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He sniffled again and nodded. Turning my head, I pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Let me finish reading from where you’ve left off,” I quietly told him. I patted his ass before I could think better of it, and my cock jerked behind my jeans. I swallowed a groan. Fuck, I needed to be more careful. His ass was soft—just the right size to fit my palm. Christ. “Why don’t you go get your tablet and read one of the books I’ve already vetted on it?”
He nodded and moved off my lap. His cheeks were red now, no longer pale, and he was avoiding my gaze. I licked my lips to hide my smile.
Gabriel was a temptation. A huge fucking temptation. And while I knew I’d never be able to get the feel of his plump ass out of my head, I also knew he hadn’t been left unaffected. I both loved and hated that because it just made the goddamn temptation worse.
He rushed up the stairs. Sighing, I reached forward, grabbed the book off the table, and opened it up to where he’d left off. I preferred listening to the audio of the books he chose to read, but I was too lazy to grab my phone out of the basket by the chapel and look it up or purchase the ebook to have my phone read it to me.
“Still weird to see you all fuckin’ soft, brother,” Gidget spoke up as he walked over. He passed me a chocolate milk and a small pack of cookies. “For your boy,” he explained when I arched a questioning brow at him. “I picked ‘em up this mornin’ while at the gas station.”
“Thanks.” I looked up at him. “You didn’t have to do that.” It was a little weird he had considering Gidget didn’t do shit for anyone unless he absolutely had to. He was selfish like that. A good guy where it mattered, but he was inconsiderate as fuck. Gidget was more rough edges than anything else, and if there was any softness in him, none of us had seen it yet.
He shrugged. “I understand him.” He smirked at me. “It’s the rest of you assholes I don’t get.”
I snorted and kicked my boot out at him. He chuckled. “Your boy’s headed back down the stairs.” With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, heading down the hall to the right, more than likely going to get a workout in. Gabriel was scared of Gidget, and I had a feeling Gidget had picked up on that, which was probably why he was making himself scarce before my boy made it back to me.
It was the first soft thing I’d ever seen him do. Ever.
I handed Gabriel the chocolate milk and cookies Gidget had handed me. “Gidget picked these up for you,” I told Gabriel once he was sitting next to me again.
He frowned, his brows pulling low over his eyes. “Gidget did?” His voice went a pitch higher, no doubt confused.
“Mhm,” I hummed. Gabriel fiddled with them, his gaze moving around the room, no doubt looking to see if Gidget was hanging around somewhere. Strain settled in his eyes, his fear a little more heightened. Couldn’t really blame him. A traumatized boy could easily pick up on someone’s energy, and Gidget’s energy was pretty volatile, even if he wasn’t all that explosive anymore.
“Oh,” Gabriel finally whispered.
I chuckled and ruffled his hair. He pouted at me and smoothed his hands back over his curly hair so it wasn’t all over the place anymore. “Come here.” I raised my arm and crooked my fingers in, so he knew to snuggle against my side.
With a smile he tried to fight but failed, he curled up against my side, his head resting against my chest. I draped my arm around him and focused back on the paperback he’d been reading.
6
Gabriel
Iset my tablet down when I heard Scorpion mention my name. He had come upstairs a few minutes ago and asked if he could talk to Tango. While they were talking in hushed words, Tango was growing increasingly aggravated, which meant Scorpion’s voice was raising, too.
And apparently, whatever they were discussing had to do with me.
It left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was Scorpion thinking I was too much work to protect? Was he trying to make Tango get rid of me after all? Would Tango listen to his president—his family? People who had given him a place to belong?
I clenched my hands around my tablet, trying not to panic and overthink. Tango would never hurt me. I knew that with every fiber of my being. He would do everything in the world to protect me. There was no reason for me to panic. No reason at all. I knew that.
But trying to get my brain on board was proving to be mighty difficult.
“Stop fuckin’ pressuring me, Prez,” Tango finally snapped, his voice so loud now, every word was clear when he spoke. “I’m not taking Gabriel to one of the safe houses. He’s safer here. If we get attacked here, he still has men around to keep him safe even if I can’t. If I take him to a fucking safe house, we have no one. We’re on our goddamn own. I can’t risk that—not right now. He needs to be here.”
“Even Johnston thinks it might be a good idea,” Scorpion told him, sounding agitated and tired. “We have houses in the north, Tango. We can get you and him away while we deal with this.”
“No,” Tango snapped, his voice near a bark. “That’s fucking final, Scorpion. Drop it. Don’t come at me again with this shit.”
So, their mini-argument was about my safety? At least my mind could stop whirring around, wondering about what they were talking about, and my gut could stop cramping. But now, my mind was going in another direction.
They were bending over backward to try to keep me alive. Keep me safe. And I wasn’t doing a damn thing to help them except following Tango’s rules. Which I knew helped, but it wasn’t enough. Or, at least, it didn’t feel like enough. There had to be something more that I could do, right? So that if something did happen, Tango didn’t have to worry so much. He didn’t have to focus on keeping me safe so much.
I’d never caught on to shooting, knives, or even hand-to-hand combat when my dad tried to train me. Never caught on when anyone else tried either. I’d been so fucking afraid every time I trained because whenever I made a mistake, I got punished for it. Harshly. In whatever way they deemed fit.
One time, I couldn’t hit my target where my dad wanted me to, so the VP bent me over the table closest to us and raped me, ripping me open and making me bleed.
I could try again though. I could ask Tango to help me. He would, wouldn’t he? Then, at least I might be able to help myself. And I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Nor would he allow anyone else, too. Tango had proven time and time again that he would do anything in his power to protect me and take care of me.
