Homecoming Hearts Series Collection

by HJ Welch

  It was light enough outside to call it morning. He would love to have gone for a run, but that meant asking Levi to come with him, and he couldn’t face that. Instead, he rolled out of bed and did some jumping jacks. He could get a good stretch in the room and do some crunches to work up a little sweat. Anything physical would help distract his body from how exquisite it had felt to be pinned down by Levi.

  Raiden couldn’t say he’d been into that much before – being bossed around in the bedroom. Of course he’d gotten off to dominatrix porn. He got off to most things. But he’d never asked a girl to push him around before.

  The way Levi had pinned him to the wall, though, made his whole body shiver now. He scowled and flipped over to crack out some push-ups. If he pushed himself to the point where he started to tremble from lactic acid, rather than desire, he might be able to shake these feelings off before he had to face Levi.

  A cold shower later and he was standing outside Levi’s door. He ground his teeth. There was no sense him checking out if Levi was still asleep. He needed to know.

  With a deep breath, he knocked twice on the door, loud enough he was confident he’d be heard, but not too aggressive. At least he hoped.

  Levi opened the door a few seconds later in sweats. It looked like he might have been working out, too.

  “Hi,” said Raiden, determined to tackle this head on. “I was wondering when you’d be ready to go?”

  Levi nodded. “Ten minutes.”

  “No rush,” said Raiden, raising his hands. “Just knock on my door when you’re ready.”

  He took a breath, ready to bring up last night. But Levi nodded again, then closed the door in his face.

  “Damn.” Raiden sighed and rubbed his still-damp hair before going back to his room.

  He didn’t have any of his gear. Levi had left that all in the car. Raiden assumed it would be safe enough overnight as the trunk was concealed from the outside. But it meant he couldn’t distract himself with work while he waited. He flicked on the TV and fiddled with his phone instead, partially succeeding with occupying his mind with thoughts other than the way it had felt to come pressed up against Levi’s solid body.

  He and Pearl had swapped several messages since yesterday evening. It looked like the show went great with a welcoming crowd. They had a reasonable following of fans already from the EP and few singles they had released, but it was hard to predict how many of those would show up to a small gig. Raiden still wished he could have been there, but at least everything went well in his absence.

  Blake and Elion had been pretty gutted they hadn’t been able to get together. With Blake’s hectic performance and teaching schedule and Elion’s college classes, it was hard for them to negotiate time to see each other. Raiden felt guilty, but they’d been understanding, naturally. They were great guys. Raiden had promised them that once this tour was done, they would work something out.

  Raiden’s phone pinged. It was a text from Levi.

  Meet me at the car.

  Raiden huffed and snatched up his overnight bag. Typical. Levi was probably just going to ignore him as much as humanly possible now. Well, tough shit. They were going to be stuck in a car together for the next several hours. He’d have no choice but to talk to Raiden at some point.

  Raiden checked out at the front desk without really paying attention to what he was doing. He was brewing a storm inside again, even though he wanted to stay calm. But would it really have killed Levi to wait and walk down with him? What about all his security measures?

  “Don’t worry,” he said by way of a greeting as he opened the car door. “I didn’t get taken out on the way down to the lobby. I know my safety is your top priority.”

  “I didn’t think you would,” Levi murmured. His attention was on the GPS display integrated into the dash of the Jeep. “Come here, check this out.”

  Raiden bit back a sarcastic response and threw his bag onto the back seat before sliding into the passenger seat. “What?”

  Levi pointed at the list of previous destinations he’d pulled up on the menu. The second to last one was the hotel in Cincinnati. Raiden was positive. He had re-checked it about a hundred times since yesterday evening. The top one was somewhere in Knoxville.

  “You added another address after we left Apple Blossom?” Raiden asked in confusion.

  Levi met his eye and shook his head slowly. “No, I didn’t change anything after we left the ranch.”

  “So,” said Raiden. “What? I don’t get it. How did we end up here?”

  Levi licked his lips and looked at the display again. “Someone else added a new address.”

