Severe Side Winds Ahead

by Kendel Duncan

  Cole felt like all the air had been ripped from his lungs. His knees buckled but thankfully the couch was right behind him and his ass hit it with a thump, “You, you’re lying.”

  Cain shook his head, “His dad, his birth asshole, found out that Kelly was gay. He beat the ever-living piss out of him, told him he’d never have a faggot for a son. Then he said he was going to kill him and any faggot friends he had. Kelly yelled back at him that he didn’t have any fucking friends at all because his dad was a fucking dick then he punched the drunk fucker, knocked him out, gathered his shit and got the fuck out of that shit-hole and never looked back. He couldn’t. If he did, his father would’ve known, he would’ve figured out about you.”

  Cole dropped his head and stared at his wringing hands. And then the tears began sliding down his cheeks.

  “Shit, babe, he’s crying. You know I don’t do tears, they freak me out.”

  Cain nodded then reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. He pressed a few buttons on it then leaned over to hand it to Cole, “Here,” he mumbled.

  Cole wiped away some tears and looked down through blurry eyes into the face of a dark-haired, amber-eyed, gorgeous older man.

  “Cole?” the man said.

  “Yeah?”

  “My name is Connor Braddock. I’m Kelly’s father, his adopted father. I feel like I already know you because you were all he ever talked about, Cole.”

  “Did he know?” Cole whispered as he angrily brushed the tears from his cheeks.

  Connor’s eyes softened, “No, Cole. None of us did, not until just recently. And it’s tearing him apart. He blames himself for what happened to you.”

  “So, do I, or I did for ten years. Now I don’t know what to fucking think anymore.”

  “Cole?”

  “What?”

  “He needs your help.”

  Cole took a deep breath and sighed it out, “What do you need me to do?”

  “He came there to confront you and now I’m thinking that your place might be the safest place to hide him until we can figure out who’s behind all this.”

  Cole’s wide eyes swung around, “He’s here, in Denver?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you want him to stay here with me?”

  “Yes. Cain will be there too and a few more of my men to protect you.”

  Cole pushed to his feet and began pacing, “Oh God, I don’t, I can’t, fuck, I can’t breathe,” he said with a groan as the phone dropped to the floor.

  Cain jumped to his feet and put his huge body directly behind Cole’s, “Feel my chest, Cole, breathe with me, in, that’s right, now out, good job, now in again, perfect, and out. Better?”

  Cole nodded his head, “A little.”

  “You sit down and concentrate on your breathing, I’m going to get you a glass of water,” Cain said as he walked to into the kitchen.

  When he walked back out Cole was clutching his hair in his hands, “God, everything I have, everything that’s driven me for the last decade is fucking gone.”

  Cain sat next to him on the couch and handed him the water, “As a man who let hatred drive him for so long it almost destroyed him, trust me when I say that shit is toxic, Cole. Love is the only thing that will save our sorry souls.”

  Cole glanced at Cain as he took the water and took a sip, “How did you meet your husband?”

  Cain snorted a laugh, “I was hired to kill him but I fell in love with him instead.”

  Cole’s mouth dropped open, “Wow, that’s just, wow.”

  “Yeah, I know. Forgiveness is a heady thing, Cole. Even if it can’t bring two people together it can still set you free.”

  Cole gulped down the rest of his water and stood from the couch, “You can bring him here but don’t expect me to talk to him, Cain. I’m not ready to. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to.”

  Cain looked up and locked his eyes with Cole’s then he dipped his chin once and said, “Fair enough.”

  With those two words, Cole turned and walked out of the room. Cain heard what he assumed was the man’s bedroom door closing a few seconds later.

  He shook his head because he knew exactly where Cole’s head was at, he’d been there, hell, he’d been Cole for far too long. And if it hadn’t been for the love of one stubborn, golden eyed, beautiful man, who knows where Cain would be right now….or if he would even be….

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Kelly?” Morgan said to the man as he sat on the couch scrolling through his phone, his knee bouncing up and down the only thing giving away his distress.

  “Yeah?”

  “We have to move you.”

