Hostile Taking: Male/Male Sci-Fi Romance

Hostile Taking

Traumatized father Merrick has a business that’s about to fail.  That means both him and his company will be claimed by a ‘Mentor.’  This riveting and spicy sci-fi romance has a guaranteed HEA and is presented in its entirety in a single installment.  This is not a series.  By the author of The Eidolon’s Conquest! 

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Excerpt ~

Merrick got up two hours earlier than usual.  He made his still sleeping son Daniel a stack of pancakes from a mix too cheap to have real jetta-berries.  His son was young enough to be happy with sugary artificial berries, and money was tight.  The condo rent hadn’t been paid in two, no—three months.  That was the usual limit he could get away with before the Association began hassling him. 

He considered things while lacing his running shoes.  It’s not that he’d be evicted.  Men like him didn’t get evicted, but Daniel could overhear something if Estelle came up to berate him.  He didn’t want his son to have any inkling of how bad things were. 

It was high time to juggle some finances again, and pull a draw from the company sufficient to catch them up on rent.  Groceries were a lesser concern.  Daniel was happy with chicken nuggets or flavored nutrient powder most every night.  Merrick hadn’t had much of an appetite since…well, forever it feels like.

That morning he made himself eat three of the six pancakes and washed them down with swigs of black coffee taken straight from the pot.  He was on a mission:  to jog the eight miles into work.  That would take fuel.  Pancakes would do, and he’d given himself enough time to take the run slow.

A long jog was just what he needed.  It was a chance to get his head on straight.  To go through things—to try to find out what he’d missed. 

He started the run in front of the condo in shoes that had been expensive once, but were completely worn-out with several years of use.  When he’d gone online to search for new ones he automatically went to the custom fitter he’d used back when his father was still alive and running the company.  That’s when it dawned on him, like a broken bottle smashed into his gut, that he couldn’t afford things like that anymore. 

So he ran on shoes that were destined to give him sore feet all day, but still, he was running.  He was moving.  He enjoyed the impetus of the motion—a symbolic ‘moving forward’ that he hadn’t been able to achieve in reality.  After a mile he actually felt some of the tension begin to give in his shoulders. 

Yes, this was a good idea.  Things would start to get better.  Today is the day it would all start to turn around.

He brought his mind to safe subjects as he ran.  Today the Proctor General of Fort Bragg-Vis’ni was coming in to discuss their peace-time food needs.  It was a contract his father had fostered so well that he knew he could always count on the business.  It wouldn’t be enough to pull the company out of its nose-dive, but it was business.  It was money.  He could probably siphon enough off the top of the deal to catch up on his condo rent.

There was that, and—what else?  What else was positive to focus on? 

He ran a while with his mind drawing up a blank.  Black tendrils of anguish started to worm into his brain.  What was Janine eating these days?  Probably not even cheap pancakes. 

He fought to resist the pain clenching his chest.

No.  Don’t think of her.  Anything but her.

He ran faster.

What was the company debt?  It had to be close to the two million mark.  He hadn’t checked the books since it was one point seven million.  That was when?  Right after the…after the first visitation.

Don’t think of that either! 

Maybe he was still below two million.  That was possible, right?  Wouldn’t the bank have cut them off if they were close?  Martina took care of that stuff.  He could ask her.  Or better yet, he could avoid the subject.  When things started to get better—then he’d ask.  Once there was some hope of digging themselves out of this pit.  Why dwell on it now? 

Because that bastard is going to show up and drag you away.

No.  Definitely don’t think of that!

If he gave thought to that prospect he made it real and if it was real he might end up hurting himself.  Daniel needed him.  His son may not have a mother anymore, but he’d always have him. 

Daniel was the only one he could ever do right by anymore.

Merrick kept his thoughts focused on his son.  Ten years old and as blond as he was at that age.  He’d be waking up now and cheering to see the pile of pancakes.  Such a great kid even after everything he’d been through.  After having his own mother…

No! 

He forced himself to stop thinking.  Just run.  Let your body work out all its stress.

His feet continued their steady rhythm through suburbia, just as the rest of the world was waking up and beginning their own treks towards work.  Beyond that was an industrial area.  Machines that looked pre-invasion were cranking to life.  Merrick wondered why forklifts were still of such an ancient design.  As a kid he pondered such things often.  Why didn’t more things hover?  Aliens had perfected the technology and gifted it to them.  Why couldn’t their world look as futuristic and fancy as what they had on that other world he’d seen on TV?  When he took over the family business reality answered his questions.  Fancy technology is outrageously expensive.  MFPI never had those kinds of funds, even when his father was running things. 

The office complex came next.  Merrick was disheartened to see it so fast.  Two more streets and he’d be at work.  He’d wanted the run to drag out longer.

He slowed to a walk in the MFPI parking lot.  His mind was still wandering while he caught his breath.  He vaguely registered the black vehicle parked in the fire lane in front of the building.  At first he thought, why is there a black limo in front of my company?  Then he realized that the slick gleaming vehicle was floating with hover motors that gave out a gentle hum.

Merrick froze.  It felt as though a hand penetrated his chest and seized his heart.    

There was one alien race who could afford hover technology easily.

Golheen.  It was a Golheen car.

Vadovas Redd had come for him.

Merrick started walking backwards.  Then he turned.  Then he ran.  He was running through the industrial area in moments.

Had he seen him through the windows?  Would he get his address?

Oh God!

It was happening.  He sprinted through the hideous panic attack that seized him. 

Home…home…get home!

Why hadn’t he taken his fucking car today! 

He ran until his chest burned, then slowed enough to bend over and vomit.  After that he gasped and gagged for several minutes.  Then he braced himself against a tree.

What could he do now? 

He let the tears come.  Quaking, shattering sobs that made his throat feel like it was going to burst.

This was it.  He’d truly ruined things beyond any hope of repair.

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