Foreseen: Lex (The Four Book 2)

by Sloane Kennedy

  Lex stopped toying with the table and did his best to look directly at me. I was still holding his hand, so I could feel how cold and clammy it was.

  "I'm a mess, Gideon. That's who I am," he said simply. "I might look put together on the outside, but inside I'm still that little kid who's tired of hoping for something that might never happen. I'm terrified of loving you. But I do. You make me feel things even when I can't see them. I can see the world through your eyes. I can feel it through your touch, and I can hear it through your words. You want me to tell you what I want… what I want is you, Gideon. I just want you."

  My heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest at his admission. Never in a million years had I thought he could feel that way about me. That he could feel the same way that I did.

  "Lex," I began to say, but then Brewer began barking. I heard the sound of a car coming down the driveway.

  "King's here," Lex said softly as he stood up. "I guess I should get my things."

  He tried to tug his hand free, but I refused to release it. Instead, I stood up and pulled him behind me when I went to the door to open it.

  "Brewer, go keep our guest company for a while," I said. The husky darted through the door. I slammed it shut behind him and flipped the lock. Brewer began barking all over again when he realized who the visitor was and I found myself smiling.

  "Gideon?" Lex said in confusion.

  I used my finger to move the curtain over the glass in the door just a bit and saw King sitting in his car. He had the window rolled down and it looked like he was talking to my dog. Maybe trying to make amends, I wasn't sure. But Brewer wasn't having any of it.

  "Good dog," I said quietly and then I turned to Lex. I pulled him forward and covered his mouth with mine. He squeaked in surprise, but that lasted about two seconds. Then he was kissing me back.

  When I broke the kiss I said, "I love you, Lex. I love every version of you that I've met from the moment I laid eyes on you in that cabin. That will never change." I kissed him hard. "I need to know that no matter what, you'll never doubt that. You’ll never doubt how much I love you and why I love you."

  Lex choked back a sob and nodded. "No doubt," he confirmed. "I love you so much, Gideon."

  I kissed him again and then took his hand and began leading him in the direction of my bedroom.

  "Wait, what about King?" Lex asked.

  "Brewer will keep him company,” I said simply. “Now if I recall, you were saying something about only taking orders from me in bed. I think I'm going to need a little bit of convincing of that."

  The sound of Lex's laughter as he followed me without argument was the best sound I'd heard in a long time. And I hoped to hear it for a long time to come.

  A very long time.

  As in, forever.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Lex

  "Son of a bitch," Gideon growled as he came to an abrupt stop in front of me. So abrupt, I slammed into his back.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Well, Callahan, at least you guys are wearing your skivvies this time."

  The sound of my brother's voice sent a volley of emotions through me. Of course, I was glad to have King there, but not particularly there in Gideon's kitchen, especially after Gideon and I had spent the last two hours having what I could only classify as very exuberant sex.

  But as happy as I’d always be to see him, I was also worried about what his presence would mean for Gideon, since he wasn't exactly Gideon's favorite person at the moment. While we’d been making love, I’d been able to feel the cuts and abrasions on Gideon's face, as well as the swelling from what I could only assume was some pretty significant bruising. Gideon had brushed off my concerns, but I knew King. I'd seen proof of the damage he could do when he was protecting someone he cared about.

  "I locked that door," Gideon muttered. He kept me tucked behind him, though I wasn't really sure why. As embarrassing as it was, it wasn't like my brother hadn't seen me in less than my underwear already.

  "Yeah, it took me almost twenty seconds to pick it," King said. "This one here, he was a harder nut to crack," I heard my brother add.

  I was about to ask what he was talking about when Gideon said, "Really, Brewer?"

  Brewer whined and thumped his tail. Before I could even voice the question, Gideon said to me, "Brewer's got his head in your brother’s lap. What did you do, King? Soak your pants in a bucket of meat?"

  "What can I say, the guys just like me. And speaking of my meat, Lex’s driver seemed happy enough with it."

