Chapter Six

Rio

We spent the night in Ft. Smith, Arkansas at another Hampton Inn just off I-40. I had gone shopping for some snacks he’d asked for the night before we checked in, and I made sure to buy some lube and condoms while I was at it. I didn’t think I’d be able to put off making love to him for long, and I wanted to be prepared this time. He was too tired by the time we stopped and ate dinner, so by the time I’d taken a shower and come back into the bedroom, he was sound asleep on the king-sized bed. I pulled him into my arms to nuzzle his neck and he lifted his lips for a kiss that made my pulse go crazy, but he never fully roused. I stripped him and settled him on the pillows and climbed in beside him to wrap my arms around him and cuddle him all night.

I awoke him early the next morning though by rolling over and taking his warm cock in my hand to fondle it. He sighed and shifted closer to me, his shaft hardening in my grip, but his eyes still not opening.

“Good morning, kitten,” I crooned in his ear. He turned and murmured something unintelligible that showed me he wasn’t really awake, but he lifted his lips to me again.

“Sleepy, baby? I bet I can wake you up.” I rolled over and found the lube and a condom on the bedside table and quickly got myself ready. Then I pulled back the covers and parted those pretty thighs of his. I nuzzled his throat, and he slowly opened his eyes and locked them on mine.

“Wha…? What are you doing?”

I was barely listening, too consumed with the feel of the warm flesh I’d taken in my hand to pleasure him. He said it again, though and I smiled at him.

“If you don’t know, then I’m not doing it right.”

I bent over to kiss the head of his cock and enjoyed his sharp little intake of breath. I deep-throated him, making the suction strong, as the head of his cock bumped the back of my throat. He made a hoarse noise in his throat, and at the same time, I slid a lubed finger up inside him, locating his prostate and giving it a nice little rub. He writhed on the bed and screamed his pleasure as he came so hard his entire body shuddered for a full thirty seconds afterward.

He looked up at me and shouted, “Rio!”

“That’s me. Are you awake now, baby?” I teased him and added another finger to the one still inside him. I gave his prostate an even harder rub this time and watched him come apart in my hands. I took mercy on him and stopped torturing him, fishing out more of the lube and coating my shaft with it again. I lay down beside him and pulled him over on top of me.

“Ride me, Kitten.”

He was still trembling with reaction, and it was maybe a little painful for him so soon after his orgasm, but he straddled my hips like a good boy as I cupped his ass with both hands. Slowly I lowered him over my shaft. As he sank down on top of me, impaling himself, he moaned and then began to grind into me. When I came after only a few minutes, the climax surprised me with its power and shook me to my core. It amazed me how fast he got me going and how I didn’t have much control with him. Somehow the intensity of my feelings for Kitt had slipped up on me. It was like watching a snowstorm and seeing the flakes falling, but not realizing how quickly they were piling up until everything was covered by them. I had a feeling that I had no hope of digging my way out of this, and I didn’t know if I wanted to anyway.

I kissed him and fondled him for a while longer, but hunger finally drove us from bed. We showered together and got dressed. Then we went down to the little dining room to eat breakfast and get some coffee. Or I got coffee, at least. Kitt had a big glass of milk with his waffles, oatmeal and bacon. I liked that he was eating more like what I’d told him to. We had to work on the oatmeal a little to get him to eat it, and I had to cut up a couple of bananas to go in it. I had to add a little sugar too, even though it was already flavored, but that was something we could work on.

We went upstairs to get our bags, and I tried to hurry him along. Not that I hadn’t been the one to delay so far, but I was getting a funny feeling that I didn’t like in the pit of my stomach. After my time in Afghanistan, I’d learned not to ignore those strange, little feelings when they came. I felt like we should leave as soon as we could. And maybe even take a different route.

I settled up with the hotel, and we went out to the adjacent parking deck to get in the car. It was cold out that morning, and I thought I needed to find Kitt a warmer coat soon.

This was a midtown hotel, not far off the interstate, but it was a Sunday, so at this hour of the morning, we had the parking deck pretty much to ourselves. I opened the back of the SUV and threw the bags inside, and on a hunch, I reached for the tire iron in the back. I usually kept one handy, and I couldn’t say why I felt I needed it now, but it all went back to that odd feeling again.

