Chapter Twenty-Six

Elijah woke them up just before dawn and Brick stumbled out of bed along with Fighter.

“You can sleep,” Fighter said quietly, lifting the baby from the crib and placing him on the new changing table.

“I’ll get the bottle ready. Bishop showed me how,” Brick whispered.

It took about a half an hour before all was quiet and they fell back into bed. Fighter turned to him with hunger and Brick was very glad to accommodate.

Daylight flickered through the window several hours later, bringing Brick awake.

He had turned to his side at some point and Fighter was curled facing toward him. The man’s thick eyelashes crested and his mouth was relaxed. Enchanted, Brick slowly ran a finger over Fighter’s eyebrows, down his nose, and over his lips.

Lids swept upward, revealing sleepy brown eyes, and Fighter’s lips curved.

“Good morning.”

“Mornin’,” Fighter said, clearing his throat.

Emma took that moment to charge into the room and climb up on the bed and Brick was damned glad he’d pulled on his sweats before going back to bed earlier. Now he knew why Fighter had left the door cracked.

“Hey, baby girl,” Fighter said.

“I’m hungry!” Emma said, wiggling close.

“Me too!” Brick announced, tickling her lightly.

“Eli is awake,” she announced, and that had them both rolling out of bed.

The morning flew by and Brick couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so content.

The next week flew by and the weather improved a little. Brick spent every moment he could with Fighter and the kids.

They hadn’t heard anything from Mark, nor had they been able to find the guy, but Fighter had the locks changed on the doors so when Mark showed up at Suwan Guardians, he’d have to knock before entering. Brick had every available body working on locating the asshole. Gunner was on leave and that meant Felix’s availability was limited. Yet, Cobalt Security made it work with the help of the new recruits. Marshal and Doc had stepped up and were doing better at handling the jobs and sticking to the rules.

Fighter told Brick about what happened with Mark that night.

“You already know that I told Mark to leave Gunner alone, but what I didn’t tell you is that I told him I was done with him,” Fighter said guiltily. “I told him that when he chose to hurt someone who had only been there to protect me, it was something I could never forgive,” Fighter whispered, shaking his head.

“It’ll be okay,” Brick said. Although, Jaxon was pressing charges, and Gunner was pissed. Not as pissed as Felix, but close. Mark was in for a world of hurt when he did surface.

Brick pulled Fighter close and held him for a long time.

Fighter flew to Arizona at the end of the week, and Brick tagged along to help by just being on site.

Bishop would handle the Suwan Guardians bodyguards at the congressman’s event today.

The plan was for Brick to accompany Fighter to the gun expo. The crew in charge of the event were still setting up tables in the large warehouse-type building. The expo wouldn’t start until next week, but they had to get the layout of the place and Fighter wanted to do it onsite.

Since Carla refused to fly, they had brought the kids with them, and Brick had asked his mom to travel along to watch the children. She’d been ecstatic at the offer.

“Mom, this is Fighter, Emma, and Elijah.” Brick had made the introductions. “Fighter, this is my mother, Shelly Brick.”

“Call me mom, dear,” Shelly told Fighter and bent down to Emma’s height. Shelly pulled a small, bright pink plushie from her ski jacket and Emma latched onto it and Shelly.

Brick smiled and winked at Fighter. He’d known the man was hesitant about the whole thing, but it became apparent after meeting his mom earlier that morning—and seeing how she instantly connected with the kids—Fighter had fallen in love.

Now, Shelly wrapped her arm with Fighter’s as they walked toward his mother’s personal helicopter. She’d given strict instructions not to start the engine until they were all onboard. Brick followed, carrying Elijah and the diaper bag. Rock and Bishop brought the suitcases. Fighter had been worried about the mode of traveling, but Shelly, who used to pilot herself back in the day, assured Fighter that this was a very expensive private helicopter built for carrying families.

After that, Fighter and Shelly were like two peas in a pod and all Brick could do was shake his head and smile.

