Chapter 2
Bastian
What.
The.
Fuck.
Someone was stalking him and he was too fucking innocent to see it.
How the hell had his family let it happen?
Where had the asshole seen him?
An online dating site?
What the fuck had he been doing lately?
I went away for work for a week and he got himself a stalker?
Wait.
An online dating site?
Digging out my phone as I headed back inside from where I was originally just taking out the trash, I then pulled up the stupid app I’d been talked into downloading. It didn’t take long to find him once I’d narrowed the search function down by age and location.
Fucking hell.
It was flirty and naughty and entirely too honest with what he seemed to be looking for. It was no wonder someone was giving the brat all the attention he wanted.
Secret Santa Daddy my fucking ass.
He’d gotten himself a stalker who just bought good presents.
A Build-a-Bear?
Expensive chocolate?
Toys?
Orlando was looking for a Daddy?
Did he even know what that was?
He’d always seemed to be on the innocent side of things and not the type of innocent that was just doing it for attention. I’d run into those a lot, and he wasn’t good enough at lying to have been fooling me with the what does this joke mean kind of confusion.
Hell, I’d heard one of his family members having to explain a dirty joke about a screwdriver and a cucumber that’d been the dumbest thing I’d ever heard.
“Who the fuck is supposed to be watching out for him?” His cousin Enzo had been keeping a close eye on him since he was the foreman for what had turned into a family construction business, but it was clear he’d dropped the ball.
Kinky dating sites?
He was too young for that kind of stuff.
Wasn’t he?
No. He had to be.
“What the hell are they doing letting him sign up for something like this?” A Daddy? An older man? His fucking preferences were ridiculous. There was no way he knew he wanted to explore spankings and role-playing.
He probably didn’t know what either of them were.
Somehow Orlando had always walked through life with his head in the clouds or buried in the sand and he’d ended up startlingly innocent. But that seemed to have taken a drastic turn in a very short period of time, and I didn’t like it one bit.
“What the hell has been going on?” I missed a couple of family dinners and all fucking hell broke loose. “A Daddy?”
What the fuck did he mean by role-playing?
There were too many options for that and too many dirty people online. What if he meant pretending not to know his date so they could flirt, and his stalker thought that meant something a lot more interesting?
Did Orlando know what he was insinuating?
“He’s going to end up with some asshole with a breeding kink if he’s not careful.” We were all over the internet lately, so who knew what kind of guy had found him.
He’d gotten presents.
He was expecting something else tomorrow.
“Fucking hell.” That was not acceptable because I had to work. “Fucking hell.”
Stomping through the house to the front door, I shoved on my shoes and headed out into the yard.
Orlando was probably busy playing with his Build-a-Bear or doing something innocent and cute, so I didn’t bother being quiet or subtle as I dragged out the ladder from the garage that was almost too small to be considered a garage.
“Someone’s got to take care of that brat before he gets abducted by a fucking stalker who thinks he’s a Daddy.” If anyone got to Daddy that brat it would—
“Fucking hell.” I needed to stop that train of thought before it got out of hand. “Stalkers and wannabe Daddies.”
Orlando needed more supervision and I was going to be the one to do it.
“His family clearly can’t be trusted with that job.” It wasn’t hard, but someone had dropped the ball big time. “Fucking online dating profiles and asshole stalkers.”
Chocolates and toys?
That was fighting dirty because Orlando would never realize someone sending him everything he wanted was dangerous. He’d never even set up an online dating profile before, so he probably didn’t even know how dangerous it could be.
He usually dated women for fuck’s sake.
Mumbling to myself about how dangerous real life was and trying not to obsess over what could go wrong on that fucking site, I set up the ladder under the camera pointed at the driveway and climbed up.
“What if he finds one of those couples who like to seduce innocent guys? He’s not prepared for something like that. ”
He wasn’t prepared for anything besides work and dealing with his insane relatives.
“How had he ended up in this situation?” Adjusting the camera to point over to Orlando’s yard, I did my best to make sure it would pick up anyone making deliveries before I came back down the ladder to check the view on my phone. “This has to be someone else’s harebrained idea.”
But who?
His best friend was so levelheaded he was damned near a robot, which I completely approved of, but that didn’t give me any ideas about who else could’ve come up with it. Daddies and spankings and stalkers?
“Secret Santa Daddy my fucking ass.” That was dangerous, not cute. “Who talked him into that kind of ridiculousness?”
Well, at least the camera might give me some good information because it looked perfect and the settings were already configured to send me an alert anytime it sensed movement. “Try stalking him now.”
Toys and chocolates.
Asshole.
Orlando was too innocent to realize how dangerous those were, but I wasn’t and I’d figure out how the whole thing happened.
“Research. It’s time to research.” Still grumbling as I put the ladder back and headed inside, I pulled out my phone again as I stomped into the living room. “Social media first and then back to that stupid app.”
His family liked to post about every fucking thing that happened to them, so I knew I’d be wading through a thousand ridiculous ones to find anything useful. But between pictures of their dinners and oversharing about what everyone was doing, I finally found a few that were useful.
“Enzo?” Reliable, professional Enzo was the one who’d started Orlando down the path to getting a stalker?
Sure, it was subtle and some of the relatives posting about Enzo’s new boyfriend didn’t seem to understand what they’d seen, but it was there.
