AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gage pointed to himself. “Me?”
“You’re every team’s primary objective,” Adrían informed them. “You, Gage Wolfe, were our main target.”
“What if Gage makes things easier, cuts out the middleman?” Mike asked. “We’ll go right up to that motherfucker’s doorstep.”
Adrían shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Lavigne’s tasted blood. Under no circumstances can he get his hands on Ayesha. Because of Curtis, then me, and now…Joel, he’s curious about her. Too curious. He won’t kill her. He might keep her, which would be worse than death.”
Ayesha tried not to let her imagination wander, but with all the stress of the day, for a moment, she lost the fight. Her brain showed her fleeting images of what could happen to her at the hands of the bastard who’d harmed her son, and then she made the mistake of looking at Joel.
He saw the fear.
Then Gage told Dez to take him outside.
“We’ve tried, several times, to get him off the team,” Adrían went on. “But Central hurt Trevor’s wife and Lee’s sister in retaliation, and I didn’t want to risk them finding out who was important to me.”
Ayesha, no longer hungry, set her bowl on the coffee table and leaned against Giorgio’s arm. She saw him look down at her through the reflection on the coffee table’s glass top, and as he turned back to the conversation, he subtly adjusted, giving her head a better angle to rest.
“Does Lavigne have any living family?” Mike asked. “Because I have questionable morals when protecting the people I love. If he puts his hands on Eesh, I’ll wipe out every member of his fucking bloodline and then go get an ice cream cone.”
“None that I know of,” Adrían said. “Trust me. I’ve checked. But let me know if you find something. I’m partial to chocolate ice cream myself.”
The front door opened, and Thandie walked in ahead of Julien, who carried a sleeping Theo. Then Mo and Ari walked in with Ty and Aleksi, followed by Larke, Monroe, Tayler, Grey, Xara, and Mikey. Tayler and Larke carried covered dishes that Mike and Gage went over to help with.
Dez and Joel reentered the house.
Joel took Theo and joined Ayesha on the sofa.
Ayesha pulled Theo onto her lap, kissed his cheek, and then looked over at Joel, knowing that having everyone come over was his doing. In Maui, she rarely had the chance to see everyone. Now, it was as simple as a phone call.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He smiled, winked, and patted the pocket where he’d tucked her kiss.
CHAPTER29
She knew he would show up here, in the kitchen, in the middle of the night, while she poured hot chocolate into a clear glass mug.
It was why, when he rounded the corner, his olive skin and dark hair illuminated by the dim lighting, she already had a mug extended in his direction. The T-shirt and shorts hung on him like she’d expected them to, and once Joel had seen her collection of delivery boxes, he’d forgotten all about Adrían “taking” his clothes.
“You do these things, and then everyone expects me to no longer love you,” Adrían said, taking the mug. “Simple things like this, querida, they do so many things to my heart. I’m trying. I promise I’m trying, but you don’t make it easy.”
“That’s not my intent,” she said.
He’d always been kind to her, and today, he helped the man she loved. By helping Joel, Josiah was upstairs asleep in his room instead of—somewhere else. Somewhere she couldn’t fathom so much as thinking about.
In addition, he gave Joel the information that led them to Siriano Lavigne, bringing them one step closer to helping Theo find peace. Hot chocolate was nowhere near an adequate repayment. To him, it was probably nothing or “just business.” To her, especially when it involved the three people she loved most in the world, it was everything.
“I know that it’s just who you are,” he said. “I hate to say this, but you remind me of my mother, kind even when the world’s been unfair to her.”
“Why do you ‘hate to say’ that?”
“Because of the things I’ve done with you. The places I’ve touched you, kissed you.” He held her gaze, working his bottom lip with his teeth. “Then there are my fantasies of returning to Maui and asking you to marry me.”
Her heart gave an unexpected tug. “You wanted to marry me?”
“I love you, querida. It’s not a joke. But loving you doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could make the thoughts stop. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable around me.”
“I’m not uncomfortable around you,” she reassured him. “I feel pretty safe with you. You tease Joel, but you respect my relationship.”