His mom settled in the seat next to Fighter and the children in the helicopter, which left Brick sitting in the back with Bishop and Rock.

“I think he’s jealous,” his mom said to Fighter, not bothering to keep her voice down.

“Just ignore him.” Fighter shot Brick a look filled with laughter.

They were still teasing and razzing him when the engine started and their words were drowned out.

The flight went smoothly and the pilot set the chopper down at the top of a high-rise building.

“Is this Brick Industries?” Fighter asked Shelly as he gaped out the window.

“Yes, it’s ours.” She smiled with a nod. “Brick and Syn handle most of it. I do the occasional stakeholders meeting.”

Unbuckling Elijah from the car seat, Shelly took the boy into her arms. “He’s mine,” she told Brick when he went to reach for Elijah.

Fighter laughed and lifted Emma.

Brick rolled his eyes and juggled the luggage along with Rock and Bishop. His mom and Fighter left them in the dust with the dual stroller Brick had purchased before the trip.

“You’ll have to come and bring the kids to Sunday dinner when we get home,” Shelly gushed when Brick caught up with them.

“I’d love to,” Fighter assured her.

“What about me? What about Syn?” Brick grumbled, not unhappy at all. He was ecstatic that his mom was smitten with Fighter. He didn’t blame her; Fighter was beautiful inside and out.

They hadn’t been together for long, but he knew they were destined to have the love of a lifetime.

He just needed to come clean about a few things and beg Fighter for forgiveness. The main one was that he’d bought the building Suwan Guardians occupied.

Which made him Fighter’s landlord.

It was going to take some timing to share that little tidbit. In his defense, the landlord had been a jerk about the whole upgrading thing, so what was a man to do?

Oh, and there was also the fact that he still needed to talk to Fighter about taking the overload jobs from Cobalt.

The flight back was uneventful, and Fighter spent that time telling Shelly about his sister.

“What’s her name?”

“XiXi.”

“Cece? How do you spell that?”

“XiXi.”

“Ahhh, very pretty. I can’t wait to meet her. You say her boyfriend is nice? He must be wealthy to afford a private rehab.”

“He is.”

“What’s his name? I’ll have him checked out.”

Fighter laughed and shook his head. “I already did.”

“Well, good. You can’t be too careful. I know your sister is going to be just fine,” his mother said. As always, kind and gracious. She patted Fighter’s hand to comfort him, and Fighter closed his hand gently on top of hers.

The pilot hovered over a landing pad at the Brick estate. The property was not far from Denver, and Fighter’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

Brick stood to stretch and also gazed down at the snow-covered home. It was a seventeen-bedroom estate with two swimming pools, a tennis court, and a garden that stretched around the home that sat on the border of the five hundred acres.

Once landed, Shelly waved and disappeared with Rock, and the pilot once again lifted the bird in the air.

“Do you live there?” Fighter asked when Brick settled into the seat beside him.

“Ah. No,” Brick huffed.

“So just your mom?”

“No, there’s a ton of my relatives.”

“So you have siblings?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Brick said. “My father was married four times.”

“Ah.” Fighter nodded like he understood.

“Also, part of it is a working ranch.” Brick smirked at Fighter’s wide-eyed look.

“Like horses and stuff?”

“Yeah. I’ll take you all sometime. Let you meet the fam.”

“I’d like that,” Fighter said, leaning so his shoulder was pressed against his. Brick dropped his hand down and linked their fingers.

They landed on top of the Cobalt building and took Brick’s jeep to Suwan Guardians.

“I’ll catch up with you tomorrow,” Bishop said and walked quickly to his van. The engine backfired, and Elijah started crying.

Both kids were bundled up for the weather, but they were fussy and tired.

Felix and Syn got out of an SUV when they pulled up and Syn gazed after Bishop’s disappearing van.

“Anything?” Fighter asked.

“Nothing. No sign of Mark,” Syn said.

“Okay, you guys can head out. I’ll be here tonight,” Brick told them, and shifted a sleepy Emma on his hip before he followed Fighter with Elijah inside.

