Dad huffed a pleased noise. “Of course he is. But that’s just it, Son. You have experience and skills that would be very useful to the company. I’d like you to come work with the family, with Katherine and me. You could have even more impact.”
Katherine leaned forward. “Colin, you must know we face regulatory issues at the federal and state level. We’re in a constant battle over premiums, reserves, coverage decisions, protection from frivolous lawsuits. We need someone like you, who knows the players in Congress and how to capitalize on our connections. Imagine lobbying the Senate for litigation reform, for example. Instead of helping a few people at a time, you’d be able to help us save our members tens of millions of dollars.”
Hernán made a noise. When Colin looked at him, he saw flushed cheeks and a glint in his eye. Desperate to avoid a conflict between his boyfriend and his family, he decided to make himself a target.
“I’ll think about the job. But hey, this is crazy. Maryanne and Hernán here suggested I think about running for office.”
Mom sipped her glass of wine. “Can you imagine? You grumbled at all the fundraisers we’ve hosted and attended, all the handshaking and speechmaking.” She shook her head. “You’d hate that lifestyle. Too funny.”
Hernán tilted his head, frowning. “I don’t understand why it’s funny. Maybe I don’t fully appreciate American politics, but Colin seems like exactly the kind of person who should be governing. He’s brilliant, passionate and very knowledgeable. Colin could have a direct impact on the issues he cares about.”
Katherine rolled her eyes at both of them. “Oh Hernán, you must not really know my brother yet. He’d drop out of the race two days in. Colin always gives up on everything when it gets difficult.”
Colin flushed and looked at his plate, cheeks burning. Shut up, shut up, he pleaded silently. Of course he agreed with Katherine, but saying it in front of Hernán stung. The shame flared bright, and he realized it wasn’t a new feeling.
Dad smirked as well. “How many different sports did we try? And musical instruments? Katherine, remember when he wanted to play the tuba?”
Too conscious of Hernán at his side, he panicked over what his lover would think of the growing litany of failures. Shocking himself, he blurted out, “You yanked me from every single thing I ever wanted to do, Dad. How would I know if I could learn to be good at anything?”
Mom protested, “Dear, we never forbade you from trying anything you wanted.”
“Yes, I could try anything once. Then you’d pat my head and tell me it didn’t matter and I should try something else, something I might actually be good at. Gramps was the only one who ever believed in me.”
“Colin Richard Felton,” Mom exclaimed. “You know that isn’t true.”
“Do I? It hasn’t stopped to this day. All this mocking of my job at the Initiative, telling me it’s time to grow up. How is that any different?” Colin jumped up. “Excuse me,” he said, tossing his napkin on the table and hurrying away.
As he left the room, he heard Hernán say to his family, “Colin gives people hope and help and a chance to start over. He saves lives with what he does at the Initiative. Have you ever saved anything more than a dollar?” Then he scraped back his chair and hurried to catch up with Colin, grasping his hand before they reached the hallway together.
Hernán followed Colin through the massive house, his heart pounding with anger. The way the family treated Colin was shameful. He could see the love too, but Jim hung on every word Katherine said while dismissing or belittling Colin. Margaret seemed tolerant of Colin’s life, but distractedly. It was all just subtle enough that he hadn’t wanted to open his mouth and stir a family quarrel about which he might be entirely wrong.
From the look on Colin’s face, he wasn’t wrong.
Colin led them to the second-floor library and closed the door behind them. Hernán sat in one of the wingback chairs as Colin paced.
“I’m sorry you had to see that, Hernán. It normally isn’t that bad. Pushing me to take that job at the company, teasing me about my failures—sure, they do that kind of thing, but tonight…” He stopped in front of a wooden bar cart and poured himself a finger of amber liquor. “Do you want one?” He asked Hernán, who shook his head.
“Colin, I’m sorry I spoke rudely to your family. I owe you and them an apology.”
