“Don’t exist in the age of the internet and social media.” He’d shared stories of gay bashings with laughing emojis, wishing he could have been involved, photos of tortured gay men leaked from prison camps, records of conversion therapy treatments carried out onchildren…CJ shook himself away from the dark thoughts.Professionalism. This is the job. “Leaning on the nature of the communications and the leaks will be a major pillar of the clean-up here, but that argument will hold minimal water, especially on its own. Leaking private messages like this will be seen as a great good in the public sphere, exposing yet another man in a position of power behaving…as you did.”
Daniel cleared his throat, and CJ was overjoyed for the chance to put his focus on anyone other than the piece of scum he was protecting here. “We’ve already pledged to donate six figures to GLAAD as part of our ongoing commitment to inclusivity.”
“It’s a necessary step, but again, it’s going to look disingenuous on the face of it. We can talk about different levels of response to this, but the less severe the reaction from Sidewinder, the more severe the public backlash is going to be. That’s just the fact of it. Apologies, the leaks, and the donation will be seen as functionally just enough to not be doingnothingabout the issue.”
“It doesn’t even make any sense.” Eddie crossed his arms, glaring like this was somehow all CJ’s fault. “I’m not allowed to hold differing beliefs, make some jokes, whatever?”
Not when your differing beliefs are about murdering people like me. And Percy.He swallowed that retort, giving his attention to Daniel, instead. “We can come up with different plans, but the question will always boil down to how much of a public relations hit you’re willing to take. I can only hold off the media another couple days at most, and that’s never as sure a thing as I would like.” He had connections and strings to pull, some juicy stories he kept in his back pocket to feed to reporters, stave off their other reporting. But he was one man trying to stop a rising tide. Frankly, he wouldn’t blink if anyone just went ahead and published the story in the next hour.
Might even welcome it, considering everything. His paycheck was secured either way, as long as he wasn’t engaging in gross negligence, and it might force Sidewinder into doing something actuallymeaningfulabout the situation.
Daniel huffed, shooting an acid glance to Eddie before turning a much more placid expression back to CJ. “We’re in your hands, here. What are our options?”
Chapter 9
“Thanks again for telling me about that roastery.” Percy was stretched out on the bed, body and mind buzzing from simply spending all this time in Spokane. Sure, Seattle was a real cultural hub, made Spokane look like absolutely nothing. But compared to Hydrangea Hollow? He was a thirsty man and this was an oasis in the desert. “He sounded really interested in potentially working with me, getting some local roasts in for a decent price. I would still have to do a little work to square things away, shift some finances around. But better than supporting one of these giant conglomerates. And they take a lot of care with sourcing their beans. Much fairer terms for the plantations than some of these places.”
He looked over at CJ, lying next to him. He’d stripped down to a T-shirt and boxers, ostensibly to get comfortable. Looking at the tautness of his jaw, the dark cast over his eyes, and the harsh breaths jerking against his abdomen, that goal hadn’t yet been achieved.
Percy rolled over on his side so he could easily look CJ dead on, and he brushed his fingertips down CJ’s forearm, down to his fingers, and twined their hands together. At the very least, CJ didn’t resist, so he wasn’t totally dead to the world. “What’s wrong? I’m right here, and if you let me carry on, I’m just going to start telling you how cool the bookstore was. Do you want me to sit here describing what books look like?”
CJ snorted something that could pass for a laugh, then sighed. “I don’t want to burden you with work. And it wouldn’t be very professional to leak the details I’ve been working to keep private this whole time.” He shook his head side-to-side on the pillow, eventually landing so he held eye contact with Percy. “You don’t need some stranger to burden you with a bunch of work drama.”
Percy gave his hand a squeeze. “Doesn’t seem like the burden’s about to get any lighter. You’re going to have to give some of it up to someone at some point or collapse under the weight.” He shifted a little closer so he could whisper. “Besides, you blew your load all over my face, remember? I would be hard-pressed to call us complete strangers.”