That’s when I heard the sound of squealing tires. There was a flash of movement to my left and a black sedan with darkened windows came from below us on the deck, going way too fast and careening recklessly around the corners.

“Get in the car!” I yelled to Kitt. “And lock the doors! Don’t get out for anything, no matter what happens!”

The car screeched to a stop beside me, and I turned to face whatever this was. Almost before I could react, the doors flew open, and a couple of guys jumped out. I charged into the fight, not like a soldier, but like the bar fighter I used to be back in the days before the Army. It seemed appropriate to the situation. I kicked the first guy in the nuts and swung the tire iron at his head with enough force that it made a sickening crack. He dropped like a rock, but the other guy was on top of me by then, ramming his fist into my face. Blood burst out of my nose, and the blow stunned me for a moment, but then I saw him pull out a gun. He pointed it right at the center of my forehead and that’s when a bag suddenly slammed into the back of his head, surprising him more than anything else and giving me a chance to grab and twist his arm, almost breaking it. He fell on the pavement, writhing and moaning, and I kicked him in the head enough times that I thought he wouldn’t be getting back up again anytime soon.

I turned and grabbed Kitt, who was standing there, his chest heaving with exertion and holding his bag. I shook him a little because he’d scared me half to death.

“What are you doing? You could have been shot, damn it. I told you to get in the fucking car!”

“And let you get your ass whipped? He had a gun!”

“I know that!” I rifled through his pockets and found his wallet and a cell phone. I dialed 911 and when the operator answered, I asked for an ambulance to the parking deck of the hotel and told her there had been a fight and guns had been involved. I hung up as they were asking me my name.

I put both their weapons inside their vehicle and locked the doors with the keys still inside. Then I pushed Kitt into the car and we took off. I saw the ambulance and a police car coming with lights and sirens by the time we hit the redlight at the end of the street.

“Are you all right?” I asked as he struggled to catch his breath beside me.

“I’m okay. They were after me, weren’t they?”

I laughed and said, “I’d have to say yes.”

“Were they gang members?”

“Maybe. The gangs involved in Atlanta are nationwide. And gangs in the big cities often operate in association with adult organized-crime syndicates.”

“Oh my God. Shouldn’t we have waited for the police and told them?”

“If you want to go into protective custody, yeah. It would take the Atlanta cops a day or two to get out here to pick you up. Maybe more—and you’d spend that time in a jail cell. I didn’t like that idea.”

He gazed over at me with wide eyes. “But they wouldn’t put me in jail. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I don’t think it would stick, but they could charge you with hindering the trial process if you continue to refuse to go into protective custody. Maybe even obstruction. I’m sure a good lawyer could get you out of that, but you might spend a couple of days in jail first.”

“I don’t want that.”

“I know. I don’t either. Don’t worry—I’ll get you home and we’ll take care of this.”

“But how did they know where we were?”

“That’s a damn good question. I’m ditching this SUV at the airport.”

“You think they’re somehow tracking us? But how would they even know you found me?”

“I don’t know. Let me worry about it, and you just relax.”

“You have to be kidding. I’m not some dumb baby.”

“You are, though. A little.”

I laughed and dodged his little fist as he swung it at my arm.

“And I’m still not going to fly.”

“Relax. I’m just leaving the vehicle there. I didn’t say anything about flying. Besides, we’re only about twelve hours from where I’m taking you, so it’s too close to fly. Let me make a few calls.”

I drove us to the airport and handed over the keys to the SUV at the airport rental agency. We walked out to the terminal and found a taxi to take us to a nearby hotel, where I paid cash for a room. I registered us under my old command sergeant major’s name, and once upstairs, I called my old friend and boss, Lucas Hayes, from the hotel phone.

“Is this a secure line?” I asked Lucas as soon as he came on the phone.

He seemed surprised, but said it was. “Yes, why? Are you okay? What’s going on? What do you need?”

The good thing about Lucas was that he always cut to the point. “I’m fine, but we got ambushed in a parking deck in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.”

“My God, are you all right? Is Kitt Devlin okay?”

“We’re both fine, but it could have been a lot worse. The attackers are in custody at this point, or at least I assume so. We left before the cops arrived. I ditched the rental and took a taxi to a hotel. I’m going to need an alternative way to get him home.”

