Chapter Nine

~ Zaq ~

I wiped my hands on my pants legs, desperately wishing I wasn't so nervous about meeting Patrick's friends. I wanted to make a good impression, but these guys were captains of industry, millionaires and billionaires. I was just an unemployed nurse.

What could we possibly have in common?

"Don't be nervous," Patrick stated as he patted my hand. "They are going to love you."

Doubted it.

Patrick let out a small chuckle as he raised his hand and knocked on the door of Jake's penthouse. Why was his place called a penthouse when ours was called a condo? I never understood the whole apartment, condo, penthouse thing. Didn't make sense to me.

The door was opened by a man in a butler's uniform.

Maybe that was why.

"Good evening," the man said before waving his hand toward the interior of the penthouse. "Please, come in. Misters D'Amato is entertaining in the living room."

I tightened my grip on Patrick's hand as we started into the place. As soon as we stepped into the place I got a better idea of why it was called a penthouse and not something else. It was far grander than what we had.

There were lots of big cream-colored overstuffed furniture and colorful artwork to keep the place bright and cheery. Warm colors of greens, yellows, and even blues mixed in with white walls and blonde oak furniture. A wall of windows that overlooked Central Park.

I was a fan.

"Patty, Zaq," Jake called out as he approached us. "Glad you could make it."

I smiled as I shook the man's hand. "Thank you for inviting us."

"The guys are all spread out so grab yourself a drink and go hang out. We're expecting just a few more people before dinner is served."

Yeah, drinking would be a very bad idea for me. I could hold my liquor to a point, but it always made me feel a little jittery, and that would be bad right now.

I leaned closer to Patrick and asked, "Is there anything to drink that's not alcoholic?"

"Of course," Patrick replied. "Jake always makes sure there are non-alcoholic drinks at his parties. Not all of us drink."

That was good to know. I didn't want to feel like more of the odd man out than I already did.

As we walked into the living room, I saw several people I'd already met, but a lot more that I had never seen before. They all seemed to know Patrick if their hearty greetings were anything to go by.

When he introduced me as his husband, I couldn't help but preen a little bit. This was really the first time I was able to accompany Patrick to something like this and stand at his side as his husband.

It was as weird as it was exciting.

I felt a little less anxious when I saw so many of the couples gathered hugging and touching each other, some of them holding hands. One guy was even sitting on his husband's lap.

Patrick grabbed us both something to drink and then led me over to one of the large couches. I smiled at the couple across from us as we sat down. One of them was dressed like he was set to go into a boardroom. The other one looked as if he had just climbed off a motorcycle.

"Patty, it's good to finally see your face at Jake's little gatherings," one of the men said.

This was little?

"It's good to finally be able to attend. I've missed a lot of them," Patrick replied before turning to me. "Zaq, this is Lucas Kincaid and his husband Kyue." He had a pride smile on his face when he glanced back. "This is Zaq, my husband."

Lucas cocked an eyebrow. "Zaq?"

Why did they all ask that?

Patrick nodded.

"And just how did the two of you get together."

Patrick snorted. "Peter."

"Your bonehead brother?"

Apparently, they'd heard of him.

"Peter stood me up at our wedding ceremony to run off to Hawaii with his mistress." I smiled as I looked at Patrick, leaning into him. "Best thing he ever did for me."

The long dark haired man beside him snorted. "He had a mistress?"

"Yeah, I found out when she sent me intimate pictures of the two of them the morning of the wedding."

"You're better off without him," Kyue stated.

"Oh, I am aware." Very aware. I seriously doubted I would be this happy if I'd gone through with the wedding and married Peter. "I'm still waiting for the blow-up when he finds out I married Patrick."

Kyue glanced between me and Patrick, his mouth hanging open. "He doesn't know?"

"It's been over a month so I'm sure he does by now," I said, "I haven't heard from him since he called to beg for money because I canceled his credit cards."

Kyue grinned. "Nice."

I thought so.

"When he ran away from the wedding," Patrick said, "he took his mistress on the honeymoon that Zaq had planned and paid for. Zaq canceled everything. We haven't heard from Peter since."

"Do you think you will?" Lucas asked.

Patrick shrugged. "Maybe, but I don't care. He has no reason to contact us. There is nothing he can do now. Zaq and I are legally married."

"I changed my phone number when we got to New York anyway," I said. "I had to give it to my parents, of course, but I doubt they will give it to him. They are still pissed that he took off with his mistress."

"My parents still have my phone number," Patrick said. "But they think I'm still in Texas. Neither Zaq or I gave a forwarding address."

"Wise decision," Lucas stated. "Men like that need to go back and learn what it means to be men. Their behavior gives the rest of us a bad name."

Kyue smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Lucas's cheek. "Good answer, Mr. Kincaid."

Uh...

"So, Patrick mentioned that you're a nurse?" Lucas asked.

I hesitantly nodded. I was used to being looked down upon because of my chosen profession even by other gay men. How would Lucas react?

"Can I ask you a question?"

I shot Patrick a quick look before nodding again.

I was expecting a medical question about this pain or that pain. I was not expecting him to ask, "How do you keep all that stuff in your head?"