That finally got a real, full-chested chuckle from CJ, and he pulled out of the handhold, only to drape his arm over Percy, holding him that much closer. “I…don’t want to put undue pressure on whatever we have that makes us not strangers.” A bit of pink flooded up into his cheeks, but he didn’t avert his gaze, holding strong and continuing forward. “I know it’s a little fast, but I can’t help but feel connected to you. I don’t meet the nicest people in this line of work.”
Percy’s breath hitched, but he forced past the blockage. “How much should I read into that?” As safe a line of questioning as he could lean on.
CJ sighed. “I’m not professing my undying love for you or anything. But there’s definitely more than sex here. Clearly.” He snapped his waistband, in case Percy had somehow missed that they were both still in bed and fully clothed. “I don’t know if there’s anything between us in the future. But I know that I’d like to give it a chance, find out. And I just don’t think telling you all the nasty details about what I have to do to make a living is going to be the best foundation.”
Percy’s mind whirred, thoughts crashing into each other and shattering apart before they could fully form. He saw flashes of questions, concerns, hopes, memories of the night they spent together back home. “I can’t say I’m opposed to the idea of…exploring. But deliberately withholding information from me just to try and improve our chances ofmaybehaving something more doesn’t feel great.” There was definitely a time in his life when Percy would have brushed that aside, let his own doubts slide to the back. He would have told himself CJ’s heart was in the right place, that he was just being nice, and they could get closer. In spite of Percy’s joke, sharing a facial wasn’t the grounds for actually knowing each other, so it would be unfair to expect CJ to share anything past the surface level.
But this wasn’t that time in his life. So he let his remarks sit in the room, growing heavier and heavier, already planning his way back home.
“You’re not going to want to stay here once you know too much.”
CJ’s voice was quiet, fragile, barely slipping past his lips. But he did speak. More than Percy had been expecting, honestly. He gently kissed CJ’s cheek, thrilling at the slight scratch of stubble on his lips. “Why not let me decide how I feel about it for myself?”
CJ sat up, and somehow the air in the room seemed to grow even heavier. Percy moved with him, shifting back so as not to crowd him, but staying close enough that he could hear easily, even if CJ stayed quiet. Which he did. “The lead project designer at Sidewinder was sending some DM’s out. Homophobic shit. Really bad homophobic shit. Torture the gays to death kind of stuff. Complete with pictures to demonstrate.”
Percy’s body chilled and he swallowed once, twice, three times before he finally got his vocal cords to work again. “You had to see that stuff?”
He nodded. “Have to know all the information so I can cover it up the best way possible.” He glanced at Percy out of the corner of his eye. “Right now, the best plan I’ve presented to the board is to have him step down from his position. A little clever wording and some manipulation of the website and most people will assume he’s been fired. Keep his name off the credits until this blows over, but other than that, don’t change a thing about the way they run their business. And this guy just gets to keep spewing this shit, getting more money, facing no consequences other than a minimal lack of fame.” He snorted. “How much fame did this guy actually have? At most, it’s going to be a blow to his colossal ego, and I’m sure the fact that he’s getting away with it will be plenty of a panacea to any hurt that might cause him.”
Percy sucked in a harsh breath, and CJ finally looked him dead in the face. He was paper-white, eyes so dark they looked almost black, expression just shy of hollow. The only thing showing on his face was…fear. He’d beenafraidto say this all to Percy.
Which meant he wasn’t just blowing smoke. He really didn’t want to risk Percy’s opinion of him changing. He cared what Percy thought about him.
And he cared so much, he’d faced that fear down and said it anyway.
Percy inched closer, gently resting his hand on the back of CJ’s neck. When he didn’t pull back, Percy applied a little more pressure, then a little more. He knew CJ had plenty of strength to fight back against him. He’d already picked Percy up and thrown him onto the bed.
But he let the pressure guide him down, resting his head in Percy’s lap. Slowly, as Percy stroked his hair and down his neck and back, the tension began to leach away from CJ’s body.
And only then did Percy say anything. “Hydrangea Hollow has an abnormally large number of restaurants for a town of three thousand people. Like, six or seven.”
No response.
