Ryder stared at Logan and then stood, pulling out his phone. If Harrison thought he could walk away that easily, he really didn’t know him very well yet, but he soon would.
“Felix? Are you and Brick still close to Logan’s office?
“Yeah, we just pulled out of the parking garage, why?”
“I’m here. Can you turn around and pick me up?”
“We’ll be right there,” Felix said and ended the call.
“What are you going to do?” Logan asked.
“What I should have fucking done before he left,” Ryder growled.
Taking the stairs downward, he jogged across the lobby of the new office building and out the front door. Logan had picked a prime spot not far from Trudel Industries.
Standing on the sidewalk, he heard a voice behind him and spun.
Harrison was leaving the building with Brian.
Grateful that he needn’t hunt Harrison down, he stalked toward the pair. Brian gave him a nod and stepped aside.
Harrison froze, eyes wide at his approach.
Felix and Brick pulled up in Felix’s SUV.
“Excuse me, Brian,” he growled, coming toward them.
Harrison’s eyes were red rimmed from crying, his beautiful faced blotched. A wet paper towel was clutched in his hand.
Ryder kept coming and a shocked Harrison took several steps back.
Reaching the younger man, Ryder bent and lifted a struggling Harrison into a fireman carry over his shoulder.
Harrison squeaked and then clutched at his back, legs kicking.
“Let me go!”
“Not in this lifetime,” he growled and slapped a hand to Harrison’s ass.
Brick jumped out and opened the back door of the SUV and Ryder dumped Harrison inside and then crowded him so he had to move over. He didn’t trust that the man wouldn’t bolt if he went around to the other side.
“Ryder! Stop it.”
“Drive,” he told Felix when Brick was inside.
Felix punched the gas and Ryder took Harrison’s hand and linked their fingers.
“Your place?” Felix asked, catching and holding his gaze in the rearview mirror.
“No, Harrison’s apartment. The security cameras are back on line but I need you both watching the building.”
“Ryder,” Harrison hissed.
He squeezed his fingers just enough to keep Harrison from escaping. After a moment of trying to get away, Harrison’s fingers suddenly clung to his.
Ryder turned in his seat and studied the beauty at his side. So noble, trying to protect him. Trying to keep him safe because Harrison loved him and Ryder knew it to the bottom of his soul.
He pulled the younger man into his arms and buried his face in Harrison’s bright hair. After a moment, Harrison snaked arms up and around his neck and hung on.
“How many times do I need to knock it into your head that I’m not going anywhere?” he whispered roughly against the man’s jaw, tipping Harrison’s head back with his mouth. Once that slender neck was exposed, Ryder kissed a tender line upward before he kissed Harrison’s pretty pink lips.
The kiss lingered after the first initial heat and he lifted his head to gaze down into Harrison’s flushed face.
“I can’t have you hurt, please, Ryder.” Harrison said on a half sob and buried his face once again in his neck, hands clutching him desperately.
“Till death do us part, baby. I’m not walking away and I’m not letting you either.”
Harrison
“I’ve always fantasized about making love to my bodyguard.”
Ryder lay sprawled in his big king sized bed, looking sexy as sin. Harrison roamed up, straddled his hips, and ran his palms over Ryder’s bare chest.
“I’m not your bodyguard anymore,” Ryder smirked up at him and clenched his fingers into his bare ass cheeks.
“Ooooh… well, I can fantasize.” Harrison wiggled his cock and balls down with a slow grind on the naked man beneath him. Leaning over, he gave Ryder a slow, aching kiss.
He couldn’t believe he’d almost fucked this up. They’d talked long into the night and the funny thing was that Ryder had known all along what he’d been doing in Logan’s office.
God help him, but he’d been ecstatic when Ryder had tracked him down on the building’s front steps and whisked him away. Some men might think that embarrassing. Harrison thought it romantic as hell.
Just like a fairy tale, and he knew in that moment that he was in this for life.
Ryder was it for him.