“Okay,” he said, not missing a beat. Another thing I loved about him. “Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll have a car delivered to you. Tell me where you are and what name you used.”

“We’re at the Airport Hampton Inn, and I registered under our old sergeant major’s name. Listen, Lucas, don’t give that information out to anyone. Not even to his brother. In fact, especially to his brother.”

There was a silence on the other end. “Jazz Devlin? Really? That’s new.”

“Just a hunch, and I could be wrong. But somehow the information about us has gotten out. He’s paying the bills for all this, so…. who else could it be? It’s not that big a leap.”

“Devlin is getting married tomorrow in Dunwoody.”

“Is he now?”

“Big society Christmas wedding.”

“A wedding that his own brother isn’t invited to?”

I glanced over at Kitt, who was following every word. He was only getting my end of the conversation, but that must have been enough. His eyes were enormous. I wanted to take him in my arms, and I wanted to throttle his insensitive, asshole brother.

“Looks that way,” Lucas was saying. “He’ll be leaving on his honeymoon to Jamaica two days later.”

“How do you know all this?”

“He’s been blowing up the phones about his brother and whether or not you have him yet…demanding all the details.”

“Which you didn’t give him.”

“I wanted to speak to you first. Something about all of this doesn’t add up, Rio.”

“Agreed.

“Do you need anything else from me? Backup? More cash?”

“Cash would be good. I don’t know if anyone is tracking my credit card use, so I’m not using it until further notice. I’ll get a burner and text you the number. Talk to me on that if you need me. Don’t use the office phones. I’ll call you when I get back to Atlanta.”

Lucas gave a little laugh. “Sounding a little paranoid, buddy.”

“Yeah, maybe so. I hope that’s all this is, and that none of this is necessary. But it might not be a bad idea to run a few checks with the staff.”

“Yeah, maybe not.” There was a pause as I heard him speak to someone else in the office. “I have a meeting. I’ll run this by Ed, but I’ll get what you need out to you right away. Leave that location as soon as you can. In the meantime, it might be a good idea if even we don’t know exactly what route you’re taking from the hotel.”

“Agreed. I’ll be in touch,” I said and ended the call. I glanced over at Kitt hugging himself by the window and held out my arms to him. He came hurrying over and I pulled him onto my lap.

“What are you looking so worried about?”

“I don’t understand what’s happening. Was that your boss? What was he saying about my brother?”

“Jazz is getting married tomorrow, it seems. Did you know he was engaged?”

“Yeah, to a girl named Miranda, but I’ve never met her. I think her family is pretty well off.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I saw Jazz at a club with her, I think. One night in Buckhead,” he said, mentioning an uptown and upscale commercial and residential district in Atlanta. “He didn’t introduce me. They were in a big group, but I think I know which one she was. She was tall and blonde. And very, um...thin all over. Like too thin. I waved at Jazz, but he pretended not to see me.” He looked up at me and shrugged. “I didn’t really care.”

“Okay, good.”

“But what are we going to do now?”

“We’re going back to Atlanta. We’ll go to my place and hide out for a few days until I can talk to your brother. I need a little more information from him before I give you back to him.”

“Information about me?”

“Yes.”

He began playing with a button on my shirt and so he didn’t have to look directly at me. “And then you’ll take me back to him?”

“In a manner of speaking. We’ll go see him. But what did I tell you in the hotel? I’m going to help you find a lawyer and get you out of this mess first, okay?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes…Daddy.”

I meant for him to say ‘sir,’ so the Daddy surprised the hell out of me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, and I didn’t want to lead him on. I put it off to think about later.

“I’m not your Daddy, Kitt,” I said as gently as I could. “But don’t look like that. It’s just too soon for that, okay? And stop acting so scared. I’m handling things, so you don’t have to worry. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Da... uh, sorry. Sir.”

“Good.”

He held up his lips to me sweetly to give me a kiss, with his eyes tightly closed, and what could I do but brush my lips across his. It was all I could trust myself to do, because if I kissed him like I wanted to, then I was taking him to bed for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, that was just going to have to wait. Like a lot of things.

