It was the first thing that had gone through my mind as soon as I’d realized they were planning to stand there, unmoving, even as the weather continued to deteriorate. But Adrián saying it first was a surprise.
He started for the door, worry visible in his strained expression and rigid back. I grabbed his shirt before he was out of reach, and pulled him into a kiss. A surprised huff escaped him, but I licked into his mouth with two hungry swipes of my tongue before shoving him to the door again.
“Let’s go, but we’re finishing this conversation, Bravo. And then I want to spend the rest of this storm sitting on your cock.”
Adrián’s nostrils flared, his mouth still damp and open.
“Sounds good to me, gorgeous.”
Chapter Twelve
Adrián
The air was thick with rain, a smell that hit me with a wave of nostalgia. It took me back to childhood, spending days with my dad out on his boat, and pretending I knew how to fish while my mom sunbathed and issued orders from her elegant sprawl. Things had been a lot simpler before I’d been old enough for anyone to expect anything from me. As soon as puberty hit, I’d spent every day chasing those Ws.
They hadn’t forced me into it, but I knew what they’d wanted for me, and damned if I didn’t put my all into trying to live up to those expectations. Athletic—check, even if I’d fallen in love with the wrong sport. Celebrated college athlete? Check. Professional athlete—yup. Most of all, I’d kept my nose relatively clean with no dirt to bring embarrassment to my family’s name. It’d all gone according to plan.
Until now.
Simeon’s hair slicked down the sides of his face as the rain rushed down in steady sheets. Despite that green rain smell usually accompanying balmier weather, the rain was icy cold. I shivered, wishing I’d worn a jacket, and followed Simeon towards the pier. He didn’t complain about jogging through the rain alongside me, but his intensity betrayed his concern. We had a couple of hours before the eye was set to slam into us and conditions were already getting worse minute by minute.
The wind slammed into us once we were away from the barrier of buildings. Folks we’d seen leisurely walking had long since walked inside, and Brayden and the mystery woman were long gone.
“Where the hell is he?” Simeon shouted over the pounding rain. “We couldn’t have taken more than five minutes.”
I turned in a circle, squinting through the storm. There was nothing in the immediate vicinity except recklessly driving cars rushing to one place or another and their sickly yellow headlights breaking through the gloom. It was the only light on the street, which was the most deserted I’d ever seen it.
“Man, I don’t know. You think we should notify his dad?”
“We can check—”
Another catastrophic rumble of thunder rolled overhead. This time it was me who jumped, especially when lightning struck in the distance quickly followed by a muted explosion and a bright green flash.
“Another transformer blew.”
“Jesus.” Simeon grimaced. “Let’s check the park and then go see his father. It really chaps my ass that an adult would have told him to meet in the rain.”
“Maybe it’s someone they both know.” I turned towards the street, waiting for another rushing car to cut through the rapidly growing pools of water. “Or maybe they even headed back to his place.”
“Did they ever do anything besides stand there?”
I thought back, scanning my memory for a handful of moments I’d observed without thinking twice. And now I wondered why I hadn’t questioned these daily meetings. Should I have? Would Simeon have? More and more I was beginning to doubt my judgment when it came to being aware of the people around me and the best ways to respond to them.
“No,” I said finally. “They just stand and talk. The second time I noticed, I kept watching until they went their separate ways.”
Simeon jogged beside me, his features drawn in the lines of an overprotective parent. Why hadn’t I had that reaction?
“Maybe it’s fine,” he said.
“Yeah. Maybe.”
We stopped at the light, not flinching away from the small waves of water lapping up over the curb and onto our feet. I squinted at each car that passed, wariness taking hold until I was searching for an assailant that might not exist.
Simeon touched my hand, fingers so tentative and so light it broke my heart. He shouldn’t be afraid to touch me.
“Don’t worry,” he said, giving me that big smile. “It’s gonna be fine. This isn’t your fault.”
“How do you know I’m thinking like that?”
“Because it’s all over that pretty face of yours. Your worry looks mean, but I can tell by now. And I can also tell you this is gonna be all right. He’s probably home with his dad.”
“I hope so.”
The light switched to red, and we darted across the crosswalk as lightning struck again. Closer this time. Each bright flash had us picking up our pace until we were sprinting through the rain like we were heading for the end zone where the safety of a kid was our concern.
Relief crushed me when Simeon indicated their apartment building—a four-story brick walk-up that lacked the overdone art-deco exteriors of the newer condos nearer to the water. The lock on the front door was broken, allowing us to slip inside and drip puddles of water all over the lobby. Grimacing at the mess, and the hazard I was creating just by being so damn big and wet, I trudged up the stairs after Simeon. He knew exactly where to go, which reminded me that he’d been here before. In Judd’s apartment. Where they’d kissed.
My jaw set.
It wasn’t the time to be picturing the moment that might have led to a hookup under other circumstances, but I did it anyway. Wondered how Simeon’s deep bronze skin would look with someone as pasty as Judd, with his dishwater-blond hair and corny-ass polos. Fuck, I hated that guy.
