I look at my aunt and smile gratefully.
“Can I sleep there with you and Momma tonight?”
“Of course you can. It’s gonna be our house when we come visit the ranch now.”
“Cool! Can we ride the horses too?” he asks, and I laugh. This kid lives his life at one hundred mile an hour.
“Not today, buddy. I have to go see my Dad for a while, and then I have to do some work with your Papa.”
“Can I come see Harvey too?”
I look over at Lucia. I’m not sure if seeing him in that state is the best idea, but she nods her approval. “Sure, buddy. For a while.”
“Yes!” He does a mini fist pump and then he unexpectedly throws his arms around me. “Momma said that we’re staying here with you until Harvey is better and you can come home with us? Are we?”
I hug him tight to me. “Yeah. I’ll miss you too much if you go back to LA without me.”
“I’d miss you too, Dad,” he whispers. “Momma doesn’t play Avengers like you do.”
Fuck! This kid gets me right in the feels.
“Matthias, put your father down. I need to talk to him real quick,” Alejandro says, getting up from the table and heading out into the hallway. He signals me to follow him.
“I’ll be back for some of those pancakes and chocolate sauce as soon as they’re ready,” I say, giving him a final kiss on the head before I follow his grandfather out of the room. As I pass her, Lucia, reaches out and squeezes my hand while she remains deep in conversation with her mom. I lift it to my lips and kiss her fingertips before I head out after Alejandro.
When I walk into the hallway, he’s leaning against the wall with his hands stuffed into his pockets.
“Thank you for bringing them out here,” I say as I cross my arms over my chest.
“Well, it seems my daughter can be very persuasive when she wants to be, but I guess you already know that?”
“I sure do.”
“And anyway, where else would they be, amigo? They’re your family.”
I stare at him, my eyes searching his face and waiting for the inevitable but that must be a part of that sentence. He and I haven’t been the same since I started dating his daughter, and even though I understand that, it still hurts like a motherfucker.
“Fuck, you’remyfamily too, Jax. You always have been…” He runs a hand through his thick hair. “I’m still trying to figure how we fit now that you’re married to my daughter, but I need you to know that I have always got your back. Apart from Alana, I trust you more than anyone in this world.”
Fuck! This was not what I was expecting at all. “Thanks, amigo. That means a lot.”
“Yeah, well, I know you’ve had some shit going on with Harvey and everything, and if that had been me, you’d have been moving heaven and earth to fix it. Alana, the boys and I can stay here as long as you need us, amigo. We will find thehijo de putaswho are trying to fuck with you and make them regret that they even know your name.” He steps forward and wraps me in a bear hug. “Just tell me what you need, okay?”
“Breakfast’s ready,” Matthias shouts, interrupting the moment.
“Looks like we better get back in there,” Alejandro says with a flash of his eyebrows.
“Yeah, and thanks, amigo. It means a lot to have you at my side.”
“Where else would I be?” he says with a wink and then he walks back into the kitchen.
I follow him but I hover in the doorway for a few seconds. It seems like my entire world is in this one room. I feel a pang of guilt as I think about my father lying in his hospital bed and I realize perhaps there is room for him in it too.
Now that Alejandro is here, we can focus on finding out who attacked Harvey and who was behind those damn videos. I have a hunch that when we follow the different trails, they’ll lead us to the same people.
Chapter26
Lucia