Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

TV?"
    "Anything good on TV?"
    "Let's find out."
    The answer was no. They got through the Young and the Restless , Days of our Lives , and General Hospital before flipping over to Univision where they spent an amusing hour making up their own translations for a couple of telenovelas. After that, it was time for dinner. Sebastian cooked, then more television, and bed. The whole time Sebastian kept his ears open for the sound of a SWAT team about to break through the door, but nothing like that happened.
    Thursday was filled with more soap operas, and game shows, with a side trip to PBS for some toddler-level children's programing. Daren swore that Clifford the Big Red Dog was amazingly engrossing if you were truly baked.
    They'd pretty much gorged on the daytime drivel and kids' shows when Sebastian flipped over to the NBC Nightly News before starting dinner. Story One was that some geriatric senator who'd been around since the last ice age finally up and died, resulting in a flood of DC crocodile tears. The second story was about an upswing in salmonella cases traced back to fast food chains.
    When the graphic for the third story popped up, 'Scandal at the DoJ!' both Daren and Sebastian leaned forward. A source from inside the Justice Department had revealed that several Assistant US Attorneys, as well as FBI and IRS agents, were being investigated for leaking witness lists and evidence information to suspects and defendants. It was believed that most of the leaks were pertaining to high-level fraud and financial cases. When questioned on these allegations, representatives from the DoJ and FBI had no comment.
    Sebastian just blinked as the show went to commercial. He'd expected to call Agent Kim on Friday and have the agent try to convince him that he'd found the leak. He did not expect what was essentially a message for Daren to come in from the cold on the NBC Nightly News, personally delivered by Brian Williams.
    "Could Agent Kim have really worked that fast?" he asked.
    "I don't know. Maybe. I mean, he could have just leaked that himself to draw us out."
    "It would also send the inside leaks into hiding, make them keep their heads down, break off contact."
    Daren turned off the TV. "If it is just a planted story, he could be fucking up a lot of other cases, not to mention nuking his own career if someone found out he leaked something like that. I mean, no way could he get permission to do it."
    "Any which way, I think it means he's in."
    "Yeah."
    They both stared at the blank TV. It meant Sebastian would be taking another drive in the morning, making another call, and probably setting up a face-to-face meeting. It was that much closer to dragging them both straight into the line of fire.
    "Well," Daren turned to him, a grin splitting his face but not reaching his eyes. "How about dinner?"
    That night Daren had a vicious, screaming nightmare again. The nightmares had mostly faded, being replaced with quieter disturbances, but at one a.m., Sebastian became thankful again for Mrs. Laramie's hearing difficulties, as Daren started screaming.
    Sebastian wrapped himself around Daren, trying to control his flailing limbs. "It's okay, it's okay, You're safe." Daren didn't wake, just continued to scream and fight. "Wake up!" Sebastian finally shouted into his ear.
    Daren jolted and stopped screaming, but still gasped for breath, the residual terror sending tremors through his body and tears down his face. Sebastian held him and hummed softly, some half-remembered tune. Daren pressed his face into Sebastian's shoulder.
    "I don't have to go tomorrow," Sebastian whispered. "We can pack up, we flip a coin, heads we drive to Canada, tails it's Mexico. We drop a hard drive in the mail somewhere along the way." Daren didn't respond, didn't even move; just took slow and steady breaths while Sebastian stroked his head. "We can just get out of here."
    Daren's fingers pressed into Sebastian's back hard enough that he could believe he'd have bruises come morning. Daren lifted his head. "No." His voice was soft but clean. "They don't get to win. Not this time. I know them, I understand them, and they do not get to win this one. I was bred to lead that rotten hive of walking nightmares one day, and someone let my cousin send hired thugs to beat and rape me, to scare me into silence, to break me beyond where I could run, where I'd have to come crawling back. Well, you just can't get good help these days. I am the heir to one of the oldest