Havoc (Tattoos and Ties 1)

“So why’d you have a bad day?” Keyes asked again as Alec’s fingers froze over his fallen angel. Alec slowly lifted his gaze.

“You’re persistent.” Alec gave him a hard look with a set jaw, and Keyes only chuckled, taking his finger and tracing the line of irritation furrowing Alec’s brows. “Okay, well the easiest way to explain…my boss is a bitch—on that, you probably agree. I’d go so far as to say cunt, but that seems overly crass.” Alec grinned at Keyes’s grunt. “She’s found out that I’m putting my hat in the ring for a judgeship—”

“You want to be a judge?” Keyes cut him off as Alec sat back on the sofa. Alec’s hand went back to playing with his hair.

Whatever Alec saw on his face had him returning the laughter from minutes ago.

“Not at all, maybe someday, but not now. It seems very restrictive. But that was two questions. Let me finish the first one, because I’m certain you’ll come back to it and insist I was dodging. So, the DA—you know the one, she’s all over your club. Well, today, she moved me to CPS. Leaving out the emotional toll, CPS is an impossible workload with lots of room for community judgment and failure, potentially destroying my reputation. I’m not cut out for CPS. I’m too emotional. I won’t be able to separate the cases and let justice be enough. I’ll spend too much of the taxpayer’s dollars seeking fairness that really looks a lot like retaliation. That would take an excessive toll on the victims, their families… It’s not going to be good for me or anyone involved. Those litigators are the best people on the planet. I’m not fit to walk in their shoes.”

Keyes just stared at Alec, lost in the judge remark. He sat lounging on the sofa in the home of a fucking soon-to-be judge. He let out a deep exhale he hadn’t known he was holding. His heart sank. What the fuck would his brothers have to say about this one? Oh yeah, they’d kick him right out of the club after they beat the shit out of him. He’d be labeled a traitor.

“Did I say too much?” Alec asked, his hand tightening on Keyes’s as Keyes continued to stare at him.

Finally, the highlights of the rest of what Alec said edged their way in. CPS. He disagreed. Based on what he’d seen, Alec would be great for the kids in that program. Hell, Keyes had been involved in CPS investigations for years. If he hadn’t been so hell-bent on destruction, they probably could have helped him out a lot. It took his uncle a long time, with an infinite supply of patience, to get through his thick skull. Those kids needed someone like Alec fighting for them.

“How many bikes do you have?” Alec asked when he didn’t answer.

It took a minute longer for him to shift from the gravity of the situation weighing on him. “Three. Is there a chance you’ll be an actual judge?”

“Most certainly, if my father has anything to say about it. You look panicked,” Alec said, his thumb caressing the hair on his jaw before cupping the back of his neck. “Why?”

“Because you’ll be a fuckin’ judge. What’s your father have to do with it?” Keyes asked, moving from Alec’s hold, turning to face the crazy-ass man more directly.

“Key, nothing’s changed,” Alec said calmly, schooling his features, looking very reasonable.

“Everything’s changed. What’s your father have to do with this?”

“My father’s the Speaker of the House for the United States Congress,” Alec explained, reaching again for his hand. “Nothing’s changed. We’re exactly the same two people we were fifteen minutes ago.”

“What?” Keyes knocked away his hand, getting to his feet, putting distance between them. He couldn’t think straight with Alec so close. “What the fuck? You should have told me this.”

“When?”

“When-the-fuck-ever!” Keyes growled, running his fingers through his long hair. Out of nothing more than his own frustration, Keyes gathered his hair. Using a hair tie on his wrist, he knotted it at the base of his head.

“Sit down. Seriously. We had amazing sex, shared a great shower, good food, nice conversation. Nothing’s changed between us,” Alec said, still sitting but scooting to the edge of the seat, clasping his hands together as he stared up at Keyes.

Keyes paced the room as his heart thundered in his chest. A fucking district attorney was a goddamn hard pill to swallow, but a judge? And a father in the United States Congress. What the fuck?

“Just knowin’ that changes everything. Do you have any idea what my club would do to me if they found out about you, about us?”

“I understand we probably shouldn’t go flaunting it,” Alec stated calmly, and Keyes could only stare at him. Did Alec not understand what his brothers would do to him if they found out about this night? The panic was back in full force. Keyes might not survive, and if he did, he’d wish he hadn’t.