Colin crossed the room to sit next to Hernán. “You don’t owe anyone an apology.” He took a swallow of his drink, grimaced, and then continued. “Reminds me of the night I got drunk in P-town. Why am I drinking this?”
“Because you’re mad, and it’s there.” Hernán reached across the gap and took the glass from Colin’s loose fingers. He took a sniff and made a face. “I don’t like bourbon either.”
“Am I mad? I guess so.”
“I’m proud you spoke up to them. I guess that isn’t something you do very often.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Colin sighed. “Usually it’s easier to let them talk, keep the focus on Katherine and off of me. I don’t know why I did speak up, today.” He winced and studied his shoes. “Shit, that’s not true. I didn’t want you to see me through their eyes.”
Hernán slid off his chair and to Colin’s feet. He rested his arms across Colin’s lap. “There’s not a thing they said that could make me think less of you. Or that I believe, actually. They don’t know how much you’ve accomplished, so how could their opinion move me?”
Colin’s eyes on his swirled with emotion. He reached down to run his fingers through Hernán’s hair. Quietly, he said, “I wish I were the man you seem to see. The warrior.”
“You are,” Hernán said firmly, like he would say the sun rose in the East.
Chapter 28
They sat like that in the library for a long while, Colin’s eyes locked with Hernán’s. The way he defended me to them… No one’s ever done that. Finally, aware of the passing time, he exhaled roughly.
“I’d better go apologize. We always had a family rule about not going to bed angry.” His phone trilled in his pocket, and he said, “That’s probably Mom, wondering where in the house we’re hiding out.” He decided to ignore it in favor of a few more minutes of quiet with Hernán, but in seconds it trilled again. Then Hernán’s chimed in his pants pocket.
Sharing a frown, they each got out their phones. Colin had to pull on his glasses to read the text message. Hernán looked down at his screen, and almost immediately his face turned pale.
The message was from David James:
Sofia just saw the attached in online version of The Washington Post.
Below the text was an image, apparently from that newspaper. It took Colin a moment to recognize himself in profile, a hand intimately spread against Hernán’s back. Hernán’s handsome face appeared clearly in the photo. They both wore their running clothes, and Colin’s mind flashed to the day before. They had turned to walk away, and as Colin had glanced back, Ethan was just putting away his phone.
He didn’t!
He clicked through the link to open the article David forwarded, from a gossip column called The Reliable Source. With the photo was a short block of copy:
Socialite and activist Colin Felton, son of financial powerhouse Jim Felton, is squiring around this hot and handsome hunk of a Latin lover. Word is that Hernán (last name unknown—so far!) is seeking asylum. With looks like those, we’re sure plenty of people would line up to give Hernán a place to stay!
Colin looked up to find Hernán staring at him, aghast. Heat rushed through his body at the despair he saw in Hernán’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said immediately, sweat dampening the nape of his neck. “I know how this looks but it’s just nasty gossip. I don’t usually get much of this since I stay out of the limelight. Griffin gets hit with it all the time.”
Hernán shook his head slowly. “It isn’t that.” He swallowed hard and looked at his phone’s screen again. “That’s my name and my picture. And it puts me in Washington. W
ith you.” His strangled voice and sick expression finally made sense.
With horror in his tone, Hernán added one word. “Cuernos.”
As quickly as he could, Colin dialed David’s number. He could see the dread in Hernán’s face, and that almost superstitious fear instilled by his uncle and by growing up in El Salvador, where Cuernos was a lethal, daily presence.
“Hello?” he heard David’s urgent baritone.
“It’s Colin. I’m in New Jersey with Hernán. We just saw your message.”
“I have no idea where the story came from, Colin. You know neither I nor Sofia would say anything about Hernán’s legal situation—”
“I know,” he cut David off. “I think it was Ethan. We ran into him on the street yesterday and Hernán mentioned I was heading to the Hill to lobby about asylum. Ethan made a lucky guess.” Beside him, Hernán moaned. Still on his knees, he leaned forward with his face in his hands, and Colin rubbed circles on his back.
