“No.” I shake my head. Ten years ago I bought the ranch I was raised on until the age of thirteen, but it’s all in my aunt’s name. Even the people working there believe it’s her place and I just visit once in a while.
“You think you could protect them there?” he asks.
“Yes.” If there is one place on this earth I could keep them safe it’s the ranch.
“So Jax is going to take Lucia and Matthias to Texas?” Alana asks with a frown.
“Yes,” Alejandro nods. “Until I can find out who is targeting Lucia and why. Nobody will know who she is there and nobody but us will know where they are.”
“Lucia, what do you think?” Alana asks but Lucia just sits staring at her parents, still in a state of shock—or maybe she is wondering why the hell I just suggested taking her and her son away from everything they know.
“Are you sure about this, amigo?” Alejandro asks me, ignoring the fact that Lucia hasn’t answered her mom yet. His brow is furrowed and his eyes are full of concern as he waits for me to speak. I glance at Lucia. Her cheeks are pale and her eyes red. I have never seen her looking so vulnerable and fragile, and it breaks me.
I’m doing this to protect her though. Surely I can be alone with her for a few days until Alejandro finds out who was behind this? I have some self-control, don’t I?
“As long as it’s okay with Lucia,” I say. There’s no way she’s going to accept this anyway—I’m definitely not her favorite person right now—but to my surprise she nods.
“Yes” she whispers, and I wonder if she would agree to anything right now because not only is she terrified for herself, but for Matthias too.
“I’ll need all of your focus on them,” Alejandro runs a hand over his jaw. “But I got no one who knows this tech shit as well as you do.”
“Then we ask the second-best hacker we know?” I suggest.
“Jessie Ryan?”
“Yep. I’ll call Shane and get her the information she needs.” Shane and his brothers are friends of ours and I looked into Jessie for them a few years earlier and discovered she was the best hacker I’ve ever come across. We’ve done some bits of work together since and I know that she’s as capable of finding Lucia’s online stalker as I am.
“Shall I go and pack you and Matthias some things?” Alana asks Lucia.
“Please, Mom,” Lucia says softly.
“I’ll ask Hugo and Raoul to take me to your place now,” she says before giving Lucia a hug. I know that she will feel better doing something practical and keeping her mind off the fact that someone just tried to kill her daughter.
“Pack some jeans, tanks and sweatshirts.” I suggest. “The ranch can get kind of messy.” That is true, but the idea of Lucia walking around in nothing but a summer dress with all of the ranch hands hanging around isn’t a particularly welcome one.
“Will do,” Alana says and before she walks out of the door she shoots me a look that tells me she wants to speak to me. I follow her into the corridor.
“I know you’re a professional, Jax, but these are my babies,” she says, her words catching in her throat.
I place my hand on her arm. “I know, Alana. You guys are my family too, you know?”
She smiles up at me. “I know.”
“I’ll protect both of them with my life. I swear.”
“I know you will. And if you get them both back safely to me, I’ll even forgive you for sending my husband a hooker on our wedding night.”
“You know about that?” I feel heat creeping over my neck. I’m never rattled but she just pulled the rug from under me.
“Yes. We don’t keep secrets about that kind of stuff.” She arches an eyebrow at me.
“Alana! It was… I mean you and him… When you got married…” I stammer, trying to offer a justification but there is none. The truth is their marriage was a business arrangement and was supposed to be nothing more. So Alejandro had spent their wedding night in his hotel, and I had thought it was only right that he didn’t spend it alone and had sent him a gift. He turned her down and obviously I regret it now, because I love Alana and she is the best thing that ever happened to my best buddy, but back then it was no big deal. He was never supposed to fall in love with his wife. “I’m sorry,” I say eventually because that’s all I really can say.
“I know.” She smiles at me. “But please take good care of them.”
“I will. You have my word.”
She leans up onto her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”