I put him firmly back on his feet and told him to turn on the television and find something to watch while I waited for the car and the cash Lucas sent to be delivered. It didn’t take too long before the clerk at the front desk called up to say I had a visitor downstairs.

“Grab your bag, Kitt. We’re leaving.”

We went down to the lobby, because I wasn’t leaving him alone anymore, even for a few minutes, and a messenger was there with a key to the car he’d parked outside and a large envelope. I tipped him, and we checked out and went outside to find the vehicle. I used the key fob to find it, this one was a big, dark gray Infinity SUV.

The most direct route from where we were was to head over toward Memphis on I-40 and keep on till we got to Birmingham, Alabama and then on back home to Atlanta. I could take a more circuitous route, but what would be the point? Now that I had a secure vehicle, we should be able to travel with no difficulty. It was after we got there that I was worried about.

I was taking Kitt somewhere safe that no one outside of my agency would know about—my own home. I wasn’t going to take Kitt back to his brother’s house. Something wasn’t right there, including why Jazz had lied to me about Kitt’s inheritance. Did this somehow have to do with his new marriage? I needed a little time to figure it all out and do a little research. In the meantime, I needed to avoid his brother Jazz, who was still his legal guardian in the eyes of the law. That meant keeping my agency out of this mess too, to limit their involvement. As far as Jazz would know, I’d simply dropped out of sight, and even the agency was looking for us too.

“With so much happening the last few days, I lost track of Christmas. Jazz will be mad that you didn’t bring me home, I guess.”

“He’ll get over it. Besides, he’s busy with his wedding, right? I’m not worried about him. Are you?”

“No,” he said, grinning at me as I slid in beside him.

“Are you sad that you weren’t at the wedding?”

“No. If he doesn’t want me there, then I don’t want to be there. He doesn’t really want me in his house, and that’s good, because I don’t want to live with him anymore. Especially with that Miranda.” He peered over at me as I pulled out of the parking lot. “Aren’t you going to argue with me, like you did the last time I told you that?”

“No, not this time. I believe I need to do some research on your brother and his situation,” I told Kitt. “Something doesn’t feel right about this. Or I need someone who has access to computers and who knows how to find out some things for me. I think I know a guy—I did some work for him about three or four months ago, and he was something of a computer whiz. A hacker, actually, named Walter Reilly, whose girlfriend had left him, stealing quite a bit of money from him. He was even willing to let that go, but she also took his grandfather’s gold watch and tried to say he had given it to her. Threats about lawyers and lawsuits flew back and forth between them for a while until he hired us to see about it for him. I went to visit her and convinced her to do the right thing and give the watch back.”

Kitt laughed. “I can only imagine. Okay, sounds good. Will this guy help us?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I think he will. He owes me a favor.”

I called and spoke to my friend Walter, the computer guy, around the time we hit Birmingham. By the time we were coming into Atlanta, he’d called back to say he had the information for me on Jazz Devlin. Like I said, he was good at what he did.

“The guy is seriously in debt,” he told me. “Devlin has been trying for loans, but the traditional banks are turning him down. He justrefinanced a mortgage on his home and a building he owns downtown, and those are going to be due in a couple of months. An auditor in his firm recently resigned, saying that the company’s financial statements couldn’t be relied on. In other words, someone has been cooking the books.

“Devlin is dealing now with a nontraditional lender, an on-line bank with a history of handling atypical loans. They use cripplingly high double digit annual interest rates, so most people use them as short-term solutions. They also specialize in loans to foreign nationals and have offered Devlin a type of loan that will allow him to turn around and instantly take money back out of it. A loan like that can involve money laundering.”

“Okay. Can you send me the files in case I need them?”

“I’m sending them now. Your email the same?”

“Yes. Thanks, Walt. I owe you one.”

“Nah, no problem. Let me know if you need anything else.”

I turned to Kitt, who looked stunned. “Did you know anything about your brother having money problems?”

He shook his head. “No. He never talked about anything like that with me. If he’s so hard up for money, do you think he’s going to take my inheritance?”

“No, he wouldn’t be able to touch that. Unless…”

I glanced over at him, and the blood had already drained from his face. “Unless I was no longer alive. Then all of it would go to him.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions, baby. We don’t know anything for sure.”

