighting for you every second of the day. Together we can sort out Joe's future. And our future. As his time draws close we can place him in a hospice. They'll take care of him like we can't."

"I've deceived him, Colonel. He knows it. Somehow he knows and I don't know what to do."

"Tell him the truth. Tell him how you feel. The truth will hurt, but it needs to come from you."

I nodded. "I've told him I don't love him, I don't know what else to do."

"Shane, you're not listening. Tell him how you feel. Your heart's stopped feeling for him, and all you want is for him to die a dignified death. Tell him where your soul is. Are you listening?"

I nodded with closed eyes.

"Tell me, Shane, where does your heart lie?"

"I'm so confused right now. I don't know."

We sat silently for a time just staring at each other. Eventually I climbed out from under the covers to take a leak and as I stepped onto the floor, a mind altering pain swept across my side and I collapsed.

Gregory caught me just before I fell and promptly placed me back onto the bed.

"You need a doctor, detective. Edward said there's one a half hour drive away."

"I'll be fine. Nothing's broken."

"It's your kidney. He punched you so hard he may have damaged your kidney."

***

The doctor, in his late fifties but looking more like a middle-aged stud, confirmed my worst fear; a swollen kidney. He gave the medicine to Gregory and turned to me.

"You'll have to spend a few more days here, young man. I can't allow you to travel in your condition."

That put paid to that. A few more days meant a week at the most.

The moment the doc left, Gregory said, "I'd like nothing more than for you to move over to my bungalow. Are you okay with that?"

I smiled. "More than okay, Colonel."

***

The next few days where a whirlwind.

Gregory pampered and loved me like I have never known. He wouldn't allow me to make myself a cup of vile green tea or pour a glass of wine. I wasn't allowed any alcohol, not according to the doctor, but Gregory instead.

Long moments on the patio brought us together more and more. Our bonding was suave and gentle. We held each other close watching the pinnacles of golden sunrises and flamingo sunsets.

We held hands while watching Edward and Raw tend to the horses. The simplest things that we take for granted, like roiling clouds and wild flowers became our topics for discussion. We sat together for hours, sometimes staring at each other, not saying a word, or he'd lie with his head in my lap whilst reading one of the gay novels in Edward's collection.

I never felt more alive.

By the third day, Joe never entered my mind. It was as if he had become a thing of the past. A past I wanted to forget. For my sake alone, no one mentioned his name again.

By Friday afternoon I could finally walk without too much pain and on Friday night, Edward brought out a second canoe and all of us went paddling in the twilight.

"Do you remember?" Gregory asked as the canoe skimmed across the water.

"I'll never forget."

"Sex in a canoe. We're animals," Gregory said, laughing.

"Best I've ever had."

Gregory hugged and kissed me on the neck. "I remember."

"You make me so happy, Greg. It's an honour being with you. Promise me you'll never change. I need you to be the same man I met a week and a half ago."

"I worry more about you, detective. I worry that I'm not good enough for you. That you'll always be looking out for someone better than me."

I waved an accusing finger in his face. "Don't you start, Gregory Basye Sander. Don't start."

He smiled and stopped rowing when Edward and Raw beached their canoe on the shore of the lake adjacent to a sheer cliff that dropped perpendicular into the lake.

"Come on, lovebirds," Raw shouted from the beach.

Gregory parked the canoe beside theirs and helped me out.

"Come on," Edward said, beckoning us. "We want to show you guys a sight you never see in the city. Shane, are you okay to climb?"

"I think so. There's not too much pain."

Gregory put his arms around my shoulders and together we began climbing up to a rocky mountain ledge. It didn't take long, and when we got to the top and looked down, a wonderful sight lay before us.

A Zulu village nestled quaintly down below, filled with tribal ancestry and mystery. The fields were green, cattle grazed, and horses roamed freely. It looked like a scene from Out of Africa. Serene. Pastoral and mysterious.

As we gazed upon this special sight, some piccanins* down below spotted us and waved then went about their routine.

All of us clutched onto each other until after the colours in the sky melted onto the rocks of the mountain.

Piccanins= Zulu meaning Children.

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