Seth...Saved...
Studs & Steel #7
Heather Mar-Gerrison copyright 2018
Beautiful front cover design courtesy of
Selfpubbookcovers/viergacht
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.
Seth
I woke up. For a second, just like every morning, I turned over, expecting to see her next to me – for a second I forgot that my life was over...
Then, as it did every single day, it all hit me again. My chest ached with the overwhelming feeling of loss. My skin started to tingle, and I was almost able to feel the burning through my clothes.
I was reliving the car accident. Hearing her screaming again, as loud as if we were right there, going through it all again and then finally the gut-twisting, ominous silence. And even though her screams of pain were quite possibly the most awful sound I’d ever heard in my life, the silence was worse – because that meant she’d gone. And she was never coming back...
Chapter 1 – Interview nerves....
Joel
I was excited. Well, I was excited in a terrified sort of way. More terrified if I’m gonna be completely honest about it – but excited all the same...
I might have been a disappointment to the rest of my family – not that they’d ever be rude enough to say so – but I didn’t want to follow in any of their footsteps and particularly not Harley’s. The idea of putting my life on the line, day in, day out, like he did was horrifying.
And the funny thing was, that he was as hard as nails, even though he was far more the ‘gay as a rainbow’ type than I was. I really didn’t look gay – no one had any idea unless I came out and told them straight that I was gay – not that I ever did because I was still undecided and well, it wasn’t really anyone else’s business anyway. I was pretty sure I leaned more towards fancying guys, but I could still appreciate a pretty female face – it was the rest of the package that I found hard to really appreciate. I really did like cock...
Regardless of the way I looked in comparison to my older brother, I couldn’t possibly do what he did. That night, all those months ago (Jesus, had it really been that long?) when I went on his ‘Take your child to work day’ had been enough for me...
Now, obviously I wasn’t Harley’s child – I was his younger brother, but Mum had insisted I go along to see what a ‘proper job’ looked like. I will never forgive her. That night traumatised me for life...
The evening had started out quite slowly and I was beginning to think that Harley was a right old fraud and that his job was eating doughnuts and drinking coffee... Then we got the call that changed all of our lives...
“Report of an accident on the B6995. Early indications suggest that it’s a hit and run; there seems to be only one vehicle at the scene. It’s an overturned car with at least one occupant trapped. Possible multiple casualties, anyone in the vicinity, please attend immediately.”
Harley looked at his work partner for the evening, some older guy called Roger, “That’s just around the corner from here, isn’t it?” He asked.
Roger nodded. He picked up the radio, “Roger that.” He said, which struck me as rather amusing since it was his name and I’d always had a childish sense of humour and thought names like Roger were ever so slightly rude.
As we pulled up, I took in the scene. It was chaotic to say the least. Clearly it had been a high speed smash. There was debris all over the road. The car, an American muscle-car by the looks of it was looking sorry for itself with the front end smashed up. It was now empty of any passengers. An ambulance was just leaving – presumably with the occupant or occupants of the car. The other car was in a much worse way – on its roof and on fire. I swallowed. This really wasn’t looking good...
“Stay in the car, Joel.” Harley barked as he opened his door.
Stay in the car? Fuck that. People needed help – they could be dying... I unclipped my seat belt and got out of the car.
The sound that reached my ears above all of the other noises going on – cracking glass and groaning metal of the car heating up with the flames that were licking around the bonnet, was of the sobs of the heartbroken young guy that was trying his damnedest to get back into the car. His heartbreak was going to stay with me forever, I was sure... I’d never heard anything like it before in my life and I never wanted to hear it again. The guy was fucking distraught.
I knew, deep down that what I was going to see wouldn’t be pretty. Of course I did. But I followed Harley towards the burning car regardless and I was shocked to my core by what I saw. Harley was doing his best to reason with the distraught guy. But it wasn’t just that he was distraught. He was covered in blood – surely it couldn’t all have been his own? There was surely too much blood on him for it to all be his? Fuck. Whoever was trapped in the car had to be in a bad way too, then... I took another step towards them and realised that Harley was wrestling him to the ground and rolling him from side to side. Fuck. He was trying to put flames out on his clothes. Fuck. He was burning... I swallowed but it was futile. My mouth just kept filling up with more and more saliva and I knew I was going to be sick. He had burns to his arms and hands, his skin was shiny red and wet looking – and yet he was still screaming that his girlfriend needed saving. Fuck. What the hell was he doing? He was in such a bad way. He needed to go to hospital – now. This was too much for me. I turned and puked my guts up. I knew now why Harley had told me to stay in the car... I was such a lightweight when it came to stuff like this. Hell, I couldn’t even cope with a paper-cut...
I turned back. The burned guy was still crying and sobbing and having absolutely none of it. He was going crazy that his wife or girlfriend or whoever it was still trapped inside the car had to be got out.
Harley was yelling at him that she was already dead and that he was going to go up with the car if he didn’t move and that he had to leave her there. Finally all the fight went out of the guy and Harley managed to pull him away. We all ran for cover as the car exploded.
