Unbroken (The Protectors 12)

“My brother’s fiancé makes me grits!” I blurted. “But Vaughn’s are better.”

All eyes turned to me.

“They are?” Vaughn asked me, his eyes going all soft.

“Um, yeah,” I stuttered. “I like how you, um, added shrimp… Magnus’s are really good but yours… I really, really like yours. They’re the best,” I added lamely.

Vaughn’s smile of pleasure did gooey things to my insides.

“I still don’t get what grits have to do with Vaughn’s shorts,” Con announced.

“Jesus, brother,” King muttered as he stood and grabbed his plate to take it to the kitchen. He smacked Con on the back of his head and snatched his plate too.

“Hey, I’m not done.”

“Yeah, you are,” King said. “Let’s go, Mr. Oblivious.”

Con’s gaze shifted to me, then Vaughn. He suddenly grinned and said, “Oh, gotcha… grits. Aleks, you sure you want to settle for his grits—”

“Okay, you’re doing the dishes,” Luca said as he stood and grabbed his own plate, then Con’s arm.

“I cooked,” Con protested as Luca practically dragged him from the dining room.

“Sorry,” Vaughn said. “They can be a bit much.”

I wanted to laugh at that. I did laugh at that.

“You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Vaughn’s fingers moved up to my neck and I found myself leaning into his sensual touch.

“What do you mean?”

“My family… they’re…” I shook my head. “Huge, for starters. I mean, I don’t go to many of their get-togethers… okay, none, really,” I began. “But some of them come over to our house and the way they all joke… it’s like nothing I’ve seen before. And Dante, he just… he loves it,” I said with a smile. “He deserves it.”

I felt Vaughn’s eyes on me and felt my body go all warm. “You’ll see what I mean when you meet them someday.”

I caught myself the second the words were out.

Did we have a someday?

We hadn’t actually talked about that.

Even if I made it through this and got to go home, Vaughn wouldn’t be coming with me. He’d said as much when he’d admitted that he’d keep helping kids even after he got Gio out. He couldn’t live that kind of life and still be with me, could he?

Could I?

Could I spend every day for God only knew how long, worried about the day he wouldn’t come home to me?

I dropped my eyes and fought back the nausea threatening to ruin the delicious meal I’d just eaten. I waited for him to say something, anything that would confirm he would meet my family, but he remained silent.

I began picking at my food again, though my appetite was gone.

“Can I ask where Gio’s mom is? You guys don’t mention her,” I asked, hoping to get past the awkward moment.

Mission definitely not accomplished because when I looked up at Vaughn, he looked stiff and tense.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

“No,” he said as he put his hand on my thigh when I started to get up. “No, it’s just… it’s not something we talk about… ever.”

“How come?”

“She’s gone… she was killed when Gio was taken. She tried to stop the guys and they shot her… in the head.”

“Oh God, James, I’m sorry…”

He shook his head. “She and Luca weren’t in a relationship, but he really did love her and she was such an incredible mother to Gio. He pretty much lost his best friend and his son all in one day. He’s never really recovered from that… he kind of went off the rails for a while afterwards. Wouldn’t eat or sleep or even talk to anyone, really.”

“You guys said he went in on his own in the beginning to look for Gio.”

Vaughn nodded. “He didn’t tell any of us. Could’ve gotten himself killed. Luckily, he never told people who he really was and no one seemed to make the connection. He looked different back then, too… younger, less…”

He fell silent and this time I was the one to put my hand on his leg.

Vaughn didn’t need to finish the description… I’d seen what that other world did to its victims, and even if Luca hadn’t suffered the same kind of pain, he’d suffered. The whole family had.

I pushed my plate away because my appetite was completely gone.

“You should finish,” Vaughn said gently.

“No, I just want to go to our room… with you.”

He seemed to understand my need to be with him in that way because he kissed me softly and then said, “Let’s go.”

We took our plates to the kitchen, which was empty, and left them in the sink. Vaughn held my hand as we made our way down the hallway to the room we were sharing. Once we reached the door, he turned to me as he was reaching for the knob. “Do you want to call Dante?” he asked.

I did, but my mind was somewhere else at the moment and I wanted to go with the feeling before I chickened out. I shook my head and then pulled him down for a kiss. I let my tongue slide into his mouth before inviting him to take over the kiss. I’d become a self-proclaimed expert at kissing in the past week, and I knew what to do to get him to take control, at least of my mouth.