“We got a letter from the company’s lawyer politely asking us to never contact them again,” Tate said as he patted Aleks on the shoulder and then went around the island to get his own coffee. Then he was hugging Magnus. “Congrats, you two.”
Then it was Hawke’s turn. “I need a best man,” Magnus told him.
Something warm passed between the two men that I didn’t quite understand. But it had Hawke smiling and patting Magnus on the back.
“A lawyer?” Dante asked. “What exactly did you say, Hawke?”
“Nothing, MawMaw,” Hawke drawled.
Dante shot him the bird at the nickname.
The behavior seemed par for the course for this group. It reminded me of my own family.
“Hmmm,doestaste the same,” Aleks said. “Wonder why the cereal Con gave me looked different?”
“We use that house as a safe house. Con keeps it stocked with nonperishable stuff. The cereal had probably been there for a little while. And you guys took that cereal with you to the beach house when you left—”
I had the sense to shut up when Aleks stiffened next to me. I thought it was because I’d brought up the reminder that he’d snuckout on me that morning, but when I went to reassure him I was no longer angry about that, he blurted, “Are you going back?”
The tremor in his voice had the entire room going silent.
“Back where? To the Hamptons?” I asked. “I don’t actually live there,” I began, but Aleks shook his head.
“No… are you going backthere.”
It hit me all at once what he was talking about. It was a topic we’d avoided since we’d left New York… well, in truth, we’d avoided it altogether from the moment I’d made it clear how much he meant to me. Mentioning the safe house had brought the reality of our situation crashing back in on him.
He was asking if I was going back into the dark world where kids were sold for sex.
“Shit, Aleks, I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“No,” Aleks said softly, the heartbreak in his voice clear. He pulled away from me and started heading for the door. I reached him before he could get it open. While Ronan had assured us the men who’d been arrested at the party had gotten the message that Aleks was off-limits, it still wasn’t completely safe for him to be out and about by himself. To that end, several of Ronan’s men were monitoring the outside of the house, but I was still reluctant to let Aleks out of my sight.
Not to mention I had a lot of explaining to do.
“Aleks, wait,” I said as I pushed the door shut just as he tried to open it.
He turned around. Tears were streaking down his cheeks. “I want you to choose me,” he whispered. “I know that’s selfish and those kids need your help, but I still want you to choose me. Maybe… maybe you can still do that kind of work but come home to me whenever you can. I’ll take that, James. It would be hard, but I could do it. And you’d know you had someone to come home to when things get really hard—”
“Aleks, I do.”
“What?” he sputtered.
“I do choose you. I already have.”
“What?”His voice cracked this time.
“I was apologizing to you because things have been going a million miles a minute since we landed in Seattle and that first day we just crashed and slept and last night I wanted you to focus on you and Dante talking so I was going to tell you today—”
“Tell me what?” he cut in.
“I talked to Ronan on the plane after everyone else fell asleep. He told me… he told me there were things I could do to help those kids without having to go back in. He said he’s got men on the inside but what he really needs is someone who’s lived that life… someone who can prepare the guys that go in.”
I wiped at Aleks’s tears. “He offered me a job, Aleks. And I accepted. I’ll have to travel every now and then, but he says I can live anywhere…wecan live anywhere.”
“You’re staying?” Aleks whispered in disbelief.
“I’m staying.”
