Safe and Sound Read online

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  More from Caitlin Ricci

  About the Author

  By Caitlin Ricci

  Visit Dreamspinner Press

  Copyright

  Safe and Sound

  By Caitlin Ricci

  Twenty-one-year-old Mason has to get out of his mother’s house, where her boyfriend subjects him to unwanted advances—and won’t take no for an answer. Since she didn’t believe Mason when he told her about his uncle’s sexual abuse, Mason knows he’s on his own, and it’s up to him to raise the money he needs. He thinks he’s in luck when he takes a modeling job.

  Oliver is a photographer, and getting guys and sex has always been easy for him. His current open relationship is no exception: more friendship and fun than anything. But when Oliver meets Mason, he can see the younger man is fragile and desperately in need of help. Before anything can develop between them, Mason needs to free himself of his terrible living situation and start on the road to healing. Oliver wants to stand beside him as he does. What surprises him is the discovery that he might need Mason as much as Mason needs him.

  Author’s Note

  THIS STORY ties in to the Thornwood series and comes after Somewhere to Belong.

  Chapter One

  Mason

  MOM DROPPED me off at Green Acres Equine Sanctuary at just after nine, and I went to the office to sign in on the clipboard. The sanctuary wasn’t busy this time of the morning. The horses were fed, turned out, and their stalls mucked closer to dawn, and then those volunteers got to go home by eight at the latest. I was there to work with the horses after they’d had their breakfasts.

  I found my best friend, Eli, in the office with his head bent over a manila folder filled with papers and pictures of horses. When he looked up at me, he smiled, and I saw the bags under his eyes and the glazed look he had.

  “You okay?” I asked him. “You look exhausted.”

  Eli sat back in his chair and laughed. “Yeah, I’m fine. Grayson got back in town early this morning. I didn’t get much sleep after that.”

  I blushed. I hadn’t expected Eli to tell me all that, but then again he’d gotten a lot more open about dating in general once he’d started going out with Grayson. Before we’d barely ever talked about who he was with or anything like that. Now he talked about Grayson all the time.

  It made me wish I had someone to casually toss into conversation sometimes as well. Or someone worth being tired at work for.

  “You should get a boyfriend. Then we could go out together.”

  I made a face. “I’m trying.” That was a partial lie. The truth was that I wasn’t actively looking, and I wasn’t on the hookup app that most of the gay guys my age were using. Hot Guy Hook Ups was too scary for me to even download, much less actually use to try to meet up with someone. But if I did happen to meet some nice guy out there in the world, I definitely would go on a date with him.

  Eli smiled at me and went back to looking at the papers in the folder. I signed in on the clipboard that was kept at the front of the desk, then came around it to read over his shoulder.

  “We don’t adopt horses out for jumping,” I said as I kept reading about what the prospective adopter family wanted to do with any horse they adopted from us.

  Eli nodded. “I know. It puts a lot of strain on the horse’s legs and can lead to injuries. And since most of our horses have old injuries already, it’s a bad idea. I just think it’s interesting that they were able to train their last thoroughbred to jump really well, and do dressage, then they sold him, and now they’re ready for another horse. It’s as if they like doing projects. Like they’d rather train and show the horse rather than actually own.”

  “If I had a horse, I’d be out there with him all the time doing all kinds of things together. I’d read to him, and we’d go on trail rides.”

  Eli grinned at me over his shoulder. “Go find a hot guy with a bunch of land and a barn, and you can adopt out a horse from here. Make him fall madly in love with you and build you lots of barns so that you can foster too. Then he also needs to donate a ton of money to us each month because sometimes this rescue really struggles. Especially when it comes to those big emergency vet bills when Evaline brings back a horse from slaughter and it’s crashing hard because it’s been neglected for so long.”

  He knew that I would have loved to be able to find a guy like that. But getting up the guts to even talk to a guy I thought was cute was downright terrifying for me.