  Kelly’s head snapped up, “What? Why?”

  “There’s been a threat against you. A very credible one. We need to move you to a safehouse right now.”

  “But, but, but what about Cole?”

  “I’m putting men in place to protect him too but right now the threat appears to be limited to you.”

  Kelly stood up, “Yeah, okay. Where are you taking me?”

  “That, I can’t tell you. And I need you to wear this,” he said as he held out a blindfold.

  “Are you fucking serious?”

  Morgan just stared at him with his beefy arms across his chest.

  Kelly rolled his eyes, “Jesus fucking Christ, fine!” he barked as he grabbed the blindfold. “I’ll put it on in the car but not one second sooner, got it?”

  “That’s fine, but it stays on until we are inside the residence, am I clear?”

  Another eye roll, “Whatever.”

  Morgan lifted his chin, “Go get your bag. Hawke and Caleb are coming too to get a layout of the place since they are going to rotate protection duties with Cain.”

  Kelly’s mouth dropped open, “Cain is here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is my father here too?”

  “No.”

  “Fuck, that means we get cranky Cain. Cranky Cain is a bear to be around.”

  Morgan smiled, “Now you know how Luther is when I’m not around.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I apologized for that a dozen times, dude,” Kelly said as he disappeared up the stairs to retrieve his bag.

  He was back less than a minute later, “Lead me to my chariot, oh mighty prince,” he said with a dramatic flourish of his hand.

  Now it was Morgan’s turn to roll his eyes as he turned to walk out the door.

  Kelly climbed into the front seat of Morgan’s CTS and then he glanced around, “I thought you said Caleb and Hawke were coming with us?”

  “They’re using their own ride. Caleb will be staying to take first watch, Hawke will ride back with me.”

  “Okay,” Kelly mumbled as he looked at the bright yellow Mustang idling at the curb. Then he realized that Morgan’s car wasn’t moving so he looked over at him.

  “Blindfold, Kelly.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Kelly said as he slid it over his head. He felt Morgan’s hands move around the edges as they adjusted the wide band and, yep, he couldn’t see a damn, fucking thing.

  “Now, I know you’ll track road sounds and left and right turns and all that shit and I’m not going to stop you because that’s in your nature. This is more about me not wanting to you to know where we’re going before we get there.”

  “And I’d know from the outside of the building or the neighborhood?”

  “Yes, you would,” Morgan said as he thought about the huge logo on the outside of Cole’s building that said, ‘Loc/Key Enterprises’

  “Okay, how about some tunes then?”

  “Sure, classic rock okay?”

  “Perfect.”

  A beat later AC/DC’s Highway to Hell was blaring inside the confines of Morgan’s smooth ride. Despite Kelly’s desperate need to try to figure out where they were going, he closed his eyes and let the tune wash over him.

  Before the next song was halfway through, the music shut off when Morgan parked his car. “Blindfold stays on, Kelly.”

&nbs
p; “I know.”

  He waited for Morgan to come around to open up his door, which he did a moment later. The man slid the strap of Kelly’s duffle bag up onto Kelly’s shoulder and said, “Hold onto my arm,” as he gently bumped Kelly’s hand with his elbow. Kelly slid his hand up to clasp Morgan’s arm just below his elbow. “Ready,” he said.

  “Flat steps ahead to an elevator,” Morgan said.

  “Is that Hawke and Caleb behind us?”

  “Yeah, man. Sorry. I should’ve said something,” Caleb said.

  “No worries, just be glad I didn’t shoot you,” Kelly said with a smirk.

  The elevator pinged its arrival and the four of them stepped inside. Kelly listened as a key card was inserted and then the doors shut and they began ascending. “Private floor?” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “Who has access?”

  “Currently eight people. We might drop that down though, not sure yet. We’re still vetting a few.”

  When the elevator stopped Kelly tilted his head and said, “Ninth floor?”

  “Eighth,” Morgan said as the doors slid open and they stepped out.

  As they walked forward Morgan felt Kelly’s fingers tighten around his arm.

  “Morgan, where are we?” he whispered, his voice a little shaky.

