by Con Riley
Readers love Con Riley’s
After Ben
The first title in the acclaimed Seattle series
“This story is a slow burn, totally realistic…”
—Rainbow Book Reviews
“Beautiful writing! I laughed and I cried. Riley created a wonderful book full of emotional high and lows.”
—Pants Off Reviews
“I thought the whole story was very well-written and it lived in my thoughts long after I finished the book.”
—Top2Bottom Reviews
“I am truly in love with this book.”
—Joyfully Jay
Aiden’s Luck
Con Riley
Figment Ink
Contents
Also by Con Riley
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
Also by Con Riley
Also by Con Riley
By Con Riley
Novels
Original Seattle Stories
After Ben
Saving Sean
Aiden’s Luck
Additional Story Set in Seattle
Must Like Spinach
Salvage Series
Salvage
Recovery
Standalone Titles Set in Britain
True Brit
Be My Best Man
Published by Con Riley.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Aiden’s Luck
Copyright © 2012 by Con Riley
Cover Art by Natasha Snow
Edited (2018) by Alicia Ramos www.aliciazramos.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Edition
December 2012
This edition
January 2018
Author’s Note
Aiden’s Luck was first published in 2012 and is the third novel in the Seattle Stories series. Each book can be read as a standalone story. However, if you wish to read about this group of friends in chronological order, please start with After Ben, followed by Saving Sean.
—Con Riley
Chapter One
Aiden Daly slumped behind his too-small desk in the far corner of his carton-strewn clothing store stockroom and rested his head in his hands. A hesitant knock, followed by the creak of the door that led into the store provoked sudden movement. He lurched upright and shoved the envelope he’d been staring at for the last twenty minutes under some papers as his store clerk, Levi, peered through the narrow gap in the doorway.
“B-Boss? Mr. Daly, sir? I know you said not to disturb you, but . . . .” The door creaked again as Levi shouldered his way into the stockroom, sliding sideways through a gap almost too narrow for his slight frame. He passed between cartons draped with the latest shipment of clothing to arrive from Europe, his fingers automatically straightening crumpled fabric and smoothing wrinkles as he sidled closer. His tongue—a small, pierced pink dart of movement—wet his lips nervously.
Aiden scrubbed his face, the rasp of his fingers against dark stubble sounding loud in the long stretch of silence as he waited for Levi to continue.
“But what?” Aiden finally prompted.
“I-I’m sorry?” Levi stuttered.
Aiden lowered his hands and tilted his head to one side as he watched his employee try to order his thoughts. Inwardly, he counted to ten before reminding Levi of what he’d started to say.
“Did you come in to tell me something important, Levi?” On any other day Aiden would have so much more tolerance. But today, after taking delivery of yet another expensive and incorrect shipment of clothing from Europe, he’d already exhausted all his patience.
Maybe his housemate, Marco, had been right.
Perhaps some people weren’t cut out for business.
Aiden’s late father, David Daly, had known everything about business—every single thing. Aiden had spent the morning wishing he could ask his dad for help, even though that left him feeling uncomfortably like a kid of seventeen rather than a grown man of nearly twenty-seven. He caught a glimpse of his drawn face reflected in his darkened PC screen, and saw how unprofessional-looking dragging his hands through his hair had left him. Perhaps it was a blessing that his dad would never see the way Aiden ran his own business.
It was a sign of his stress level that he took his bad mood out on the closest person to him at that moment. “Should I be sitting here waiting for you to explain, Levi? Or should I be out front guarding the cash register that you’ve left unattended?”
The darkening stain of a hot-looking flush crept up Levi’s throat as he backed toward the door, his haste causing him to hip-check cartons that began to tilt and teeter. Levi’s gasp and muffled “Shit” as he tried to stop the boxes from falling made Aiden feel like a real asshole. He hadn’t meant to scare the kid. He was tired, that was all. Tired of shipments arriving containing stock he couldn’t sell, and so tired of adding up cash-register receipts that lately refused to tally. He hadn’t slept well the night before—hell, he hadn’t slept well for months—and he’d gotten out of his borrowed bed that morning, in the place he was house-sitting as a favor for his friend Peter, already worn out and cranky.
None of that was his clerk’s fault. He watched Levi sweep straight black bangs from his eyes and draw himself up to his full five foot six before speaking again.
“I would never leave the register unattended, Mr. Daly. Your brother’s here. He asked me to come tell you—” He shook his head quickly. “No, that’s not it exactly. He said that you should take a look at the store security cameras.”