  "Jesus, King," I groaned as I stepped out from behind Gideon's back. "Andre? Really?"

  I didn't need to see King shrug to know that was exactly what he was doing. My older brother had been working his way through more than his fair share of men pretty much from the time he’d been old enough to learn that his dick was multi-functional. He'd left a lot of hearts in his wake too.

  "What are you doing here?" Gideon asked. "In case you missed it, your brother isn't going anywhere."

  I found myself both blushing and smiling at the possessiveness in Gideon's voice. It made me wish I could drag him back to bed.

  "Well, as much fun as it was listening to you satisfy my baby brother," King said sarcastically, "I'm afraid I have some family business Lex and I need to chat about."

  There was no mistaking King’s seriousness. "What is it?" I said worriedly. "Is it Vaughn?" Of my four brothers, Vaughn was the one dealing with the most danger on a day-to-day basis. Since I hadn't been in contact with my family in recent months, I had no clue what city Vaughn was even working in these days.

  "No," King said. When he didn't continue, I opened my mouth to ask another question, but then Gideon tugged on my hand.

  "I'll leave you two to it," he said. It made me wonder if King had sent him a look that he hadn't been able to send to me. It didn't really matter. I held on to Gideon's hand even as he tried to release mine.

  "No," I said to him and then I looked in King's direction. "He stays," I said. "We can trust him, King."

  The last thing I wanted to do was risk putting any of my brothers in danger, but I wasn't letting Gideon go for anything. If he was going to be a part of my life, he needed to know about every part of my life. I'd hoped to talk to him about this particular aspect of it in private, but that just didn't seem to be an option anymore.

  "Fine," King said. All the humor was gone from his voice. It made me afraid of what he was going to say.

  I led Gideon forward and sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, but to my surprise, instead of sitting next to me, Gideon remained behind me. His hands skimmed over my shoulders before one came to rest on my upper chest. I recognized the move for what it was… an effort to comfort me. I lifted my own hand and covered his so I could hang on to his fingers and draw from his strength.

  "It's Gio," King said. "We found him… alive."

  I wasn't sure I'd understood King at first. It was like my mind couldn't catch up… like everything was happening in slow motion. I pulled my hand from Gideon's and used it and my other one to cover my mouth. "He's alive?" I choked out.

  "Yes," King said.

  "Oh my God," I whispered. "We found him. We found him." I kept repeating the phrase over and over because I didn't know what else to do. After all the years of searching, I’d started to give up hope that we’d ever find the little boy.

  Though, after eight years, he would no longer be a little boy.

  It was too much emotion to process at once and while I wasn't particularly proud of it, I couldn't stop the sobs that spilled from my throat. I buried my face in my hands as the years of worry and fear seeped out of me.

  "Lex," Gideon said softly as he leaned across my back and put his arms around me.

  I wanted to tell him they were tears of joy, but I wasn't capable of forming any actual words. I'd have to rely on King to do that for me.

  "Who are you talking about?" Gideon asked. I only half listened as King answere
d.

  "Our brother Luca's son. He was kidnapped eight years ago when he was eight years old. We've been looking for him ever since."

  "When?" I managed to ask. "When did you guys find him?" The guilt that I hadn't been around to help in the search for Gio over the past several months was like acid eating away at my belly.

  "Sixteen days ago," King responded. "But it wasn't us who found him."

  "What?" I asked in confusion. Something soft was pressed into my hand and I realized it was a dishtowel. I used it to wipe at my tears.

  "It's a long story, but basically friends of a friend found him."

  I wanted more details, but I was too hung up on the tone of King's voice. Instead of being overjoyed, he sounded grim.

  "You said he's alive," I said softly. I wanted that to be it. I wanted that to be the end of the story. I wanted King to tell me that the little boy who was now a teenager was back home with our brother and everything was fine. But I knew in my heart it wasn't. I'd spent years working with my brothers to find Gio and while I hadn’t been on the front lines like them, I'd seen enough from behind the scenes to know what happened to kids when they were stolen from their families.

