Charming But Reckless (NightShade Security #5)

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

ARICK

"Whatever comes next, you need to let me lead," Tank said from the front seat as he turned down the long dirt road.

It was pitch black outside. The early morning had crept up on us as we drove through the night to get to this small town.

The Coleman Ranch was nestled far enough away from the city to not be close, but close enough that we didn't need to take a flight. I was thankful because I didn't know if I would make it through the entire process that came with flying. The car ride was far too long in my opinion.

"I'll do whatever you say," I told Tank.

Ronan turned back to look at me. “Just trust us. Orion would have kept your boy safe. We promise. They might be a little defensive though. They are not big fans of people showing up in the middle of the night.”

I chuckled. "I don't know anyone who would be a fan of it."

Knowing that we were on the way to get my son and that he'd been kept safe had given me peace that I had been unable to find. I was able to laugh and smile, even for just the slightest of seconds. It was great progress considering I was foaming at the mouth to anyone who got in my way before.

When we made it to the main house of the ranch, a single porch light guided our way. Four bodies came out onto the porch quickly as we slowed down. They had long weapons in their hands. Shotguns if I were to guess.

They pointed them in our direction.

Tank shook his hand. “Damn country guys. They wouldn't be able to take all of us, but they still fight to the end.”

Ronan agreed. "Yeah, they've got grit, that's for sure. Good thing we're not here for any trouble."

Tank turned to face him. "You think this won't be any trouble? I mean, sure, we're reuniting the family, but Atticus is gonna have my ass for this."

I'll have to make it up to him later."

"Sean will not appreciate you trying to fuck his husband," Ronan said dryly.

"I would never try to fuck him. He's not my type, and they're happily married. Though, being happily married doesn't always mean they don't want some fun. I've had my fair share. That's beside the point. Let's get this over with."

They climbed from the car. Ronan instructed me to stay inside until he gave me the signal.

I watched them stand; their hands raised as if they were criminals. I scoffed.

The car was insulated enough that I couldn't hear what they said. I didn’t need to hear to know things were tense. It further changed when I saw a man run outside in nothing but sweatpants and a t-shirt.

His eyes went wild as he took in the scene.

Ronan turned to me a minute later and nodded. I climbed out of the back, and it was his voice that stopped me before I could really move.

"Arick," he said.

When I looked at the man again, I noticed he had the same eyes, the same nose and lips, the same cheekbones that I remembered from our youth. They were just much more refined, more… manly.

Attraction shot through me before I could catch hold of it.

"Orion," I called back, letting him know that yes, it was me, and I did know who he was.

He started down the steps slowly. I moved around Ronan and the open car doors to meet him halfway.

When we were face to face, I realized just how much we had both changed. He was taller than me, just by an inch or two. And there were subtle differences I’d missed at a distance.

With how close we were, the smoke from our warm breaths intertwined.

"It's really you. You're here.”

I nodded. "I am. I was told you have someone important to me here. My son."

He smiled then, and that feeling of attraction returned.

God, he was beautiful. Maybe stunning was a better word..

These feelings weren't something my adolescent mind could have come up with. He was my best friend back then, my protector.

And now he stood in front of me, a full-grown man, in his pajamas, after having kept my son safe until I could find them. I was defenseless against anything but appreciation and respect, along with a familiar sense of love.

I had never stopped loving my best friend for everything he'd done for me, for all the ways that he stood by my side back then. Now, the older version of him had also earned that same affection, just for very different reasons.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"He's asleep. I was with him. He was having nightmares.”

I closed my eyes tightly. It wasn't a relief to know that he was having nightmares. At the same time, I did feel a sense of balance that Orion was who helped him through.

Because at one point, he had been there for me too when the nightmares had come.

It was a full circle moment, that was for sure.

Fate or destiny or whatever higher power I needed to believe in had arranged it to where my son would wind up in the hands of the one person in this world that I would have trusted him with.

“Is everything else okay? How has he been?”

Orion shook his head, his teeth digging into his bottom lip. “I can't,” he started, then stepped forward, closing the gap between us. His arms wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me tight to his chest.

“I'm sorry, I can't keep talking to you like we’re strangers. It's you, Arick. You're here. I've been looking for you for years.”

My arms went around him as a confession. I couldn't not hold him back. I couldn't avoid touching him and letting the relief I felt move through us both.

Not just relief about Sol, but also relief that someone somewhere had cared about me. That for as many times as I had thought about him and wondered what happened, he had also thought about me.

I felt a flicker of guilt knowing that I made his job that much harder whenever I decided to scrub our presence from existence. Sure, it was to keep us safe, but also how many times did he come up against a brick wall when everything would have been laid out in black and white had I not made that choice?

