Atonement (The Protectors 6)

“Look both ways, then again and once more for good measure,” Matty spouted off.

He was out the door like a shot and true to his word, he stopped at the curb and checked for traffic several times before darting across the street to Zane and Connor’s house. I waited until I saw him disappear into the house before shutting the front door.

“Come on in, dinner will be ready in a few,” Tate said as he and Hawke headed towards the kitchen. Dante and I made our way to the couch, but before we could get as comfortable as I would have liked, Hawke appeared at the back of the couch and thrust two bottles of beer between us.

“So…” Hawke said, his mischievous eyes shifting between me and Dante.

“So?” Dante and I both said at the same time.

“I gotta know. What part of my advice did it? The part about him buying you dinner first or the lube or-”

“Is that your husband I hear calling you?” I interrupted.

Hawk shook his head. “Nope, don’t think so,” he said innocently.

“Tate!” I shouted.

“Yeah?” came the response from the kitchen.

“Call your husband.”

“What should I call him?” Tate asked as he poked his head out of the kitchen. I cast him a dry look. “Um, honeykins,” Tate said.

“Yes, doodlebug,” Hawke said with a smirk.

“Come give me a hand in the kitchen.”

“What kind of hand?” Hawke asked, his eyes still on me and Dante.

Tate paused before saying, “The kind you like.”

That got Hawke’s attention and he immediately straightened. “That’s my cue, guys…let’s say ten minutes for dinner.”

I chuckled as he hurried off. “Jesus,” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah, we can do way better than ten minutes,” Dante said as he dropped his hand to my inner thigh, wiping the remnants of my smile from my face as my dick jerked to attention.

I settled my hand over his and leaned in to whisper, “Too many prying eyes here, but they’ve got a decent sized guest bathroom.”

The reminder of the day that had started it all for us had Dante dragging me to him for a long, deep kiss.

In the month since Aleks had made the decision to take off his collar, he’d had good days and bad which meant Dante and I’d had the same, since we were both so invested in his recovery. There hadn’t been any hesitation on my part in having Aleks come live with us full-time because I’d become increasingly fond of the young man. His strength and resilience reminded me of Dante, but he was also very different from his older brother in so many ways. He was quieter and more reserved and often struggled to find his voice. I wasn’t sure how much of that was just part of his nature and how much had been driven into him from his past.

While Aleks had made a lot of progress in some areas, he still faltered in others. Namely that he refused to talk about what had happened in the years after he was abducted. Not with me, not with Dante and not with any medical professionals. We’d managed to get him to see a regular doctor for a physical exam, but it had been touch and go the entire time and that had been with a female doctor. But as reluctant as he was to talk about the past, he was moving full speed ahead towards the future. Specifically, his desire to get an education and ultimately a job. It wasn’t that he wanted to move out and be on his own anytime soon; it was more like he wanted to know that he could. We’d gotten lucky in that both Connor Devereaux, one of Leo’s fathers, and Savannah Matthews, a Barretti relative, were both teachers and had agreed to tutor Aleks to help him get his GED when he was ready. We’d garnered enough information to know that Aleks had been given some education in the past, albeit informal, but the focus had been on speaking, writing and reading English. He had next to no skills in math or science, but like Dante, he was sharp and driven and he excelled at whatever was put in front of him. He’d expressed interest in someday working for a florist, though when we’d mentioned that he could someday own his own shop if that was what he wanted, he’d seemed reluctant to believe himself capable…another trait he had a tendency to share with his brother, though Dante had improved in that area quite a bit.

Starting with his parents.

Juliana and Pedro hadn’t been as hard-nosed about Aleks staying with us as we’d assumed they’d be. My guess was they’d had the fear of God put in them when Aleks had disappeared on them for a second time. And it had helped that Aleks had stood up to them, choosing the life his brother could offer over the one his parents wanted him to have back in Brazil. Dante’s parents hadn’t warmed up to him at all and I doubted they would, but when Aleks had been out of the room, I’d made it clear to the couple that when they were in mine and Dante’s house, they would show their oldest son the respect he was due.