  We'd always assumed Gio had been taken because of who his father was. Luca had inherited a list of enemies a mile long from his own father and while he’d done everything in his power to protect Gio from them, it hadn't been enough. Or so we’d thought. But the more we'd searched for the little boy, the more we'd learned of the dark world of child sex trafficking and we’d realized the child hadn’t been taken as an act of revenge at all.

  "No," I whispered in denial. But King didn't deny it. The fact that he didn't even try to sugarcoat it was proof enough that Gio hadn't come home unscathed.

  I stood up so quickly that I ended up knocking the chair over. I felt Gideon's fingers close around my upper arm to steady me.

  "I have to go," I said aimlessly as I was bombarded with one image after another of Gio being violated. I hadn't known Gio as long as the others because he'd been born while I'd still been in foster care, but I remembered a free-spirited little boy who'd adored his father and had called me Uncle Lex.

  "I have to go," I repeated. "To New York." Despite my declaration, I couldn't move.

  "We'll go, Lex." Gideon squeezed my hands. "Let's go get our things packed."

  The mere fact that Gideon was coming with me without me needing to ask helped make it possible for me to move. But as Gideon began to lead me from the kitchen, King said, "Gio isn't in New York. Neither is Luca."

  "Where are they?" Gideon asked before I could.

  "Seattle. The people who found Gio took him back there. Gio…" King began, but then his voice dropped off and I swore I heard a hitch in it. But that wasn't possible. King didn't get emotional.

  Ever.

  "Tell us," I demanded. As much as I wanted to bury my head in the sand, I knew it wasn't an option. "Tell us, King!" I shouted.

  My brother’s continued silence was terrifying. I gripped Gideon's hand hard.

  King seemed to take an inordinate amount of time clearing his throat before he said, "The people who stole Gio sold him to some fucker in Texas. The guy brainwashed him. Gio thinks they were married and he thinks… he thinks he loved him. The guys who found Gio killed the man, but when Gio learned he was dead, he tried to take his own life." King paused for a moment. When he spoke again, I almost didn't recognize his voice. "Twice."

  I found myself once again seated in one of the kitchen chairs, though I had no clue how I'd gotten there. This time, Gideon was sitting next to me. He had an arm wrapped around my shoulders and he was whispering something in my ear.

  He was telling me to breathe.

  I wanted to be strong, I really did. But all I could think about was my brother and the agony he had to be going through. And poor little Gio…

  I was dimly aware of the kitchen door opening and slamming shut, but I couldn't find the energy to ask Gideon where King was going. I knew enough about my brother to know that whatever he was going through, he wouldn’t want me to see it… or hear it, anyway.

  We'd all worked tirelessly to bring Gio home and while we'd always known that this kind of outcome was a possibility, there hadn’t been any way to prepare for it. Like with my vision loss, King would feel the most helpless. He and Con were the fixers in our family, though they went about it in different ways.

  "Lex, come lie down with me for a while," Gideon murmured in my ear.

  I nodded but that was all I could manage. I felt like I was slogging through water as Gideon led me back to his room and got me settled in the bed. He lay down at my back and wrapped his arms around me, but he didn't say anything. There was nothing he could say. He didn't try to reassure me that everything would be all right or that we’d figure things out.

  He just did exactly what I needed him to.

  He stayed.

  It was the robotic voice of the controller for my insulin pump that woke me up. My eyes felt like sandpaper as I opened and closed them a few times. I didn't see any kind of light, so I knew the room had to be dark. The warm body wrapped around me reminded me that I wasn't alone.

  That I'd never be alone again.

  "What time is it?" I asked.

  Gideon's lips skimmed my temple. "It's just after four in the morning," he murmured. "I know you probably don't feel like it, but you need to eat something, Lex."

