by Bree Cariad
Light in the Dark Night
A Love Conquers All novel
By
Bree Cariad
Copyright 2017 Bree Cariad, Thianna Durston
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
Words Copyright © 2017 Bree Cariad, Thianna Durston
Cover Design: © 2017 Thianna Durston
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Acknowledgements
I would like to offer a sincere thank you to my betas, Ruth & Angela. Your help is invaluable!
Table of Contents
About the Book
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Author’s Note
Coming Soon
Have You Read?
About the Book
Reverend Jonathon Neiland gets his wish a decade in the making and finally the Paul D. Regelo Center for LGBT Youth is up and running. He knows things will never be easy, but then he never expects them to be. All he asks is that the Lord be on his side while he takes care of his kids.
Court Brecker has been through his own brand of hell and strives every day to be the best he can be, but he never expects to find a runaway on the streets, nor to take him to Jonathon's center. Never one to get in too deep with anyone or anything, to his surprise he finds himself enjoying his time both with Aiden and Jonathon. They develop a deep friendship and for the first time in his life, he has someone to rely on who also relies on him.
While Brecker tries to understand the new feelings he’s battling, Jonathon runs into more and more stress, especially when Aiden is removed from the shelter forcefully. He’s never doubted that the Lord has a plan for them and when they are attacked from without and everything seems dark, He opens the door to show them the light.
Chapter One
Court Brecker strode out of the office building and took a deep breath of the crisp autumn air. Fall in central Washington State meant rain and rain was coming. But at that moment, it was a crisp fifty degrees and an Indian summer breeze drifted by. A small smile quirked up the corners of his mouth as he walked down the street toward the car park.
Life was good. His business was booming. Things had calmed down on the city council and they dealt with the same inane problems they were used to. True. Todd Crelon was still being a jerk, but that seemed par for the course. The flack he’d received for passing the application for the Paul D. Regelo Center for LGBT Youth had died down and he only received the occasional glare about it.
He wondered how the shelter was doing and if Jonathon had received enough items once they were official. Not that it was any of his business. All he’d done was make phone calls to his philanthropic friends and suggested that would be a good place to put their money. A couple times he had thought about calling to find out, but had elected not to. None of his business.
The gravel that lay in the cracks of the pavement crunched under his boots, a welcome sound that with how fast he walked, came across as a backbeat. It was so constant and predictable that when he took a step and the sound changed, he paused and cocked his head. What was that?
Before he could step back and see, he heard the odd sound again, this time without the gravel crunch. It was a sob. “Please… don’t….” The voice was tearful.
“Give it up,” snapped a male voice with a huge nasal tone to it. “Scum like you don’t deserve to own anything. Now give it here.”
Action precipitated thought as Brecker strode toward the voices, his shoulders stiffening with each word he heard. When a third voice joined the fray, he broke into a jog. “That’s not even a phone! If you don’t have anything worth stealing, we’re gonna have to take something else to make this worth our while.”
At a run by the last word, Brecker darted around a business and into a thin alleyway. On one side was brick. On the other, a chainlink fence that was green and thick enough nobody could see through it. Trash and the scents of human and animal waste filled his nostrils but he ignored it as he took in what was in front of him. Two mangy males stood over a huddled figure halfway down the alley. One of them held a battered rucksack while the other was kicking the figure on the ground.
“Stop,” Brecker demanded as he strode toward them. At five ten, he wasn’t tall, but muscles from daily workouts stood out, even through his jeans and shirt.
The attackers turned as one to look at him. Much thinner than he was, neither of them looked as though they had showered in a good long while. Tattoos on their necks told him they were probably from one of the local gangs. “Get away from him,” he said firmly as he kept walking forward.
“Make us,” snapped one of them, holding a hand out. In the hand was a switch blade. Brecker almost rolled his eyes. That was a show of bravado, but he could see the fear in their eyes. Neither was particularly brave.
As he had trained in street fighting from an early age and still kept it up, he could smack the two to the ground without thinking about it. He preferred not to. Defense was his modus operandi, not offense. As long as they left him and the kid on the ground alone, he would let them leave with all of their bones in good shape. “Leave and I might let you keep your teeth,” he said, darting a glance at the figure huddled against the wall. There was no way to tell if the individual was a boy or girl. Greasy hair hung around the youth’s face and he or she was huddled into themself trying not to be noticed.
Idiot with the blade jabbed it out, making it more than obvious he had no idea what he was doing. With one swift kick, Brecker knocked the knife out of his hands and across the alley. “Leave. Now,” he demanded.
