Page 2 of Charming But Reckless

Boss? What boss?

None of this made sense. From what I understood, most kidnappings were about ransom money. My mom didn’t haveanything to give these people or their boss. What would happen once they realized they’d picked up a kid from the wrong neighborhood?

At least they’d left Arick behind. It didn’t sound like they hurt him either so maybe he’d go to tell my mama.

Oh, god.

Mama. She was going to have a heart attack over this. I was her only child. She’d called me her little light my whole life because of how I’d helped her through the dark times in life. It's partly why she gave me the name Orion.

How would she get by without the light to guide her?

The car drove for a while through the city before stopping again. I listened closely but couldn’t make out much. Everything sounded the same as it did on my side of town.

“Grab the kid. We need to report him to the boss,” the driver said.

I was tugged out of the car and walked inside a building. The sounds from outside disappeared as the terrain under my feet changed from gravel to smooth flooring. Concrete if I had to guess. Then I noticed the substantial rise in temperature.

Someone had the heat on in this place.

“What do we have here?”

The bag was ripped off my head, revealing the space around me. I opened my mouth to speak, then froze when I saw the older man standing in front of me. He looked like someone’s grandpa with his sweater vest and striped dress pants. His white hair was slicked back, and the glasses on his face were far too small to actually do much.

Despite his welcoming looks, I didn’t think I could trust him. Something about him was scary. Almost worse than the two big guys standing at my sides.

“We got someone for your new venture, boss. Thought you might like to try a new market after the meeting last week,” the guy on my left said.

The old man hummed as he looked me over. “Where did you find him? Is someone going to come looking? I don’t want trouble on my doorstep.”

“Nah, boss. He’s good. He and another boy were at the park playing alone for nearly an hour. No adults or anything. The other was too damaged to bring in. We left him knocked out.”

“Did he see your faces? Will he be able to identify either of you?”

At the old man’s voice, the two men shared a look. “I mean, he saw us, but we figured it was fine given someone is beating on him. I doubt they’ll even let him?—”

The sound of a shot had me throwing my hands up to cover my ears. Mama had taught me it wasn’t good for my hearing just a few weeks ago when there was another drive-by in the area. She also said I should drop low to the ground to protect myself.

I didn’t think the second part applied as much this time.

The man who’d been to my left was now laying on the floor with a puddle of blood under his head. To my right, the other man was whimpering and begging to be let go.

“You can do whatever you want so they don’t find me, boss. Please don’t hurt me.”

When I looked at the old man, I found his face harder than before. He wasn’t the kind grandpa I’d seen at first. This was an evil man. He wanted to hurt people. He had hurt people.

“Let’s get our new guest somewhere comfortable, then we can chat. Come, boy. I want you to meet my daughter Shelly.”

He led us into a living room area that was mostly empty minus the pile of bean bag chairs covering the floor. A girl a few years older than me was laying across several of them, headphones on her ears as she bounced along to the music.

“Shelly!” the man yelled.

She raised up, her eyes widening when she saw me. “Dad! What’s going on? Who is this?”

“This is our guest. Tell her your name, boy.”

I bit my tongue, unsure if I should be honest. The guy behind me gripped my shoulder roughly until I said, “Orion.”

“That’s such a pretty name. There’s a constellation named Orion’s belt. Is that what you’re named after?” Shelly asked as she pushed to sit up.

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