He looked to Luke, who I assumed was the security system guy.
He nodded once. “Already on it.”
“Wait,” I interrupted when it looked like Keltan was going to keep speaking. “I can’t—” I cut myself off from saying I couldn’t afford the security system, even though it was blatantly true. “I don’t need a security system, or the security. I’ve already taken up enough of your time. You’ve already done enough.”
Keltan’s eyes were hard and soft at the same time. “All due respect, sweetheart, I’m gonna be the judge of when enough is enough. Enough for me is you and that kid livin’ a life where you’re not looking over your shoulder constantly, expecting a threat from a weak man trying to be strong by hurting you. I won’t be able to sleep at night if I don’t make sure that doesn’t happen. And not just because I’ll be sleeping on my couch after my wife kicks me out of bed for not helping you in every way I can. Because that’s just who I am.” He looked around the table. “That’s just who we are. And I know I don’t know you, but you seem to be the woman who doesn’t ask for help ever, mostly ‘cause the world hasn’t given it to her. And for the most part, you haven’t needed it. Now, Elena, you need our help. It doesn’t make you weak for accepting it or needing it.”
I will not cry.
I opened my mouth to protest some more.
“If you don’t say yes now, I’ll just come to your house at two in the morning blasting Miley Cyrus—Hannah Montana era—every single night until you agree,” Rosie cut in.
I glanced at her, and I didn’t doubt the woman was serious. I was pretty sure she was like a tiny bit unhinged.
She was grinning.
I sighed, my muscles were taut and mind wired against doing such a thing, putting my troubles on all these strangers. All these good people with better things to do than get me out of the mess I have gotten myself into by choosing the wrong man.
But no. I could never regret that choice, because I got Nathan.
No matter what I had been through or would have to go through, nothing could make me regret him.
It was Nathan that had me conceding, because Keltan was right, even the slightest chance that my son was still at risk was a chance I was willing to forgo my dignity for. Well, and the fact that I needed my sleep and I knew Hannah Montana Miley would make sure that didn’t happen.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Lance
“First things first, I need to let you all know that this case is gonna be unpaid,” Keltan said after Elena had left.
The fucking room smelled of her again.
She had come fresh-faced, hair wet in a long braid and all he could fucking think about was yanking onto that braid and taking her.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
Thinking that while they were discussing keeping her son safe?
Well, he knew what was wrong with him, everything that could be wrong with someone.
He hated her. For making him hate himself.
Because all the things he’d done, the man he was, he didn’t hate himself for it. He accepted that it was what it was.
But she made him hate everything about what he was, all that hardness, violence, all that inability to handle a proper human conversation.
Because he couldn’t do that, which meant he couldn’t be near her and the kid and he wanted to be.
“Anyone who has a problem with that, no hard feelings, you don’t have to be in on it,” Keltan continued.
Obviously no one left the table.
No one here gave a fuck about the money. Each of them had plenty of it.
“We overcharge rich assholes especially so we can do shit like that,” Duke said, vocalizing what they already knew. “This is the part of the job that actually means shit.”
Nods around the table.
“I also want to bring Rogue around for playdates with Nathan, make him a little more badass like him,” Rosie interjected.
Of course Rosie had named her fucking kid Rogue.
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose.
Heath grinned. “I’m sure Andrew could do with another little buddy too.”
Andrew was the kid him and Polly had recently adopted. The kid who had almost made Lance feel something. Because the world had battered him. At ten years old, he’d seen more hurt than most people would see in a lifetime. Now he was with Polly and Heath, they’d make it their mission to make sure he saw only beauty.
Keltan chuckled. “Right, glad we’re all on the same page.” He glanced to Luke. “You set to install the system tomorrow?”
Luke nodded. “Apparently I’m bringing my child to the installation.”
Rosie grinned.
“She lives outside the city, so I’ve got us a rental down at the end of her street,” Keltan continued. “Friend of a friend happens to own it and is willing to let us use it as a base.”