The men around us remain quiet while we hugged. It was as if they understood the severity of the moment. They accepted just how deep this bond was even if they didn’t have the full picture.

Hell, I didn't even have the full picture. I had no clue what happened to Orion all those years ago. He doesn't know what happened to me once he left. We'd have to hash it all out at some point.

Now wasn’t the time.

I needed to lay eyes on my son. I needed to see that he was truly alive and okay, as everyone was saying. Because part of me feared that this might be just another dead end. That I would have come all this way and something else changed to keep him from me.

That I will just be one step too short.

As we pulled apart, I went to ask him to go inside when the sound of the screen door opening drew all our eyes. I'm thankful that the weapons were turned to the ground and the men were no longer in defensive stances because the sight of the little boys coming outside held us all at attention.

“What's going on, Papa?” A little boy with a blanket in his hand asked.

One of the men from the porch handed his gun to another and bent down to lift the boy.

“Nothing Dakota. We just had some unexpected friends show up. Had to make sure everything was safe.”

I dragged my eyes from that boy to look at the other one who was there. I already knew who it was, and I needed him to see me. I needed him to know that I had come for him, that I had not given up.

I stepped around Orion, moving further into the light.

“Dad,” Sol shouted as he launched himself off the porch and ran at me.

A choking sound came from behind me, but I didn't dare look. Whoever it was must have been touched by the obvious affection.

As he ran to me, I thought back to the few times I allowed myself to take a breather from my search. I would scroll through social media just in hopes that maybe I'd come across something, some hint at where he could be.

It was during the searches that I would come across those videos of families reuniting from long trips, such as deployments or extended hospital stays. The kids running to see their dads always ripped my heart wide open. I’d start blubbering the minute their arms wrapped around their loved one.

And now I was getting my own moment. My boy launched himself directly at me, flying through the air after getting a running start.

As I always would, I caught him. Then I held on tight. With my arms wrapped around him, I finally broke down, sobbing against his shoulder.

He cried too. I could feel the wetness on my shirt. I could sense the relief in the way his body melted into mine.

We were together again. Our little family. We had found each other despite everything working against us.

I felt an arm move around my back, and then another around Sol. I raised my head to see Orion joining in our moment. There were tears in his eyes and a sad smile on his face.

Sol turned his head, not once letting our connection slip as he looked at Orion.

“You found him,” he said.

Orion shook his head. “No kiddo. Your dad found us. He's the hero here.”

Sol snuggled deeper into my chest. I could have kissed Orion for the way he worded that just now. How he claimed I was the one that handled all this.

Technically, that might have been true, but there was so much more to it. I got lucky with my break in figuring out Detective Stabler might be the man to help me. More than that, the stars all aligned to get me to convince him for a meeting. He got us to Nightshade. The fact that Nightshade even knew of Sol was a miracle in and of itself.

They took one look and knew.

No matter what came next, I understood just how powerful that connection was. How my making one right decision turned into me finding my son again.

It wasn't being a hero. It was my resilience and my tenacity. It was me never giving up.

There was no life to be had without my son in it. And now, not only had I gotten him back, but I had found the one person in this world who I missed the most. The one person that I thought of so often yet had no hope of ever finding.

It was by far the best day I think I'd ever had aside from the day Sol was born. It started out helpless, but it ended in the highest of highs.

“Why don't we move this inside?” One of the men from the porch said.

Another added, “It's a little cold out here to be doing all this.”

Orion pulled back, though he didn't go far. Tank came up on my other side and looked at the three of us with a scrutiny that spoke volumes.

He turned towards the porch. “If it's okay with you, I'd rather just drop him and go. We still have a bunch of projects we're working on that need our full attention. I just didn't want to waste another second of having Arick not with his son.”

The man who had spoken up first gave a sharp nod. “That's fine with us. The more the merrier. He's welcome to stay too. You gentlemen have a safe drive back.”

There were a few waves and handshakes, then the groups split up. The ranchers went inside, while all the men from Nightshade climbed back into the cars and left.

It was just me, Orion, and Sol outside. I looked at both of them and knew that no matter what, I would have them both in my life from now on. I intended to protect Sol from the dangers of this world much better this time around. With the way Orion had helped keep him safe, I knew that he would be a great partner to help me with that.

So what if a little voice inside me wanted to partner with him in other ways too? I could admit that there was more to this than friendship. How much more, I wasn't sure.

The desire to kiss him and hold him, to find out if he felt even a fraction of the way I did was strong. For now though, we had to get inside because there were other more pressing matters to discuss.

It would be a long day, but I would smile through every second of it now that I had my family back.