SE Jakes Bound By Honor by SE Jakes

grabbed a ful bottle of whiskey and a shot glass.
    Tomorrow night, he’d use himself as bait. Tonight, he was al about remembering.
    Knowing he’d be unable to sleep, he sat and made a list of men he could cal in to patrol the al eys.
    And then he crumpled the paper and slumped i n the booth a nd looked around a t what h e a nd Damon ha d created
    together.
    Crave had been built at a time when both he and Damon needed something productive to do. They’d joined the
    military to escape years earlier, and once out, they’d come up with the concept for Crave as both a tribute to Greg and to
    their pasts. And even though BDSM wasn’t LC’s thing, it had most certainly become Damon’s. His friend had been a
    great draw.
    Styx had already been long gone by that point. Stil was.
    An hour before the attack, LC had been having a drink with a guy he’d thought about fucking but at the last minute
    backed away because he looked a little too much like that man from his past he’d been trying for years to forget.
    So many things to forget…
    It reminded LC that sometimes, there was danger inherent in forgetting.
    A banging on the heavy steel door jolted them both. Tanner was stil cuffed and Damon moved quickly, wouldn’t leave
    Tanner bound for long when he wasn’t there because he knew the boy would lose it.
    He was stil close to doing so now.
    “Be right back,” he told Tanner, who nodded.
    It could only be LC, Damon knew, and that’s what worried him most—his friend’s timing might suck but there would be
    good reason for it. And when he pul ed back the door and LC said, “We need to talk.
    There have been attacks outside the club,” and then turned back away, Damon knew there wasn’t time to argue.
    He shut the door partway and went back to the bedroom, where Tanner was stil hooked to the headboard, looking
    very wel fucked. The boy’s cheeks glowed, his mouth was swol en, and Damon ached not to be done with this yet even
    as he felt half-frozen from the look in LC’s eyes.
    LC was remembering that night and for the first time in a long time, Damon felt the chil go through him, had to hang
    onto the doorjamb until the feeling of panic stopped.
    You’re a goddamned fraud. Not strong at all.
    His past shrouded him like a thick fog, the memories dense and painful, and he wondered why the hel it was hitting
    him like a ton of bricks, erasing al the good that had happened tonight.
    An hour ago—hel , ten minutes ago—he’d felt like he was getting a second chance. He should’ve known better. The
    past was always with him…even when he was with Jesse.
    Especial y when he was with Jesse.
    Getting close to someone…letting him in…that was a mistake. Because he could never tel anyone about that night—
    would never—and that would effectively destroy any chance of a relationship.
    In fact, it had already done so and promised to do it a second time. He would stop it before it got to that—cut his
    losses.
    “LC needs to talk to me,” he said without further preface, ignored the unasked questions on Tanner’s face as he undid
    the boy’s cuffs.
    Tanner shifted. “Right now?”
    “Yeah.” He paused. “I’l be a while.”
    “What am I supposed to do?” he asked.
    “Whatever you want,” was Damon’s answer, the absolutely wrong fucking one too, but there was no taking it back.
    “What the hel ?”
    “It’s not like I cuddle.” He paused, forced the words out of him. “It’s what Jesse wanted—for one night only. You
    wanted that too. It’s better neither of us get confused.”
    “You’re giving m e fucking whiplash” Tanner ground out the words, his teeth bared a s i f fo r a fight, b ut Damon didn’t
    answer him. “If you want me to leave, tel me.”
    “You’re a free man, Tanner—not my sub. The military would get in the way of us, no matter what.”
    He threw on clothing as Tanner watched and walked out of the loft, down the stairs, leaving the boy confused and a
    little too