  “Here’s your paycheck,” Eli said, sliding the piece of paper over to me. As always, it came from his own personal checking account.

  I frowned even as I took it. “I wish you didn’t have to pay me out of your own money. I can find a job that lets me work part-time, and then I could still be here.”

  Eli shook his head. “I don’t mind it. Grayson makes a ton, and our house is paid off. We don’t need a lot, and I’m fine. If you worked here less, I’d have to rely on some idiot to help me, and I can’t do that. You’re too important to replace, even if it’s just for a few hours. And besides, I like helping you, because I know that someday soon you’ll be able to afford your own place, or at least one with a roommate, and then you can come out to your parents.”

  I desperately wanted them to know the real me. I was tired of living a lie and pretending to like girls and not being upset whenever my mom pointed out a cute girl at the mall she wanted me to go talk to. I was done with all of it. I also really didn’t like that Eli lumped my mom’s boyfriend under this idea of my parents. He wasn’t. I’d never really known my dad either, but her boyfriend definitely wasn’t a parent to me.

  “I’m almost there,” I promised him. It wouldn’t be too much longer now at all. I was only maybe four hundred short of the security deposit, first month’s rent, and last month’s too. It sucked that I had no credit so I had to give any place I was interested in a ton of money up front. I’d asked at a few places, and they’d all said the same thing. I was approved to live in their apartments, but not without a lot of money first in case I bailed or destroyed the apartment or something. Places on Craigslist weren’t much cheaper. Or, if they were, they came with creepy roommates.

  “That’s great. I loved living on my own.”

  And now he lived with Grayson up in Thornwood. “Why’d you stop, then?”

  Eli shrugged. “Because sometimes it’s nice having company. And it’s not like we’re completely all on top of each other constantly. I still have my own room. So does he. When I shut my door, he knows that I want some space or that I’m mad at him about something. It works. You need to find someone that works for you like that.”

  Ever since Eli had gotten serious with Grayson, he’d been trying to get me to go out with guys a lot more. I was trying to find a boyfriend, but not being out at home complicated that a bit for me.

  “I’ll keep looking.” I needed to get off the subject of my lack of a romantic life, and fast. “What’s the plan for today?”

  Eli was all business in a heartbeat as he put away the folders. “Merkati, the Arabian filly we got in last week?”

  I nodded. I knew the horse he was talking about.

  “Try to get her better with her ground manners. She’s crazy and spirited, so she’ll have to go to someone experienced or a trainer, but if we can get her to lift up her feet for a farrier and stand quietly while someone grooms her, then she’ll be a lot easier to adopt out.”

&nbs
p; I could handle that. “Sure. Anything else?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “See how long that takes you first. If you’re struggling with her after an hour, come get me and I’ll see if I can help you somehow. Likely I won’t have any idea either. She’s nuts.”

  She definitely was, but then again I hadn’t met an Arabian yet who wasn’t wilder than any mustang I’d ever met. The last one I’d tried to ride at the rescue had broken through a fence while I was on her. She’d had to get stitches across the front of her legs. I’d ended up with a cut-up leg.

  “See you later.”

  “Be safe out there,” Eli called after me as I was leaving. I waved to him, then headed into the barn to get Merkati.

  MOM PICKED me back up at four. “I have to go in early tonight. I’m sorry I won’t be there to eat dinner with you and John.”

  I shrugged. When her work called her to go in before she was supposed to, it was always an emergency and she really didn’t have a choice. The hospital where she worked as a nurse needed her.

  “It’s cool.”

  “You’re such a good boy.”

  We got home about an hour later. We would have been faster, but there was rush hour traffic. Mom was already in her scrubs, so all she did was drop me off in front of the house. “I’ll see you in the morning. Be good for John.”

  “Sure.”

  I headed inside while she was pulling away, and I found John sitting in the living room watching TV. “Hey, squirt,” he called to me. I hated that nickname. I was twenty-one. Not seven.