  Morgan inserted his keycard and then pushed the door open to find Cain waiting for them in the living room, “Just come inside, Kelly.”

  Kelly didn’t move and he squeezed Morgan’s arm so hard that it hurt. “I, I can’t,” he whispered.

  Morgan turned to look at the man and fucking hell, he was white as a sheet. He clasped the side of his neck and then pulled Kelly into a hug as he whispered into his ear, “It’ll be okay, Kelly, I promise it will.”

  Kelly’s hands fisted the back of Morgan’s shirt as he whispered back, “He’s in there, isn’t he? I can feel him, Jesus Christ, I can fucking feel him.”

  “Just come inside, Kelly,” Morgan said as he moved one hand up to slide the blindfold from his face.

  Kelly blinked a few times and then it was like a switch was flicked inside. His face turned cold and angry and he shoved past Morgan as he said, “Where’s the booze, I need a fucking drink.”

  He instantly spotted the fully stocked liquor cabinet against the far wall behind the nice polished walnut bar and he stomped over, pulled out a crystal decanter with brown liquid in it, uncorked it and drank straight from the bottle just as Cain’s phone began to ring.

  Cain looked at it, saw who it was and answered it on speaker phone, “You’re on speaker, babe,” he said to Connor.

  “Do not let him drink. Alcohol affects him like the hulk. He becomes violent and it will take more than the four of you to control him!”

  “Fuck you, Dad!” Kelly shouted as he took another gulp.

  “Kelly,” a quiet voice said from across the room and everything in the room stopped – every blink, every heartbeat, every breath, just fucking everything froze as Kelly’s eyes snapped up to see Cole standing at the end of the hall.

  “Oh, Jesus God no,” Kelly gasped out as he tried to escape backwards but his back hit the wall with a thud after a single step. He slid down to his ass so hard the bottle in his hand shattered next to his leg. Nobody saw it but they all heard it and it got them all moving towards him until…

  “NO!” Cole barked out, “Leave him be. He’s mine!”

  Everyone froze again and watched as Cole took a deep breath and began slowly walking forward, skirting around the side of the bar opposite from where the broken bottle was. He hesitated for a moment as he looked down at the man who currently looked just as shattered as that glass and then he stepped forward and slid his ass down until he was sitting next to Kelly.

  It took him a moment to realize that Kelly’s eyes were squeezed shut and he was mumbling something under his breath and when he finally heard what it was he knew that it was time to let this all go – because it had clearly broken both of them and it was time to start healing.

  “All my fault, it’s all my fucking fault, all my fault, all my fault,” Kelly was saying over and over and over and Cole was wondering how many times he had repeated this in his mind since he had found out.

  He took another deep breath, turned and clasped Kelly’s face between his hands and squeezed as he said, “No!”

  Kelly’s eyes popped open and immediately filled with tears, “Cole,” he gasped out.

  “It was not your fault Kelly. You couldn’t have known what would happen when you left, nobody could’ve known what was in those sick fuckers’ heads. If you hadn’t left, we might both be dead and I can’t have a world without you in it.”

  Tears began falling down Kelly’s cheeks as he said, “But, but I was supposed to be your first, it was always supposed to be me.”

  Cole dropped his forehead to Kelly’s, “Aw, babe, it was you. All those nights you held me close and fucking loved me? Even though we didn’t make love, you were still my first, you will always be my first.”

  “How can you look at me? How can you even be in the same room as me?”

  Cole’s head pulled back and he looked into Kelly’s eyes and he knew that this was it, this was his moment, to start that new direction and change his dismal, dark, lonely existence into one of light and love and hope. He just had to try to convince the man sitting next to him to take that leap with him.

  “Kelly Miller Braddock, whatever the fuck your name is, how can I not look at you, how can I not be near you? You are the man who owns my heart, you always were and you always will be. Are you here to reclaim it or are you here to crush it beneath your feet?”

  Cole’s heart was setting a world record pace inside his chest, beating so hard he could feel his t-shirt moving as he waited for Kelly’s response.