Simeon tapped his knuckles on the door once, twice, and then took a step back. I stayed leaning against the wall and hoping I wouldn’t have to do any of the talking.
The walls were so thin I could hear his footsteps approaching even before he was in front of the door. Either that or the dude had some monster feet with zero stealth. Even I knew better than to dance up to the door making your presence known, and I’d grown up in a gated enclave full of rich people.
“Whoa,” Judd said after opening the door. He looked from Simeon to me, smiling awkwardly. He had on a pair of black rain boots and a soaked windbreaker. “What brings you here?”
“Well,” Simeon started haltingly. “I know this is strange, and we should probably be minding our own, but about twenty minutes ago we saw Brayden on the pier over by Kent Avenue. I know it’s nothing to do with us, but the weather is getting really bad, and once we headed that way, he was gone.” Simeon smoothed his hands over his wet hair, causing water to drip everywhere. “I just—we just—wanted to make sure he was home safe.”
Judd didn’t react. My first hint that he knew Brayden was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be and he still wasn’t home.
“Was he alone?”
“No, sir,” Simeon said, ever the sweet little Southern boy. “He was with a woman.”
“Fucking shit.” Judd backed into the apartment and sharply waved us in. “I knew this was happening. I goddamn knew it.”
“What’s happening?” I demanded, following him inside. The door opened into a living room crowded with about a million DVDs and VHS tapes on a variety of shelves and bookcases. There was a television that was way too big for the room, and two armchairs. “Is he okay?”
“I have no idea.” Judd crossed the room in two strides and leaned down to peer out the window. “Was she older than him? Maybe it was some girl he’s dating.”
“Nah, she’s older. Has to be in her early forties or late thirties. I’ve seen them together a few times now.”
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Judd’s back snapped straight. He whipped around with wide eyes and a seriously pissed-off look blooming over his face. I’d seen it a ton of times before—when my own father had been hit by a realization way after it should have already come to mind. But with Judd, he sent his frustration slamming into me with a single demanded question: “You’ve seen them together before?”
“A few times. Always in the same spot at the pier. My apartment overlooks it so I’ve noticed.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
My head jerked back. “Whoa, wait up, now. I didn’t really think it was any of my business to be reporting on your kid’s movements to you.”
“My son is only thirteen. You didn’t think I should know that he’s meeting a grown woman at the pier every day?”
I glanced at Simeon, flailing for some help or a defense, but he was too busy frowning at the back of Judd’s head to catch my alarmed glance. How was this my fault?
“Look, man, I never saw anything inappropriate going on. They legit stood there and chatted and went their separate ways. Always right there out in the open on that pier.”
Judd shook his head, seething. “She wouldn’t have done anything inappropriate. She’s his mother.”
What the fuck drama had I swanned my way into?
“Okay, is he not supposed to see her? Because when we started, Yaritza had us go over emergency contacts just so we knew who was who. And she never mentioned any alerts on his file that he wasn’t supposed to have contact with anyone in particular.”
“It’s not about that,” Judd gritted out. “You just should have told me.”
I threw my hands up. “Dude, the way you stay hanging around Simeon, maybe you should have dropped a hint that Brayden wasn’t allowed to see his own mother. For fuck’s sake, man. You’re his pops—not me. I’m a football coach, not a monitor. It’s not my job to keep tabs on your kid after hours. And along that line, how the hell you didn’t know where he was? My mom would have had a GPS up my ass when I was his age.”
“How dare you?” Judd took a step forward, his pale skin flushing red as anger settled over him. “You don’t know anything about my family so don’t make assumptions. It’s not like you care—”
“Okay, that’s enough, now.” Simeon stepped around Judd so he was between us, his big, broad back blocking my view of Judd’s angry face. “It was Adrián who suggested we go check on Brayden. He does care. Don’t put your family problems on him, Judd. It’s not cool.”
I wished I could have seen Judd deflate, but I only heard the hot air leaking out of him like a balloon. It wasn’t the time or place to get indignant, especially because he was just worried about his kid, but I couldn’t help it.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked, stepping around Simeon so we were shoulder to shoulder. “I came here because I wanted to help, not get screamed at. So just tell us how we can do that.”
Judd looked like he’d rather drink a bottle of Fabuloso than ask for my help, so he directed his words at Simeon.
“I just got back from looking for him, and I was ready to call his friends.”
“Can we keep looking?” Simeon asked. “Adrián made it out like they never spent too much time together by the pier. He could have ducked into a friend’s house to get out of the rain. It’s cats and dogs out there.”
Way for him to be adorable in the middle of a crisis.
“If you really don’t mind, that would be amazing,” Judd said. “Please call me to come get him if you find him. It isn’t her weekend with him, and she has no business coming here when he’s with me.”
“All right, J. I’ll let you know.”
Simeon avoided the family drama with a grace the opposite of my big bulky ass in a china shop. He inclined his head, reassuring grin in place, and trooped back down the now water-covered stairs. I only slipped once. Thankfully. The last thing I needed was to have my time off the field extended because I’d broken my leg sprinting down a slippery staircase.
“What the fuck was that about?”
