Chapter 26
Jack
The bodyguard was definitely military of some sort. The driver had training too, but the civilian kind. They were both packing, which I didn’t like, but that couldn’t be allowed without pointing it out, and I was pretty sure Rey knew about it anyway, and the others wouldn’t notice, because the men were very subtle about it.
Everything seemed cool. Murray was queer, I was pretty fucking sure about that, and Percy seemed to love Rey a lot. They were good people, if you could call guys in their business good. I wasn’t sure about that.
And so, I needed to talk to Silas Ryker by myself. Luckily the opportunity arose when Rey got overwhelmed by the folder of many things.
As soon as Rey and Bucky went up the stairs, I leveled Ryker with a look.
“Just so you know, I’m genuinely in love with your son. He’s the first person I’ve ever loved like this, and he’s my person.”
Ryker nodded slowly. “You do understand that it bothers me how much older you are, right?”
“Nineteen years older, to be exact. I know. Like he said, we know it’s a big gap, but your son isn’t a child. Hasn’t been since his mother died.”
I could tell by how Ryker’s eyes flashed that his wife was a sore spot. Part of me wanted to poke at it, just because of how much Rey had suffered, but I could also tell how much Ryker loved his son.
“You’re right,” he said finally, after some glaring. “Did he tell you how his mother died?”
“Something about an allergic reaction, yes.” I felt I knew what he was about to say.
“That’s what we told him. It’s not true, and I don’t want him to know any different. He already hates what I do enough to be able to hate me, and…”
“And you’re selfish like that.” I amended my words, “I understand it. He’s still your son.”
I guessed Rey’s mom had been taken out as a threat or just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I agreed with Ryker though, Rey never needed to know that, unless he became suspicious and wanted to look into it himself.
“Do you want to tell me the story now?” The pointed way he asked the question suggested he was getting annoyed at me.
I could deal with that.
“I know you love Rey, because you were keeping tabs on his account since the beginning.” He didn’t ask how I knew that, which was smart. He could likely guess. “So that’s why I’m telling you what I know. I don’t think he realized you wouldcareabout him. He didn’t think anything positive would come of you finding him.”
The hurt look tinged with understanding on Ryker’s face made me feel better about him.
“He came home from school that day a bit early and went into his room. Some of your guys, two of them I think, came into the apartment to clean up, because they’d just beaten up some gay barkeep. They were throwing slurs and talking about how you’d never tolerate a queer son, because you’d want to save face and all that. They knew Rey was queer and were talking about him as if he’d be the next to learn his lesson. And when they left and Rey went to the bathroom, there were bloodstains all over.”
The anger in Ryker’s face was spectacular to see. For a moment, I saw the kind of man he would be to his enemies.
“Jesus fuck,” he hissed, then ran his fingers through his hair. “First of all, the barkeep wasn’t beaten up because his sexuality. I never cared about that. It was because something business-related. Nothing about him personally. Secondly, he wasn’t supposed to be beaten like that, but those young guys were fucking idiots and took their own homophobia out on him. Trust me when I say I’ve compensated the barkeep and he’s alive and well these days.” Ryker cracked his neck and added in a quieter, darker tone, “Same cannot be said about one of those guys though.”
“What happened on your end?”
“I realized Rey was gone that night when he didn’t appear, and I found his phone and a bag of stuff he’d left behind. I thought someone had taken him and looked at the logs. You didn’t need the code to leave the apartment, so when the only ones in were those guys…Anyway, I thought they’d done something to him. I saw that blood, too. They swore up and down they had nothing to do with his disappearance, so we made sure they didn’t know anything.”
Ah, good old torture. “You went overboard?”
“Yes.” He didn’t even hesitate. “The other one, he’s alive. He was so fucking scared he was useless, but at that point we knew he didn’t know anything anyway.”
He sighed and reached for his water. He drank some and sighed. “I figured out he’d ran, and I put together the pieces about the reason too, I just wasn’t sure. Then when he didn’t use his card…I knew he’d likely have cash, so I wasn’t too worried. But…” He looked at me then. “How did he end up here?”
“He spent a night on the streets, got robbed, and was about to freeze to death when Lake and his best friend River—he’s at work, he’s a nurse—found him. They took him in and kept him, because he didn’t have anywhere else to go. Before you ask, they learned about who you are a couple of days ago. He never told them a thing, not even his real name.”
“But you knew?”
“He told me in the fall. I made sure I knew something about you, but only so I could keep him safe if he was right about you.”