  He watched the emotions play across Kelly’s face like waves crashing to the shore until Kelly’s lips parted and Cole thought, for a moment, that Kelly was finally going to speak.

  But he didn’t.

  Hell no, he didn’t.

  He did something better….so much better.

  With one final groan, he smashed their lips together so hard that Cole tasted blood but he didn’t fucking care.

  Kelly Miller was kissing him, he was finally kissing him.

  And fucking-A it was better than any fantasy he’d ever had of this…times a thousand.

  Kelly’s fingers latched onto the hair at the back of Cole’s head so tight that he thought he’d never let go…and that was just fine with him.

  “Cole,” Kelly breathed into Cole’s mouth as he devoured him.

  Kelly’s hard, muscled body pushed away from the wall and stretched out over Cole as he laid him down on the floor. “Fuck, need you,” Kelly mumbled as he kissed down Cole’s neck.

  “Yes,” Cole hissed out.

  “Ow, fuck, ow!” Kelly mumbled as he kicked his leg.

  And then Cole felt it too, glass shards began stabbing through his pajama pant legs.

  “You two might want to move what you’ve got going on, away from that broken glass,” a voice said from above them.

  They both stopped what they were doing and looked up to see Cain grinning down at them from the top of the bar.

  Kelly chuckled but then he gasped when he looked back down at Cole and tears began to fill his eyes again.

  “No Kelly, don’t you go back there again,” Cole whispered.

  “I’m not, I just, I can’t believe you’re here, in my arms,” he said as he dropped his forehead onto Cole’s, “God I missed you so fucking much,” and then his mouth was on Cole’s again.

  “Guys, come on,” Cain said with a growl.

  Kelly’s eyes looked pained as he tore his mouth from Cole’s, like the act itself physically hurt him.

  “Kelly? Come to my room with me.”

  There was so much relief in Kelly’s eyes as he nodded and pushed to his knees, “Yeah, okay.”

  As they stood up, Cole eyes glanced down at the broken g
lass but Cain said, “Dude, I’ve got this. Just go, yeah?”

  “Thanks, Cain.”

  As they walk past the room full of men Kelly turned back one more time and said, “Guys, I know we’ve still got shit to cover…”

  Morgan rolled his eyes, “Kelly, go. We’ll be here when you guys are done and we can cover it then. No worries.”

  “Yeah, okay,” he said and then began walking but then Kelly turned back with a smirk on his face, “Might be a few hours though,” and then he tugged a blushing Cole the rest of the way down the hall.

  “Which room is yours?”

  “Here,” Cole said in front of double doors at the end of the hall.

  Cole pushed them open and heard Kelly mumble, “Nice fucking room,” as the doors closed behind them.

  But as Cole turned around to thank him for the compliment he realized that Kelly wasn’t looking at the room and he probably hadn’t looked at it once.

  Instead, he was looking at Cole like he was a starving man and Cole is his last meal.

  “Oh.”

  “Shower, Cole, now,” Kelly said as he yanked his shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor.

  Cole’s eyes bugged out as they took in Kelly’s ripped physique up close…and naked. “Holy hell,” he mumbled as one hand absently began rubbing over his dick.

  “That’s mine, Cole, leave it alone,” Kelly growled as he took a step forward.

  Cole’s hand immediately dropped to his side as he swallowed. But then his eyes locked on the tattoo on Kelly’s left pectoral muscle, right over his heart. It was a heart with the word ‘cupid’ in it. That was for Cole. Kelly had permanently marked his body for him. And what had Cole done? He’d let anger and hatred mask the way he truly felt about Kelly.

  “Don’t, Cole. Take your shirt off, now.”

  Somehow Cole managed to get his shaking fingers to his shirt hem and pull it up and over his head but before it was off and dropped to the floor, Kelly’s hands were gripping his waist and his mouth, “Oh fuck,” and his mouth was latched onto Cole’s nipple.

  Kelly maneuvered them both into the bathroom and then he sat on the closed toilet to remove his black combat boots and socks.

  Then he stood up, and with his eyes locked with Cole’s, he unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and dropped them to the floor.