Milo hissed through his teeth, but became more professional and took hold of Liam’s arm, Dalton moving to Troy and taking hold of his gently.
“Please, Troy. This is for Liam. Just walk with me and let’s get this out of the public’s eye.”
Troy shared a silent, angry glare with him, and then turned, walking to Liam and Milo who’d moved across the street, down an empty alleyway. Liam was leaning against the wall while he and Milo shared heated words.
Milo held a stony look, and then glared at Dalton. “I want you to get in my car, right now. These two can go their separate ways and cool off.”
Troy chuckled with Liam before he raised his brows, snarky smile of his lips. “We live together. How is going our separate ways going to help?”
“You live…” Milo spun around to face them both, and Dalton gulped again. “You're not serious… They live together?” He questioned Dalton, obviously not believing Troy or Liam.
“Foster brothers.” Liam pointed between them “Different surnames confusing you?”
Milo just took that insult on the chin and discarded them both in favour of Dalton. “Get in the car. We need to talk.”
“No, let me—”
“No!” Milo hated being in the dark and he hated not knowing what was going on. Dalton could tell he was having a minor freak out in his own way, but to others, it look cruel and bossy.
“I need to be here, Milo.”
“You need to be away from the situation, and by situation, I don’t mean this fight, I mean totally away.”
Troy was the one who spoke up first and Dalton sighed. “He’s a big boy, Officer. Let him deal with it. Like he said, he’s not on the job right now and you’re just being a bit over the top with all this alpha male performance.”
Milo obviously reached his pissy attitude limit, and with a hand gripping Dalton’s forearm and the other pointing between Troy and Liam, he spoke up. “I'm letting you two off with a warning, not an official one, just me. You two leave now, back home, separately, together, I don’t really give a shit, but he stays with me. This is over for tonight. Until I know what’s going on, it’s all over.”
“Milo, please, you don’t understand. This is all my fault.”
“I don’t care whose fault it was, Dalton. I don’t care how it started. What I do care about is ending it.” Milo was frog marching him away.
Dalton took one glance over his shoulder, looking between the two people who he cared for more than any others, and he felt his heart miss a beat. Leaving one was hard enough, but parting from them both, he couldn’t stand it.
“You’re not taking him anywhere.” Liam stepped to them and Dalton smiled in relief.
Troy was quickly following. “He’s staying with us. He’s not your property.”
Liam was all puffed up, but his eyes were full of concern. “You can’t force him to go with you. You’re not arresting him.”
“This is his choice. He doesn’t want to go with you.” Troy and Dalton stared into each other’s eyes.
Liam stepped in when Troy paused. “If you don’t stop, I'm calling this in and having you investigated.”
Troy folded his arms across his chest and glared at Milo’s back. “He’s not leaving, and I'm pretty much ready to make you stop pulling him around like this if I have to.”
Milo stopped dead and Dalton breathed out.
“Please, Milo. I'm right where I want to be.”
Milo ran his long fingers through his shoulder-length dark hair and sighed. “You want to be here, in the middle of this? You know how this will look, Dalton. You think this is going to get you back to work any faster? You think this will be easy? I'm living proof it’s not.”
“I'm not you and I'm not leaving them.”
Milo stopped tugging him and just stood still, breathing hard and fighting with himself over what to do.
“You should go. You have Samuel to think about. Just go home. I’ll call you tomorrow. I swear I will. We’ll talk.” Dalton leaned closer, reaching up and holding onto Milo’s shoulder, looking right into those familiar eyes as he whispered, “I don’t know what this is, or what it could be, but if I walk away now, I’ll always be left wondering. I have to do this. You're not losing me, I'm just finding out who I really am.”
Milo considered his words, and then took another look at Troy and Liam, seeming to realise it was a lost cause with all three of them standing beside the other and he sucked in a deep breath, obviously still not happy, but it seemed like he was relenting his control. “You’d better be round at our place tomorrow.” Milo walked off, not turning back.
