The Boss's Son | ✅

20

Adrian kindly explained to me in the morning, when I was sprinting through the house to get dressed in time to catch Mike before his lectures would start, that it was Saturday and there wouldn't be any lectures. He did it with a smirk and after a couple of minutes had passed, in which he had watched me, running in front of him in my birthday suit. But he garnished his audaciousness with an offer to drive me to Mike.

It came after he had inquired after my car which wasn't parked by the house. I had used the excuse that I left it to Mike the night before. Not wanting to get busted on the fib, I had to decline his offer and get out my bike, making a mental note that I had to organize a way to get my car back from the wood next to the estate before I would meet Adrian next.

Stopping for coffee and croissants on the way at a neighborhood coffee shop, I knocked at Mike's door, not knowing what to expect. No one opened. My panic rose. What if Rizzoli's man had lied the night before? What if Mike had been injured? Killed? What if I had been able to rescue him, had I only turned around the very moment I woke up at my house?

I hammered against the door, nearly knocking it out of its hinges, and definitely waking up the neighbors, when I heard voices flying up the staircase. I turned to see Stan and Mike sprint up the stairs. Then I was seized and jerked into a four-armed bear hug by the two that the coffee didn't survive. It dropped to the floor and the milky brown fluid still topped with froth and caramel flooded the floor.

"You weren't home and I started to think -," I stuttered when the two men let me go an arm length to look me over, but was interrupted.

"You weren't home." Mike patted my cheek, testing that I was in front of him and unharmed. "We couldn't reach you. I was so worried."

"I had to take my bike. My phone is in the backpack. I must have missed your call in traffic." Removing my helmet now that my hands were free, I looked from one to the other. Relief to see Mike unharmed mixed with concern over Stan's presence. "You were so worried that you went to Stan. Now?"

Stan stepped away from the spreading coffee puddle. He lifted his left foot and turned up his nose at the fluid that already dripped from his sole. "By now you mean after you finally were caught by the lion you were hunting for so long? Thanks to you, I have now a new master too." Thin-lipped, he gave his leg a good shake.

He could have kicked it in my head, I wouldn't have been more stunned and bewildered. My eyes went wide. How was it possible? We had taken precautions. No one else should have been caught up in the affair. How could Rizzoli even know about Stan's connection to us?

"Not here," Mike interfered. He had unlocked his door and began to push us inside. "Now, this is how we proceed. Stan and I will clean up. After that night, we need a shower and a moment to decompress. Meanwhile, you, Tess, will start breakfast. Use some of the veggies in the fridge as well. They will not kill you. Once we all have some coffee in us, then we will talk. Not a minute earlier."

I had time to clean the mess in the stairwell, before the two men, wet-haired and clad in some of Mike's t-shirts and jogging pants, and I sat down to eggs, croissants and freshly brewed coffee. I had fried onions for the eggs, thus complying with the request for greens. Grumbling, Mike had added tomatoes to our plates. Well, he had asked for veggies, not fruit. While we ate, we all watched the mugs of each other slowly empty.

"How did you get involved, Stan?" It shot out of me as soon as I could discern the bottom of his cup through the rest of coffee in it.

Stan sat back and ran his hands over his head. "Yesterday, I was out with some guys to watch the game at a bar. That was when I received a photo of you two, unconscious and with a gun pointing at you. The attached message summoned me to a car, waiting outside." A muscle fanned at his jaw as he clenched his teeth in anger and worry. He rubbed his wrist, making me think that his kidnappers had handcuffed him. "Then I came to again, I was given a choice."