Page 35

Chapter 35

Constantine

“Kiss me.” Juliette parted her lips as an invitation that I’d never refuse.

I shifted my hand up into her hair and leaned in just as Colin interrupted, “Shit, sorry!” which had me startling away from her.

“It’s okay,” I said, groaning under my breath.

“Later,” Juliette mouthed, and now later felt like forever.

We turned toward the door to acknowledge Colin. A hand covered his eyes as if he’d caught us having sex on my desk. Not a bad idea. Well, not the being-caught part.

I tugged at the brim of my hat, working to get my shit together. I’d told this woman my life story, and she didn’t run. She was still here, wanting me to kiss her and trusting me to protect her and our son. It was safe to say I was a fucking mess on the inside, but oddly, in the best possible way.

It wasn’t lost on me, either, that our first kiss in seventeen years almost came after two men tried to abduct our son. Of course, nothing in my life was ever ordinary—certainly not my feelings for her—so why wouldn’t this moment we’d shared happen in the same way?

“You can look, silly,” she said when Colin had yet to lower his hand.

“So, you’re an adrenaline junky, too, huh?” Colin pointed at his mother, his tan skin a little red in his throat. “Action turns you on, Ma?”

Juliette was the one now covering her mouth in mortification. I was about to be there with her in a second.

Time to shift gears really damn fast and go full-on dad mode. “Please tell me it doesn’t for you.”

At least Colin didn’t seem as shaken up and rattled by what happened not even an hour ago. And while it made sense for him to be, something told me he’d control-override the way I would and move forward.

Hell, the same way his mother seemed to be doing. She was handling everything far better than I could’ve hoped.

“Ah, what’s that?” Colin bypassed my comment and went straight for the room behind us.

Juliette closed one eye, shooting me an adorable and slightly self-conscious smile before we followed our son into the room as he did a three-sixty.

“Promise you’ll teach me to use all this stuff here?” He twirled his finger like the blade of a helo.

“Not a chance,” Juliette beat me to it.

Although, I was more inclined to say maybe instead of a flat-out no.

“Wait, is that real-time footage?” Colin walked over to the largest screen mounted on the back wall. Four quadrants displayed rotating views of different angles from inside and outside Lennon and Jamie’s hotel. “This is my girl’s hotel, isn’t it?”

“It is,” I said casually. “I’ve been keeping an eye on them. We have a guy parked outside on overwatch as well.”

“Well, this makes me feel better.” Colin pulled at the drawstrings of the old, ratty-looking hoodie he’d tossed earlier, wearing it in place of the NYU shirt.

This morning felt like it was last week.

“Thank you,” he said while facing me.

The original goal wasn’t to protect his girlfriend, but I supposed we’d need to now. I’d have to arrange for her to be held somewhere safe after we picked up Jamie and Daniel.

When I felt a vibration in my pocket, I reached for my phone, assuming it was the security detail letting me know they’d arrived.

Hudson: I’m outside. I dropped Izzy off already.

Me: You didn’t have to be our escort.

Hudson: I know. I wanted to be.

Me: Thanks. You have backup?

Hudson: Of course. Boxed in by two other SUVs. Four Teamguys. Two are waiting in the garage by your private elevator.

Me: Good. Any news yet on those two fake cops?

Hudson: Izzy’s still working on it.

Me: K. Be down in a minute.

“It’s time to go.” I pocketed my phone and then went over to grab my stuff. “You all set?”

“I am,” Colin said, and Juliette echoed his response. “Can we wash the NYU shirt at your parents’ place, or would that be weird?”

How’d I tell him washing blood from clothes was a perfectly normal occurrence for my family? I went with, “It’s fine,” instead.

Colin offered to carry my rifle case, and nope, not happening. I handed him a bag with other gear in it—the kind that saved lives, not took them.

Once we returned to the office, I resecured the room and closed the bookshelves.

“How was your call with Lennon?” I asked while opening the top drawer of my desk, discreetly removing the Tiffany’s box to bring with me. With any luck, all of this insanity would be behind us by Juliette’s birthday so we could celebrate like a typical family would.

