Protecting Braden (Custos Securities Series Book 2)

by Luna, David

  Braden blushed, humiliated that he had to be asked that, but still grateful that he had been. “Yes, I’ll be alright.”

  Cade leaned over and kissed him soundly and then got out while Cooper got in. He knew that Cooper had heard their exchange, and he was still blushing and had a hard time meeting Cooper’s eyes. “Braden, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. PTSD fucks with people’s heads. You have no control over how your body and mind are reacting to the trauma. If Cade is your lifeline right now, you fucking hold on to him and keep him near, until you no longer need that lifeline.”

  Braden nodded, grateful Cooper understood. “It’s just so humiliating. I’ve never been dependent on anyone like this, so I feel stupid.”

  Cooper reached over and put his hand on Braden’s shoulder. “No one is judging you, especially not all of the former military guys on your detail right now. We know what PTSD can do to people. You’re lucky that you have that lifeline. Many people don’t. Tonight, I’ll do my best to show you some new ways to defend yourself, and I’m positive that Cade will work with you and continue those lessons.”

  Braden was overwhelmed with gratitude. “Thanks. I don’t like feeling out of control. Being off my schedule and being terrified of my fucking shadow is taking its toll. I’m sure the classes with you and Z will help.”

  They chatted for several minutes after that, and Braden tried to ignore the increasing panic making him fidget in the passenger seat. His hands were beginning to sweat when Cade finally came through the doors with a smile on his face. Braden looked at Cooper and saw his answering grin and looked at him quizzically. Cooper turned to him, his grin still in place. “Braden, I think you’ll be a very happy man in the next thirty minutes. I’ll see you at Vaughn’s later. Maya’s coming and I know she’s been missing you.”

  Braden thanked Cooper again. He suddenly felt sad when he realized that he had been missing her and hadn’t been making an effort to see her since he’d been released from the hospital. Maybe they could all grab dinner together after class. In fact, liking that idea more and more, he suggested it when Cade returned and Cooper was swapping seats with him. They both agreed and Cade hopped in the car and they were off, Cade watching his mirrors carefully for anyone following them.

  “Where are we going?”

  Cade smiled. “You’ll see. I hope you’ll like it.”

  Cade drove for another fifteen minutes and ended up down in the more industrialized area of town. Cade pulled over and came around to let Braden out of the car. Holding his hand, he walked them toward a warehouse, and Braden was completely confused. Cade pulled out some keys and they went inside and got into an elevator to the fourth floor. They got out and Braden’s confusion multiplied when he saw that the place was bare of anything and everything making it usable, and was absolutely huge. The building took up a city block. He stopped at one of the windows, which was fairly dirty, and Cade took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped a small spot on the window clear. Braden looked out and decided at least that it was in a cool looking part of town and that the surrounding buildings, all fairly similar, were kept up.

  He faced Cade with a bemused expression on his face. “So, what’s this?”

  “This is one of our new office buildings.”

  Braden’s breath caught. “What?”

  Cade smiled down at Braden. “This is one of two identical, side by side warehouses that we’re going to renovate immediately to turn them into the new Custos Securities headquarters. We actually start renovations two weeks from today. I wanted to wait until everything was finalized before I told you.”

  Braden’s confusion continued and he couldn’t help but repeat himself. “What?”

  Cade chuckled and clasped his hand. “One of the reasons we came to San Francisco, besides seeing our families and taking care of a job, was to scope out a new location here for our headquarters.”

  Braden’s hand flew up to his mouth and pressed there, eyes teary. “It’s really…. You’re moving your business here? You’re really not leaving?”

  “Baby, I told you, all you had to do was say the words. And what did you do?”

  Braden blinked, and tears fell. “I said the words.”

  Cade stepped forward and brushed the tears away, smiling. “You did. So, here’s the result. We came here to check out several locations. We weren’t sure if we were going to move here, because of family, or somewhere closer to the military bases in southern California, but I knew fairly quickly after meeting you that if things worked out, I wanted to be where you were.”

