Page 10 of His Reluctant Savior

The man nodded. “Fair enough.”

He stood straighter, his smile smaller. “After tormenting you throughout our high school years and sharing our firstboykiss, I thought you’d remember me.”

A flash of violent kisses and clawing at each other years ago while at a party suddenly hit me. “Sid?”

His smile grew wide enough to expose straight, white teeth as he spread arms thick with muscles. “The one and only.”

“That doesn’t make you less of a threat,” I said. “You didn’t just stumble onto me out of the blue to reminisce about old times.”

His smile dropped and he nodded. “You’re still as smart as I remembered. You’re correct. Iama threat, and no, I didn’t just stumble upon you.”

“So, you’re here to kill me, then?”

Sid took a step toward me, and I put a bullet in the chamber before he stopped and raised his hands. “This is the part where I say, ‘Come with me if you want to live.’”

“This isn’t a goddamn joke, Sid. You fucking show up here, all smiles and danger, making light of a serious situation.”

“Indeed, this is definitely serious, but comeon, that was pretty good, right? And thatiswhy I’m here. I’ll explain more once we’re on the road.”

“We’re not getting in any car with you. In fact, you’re slowly going to back away and leave before I kill you myself, and I will if it means keeping my son and his only parent alive.”

“No can do. I’m much more equipped to protect you and Owen than you are.”

The fear suddenly washed away, replaced by rage, as my knuckles turned white, holding the gun. “How do you know his name? You donotget to say it!”

Sid walked over to me, uncaring about my gun pointed at him, and pressed his chest to the barrel. Was he fucking insane? Jesus. And why didn’t I just pull the trigger? Because I wasn’t a killer. Even if he was dangerous, I couldn’t shoot an unarmed man.

“We don’t have time for this, Dalton. Get in the car. I’m driving. They’ve already tracked you. So, I’m going to tell you again. Come with me if you want to live because I will do my best to protect you.”

Before I could ask why he was bothering to ‘saveme,’ screeching tires in the distance made my decision clear. I holstered my gun and quickly put Owen into his car seat as Sid jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car. I jumped in just in time as a bullet shattered the back window of my car.

“What the…” I yelled as Owen wailed in fear.

“These guys are not law enforcement,” Sid said as he sped off. “Law enforcement wouldn’t have shot at you like this.”

“No fucking shit!” The FBI definitely wouldn’t have. In fact, they’d probably have us surrounded by now, leaving us with nowhere to go, forcing us to surrender.

“Now stay quiet and let me focus on getting us out of here alive.” Sid was much too calm while I tried to keep from panicking.

I looked back at my son to make sure he hadn’t been hit. His eyes were large and filled with tears as he cried, holding onto Danny, but he seemed unharmed other than that, despite shattered glass everywhere, but most of it was on the other side of the car.

“Get us away from the busy streets. I’ll try to take them out,” I said.

“Can you even handle a gun, Boy Scout?”

I huffed. “I was at the top of my class.”

“Then why the hell did you become an analyst?”

“Because I wanted a family to come home to each night—alive.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“You know what? Fuck you, Sid. This isn’t my fault, and you know it. At least I did some good with my life and didn’t turn into some fucking murderer.”

Sid looked at me for a flash with a raised brow. “Why in the hell do you think I’m some murderer?”

I thumbed behind us. “Please, if they were hired, so were you. How else did you find me, and why after twenty-seven years?”

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