“John!” Max cried once the shock of his private investigator’s appearance had worn off. Dean’s words had made him forget all about the fact that he’d called John, but he knew he had to get a handle on the misunderstanding before it escalated into a murder. He rushed past Dean and slipped the Alpha’s grasp as Dean reached to stop him. “It’s alright,” he said, putting himself between the Alpha and beta. “He’s not working for Chris. He came here because of Gavin.”

“So he says,” John muttered, his eyes narrowed as he kept the gun aimed at Dean.

“It’s true. He has a picture, see?” Max held his hand out expectantly, and it took the Alpha a second to realize he wanted the phone. He pulled up the picture Dean had shown him and offered the phone to John.

The beta stared down at the screen, frowning as he handed the phone back. “So he does.” He uncocked the gun and slipped it back into the holster underneath his trench coat. “My apologies.”

“Is that thing registered?” Dean asked warily.

Max shot him a look. “Officer, this is John Wilson, the private investigator I hired to find my son. John, this is… I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Dean,” he said, offering his hand to John. “Detective Dean Garza. The government kind, not the private kind.”

John smirked, returning the man’s handshake a bit more firmly than he ever did with Max. “A pleasure. Sorry for jumping to conclusions, but when I see an Alpha cornering an omega who’s being stalked against a secluded building, I tend to do that.”

“You make a habit of playing bodyguard for all your clients, huh?” Dean asked without missing a beat. Max thought the handshake was going a bit long and turning a bit hostile for polite company.

“Only the ones I like,” John shot back, finally letting his hand fall away.

“We were just talking about Gavin,” Max said, growing somber as his mind drifted back to what he and Dean had been talking about before John had shown up. “And the family that wants to adopt him.”

All of John’s uncharacteristic machismo melted into sympathy. He put a hand on Max’s shoulder to comfort him, and the omega jolted when he heard the snarl in Dean’s throat.

“Sorry,” Dean said, clearing his throat. “Weather’s getting to my allergies. Could we take this inside somewhere before we draw any unwanted attention?”

“That place over there makes a decent burger, and I’m sure Max could use some coffee,” John said, leading the omega over to the restaurant. Max caught Dean’s glare, but he got the feeling it wasn’t meant for him.

A few minutes later, they were all settled in a booth on the far end of the diner. John was the only one who had enough of an appetite to order things, but Max found the warmth of his coffee mug comforting, even if he hadn’t managed to settle the butterflies in his stomach enough to take more than a sip. Over the past few minutes, Dean had been giving them both a recap of the course his investigation had taken, from meeting Gavin at the police station to tracking down Max’s former employers.

“That’s a lot of trouble to go to in order to reunite a kid you just met and an omega you don’t even know,” John said once Dean had finished. Max winced at the challenge in his words, but Dean took it in stride.

“I guess we both go above and beyond when it comes to our professional obligations,” the Alpha said pointedly.

John smirked. “I suppose so.”

Max was too weary and confused to sort out whatever it was going on between them, but for the moment, all his focus was on Gavin. “Where is he now?” he asked softly.

“He’s with my family,” said Dean.

“And he knows why you’re here?”

“He knows I’m looking for you, but I’ve kept him on a need-to-know basis when it comes to the details so he doesn’t get his hopes up for nothing.”

Max nodded. Dean had given him a lot to process over the last hour or so, but despite the pain the Alpha’s words had caused him, he could recognize that Dean was only looking out for Gavin. He had protected him when Max couldn’t, and for that, the Alpha would always have his gratitude. “Thank you,” he murmured. “For everything you’ve done for him.”

“You don’t need to thank me. Hell, for a second there, I was thinking of adopting him myself,” Dean said with a small laugh.

Max bit his lip. “These people, the Newports… what are they like?”

“The dad’s a dentist,” said Dean, leaning over the table on his elbows. “He’s the kind of person who makes cheesy jokes about alligator teeth.” He laughed, shaking his head. “The mom’s an art teacher, and she’s been helping Gavin work through some of his issues with painting. They have two other kids, both in high school and from what I understand, Gavin gets along with them.”

Max swallowed hard. The idea of some other family raising his son as their own hurt more than any blow Chris had ever dealt him, but mostly he was just grateful that someone had been there to give Gavin the love and attention Max hadn’t been able to. “They sound wonderful,” he said quietly. “They sound like exactly the kind of people I always hoped he was with.”

“You don’t have to make a decision on anything right now, Max,” John said firmly, keeping his gaze on the Alpha across the table. “And you don’t owe Officer Garza anything until we have a chance to speak with your lawyer.”

“I’m not the enemy here,” Dean said, frowning. “If I didn’t want them to get the chance to be in each other’s lives, I wouldn’t be here right now. But for the time being, I think it’s best for everyone involved if Max holds off on walking into Gavin’s life until Chris is out of the picture.”

“That we can agree on,” said John. “Chris Bram is a problem that needs to be taken care of.”

“Bram?” Dean echoed, looking from John to Max. “Chris Bram is Gavin’s father?”

“So you’ve heard of him,” Max said quietly. Here it was. Now he just had to wait for Dean to backpedal on helping them at all and hope he had the decency not to turn against them when he ran.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of him,” Dean muttered. “Every time he works a case in my precinct, the evidence locker ends up a little less full.”

“Then you understand what we’re dealing with,” said John. “The only question is, are you here to help or to make things worse?”

Dean held the beta’s gaze. “I’m here for Gavin, and protecting him means protecting Max. That should answer your question. Now here’s one for you. What’s your real interest in Max?”

“Detective Garza,” Max hissed. “That’s uncalled for.”

“It’s alright. He is an Alpha,” John said, smirking as he sipped his coffee. “I wouldn’t expect him to understand decency for its own sake.”

Dean snorted, leaning back to drape his arm over the back of the booth. “As long as we understand each other. I have a plan for dealing with Chris, but it’s gonna require a team effort. Think you can handle taking a backseat?”

“If it’s in the interest of putting that asshole behind bars, there’s no end to what I can tolerate,” John replied coolly.

Max listened intently as the Alpha started detailing his plan. Max was still warring between his reluctance to trust any Alpha and the strange instinct that told him there was something different about Detective Dean Garza. Something his heart seemed to understand intuitively, even if he hadn’t yet wrapped his head around it. He wasn’t sure he had fully wrapped his head around the plan, either, but it was better than anything he’d be able to come up with on his own.

He still wasn’t sure why Dean cared enough to help him at all. In Max’s experience, Alphas with authority always wielded it to exploit those weaker than them rather than help, but Dean had put himself on the line for Gavin, and Max decided that was good enough for him.