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“I’ll need all of your focus on them,” Alejandro runs a hand over his jaw. “But I got no one who knows this tech shit as well as you do.”
“Then we ask the second-best hacker we know?” I suggest.
“Jessie Ryan?”
“Yep. I’ll call Shane and get her the information she needs.” Shane and his brothers are friends of ours and I looked into Jessie for them a few years earlier and discovered she was the best hacker I’ve ever come across. We’ve done some bits of work together since and I know that she’s as capable of finding Lucia’s online stalker as I am.
“Shall I go and pack you and Matthias some things?” Alana asks Lucia.
“Please, Mom,” Lucia says softly.
“I’ll ask Hugo and Raoul to take me to your place now,” she says before giving Lucia a hug. I know that she will feel better doing something practical and keeping her mind off the fact that someone just tried to kill her daughter.
“Pack some jeans, tanks and sweatshirts,” I suggest. “The ranch can get kind of messy.” That is true, but the idea of Lucia walking around in nothing but a summer dress with all of the ranch hands hanging around isn’t a particularly welcome one.
“Will do,” Alana says and before she walks out of the door she shoots me a look that tells me she wants to speak to me. I follow her into the corridor.
“I know you’re a professional, Jax, but these are my babies,” she says, her words catching in her throat.
I place my hand on her arm. “I know, Alana. You guys are my family too, you know?”
She smiles up at me. “I know.”
“I’ll protect both of them with my life. I swear.”
“I know you will. And if you get them both back safely to me, I’ll even forgive you for sending my husband a hooker on our wedding night.”
“You know about that?” I feel heat creeping over my neck. I’m never rattled but she just pulled the rug from under me.
“Yes. We don’t keep secrets about that kind of stuff.” She arches an eyebrow at me.
“Alana! It was… I mean you and him… When you got married…” I stammer, trying to offer a justification but there is none. The truth is their marriage was a business arrangement and was supposed to be nothing more. So Alejandro had spent their wedding night in his hotel, and I had thought it was only right that he didn’t spend it alone and had sent him a gift. He turned her down and obviously I regret it now, because I love Alana and she is the best thing that ever happened to my best buddy, but back then it was no big deal. He was never supposed to fall in love with his wife. “I’m sorry,” I say eventually because that’s all I really can say.
“I know.” She smiles at me. “But please take good care of them.”
“I will. You have my word.”
She leans up onto her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”
CHAPTER 20
LUCIA
As soon as Matthias is settled with his tablet and juice box in the back seat of the rental truck, we set off. The kid was so excited when I told him we were going on a mini vacation with Jax. He threw his arms around Jax’s neck and has had a huge smile on his face ever since. He chattered away excitedly all the way to the airport and then during the entire three-hour plane journey. He should be tired out by now but he’s still full of energy. His excitement is kind of infectious and it almost made me forget about this morning and last night.
But now the feeling of dread and terror in the pit of my stomach is back. Somebody tried to kill me. If it hadn’t been for Raoul’s quick thinking, they just might have succeeded.
I glance at Matthias again and my heart aches. He’s sitting smiling at the cartoons without a care in the world, which is exactly how every four-year-old should feel, but I almost left him without a mother today and the thought of leaving him behind in this world without me is the most terrifying thing I have ever faced. I know he has family who love him. He would be taken care of by my parents, but there is no one on this earth who can love him the way that I can.
A tear runs down my cheek as I think about my own mom. She wasn’t perfect, but she tried her best. She was so worn down by her husband that she turned to pills and booze to get through the day, but I felt her love every single day she was alive. I only wish that I could have saved her. I swat the tear from my cheek before Jax sees it, but it’s too late.
His fingertips brush my cheek too.
“It’ll be okay, Luce,” he says softly. “I won’t let anyone hurt either of you.”
I turn and look at him. He is a good man. He cares for me and Matthias in his own way. I know that, but it’s not enough. It will never be enough.
“I know.” I sniff. Get a grip, Lucia! “It’s just been a weird day, that’s all. I’m fine.”
