I’d gotten used to such intimate scenes in the six weeks I’d been around my brother and his young lover, but it still got me in the gut every time. I was both envious and overjoyed that my brother had found his other half. No one deserved to be together more than Vaughn and Aleks. But I also knew what it meant for me.
Vaughn wouldn’t be coming back home with me.
Aleks had a huge family here in Seattle. Along with his older brother, Dante, and Dante’s husband, Magnus, Aleks was a part of Ronan’s weirdly close group. And, of course, there was the added caveat that some of the very men who worked for Ronan were in relationships with men related to the Barretti family.
The same Barretti family Remy worked for.
I considered myself a smart man, but it was impossible to keep track of who was who and what side of the family tree they fell on. But it didn’t really matter because all those branches meant one thing.
Vaughn would be staying here with Aleks when the time came for me to take Gio home. It was a heartbreaking thing to have to accept, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Vaughn had loved Aleks for years and he’d given up so much already to help in the search for Gio. And Vaughn had saved countless lives with the work he’d done. It was his turn to have the family he’d always deserved.
Vaughn and Aleks both looked at me when I entered the room. My brother looked pissed and Aleks was a mess. He’d clearly been crying. Vaughn took Aleks’s hand as they both approached me. I fully expected Vaughn to take a swing at me. We’d resolved a lot of things with our fists, especially in recent weeks when Vaughn and Aleks had been reunited. But my brother merely dropped his lover’s hand so he could wrap both his arms around me.
“Thank fuck,” he murmured.
I was surprised at the show of emotion, but even more surprised when I felt tears sting the backs of my eyes. Vaughn and I had said some shitty things to each other recently, and while we’d come together in a last-ditch effort to find Gio and keep Aleks safe, I wasn’t sure our relationship was going to survive the betrayals we’d inflicted upon one another.
I found myself clinging to Vaughn for several long seconds, much like I’d done when I’d come out to him as a terrified nineteen-year-old gay college freshman who’d just learned that one drunken encounter with a woman had resulted in a very unexpected pregnancy.
I felt my brother’s big hand settle at the back of my head, like he knew what I was feeling at the moment and was giving me that extra bit of reassurance I needed that everything was going to be okay.
With Remy.
With Gio.
When he released me, Aleks practically pushed into my arms. The show of emotion wasn’t unusual for Aleks, but it was unusual that he’d show it with me. I hadn’t exactly been his favorite person.
“Remy’s okay,” I said to Aleks as I embraced him.
“I know,” Aleks said.
“Did he call you?” I asked in surprise.
Aleks shook his head. “He’s with you, so I know he’s safe,” was all Aleks said. I looked at Vaughn in surprise, but he just smiled like Aleks’s confident statement was the most natural thing in the world for him to say.
“What are you doing with him?” Vaughn asked once Aleks released me. I didn’t miss how the younger man immediately returned to my brother’s side.
I sighed and motioned to the chairs surrounding the conference table. Once we were seated, I said, “I was worried about him after what happened at the wedding.”
“He was with his sponsor, Joe,” Aleks said. “I talked to him. He said Remy was okay. Remy said that too.”
I wasn’t about to divulge Remy’s secret that he’d been pretending to be Joe when he talked to Aleks, so I simply said, “A lot has happened since then.” I gave my brother and Aleks a quick rundown about Remy’s search for Violet. If either man thought it strange that I’d been following Remy, neither said it. I also left out the details of just how tense things had been between me and Remy.
“So they’re both with you?” Vaughn asked in surprise. “Remy and the child?”
I nodded.
“And you got Ronan involved?”
I nodded again. I knew what my brother wasn’t asking. It was the same question I was still asking myself. Why was Remy with me instead of Ronan?
“I’ve got King working on trying to find Violet’s family.”
“Then what?” Aleks asked. “If you find her family, what happens to Remy?”
I shifted my eyes to the younger man. A month ago, he’d been afraid to talk to me directly. He’d been terrified of angering me and being punished like he had been for so many years by the men who’d used him like he was nothing more than a piece of property. I couldn’t help but glance at the scar on his neck. His previous captor had caused the mark when he’d had the links of a collar welded together while it was on Aleks’s neck.