“That little shit,” David fumed.
“I know. We can deal with him later. Hernán’s afraid that members of Cuernos may see the picture and put together where he’s hiding.”
“I get that,” David said. “I wish I could say it was unlikely, but with the reach of the internet it’s possible this could spread. Hold on.” The line was silent for a moment, and then David spoke again. “I’ve conferenced in Sofia. We need to either kill the story or get ahead of any fallout.”
Sofia said, “I just saw it on Twitter. With Hernán’s looks and the reference to Colin’s father, people are retweeting it like crazy. I had no idea you were one of those Feltons.”
“Shit,” Colin sighed. His phone began to chime with incoming messages, but he refused to look. “Any ideas? I’m kind of in shock here.”
David spoke up. “One of my partners at the law firm is good friends with the managing editor at the Post. With Hernán’s permission, I’d like to call her, explain the situation and ask her to make an appeal to pull the article because of the risk to Hernán.” Colin muttered the plan quietly to Hernán, and he nodded.
“Go ahead, David. It won’t stop what’s being retweeted but maybe it will keep the story from growing.”
Sofia chimed in. “I’m worried this might draw ICE attention earlier than we’d hoped. I was pretty close to wrapping up Hernán’s asylum application anyway but I think we should expedite that and get it on file as soon as possible. I’ll head back to the office now and see if I can get a draft ready for you by morning, David.”
“Thanks, Sofia. I’m sorry to ruin your weekend but I agree we should do that. Colin, you said you’re in New Jersey?”
“Yes. We came up to visit my parents.”
“I don’t want to sound paranoid, but that’s probably good. On the off chance that someone in Cuernos sees the article, you’re not hard to locate in DC.”
“You look intimate in the photo,” Sofia agreed. “And they name you. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see Hernán means something to you and track you down for information.”
Colin sucked in a breath. “Holy shit. I never even thought of that.”
Hernán seemed to pick up the gist of the conversation. His eyes shimmered. “I’m sorry. I’ve brought my darkness to you. It’s what I was always afraid of.”
“No, Hernán. Stop,” Colin ordered. “Don’t think that way. We’ll figure this out together and we’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Hernán moaned. “In my country Cuernos are everywhere. I’ve seen the news articles. They’re here in the States as well. We’ll never be safe.”
David could apparently hear Hernán’s words. “Look, Colin, I don’t want either of you to take any risks. Until things are more clear, you should stay out of DC.”
Colin thought rapidly. “We could remain in Saddle River indefinitely, I suppose. No, shit, the paper used Dad’s name too. It would probably be easy to locate us here. Oh fuck! I have to warn them.” The magnitude of what Ethan had potentially unleashed began to hit finally. Hernán had seen it right away, but Colin was only putting the pieces together.
Authoritatively, David said, “We have enough to get started on damage control. Colin, you talk to your family. Sofia will work on the application. I’m going to see what I can do about the story. Let’s regroup in an hour and see where we are.”
Hernán looked so miserable as the call disconnected that Colin slipped to the floor next to him and pulled him close. Hernán trembled in his arms.
After a few moments, he made Hernán rise to sit in one of the library chairs. His own phone pinged relentlessly with messages and notifications. Nothing like that onslaught had ever happened to Colin. “Do you want to stay here, or come with me to talk to my parents?”
“May I stay here? I’m already ashamed of what I said to them earlier, and with this horror I’ve created…”
Colin kissed him firmly. “Angelito, you have nothing to be sorry about. All you did earlier was defend me, and you didn’t stir up this trouble. Ethan did. But okay. You stay here and I’ll come get you in a little while.”
He left the library door open and went in search of his parents. Descending the main staircase, he met Dad coming up, cell phone in his hand.
“My public relations people saw as soon as the article hit the web. What the hell is going on, Son?”
“Can we talk downstairs?”
Dad guided them toward a small sitting room on the first floor. He called down the hall, “Margaret? I found him. Come join us if you want.”
“Where’s Katherine?” Colin asked.
