Beloved: A Henry Dawncraft Novel |boyxboy| Sequel to Lover for Pay

XXX - Shove

"Oh, fuck," Travis said, more to himself.

He was standing in the center of the living room back at the old house, Elaine beside him as they'd just returned from a walk that'd taken them around the block for a good long time. If there was anything he'd have been expecting, it would have been for Henry to have finally returned from installing more security measures at his and Daniel's house, not... not to find his infant grandson sobbing his eyes out alone and no sign of Daniel anywhere. The door had been cracked and they'd been able to hear Dimitri's cries from down the driveway. Travis had taken the time to quickly search the house, but when it was determined that Daniel really was gone from the premises, he simply stood beside his ex-wife in nothing but confusion.

"They seriously showed up while I was out?" Travis said to himself again. "Oh, fuck."

"What?" Elaine questioned. "What's going on?"

"You need to go," Travis warned, directing the black-haired woman to the door.

She snatched herself away but Travis seemed to already ignore her presence and went for the crying baby on the sofa. He picked Dimitri into his arms and tried to sooth him. TJ then looked up at Elaine again, "Don't worry about it. Just go, Elaine, before—."

Travis' words were cut off when he heard the engine of a car pulling up to the house, and when he peered out the window to see Henry parking along the curb, his heart filled with more than just dread.

"Fuck..." he said again, and then he met Elaine's eyes. "You're one of the last people he wants to see right now, and won't be any safer than me once he steps foot in this house."

Travis could already envision the absolute fire that was about to take over his son the moment he opened the front door. If he hadn't stepped out of the house with Elaine earlier, he was more than sure whatever had taken place with Daniel would have never transpired in the first place. If it'd been Otto, Tucker, or even any of the followers that took orders from them, they wouldn't have had the balls to step foot near the house. It was only now that he wished he'd have considered something like this happening.

Otto had always been a bold idiot, but to kidnap Daniel from right under his nose...this was a whole new level of stupid.

Knowing Henry was going to open the front door any second now, Travis breathed out and ran a hand back atop the close cut of his dark hair. With Dimitri calm in his arms now, he glanced from his ex-wife to the door once it came open.

It was evening now. The entire sky was dark given the blanket of storm clouds shielding every inch of what light could possibly be provided by the remainder of the sun. The picture of it all somehow made Henry look a bit ominous in the open doorway. He was dressed now in dark jeans and a plain black shirt, his sleek, equally black hair pulled in a bun. When his eyes went from Travis holding Dimitri in his arms, to the woman he almost never wanted to see again, he glared into the image of his mother, and said, "What the hell are you doing here?" And before TJ could open his mouth to say anything more, Henry followed up with, "Where's Daniel? Is he asleep or something? He hasn't been answering my calls."

"Son..." Travis pursed his lips and looked down at the soothed infant tucked in his arms.

Henry spotted Daniel's cellphone on the coffee table before the television and neared it. When he pushed a button on the side, he looked upon the screen faced with nothing but his missed calls and text message notifications.

"Look," he said, meeting Travis' eyes before switching his gaze to Elaine. "I don't give a fuck about you two getting back together, okay? If you two really can't live without each other, and would rather have each other over a relationship with your kids...fucking go for it. Let me just get out of your hair first."