It was later after they got the kids to bed and sat on Fighter’s bed in their sweats, that the man turned to him with an earnest expression.

“Hey?”

“What?” Brick shifted from looking at his phone, his complete attention on Fighter.

“I need to do something next Saturday night.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Brick squinted at him and a long moment passed. “Why?”

“I just need you to trust me.”

“I do trust you.”

“Then watch the kids for me and I’ll be back before midnight.”

Brick held Fighter’s gaze for a long time. He had his own secrets he kept from Fighter so it didn’t surprise him that Fighter had a few. Perhaps with time, they could come clean about all of their secrets. It was going to take some time, though. Of that, Brick had no doubt.

“Okay. I just have a thing next Saturday night with Jaxon and Hayden. I was going to ask you to come with me.”

“Shoot,” Fighter pouted. “I can’t. I really need to show up. I’m taking a few of the bodyguards with me so you don’t need to worry.”

Okay, now Brick was curious as all hell and he couldn’t help but worry. “It’s cool. There will be a next time,” he said instead of protesting like he wanted.

“I’ll have Bishop watch the kids.”

“And I’ll take over from Bishop at around ten o’clock. Sound good?” Brick said.

Fighter searched Brick’s eyes, then smiled with relief when he found only calm in the gray depths. “Sounds perfect.”

The place was packed for the fundraiser event, but it made the inside of the high-end hotel warmer.

Fighter tugged at the tie of the brand-new tux he’d purchased along with new shoes, both in black.

Cook seemed impressed and preened as they entered the venue together the following Saturday night.

Fighter refused to take the man’s hand, and opted to stand next to him. Cook hadn’t liked it, but instead of making a scene, the man grabbed two champagne-filled glasses and handed him one.

Fighter pretended to sip at it and gave his men a silent chin jerk for them to spread out. They knew the plan. Case the noisy event for any trouble, but stay close enough in case Cook started any shit. Not that Fighter couldn’t clock the guy into next week, but he couldn’t take the chance of pissing Cook off since he owed the guy ninety thousand dollars. It was his own fault, but it pissed him off that Cook wanted payment like this, but after tonight, he’d only owe eighty, and that was saying something. He would need to suck it up and do this eight more times to be debt free.

“Senator,” Cook said overly loud, drawing several glances, and Fighter had to clench his jaw to keep from cringing.

Cook practically gushed while pumping the man’s hand. Fighter didn’t know what the senator’s name was or what state he was senator of, nor did he care.

Hobnobbing with the rich wasn’t his thing.

Brick carefully took the steps to the front door of the Four Seasons and found Jaxon and Hayden waiting just inside.

“Where’s your date?” Hayden said.

“I don’t have one.”

“Where’s Fighter?” Jaxon this time.

“He had a thing he couldn’t get out of.”

Hayden looked Brick up and down. “You look hot in that tux. Almost as hot as my husband.”

Brick snorted. “Thank you, I think.”

“Hey!” a voice called from the top of the steps and they all turned to find Harrison and his husband Ryder Freeman hurrying in and out of the cold air.

“I didn’t know you would be here,” Hayden said, closing the distance to hug Harrison, and the two men started walking toward the noisy room. Brick, Ryder, and Jaxon followed behind.

“Yep. Logan and Macy couldn’t make it, but guess who came?” Harrison’s eyes were excited.

“Who?”

“Liam and Spencer!”

“Who?” Brick gave Ryder a blank look.

“Liam Cobalt is Logan’s twin brother. Liam’s husband is retired Army captain Spencer Turner-Cobalt,” Ryder supplied with a smile.

Cobalt Industries was just about as wealthy as Brick Industries. He should have recognized the name of Liam. In his defense, he’d been off his game ever since Fighter had announced he had other plans tonight.

“Liam and Spencer are already inside,” Harrison said, linking his arm with Hayden’s. “Shall we join them?”

“Oh let’s,” Hayden grinned.

Music and laughter swept through the open doors as they stepped inside.