Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After the meal and pie, it was time to leave. Mike had checked out some local sights and run errands while they were occupied, but Roy sent him a text, letting him know they were ready. Then he touched base with Warren and G.
While he was doing that, Gilda surprised DJ with a parting gift. “When Roy told me you were coming, I put this together. I like to make jewelry, and he told me you wear bracelets.”
She brought it out of her craft room and extended it in cupped open palms so DJ could see the details. Like most of his bracelets, the beads and charms were threaded on a braided pull cord, so it could be adjusted to his wrist size.
He saw musical notes, guitars, and a drum set. The charms also included a silver bull with muscular shoulders and slim hips. Emerald green and silver beads coated with diamond dust sparkled between the charms.
“Roy was born at 11:58pm on April 19,” Gilda told him.
“It put him on the dividing line between Aries and Taurus, two signs with traits suited for law enforcement and protection. Aries is brave and a leader, whereas Taurus is practical, calm and dedicated.” She tapped the bull.
“Aries is the ram, Taurus the bull. I liked the bull charm.”
“A bull is also hardheaded,” DJ noted.
A dimple appeared in her cheek. “The emerald and diamond are birth stones for those two signs. Since my boy is protecting you, it felt like reinforcement for that. They’re also spaced in that way I told you about.
” She pointed. “See, every other day. Then every two days, every three. The silver beads are the days you make yourself live. The emerald is the day you give yourself to grieve.”
DJ slid it onto his wrist. The bull brushed the heel of his hand. “Thank you, Gilda. I really like it.”
As Roy rejoined them, Mike was coming down the driveway in the Suburban. “Ready to go?” Roy asked.
“Yeah. Mission accomplished.” DJ held up the bracelet. “Gilda has decided she likes me better and is kicking you to the curb.”
Gilda shook her head at both of them and gave DJ a hug. “You’re welcome back anytime. Thank you for my beautiful bird bath. I love it.” Roy had spent a half hour patiently moving it to different parts of her yard until she was satisfied with its placement.
Turning to Roy, she wrapped her arms over his shoulders as much as she could, while he bent and hugged her close.
“I’ll be back for your surgery,” he promised.
“I told you Evelyn could take me.”
“I’d rather do it.”
She gave him a serious look. “I’d love to have you here, but if he’s not safe, don’t come. You keep him safe, Roy.”
“Yes, ma’am. If I don’t strangle him first.”
As the vehicle pulled away from the curb, Roy sat back and considered his pensive-looking charge. DJ was playing with the bracelet, tracing the bull charm with a finger. His curls hid his eyes.
“What kind of surgery is she having?”
“Just an age-related adjustment, to keep her eyes functioning at least as well as they are now. It’s supposed to be straightforward, but I want to be here. Where to next?”
The plan was for them to stay on the road for a couple weeks at least. Roy had planned out a variety of random stops if DJ stayed indifferent, but he hoped DJ would have an interest in choosing. When he waited out DJ’s protracted pause, his patience was rewarded.
“We’re not far from Charlotte, right?”
“About three hours. Not a bad drive.”
“That club we went to in Miami…I heard one of the patrons talking up an erotica shop near Charlotte. There’s this song that was playing around in my head.”
At the word was, his expression tightened. But he continued. “I had a stage performance and video idea for it, and thought I could check out some props. Get some ideas.”
“Sounds good. It’s a little late in the day. We’ll find a hotel between here and there and visit tomorrow.”
“Why don’t we go to your place for the night? We can get your magazines and drive to Charlotte in the morning.” DJ blinked, all innocence. “I’m sure it’s more secure than the Pentagon. What’s with the face? You don’t want me see where you live?”
“Well, next to mine, your place is such a dump. I don’t want you to be overcome by envy.”
DJ snorted. “I bet it’s a meticulously maintained suburban residence, one with excellent property value should you decide to sell it.”
“That sounds very dull.”
“Not if you’re there.” DJ’s expression stilled. “I’d like to see where you live, Roy.”
“Okay.” He gave Mike the address. After he did, DJ went back to gazing out the window.
“Your mom told me about Redding. I hope that’s okay.”
“Yeah.” It surprised him that Gilda had dipped into those troubled waters, but it didn’t bother him that DJ knew.
DJ kept looking out the window. “You told me that attracting the attention of this maniac isn’t my fault. Even if his obsession with me is why my brothers are dead. But if that’s true, you’re not to blame, either.”
