I pause. “What? You’re fine with it?”
“Lina, revenge gets you nothing but heartache. I found Sawyer because you asked me to, but I’ve never wanted you to go through with this. He’s dangerous, and your life is more important.”
“I agree,” Guy says, and the two men lock eyes before returning to their meals.
I look between them and smile, the tension easing, my heart lifting.
I knew that they’d find common ground; I just never imagined that ground was how much they both love me.
“Doyou remember the first night we met?” I lift my eyes from my phone. Alistair is watching me with the same intensity as always, but there’s a softness behind it he usually reserves for the harder moments in our lives. Guy has gone to the bathroom, so it’s just the two of us, and it’s been a long time since Alistair and I were alone.
I lock my phone and nod. “Like it was yesterday.”
He angles his glass of whiskey, staring at the ice cubes. “You picked a fight in a bar with a guy and he punchedyou. You were a kid, an angry, drunk kid, and he smacked you right across the face. I remember it didn’t register at first that he’d really done that, but before Colt and I could get over there, you’d hit the guy right back.”
I smile. “And before he could strangle the life out of me, you knocked him out.”
“I did,” he says. “You were furious at me. Claimed you could look after yourself and I should mind my own bloody business. I dragged you out of there, got you some food, and when you’d sobered up, you talked to me.”
We spent hours in a crappy diner, eating chips and then cake, just the two of us. He listened, really listened, and I was drunk enough to spill that I had traveled to New York alone and had nowhere to go and no money to my name. I was almost seventeen, and Alistair was nineteen, and he said he’d fix it. He did. He found me a place to stay, and a job, too.
He's always looked after me. Without question, without judgment.
I’ll forever be grateful to him for that.
“You swore to me that night that you’d never depend on anyone, that you’d never fall for a man’s lies,” he says, meeting my eye.
“I depended on you. You’re a man.”
“I wasn’t trying to sleep with you.”
I frown. “Yeah, you never have. Should I be offended?”
He grins. “I prefer to be the dangerous one in the relationship. You’d steal my thunder.”
I raise my glass to him. “True.”
I know exactly how Alistair is with women. He doesn’t date, definitely doesn’t go as far as to call a woman his girlfriend or his partner, but there are women he sees regularly. Women he enjoys … chasing, and who enjoy being chased. Colt has told me some tales that had my toes curling and my cheeks warming. I think Alistair would give me a run for my money.
He takes my hand. “Do you trust him, Lina?”
“Yes,” I say, without missing a beat, because I do. Guy knows every part of me, the good and bad, and he only wants to know more.
“Do you love him?”
I squeeze his hand gently. “I do.”
“You loved Asher, too.”
“Not like this,” I say quietly. “I hid myself from Asher. With Guy … there’s nothing I’m afraid to tell him. Nothing.”
Alistair watches me for a moment, as if considering my words and the truth of them. He leans close and kisses my cheek, his lips hovering by my ear. “If he hurts you, little Fox, I’ll kill him.”
I smile. “If he hurts me, I’ll kill him myself.”
Chapter 21
Guy