“Guard my body,” he teased huskily when he lifted his head. Grabbing the lube and condoms on the side table, he scooted back and rolled the sheath down to cover Ryder’s hard cock and palmed some lube. He wrapped his hand tightly around the man’s cock and started a slow stroking glide.
“You’re mine,” Ryder’s voice growled, and his hips lifted from the bed. “Say it.”
“I’ll have my own personal bodyguard lover?” Harrison’s head lifted, Ryder’s question overwhelming him.
He wanted it so fucking badly. His eyes moved lovingly to catch and hold Ryder’s heated gaze. The man’s hips gyrated beneath his touch.
“Say it,” Ryder growled again when he didn’t answer right away.
Harrison smiled and lifted back up with knees on either side of Ryder’s hips and ground down before he eased upward enough to reach beneath him and position the head of Ryder’s dick to his entrance.
He held Ryder’s eyes. “I’m yours,” he said and pushed down, taking Ryder in one hard push.
“Nnnnh fuck!” Ryder groaned, hands lifting to grip hard at his hips.
He agreed with that statement and bent forward, taking Ryder’s mouth.
Harrison flipped over on the bed to lay on his stomach; bending his legs at the knees, he waved his feet in the air behind him, then tapped his heels to his butt. With his chin to his crossed arms, he studied Ryder.
The morning sun glinted on the man’s dark hair. He could picture spending the rest of his life with Ryder.
“What?” Ryder asked and flipped down the newspaper and looked at him over the top of a pair of reading glasses. Sexy as hell reading glasses.
“I love your parents.”
“They love you. Are you sure you’re ready for a Freeman Thanksgiving? I overheard you accepting Mom’s invitation.”
“Of course. I’ve never had that.” He yearned for it and it must have come through in his voice, because Ryder’s big palm suddenly cupped his cheek for a brief moment.
“Well, you’ll get plenty of it with my family. So much so, I imagine you’ll get sick of it.”
“Never,” he laughed, scooting up to kneel.
Ryder smiled, folding the newspaper.
“I can’t believe your mom is a romance writer,” he smiled, remembering the shock when Gina had showed him books lined on a shelf with scantily dressed women in the arms of bare chested men with her name on the front.
“That plus their rental properties help pay for that big house. I kept telling them to downsize, but mom insists they need it for when family visits. I guess since Romero and the kids moved in, that’s a good thing.”
Harrison nodded, pulling on his lip. “Your dad talked to me about my situation. He knows a lot about this stuff.”
“I told him. He was a police captain and has a wealth of experience. I usually run everything past him.”
“I used to do that too.” He gulped, blinking at the sudden sting in his eyes. “Run everything by my dad.” A lump formed.
Ryder placed the newspaper aside. “Tell me about him.”
Blinking to keep the tears at bay, he smiled. “He had such a big heart but a shrewd head for business. He’d give the shirt off his back if he thought a person was in need, but he hated liars and thieves. Oh, and he had horrible taste in women and jaded views on love,” he huffed, and Ryder made a soft sound of agreement.
Ryder brushed his fingers against his temple. “I’m so sorry you lost hi
m.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I know he would have liked you.”
“Logan speaks very highly of him,” Ryder said.
“Despite the crazy ass will?” Harrison returned with a smirk.
Ryder chuckled and leaned over to kiss his nose. “Your dad and I might have had some words over that.”
Harrison smiled and lifted a hand to run his fingers through Ryder’s dark hair, brushing it back from his forehead.
“I’ve got you. I forgive him.” Harrison leaned in and placed his forehead to Ryder’s, absorbing the man’s essence. “And on that note, I need coffee!”
“Coffee, mhmm,” Ryder agreed.
Harrison gave a huffing laugh.
“Don’t laugh. It’s your turn.” Ryder squinted.
“I know, I know,” he complained with a smile.
Springing from the bed, he stretched beneath Ryder’s heated look and bent over to tug on a pair of sweats.
