Page 22 of His Reluctant Savior

I barked a laugh and pulled up my T-shirt to show the scar in my gut. “Well, yes, theyletme live. I grew very close with theleader… and, no, not like that, so you can get your mind off that. He wasn’t my uncle. But he trained me personally. For some reason, he was taken with me, maybe because we shared similar pasts or maybe because he felt guilty for placing me with my uncle in the first place. Who knows? I never asked. But like he promised, he became a father figure to me.”

“What happened, then?” Dalton asked, squatting in front of me to touch the large scar with gentle fingertips, sending a chill across my body that I controlled so he wouldn’t see it.

“I’d kept my queerness hidden very well for nearly fourteen years… until I did something fucking stupid. I didn’t do relationships for obvious reasons. I couldn’t get away with anything other than quickies, but I got lucky one night with one of our guards. I grew careless from successfully hiding myself for so long. After some quick frotting in the dark, someone caught us and dragged us in front of the leader. He instantly put a bullet into my partner’s head as a lesson. Hell, he wasn’t even a partner, just someone I had fun with. He lost his life, but I was beaten, stabbed, and dumped.”

“Jesus, fuck…”

“They could’ve killed me if they wanted to. He loved me like a son, so I got to live. But love is conditional with these people. Going against one of his many rules, I’d betrayed his trust.”

He stood and sighed. “As if you can control who you are… So, who do you work for now?”

I got up from the couch, grabbed Dalton’s empty glass, and put it on the table before I pressed my hand to his chest and walked him backward until he hit the wall. His dark eyes grew large and confused.

“I’m done talking about myself. What I’d like is to see if we still have some of those same sparks after twenty-seven years.”

I rested my arm on the wall above his head, leaned in, and pressed my lips to his, inhaling faint hints of fresh woods from the remnants of his cologne along with the amber of the bourbon. His lips were smooth, soft, and plump.

Dalton gave in for a second before shoving me off.

“What the hell, Sid?!”

I licked my lips and smirked as I stood straight. “Yep, there are definitely some sparks still.”

He shouldered my chest, shoving right by me. “Asshole. You do realize we have bigger issues than whatever the hell that was. Don’t fucking kiss me again.”

Oh, I would most certainly be kissing him again. He just didn’t know it yet. We definitely still had electricity between us, and he’d liked it for a second, despite his protests. His morals tried to fight me, but his body wanted me.

My Boy Scout paced around again. “You’re acriminal, Sid. There’s nothing between us, and there never will be.”

Strangely, now that he was in my presence and I was realizing Dalton hadn’t changed one bit, it made my interest in him skyrocket. Maybe we were too different. Perhaps we wouldn’t work out. But I really liked that Dalton was still a good, honest man. I didn’t know why I liked it so much. Probably because his kindness and empathy were what turned around my life in the first place. I found it attractive, and it was arousingly dangerous.

I nodded at him. “We’ll see,” I said and walked off to go to bed.

“No, we won’t see. We will never see… Not one bit!” he yelled after me.

“Night, Boy Scout.”

“Infuriating asshole…” he mumbled, making me chuckle as I headed up to bed.

Owen sat quietly in the backseat, playing with Spidey on his lap as we drove to Poolesville to drop him off at Savannah’s. I was terrified to leave him behind, worried they’d find him, but Sid assured me his friend removed almost all traces of our connection as friends, as much as could be removed, anyway. I was also worried about Owen’s mental health after everything that went down yesterday. When all this was over, I’d have to find him a good therapist.

“Don’t worry,” Sid said, sensingmy stress.

“You’re not a father.” I didn’t say it to be cruel, but to let him know fears are so different when you profoundly love someone. “That wasn’t a dig,” I added as I stared out at the passing farmland.

“I know.”

I looked over at him as he kept his eyes on the road, his blue eyes hidden behind sunglasses. We drove his nondescriptHonda Accord, one of the most common cars on the road, making it harder for anyone to track us.

I wanted to dwell on that kiss last night and how my body fucking reacted to him, but I had more important things to worry about right now. Hopefully, Sid took me at my word to never do that again.

But my mind ignored me as it wandered unhindered in the silent car. I didn’t understand the electric current when Sid pressed his lips to mine. It wasn’t as aggressive and angry as the first time, but it was no less hot. My body had instantly reacted to him, and no doubt he noticed, judging by that know-it-all smirk he’d given me. Bastard.

Sid was a criminal. No matter how tragic his story had been. At the end of the day, he made his choices. And we had other things to deal with. For now, I’d trust him to help me get out of this and get my life back, if that was even possible.

“When we get there, I’ve got some cameras I’ll set up on the outside perimeter of the house. I’ll monitor it from my phone. We’ll never be so far that we can’t reach them quickly. Plus, I have my friend helping to monitor things as well.”

I nodded. “You trust him?”

---