  Cade leaned forward and kissed Braden’s lips tenderly. Braden drew in a deep breath when they pulled apart. “I don’t even know what to say. I’m literally at a loss for words.”

  Cade chuckled a bit, clasped Braden’s hand and brought it to his lips. “How about I just talk about it a bit, and you can think about what you want to say?”

  Cade grinned down at Braden when all he could manage was a wide-eyed nod. “OK, so we’re actually standing on my personal floor. I’ve been wondering if I should buy a house or keep myself close to the business. In the future, we’ll buy a home together, but in the meantime, I’ve been removed from the business for a while now and I’d like to get back to being closely involved in the day to day activities.”

  Braden brow furrowed with worry. “I’m sorry.”

  Cade shook his head and closed his eyes. “Baby, that’s not what I meant. There’s no need for you to be sorry. I wouldn’t change a thing and while I’ve been away from the office for this case, that’s not what I was talking about. You are now my top priority and if this case takes a long time and it came down to it, I’d hire someone to replace me until this case was dealt with. Alright?”

  “But—”

  Cade gripped his chin, forcing Braden’s eyes to his. “No buts. Let me explain.”

  When Braden nodded his head, Cade continued, “Cooper and I feel that we are much more present for our employees when we are on site. Cooper has been the one on site in Colorado Springs and I want to give him a break from that. We run the business as a 24/7 operation, obviously. There are always people working at any given time, depending on the job and the needs of the business, so it helps to have one of the owners on site, should the need arise.”

  Braden’s shoulders relaxed. “So you’re going to make this floor your living quarters?”

  Cade wandered away a bit, turned in a circle, taking in the space. “Yes, I’m going to renovate it, open up most of the outside walls to be surrounded by windows. I don’t know yet if I want to close in the space with rooms, or leave the whole thing open. My mind doesn’t work that way, so I’m at a loss. What do you think?”

  Braden looked around the space again with new eyes. “I think, to take advantage of the space, you’ll want to leave almost everything open concept, apart from maybe the bedrooms and the bathrooms.”

  Cade prowled slowly back toward him and pulled Braden into his arms. “What else would you do?”

  Warmth surged through Braden when he saw real interest from Cade about what he would do in the space. He pulled away from Cade, but continued to hold his hand as he walked around the empty floor, envisioning renovations that would make this perfect for Cade.

  “I’d keep the bedrooms fairly small, maybe only two of them, at most three and only use them for sleeping, for the most part. Everything else out here should be made for convenience and completely open. Your people will come see you and inevitably you’ll bring work home with you. You’ll want your own workspace and dining area and kitchen and living room area, but no walls, just sectioned off areas. If needed, half walls, maybe to help separate the spaces, if you wanted, but other than that, let the light in with surrounding windows. Or, you could….”

  Braden stopped when he looked up at Cade and saw his avid interest had turned into something more predatory. Braden blushed again, damn his skin, and swallowed past the lump in his throat. Cade prodded, “I could what?”

&
nbsp; Braden ran his hand through his hair and held it back from his face. He turned toward the center of the room and then back to Cade. “This isn’t too much? Too many opinions? I don’t want to overstep.”

  “There’s no overstepping with us, Braden. I really want to know, if you had unlimited funds and could make this space into anything, what would you do?”

  Braden nodded, letting go of his hair. “Uh, well, it’s the top floor in this building, right? So the exposed beams up there are probably structural, but maybe not all of them are. The ceiling is really high, so you might be able to create a loft space. I mean, keep the bottom floor completely open concept, and create a lofted second floor that could have all of the bedrooms and bathrooms and private living quarters.”

  Cade smiled and urged him on. “OK, but how would that work?”

