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now?”
    “He’s been reeling from it over the past few days. I told him to look into lawyers, although I’m not sure he believes they can help him right now.”
    “Does he know who framed him?”
    “He has an idea, but no solid evidence. It sounds like there could be more than one person involved, too.” Calder rubbed his face as he closed his eyes. “You know how he is around people. He doesn’t make friends easily, so I’m worried that this is really a huge misunderstanding.”
    Calder knew it was hard for Justin to have an “invisible disease.” As far as he knew, Justin hadn’t told anyone at work about his condition. While Calder personally thought it’d be easier on Justin if he did tell some people, he was in no place to tell Justin what to do. This was something Justin had to deal with every day his entire life.
    “Man, that’s rough but what can you do about it?”
    “Not much except offer my moral support.”
    “I’m sure that’s more than enough right now. You can’t force him to accept help. He’s always been stubborn about that.”
    Calder made a face at this comment, but couldn’t deny it. After a few moments, he let out a breath. “And it just makes me wonder about my own work.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Justin’s coworkers so easily threw him under the bus. I wonder what mine really think of me?”
    Like Justin, Calder excelled at what he did. Underwood was the most in-demand private security firm in Los Angeles, and had been for five years. He was near the top of the food chain there.
    As much as Justin had poked fun at his soft-science degree, his degree in psychology had helped a lot in this job. It hadn’t been exactly what he’d needed, but he hadn’t known he wanted to be a bodyguard until after he got the degree. In the end it was just a bonus that helped make him more employable after he earned his proper bodyguard certifications.
    It hadn’t been long before Calder’s natural calmness, intelligence, and ability to adapt had him at the top of list in the firm. Everyone from celebrities to billionaires had directly requested that he work for them.
    Were there coworkers waiting in the wings to take him down like Justin’s had? Calder liked to think that he was on good terms with everyone. He was personable and made friends easily. He had been told that he had a kind of energy and charisma that people couldn’t ignore.
    “Don’t let what happened with Justin make you paranoid,” Vince warned.
    “I’m not,” Calder was quick to answer. “Okay, maybe I am a little, but that’s natural.”
    “It sounds like you might need a break, too.”
    That much was true. Being so caught up in work left Calder feeling like he had no free time of his own. He wanted to surround himself with something new and adventurous. He needed a change of pace and scenery.
    “Justin’s invited me to visit him.”
    “Well, there you go! You’ll kill two birds with one stone!”
    Calder laughed. “Well, when you put it like that...”
    “And you two haven’t seen each other in a while. It’d be good to catch up.”
    Calder’s heart rate picked up at the words. Images of sweet Justin floated through his mind. They only saw each other in pictures and videos nowadays, but Calder personally did best with direct interaction. What would it be like to see Justin again after all this time?
    There was something stirring deep down inside that Calder couldn’t yet place.
    “You’re right. I’ll talk to him about it again,” Calder promised. “Anyway, enough about me—what have you been up to?”
    While Calder was happy enough chatting it up with his brother, he needed that distraction to help tone down the heat forming at the thought of seeing Justin again.

    A week after Justin’s panicked phone call, Calder got another of those rare phone calls from him. This one didn’t come out of the blue, though, since Justin had texted first to check if he was home. Lucky for him, he was. Calder