But therewassomething I could do about Robin’s murder… and what she’d died protecting.
I made my way to the front of the store.
“Boys?” I called, waving the flash drive as they all turned to look at me.
“No shit,” Leo said, looking a mix of amused and frustrated.
“Where?” Nero asked at the same time.
“The knight in the corner. Right behind his sword.”
“Guess you had a point about the mayonnaise jar,” Christopher said, shaking his head, but there was a smile tugging at his lips.
“Let’s take this over to Zeno.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Christopher
The silence inside the cab from the pawnshop to Zeno’s building was painful. But I couldn’t seem to come up with anything to say to ease it.
My mind was noisy as fuck to make up for it. Flashing through memories of her. Not just intimately. But in my arms, leaning into me, smiling at me from across the kitchen table, hissing at me in the mornings. And with the kids—teasing Liam about his ‘fake influencer’ career, chatting books or TV shows with Charlotte.
She’d fit in so effortlessly.
She hadn’t felt like a guest at all.
She felt like she belonged.
And that was terrifying in its own way.
Because I had no experience with serious relationships. Because it wasn’t onlymyneeds I could think about anymore.
Yes, Liam had given me his blessing, for all intents and purposes. I knew Charlotte adored Alara.
What I didn’t know was if they were ready for that. If it was okay to bring a woman into my life who would, by her relationship with me, become a bit of a maternal figure to them.
And if it was okay, if Alara had really given that serious thought.
It was all fine and dandy to be interested in me, to interact with the kids, but had she stopped to consider that it would be more than that eventually?
I knew from the stories people had about Alara that she’d been clear about not wanting children. I came with two. They were nonnegotiable. If she couldn’t get on board with eventually being something like a mother to them, then she couldn’t be in my life. No matter how badly I wanted her.
It was a discussion that needed to be had.
But not on the five-minute cab ride to Zeno’s place.
So I let the silence hang as Alara pet a very disinterested Tuna.
Then climbed with her up the stairs toward Zeno’s place.
It took three solid minutes of knocking to hear any kind of movement inside.
“Keep your panties on,” Zeno called, tone light. The door pulled open, and his gaze landed on Alara, making a boyish smile tug at his lips. “Or take them off. Whichever you’d prefer.”
I wasn’t aware any sound escaped me until Zeno’s gaze flicked up, brows raising.
“Wait. Shit,” he said, recognition hitting. “Chris, man! It’s been forever!”