They made threats as they turned and ran, one of them still grasping the rucksack. Brecker had the feeling it might have belonged to the kid. After making sure that the two idiots were gone, he slowly lowered himself to a crouch. “Hey,” he said in a soft, kind voice. “Let’s get you out of here before the idiots come back with reinforcements.” In his experience, dumb attracted dumber and more than likely they had friends who were just as stupid as they were.
The figure flinched and one light
blue eye peeked out at him through the mess of brown curls. Brecker smiled. “My name’s Brecker. What’s yours?” He didn’t hold out his hand as the kid was obviously terrified and he didn’t want to make any movement that would scare him or her even further.
For a long moment, there was no response. Then a soft voice whispered, “Aiden.”
“Nice to meet you, Aiden. Is there anyone I can call for you? A parent, perhaps?” As soon as he said the words, he knew they were the wrong ones. Aiden scrunched up even further and his eye disappeared behind his hair again. “Or a shelter?” he suggested, searching his mind for something to put the kid at ease.
If anything, Aiden made himself even smaller at the word shelter. That wasn’t good. Runaway most likely. Poor kid. As someone who ran away from home when he was a boy, he knew the dangers and the terror that lined city streets. There was no way he was leaving Aiden alone to deal with it.
Brecker glanced to his right at a dirty garbage bin, hoping that by not looking at Aiden directly, it would help. “This alley is like one of the many I lived in when I was a teen. I still remember the cold nights and having to fight to stay safe.” He reached up and ran his finger along a long-healed wound to the left of his left eye. “I got this in a knife fight. Almost lost my eye. If it weren’t for the people at the shelter who found me, I don’t know what would have happened.” Well, he had a pretty good idea. But he wasn’t ready to scare the kid again. Not yet.
“You were homeless?” Aiden asked in his quiet voice.
“Yep. Ran away from home when I was thirteen. You?”
“Dad kicked me out.”
It was like someone struck Brecker in the chest. What kind of parent would kick their own child out of the house? “Sorry to hear that, Aiden. But not everyone is like that. There are—”
“Nobody wants a kid like me.” The slight sob at the end of the sentence made Brecker want to pull Aiden into a hug and assure him that wasn’t true. But he knew that would be the worst thing he could do. Aiden was scared enough already. Being hugged by a stranger who was bigger and stronger than he was would terrify him further.
“Why not you?” he finally asked, still looking at the trash bin. “What makes you think nobody would want you?”
At first Aiden didn’t reply and he darted a look at him. The blue eye was once again visible from under the hair. It glistened with the weight of his tears. “I’m not right. When I came to town three months ago, I thought… I thought I could find work and I’d heard of youth shelters so I found one.” Aiden shifted against the brick, bringing his knees up to his chin. The alleyway wasn’t very light, but Brecker could see the olive complexion and the soft face of a youth who was going through the journey from boy to man. “It didn’t work,” he whispered. “The other boys bullied me, especially when they found out….”
Brecker watched him. He had the feeling that whatever Aiden thought was so bad about him would plague the poor kid unless he was able to voice it. “What did they find out?” he asked in the kindest voice possible.
“That I’m different.”
The hideousness of youth. They all wanted to fit in and their differences made them stand out. “I like different. I’m different and I’ve done okay for myself with a few friends to help me.” He wanted to ask if there was anybody he could call, but he already knew the answer. If he understood what difference the kid was talking about, perhaps he could help find the right kind of shelter for him.
Aiden shrugged and hugged his knees tighter.
Brecker remembered what it was like. The need to put up a wall between you and the world around you because if you let it down, someone would hurt you. Oh he remembered it well. But he also remembered that when he was dirty and hadn’t showered in days that being clean helped him think straighter. As though washing off the outward filth had helped to wash away some of the muck clouding his brain. That was something he could help with.
“When was the last time you had a shower?” he asked.
Aiden gave him a strange look. “I try to do sponge baths in restrooms. At night I used to go down to the river and dunk my head in to try and clean my hair, but without soap it never seemed to work well.” So he hadn’t had a shower since he left home.
“There’s a YMCA only three blocks away,” Brecker explained. “I’ve got a member’s pass. What do you say to a fresh hot shower? It’ll help you feel better.”
Aiden shook his head. “It won’t help. These are all I’ve got to wear.” He pointed at a pair of dirt-encrusted jeans that had a shadow of what might have at one time been a flower on the knee and a torn button-down shirt. Both items needed to be tossed. They smelled and changing back into them after he showered would make Aiden feel worse.