  Braden started getting into it, his arms gesturing while he continued to describe his vision. “I mean, it’s an industrial space, right? So you could have everything be industrial, but comfortable. Make it all livable, but keep with the aesthetics of the building. I mean, if that’s something you’d like?”

  When Cade nodded, he continued, “So put in some industrial metal stairs and railings to a second floor lofted space. It could either take up half of the area or the whole area, depending on privacy needed and number of rooms. Instead of full walls on the bedrooms that face the lower level, put sliding frosted glass doors that open the rooms up to allow some of the light from down there into the upper rooms.”

  Cade grinned at Braden as he continued to express his ideas, his excitement growing. “The rest of the downstairs could be completely open with a gorgeous kitchen and a huge island and a big dining table to feed as many guests as you think you’d have. If you wanted an office upstairs you could do that, for privacy, or have one downstairs.”

  Braden ran out of steam and realized he’d been babbling for some time about how he saw the living space working out. He turned around to face Cade and walked back over toward him. “Just some ideas for how it could work out for your space.”

  “What if it wasn’t my space?”

  Braden’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “What if it was our space?”

  “You want us to live together permanently?”

  Cade nodded. “Yes. I wouldn’t want to be in the same town and live apart. But, I want to give Cooper some time away from the office. He’s been living on site since the beginning and I feel like it’s my turn to do so. I know it’s not ideal.”

  “No, it makes sense.”

  Cade continued, unsure of what Braden was thinking. “I know you probably love living across the street from the café and I know it’s asking a lot to even think about it, but I guess that’s exactly what I’m doing. If you really don’t want to leave your space, Cooper’s already said he’s fine with continuing to live on site.”

  “My place is convenient—”

  Cade nodded. “I understand. I’m happy to live there with you, if that’s OK with you.”

  Braden smiled. “You didn’t let me finish.”

  “I’m sorry, Bray. Go ahead.”

  Braden rubbed his hands up and down Cade’s upper arms. “My place is convenient, but I’m not overly attached to it. You’re moving your business here. Moving in with you isn’t a lot to ask at all. I think I’d really love it.”

  Cade swallowed Braden up in a bear hug that lifted him off his feet. He tilted his head back to look down at Braden and grinned at him. “That makes me really fucking happy. And now, I’m going to ask a huge favor and if it stresses you out or you don’t want to do it, I’m OK with that.”

  Braden was bemused when Cade continued to hold him off the ground. “What is it?”

  “Would you be willing to be in charge of our living space, while Cooper and I focus on our work space? We have an architecture firm we’re working with that says they can handle both. We’ll be working with a couple of architects for the business side and you’ll be working with a different one for the living space.”

  Braden grinned. “Seriously?”

  Cade grinned back and nodded. “Seriously. You’d have carte blanche, spare no expense. I want you to choose anything and everything you would want for your dream home, especially your kitchen. Hire an interior decorator too—the space is too big to deal with on your own. I don’t know how many years we’ll live here, or rather, how many years you’ll be happy living here, before you’ll want your own home for us.”

  Braden was finally put down on his feet. He tilted his head at Cade in confusion. “But this would be our own home for us.”

  “I just mean away from my business. Eventually you’ll want us to have our own home, I’d imagine, space for kids, a yard with some grass, that kind of thing.”

  Braden tilted his head, confused. “Are you under the impression that I feel like I’m compromising by agreeing to this, to living here?”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  “No. I’d be living with the man I love and creating the home of my dreams. I’d still be downtown, which is where I have always lived and always want to live. This isn’t a compromise, Z, this is…. Everything! I’m really excited about it.”

  Surprise etched itself across Cade’s face. “Seriously?”

  Braden chuckled, shaking his head at Cade’s incredulous expression. “Hell yes, seriously! I’m excited to work with the architect and interior designer to choose what I want for our space. Are you kidding me? You’ve just put a kid in a candy store.”

