Rainbow Lyrics and Mellow Mushrooms: Friday Fireworks: Christmas in July .99 cent sale with snippets from both of my books

Ajay's Secret Snippet

While the place had thinned out considerably, the asshole who’d come after him had lingered, along with several of his friends, so when Barrett finally told him to shut it down, and paid him, slipping him an additional hundred for the extra time, Ajay didn’t feel like walking would be the best idea.

A quick text to Tiny went unanswered, as did his one to Billy, asking him to wake Tiny and tell him to call. Shanny and Angel must have been asleep too, since neither responded when he tried to call them, leaving Ajay pondering whether to risk it and walk, since he still hadn’t gotten around to getting a prepaid visa and setting up an Uber account. Now, he was kicking himself for putting it off while he stared down at Walker’s number, hoping it wouldn’t piss the man off too much to be woken.

He was shocked when Walker answered on the second ring.

“Ajay…I didn’t expect to hear from you tonight.”

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“Nope, just this file I’m past sick of going through. Please tell me you’ve got something amusing to share to take my mind off it.”

“Not exactly,” Ajay hedged, hesitant to bother him. He was about to apologize for calling in the first place when he caught sight of the asshole from earlier in the night steadily staring at him.

“Is something wrong?”

Sighing, Ajay took stock of his inebriated state and decided that the asshole and his friends weren’t ones he wanted to tangle with.

“Ajay. Talk to me.”

It wasn’t a request that time, but an order, and Ajay felt a lot better about answering now that Walker had slipped into that tone.

“I played at a bar tonight and now I’ve got a little problem,” Ajay explained. “No one is answering at home and this asshole I got into it with is hanging around with his buddies, so I don’t wanna risk walking.”

“Want me to send for an Uber?”

“Yes, please, just, could you see where they pick up from first, if it isn’t near enough to the front of the bar Leroy won’t be able to keep an eye out for me.”

“Where exactly are you?”

Ajay gave him the address and shuffled from one foot to the other while Walker went silent on the other end.

“Yeah, that’s not going to work, the nearest pickup is a block in the other direction from where you live,” Walker said. “Just stay put, I’ll get an Uber to bring me so you aren’t alone.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry for disrupting your night.”

“In this case, I’m glad you did,” Walker told him, his voice holding that stern, no-nonsense tone that told Ajay he wasn’t just being nice. “I’d have been very upset if you didn’t, and something happened to you. Now sit tight, I’ll be there soon.”

The call disconnected, leaving Ajay to perch on the stool he’d chosen, where he could keep one eye on the guy and his friends while waiting for Walker. He’d expected a call back when he arrived, or a text telling him to come out, so the last thing he expected was to see Walker stalk through the doors less than ten minutes later, and head straight for Ajay.

The moment he caught sight of the bruise on Ajay’s cheek his eyes went wide, then narrowed into a fierce scowl that only grew darker when he took Ajay’s face in his hands and studied the mark.

“Who did that?” Walker snarled, eyes skimming past Ajay’s shoulder to take in the room.

“I did, you got a problem with that?” Asshole barked as he slammed down his drink.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Walker remarked, moving past Ajay who turned in time to see the asshole coming off his barstool. His last thought, before Walker tackled the man and started raining punches down on his face, was that the night had just taken a hard left into the unexpected.

Ryu's Snippet

“What does the card say?” Callahan asked after several more moments of rummaging around and clearly producing nothing.

“Card? What card?”

“The one attached to the basket! How else did you know we were the ones to send it to you?”

“I didn’t see any card! I took one look at the boy all wrapped up on my porch and assumed it had to be one of you fuckers. Hang on, let me go outside and check.”

“Outside? Hank, it’s fuckin’ freezing out there you asshole! Bring him in for fuck’s sake.”

“Well, now that I know there isn’t a gun waiting for me under all of that wrapping paper, I will.”

“For fuck’s sake, paranoid much?”

“You should know that by now,” Hank muttered and tossed the phone on the couch so he could go find this card they were talking about. With his bum knee, there was no way he was going to be able to lift that basket, so the boy better be willing to climb out of it, or on the porch he’d remain.

The boy in the basket was right where Hank had left him, only there was no question that he was shivering now and looked quite sad and confused, though his eyes brightened when they landed on Hank and he attempted another smile, despite the way his lips quivered. The light flakes that had been falling when he’d first answered the door had grown thicker and heavier too, the wind whipping a blizzard of them in a swirl across his porch.

