by A J Sherwood
“Not really, bem. We got two idiots out here we need to deal with. Call the cops.”
Harris gave a non-articulate sound of understanding, and a second later Aleks could hear him speak to 911, giving them the address and gist of the situation. Aleks kept his eyes firmly trained on the tableau in the parking lot. If there was backup in the SUV, they weren’t coming out. Alex wouldn’t count it as clear until he could verify it was empty himself.
Well. This had to be a first. Cockblocked by men intent on beating up his lover. Aleks felt his frustration mount to steam-coming-out-of-ears level.
If he put a bullet into each of them, he could count it as self-defense, right?
Harris
Harris sat on the concrete steps of the apartment and listened as Aleks patiently gave his statement. The cops had arrived with all due speed—two squad cars—and had taken immediate charge of the two men. Harris felt chills just looking at them. There was no real emotion in their eyes, a sort of angry emptiness, and they looked rough. The clothes on them were nice enough, but the nicks and scars on their exposed skin hinted at a life of violence.
They’d answered the questions posed to them without any hesitation or remorse. Some rich guy called them from California. Said rough up his son, but don’t kill him. Kill the guy he’s with. Offered them fifty grand to do it.
The words echoed and clashed in his head on an endless loop. Harris felt sick to his stomach realizing how far his father would go to pull him back into his control. To actually hire someone to kill Aleks. To beat him. Did his father really think that without Aleks’s protection, with the threat of more violence, he’d just fold? Come back obediently with his tail between his legs?
All this time, Harris had only been focused on running. He’d thought with enough distance, he’d be able to escape his father’s grasp. Even being married to Aleks was a brand of running away, or had been. He looked at his husband, who even now stood protectively in front of him as he spoke to the policeman. Aleks’s hand kept unclenching and clenching into a fist, looking for a target. But he answered calmly, his voice not reflecting the turmoil of emotions boiling just under the surface.
Aleks may have been his bolt hole in the beginning, but not now. Now, he was the reason for Harris to take a stand. Enough was enough. He’d not lose Aleks, not because his nightmare of a father couldn’t relinquish control or take no for an answer.
They’d come up with all sorts of plans and strategies to defeat his father. They’d only implemented some of it. But Thais’s suggestion to frame his father for embezzlement? As illegal as that sounded, Harris was gradually weighing in on that side. Legal action was all well and fine, but it was slow. It wouldn’t stop his father immediately. They needed something to buy them time.
He waited, patiently, for the cops to wrap up and leave. If there was anything Harris had in abundance, it was patience. He’d cultivated it through his life. He kept his muscles from tensing, his breaths slow and even, expression blank. The police got contact information, wished them goodnight, and promised to follow up. Gary’s relief arrived, this time two of his co-workers instead of just one on security detail.
Harris retreated upstairs as Aleks conferred with them, quickly diving for his laptop. He’d not had a chance to set up his desktop here, but the laptop would work. It wasn’t like he had to do an actual hack for this—he had backdoors after all. He just needed to spoof the IP address and that was an easy enough thing to do on his laptop. He had the software protocols for it.
A little niggling fear in the back of his head said he wouldn’t be able to get in, that surely his father had thought to block those backdoors. But the first five seconds into VanTech Servers erased the fear. It was all precisely as it had been, nothing about the setup different. God, the man really was arrogant. Harris double-checked that his spoof software was showing an IP address in Russia and then dove in.
Warm hands settled on his shoulders, startling him, and he looked up sharply. “Aleks. Everyone good?”
“Yeah, we’re set for the night. Bem, what are you doing?”
“You know Thais’s suggestion about framing him for embezzlement?”
Aleks pulled him sharply around, spluttering. “Bem, that’s—”
“He’s not coming after you again,” Harris promised with deadly calm. “I don’t care what I have to do to prevent it.”
Grinning, Aleks pressed in and kissed him softly. “Why are you so sexy when you’re pissed?”
Harris rolled his eyes. Absurd man. He turned back to the task at hand. He wanted in and out quickly, to leave as small of a footprint as possible. The bank account login hadn’t changed either and it was easy to get in, see what the accounts were doing. Hmm, let’s see, what’s the most plausible way to—hang on. Harris frowned and scanned through the deposits again, then did a filter on it so he could see deposit history for the past year. “Holy shit.”
“What?” Aleks leaned over his shoulder to get a look at the screen as well. “Wait. Those payments aren’t steady. Shit, is he actually embezzling?”
“Has been for at least a year. Ha! That’s hilarious. I went in to frame the man for something he’s already doing. Well.” Harris stretched his neck from side to side, gearing up for some truly excellent mischief. “This’ll be fun. Let’s cause some trouble.”
“I think you’ve been hanging around me too long. You’re starting to sound like me.”
“They say couples become more and more alike as they stay together.” Harris turned his head enough to plant a quick kiss on his husband’s cheek.
“That’s a nice thought, bem, but aren’t you making the transferred payments a little…much?”
“You have to embezzle over twenty-five thousand in order to actually face time in prison. Anything less than that is a six-month sentence or a fine. The more money I pile on, the more time he’s looking at. I want him at the max sentence.”
“How long is the max sentence? And how do you know all of that off the top of your head?”
“I may have looked it up after the family lunch. Out of curiosity. Max sentence is twenty years. I’d like twenty years without worrying about him, wouldn’t you?”
Aleks kissed his temple and murmured, “Yeah, bem. I’d love twenty years of peace. Throw a little more money on there.”
Snickering, Harris threw on another ten thousand. “That’s the spirit.”
Harris
Harris was running another test on his program, seeing if he could break it, with the hope he couldn’t. If it went smoothly this time, he’d send it off to Larry and a few other guys he was friendly with, see if they could do something to it he hadn’t thought of. He had his headphones on, the music jamming, when one ear was abruptly yanked off.
“—yeah, I’ve got him here. Harris.”
Looking up, he found Aleks with the phone to his ear and switching it to speaker. The look on his husband’s face was excited, so Harris hoped this was good news. “What’s up?”
“Harris,” his attorney’s voice said clearly, “things have taken an interesting turn. I was just notified by your father’s attorney that he’s under criminal investigation for embezzlement.”
Harris tried very, very hard to sound surprised. “Really?”
“You don’t sound surprised.”
Okay, so apparently he sucked at pretending. “Yeah, not really. He’s the type to think he can get away with breaking the rules for his own benefit. How much did he embezzle?”
“No one would tell me. But the local news has picked up on the story and they said it was over six figures. He’s looking at something close to max sentence if that’s the case. I think his other iffy business practices will come to light through the investigation too, which includes your highly illegal contract with him.” John sniggered evilly.
His attorney was enjoying this far too much. Not as much as Harris himself was.
Aleks, at least, was still responsible enough to ask the right question. “So where do
es that leave our lawsuit?”
“I’ve requested a stay. Often criminal litigation can resolve some of the issues of a civil suit, so judges like to handle them one at a time instead of both at once. And it could well be that the judge rules the contract illegal and tosses it out. It’ll make our case much simpler and easier to pursue. Also, if he’s jailed for twenty years, we can drop the suit altogether and save us all the time and expense of prosecuting him. He can’t pursue Harris from jail, his mother certainly doesn’t have the power to do so, as she has no hand in the business, and the expiration date on the contract will expire long before he gets out.”
“That sounds like a win-win all around,” Aleks noted, pleased.
“So is he in cuffs now?” That was Harris’s main concern. He didn’t want a repeat of the attack they’d had two days ago.
“From what I saw on the news. His attorney, of course, wouldn’t confirm either. The man’s kinda an asshole. Your father might make bail—I actually give that high odds—but his accounts are frozen. He won’t have the funds to hire anyone to make trouble, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Harris released a pent-up breath. “That’s exactly what I was worried about.”
“You’re not free and clear yet, Harris. I definitely want to sit on this for a while, see how the trial goes, and then we can sit down and consider how best to move forward. For now, at least, I think you’re safe.”
Harris shared a relieved, joyful smile with Aleks. “That’s all I need to hear. Thanks, John.”
Hanging up, Aleks pocketed the phone and leaned in to kiss him with sweet, lingering heat. “That sounds like a good reason to celebrate. How about a long lunch somewhere private?”
“You read my mind.”
One year later
Harris
They sat together on the couch, cuddled in, watching idly as the fire crackled in the hearth, the only illumination in their cabin room. After a full year of being married, Harris was comfortable in his husband’s arms in a way he’d never expected to be. There was anticipation mixed in as well. This was their very belated honeymoon and first year anniversary. Sex would definitely happen. But right now, this moment, they were content to be settled like this and enjoy the peace.
“It’s so different,” Harris couldn’t help but say. He stared at the wedding bands on both his hand and Aleks’s in something like bemusement.
“What is?”
“My life. I keep thinking, two years ago I was running scared. Changing into a disguise, hopping random buses, only using cash. I did everything I could to disappear. It wasn’t until we became friends that I felt any sort of stability because enough time had passed; I thought my father wouldn’t find me. And now I’m sitting here, happily married to you, with absolutely nothing hanging over my head.”
Aleks dropped a kiss on top of his head. “I wish you’d confided in me sooner what you were running from. I would have helped you before it hit crisis level.”
“Yeah, I know. I think I knew it then too. But I also felt like if I said something, the boogeyman would notice and somehow find me. Fears…” Harris sighed deeply, regretting how he’d handled it. “Fears are not rational.”
“That they are not. I was terrified you’d just bolt, you were so skittish. Marrying you was partially to keep you from disappearing.”
They’d never really talked properly about Aleks’s motivations in proposing. “Was it just that?”
“Well, I already liked you and found you sexy. That played into it too. I’d say it was a thirty percent wanting to protect you, thirty percent keeping you with me, and thirty percent wanting you.”
“And the leftover ten percent?”
“Pure selfishness.”
Snickering, Harris turned his head and snuggled in a little deeper. “You silly man. How is any of that selfish?”
“I wasn’t about to let any other man have a chance with you. Selfish. And look, I’m now married to a millionaire.”
Harris scoffed. “Like you saw that coming.”
“I should have, once I knew who you really were.”
Well, that was perhaps true. Harris had already proven coding was something he could do very, very well. Once he’d set his mind to destroying his father’s company and building up his own, it had worked rather better than he’d expected. Part of that was due to the amazing support he received from his new family. His brother-in-law Leo had done an incredible advertising campaign once he had a product to offer, and it had decimated VanTech within six months. Every program and update Harris had released after that had been a further nail in VanTech’s coffin.
Now, at the ripe old age of nineteen, Harris was president of his own software company with twenty-three employees. He’d had to find office space near Aleks’s company to avoid his husband whining about not being able to have lunch with him anymore. It was a fond complaint, really. Harris, too, preferred staying close. Just because he HAD a company, it didn’t mean he always knew how to be a good boss to it. Aleks was great at giving him advice on what to do. Sometimes even stepping in and managing it when things went past Harris’s nonexistent people skills.
“Well, bem, this past year we put your father into prison for twenty years, bankrupted him, and started a new company. What do you want to do this next year?”
Harris lifted up so he could straddle Aleks’s lap, catching that thick black hair with his fingers and playing idly with it as he breathed his reply against parted lips. “Oh, I have plans.”
“Plans, is it?” Aleks murmured, eyes dancing with humor. “Plans I’ll like?”
“Some of them. Some of them you’ll love. You game, babe?”
“Always, bem. Always.”
Books by AJ Sherwood
Legends of Lobe Den Herren
The Warden and the General
Fourth Point of Contact
Jon’s Mysteries
Jon’s Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case
Jon’s Crazy Head-Boppin’ Mystery
Jon’s Spooky Corpse Conundrum
Brandon’s Very Merry Haunted Christmas*
Unholy Trifecta
How to Shield an Assassin
Short Stories
Marriage Contract
*Coming soon
Author
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AJ’s mind is the sort that refuses to let her write one project at a time. Or even just one book a year. She normally writes fantasy under a different pen name, but her aforementioned mind couldn’t help but want to write for the LGBTQ+ genre. Fortunately, her editor is completely on board with this plan.
In her spare time, AJ loves to devour books, eat way too much chocolate, and take regular trips. She's only been outside of the United States once, to Japan, and loved the experience so much that she firmly intends to see more of the world as soon as possible. Until then, she'll just research via Google Earth and write about the worlds in her own head.
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