  Cade gathered Braden up in his arms, lifted him off of his feet yet again, and kissed him senseless. He leaned back down to reconnect Braden’s feet with the floor and looked into his eyes. “Thank fuck! God, I was so worried you wouldn’t want to live here in some old warehouse directly over my offices. I was a bit panicked.”

  “I just want to be with you, wherever that may be. You’re home to me.”

  “God, Braden, the things you say to me.”

  Cade leaned down again and kissed him so softly and sweetly that Braden’s heart swelled in his chest. A feeling of such happiness came over him he thought he might need to pinch himself to be sure it was real.

  Reality intruded several minutes later as they made their way to the car. Braden remembered where they were going and why. For the short time that they’d been in the warehouse, Braden had completely forgotten about Eric. His stress levels climbed up a few notches, but he was grateful to Cade for giving him that feeling of normalcy, even if just for a short amount of time. He was bound and determined to take all the steps needed to make sure they had the future that Cade had just shown him was possible.

  They arrived at Vaughn’s and were met by the man himself at the security desk. He pulled them aside, looking tense. “Look, Cade, I know I always make you put your gun in my lockbox, but I know that having Braden here is a unique circumstance. You can keep it on you, but please keep it covered up. You’ll be in a class with women, some of whom have been the victims of violent crimes. You’re menacing enough as it is with your size and your tattoos.”

  Cade nodded, grateful. “Understood.”

  Vaughn gestured behind him. “I’m going to go into the class tonight to introduce both you and Cooper. If you could head toward the corner opposite the door, the women will feel more at ease and less confined.”

  Cade nodded and ushered Braden to the locker room. They changed and went back out to meet Vaughn. He led them to a classroom that had a door that opened directly into the lobby and saw that Cooper was already there chatting with Maya. There were several other women chatting toward the front of the room.

  When Maya saw him, she jogged his way and stopped when she got to him, not knowing if she was welcome to touch. He opened his arms wide for her and his heart lurched as she got teary-eyed and walked into his arms, wrapping her own around his neck. He gave her a bear hug, lifting her off the floor and she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on for dear life. The pain in his
ribs was ignored as he comforted his best friend, knowing she needed him as much as he needed her.

  She nuzzled her face into his neck, which always tickled him, and kissed him there. When she finally pulled a bit away from him, he set her down and she swiped at her eyes. “I’ve missed you. I’m so sorry I haven’t made more of an effort to come see you. It’s been so busy at the café and I’m doing my best to keep an eye on Nana, so she doesn’t overdo.”

  “My, it goes both ways. I haven’t made that effort either. Things have been hectic for us both. Did Coop tell you about dinner tonight?”

  “Yeah, I asked Coop to make us a reservation at Lers Ros.”

  Braden’s mouth watered at the thought of the best Thai food in town. They both grinned at each other like loons and hugged again. He whispered in her ear that he’d missed her and she squeezed his waist harder before stepping away. He glanced around and realized that there were a lot more women in the room and that they were getting mostly curious, but some wary glances. They moved apart and Braden gravitated toward Cade when Vaughn went to the front of the room. “We’ve got a new instructor tonight, everyone. Actually, two of them, as the instructor for Thursday’s class is also here.”

  He walked over toward their group and stood between Cooper and Cade. He nodded toward Cooper. “This is Cooper, he’s former Special Forces and highly skilled at hand to hand combat. He’s half of a partnership at a company called Custos Securities that is based out of Colorado Springs. Their office headquarters has several classes in self-defense, just like this one, so they are well versed in training not only soldiers, but civilians in self-defense techniques.”

  Cooper raised his hand in a wave. “Hi, ladies. I’m looking forward to helping you learn a few things tonight.”

  Vaughn nodded toward Cade. “The second half of that partnership is Cade, and he will be instructing the class on Thursday. He is also former Special Forces and he is one of the only men that has ever truly bested me in a cage fight outside of my career fights. He can be vicious and he fights dirty, which is what you all need to learn to do.”