I felt sick again as I sat and watched the car burn and tried not to think about the person inside it. I tried my best to just tune it all out. I had no idea Harley had to deal with stuff like this on a pretty much day-to-day basis. I’d kind of thought it was all someone else that did that. And call me naïve, but it had never really occurred to me that they sometimes couldn’t get people out of burning cars. I thought the emergency services were some kind of super-heroes. That they always managed to get the victims out... That poor woman. She’d died for sure...
*
“So, the uh, the woman in the car died?” I asked quietly. Well, obviously... stupid question Joel.
Harley nodded, “She was already dead, mate,” he replied wearily, “She was hanging there, staring straight ahead. She’d already gone… he just couldn’t... he didn’t want to accept it...”
I swallowed hard. The poor bastard. He must have really loved her... “And what about the distraught guy?”
“Well, he has some pretty bad burns, cuts and severe bruising to his upper body – and his left leg was damaged badly. He’s broken his femur – that’s the bone at the top.”
I already knew that. Harley sometimes thought that he had to educate me... I stared at him, “But he was running around like a lunatic…” I said, looking at my brother aghast. How the fuck had he managed that?
Harley nodded, “Adrenalin.” He said, �
�It makes people super-human at times.”
I nodded, dragging my hands down my face. I was still in shock. “Fuck. That was heavy stuff.” Stuff I never wanted to witness again for as long as I lived.
“Yeah, he’s been put into an induced coma – and that’s probably for the best. Losing the love of his life and all…”
I frowned. The love of his life? That was a little presumptuous of my brother, wasn’t it? “We don’t know that.” I said. We had no idea what the set up was with their family. How did we know that she hadn’t deliberately run them off the road? That they hadn’t had a domestic and it was a deliberate act and that he was just distraught by what he’d done to make her want to do that? All kinds of things happened to people...
Harley nodded, “Uh, actually, we do this time.” He looked completely worn down with life in that moment. I frowned at him. What the hell was he talking about? “It was Seth. Our Seth,” he added at my blank look, “you know who I mean – my mate from the club that Alfie works at. He’s the barman there – you almost lost your shit over him at the wedding...”
My jaw dropped, “Oh, my God…” I’d hardly ‘lost my shit’, as he so eloquently put it, but it was the guy I’d been admiring at Harley and Alfie’s wedding only a few weeks ago. I hadn’t recognised him as the same beautiful guy when he was covered in blood and screaming and crying… Fuck...
I bit my lip. Was it too weird that I wanted to see how he was doing? I didn’t even know him but I just had to know that he was going to be okay. “Can I go and see him?” I asked quietly.
Harley shrugged, “I guess you can – but don’t go getting any stupid romantic ideas about this guy, Joel. I’ve already told you he’s straight – and it’s going to take him a lifetime to get over losing Siobhan – he absolutely worshipped the ground she walked on…”
I nodded, “I know that.” I mumbled, suddenly feeling mortally embarrassed that my brother had just about read my mind. “I just don’t want him being alone.” I added lamely, my face bright red and my palms beginning to sweat. “No one’s come to see him.”
Harley nodded. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes. It had never really occurred to me how hard it must be to tell someone that a loved one had died, but he’d just come off the phone and he was white-faced. “I’ve called Peyton. He’s on his way now. Thank God Will’s okay – if a little shaken. He doesn’t know his mother’s dead yet – Peyton’s gonna tell him.”
I blinked, Peyton... of course. He was the little kid’s dad... He’d be devastated about Siobhan too – they still loved each other even if they weren’t romantically involved... And to have to tell a child... Christ. I shook my head. Something awful had just occurred to me, “Oh, my God, Harley,” I murmured, wondering if I should voice my fears, “Do you think this could still be related to that lunatic who shot him?”
Harley nodded, “Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.” He said, “Either way, we’ve got a murder investigation to figure out now. Blaine and Denny are on their way too.”
I nodded. Everyone seemed to love Seth – but where the fuck was his family? Why wasn’t anyone like a parent or a brother or sister here for him? “Where is Seth?” I asked.
He showed me the way to Seth’s room. I stood outside for a long time before I went in.
He was on a ventilator and he was wrapped up in so many bandages that he looked like a mummy.
His face was, thankfully, not badly burnt. He’d only got a small burn on the side of his face that would hopefully not scar. His chest and arms were another matter though. The nurses were pretty concerned that there might be extensive scarring. Not that that mattered – he was still alive. That was all that mattered to me. He’d survived... He was still here... He was still straight... Shit.
*
Anyway, I’ve digressed enough. Like I said earlier – I was excited and nervous for the interview. Mostly because I knew I’d get to see Seth again.