  “Hi.” I went into the kitchen to grab some food. Evaline, the owner of Green Acres, always made sure that we got lunch there, but I was always hungry right after.

  While I was going through the fridge and trying to find some cookies hopefully, unless my mom ate them all, he came into the kitchen with me. “How was work?”

  I glanced back at him from where I was crouched and looking through the bottom drawers. “It was fine. I got to work with a new filly a lot. She’s a pain in the ass, but she’ll come around someday. Eli says he’s going to work with her more tomorrow while I’m off.”

  “That’s good.” John put his hand in my hair and played with it. I’d had it cut only two days ago, and I thought I’d made it too short for him to be able to do that anymore. “Too bad your mom had to go in early tonight. With me working all day and you being gone so much, she hasn’t had us around as a family lately. You know how important family is to your mom.”

  I did know. She was lonely, and John helped make her happy. He moved his hand to the side of my neck.

  “Want to watch a movie together tonight? I’m sure we can find something fun to watch together. Your mom would like that.”

  I grabbed the first thing that looked like food, which happened to be baby carrots, which I hated, but at least they were something. “Can’t. Sorry.” I got to my feet, knocking his hand away without actually touching him. This time. “I’m pretty tired.”

  He gave me a skeptical look. “Sure you are. Well, your mom’s going to be disappointed that you didn’t want to hang out together as a family.”

  I knew he’d tell her too. He’d say that I didn’t want to be around him, and then she’d tell me that I had to be nicer to him because they’d been together for over a year and I needed to be adjusted to him living in our house already. But that wasn’t it at all.

  “Maybe later. After I take a little nap.” I gave him a bit of a smile and hoped that placated him.

  “Of course. Growing boys need their rest. When you come down, I’ll order us a pizza and we can watch the movie then. You still like pepperoni?”

  “Yeah. Thanks.” I moved past him and started upstairs. Normally coming from the barn, I would have taken a shower before putting on clean clothes. But I didn’t feel like it today.

  “See you in an hour or two. Don’t forget. You promised me a movie and pizza,” he called to me from the bottom of the stairs.

  “I’ll be down soon.” I wrapped my hand tightly around the knob of my door.

  “Good. I’m looking forward to having some alone time with you.”

  I nodded and went inside my room. Once I had the door between us, I leaned heavily against it. I only had an hour, though, before John would come up to check on me, so I had to hurry if I wanted to get anything done. I changed as quickly as I could, then opened up my laptop while I snacked on the baby carrots and tried to pretend they were gooey chocolate chip cookies. It really didn’t help.

  I’d been searching for short-term gigs for a while now, and I’d been able to get some quick extra money that way. Sometimes it was as simple as editing an article for an online magazine. Other times I wrote papers for people in college. I’d been checking daily and replying to any that I thought I could do. I’d taken surveys, watched videos, given my opinion on dating profiles, and helped draft emails.

  But I’d never been a photography model. I chewed on my lip as I read the posting. He was looking to expand his portfolio of nude and seminude portraits. Naked from the waist up was okay, but it paid less. He had a link to some of his photos, and they looked pretty good. Lots of partially naked men and women, but nothing that made me blush because everything was covered up by their hands or a piece of furniture.

  And just taking my shirt off and letting him take pictures of me paid fifty bucks. I’d get an extra hundred if I took my pants off, but I knew I wouldn’t be okay with that. My shirt, though, that wouldn’t be a problem for me. I did that at the barn all the time when I got sweaty or too dirty to keep working.

  The guy, Oliver he said his name was in the ad, wanted a picture of me and to know my stats in a reply email. I sent him my high school graduation photo. I didn’t have anything more recent without Eli, Evaline, or my mom in it with me. I sent off the information he wanted and hoped he chose me. The bus fare wouldn’t be more than maybe ten dollars, so after everything, I’d still make forty. I wasn’t going to pass up an easy forty bucks. Every little bit would help me move out and stay moved out instead of having to come back in a few months because I couldn’t make it in the real world.

