Deserted - Auctioned

Jayden huffed and rolled his eyes. “They all want me to get adopted, okay? But I don’t wanna. He knows I will run away if they pull any shit. They can’t play me. Trust.”

Gray’s mouth twitched with amusement.

It was easier to understand the grown-ups around Jayden now. They wanted him safe, but all they could do was help out from the sidelines. If they pushed too hard, he fled.

It made Gray wonder what Jonas and Jayden had lived through before. Their parents were out of the picture, so Gray guessed that foster families from hell had been the reason Jonas had insisted on Jayden avoiding the system.

Perhaps that was Gray’s best angle. He could promise safety and stability in Washington—a place Jayden wouldn’t have to hide. Because he knew for a fact that Abel’s mom, Adeline, had helped many men, women, and children find shelter in secret at her facility. Most of the residents were or had been escaping abusive partners and parents, and her first priority was to make sure they felt safe.

Jayden deserved a happier upbringing, and maybe a few months of building up trust with those Gray liked to call family would allow the boy to see there were actually good people out there.

Gray needed that reminder too. He’d seen too much of the ugly in the world.

“What if I told you there’s a place you can stay where you don’t have to hide?” he asked Jayden.

The kid glanced up at him, dubious.

“The shelter I mentioned,” Gray went on. “The one my friend’s mom runs. You could stay there. I could visit you too. You’d be safe, and you’d be around other children your age.”

“You’re lying,” Jayden stated plainly. “I know every shelter in the city—”

“It’s not here, buddy,” Gray reasoned gently. “It’s in my hometown—in Washington. All the way across the country.”

Jayden wasn’t convinced one bit. “You gotta register children. I know this. My ears ain’t wet. She has to inform CPS that I’m there.”

Good Christ, this boy was too sweet. “You’re right, you are definitely not wet behind the ears,” Gray agreed. “But you’ll find that Adeline is very different. She grew up with bad parents too, and then she had to go through a bunch of crap with the authorities when my best friend was little. She was afraid they’d take the boys away from her—”

“What did she do?” Jayden narrowed his eyes.

Fuck, time to backtrack. It was becoming abundantly clear that Jayden had trust issues where adults were concerned.

“Abel, my friend,” Gray said, “is different. He needs some medicine to feel better, and Adeline had to work very hard to be able to afford it. So, when all that was over, she kinda hated the system too.”

“The system sucks.” Jayden nodded firmly.

Gray breathed a sigh of relief. “Anyway. She vowed to herself to help others. That’s what she does today. If someone needs her help, she puts that person’s needs first—and sometimes that includes lying to the system.”

“Oh.” Jayden sat back and mulled that over.

Jonas would approve of this, right? It felt like a great idea to Gray. And to give Jayden a better idea of what was waiting for him back home in Camassia, Gray pulled out his phone to google Adeline’s facility.

He found the website right away.

“Look at this.” Gray scrolled past the shelter’s greeting. Jayden wouldn’t care about the great counselors, the rehab, or the fact that they had the option for children to attend school. The pictures would help seal the deal, if anything. So he went straight to the album. “Isn’t this nice?” A far cry from Philadelphia’s old brick buildings surrounded by heavy traffic. Adeline’s shelter consisted of a gated area with a massive house at the center. Blindingly white, it shot up from the perfect, well-maintained green lawn and flower beds. There was a pool, a playground, an outdoor gym, a running track along the high walls, an orchard, a pond… Most people staying there had their own room, or they shared with a few others.

Gray had visited many times, sometimes to volunteer and help out. Since some of the kids—and parents—suffered from PTSD, many of the features were used to rehabilitate and work away fears.

“That’s no shelter,” Jayden huffed. “It’s a mansion.”

Gray smiled. “There’s a big forest behind the house too. See the trees there, past the wall? It’s pretty high up on a mountain. It’s beautiful.”

Jayden snuck furtive glances while he pretended to be impassive and closed off.

Gray doubted Jayden had seen much of anything outside of Philadelphia. Washington was another world in comparison.

“It’s a good place, Jayden,” he murmured. “And I’m not taking my promise to Jonas lightly. You won’t be alone in this. You have me.”

Jayden side-eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t know you. What’s your last name?”

“Nolan. I live in a small town in Washington called Camassia Cove,” he replied. “My family lives there too. I have three brothers and one sister.”