  Raiden laughed. “That’s crazy. Why would anyone do that? How could they do that? It’s not like you let anyone into the car besides us since we left the farm.”

  “Raiden,” said Levi. His tone was grave. It made Raiden stop laughing and pay attention. “You were hacked a few weeks ago. Someone got into your phone and computer files. We still don’t know how. Then they did what they wanted with that information.” He pointed at the mysterious top address. “GPS runs on satellite navigation. 4G. Signals that can be hacked.”

  Coldness washed through Raiden. He sat a moment, absorbing Levi’s words. “You think,” he said eventually. “That someone – the hacker – tapped into the car and sent us the wrong way on purpose?”

  Again, Levi considered his words before he spoke. “I can’t see any other explanation.”

  “Why?” Raiden felt sick.

  Levi scrubbed his face. “The way I see it, there are two possibilities. One, they’re a prankster who enjoys fucking with people for kicks.”

  “But,” Raiden prompted. He could tell there was a ‘but.’

  “But,” Levi said. “My uncle has all our vehicles’ software encrypted. This would be very hard to hack.”

  “A lot of work for a prank?” Raiden guessed. Levi nodded. “So, what’s option number two?”

  He waited while Levi considered his words. Raiden’s skin prickled with gooseflesh.

  “Option number two is that they hoped to lure us – you – to a location of their designation before we realized we’d gone wrong. A long shot, but we did almost make it all the way to Knoxville, after all.”

  “Why would they want to bring me somewhere?” Raiden asked. Despite all the death threats he’d received, for the first time since the hack he felt truly afraid.

  Levi shook his head. “I honestly don’t know,” he said.

  11

  Levi

  Levi was lost in thought as he drove. He and Raiden had pulled into the nearest gas station to the hotel and picked up a map to guide them to Pittsburgh. He wasn’t risking the GPS again.

  It seemed this threat might be genuine, after all. It was clear to him now how lax both he and Raiden had been. They needed to treat this as serious. Deadly serious.

  Why indeed would anyone want to trick Raiden into going somewhere? Levi had seen some of the worst in humanity while he’d been deployed, so he could only think this person’s intentions were sinister.

  He called his uncle from his hands-free on the road and warned him what they thought had happened. His uncle didn’t sound happy, but he didn’t chew Levi out at least. He was probably already thinking of the hundred actions he needed to take to protect his cars from anything like this in the future, as well as security for the Jones’s back at the farm.

  “We’ll need to go back through every single message and letter Raiden received since the hack,” Kurt said. “Probably the weeks leading up to it as well. I’ll get Glenn back on the case and see if we can’t spot anyone that stands out as having a particular grudge or motive.”

  Levi nodded and glanced at Raiden. He was staring out the window, chewing his thumbnail.

  Christ, Levi had fucked this situation up in so many ways. He agreed with his uncle and ended the call.

  “They’ll let us know if they find anything,” he assured Raiden once he’d explained what Kurt was going to do.
He hoped it made Raiden feel at least a bit comforted.

  Raiden just nodded and continued staring out the window.

  Levi refocused on the road ahead, but there was no escaping the thoughts whirling around his head.

  He’d kissed Raiden. He’d kissed another dude. And he’d liked it.

  It was just a physical sensation. Kissing and having his dick rubbed through his pants. But, he wouldn’t have done it if he was repulsed. The mere thought of doing that with most of the guys he had served with made his stomach flip. Even Collins had never suggested they make out like lovers.

  But Raiden just made his damn blood boil, like he was under his skin. His body had felt so amazing pressed all along Levi’s. “About last night…” he began.

  That got Raiden’s attention. “Yeah?”

  “I just feel with this new development, we need to clear the air,” said Levi. He could only see Raiden out of the corner of his eye, but it was enough to see he was watching Levi intently. “I’m sorry. It was grossly unprofessional.”

  Raiden laughed. “I’m not gross,” he said, a teasing tone to his words.

  And just like that, the air did clear between them. If Raiden was willing to laugh about it, there was hope.

  Levi cast him a small smile. “It probably shouldn’t happen again.”

