He might have pretended at first that it could just be physical with Gael, but honestly it had probably been a mistake to let Ty convince him to be a 'distraction.' Though, he thought with a wry smile, at least it was working out for Ty.

He glanced at the closed bedroom door as Hadyn went to his refrigerator. He didn't know that he could save Gael, either. He didn't even know how to begin, he thought, other than to be there for the other man - but that, that wasnt going to be enough. Still, he sighed as he wrapped his hands around the can of soda. "I found cocaine after he finally fell asleep," he said. "And I'm sure Elisha knew and told you what hour he showed up here." Gael might have thought coming to him was circumspect - but there was nothing in this castle that Elisha Kagan didn't know about. "It was about three hours, maybe four, after Oliver Byrd texted me to say he was coming this way."

None of that, of course, answered what was wrong. What was wrong was that all of these things made Gael a man Carlos should take a step back from, but he wasn't sure he could do that.