It seemed like Enzo had finally come out of the kink closet and didn’t mind letting everyone in the family know that he was back to dating guys and liked taking care of his boy.
This was definitely Enzo’s fault.
And possibly half the rest of the family because it seemed like over the past six months a ridiculous number of them had set up kink profiles online.
“His stalker could be half his fucking family.” Great. “He’s going to end up with a second cousin as his wannabe Daddy stalker because he didn’t know incest was a thing.”
I was going to have to keep a close eye on Orlando…and whoever was seducing him with toys and chocolates.
****
“Flowers. It’s flowers for fuck’s sake.” I hadn’t gotten a damned thing done all morning but I caught the flower delivery guy as he was getting out of his small van. “What the fuck? That’s huge.”
It had to be the biggest arrangement I’d ever seen and there seemed to be something besides flowers on it.
What the hell was in the flowers?
Fuck it.
Giving up, I logged out and stopped pretending to be getting anything done.
I’d try again later, but for the time being the fucking delivery was the most important thing going on.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to say and hadn’t figured it out by the time I’d put my shoes on, but I had confidence I could fake it.
Mostly.
The delivery guy was pulling away as I crossed the yard, but I had to knock on the door because Orlando had already gone inside. I was patient, though, and tried to look bored and pleasant as he opened the door wearing a bubbly smile. “Hey, Bastian. How was your trip?”
He seemed to be completely ignoring the gigantic floral arrangement on the small table in the entryway, and somehow seemed to think I wouldn’t notice that the vase was in the shape of a train car and the flowers were decorated with tiny cars and trucks.
It was like an oddly decorated Christmas tree and was probably for a baby shower or something, but it would be perfect for a little.
The only thing better would’ve been one decorated with tiny tools since he seemed to like the ones that had come with the bear. It left me wondering if his Secret Santa couldn’t find a better one to fit or if he’d just taken the easy way out.
“It was fine.” Yes, he asked about my trip. “Thank you for watching over the house while I was away.”
Technically he’d picked up my mail and had done a few things to be helpful, but it was still nice and a good reason to come back over. “Did you happen to see an envelope being delivered? One of those large ones from Fed Ex?”
As he frowned, thinking about the answer, I pretended to finally see the flowers. “Those are pretty. Who are they from? Oh, did you get them for someone in the family?”
I didn’t point out that they could be for a shower or something like that, but he smiled and blushed as he glanced back over at the flowers. “No, they’re for me.”
At some point I needed to explain the concept of white lies to protect his privacy.
“They’re cute.” When would it be appropriate to explain that? “Did you get a new girlfriend?”
Would a woman send something like that?
I’d never had a relationship with one beyond a few awkward dates in high school before I’d figured my shit out, but I wasn’t surprised when he laughed and shook his head. “Na, women don’t do things like that. I’m…I’ve…let’s just say it’s someone who’s interested in me.”
Like a stalker.
Trying not to frown at him, I nodded slowly and tried again. “What does your family think of them? I can imagine them having strong opinions.”
Orlando looked like he was trying not to laugh but his grin said he knew how insane they were. “Yeah, they have strong opinions about everything, but right now they’re focused on Enzo and his new…boyfriend. Terrence is really nice.”
And had clearly been putting ideas in Orlando’s head.
“That’s good. He deserves someone nice.” That was true enough that Orlando stopped looking like he was holding back giggles.
“They’re a good fit for each other.” Doing a happy wiggle that made him look like a golden retriever, he smiled wider. “Terrence is really smart and Enzo loves being able to take care of him.”
Was that what had made him curious about BDSM?
“That’s great. They seemed to have hit it off fast, though.” At least it felt that way. “The last time I saw his mother she was talking about trying to hook him up with that girl down at the library.”
She was weird…which was probably why Enzo’s mother liked her.
Orlando winced, happy wiggles gone in a heartbeat. “They’ve tried to introduce her to every guy in the family…um…will you help me and find a way to point out to my mother that she’s on some kind of work release for…well…stuff?”
Jail?
Really?
“You’ve got to be kidding?” I hadn’t seen her but I’d heard someone in the family mention her before. Maybe Orlando’s mother? “Wait. Didn’t your mother mention her at the last family dinner I went to?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes, um, I don’t want to say anything negative and my mother just isn’t listening to anything polite. So…will you help me?”
Those wide eyes were going to be the death of me.
Or his mother’s bad decisions.
“Yes.” They were all ridiculous. “Please tell me you figured that out before you had to take her out on a date?”
Orlando cocked his head, still looking like a puppy. “Do you want me to lie?”
Good grief.
Closing my eyes and letting out a deep breath got a quiet laugh from him. “How bad was the date?”
“More awkward than bad.” His cheerful tone didn’t give me enough information about what had happened, but I was smart enough to worry about what was coming. “She was really nice up until she explained that I met her victim profile and asked me if I wanted to continue with the date or not.”
For fuck’s sake.
“Yes, I will talk to your mother.” And save Orlando and the rest of the single men in the family from their crazy mothers.
Wait.
Panicking, I opened my eyes again. “Did she send you the flowers?”
Was that his Secret Santa?
Orlando immediately started shaking his head. “I got the first present from them before that weird date.”
How many weirdos did he have in his life?
We really needed to work on explaining what healthy relationships looked like since his family had done a terrible job of it.