Under any other circumstances, I would have been thrilled to hear him referring to me as his boyfriend, but the question had me on high alert. I glanced at my watch and saw we still had plenty of time to catch our flight so I pulled the SUV over to the side of the road and put it in park.
“When all this shit settles down, I’m going to ream your ass for even asking me that question, andnotin the way you like,” I said. “But for now, I’m just going to say that anything you tell me…anything…stays between us.”
“It’s not just my story,” he said softly.
Understanding dawned. “You’re talking about Ronan’s group.”
His eyes widened slightly. “You know?”
I tilted my head at him. “I’m a cop, Dante. Did you really think I wouldn’t figure out that the men who work for Ronan aren’t just bodyguards?”
“So, what? You’re just okay with it? With me…”
I leaned across the console and snagged him by the back of the head. He eagerly met my kiss and tried to follow me when I pulled back.
“I swear to God, Dante, if you question my feelings for you one more time-”
He kissed me to silence me and then pressed his forehead against mine. “Sorry,” he murmured.
I nodded slightly and then pulled back to put some spacebetween us. “I’m a cop second, Dante. I’m a member of our family first. And Ialwaysprotect my family…”
Dante covered my hand with his and nodded. “Santero tried to kill one of his former victims, who also happened to be in a relationship with one of Ronan’s men. Ronan stopped him and he made sure Santero and his brother wouldn’t ever go after that man again, or either of his lovers.”
Lovers with an ‘s.’
I considered his words for a moment and then realization hit me. “You’re talking about Jonas,” I said. “He’s in a relationship with Mace and Cole. I met them at the wedding.”
Dante nodded.
“After Ronan killed Santero and his brother, he was searching Santero’s place for anything he could find about the trafficking ring Santero had assumed control of. He was there when I arrived.” Dante chuckled. “I was lucky he didn’t shoot my ass, especially after I went off on him for taking out the only lead I had. He ended up offering me a job and told me he’d do everything he could to help me find Aleks. The resources he had…” Dante shook his head. “We didn’t find any information in Santero’s records about Aleks. Ronan had the girl who handles IT for his group leak the info to the cops so that ring was taken down and they got a lot of kids out of there. But it’s like they say. Cut off a snake’s head-”
“And another one grows in its place,” I finished for him.
“I went back to Chicago this summer before I started watching Matty, but I couldn’t find Remy and none of the leads panned out.”
I nodded and then pulled his hand up to my lips for a brief kiss. “This one’s going to pan out,” I said determinedly.
It had to.
Aleks needed to come home.
Aleks needed it.
Dante needed it.
And I needed to make it happen.
I sat back in my seat and threw the car into gear before casting a glance at Dante.
“Let’s go get him.”
In the threedays it took to hear from Remy again, Dante was a mess. His anxiety was through the roof and he was afraid to be away from his phone even long enough to do things like shower. I’d offered on more than one occasion to keep the phone with me, but even then he’d struggled. I hadn’t taken it personally, though, because I knew that this might well be Dante’s only chance to save his brother and that fact trumped anything and everything.
Even me.
Once we’d landed in Chicago, we’d immediately started searching for Remy, though Dante didn’t know enough about the young man to even get an idea of where to start. We’d gone to some of the spots in the city that seemed to cater to prostitutes and their clients, but it had been like looking for a needle in a haystack. For my own part, I’d been horrified at the sight of all the young men and women wandering the streets in frigid temperatures looking for their next paycheck. By two in the morning, we’d gotten a hotel room, but neither of us had been able to sleep. We hadn’t talked either. We’d just held on to each other. I’d worried about Dante and Dante had undoubtedly worried about Aleks.
We’d spent day two searching the streets, but with the bitter cold weather, not many people had been out and about so we’d called it a day and gone back to the hotel. Dante and I had made love, but it had been different than all the other times…there’d been an underlying desperation between us as Dante had tried to outrun his demons and I’d done my best to help. Afterwards, we’d both fallen asleep, but Dante had jerked awake at every sound and then he’d frantically checked his phone, even though the volume was set as high as it could go. With another night passing and still no word from Remy, Dante had been pacing the room like a caged animal. He’d shot down any suggestion I’d offered to either distract him or to aid in trying to find Remy, but I’d been okay with that. If he needed to take his frustrations out on me, I was fine with it.