“I don’t know why you insist on getting dressed. I’m just going to rip those off you when you get back.”
A happy burst of sound came from his throat. “Maybe that’s why I do it. Ever stop to think of that?”
He laughed when Ryder eyed him like his next meal. “And for good measure…” He plucked Ryder’s shirt up from where it hung draped over the small desk chair and slipped it on. The shirt was miles too big, but he loved it because it smelled like Ryder.
Spinning, he placed a hand sexily on his cocked hip. Ryder’s eyes heated up further.
“Save that thought,” he said with a wink.
“If you insist.” Ryder picked up the newspaper with a snap and then sighed when his cell phone rang.
Harrison giggled and left the room. There was a teasing side to Ryder that he freaking adored.
Grabbing two coffee pods and mugs from the cupboard, he bypassed the coffee pot and flipped on the Keurig coffee maker. Once heated, he popped in one pod. It started filling the cup just as a knock sounded on the door.
At the familiar secret knock, he smiled, doing a little jig on his way to the door.
Ryder
“Anything?”
“No sign of him.”
“The cabin could have been his last minute hail Mary.” Ryder rubbed at his nape.
“He won’t be showing his face around Denver. We’ve got law enforcement on the lookout. Security and the video feed departments have been notified as well as the apartment building. Shelby Clark won’t get past us.”
“Thanks, Logan.”
“No worries. I’ll talk to you later.”
Ryder tossed the phone to the bed and stretched. Being with Harrison relaxed him. The man understood what was important in life beyond money. It was refreshing. He’d been able to let the past go.
He loved Harrison. They hadn’t said the words yet, but Ryder was getting ready to. He reached and slipped open the nightstand, checking that the ring box he’d placed there last night was still in its place. With his mother’s help, he’d picked out the perfect set.
Some people may say he was jumping the gun, but he now knew what he wanted. He also didn’t want Harrison losing the company his father had built from the ground up. If Harrison turned him down, then Ryder would wait. He couldn’t do anything but wait. The young man had stolen his heart.
Flipping the covers back, he rolled to his feet and tugged on his jeans. Harrison had either gotten distracted or was contemplating breakfast in bed. Harrison spoiled him that way.
Wandering out of the room, the smell of coffee drifted on the air. He scratched at his stomach and stepped into the living room.
The door was open.
Wide fucking open.
A dark, curly-haired man lay on the floor, trying to use his one arm to lift himself up and holding the back of his head with the other.
“Harrison!” Ryder called out loudly. His heart lurched and thundered in his chest. He sprinted to the door near the fallen man and looked out into the hallway.
Empty.
“He took him!”
“A man with dark hair?”
“No, red hair,” the man gasped.
Fuck! It’s Toby.
“What’s your name?”
“August,” the man said, tears racing down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry. The guy jumped me coming into the building and knocked out Thomas in the lobby.”
“All right, August.” Ryder reached and lifted the smaller man and carried Harrison’s best friend to the couch. “Call 911. Report your attack and tell them there’s been a kidnapping. Tell them Toby Grant. You got that?”
“I will! Be careful, he’s got a gun.”
His blood ran cold and he spun, running back into the bedroom. He shoved on shoes, a shirt, and grabbed his gun and an extra clip before he was back out the door in forty-five seconds.
He skipped the elevator as he saw it had already stopped at the lobby, and took the stairs. Leaping down each stairwell until he reached the bottom, he shoved open the door and sprinted down the hallway and into the lobby, where he saw Thomas lying on the ground. An older woman stood with her hands to her mouth, a younger one trying to comfort her.
“Call 911!” he ordered.
“I did,” the younger woman said.
He crouched briefly by Thomas. He felt a slight pulse in the older man’s neck.
“The guy went that way with another one.” The woman pointed to the garage hallway. “He has a gun!”
“Thanks, stay here with him!”
Ryder turned around and ran through the hallway and into the parking garage, heading toward the underground exit.
