Rowen stared for a long moment before a smile spread across his lips. “Yeah?” He chuckled and leaned on the table with me, watching Vail for a few seconds before sighing. “I’m a one-person type of bloke.”
I snorted and tugged on the brim of my cap. “Could’ve fooled me.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He laughed. “Somethin’s been brewing with Fallon. Can’t quite put me finger on it yet.”
“You don’t have to put your finger on it, you just need to stick your finger in. Or your dick, he likes both.”
Rowen glared at me and shook his head. “Ye thinkI’mlike Cillian. He’s a bad influence on ye, too.”
Didn’t I know it. I held back a sigh and glanced at Vail as he walked over to the counter and ordered our usual. He knew what we all liked by now, and we trusted him to get it right. While his brain moved at warp speed and often wandered away from the topic at hand, he was damned clever, too.
Rowen cleared his throat. “Ye and Cillian—”
“Don’t ask,” I interrupted, shooting him a sharp look. “And don’t give Vail any ideas, either. We were in Miami by ourselves. That’s all you need to know.”
His lips twitched in amusement and he made a motion of zipping them shut.
“So, what’s this I hear about Fallon teaching Conall self-defense without Sloan’s permission?” I pressed my mouth together to hold in a laugh when Rowen let out a miserable groan.
“Sometimes I wonder if theeejithas a death wish. Between his fighting and then pushing Sloan’s buttons, I swear.” He dropped his head in his hands. “I thought Sloan was gonna strip me of me balls for letting it happen, but I didn’t even know he’d been doing it. Luckily Sloan didn’t string him or me up by our entrails, so that’s a win, right? The boss even told Fallon he could keep doing it, so long as Sloan was there.”
I shook my head, and he laughed as Vail came bouncing back over to us. Vail fell onto the stool beside me and leaned against my shoulder, kissing my cheek.
“Diego has something new for us to try. He says he’s been experimenting. He wants to go on one of those cooking shows.” Vail’s eyes lit up. “Did I tell you about the chef I met at Sloan’s house?”
I settled in, listening to the fast, one-sided conversation with a warmth growing inside me. This was home. It was a strange concept because before Vail, the Hamptons were just where I stayed in a house with three other guys. Now, this place had the men I loved in it, and it was somewhere I wanted to be all the time. I was comfortable here. I’d always told Mom I would never find a place to truly settle, and she’d laughed at me. I could see why now. Sometimes you didn’t make a choice, you just found a place you loved enough to call home.
“Aspen?” Vail cupped my cheek and slanted his mouth over mine in a gentle kiss. “I love you and I missed you a lot. So, so much.”
I curled my arm around him and dragged him closer. “I love you, too, baby.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught Rowen smiling happily.
* * *
It took about another week and a half before we got word that our target would be at Bellissimo. The day we were supposed to go, Rowen came home from church in the late afternoon while I was sitting in the living room with Vail on the orange leather couch, watching a movie on our large TV. I was ready to go out to the club, dressed in a tight black T-shirt, white jeans, and a pair of Nikes.
Rowen came straight to us from the front door, appearing frazzled and confused. “Father Shay wasn’t at church.”
Vail snuggled tighter under my arm and tipped his head back, frowning. “Maybe he has the day off? Priests are allowed days to relax, too, Rowen.”
He shook his head. “No, this isn’t that. Father Hoffmann said Shay’s been missing for a week now. I called the boss on the way here and he had no idea. He’s going to look into it.”
“What do you suppose happened to him?” Vail sat up and shuffled back against me, grabbing my arm from the couch and curling it around his chest. I didn’t think he’d ever met Father Shay, but I was glad he hadn’t because Shay hadn’t always been the most welcoming person about gay people, which pissed me off. I didn’t care much about people’s opinions, but he was a hypocrite. I hated that shit. Back in his teen years, he’d enjoyed a dick in his ass. Or so Rourke, the Virtue’s provocateur and Shay’s best friend, had told us once when we’d visited the brothel—before Vail.
“I don’t know, but it ain’t normal. That church is Shay’s life’s work.”
“Maybe he had enough?” Vail’s eyebrows scrunched and his nose wrinkled. “When I get tired of something, I wander off and do something else. Then I get lost in that and forget about what I was doing in the first place.”
I chuckled and ran my palm over his head, and he leaned into me, sighing. “I don’t think that’s like this, baby. Father Shay doesn’t have ADHD.”
Rowen shook his head and crossed his arms. “It definitely ain’t like that and I’m concerned. The boss told me he’d sort it, but I should help.”
“If Sloan says he’ll do something, he does it.” Vail sounded so certain, and I believed him. Over the past months, he’d grown closer to Sloan and Conall, creating a friendship with them that even we didn’t have with our boss. It helped that Lor lived in the mansion, giving Vail a reason to see them and talk almost every day. Though, I didn’t blame Sloan or Conall. Vail was adorable and it was hard not to love him.
Rowen smiled gently and walked over to us, then leaned down to give Vail a kiss so soft that I wondered if Vail felt it. “I know, angel. I trust the boss, I’m just—”
“Worried,” Vail interrupted, earning a nod.