“She’s freaked out about what happened to us. Saw the news about the shooting, but our names weren’t mentioned, thanks to you.” He paused for a breath. “She chewed out her brother, and he swears he has no clue about any guys coming for us.”

I doubt that.

He side-eyed me as we started for the hall. “I didn’t steal anything, I swear.”

I wanted to believe that, and I was fairly certain I did. “I know.”

Relief washed over his face at my response.

“Everything will be fine,” I said as we walked. “I’ll get this handled. No more threats. No more attempted”—I swallowed, hating the word I had to say—“kidnappings. Then you can go to your new school and live the life of a carefree sixteen-year-old like you should have already been doing.”

“And you’ll keep Lennon safe, too, right?” He hit me with that question once we were inside the private elevator with our bags. “I need you to make me that promise.”

“I’d keep her safe no matter what. You get that, right?” I set down the rifle case to free my hand and placed it on his shoulder. “Because you care about her doesn’t change that. It’s just who I am.”

His chest fell as if a hundred pounds of weight had been relieved from it. “You’d have saved me at the rave even if I wasn’t your son?”

“Of course.” I nodded and pulled back my hand. “But I may not have lost my mind with worry quite how I did had you not been.” The same held true at the garage today.

A lopsided smile formed on his lips as the doors parted.

As Hudson promised, we were greeted by two veterans who’d worked with us on past jobs.

I nodded my greeting, and they offered to assist with our bags.

Hudson was waiting behind the wheel of the middle SUV. I opened the back door for Juliette and Colin to enter before rounding the Suburban to sit in the front passenger seat.

I circled my finger in the air, signaling for us to move, remembering how my son had made that gesture only minutes ago. “Hudson,” I started once we were on the move, “meet Juliette. You already know your nephew.”

“Hudson has skills like Dad,” Colin remarked before Hudson could speak up. “He fought alongside Dad at the rave.”

I’d never grow tired of hearing him call me Dad, that was for damn sure. The way my heart jumped every time he said it made me wonder if I needed Juliette to go nurse mode on me and check my vitals.

Before Juliette had a chance to say anything, Colin piped up again. “Guess you’re Uncle Hudson to me, huh? You married my aunt. When was the wedding?”

“Last month,” he answered. “At the Costas’ family home in the Hamptons. Beach wedding. We would’ve invited you if, well, you know . . .”

“I bet the wedding was dope,” Colin carried on. “Who’d you have perform? Someone famous, right? Rich-people shit.”

Hudson laughed. “I’m not part of the ‘rich-people shit’ club.”

“Sure, sure. Your dad is the governor, and you own a bar. You’re certainly not hurting in the money department.”

“Looks like you already did your research on me,” Hudson said in a semi-amused tone. “And we had a normal band. Normal rich-people shit,” he added with a laugh, which garnered one from Colin.

“Okay, okay, but still, now that I’m in Aunt Izzy’s life, it’s my duty to know if you’re good for her.”

“He’s your kid all right.” Hudson shook his head, smirking. “And if you determine I’m not good enough, what then? Pistols at dawn?”

“Sure, if you’d like to teach me to shoot first.”

Surprised Easton hadn’t taught him how to handle a gun.

“Hudson’s your father’s best friend. I think that’s qualifying enough.” Juliette with the save on Hudson’s behalf.

“Best friend? Ha. Hardly qualifying. That should be a hard do-not-pass-go situation.” Colin scoffed, and from the sounds of it, so did Hudson. “Uncle Easton would’ve never let you near one of his guy friends.”

I twisted around to look at him. “I owe your uncle a thank-you for that.”

The only reason I knew God didn’t totally hate me was that Easton hadn’t set Juliette up with Carter before Carter met his now-wife. The idea of Juliette marrying Carter and Colin becoming his stepson did more than make my stomach turn. It made me want to commit murder.

“Speaking of Uncle Easton.” Colin pointed at the phone on Juliette’s lap. “He’s texting Mom now.”