  I nodded. "In a minute," I said. The last thing I wanted to do was eat, but it wouldn't do anyone any good if I had another episode. The last thing Luca or any member of my family needed was to have to deal with my illness.

  "Are you all right?" Gideon asked.

  "No," I admitted.

  Gideon dropped a kiss to the top of my head. I had my cheek pressed against his chest and my left hand resting on his abdomen. One of his arms was wrapped around me and he was skimming his fingers over my bicep.

  "I spoke to your brother last night after you fell asleep. He says your nephew has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He had some kind of mental break when Luca showed up. He's denying he's Gio."

  I hadn’t wanted to believe it could get any worse, but obviously I'd been wrong. "Poor Luca," I whispered. "He gave up everything to find Gio."

  "You all did," Gideon responded. "King told me what you guys have been doing. How you've been helping other kids like Gio. He said you used your skills with computers to track the kids and the guys who bought and sold them."

  "I did it all from the safety of a computer screen," I said quietly. "Vaughn, King, Con, Luca, they—"

  "Couldn't have done it without you," Gideon interjected before I could finish my sentence. He tightened his hold on me. "The things you must've seen on that screen of yours. In what universe did you ever think you weren't strong enough, Lex?"

  I shook my head. "I wasn't strong. I went home every night and cried myself to sleep as I thought about what all those kids were going through. I couldn't disconnect from it."

  Gideon suddenly rolled me on my back. His strong fingers settled on my cheek. "And yet every day you went back to that computer and turned it back on so you could help your brothers bring another kid home. Call yourself weak or call yourself strong, Lex. But in my book, you, like your brothers, are a hero and I’m proud to call you mine." His mouth brushed over mine before I could even respond to his declaration. "I love you, Lexington Parker."

  "I love you too," I said and then I pulled him back down for another kiss. He obliged me, but then he was breaking it.

  "I heard your brother come in about twenty minutes ago. Why don't you go check on him?"

  "Did you give him a key?" I asked in surprise.

  Gideon grabbed my hand and put it to his face. "Feel that? For future reference, that's my are-you-fucking-kidding-me look."

  I laughed and kissed him hard before I climbed over his body. He gave me a soft slap on my backside. I threw what I hoped was a dirty look his way and then made my way out of the room. By the
time I reached the kitchen, I could smell bacon and eggs cooking.

  Normally, I would've joked with my brother about him making himself at home, but I didn't need to be able to see King to know he was suffering. The fact that King didn't acknowledge me when I entered the kitchen was further proof of that. Like the rest of us, he wasn't okay. Those who didn't truly know him thought King had some kind of superhuman armor that kept him from feeling things, but that was anything but true.

  I’d learned my way around Gideon's kitchen enough to know how to get to the stove. When I reached my brother, I knew his back was still to me. He didn't make a sound, nor did he turn around. But he knew I was there. I wrapped my arms around him from behind and laid my head between his broad shoulders. That he didn't respond didn't deter me in the least. It was a good thirty seconds before King lifted his hand to cover both of mine where they were locked over his heart.

  It was all he did, but it was enough.

  Only when he dropped his hand a good minute later did I release him and step back. I moved to the table and sat down. I put my hand out to confirm that the place setting I suspected was in front of me was, in fact, there.

  It was.

  When I'd lived with Con and King, we'd all had different schedules with our jobs and often the only times we'd had to sit together and enjoy a meal had been in the early morning hours.

  I sensed King moving behind me and then he was putting food on my plate. His own chair scraped back a moment later and then he was sitting.

  "I made enough for three," he said.

  "I'll take some to Gideon in bed in a little bit, if that's okay," I responded.

  King's mouth was clearly full as he answered with a grunt. I took that as a yes. We ate in silence, but that was just fine by me. I knew there was a lot that we needed to talk about, but I didn't mind the peaceful moments like this. My gut was telling me that for the foreseeable future, we wouldn't get enough of them. It wasn't until several minutes later when King pushed his plate away that I knew what was coming next.