  Raiden nodded. “No problem, dude. We can just forget about it, things like that happen when you’re on the road.” He winked Levi’s way. “Chalk it up as your first, wild tour experience.”

  Levi chuckled, relieved Raiden was letting him off the hook. This way they could simply sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened.

  Levi had no right whatsoever to feel remorseful about that. It wasn’t like he’d been hoping it would happen again, after all. It couldn’t happen again, not while Levi was acting as Raiden’s protection. Especially after what they suspected had happened with the GPS. So this was the ideal outcome. Maybe they could find their way back to the almost-friendly banter they had before.

  “Do you want to put the radio on?” he offered to Raiden. His face lit up and Levi tried to squash down the pleasure that fluttered in his belly from that. His job was going to be much easier if they weren’t at each other’s throats, that was all.

  “So, um,” said Raiden as music filled the car. “I will forget about it, I promise. But I just have one question, to set my mind at ease, if you like.”

  Levi braced himself. His instinct was to slam the lid on this and never, ever open it again. But Raiden looked so hopeful at him, he didn’t want to be a dick. “Just one,” he said, quirking a brow and holding up a solitary finger.

  Raiden nodded. “I guess, I’m worried I sort of…jumped you last night. But, I mean, you didn’t seem to mind so much? I didn’t put you in an awkward position, did I?”

  It was an easy out. Levi could say he felt obliged. But they’d both know that was a big fat lie.

  “No, kid,” he said with half a smile. “I didn’t mind so much. Maybe there’s something to that theory of yours?”

  “That more people are less straight than they think?” Raiden asked, biting his thumbnail again. “Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Okay, so, we’re cool. I’m glad.”

  Levi turned and faced him for just a second. “I’m glad too.”

  After that, Levi asked Raiden about the messages he’d received post-hack. It wasn’t the most pleasant of subjects, but it needed to be done, and they had time to kill. He requested Raiden jot down anything of note, but it felt like they came up with jack shit.

  Even if they narrowed it down to just the most offensive messages, they still had hundreds of Twitter users who had said things so vile they either needed therapy or jail time. All it did was leave them both feeling on edge.

  Raiden suggested they stop somewhere nice for lunch, on him. He found a quiet little pizza joint in Charleston called Mimi’s with rave reviews. It was in a suburban area and looked more like a house than a restaurant itself. It had fairy lights strung outside even though it wouldn’t be dark for hours.

  “Cute,” said Levi. He slipped his hands into his pockets as they walked from the car, past the line of leafy trees and into the little restaurant.

  “I know I am,” Raiden said with a wink over his shoulder.

  That sounded dangerously like flirting, but Raiden didn’t follow up on it, so Levi left it. If he called him out on every stupid thing he said, Raiden was going to think Levi was obsessed. Besides, if Levi didn’t mention it, it meant he didn’t have to acknowledge that he liked it, just a little.

  The place obviously had been a house at some point, but it was decorated in vibrant colors now and the smell of cheese, meats, herbs and sauces accosted Levi as they stepped through the entrance. His mouth watered immediately.

  “Table for two-” the waitress began to ask before her eyes went wide. “Oh my god, you’re from Below Zero, aren’t you? You sang that ‘Oh oh ooh’ song!” She turned around and, despite the restaurant being almost entirely full, yelled across the room. “Hey Flick, check it out! It’s Joey from Below Zero!”

  “Um,” said Raiden awkwardly, his cheeks going pink. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Levi arched an eyebrow as the waitress was joined by her colleague, who sprinted to her side, and they both gawked at Raiden.

  “Actually, this is Raiden Jones,” Levi said with a polite smile. “Not Joey Sullivan.”

  “Oh, sure,” said the girl, apparently not embarrassed in the slightest she had mixed him up. “Can we have your autograph?”

  “I have all your records,” said the second girl. She was slightly younger than the first, with braces on her teeth. “I love the work you do with Storm Sailor, any of the European DJs, actually.”

  She looked like she might cry as the first girl handed Raiden a couple of menus to sign and a black marker.

