Alejandro makes several calls while I drive us to the hospital, jumping at least two red lights and making every traffic violation there is to get us there as fast as possible. First he called Alana, who was only around the corner with Hugo. She is sitting beside Lucia’s bed when we arrive, holding her daughter’s hand, but the two of them are deep in conversation about something and they are smiling.
The relief at seeing her sitting there, safe and relatively unharmed, almost knocks me off my feet. I have to stop myself from going straight over to her and checking her over myself. I want to run my hands over every inch of her skin to check for scratches or broken bones then wrap her in my arms. I imagine the looks on her parents’ faces if I did that, and so I hang back, standing awkwardly with my hands stuffed in my pockets because I feel kind of out of place here. I’m family but not quite. I have no right to touch her like that but that doesn’t stop a memory of my hands and my mouth on her skin from popping into my brain and making my cock twitch in my pants. Not now, Jax!
Raoul is sitting in the corner, stony faced as usual, and you can hardly tell he was just in a car accident. Alejandro walks straight to his wife and daughter, hugging and kissing each of them in turn before he turns to Raoul.
“What the fuck happened?”
“We were at a crossing. A car jumped the light and hit us. It was headed for us though, Boss. It was a targeted hit.”
“Why are you so sure of that?” Alejandro frowns.
“It swerved around two other cars to get to us,” Raoul replies matter-of-factly.
“It was only because Raoul acted so quickly that we weren’t run off the road,” Lucia adds. “He swerved just in time and we missed the worst of the impact.”
“Thank you,” Alejandro says to Raoul, who simply nods in response.
“Did you see anything? Remember any helpful details?” he asks both Lucia and Raoul.
Lucia shakes her head but Raoul speaks, reeling off the information he has for us. “A silver Dodge pickup. California plates but they may have been stolen. Driver had a black cap on. That’s all I got.”
“We can check security and traffic footage. I’ll speak to the LAPD and see if they got anything,” I add.
“Yeah,” Alejandro says absent-mindedly.
“Do you need me for anything else, Boss?” Raoul asks as he stands. “I can wait outside.”
“Can you accompany Hugo when he takes the girls home shortly?” he asks.
“Of course.” Raoul nods, then excuses himself.
“I can’t go back to the house now,” Lucia says. “What if I put Mom or the boys in danger?”
“Lucia!” Alana frowns at her.
“You won’t.” Alejandro frowns at her too. “There is nowhere safer for you than the house.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “What if something happened to one of you because of me?”
“Lucia. This is not up for discussion!” Alejandro barks.
“What if they’re just waiting, Papi? What if next time Matthias is with me?”
She looks up at him and it’s then that I see she is terrified. I mean that’s completely understandable but I have never seen her like this before. The instinct to protect her is so overwhelming that I have to force myself not to speak and suggest that I become her personal twenty-four seven bodyguard and take her far away from the danger that is here in LA.
“I can’t just hide out in your mansion. I’ll go crazy,” she adds.
Alejandro rubs a hand over his jaw and then he looks at me. “Any ideas?”
Fuck! “What if I got Lucia and Matthias out of the city until you can figure out who was behind this?”
His eyes light up and I feel as guilty as fuck for suggesting this. But I am just trying to protect her. I mean that’s what I keep telling myself anyway. And it’s not like we’re going to be alone. Matthias will be with us, not to mention my family.
“I think it’s perfect. I mean if they’re not with me, Jax, then the safest place is with you. Nobody outside of this room knows about the ranch, do they?”
“No.” I shake my head. Ten years ago I bought the ranch I was raised on until the age of thirteen, but it’s all in my aunt’s name. Even the people working there believe it’s her place and I just visit once in a while.
“You think you could protect them there?” he asks.
“Yes.” If there is one place on this earth I could keep them safe it’s the ranch.
“So Jax is going to take Lucia and Matthias to Texas?” Alana asks with a frown.
“Yes,” Alejandro nods. “Until I can find out who is targeting Lucia and why. Nobody will know who she is there and nobody but us will know where they are.”
“Lucia, what do you think?” Alana asks but Lucia just sits staring at her parents, still in a state of shock—or maybe she is wondering why the hell I just suggested taking her and her son away from everything they know.
“Are you sure about this, amigo?” Alejandro asks me, ignoring the fact that Lucia hasn’t answered her mom yet. His brow is furrowed and his eyes are full of concern as he waits for me to speak. I glance at Lucia. Her cheeks are pale and her eyes red. I have never seen her looking so vulnerable and fragile, and it breaks me.
I’m doing this to protect her though. Surely I can be alone with her for a few days until Alejandro finds out who was behind this? I have some self-control, don’t I?
“As long as it’s okay with Lucia,” I say. There’s no way she’s going to accept this anyway—I’m definitely not her favorite person right now—but to my surprise she nods.
“Yes” she whispers, and I wonder if she would agree to anything right now because not only is she terrified for herself, but for Matthias too.
“I’ll need all of your focus on them,” Alejandro runs a hand over his jaw. “But I got no one who knows this tech shit as well as you do.”
“Then we ask the second-best hacker we know?” I suggest.
“Jessie Ryan?”
“Yep. I’ll call Shane and get her the information she needs.” Shane and his brothers are friends of ours and I looked into Jessie for them a few years earlier and discovered she was the best hacker I’ve ever come across. We’ve done some bits of work together since and I know that she’s as capable of finding Lucia’s online stalker as I am.
“Shall I go and pack you and Matthias some things?” Alana asks Lucia.
“Please, Mom,” Lucia says softly.
“I’ll ask Hugo and Raoul to take me to your place now,” she says before giving Lucia a hug. I know that she will feel better doing something practical and keeping her mind off the fact that someone just tried to kill her daughter.
“Pack some jeans, tanks and sweatshirts.” I suggest. “The ranch can get kind of messy.” That is true, but the idea of Lucia walking around in nothing but a summer dress with all of the ranch hands hanging around isn’t a particularly welcome one.
“Will do,” Alana says and before she walks out of the door she shoots me a look that tells me she wants to speak to me. I follow her into the corridor.
“I know you’re a professional, Jax, but these are my babies,” she says, her words catching in her throat.
I place my hand on her arm. “I know, Alana. You guys are my family too, you know?”
She smiles up at me. “I know.”
“I’ll protect both of them with my life. I swear.”
“I know you will. And if you get them both back safely to me, I’ll even forgive you for sending my husband a hooker on our wedding night.”
“You know about that?” I feel heat creeping over my neck. I’m never rattled but she just pulled the rug from under me.
“Yes. We don’t keep secrets about that kind of stuff.” She arches an eyebrow at me.
“Alana! It was… I mean you and him… When you got married…” I stammer, trying to offer a justification but there is none. The truth is their marriage was a business arrangement and was supposed to be nothing more. So Alejandro had spent their wedding night in his hotel, and I had thought it was only right that he didn’t spend it alone and had sent him a gift. He turned her down and obviously I regret it now, because I love Alana and she is the best thing that ever happened to my best buddy, but back then it was no big deal. He was never supposed to fall in love with his wife. “I’m sorry,” I say eventually because that’s all I really can say.
“I know.” She smiles at me. “But please take good care of them.”
“I will. You have my word.”
She leans up onto her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”