Dalton watched him disappear around the corner, and then rubbed his face roughly, aware they were still being watched by the bar’s patrons over the road. When he met Liam and Troy’s eyes, he sighed. “We need to leave. Go somewhere where we can talk.”
Liam and Troy shared a look, and then nodded. “Our place.”
Chapter 35
Dalton wanted to get out of town as quickly as possible, aware the whole scene would have been captured on the closed circuit TV cameras that filmed the city of Manchester constantly, so he took the option of a taxi. Opening the back door of the first one he spotted, flashing his badge at the pissed off people in the queue to stop their questions about them pushing in. Okay, so he shouldn’t have done that, he shouldn’t have got it out during the whole fight earlier, but he did it, and there was no turning back.
Liam took the front seat. His size would have made him opt for it, but Dalton figured it was the space from him and Troy which he really needed, and he and Troy scooted into the back seat. Dalton handed over control of the trip to the two brothers, as he’d only a rough idea where they lived. Troy spoke up as Liam was staring out of the window, obviously wanting to not interact at all with either of them just yet.
Although only a short drive from where they were, the journey seemed to drag on and on to Dalton. All three of them sat in silence, and Dalton was half glad for it, as his personal life had been shown off too much already and the less information shared with strangers the better. When they pulled up outside the apartment block, Dalton dug into his pocket for some cash, but was beaten by Liam, who threw over a ten pound note and just strode out. The driver handed back his change, and Dalton let Troy get it while he rushed after Liam.
Throughout the whole experience, Liam had been the one who was obviously hurting the most. Dalton had misjudged just how much Liam cared for him, and seeing that the other man in Dalton’s life was the person Liam loved more than anyone else, Troy, hit him even harder.
“Liam, wait.” Dalton reached out, taking hold of his hand. “Please, just let me explain. I had no idea you two even knew each other, let alone were so close. Do you honestly think I would set out to cause problems between you? That Troy would intentionally hurt you? You know that’s not true.”
Liam continued to hold his hand, but unlike the other times they’d done it, he didn’t grip Dalton tightly, there was no feeling he even wanted the contact to continue, but Dalton remained in touch with him, not letting go, not even when Troy slowly made his way to his side and noticed their joined hands. “Let’s do this inside.”
Troy nodded at Liam, placing his hand on Dalton’s lower back, and pressing him forwards. At least Troy still reached out, he still wanted to connect in a way, but Dalton cared about both of them, and things were far from being resolved.
The lift took them up to the top floor, where Liam removed his hand from Dalton’s to grab his keys from his back pocket. Troy leaned back against the wall, waiting for him to open the door, his quiet, thoughtful glance shared between Liam and Dalton.
When Liam pushed the door open, Troy stopped him from walking, gently touching his lip with his fingertip, the apology clear on his face—sad eyes, brows pulled together in a cute frown. “I'm sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I know.” Liam carefully removed Troy’s hand and made his way inside.
Dalton and Troy shared one last look, and then he offered a hand to Dalton, a sad smile playing on his lips as Dalton took the offer and clung onto him. “I never meant to hurt either of you, Troy.”
“I get that this is all a big mistake. I know you'd never set out to cause all this pain and confusion. There's no one to blame really.”
Dalton didn’t like him referring to their meeting as a mistake. He saw both Liam and Troy as an amazing miracle in his life and he was thankful for meeting them, but he guessed right then that wasn’t the right thing to say, so he kept quiet, following Troy’s lead and taking in their home for the first time with wide eyes.
“You have an amazing home.” Dalton took in the large open plan space, each corner of the apartment housing the kitchen and dining areas, and then the other side the sitting room and some sort of boys den that had a pool table and darts board in it. It was pretty basic in decoration, all whites and greys, but he spotted a few colourful objects and paintings around, guessing instantly they came from Troy.
Once inside, all three of them seemed to have the same lost feeling, Troy and Liam acting like strangers in their own home, edgy and unsure if they should sit or stand. Dalton wasn’t your average house guest, and he waited, seeing if either would speak up, but when they didn’t, he moved more into the room, placing himself in between them both.