  I looked at the clock on my phone and realized I was out of time. John would be up to check on me soon, and I didn’t want him in my room. He creeped me out. But I’d never tell my mom that. It hadn’t helped last time, so I knew it wouldn’t do anything this time either.

  I got one of my bigger hoodies out of my closet and pulled it over my head before going downstairs and joining him in the living room.

  “Good. I was just going to go up and check on you. Are you cold? We can turn the heat up.”

  I shook my head. “I’m okay. I like wearing this.” I got comfortable on the other couch, which was across the room from him, and stuck my hands in the belly pocket.

  “Are you sure? I can turn the heat up. Then you won’t have to be so bundled up.”

  I forced a smile and turned to look at him. “I’m good. Really. What did you want to watch?”

  That seemed to do the trick because he chose a movie for us, some war piece with a lot of gore and explosions that I wasn’t really following. Halfway into it I got a text. I expected it to be from Eli, but instead it was a number I didn’t recognize.

  Hi. I’m Oliver. You replied to my modeling ad. I’d like to work with you. Are you free tomorrow at ten am?

  I tried not to smile or give anything away so that John wouldn’t get suspicious and want to see my phone to read my texts, as I replied back to Oliver. Yes I am.

  He sent me the address after that. It was on the southern edge of Denver and not too hard to get to by bus at all.

  “Anything interesting?” John asked me as I put my phone back in my pocket.

  I shook my head. “Not really. Just Eli asking me to come in to work for a while tomorrow. Mom will be asleep, so I’ll just take the bus.” I really hoped he didn’t offer to give me a ride down to the sanctuary. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t, though. He didn’t like driving me around, eve
n when I only had to go five minutes away to go to the bank or something. And the rescue was a lot farther away than that.

  “Good thinking. Your mom does need her sleep.” I was instantly relieved. He went back to watching the movie, and I wondered what I was going to wear for my first modeling gig in the morning. Maybe, if Oliver liked me, he’d ask me to come back for more stuff. As long as I didn’t have to take off more than my shirt, I knew I’d be okay with someone taking pictures of me.

  Chapter Two

  Oliver

  WHEN TEN o’clock came and went, I was annoyed at myself for getting my hopes up. Mason, whoever he was, had possessed a certain look that I definitely admired. My boyfriend, if he could be called that, would have said that Mason was a small-town-college-boy twink. He screamed boy next door and naivety all wrapped up in a cute little package that I’d been looking forward to having unwrapped in front of me.

  But since it looked like he wasn’t coming, I was left thinking about the other appointments I’d scheduled that day. A woman wanted me to take photos of her for her husband. A man wanted some outdoor shots taken with him and his dog. I liked dogs, so I was looking forward to that shoot too.

  At nearly twenty after ten, someone rang my doorbell. If that was going to be Mason, he had some explaining to do. I didn’t like to be kept waiting. I looked through the hole in my door, and Mason did look a bit like his picture, though also a tad older too. I opened the door and frowned at him.

  “You’re late. You should have texted or called to let me know.”

  He instantly blushed and swayed on his feet. “I’m sorry. I meant to. The buses were running late, and when I went to let you know I was still coming over, I realized that I’d let my phone die. I’m sorry.”

  I softened my stance with him, though it wasn’t really helped by him apologizing more than once. The one time was plenty. “The buses around here are always slow. It’s part of living on the edge of Denver. We’re not quite important enough to really matter down here.” He looked up at me, and I smiled at him. “Come on in.” I stepped aside to let him in and gauged his reaction while I did so. I kept my house neat, and though I also kept it sparsely furnished, what I did have was newer and in good condition. Mason didn’t say anything about my house, though, while he kept his hands trapped in the pocket of the hoodie he was wearing. The thing was far too big for him and made him look a lot younger than the twenty-one he said he was.