Page 23 of Traitor
“Someone tried to kill me.”
Jay nodded. That was a situation familiar to Jay. “Is this a common concern in your life?”
Atticus appeared to breathe through pain. “You could say that.”
Jay eyed him for a moment. It was obvious he was still in bad shape. “You’ve come to the right place, then. This property is impenetrable, and the care is good. I would know.” He motioned toward the ugly scars no one could miss. “Crisp made me well here.”
If Atticus had questions or thoughts, he hid them well. Jay knew then he could trust Atticus’ silence. Atticus’ gaze moved past him. “Look alive. Foster is running this way.”
Jay didn’t even check to see if Atticus spoke the truth. He headed for the closest hidden door and slipped inside. This house had been built as a playground for Kylo. There were several secretpassageways for him to play hide and seek. Jay felt certain he had found each one. As he made his way to his room, Jay turned everything over inside his head. He was more than a little curious about why Atticus was here. Foster hadn’t brought him. Had Tracker? If so, that was odd. Hadn’t Tracker recently married? He rarely understood what went on with this bunch. Jay knew one thing, though. If Foster was anything like Crisp, he would rush to care for Atticus. Atticus was as good as locked down now. Jay knew what it was like to have the undivided attention of an Agafonov. Their focus was more than healing; their love was addictive.
Soaked and torn, Crisp headed for his bedroom. It seemed Foster’s man had come for him. He had looked kind of unwell, but he had come. That had to mean he wanted more than one night. He had better, or he shouldn’t be here. Crisp might be the clean-up guy, but he also knew how to slit a throat. Honestly, that made him twice as dangerous. Not only could he kill a man, no one would ever know what happened to them. They would simply vanish. He scowled all the way to the bedroom, fretting over the situation. When he stepped inside and found Jay waiting, everything outside their bedroom door vanished.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
Jay’s mouth lifted in one corner at the greeting. “Hey, beautiful. You’re back a lot earlier than I expected.”
Crisp shivered from the cold air in the room overcoming him. “Yeah. Foster’s man showed up, so I left him to deal with that.”
Jay was on his feet before Crisp finished his sentence. He took the towel Crisp held and rubbed him vigorously, drying his skin and warming him at the same time. “We need to get you out of this wet suit. You’re not built for the cold.”
Crisp pulled a face he didn’t really feel. “Did you just call me scrawny?”
Jay’s eyes danced with laughter, stealing Crisp’s heart again, the way Jay somehow did every day. “You know better.” He pinched Crisp’s ass. “This is sexy, warm-weather only skin. Plus, I’m always looking for a good excuse to get you out of your clothes.”
Crisp gave him a sharp nod. “That is the only acceptable response.”
Jay shook his head and laughed. A huge realization hit Crisp. It wasn’t the first time Crisp had thought about it, but this was the time the truth truly sank in. They were happy. This relationship was indestructible and amazingly perfect.
“I’m so in love with you.”
Jay’s gaze snapped to Crisp at his words. “I’m so in love with you too. Why do you sound like that?”
He didn’t need to ask what Jay meant. Crisp heard himself. He knew how much power he had used when making that statement. “Because I don’t ever want you to forget that, and I need you to know how beautiful I think we are.”
Jay grabbed the back of Crisp’s neck and hauled him into a kiss. He acted as if he couldn’t wait a second longer to brush tongues with Crisp. Like always, Crisp’s heart soared. Before Jay, Crisp hadn’t known he could feel this way. He had never been the lone center of anyone’s attention. Jay treated him as if he couldn’t exist without Crisp. Jay pushed Crisp’s wet shorts down his hips until they landed with a plop on the floor. The moment Crisp kicked free of them, Jay tugged him toward the couch. He sat, pulling Crisp into his lap before covering him with the throw blanket they kept draped over the back of the couch. Sitting sideways with Jay holding him was the best feeling in the world.
Jay stroked his thigh. “Besides Foster’s man arriving, did you learn anything new?”
Crisp fought a laugh. For someone who had once been a very lone island, Jay lived for the household gossip. “Nah. Oh, wait. I brought up Foster moving here, and it turns out he’s been considering that for a while. Of course, now Atticus is here, I doubt he’ll choose to stay, which is totally fair. California was our home for quite a while. We might’ve bounced around the country for Rain and Shadow’s ballet career, but So-Cal won in the end.”
“You sound like you miss it.”
Jay’s words pulled Crisp from the memories overtaking him. Crisp would always be honest with Jay. “Yes and no. This is very much my home now, but there’s still a lot of nostalgia attached to other places we’ve lived.”
“We should go see the world.”
Crisp held Jay’s stare.
Jay didn’t stop there. “With my health, we never got to do the fourteen-day road trip. Let’s take things a little further. We should grab Tidy and go see everything.”
Crisp chewed his bottom lip. He hated to admit how badly he wanted exactly what Jay suggested. Crisp doubly hated to admit he wanted his whole family back. Spending his night talking to Foster made him realize how much he missed everyone. He had tried wrapping himself in his hurt and anger. Truth be told, there was still some pain and animosity he couldn’t shake. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to repair something he wasn’t sure his brothers wanted to fix.
“You can have both.” Jay said the words so quietly and sweetly, he wondered if Jay could read minds. He didn’t stop there. “Most of your brothers are married now. They all have their own lives. Yours is with me. But there’s no reason you can’t use traveling as an excuse to drop by and invade their new lives. After a couple of trips, you can decide from there how you feel. If you still feel like they don’t want you, I do. Tidy does. It soundsa hell of a lot like Foster does. You’ve told me a million times I’m free. So are you, baby. Stay here and embrace the family you have now or force yourself to be seen by the rest of the people who are supposed to love you. Do both. No matter where you go or what you choose, you’ll have me.”
Jay made everything sound so simple. They could just do whatever they wanted. The commander was dead. No one hunted him any longer. All the right people thought Jay was dead. They were free to choose any path they wanted.
“What if we did a little of that and kept this? I love the life we have built here, but you also deserve to enjoy your freedom.”