"Oh, um, well, a lot of studying in the beginning, but after awhile it just became second nature." That was the simplified version. "I always have to study up on the latest techniques and drugs and stuff, though."

"Sounds exhausting," Kyue stated. "I'd rather race motorcycles."

Lucas chuckled. "You'd rather do anything that requires me to see my heart doctor."

Kyue grinned. "True."

I must have looked confused because Lucas chuckled and said, "Kyue designs and races motorsport racing bikes. On his downtime, he does just about anything that turns my hair gray."

Kyue slapped his chest. "It keeps you young."

"Too late," Miles Cranston said as he walked up with a short black haired man hugging his side. "He's already old."

"You're the same age as me, you idiot," Lucas replied.

Miles grinned. "Which is why I know you're old."

My jaw dropped when the powerful man in the business suit flipped Miles off. Not something I thought I'd ever see, but it gave me an idea of how close these men were, especially when Miles just laughed it off.

Little by little, the others found spots to sit around the living room. The mood was light, some music playing softly in the background, and a cool breeze blowing in from the open balcony doors.

I curled closer to Patrick, sending him a small smile. "This is nice."

"These are my frat brothers," Patrick replied. "I trust all of them with my life. We forged an unbreakable bond when we were at the university. If the call goes out that one of us is in trouble, we're there. No questions asked."

Must be nice.

I'd never had anything like that in college. I was too busy working and studying because my father refused to pay the tuition for me to attend nursing school.

"Many of us here tonight have had to call for help," Jake stated. "I know in my case, Miles was instrumental in helping us put Jai's adopted parents away for what they did to him."

"Your Patty there helped us rescue my father," another man stated. "My stepmother was the living embodiment of the evil stepmother. She'd been poisoning my father for years, making him practically a vegetable. Patty arranged for an ambulance for us and then life-flighted my father to a safe hospital until we could get him to New York. Now, my father is up and around walking and talking."

I glanced at Patrick through my eyelashes, smirking at the flush I could see in his cheeks. "You did that?"

"I didn't do that much," Patrick replied. "I just made a few arrangements for them. They did all the hard work."

Joe walked up with the man he had introduced to us a couple of days after moved in as his husband Jayce. The lab guy. Patrick had been right, he had a lot of questions, all of which I had been happy to answer.

"I told Patrick that we'd tell him a bit more about our unusual friends when we all got together," Joe said. "He was curious about Spencer and why we'd hang out with mobsters."

There was a light round of chuckles from just about every man there.

"They are actually not bad men in the grand scheme of things. I don't think they are doing anything a lot of other people aren't doing," Jake said. "They just do it on a bigger scale."

"They've cleaned up a lot of the drug scene in the city," Lucas added. "I know they are into other things, but I've not asked and they haven't volunteered, but—"

"I know Vinnie isn't involved in sex trafficking and neither is Alejandro," Jake stated. "Vinnie is disgusted by the very idea and Alejandro's husband would skin him alive if he even thought about doing something like that."

"I doubt Dmitri or King are involved in human trafficking either," Lucas said.

"They're not," Kyue stated. "After what happened to Eiji, Dmitri would never get involved in something like that and King is too busy setting up his other stuff to get involved."

I wanted to ask what had happened to this Eiji guy, but thought better of it considering I didn't know these men and I wasn't sure I wanted to. I preferred my shoes not to be made of cement.

"One way or another," Jake continued, "we've all been involved with them or needed their help when we had to straddle the line between good and evil. If there's information we need and we can't get it through regular channels, we go to them, same as they come to us. It evens out eventually."

"You should have seen the dust up we were involved with just a couple of months ago," Kyue explained. "The husband of one heads of the families in Italy got kidnapped here in New York. He was a really sweet guy that had been held a virtual prisoner by his mother for ten years before he escaped and married his husband. Once we learned he had been kidnapped, we all went to help rescue him."

"That's the first time I've ever met Hu," Lucas said. "Interesting guy."

"Hu?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"There are five families in New York, each one of them runs a different borough. Hu runs Staten Island."

"The husbands of all these guys have started hanging out at the Illumination Club once a month. It's owned and operated by Dmitri, who runs the Bronx."

"It's like a social club," Lucas said before tilting his head toward Kyue, frowning at him. "And my husband is a card carrying member."

Jake snorted as he glanced at Jai. "Mine, too."

"Is Hu married, too?" Patrick asked.

Lucas frowned before lancing at Jake. "Is he?"

Jake shrugged. "I never asked."

"If he is," Kyue said, "his husband or wife doesn't attend our get-togethers."

"Is Hu gay?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know," Jake replied, "but wouldn't it turn the mafia world on his head if he was."

I frowned in confusion. "Why?"

"Gay is not readily accepted in the mafia world. It's only been the last couple of years that things have become a lot freer, and that's mostly due to the men we mentioned."

"They couldn't care less if someone has an issue with them being gay," Lucas continued. "They will love who they love and the rest of the mafia world can go fuck themselves as far as they are concerned."

While I agreed with that belief for the most part, Jake was right. It didn't sound very healthy in the mafia world.

Glad I wasn't mafia.