Russian Roulette: Flashbacks [male x male]

Ch. 64: A magnet for disaster?

Then

"...leave a message, and I'll get back to you."

Irritated, Jace looked at his phone and pressed the red icon to end his attempted call. At that moment, he missed the old phones where he could press the buttons hard to release some of his frustrations, but the iPhone's delicate screen mocked him. If he pressed the screen anywhere as hard as he wanted, it would fracture, and then he would have to go through the hassle of requisitioning a new one. And honestly, who wanted that?

Still, it bothered him he had not heard from Phoenix all weekend. The two messages he had sent had gone unanswered, and logically, Jace knew Phoenix was with his parents and would have little time for anything else, and the messages had only been short and nothing that had demanded a reply. But Jace missed him. It was as simple as that. With Gareth being back, Jace hoped the stalker thing could get sorted faster, and they would get some stress-free time to be themselves and see where things led.

That was in the future, and Jace could wait for that.

Now, though, Jace wanted a brief chat with Phoenix before the meeting Gareth had called. Nothing majorly important, he just wanted to know how they were going to break everything to Gareth. As their leader and friend, he needed to know everything, not only about the stalker, but also the deal with Levi, that minor incident with that Ukrainian mofo, Grychenko, and all the changes Jace had made to get the job done. The stalker issue, though, was Phoenix's, and Jace had to know how he wished to play it before they went in.

Rami, Cracker, and Jace had all tried to breach the important subjects during the weekend, but Gareth had been adamant about keeping it at eating, drinking, and reminiscing about the old days. They had all understood Gareth and respected his need to push reality for a few days. They could not fault him for wanting some time with friends and no pressure for maybe the first time in his life.

It was typical of Gareth to come back at the right time, and then, for once, not be interested in work.

"No answer?" Rami asked from beside Jace.

"He could be on the plane and have his phone turned off." Jace said, knowing he was irritable for nothing. He carefully ran his fingers through his hair. What he really wanted to do was pull his hair in frustration, but that would ruin his newly done hairstyle.

The last week had been too much for him. From the moment Rami had burst into his meeting, hauling him out of there with some lame excuse, and rushing him to a suite to hide, his life had become that of a fucking soap opera.

Sadly, the only common soap opera ploy Jace absolutely wished for would not happen. Tana would not come back to life. She would not have a twin magically appear down the line to blend in seamlessly and take her place. Despite his number of friends, they all held unique qualities Jace appreciated, and Tana had filled a role in his life like no one else could. That void in his heart would stay empty. His friend of many years was gone.

Together with Tana's family, Jace had watched as the doctors stopped the life support machines Saturday morning after her family had flown in. They had talked and remembered the person Tana had been, and though it had been sad and heart-wrenching, the closure felt nice. Tana's family believed it to be an unfortunate car accident, and Jace had let them stay with that information. Telling them what he knew would only hurt them more, and he had no wish to bring them further pain. He had been a wreck, and Gareth's invitation for an evening of drinking had been welcomed when he and Rami had left the hospital to let Tana's family make arrangements for her funeral in peace.