****

I could see Kitt getting more and more nervous the closer we got to Atlanta, but there was no need. I reached over to squeeze his hand and reassure him.

“What’s going on in your head?”

“Just worried about what’s going to happen now.”

“Right now, we’re going to stop by the store to get some food. I haven’t been home in a while, so the refrigerator is empty.”

I pulled in the parking lot of the closest grocery to me just a few minutes before they closed the doors and ran inside to get a few things. I had some staples, but I picked up some milk, bread and fresh fruit, some hot dogs and chips and a rotisserie chicken. I got Kitt a frozen macaroni and cheese, and even found a Christmas cake for him. Like I said, I didn’t have long to shop. They actually locked the door behind me as I left the building, no doubt in a hurry to get home to start their holiday, and who could blame them? It was almost Christmas Eve.

Kitt turned in surprise as I loaded the bags in the back. “I’m starving,” he said, and I smiled at him.

“Me too. I got us some things to last for a day or so until things open back up after Christmas. We’ll have plenty to eat, though it might not be fancy.”

In another ten minutes, we were at my apartment, and I pulled the SUV into the parking lot, and we went upstairs. I lived on Peachtree Road, near midtown, in a high rise on the sixth floor, with a pretty good view of Piedmont Park. It was possible, though unlikely in my opinion, that anyone was watching my apartment, but we entered from the garage area just in case. It was restricted to residents only, so I thought it was pretty safe. Besides, I was running out of places to take him and places for us to hide. I decided that if they were watching my home, then I’d cross that bridge when and if I came to it, and I wasn’t planning on staying there too long anyway.

While Kitt was looking around my apartment, I went over to get a fire started in the fireplace to help knock off the chill inside and then fix us some dinner.

Kit was wandering around aimlessly and stopped by a window to stare outside. I knew Jazz was still on his mind. I decided to fix the hot dogs, because they were quick and easy. When they were done, I put them on paper plates and set them on the counter. There were condiments in the refrigerator, and I added a bag of chips and got out a soda for Kitt too.

“You don’t get to eat like this all the time,” I told him. “It’s not good for you. This is just for tonight, because we’re both tired.”

“Okay,” he said and grinned at me as he stuffed way too many chips in his mouth, like he was afraid I’d snatch them back if he didn’t eat fast. Then he shook up his can and held it out toward me like he was going to spray me with it.

“Stop that and behave yourself. You’ll make a mess and you’re a guest in my house, so stop it right now and mind your manners.”

He flushed and looked instantly chastised. “I-I’m sorry.”

“Put that soda back in the refrigerator—it’s undrinkable now. Get yourself a glass of milk instead.”

“Okay,” he said meekly, which I didn’t believe for a minute, and he poured himself some milk.

“Can I have the Coke later?”

“No. You blew it.”

“But I said I was sorry.”

“So?”

His face fell even further, and I gave him a few minutes to think about it before I relented. “There’s ice cream in the freezer, and you can have some of that if you eat all your dinner and behave yourself.”

He frowned at me. “I’m not five, you know.”

“Then stop acting like you are. You were about to make a huge mess in my kitchen. Who was going to clean that up?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

“I know. But you need to start trying a little harder. If you want my attention, all you have to do is ask for it. Don’t act out to get it. And use your damn napkin. Don’t wipe your mouth with the back of your hand.”

He got bright pink patches in both cheeks and lowered his eyelashes until they swept over his cheeks, but he settled down after that and ate his food without any more playing around. He did make a big, sarcastic display of using his napkin when he was done, but I ignored him and finished my own dinner. I got up and poured myself a drink to help me relax.

I hated “being mean” to him, the way I knew he was thinking, but Kitt needed direction and rules to follow. If I was going to be his Daddy—and I couldn’t seem to shake that idea—I needed to be strict with him.

“Can I have one of those?” he asked me, gesturing toward my drink.

“No.” I gestured toward the mess. “Clean all this up and put everything away. Then I’ll show you where your bedroom is.”

“Why do I have to clean up?”

“Because I’ve been driving all day, and I’m the one who shopped. It won’t kill you to do a little something to help out.”

He shot me a dirty look, and I went over to sit by the fire and enjoy my drink while he huffed and puffed and banged things around for a while, no doubt trying to get a rise out of me, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction.