Fuck.
He could go deeper—by not necessarily legal means. This was when his conscience always took over, and reminded him why he didn’t become a world class hacker/spy. But what if this guy escalated? Nothing would stop Riley from protecting Josh with every tool in his arsenal.
Instead, he navigated to the email and typed another response.
If you hurt Josh, I swear nothing could stop me from finding you.
“Dude, what about you? I don’t want him to hurt you either,” Josh said, reading over Riley’s shoulder.
He could feel sweat beading on his forehead, thinking about this guy laying a single hand on his best friend. His own safety wouldn’t matter. All that would matter was protecting Josh.
Another reply appeared on their screen.
I would never hurt Josh, or you, Riley. I love and support you guys more than you know. Go ahead and ask your detective friend, Garrett, if you’re unsure. You’re in no danger from me, and you never will be. However, I’m also a pain in the ass (ask my girlfriend), so we’re going to have some fun first. I’ll even give youa hint about my true identity: I’m not following you.
“How the fuck is that a hint?” Josh asked.
Riley read the email three more times trying to figure out the subtext. If he wasn’t following them, then why was he in the parking lot that morning?
“Fuck me,” Riley said, exasperated.
“Wait, really?” Josh said, confusion lacing his voice and making Riley’s gaze snap toward him. “You’d want to do that? Shouldn’t we, like, I don’t know… I don’t want to hurt you or anything.”
His jaw dropped, realizing what Josh was talking about.
“Josh, I meant,fuck me, this situation is insane, not fuck me as in,fuck me, please.”
Josh blanched and squirmed where he was sitting.
“Oh. Right. I knew that. I was kidding, obviously.”
Looking around the room aimlessly for a moment, Josh stood and announced he was getting back to work.
Riley let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, trying to ignore the images that were flashing in his mind. Images he’d love to recreate with Josh.
Yeah, they would need to talk about things. And soon.
16
THE SHELVES IN FRONT of Josh were bursting with wonton and dumpling wrappers. It took him time to find the Shanghai style he was used to.
After the death of his parents, Josh’s education in all things Chinese fell by the wayside. He could probably blame his white parents for it, but considering they were busy grieving their best friends while also acclimating to suddenly becoming parents to a five-year-old, he figured they deserved a pass.
Walking the aisles of an Asian supermarket was where he felt closest to his parents. He’d sometimes browse the shelves looking for anything that might trigger a memory of one of their meals, inhaling the familiar scents that always lingered in his home and in the kitchen, trying to find ingredients to recreate dishes his mother made.
When he got to elementary school, there were only a few other Asian students in the entire school, and usually none in his classes.
The first time he had a class with another Chinese student wasn’t until middle school, and when she discovered he couldn’t speak the language like she could, she didn’t want anything to do with him. Like he wasn’t Chinese enough for her, but he was definitely Chinese according to the rest of his classmates. Or, sometimes, Vietnamese or Korean or Japanese. People weren’t great at identifying the differences.
It never made sense to him, because he thought he was Josh first. People tended to see the color of his skin before recognizing he was a whole person with his own thoughts and feelings.
That was why Riley was so important to him. Thanks to meeting when they were infants, they never even realized they were different from each other. All that mattered was who they were as people.
As he got older, he came across more people accepting of his Chinese heritage and mostly white background. Leigh Anne and Eddie Brown wanted him to keep his identity, so when they adopted him, they simply added Brown to the end of his name. His license read Josh Wu Ming Tao Brown, but people referred to him as Josh Wu his whole life, like Wu was part of his personal name instead of representing the family he lost.
As he continued to walk the aisles, he wondered if it was time to send his DNA to one of those agencies that could find his family members, if he still had any.
His parents had been tight-lipped about any family back home, since they didn’t leave on the best of terms. They had mentioned a falling out to the Hansons and Browns, but didn’t give any details.