She smiled, tucking her phone into her purse. “He’s just checking on us.”

I wasn’t sure if she’d let Easton in on what happened at the garage yet. I doubted that was a conversation she wanted to have with her brother over the phone. If he were anything like me, he’d already be en route here if so.

“Okay, where were we?” Colin was eager to lay into Hudson again, and I didn’t even mind. “Right, right. You love my aunt. Like love her, love her?”

“I mean, I did marry her, I would hope so.”

“But do you look at her like my dad looks at my mom?”

“Oh, and how does Constantine look at me?” Juliette mused, and since I was still facing her, I teased my brows up and down a few times.

“You two. Dannnng. Seriously. Like I said before those idiots jumped us . . . you should get a room. Heck, with your track record, maybe I’ll get lucky and wind up with a brother.”

I’d need more than my vitals checked. I’d need my head examined as well. Because did our son just suggest we not only have sex but also have another child?

Juliette stared at him in shock. I was on the same page. Same paragraph. Same line of what the hell did he just say?

“What?” he tossed out casually while playing with his hoodie strings as if he didn’t just shake the ground beneath our feet. Well, tires.

I’d been concerned Colin wouldn’t want us having another kid, worried he’d think I was trying to replace the time I lost with him with someone else—which couldn’t be further from the truth. And yes, I was jumping ahead of myself, but . . .

“You want a brother?” she asked in surprise.

“Well, duh. I see how much you stress out Uncle Easton. I can’t deal with a sister and having guys date her one day.” He slashed his arms in the air like a timeout sign. “Nope, not happening. I’ll kill a dude.” He hit the back of his hand against his uncle’s arm, earning him a semi-amused look from Hudson. “Yeah, I’ll be needing to learn to shoot a gun if I have a sister. A brother is much safer.”

I twisted around in my seat, catching Hudson’s grin in the process. Yeah, yeah, he’s my son all right. I discreetly signaled a plea for him to intervene and change the topic. I needed to work on kissing Juliette before impregnating her again. Damn good to know we had his support.

“To answer your question, though,” Hudson began after a not-subtle-at-all throat clear, “I do love Bella. Love her, love her.” He changed lanes as we approached my parents’ place. “And yeah, I think it’s safe to say your father looks at your mother the way I look at my wife.” He turned into the parking garage, which required a security check. “And no more questions, kid, because we’re here.”

“This place is right across from Central Park. Must be even more expensive than your pad.” Colin definitely had a way of pointing out the obvious.

“They have another home as well, but it was compromised last fall,” I shared, immediately regretting it. Alessandro’s pregnant wife being taken from their place as revenge against us was not a memory I wanted to relive. “Anyway, uh, my father beefed up security here as a result.”

“It’d pass Secret Service inspection to host a sitting president,” Hudson added as security let us through. “No one can get in, trust me.”

After jumping through a few more security hoops, bags in hand, the four of us made our way to my parents’ top floor, leaving behind the two security details to do a perimeter check.

The closer we got to the front door, the faster my heart beat at the reality I’d be introducing them to my parents. A lie or two first, though, which meant I also needed to bring Juliette and Colin up to speed on one very important detail.

“I’m holding off on telling your grandparents the truth until we’re all here. My brothers will be landing in two hours. I’d rather everyone learn at once.”

I brought my right eye to the retinal scanner so we could exit the elevator. Once we were in what felt like a sterile, bright white space, I punched in a code, and a door slid open, revealing my parents’ front door.

“This is extra-extra,” Colin said with a laugh. “Oh, wait.” He whirled around, nearly colliding with me. “Wait, what’s the story about us, then? Who am I supposed to be?”

“What’d Izzy tell them?” I asked Hudson.

“That you’re protecting a mom and her son from some assholes and need a more secure home to keep them at. Enzo and Alessandro are en route because they’re going to help us handle the problem.”

“And they’ll believe that.” Colin’s statement stole my focus back his way, and his lips crooked into a smile. “Because that’s just the kind of man you are.”