Cringing, Simeon peered out into the rain. Cascades were falling across the street in sheets so condensed it was hard to see through it all.
“There’s a lot of bad blood between them two. No abuse to the child, but their relationship?” Simeon shook his head back and forth. “No good. There was cheating and manipulation. I think they both brought in personal things during the custody fight, maybe even Judd being bisexual and him bringing up her drinking.”
“Yikes. Hot mess.”
“Yes indeed. And now Brayden’s caught in the middle.”
“Heh. Well, fuck.” I pushed the door open, instantly letting in droplets of water and the roar of the storm. “I guess we’re all up in it now, so let’s go find them both and make sure they’re safe.”
“You sure?” Simeon eyeballed the weather outside with a skepticism. “If anyone knew we were doing this, we’d be deep in it.”
“Oh well. Gallivanting in a tropical depression isn’t listed as a restricted activity on my Predators contract, but abandoning a damn kid and his mom in a bad storm is sure as hell restricted in my own personal one. Let’s do this.”
I stepped outside into the mess, and yet again Simeon caught me with one of those discreet touches. Just enough of a brush of his hand against mine as we stepped out onto the flooding sidewalk for me to know he was really feeling me right now. It lifted me up off the ground and propelled me forward, because I’d been feeling him for months and hadn’t even known it.
The search came up short, but the strength of the first few bands of the storm began to wane. It seemed backwards to me since the eye was apparently approaching, but I had no idea if it was set to hit here or if it was going to miss us completely and land somewhere else. Either way, not having to fight my way through the downpour lessened my anxiety a few degrees.
After a solid forty-five minutes of wandering the neighborhood, we backtracked towards the Center and stood on the corner in front of the diner where we’d shared our first meal.
“Did you text him?”
Simeon nodded, hunched over his phone beneath the diner’s awning. “Brayden’s still not home and no one’s seen him.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.” Simeon shoved his phone into his pocket. He stood there with his hands balled up and his hazel eyes sweeping over the streets as they’d done countless times in the past near-hour. “Goddamn it. I wish I knew where they’d gone. Do you think we should call the police?”
I blanched at the idea. “No. Come on, now. He’s with his mom. She probably took him somewhere out of the rain.”
“I know, I know,” he growled. “I don’t mean call the police on her, but the wind was so strong. What if something happened on the pier?”
“Something like what?”
“Like—” he broke off, struggling. “Like the wind . . .”
The sentence choked off, and I knew he was picturing something terrible. Something he couldn’t even bring himself to say. There were shadows gathering over him that I’d never seen before.
“Simeon, it will be okay.”
He shook his head back and forth, emotion clogging his voice shut. Where I was concerned, he was starting to seem terrified. I stepped forward, closing the gap between us, and yanked him into a hug. He froze at first but then melted against me and pressed his wet face into the crook of my arm and shoulder.
“He’s fine,” I whispered in his ear. “They’re both fine. We had our eyes on him not even five minutes before the storm got really bad.”
“I know, but I can’t stop picturing the worst. What if we’re too late?”
He gripped me tighter, fingers digging in so hard he was likely breaking capillaries. I didn’t mind. I’d felt worse.
I brushed my hand over his soaked hair and kissed the side of his neck. I h
adn’t thought twice about it until he jerked away, wide-eyed.
“We’re outside.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” I said harshly. “How else am I supposed to get you to crawl out of your brain?”
Simeon’s lips parted but no sound came out. Instead, he searched my eyes with an intensity that both startled and turned me on. Even soaking-wet in the middle of the street, in the middle of a damn monster storm, I wanted him so bad. And now that I’d accepted it, it was easy to identify the heat and the twisting in my gut.
I couldn’t wait until we were alone.
“You’re killing me, Adrián,” he whispered. “You’re dangerous.”
“I’m not apologizing for it. I like making your heart beat faster.”
“It does. Trust me.”
I grinned my cockiest grin and leaned in for a kiss right on those pillowy lips of his, but a gasp nearby struck between us like another bolt of lightning. We jerked apart just in time to see Brayden and his mother standing in the entrance of the diner.
Chapter Thirteen
Adrián
“You think they saw something?”
The flame of the candle lighter was the only thing signaling Simeon’s location in the room. It’d gone from gloomy to pitch-black in the house not long after we’d returned from the long walk back to the apartment. With only the flashlights on our phones, we’d dug out the devotional candles my mother had stocked one of the cupboards with—all of patron saints. Jesus was literally showing us the way.
“I don’t know.” Simeon lit the entire twelve pack and picked up two. “Bedroom or living room?”
“Bedroom. I want to look outside.”
“You like storm watching?”
“Usually, but now I just feel like I need to see out the window in case the damn river floods.”
“Mmm . . .”
I trailed behind Simeon. He found his way in the dark better than I did, even though it was my apartment. I chalked it up to him being collected in an emergency whereas I was sweating the fact that a snotty kid had seen me macking on a dude. Neither Brayden nor Cheryl, his mom, had said a word, but I had the creeping feeling that they’d been gaping in shock and not just surprise wouldn’t leave me alone.
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