Page 52 of On The Run

Gray seemed satisfied with that answer. “Then I know he’ll be ok and come back with you helping him.”

I swallowed and hugged my son tighter. I wished I had the faith in myself that Gray had in me. I cleared my throat. “C’mon, Gray, let’s get your bag repacked. Aunt Laura will be here soon.”

Gray and I spent the next few minutes getting him ready to go to Laura’s. I didn’t bother changing him out of his pj’s. Hopefully, Laura would be able to get him to fall back to sleep once they got to her place.

Once I dragged Gray’sAvengerssuitcase to the front door, there was a knock and Laura was standing on the other side. Like I expected, she was giving me the third degree within seconds of walking in. She barely closed the damn door before laying into me.

When she was finally done, I knew she still wasn’t satisfied. It took a lot of convincing to get her to leave, but it was bad enough I got Bronx involved in this. I wasn’t getting my sister into this mess too. Finally, after a whole lot of bribing, I unloaded my secret weapon: Gray. One look at his big brown eyes and pouty lips and Laura gave in.

I hugged and kissed Gray about 5,000 times and promised him I’d call as much as I could.

“And you’ll be back? Right, Daddy?”

Was it possible for your heart to shatter and still be standing? “Yes, kiddo. I’ll be back. I promise. I love you so much, Gray, and I’ll see you really soon, ok, kiddo?”

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and I prayed that all the work and trust I’d built up with him over the past year was enough for him to believe me because that was all I could do. Finally, he wrapped his arms around me one last time. “Make sure you tell Aiden when you see him that I’m making him cookies so he better come back.”

My laugh was closer to a sob, and when I met Laura’s eyes, she didn’t seem to be in much better shape.

I wasn’t going to be able to let go on my own, and Laura realized this. She extracted Gray from my grip and took his hand, grabbing his suitcase with her free one. “Let’s go, little man. Your dad has a mystery to solve, and you and I need sleep.”

“And cookies?”

Laura laughed as she opened my front door and ushered Gray out. “Cookies tomorrow.”

“Just one tonight.”

“Maybe just one.”

I closed the door before I changed my mind and chased after them. I didn’t move though. My back slammed against the wall and I slid down to the floor, no longer able to stand on my legs. My world was crumbling down around me, and I couldn’t even figure out why. Gray wasn’t gone permanently. He was just spending a couple days with my sister. So why couldn’t I breathe? Did I bite off more than I could chew? Could I deliver on my promise to Aiden? Because right now, that seemed pretty fucking doubtful.

I didn’t so much see as sense Bronx enter the room and slide down on his ass next to me. “He’ll be fine. They’ll spoil the fuck out of him and you’ll see him in a couple days.”

I nodded but my heart wasn’t in it. I rolled my head to the side to look at Bronx. “Yeah, but will Aiden be with me, or will I have to explain to my kid how the man he hero worships is gone without a trace or worse?” Hell, I didn’t even want to think about that possibility. Would I make it without Aiden? Logically, I knew the answer was yes. Gray needed me, and I could and would be there for him. But I knew a piece of me would be gone with Aiden and I’d never fully recover.

“Don’t think like that, man. I did some research while you were busy. These RAM guys are legit. You said you spoke to a Kai Rinaldi?” I nodded. “Well, the guy is hardcore. Both the owners are. They have a hell of service record with the Marines, both special ops, a whole crap ton of it classified. And then in the last ten years, they developed RAM into this machine. They’re the private sector company that governments go to when they need something done unofficially. Last year, they were neck deep in dismantling this huge trafficking ring. It went so deep that they’re still trying to kill all the pieces, but it was RAM that kind of kickstarted all of it.”

The story sounded vaguely familiar to me. News was a blur last year, but I remembered the article I skimmed by quickly and started to put two and two together. “Oh yeah, I think I remember that.”

Bronx nodded. “You said the one you called is named Sage?”

I shrugged. “Yes.”

“Well then, it’s probably him. Do you remember anything about Neil Keller, that big time CEO, and how a few years back they rescued his kids from his house and they were basically being tortured?”

And then it all started to click. “Vaguely. The media said the older ones were dead for years, right? And then last year, it came out they were truly alive but in hiding?”

“Yes. Well, take a look at this article. I’m pretty sure this is your Sage.”

I hovered behind Bronx and skimmed the article he had up. My eyes were drawn immediately to a picture of two guys sitting on stools during what looked like an interview. “Oh shit—the two younger men from the video chat, those were the older sons.”

“Yup. They put the kibosh on most information regarding them really quickly, but they couldn’t kill it all.”

I leaned back against the door while I tried to process all the information. “How did Aiden get involved with them, I wonder?”

Bronx shrugged. “I have no idea. I couldn’t find anything on Aiden whatsoever.”

“Yeah, join the club.”

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