“Can’t we forget about this?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “Please don’t investigate it.”
That wasn’t a possibility, and Ethan knew it from his own assault by David Neives. They had to make a case file, so that when they were found, they’d pay.
Gently, Ethan reached out and wiped the tears from his cheek using the sleeve of his sweater.
“Corbin, listen to me. We have to find them. What they did to you is wrong.”
He whimpered.
“I can’t face them in court. I can’t let the detectives I work with know… I can’t…”
His heart rate was going up because his pulse was jumping in his wrist.
To calm him down, Ethan put his hand on his leg, and thankfully, Corbin didn’t flinch.
So, that was a start.
“Do you trust Gene and myself?” he asked.
Corbin didn’t hesitate.
He nodded.
“Then, I need you to let us handle this. We’ll protect you and make the best decisions for you. I promise. We’ll mitigate this and keep it quiet. I promise that we’ll make sure no one knows who doesn’t need to know.”
That seemed to help.
Now, Ethan had one more question.
“Do you want me to call Will?” he asked. “I can call and…”
Only, Corbin wasn’t having it.
The man shook his head.
“No. Please. Not him.”
When his pulse jumped again, Ethan backed off and instead, he patted his leg.
“Okay, I won’t call him, and do you want me to talk to Alice and John, or how would you like me to handle that?”
Corbin was honest.
“If you tell Alice anything, she’s going to do something stupid like head toBull’sand commit homicide. You can’t let her do that. My parents will get hurt, and right now, I have to focus on me—not them.”
With what he was saying, Ethan understood.
“Okay. We won’t give them any information. How about a kit? Can we get you to submit to a kit so we can get the DNA from the men?”
He whimpered.
Ethan knew how this was going to be a struggle for Corbin, but he tried. They needed that DNA to bring the men up on charges.
And to solve this.
“We need to know who did this to you. If you let us swab you, we can find out.”
They heard the door, and Corbin slunk down into the bed to hide.