Aiden grudgingly powered up his PC. The screen filled with eight closed-circuit television frames revealing different aspects of the store and the customers who picked through neat stacks of clothing. Today, instead of feeling grateful every time a new patron crossed the threshold, he’d glowered as they unfurled all his neatly displayed fall merchandise. He’d felt his temper rising, so he’d turned off the PC. Last night he’d wished for a way to turn off his housemate, Marco, too when he’d told Aiden how lousy his security camera setup was. Now his brother Evan was here to bitch about the same thing? Marco—fucking Marco—really couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
He studied the camera feeds, only vaguely aware of Levi shuffling closer as he leaned across the paper-covered desk.
Levi’s “There, you see?” was a breathy whisper.
Aiden peered at the screen, squinting, trying to locate his brother among the shadowy flickers on the screen.
“Do you see him?”
Aiden shook his head and then caught Levi a
s the palm he’d braced on the desk suddenly slipped out from under him.
Levi looked down at what had broken his fall. Aiden’s huge hand was spread wide, supporting his ribcage, easily bearing his weight. His “Wow” was another breathless whisper followed by a louder “Oh God, I’m so sorry” as neatly piled register receipts toppled.
This time, Aiden counted to twenty.
By the time Aiden had scooped up the fallen papers, Levi was around his side of the desk. There was barely enough room there for all six foot six inches of Aiden, let alone another person, but Levi’s sudden yelp of “There, see? See!” made Aiden push his chair back so Levi could get closer. They both watched the black-and-white display as Aiden toggled the controller, zooming in until the image of one man filled the screen.
Evan’s arms-crossed stance was familiar, as was the way he flicked his pale blond bangs from his eyes in agitation, reminding Aiden of the day he’d first met his adoptive brother at a group home summer picnic. Back then, Aiden had been sixteen years old compared to Evan’s eleven, but Evan had bossed him around from the get-go. Ten years later, he couldn’t imagine not having him as his brother.
“Okay, so Evan’s here. Thanks for telling me, although I’m not sure why we needed to look at him on the store cameras.”
“Oh!” Levi sounded flustered. “He said you should focus the camera on the man he’s watching.”
“Why didn’t you say so right away?” Aiden tried to adjust the camera angle, cursing under his breath when he couldn’t quite see whomever it was that Evan had his eye on. “Do I need to get out there?” He shifted in his seat until Levi’s hand tentatively pressed down on his shoulder.
“No. Evan said to ask if you could see what was happening.”
Aiden adjusted the cameras again but still couldn’t quite see the whole store floor. “No,” he finally admitted. “He must be standing in a blind spot.” One of the blind spots he’d denied existed last night when Marco had stuck his nose into the way Aiden ran his business. A sudden movement caught his eye as someone stood much closer to his brother.
It was clear that this guy was up to no good.
Aiden watched, his whole body tensing, as the man shook out jersey T-shirts and then dropped them on the floor. “What the—”
“I know!” Levi sounded excited. “I didn’t get a close look at him before Evan told me to get you to watch. I didn’t need to. The guy’s not even trying to hide what he’s doing.” He stumbled as he leaned closer to the screen but caught himself this time by planting one hand on Aiden’s broad shoulder again. “See? Now your brother is right next to him, and he’s still doing it.”
Levi was right. Evan was next to the guy. The detail was so hard to make out. The camera system really was a piece of crap.
“Can you zoom out?” Levi urged him to hurry, resting his much-smaller hand on top of Aiden’s on the CCTV controller. Aiden slipped his hand out from underneath. “Sorry,” Levi mumbled. He let go of the controller, clearly embarrassed. “I got carried away,” he explained. “This is exciting, like watching a show on TV. Are you gonna call the cops now?”
“For throwing T-shirts on the floor? Nope. I save calling the cops for people who steal from me. I will kick his ass if he doesn’t quit it, though.” They both watched as Evan backed out of the shot. Aiden pulled the camera back too, and as he added distance, the image sharpened—still not perfect, but better. For a still-warm, late-summer afternoon, this asshole of a customer sure was wearing a heavy overcoat. Aiden looked closer. From the camera’s ceiling-level perspective, Aiden saw light reflecting off glasses when the man glanced quickly over his shoulder.
“Motherfucker.” That quick, sneaky glance told Aiden everything he needed to know. If the customer hadn’t stolen yet, he was surely thinking about it. Aiden had seen it too many times over the last few years. At first he’d been saddened and later maddened by how prevalent store theft was. Add in the patrons who returned clothes on a Monday that they’d clearly worn over the weekend—smudged with makeup, stinking of cigarette smoke—and his losses were a serious issue.
Aiden had so many financial commitments—too many—since his dad’s death. The thought of not meeting them and of failing to fulfill his father’s final wishes because of thoughtless customers and theft drove him crazy. It meant he had to save cash in other areas, like letting the security camera system’s maintenance contract lapse.