“She went home after that scene. What you said—”
“Can it wait, Dad? I know I owe you an apology but we need to talk about this news item. There may be danger.”
Mom stepped into the sitting room just then and sank gracefully onto an upholstered settee, confusion and concern mixed in her face. She tugged her husband’s hand until he sat next to her, and then gestured for Colin to speak.
Colin took a deep breath. “The news item is accurate. I just never expected it to come out this way. Hernán is living with me in DC while he seeks asylum.”
“That means he’s in the country illegally, I suppose. What have you gotten yourself into?” The disapproval in Dad’s gruff voice mixed with concern for his son and doubt that Colin knew what he was doing. It was the same thing he’d heard for years.
“This isn’t the time, Dad,” Colin said firmly. “We have reason to believe Hernán may be in physical danger as a result of this article. His lawyer is working to suppress it but given the story is already on Twitter I doubt we have much chance of that.”
He explained as succinctly as he could about how Cuernos had stalked and nearly killed Hernán, how the police officer who tried to help had been murdered, how Hernán’s uncle had told him he was in danger and should get out of El Salvador.
“Look, this all just blew up today so I have no idea whether Hernán’s fear is valid or overblown. Given what’s reported about Cuernos, I think it’s dangerous to dismiss his fears. It’ll be easy for the people who may, emphasis on may, be after Hernán to track him to my condo in Washington. If they’re sufficiently motivated, I can imagine them tracking you both down here. Maybe even Katherine and Griff.”
“Jesus, Son.” His father exhaled heavily when Colin finished. “Okay, I agree. This isn’t the time. I’ll alert my private security firm to make sure everyone is under guard.” He looked at his wife in silent communion, and then back at Colin. His voice when he spoke was lower and full of concern. “What about you though? Are you safe?”
That was the father he loved, ready to use every tool at his disposal to keep his family protected and comfortable. It was why they lived in a fairy-tale castle with every whim granted. Jim Felton wanted them all to be happy, even when he didn’t know what to think about his middle child.
It had seemed cloying when Colin was young, but he knew his father had his back. That meant the world.
�
�We were planning to return to DC Monday morning,” he answered, “but that doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore. I also don’t like the idea of staying here, but I don’t have a better plan.”
“What about the house in Nantucket?” Mom asked. “It’s somewhat hard to get to, especially off season.”
Colin thought about it. “I don’t know. You’ve had the house so long and we’ve all been photographed for various events. A simple Google search would probably turn that up.”
“I wonder if we’re overreacting,” Dad said. “Let me talk to my security guys to get their input.”
“We need to make sure the team keeps a very low profile though,” Colin said. “You’re right, Hernán is in the country illegally. We think we have excellent grounds to get him asylum, but in the meantime we want to stay off the ICE radar if we possibly can. I’m worried we’ll get a security group that wants to go overboard by posting men at everybody’s door and harassing people. That could end up drawing even more attention.”
“Oh boy,” Dad said with a sigh. “Okay. I’ll make sure the detail head knows we want them to watch discreetly and from a distance only.” There was a pause, and then his father asked in a softer tone. “Is this worth it, Son? Is this Hernán fellow who you choose?”
Colin’s voice was thick as he answered, “Yes, Dad. He is. Maybe you don’t see it after the dinner table—”
Mom cut him off. “Actually, that’s why I do see it. Perhaps we’ve made mistakes as parents, and we can talk about that calmly when this matter is resolved. At dinner, however, I saw a shy man out of his depth, who nonetheless jumped to defend and praise you when he felt you were wronged.” She smiled. “Your eyes shine when you look at him, and his do as well. He loves you very much, and he’ll fight if he thinks you’ve been attacked. What mother wouldn’t want someone like that for her son?”
Colin’s throat grew tight, and he blinked back tears.
Dad only made it worse. “I like Hernán too. You go on back and take care of him. I imagine he’s pretty scared right about now.”
Asylum (Pride and Joy Book 2) Page 32