None of my mates were gay so I couldn’t very well ask them to casually go along to the Studs and Steel nightclub with me and the only time I’d seen him since he came out of his coma was at Studs on his first night back in the saddle. Harley and Alfie had insisted we all go to support him and I’d been beside myself wondering if Simon, who had seen me at the hospital a few times in the early days would rat me out... Seth had no idea that I’d gone in every day to see him during those first few weeks when he’d been in a coma, to talk to him – even though he didn’t hear a word of what I said to him. I just went so he wasn’t alone... No family members were ever around while I was there, just a whole bunch of his friends.
I had no idea what sort of a family he came from but it couldn’t have been anything like mine. My mother would have slept in a bed at my side if that had happened to me. I was absolutely sure of that...
It wasn’t just because Seth worked at the club that I wanted the job, although I’m not gonna deny it – that was a pretty big part of it.
Ever since Harley had been stationed at the Studs and Steel nightclub a couple of years back, I’d wanted to be a dancer there. It had sounded so glamorous and so damned sexy. It wasn’t because I was one of the ghoulish types that wanted to be around all the drama of what had happened with the owner and his family – no, I just wanted to be watched by all the guys on a podium. Shallow? Yeah, maybe I was... but I was also good at dancing and stony broke – this new job was going to be good for me.
I had an interview in the morning and I was nervous, sure – but also hopeful. I hadn’t actually done any serious dancing since Harley and Alfie’s wedding but a couple of the regular dancers had left, leaving an opening and Simon, the guy who I’d repeatedly bumped into at the hospital when Seth was in his coma, had suggested my name and finally, an opening had come up and I was in...
Rob, the manager of the club had contacted me to see if I was still interested. Interested? Of course I was interested! And so here I was. I was a little scared that I wouldn’t be able to remember any of my moves if I was asked to show what I could do but what did I know about interviews for dancing jobs? They might not even ask to see what I could do again – I’d shown what I could do all those months ago at my brother’s wedding...
When I thought on it, I guess it was all down to my brother getting married to his dancer boyfriend that I had the interview at all. Being his favourite sibling, I was, naturally, his best man... and that was how I’d ended up on the podium at the end of the night with Alfie and River. Totally egged on by the rest of the guys, it hadn’t really taken much encouragement to get me up there to flaunt my moves and that was when my eyes had met with Seth’s for the very first time when I couldn’t help glancing across the room. Hell, I’d been sneaking looks at him all night – but this time he was actually watching the show with a little smile on his beautiful face.
*
I arrived at the club early. Certainly no patrons were going to be around at this time of day and I wasn’t sure how many of the staff would be around either.
I parked up and walked purposefully across the car park to the entrance of the club. I pushed the door expecting it to be locked.
It swung open easily and I went inside a little tentatively, expecting to be yelled at any second by a cop dressed head to toe in combat gear... yeah I do have a very over-active imagination...
I peeked around the corner that opened out into the main area and smiled. This place was awesome...
The changes that Rob had made to the club – enabling me to get a job there in the first place, were incredible. Where the bar used to be in the corner by the main entrance, it now stretched all the way down the side of the club where the seating booths used to be. There was still stainless steel and glass mirrors as far as the eye could see. As I looked around, I realised that a lot of it was reflection and that it wasn’t actually as massive as it first appeared. The last time I’d been here was during working hours and it had been lit for the evening. In the dark it just seemed to go on forever. Clever...
This was actually my second interview. Rob had been so short of time when I turned up the first time a couple of months ago, we’d re-scheduled. He’d assured me that there were no other hopeful dancers in the picture and this was just the formal bit since he now had room for me, so I already kind of knew I had the job.
I glanced back at the bar and was surprised to see that I wasn’t actually alone.
There was a guy behind the bar... And oh, my God – it was Seth. He was looking different to the last time I saw him, but still every bit as beautiful as he always did... He was sporting a little facial hair, which he’d never had before. I thought I knew why – the last time I’d seen him, it was still obvious that his face was a little scarred from the accident and the smattering of dark facial hair really did detract from it very well. He looked utterly delectable and I just wanted to gather him up in my arms and kiss him until I couldn’t breathe anymore...
Fighting down the urge – and the boner that had decided to awaken in my boxers, I went over to him, “Excuse me?” I asked.
He looked up, his eyes looked red and tired but he smiled brightly at me, “Oh, good morning.” He said, “Joel, isn’t it?”
I nodded, “Uh, yeah.” I said in some surprise that he’d remembered my name.
I tried my best not to read anything into it. He was just professional and good at remembering names... “I’m here to see Rob.” I said, relieved that my voice had come out normally and not all squeaky, showing my nervousness.
He nodded, “Sure, sure.” He said, “If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you to his office.”
I followed him. The accident had left him with a slight limp – hardly a surprise to say he was running around on it while it was broken and then all the trouble he’d had with the infection and everything afterwards. Fuck. He was lucky to still have his leg... Apart from that slight flaw, he was fucking perfect. He was tall and kind of willowy in appearance – with beautiful hair that framed his face in loose curls, massive dark brown eyes that would, hopefully, someday, glow with happiness again – and a great arse, I couldn’t help noticing. Fuck. I’d seriously like to see him without so many clothes on...
Seth... Saved Page 1