The sudden creak of the stockroom door opening made them both jump, Levi more so than Aiden, who caught his clerk as he lost his footing. Aiden wrapped one big arm around Levi right as the clerk’s panicked grip tightened on Aiden’s shoulder. The chair rocked under their combined weight, hitting the back wall and jolting them both so that Levi ended up perched on Aiden’s lap, both arms around his neck.
Evan’s expression, as he stood in the doorway, wasn’t the slightest bit amused. He frowned as Levi got to his feet and hurried out, then he walked over and shoved his way close to the PC monitor, pointing at the guy now visibly arguing with Levi, who’d started refolding the T-shirts that had been thrown on the floor.
“This,” Evan said, pointing at the PC screen, “is what happens when you don’t pick up on signals.”
Aiden shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. If you mean Levi, there are no signals to pick up.”
“I don’t mean Levi, although you really can be so blind, Aiden. It’s obvious the kid has a crush on you.” He switched cameras, and a different view filled the screen. The new angle wasn’t perfect either, but Evan persisted until an open bag to one side of the man was just visible, a still-tagged shirtsleeve hanging from its opening.
Aiden was on his feet immediately, shoving his brother out of the way and heading for the door as Evan spoke again. Aiden heard Evan’s “He’s just trying to get your attention. He’s been trying for weeks, but you don’t pick up on his signals” and ignored him.
This was no time to talk about Levi. He had a thief to catch.
In less than a minute, he was through the stockroom door. He glanced at Evan’s boyfriend, Joel, who stood near the register, and he frowned at Joel’s huge grin. Aiden had tried really hard lately to get along with the guy for his brother’s sake, but seeing him smile as Aiden’s stock was being stolen pissed him off. His strides to the rear of the store were fast and furious.
Levi was red-faced again, his arms full of crumpled shirts as Aiden pushed past him, grabbing the overcoat-wearing man’s shoulder. The coat sagged in his hand as its wearer slipped it off and ran, leaving his bag full of stolen shirts behind. That was something at least, Aiden thought as he spun, reaching out to stop the thief’s escape. But without the oversized coat, he was much smaller than Aiden and slipped away in a flash of blurred motion.
The thief ran for the exit—fast—and Aiden yelled for Joel to stop him. Aiden added Joel doing nothing, apart from stifling laughter, to his list of reasons to dislike his brother’s boyfriend, and then he ran too.
It didn’t matter that the thief had left his stash of stolen shirts behind.
It didn’t matter that Levi yelled something that sounded like, “Wait, it’s only Mar—”
All that mattered was catching him. He’d had a bad week after a difficult month, and frustration at someone attempting to take what he worked so hard for ignited Aiden’s temper.
Crowds of shoppers parted before Aiden like biblical waters as he thundered along the mall concourse, past the food court where a group of pretty girls yelled and pointed toward the exit. Aiden put on an extra burst of speed, sliding as he rounded a corner too fast, glimpsing his quarry as he slipped out the mall exit doors.
Aiden cursed as he ran outside, momentarily blinded by the bright afternoon sunlight of Seattle in August, its glare reflected by multiple windshields. The lot was full, and people were everywhere.
Puffing, hauling in huge breaths, he turned in a slow circle. Light reflecting on a pair of glasses caught his eye as someone looked over his s
houlder before dashing into an underground parking lot entrance. He ran again and soon caught up with the man, who darted between two parked trucks. Aiden lunged forward as the thief stumbled, and they fell in a tangled heap.
It took a moment for Aiden to get a grip on the man who was flat on his face underneath him. He might have been smaller, but he sure was feisty, wriggling and jerking until Aiden grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him up on his knees. The last thing he expected was for the thief to burst out laughing.
Hearing his housemate’s familiar infuriating laugh made Aiden curse again, shoving him away, not caring when he yelped as he fell. Aiden sat back on his heels, stony faced and pissed off as Marco—fucking Marco Fortunato de Luca—rolled over, complaining in his husky Italian accent that Aiden had no sense of humor.
“I was only trying to help you, tesoro. Didn’t I tell you there were blind spots in your store camera setup?” He propped himself up on his elbows and peeled off his Mariners cap, then ran his hands through his sleek dark hair. Marco gave Aiden back the reading glasses that he’d used as part of his disguise. “You only caught me because I couldn’t see clearly.”
Marco grumbled all the way back to the store, where Aiden watched, arms crossed, expression thunderous, as Marco refolded all the shirts he’d managed to stuff into his bag before Evan and Levi had noticed what he’d been up to. He carried on grumbling as Aiden made him tidy the stock room too. Aiden tried to tune him out, but Marco was incessant, interrupting constantly as Aiden tried to concentrate on his columns of figures.
