The Losing Game Read Online Free Page B

The Losing Game
Book: The Losing Game Read Online Free
Author: Lane Swift
Tags: gay romance
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was chilled. “A suspended sentence?”
    “Yes.”
    She went on, “How could the judge…?”
    “Privacy laws, apparently.”
    Bitterly Lucas looked at Lois and Dante in turn. “And the fact that Richard Shaw’s uncle used to be the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire. He plays golf with ex-policemen. He’s got money.” Lucas’s chin tightened as he finally bit out, “He must have been laughing all the way through the trial.”
    Dante’s stomach tightened with a knot of guilt. He didn’t want to hurt Lucas. The man was already in so much pain. But Dante had chosen to walk this path, and he couldn’t turn back. If he was to give Lucas’s appeal full consideration, he had to understand it, fully.
    “Don’t you think killing Shaw is harsh? It was, after all, an accident.”
    Lucas didn’t flinch.
    “Shaw paid for three pints that day as well as his lunch. I know it’s not proof that he drank them, but he did. I know he did. The rest. I have a memory stick. The court transcripts are on it, and my details should you want to contact me.” Lucas reached into his coat pocket and placed the stick on the coffee table between them.
    Of course Lucas hadn’t flinched at Dante’s question. He’d been in court. He’d had his heart ripped out of his chest and crushed beneath the heels of Richard Shaw’s defense.
    Dante pressed his fingers to his forehead. Before him, Lucas vibrated with tension.
    “I’ll pay you. Just to read the transcripts. Then you can decide whether to help me.” He paused. “Avery said you like a challenge. That you can do anything you put your mind to.”
    You can do anything you put your mind to, baby.
    That’s what Dante’s lover Flynn had said, in the beginning, when he’d been coaxing the young Dante, barely out of his teens, to join him in more than a carnal capacity. He’d appealed to his ego, and it had worked. But that young man was dead and gone. Both of them were.
    Lucas would do what he would do, but Dante would not, could not be a part of it. He said, “It doesn’t matter whether I read the transcripts or not. It doesn’t matter whether I believe that this man Shaw deserves to die for what he did. I can’t help you.”
    Lucas must have expected multiple rejections, because when he played his final card, it was an ace, a diamond, and it cut straight to Dante’s heart.
    “Wouldn’t you do the same in my shoes? Wouldn’t you do it if it had been someone you loved?”
    Like Lois or Kit.
    Dante shuddered at the memory of that dark, moonless, icy night when Lois and Kit came into his life, and for all intents and purposes, Flynn went out. It had been a night not unlike tonight. Dante pushed the recollection away as Lucas drank his tea.
    Lacing his fingers together, Dante mustered every ounce of his resolve. “What I would do is irrelevant. I don’t believe you have it in you to kill anyone. That’s a good thing. Something you should value. Go home. Mourn your sister, and move on. Killing Shaw won’t bring her back.”
    Lucas’s eyes filled. Dante had to look away. Anger he could deal with, but not tears.
    “Shaw has to pay for what he did. For what he’s stolen.”
    Dante glanced at Lois. Her gaze firmly locked on the fire. Dante longed, more than anything, to reach out for her hand. Except he couldn’t. He wished he could tell Lucas what killing a man would do to him. He couldn’t do that either, especially not with Lois at his side.
    “Listen to me. You don’t want to do this.”
    His words sounded hollow and useless, though he’d meant them from the depths of his soul.
    Lucas stood and snatched his coat. “Forget it. I’ll do it without your help.”
    “ No .” Dante leapt from his chair, rounding the table, close enough to Lucas he could have grabbed him and shaken some sense into his lithesome frame. “You won’t. You can’t.”
    “You don’t know me. You don’t know what I can do.”
    Lucas’s pain and grief was still fresh and palpable.

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