  Raiden perked up visibly at the Storm Sailor comment. “Yeah, those guys are amazing to collaborate with,” he said as he scribbled his name. “So talented.”

  He handed the cards back to the second girl, who clutched them to her chest. The first girl plucked two new menus from the rack. “I’ve got a really good table just come up free,” she said in what Levi assumed she thought was a sexy voice. It was adorable. “In the corner, by the window. Give you some privacy,” she added with a wink.

  “Thank you very much,” said Raiden, chuckling.

  He didn’t seem to mind that everyone in the restaurant was staring as they followed their hostess and took their seats. Levi cataloged them all, about fifty people in total, but he didn’t register any of them as being a particular threat. They just seemed like locals, excited to see a celebrity.

  “You get that all the time, I suppose?” he murmured to Raiden as they were left alone. He picked up his menu to scan it.

  Raiden chuckled again. “Not so much anymore, actually. It’s nice every now and again to meet fans, especially when they really care.” He glanced back at the younger of the two waitresses, who was not so subtly peeking around a corner at them, and waved. She went bright red and vanished from sight.

  “And you don’t mind she got your name wrong?”

  Raiden grinned as he eyed up the pizza choices. “Name me every member of Bon Jovi.”

  “Uh,” said Levi. “Jon Bon Jovi…”

  When he held out his hands in defeat, Raiden nodded. “Just because you don’t know their names, doesn’t mean you don’t like their stuff, right?”

  “Slippery When Wet got me through my teenage years,” Levi admitted.

  Still, he would have thought Raiden would have at least corrected the girl when she mistook him for Joey. The humility was very endearing to see.

  Raiden wagged his fork at him. “What I want to know,” he said, that glint back in his eye that said he was up to trouble, “is how many other members of Below Zero you can name? I thought you’d never heard of us.”

  Levi refused to take the bait. “I hadn’t,” he said, sipping the water th
eir waitress brought them. They paused the conversation while she took their order, but when she was gone, Levi didn’t change the subject. “You’re my client. I needed to do my research.” He leaned a little closer. Raiden wasn’t the only one who could be playful. “I have been known on occasion to do my job right.”

  Raiden batted his arm. “I’m sorry,” he said, blushing a little again. “I didn’t mean to disrespect your job either. I definitely didn’t take this seriously enough and went out of my way to be an ass to you.”

  Levi rolled his eyes. “Okay, no more apologies, from either of us. The past can stay in the past from now on.” He didn’t just mean about the way they’d argued. He hoped Raiden got that.

  He seemed to as he grinned at Levi. “I promise, chief!” He saluted, poorly. It made Levi smile.

  “Actually,” he said as he folded his napkin into his lap. “I was a sergeant.”

  “Really?” Raiden sounded genuinely interested. Levi didn’t want to talk about his military days, though. He shouldn’t have brought it up. But part of him wanted to impress Raiden a little.

  “That’s in the past, though,” he said pointedly. Raiden nodded.

  “So it is.”

  They managed to make enough small talk to last them until they got their pizzas. Once they arrived, neither of them wanted to chat much because their food was just so good. Although, Raiden did pause between mouthfuls long enough to insist he’d picked the best topping with his steak and cheese until Levi made him take a bite of his spicy shrimp and sausage.

  Raiden moaned. It was a positively filthy sound. “Okay, yeah, that’s good.”

  They cleaned their plates and got ready to head back on the road again. But when the waitress came scurrying eagerly back over to them, she had a surprise.

  “Your meals are on the house, gentlemen,” she informed them excitedly. “It’s been an honor to have you here.”

  “Oh, no,” said Raiden hastily. “It was so good, I’m happy to pay.”

  “Honestly, we insist,” said the waitress.

  Levi saw Raiden’s dilemma. He didn’t want to be rude by refusing her generous offer, but he didn’t want to take advantage of a free meal either. Raiden frowned and glanced out at the other diners. Levi followed his gaze as it settled on a young couple with two small children who looked so tired it was a wonder they were still sitting upright.