He turned his head to meet Roy’s gaze. “Access to the plane was tighter than a gnat’s ass. You’re rated top in the business, and I haven’t seen anything that proves different. You can’t plan for everything. You know it as much as I do.”
DJ’s thoughts only echoed his own. But it had never mattered so much, hurt so much, as it did now. Because watching DJ deal with the loss was killing Roy, and that opened the door wide to pointless guilt.
Fuck. That was why his mother had decided to tell him about Redding. She knew him better than anyone, knew where his mind would be, no matter how much he tried to keep that door closed between past and present.
She’d given DJ the ability to connect those dots. The last thing Roy wanted him worrying about was where Roy’s head was at, but it moved him. Even grieving, DJ had a generous heart.
He could reward it by closing that door so the kid knew he didn’t have to expend time reassuring his dumb ass.
“Thank you, Dory,” he said. “That helps.”
The honest answer surprised DJ, and since he was a service sub, it brought some ease to his expression. But since he was too smart to be so easily placated, Roy took the opportunity to change their focus to something more relevant to the present.
“I know you know how to fight, but I’m going to teach you some other things.
I’ll do everything I can to stay in between you and this stalker, but as you just pointed out, it might not be enough.
Part of protecting you is giving you more ways to protect yourself, especially if he gets you alone with him. ”
What helped the victim in stalker kidnap situations was staying calm, looking for escape opportunities and working with the stalker’s delusions, but not too obviously capitulating to them.
Since those tactics also worked with bullies and abusers, DJ probably knew most of them, but reinforcing them wouldn’t be wasted.
“Don’t worry.” DJ’s brown eyes went glacier. “If that asshole gets me alone, he’s the one who’ll need to worry.”
He moved to a different subject. “Wait, I get it now. It’s not your place you’re worried about.
It’s the magazine subscriptions. I bet you subscribe to the entertainment rags to scope out your clients.
Are my pictures tacked up like a murder board in a crime show?
Or for other reasons?” He shot Roy a licentious glance.
“Do you have a wall of DJ porn in your bedroom?”
“You can ride to my house strapped to the top of the car. There are tie-downs in the well.”
Dory gave him a suggestive smirk. “You can bring those inside when we get there.”
Roy tapped DJ’s foot with his shoe. “Before you being an asshole makes me forget, thanks for being nice to my mother. She adored you.”
“I’m pretty adorable.”
Unexpectedly, DJ’s expression shifted, the humor and teasing vanishing.
He lay down on the long seat, his head on Roy’s thigh, fingers sliding underneath it to curl against the muscle.
He dropped his other arm so his hand could drape over Roy’s shoe.
Surprised by the move, Roy nevertheless adjusted toward the window to allow DJ to fold his legs up on the seat.
He saw Mike glance in the rearview mirror and gave him a nod, letting him know things were okay.
DJ squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m trying not to think about how much I want to be back in my bed with the covers over my head. I know that’s not good. But can we stay at your place for a day before we go to Charlotte?”
Roy remembered how his mother had stayed in bed when Redding died.
How Black had let her have those days when she needed them, but kept them spaced out so she had to get back in the habit of living.
He wondered if his father had known Roy inherited his Dom traits.
Roy knew his mother did, though Gilda had never said anything about it directly.
Submissives knew. Just like Masters did.
“Yeah. We can do that.” Roy laid his hand on his head, stroking. “It’s okay, kid. You’re doing all right.”
DJ resisted the urge to curl up tighter against Roy in the car. He was so tired, and all he'd done was visit Roy’s mom. Grief was worse than a marathon with no hydration.
He dozed until they reached Roy’s place, sitting up in time to note it was located in a tiny North Carolina river town, probably unknown to everyone except mapmakers and its residents.
They passed over a bridge and then turned directly into the parking lot of a fifteen-unit condo community that was pushed up against the river.
He’d been wrong about the house. The unremarkable grey wooden siding was weathered by exposure to the salt water and coastal air.
DJ liked it right away, maybe because Roy lived there and it had a Roy vibe.
He’d pictured the suburban house because it would have been reassuringly structured, stable and safe, but oddly, so was this.
Roy took their bags out. Mike would head for a nearby hotel and retrieve them the day after tomorrow. DJ gave him cash to cover gas, his meals and ways to pass the time.