“Come on, I need you to get up out of there unless you’d like to freeze to death,” Hank said, crooking his finger at him.

“Unwrappy?”

Groaning, Hank muttered a litany of curses beneath his breath as he reached for one of the elaborately tied ribbons.

“Yeah, yeah, unwrappy,” Hank muttered, struggling to manage it and the cane. Finally, he just tore at the paper until enough of it fell away that he’d revealed the young man was, in fact, sitting there in a snowman onesie with a polar bear stuffy held in his hands. He found the card too, tucked alongside him in the basket. Sealed with purple wax, it bore the elegant VI logo of the club.

“Come on then,” Hank said once the young man was free. He climbed to his feet unsteadily, clinging to that bear and shivering as he shuffled through the entryway. Hank snatched a throw blanket off the back of the couch and chucked it his way before opening the card and perusing the contents.

Here’s a Little something to make your holidays brighter. His name is Ryu. I trust he’ll bring you plenty of merriment and joy.

Pax

“The card says the gift is from Pax, and that his name is Ryu.”

“Awe, he’s a sweetheart. New to the club too. I hope Pax chose a good match for him.”

“You mean you don’t know who he was supposed to be going to?”

“This whole ‘gift basket’ idea was Donovan’s baby,” Cal explained. “He got the littles to sign up and assigned the daycare crew the task of gifting them to the Daddies they felt would be the best fit out of those who signed up to receive one. Call it matchmaking meets secret Santa. Personally, I’m withholding judgment until after the holidays when I can see how many placements actually take.”

Something clattered in the background, followed by the sound of a file cabinet being slammed shut.

“Damnit, it wasn’t in there either,” Cal muttered.

“Check your laptop, for fuck’s sake.”

“I would if I hadn’t forgotten the password again,” Cal grumbled.

“How the hell you manage to keep that place running is beyond me!” Hank shot back, growing frustrated.

A glance over his shoulder revealed that Ryu had taken a seat on the floor, blanket wrapped around him and his stuffy, and that Artemis, his prickly orange tabby, was slowly winding her way around him, rubbing against the blanket and demanding attention. At least neither of them was getting into anything.

“Just hang on. Donovan finally replied to my text.”

“Good, tell him to get his ass back here.”

There was silence from the other end of the phone, so Hank busied himself with watching Ryu extend one hand from the blanket’s folds to run his fingers down Artimis’ back until she arched and purred for him.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have a houseguest for the night, maybe longer if this storm is as bad as everyone thinks it’ll be,” Cal said when he finally got back on the line. “Donovan’s clear across town making the last delivery, and Nicky already went home for the night. Apparently, he was the one who dropped Ryu at your place.”

“So where was he supposed to end up?” Hank asked.

“Uhhh, he uhhh…” Cal stammered.

“Spit it out, already!” Hank snapped, frustrations reaching a boiling point. He lived alone for a reason and guests, even invited ones, were few and far between.

That he’d need to house this adorable little distraction who was clearly intended for someone else irked him almost as much as when he’d thought they’d intentionally sent Ryu to him.

“Finn, damnit. Pax had intended for him to go to Finn.”

Just hearing the bastard’s name left Hank seething. He was the very reason Hank had been avoiding the club in the first place. While he could have come to accept his former boy choosing to end their relationship and move on, what still rankled was the way he’d gone about it and the fact that he’d chosen that arrogant bastard to take up with afterward. That Finn had taken every opportunity to rub his nose in it had nearly landed Hank behind bars on more than one occasion. Finn was the last Daddy in the world who deserved a sweet, new little. Not with the way he tended to cycle through and discard them.

“Tell Pax and Nicky I said thank you and Merry Christmas,” Hank said. “And let Donovan know not to send anyone to collect Ryu, I’ll be keeping him. Oh, and you can tell Finn to go to hell.”

Hank ended the call and hit the do not disturb setting. What had, moments before, seemed like a major imposition, now appeared to be the perfect opportunity to exact some well-deserved revenge, and if he should happen to form a bond with Ryu in the process, that would be a bonus in the grand scheme of things. Either way, his holiday season had just gotten a hell of a lot more interesting.