Yanking his phone out, he called Logan as he ran, his gaze roaming over the area.
“Ryder?” Logan asked, surprised.
“Oh fuck. Oh fuck. I lost him. Fuck, I lost him!” He broke at the sound of his friend’s voice.
“What? How?”
“It’s Toby! He wouldn’t have opened the door. Somehow, Toby got a hold of August, a friend of Harrison’s, and got through the door.”
“Son of a bitch. Brick and Felix are back across the street. I’ll call them and I’ll send Jaxon.”
“Hurry!”
His blood ran cold. The parking garage exit appeared empty, the metal gate closed, but a car could have already left.
Brick and Felix ran through the same side door and reached him. Felix reached him first. “Where do you need us?”
“One of you guard the exit. The other, start searching stairwells and cars.”
“Got it! Go!” Felix yelled at Brick and both men ran, Felix toward the gated exit and Brick toward the parking garage stairwell and elevator.
Ryder turned and sprinted up the ramp. You fucking lost him, think! Fucking think!
His footsteps stumbled. They were supposed to have years together. He needed a chance to tell Harrison he loved him. Racing up the next level, he peered inside vehicle windows on his way. He doubted Toby would take Harrison on foot. They had to be in a car.
If they left by car, they’d have to run him over to get past him. If Toby did that, Felix would kill the fucker at the gate.
Reaching the second level, he spotted Brick checking the stairwell. Ryder jogged upward, checking in cars and SUVs up the ramp to the next level.
Jaxon’s hog roared in the distance.
Ryder’s cell rang and he answered it.
“Are you there?” Logan shouted and it sounded like the man was running.
“Yeah, Felix has the front exit guarded, and Brick is helping me search the parking garage. The woman in the lobby said they went into the parking garage. We can’t be far behind.”
“Okay, I’m on my way. Jaxon should be there.”
“I hear him.” Ryder hung up and worked his way up to another level and came upon a young couple.
“Don’t shoot!” The man pushed the woman behind him and lifted his hands palms up, eyes wide.
“I’m looking for two men,” Ryder called out, jogging closer. “One big, t
he other not so much? One has a gun?”
“No, sorry,” the man said and lowered his hands. The woman shook her head. “Thanks!” Ryder ran upward, chambering a round in his gun. He paused to listen. The parking garage was quiet.
Had they somehow slipped past him? He refused to believe that he’d lost him. He looked blindly down at his weapon.
“Ryder!” Jaxon shouted, jogging into view. “What do you need?”
“Fan out!”
Fuck. He needed to get his head on straight and stop letting emotion get in the way.
Pivoting around, he sprinted upward.
Harrison
The fucking door! He shouldn’t have opened it. How badly was August hurt? The gun in his face had kept him from calling out to an unsuspecting Ryder, and now he wished he’d done something, anything, but go with Toby.
He stumbled when he was shoved forward against a parked SUV.
“Get in!”
“No!” Trying to stall, he refused to get inside the vehicle.
“I said fucking get in there.” Toby raised the gun high.
The gun came down and Harrison raised his hands, blocking the blow, but it hit him in the mouth, splitting his lip. His back hit the SUV door handle. If he got in the vehicle, the chances of Ryder finding him were slim.
Toby raised the gun and hit him again. His cheek stung and he pressed at it, his hand coming away with blood.
When Toby lifted his hand one more time, Harrison cried out.
“Okay,” he shouted and opened the driver’s side door.
Toby shoved him into the SUV. Harrison climbed over the center and made a desperate grab for the opposite door. Toby caught him before he could touch the handle.
The blows to his head and face were quick and brutal, leaving his ears ringing, nausea rising, and his face bloody and swollen.
After a moment, the driver’s door closed, trapping him inside the vehicle with a madman.
For several long minutes, there was nothing but silence filled with his own ragged breathing.
“This is all your fucking fault,” Toby said. “All your fault.”
His stomach churned. Toby had lost all sense of reason.
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