Charming But Reckless (NightShade Security #5)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

ORION

9 years old

“My birthday is going to be the best! Mama said she bought me a custom cake with Transformers on it. I hope she chose Bumblebee instead of Optimus. He’s the coolest,” I told Arick as we dug through the mud to find his locket.

He nodded along to my words, though he didn’t speak. I knew he was upset about the necklace. Talking about my party was meant to distract him from it since I didn’t know if we’d even find the dang thing.

Ever since his mama passed away last spring, he’d been much quieter. Part of me suspected it had to do with his daddy and all the mean things he said.

“Boys don’t cry.”

“Be tough.”

“No point if you aren’t the best.”

All of it was garbage. I knew because my own mama said as much when she didn’t know I was listening. I trusted her word over Mr. Maas’s anyway. The man was a bully who didn’t deserve the awesome son he had in Arick.

I was about to tell him we should head back to the apartment complex we both called home when I felt something solid beneath my fingers. Moving the dirt around, I spotted the familiar gold pattern laying face up.

“Look what I found!”

Arick’s head whipped in my direction at the announcement. A second later, he launched himself at me, a wide smile on his face. It was the happiest I’d seen him in months.

I rubbed my chest to push away the ache seeing his smile gave me. It wasn’t fun knowing my friend was hurting and I couldn’t fix it. Mama said time would heal his wounds, but I wasn’t sold on it. Granted, she was the smartest adult I knew. I really should trust her.

But I didn’t much like waiting.

“Thank you for helping me find it.” Arick wiped the necklace on his shirt, transferring the mud onto his clothes like it wouldn’t be a big deal when his daddy saw it. I winced at the reminder of how much of a jerk the man turned into at the slightest offense.

I rose to my feet, then tugged him up too. “Does your daddy work today? Can you come over for cookies?”

He shook his head. “He’s already at home. I’m sure he’s waiting for me.”

Neither of us spoke after that declaration. I wasn’t sure what to say or how to tell him it would be ok. Mama would have taken him in if she had the money to and if his Daddy wasn’t such a mean man. I knew it hurt her as much as I did to let him go home every night to that monster.

As we neared the edge of the park, there was a shift in the air. I turned to look at Arick only to find his wide eyes on something behind me.

I didn’t get a chance to spin around. Didn’t have a moment to understand what was coming.

A dark piece of fabric was shoved over my head as someone lifted me off the ground. I screamed for help. I yelled to Arick, hoping he’d had a chance to run away too. One of us needed to tell our parents. Someone should get to the police.

Sure, we lived in a rough neighborhood and things happened. But this wasn’t just a fight or someone’s grocery money getting stolen.

I was being kidnapped.

I’d watched enough after-school specials and paid attention at the assemblies our elementary teachers gave to understand as much.

No one intervened on my behalf. I didn’t hear another voice, Arick’s or otherwise.

A few rushed steps later, I was thrown onto a seat. It felt like the backseat of a car. When I lifted my hands to pull off the hood, someone grabbed my wrists and tied them up. The plastic tore into my skin, making them hurt worse than the time JT Saling broke my wrist for saying his haircut was ugly.

I whimpered as I sunk into the seat. Without my sight or the ability to move my hands, I felt helpless. How would I get out of here? And where was my friend? Was he safe or did they get him too?

“What about the other one? He get a good price too?” A voice that had a thick accent asked aloud. I felt his body pressed against mine in the backseat. He wasn’t holding me down, though it was obvious I wouldn't be able to escape with him there.

Someone else grunted. “No. He's covered in bruises and has a broken finger. No one will want to wait for him to heal. This one will go far though. Boss will be happy.”

Boss? What boss?

None of this made sense. From what I understood, most kidnappings were about ransom money. My mom didn’t have anything 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.

Shrugging, I looked from her to her father. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask my mama.”

“And he has an accent ! Dad, he's perfect! Is he for me? So I can learn and stuff? I promise to be good. I won’t hurt him or anything.”

The way she spoke about me like I was a gift felt weird. It was like she didn’t understand I was a human too. Or maybe she thought all people were toys to be played with.

It took me far too long to realize what Shelly and her father were. I had a good idea when I said they were monsters. I just had no clue how accurate a description it was until it was too late, and I’d lost every ounce of innocence I’d ever known.