Brecker pulled his phone out and texted his driver to meet him. “I’ll take care of that. I remember what it’s like to be where you are, Aiden. Let’s get you clean and in new clothes. Then how about lunch? I’m in the mood for something good. What do you think?”
In amongst those tear-filled eyes, he saw a glimmer of hope. Which was quickly tempered. The fact it was there was a good thing. The kid hadn’t given up on hope yet.
“I don’t have any money,” Aiden whispered. “I didn’t have much to begin with and those guys took the last couple dollars I had.”
Brecker held his hand out, palm up. “I don’t want your money, Aiden. I just want to help get you back on your feet. Come on. First things first. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Aiden didn’t take his hand, but he did stand up. His clothes hung on him and from the thinness of his arms and his slight frame, Brecker figured he didn’t get much food. He followed Brecker back up the alleyway, his head darting left and right as though afraid someone would jump out of nowhere and get him.
To set him at ease, Brecker chatted about his time on the streets, his opportunities, and the two people he met as a boy who helped him through all of that. By the time they turned left at the end of the alleyway and headed toward the YMCA, Aiden was turned toward him, listening avidly.
A block from the YMCA, his driver stood waiting for him. Aiden froze when he spotted him. Brecker could understand why. Gavin Reynolds was a large man. He wasn’t just Brecker’s driver, he also acted as a body guard if it was ever warranted. Even with Brecker’s skills as a street fighter, it was easier to hire someone else to do the heavy work. “This is Aiden,” he said calmly, placing what he hoped was a comforting hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “He needs underwear, pants, shirts, socks, shoes.”
“What sizes are you?” Gavin asked as he handed over the bag Brecker had requested by text. For such a large man, he somehow managed to look smaller and not so imposing.
Aiden mumbled out his sizes and Gavin, with one nod, turned and walked toward a department store just across the street.
“Come on. Let’s go in.” He led Aiden down to the YMCA and they walked inside. Since it was just before eleven, it wasn’t busy. With how badly Aiden smelled, he didn’t want someone to react and scare the boy further. He waved his membership card at the desk and quickly guided Aiden back to the locker rooms.
Luck was with them and nobody was inside. Once they got to the showers, he handed over the bag. “Soap, shampoo, comb. Use all you need and take a nice long shower. Put your clothes into the bag and push them under the door when you’re done. I think it’s best if we burn them, don’t you?”
Aiden flushed slightly but nodded and took the bag before going into one of the showers and closing the door behind him. Clothes hit the tiled floor and Aiden pushed the bag out from under the stall door. When the water turned on and he could hear it hitting skin, Brecker grabbed the bag and rushed out of the building. He found a trash bin and tossed it inside. The last thing Aiden needed was to remember the smell. New day. New him. As he strode back to the doors, Gavin appeared with a large shopping bag. There was a shrewd expression on his face that Brecker had seen before. He was on to something.
“Got Aiden a couple different options,�
�� he said. “The tags are off and I wanted Aiden to choose.”
That was a good idea. A couple changes of clothes would be good for the boy whether or not he could get him somewhere safe. “Thanks. I’m going to try and get him to the diner to eat. And then to a shelter.”
Gavin nodded and that shrewd expression intensified. “How about that shelter you visited a few months back?”
With a frown, Brecker thought back. The only shelter he’d been to visit was—Oh. He raised both eyebrows. “You think he’s gay?”
“Gay or one of the other variations that are welcome there. Fact is, the kid’s different. And,” he added as he turned to walk away, “Aiden is fairly androgynous. If it weren’t for the fact the kid has no Adam’s apple, I would have made the assumption of male. But Aiden was also wearing jeans that would be found in the female side of any department store and the sizes are also found there. So there’s no way to tell.”
Brecker felt struck, though not as though Gavin had hit him. But at the idea that hadn’t occurred to him. He became a little familiar with some of the different genders after helping to get the Paul D. Regelo Center for LGBT Youth official and up and running. Then life interfered and he hadn’t seen any reason he would need to be acquainted with the information.
Gavin hit it on the head. Aiden was definitely androgynous. Now whether that was because the kid was agender or because of being transgender or some other reason, there was no way for Brecker to know. But Gavin definitely opened his eyes to the possibility. He was right. If that was the issue, then Jonathon’s shelter was the perfect place for him.
Brecker rushed back into the YMCA and into the showers. The water shut off as he walked inside. “Brecker?” Aiden’s soft voice sounded worried.
“It’s me, Aiden. Got your new clothes.” He slid the bag underneath the stall door and went to lean against the opposite wall. “Feel better?”