chapter 19
As soon as they arrived home, Jonas dragged JJ into the living room and wrapped his arms around her. "Jesus Christ do you know how happy I am to have you home safe? I was too terrified to believe it in the car. But with you home, it’s more real now."
JJ snuggled into Jonas’s embrace. "Let me guess, you're not letting me out of your sight for a while?"
"Woman, can you really blame me? I mean you girls fucking locked Ryan in the panic room."
"Well, it's not like he was gonna let us go willingly. He would've called you and you would've talked us out of it and said you had it handled. But you had the wrong location. None of you were listening."
"Okay, okay I hear you. Next time let's have a code word for when I'm being an idiot and not listening and you're about to do something stupid to get my attention."
"It wasn't intended to be like that. It's not like I was an idiot exactly. We had a weapon."
Jonas shuddered. She could feel the shiver run through his body. "Yeah, I know. I just hate to think of what would have happened if he'd have gotten a hold of it. If Lucia hadn't been there. All these horrible things were running through my head a million times today. Do you understand that?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I understand. And I'm sorry."
"I know. Listen, let's do first things first."
JJ cocked her head. "Seriously, you want to have sex now?"
Jonas stared at her for a long moment. And then chuckled. "Yes, actually. But that's not what I meant."
Behind them, there was a giggle. Noah had his arms wrapped around Lucia and lifted his gaze and met Jonas's. "Listen, I need to have a conversation with my wife about her antics today. We'll need about an hour. Make sure Nonna's okay with the baby, and get Delaney out of the panic room would you?"
"Yeah, Delaney. That was actually my first stop."
Noah blinked at him like he was crazy. "Yeah, okay. But uh, Lucia is my first stop."
Lucia rolled her eyes and swatted him on the arm before following her husband as he tugged her down the hall into his office. JJ would've loved for that to be her first stop. But honestly, she was still reeling and shaking, and she didn't know what she felt or how she should be feeling. All she felt right now was numb and hollow. And God, she just wanted to collapse. She'd killed a man today. Shot him dead. Several times. But he was going to kill Lucia if you hadn't.
She might act tough, but that shell she put up for the world to see, it didn't mean she didn't care. It didn't mean she wasn't affected by things. Jonas pulled her close and hugged her tight. "I know. You're in shock. Let's get you in the shower, I'll deal with Delaney. And then I'll call Oskar and Dylan and have them escort Nonna back to the penthouse."
She shook her head. "No. I need to let out Ryan. I feel like we owe him one."
Jonas studied her carefully. "Are you okay?"
“Yes. No. I have no idea."
Jonas nodded. "I know it couldn't have been easy doing what you did today. I know how terrifying it must have been."
"That's just the thing, Jonas. When I saw him hurting my friend, I didn't even think twice. I might have emptied the whole clip into him at the end there. I just kept shooting."
"And that's what you're supposed to do. You reacted to save your friend."
"Yeah. I know. But I also reacted to save myself."
“That is a good thing. Because for once, you thought about survival. I'm proud of you." He took her hand and pulled her down the hall until they reached the panic room. Then he pushed the combo into the keypad. When the door unlatched, Delaney was hanging by his hands in the doorjamb, looking pissed and ready to kill someone.
"Are you fucking serious right now? We will never speak of this again, do you understand?"
JJ opened her mouth to apologize. She really meant to. But instead, what came out was, "What's the matter Delaney afraid of the dark? Or are you pissed off that three little women outsmarted you?"
Delaney opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. "I was worried because I was on Isabella duty. I don't think having two men on her and Nonna is enough."
JJ grinned at him. "I am sorry. But I knew you would've stopped us."
"Damn straight I would've stopped you. You could've been killed. You could've gotten Lucia killed. And then Noah would have killed us all."
She nodded. "I know. I know it was stupid. But I had to do something. I'm so sorry that you got caught up in it."
It took him several beats, but then he nodded.
Within fifteen minutes, Dylan and Oskar were back with Nonna and Isabella. Nonna, for her role in all this, acted as if everything was fine. She just smiled and gave JJ a kiss on the cheek. "Oh, JJ. It's good to see you again. We had a lovely walk out in the park, didn't we boys?"
Both Dylan and Oskar looked a little worse for wear. As if Nonna’d had them running for their lives. She was really going to have to ask the old lady what she'd done to them. Either way, everyone looked safe and happy.
Isabella must have known she was home though and that her parents were home as well, because the moment the stroller came to a stop she let out a tiny wail, which of course drew Lucia and Noah out of the office. Both of them had bed hair. And Lucia had that sort of satisfied, smug look on her face that screamed 'Hey, I just had sex with my husband.'
"Oh my, sweetheart. Mama's here.”
With Isabella in Lucia's arms, JJ watched on. Lucia had saved her life today. And you saved hers. "Can a godmother get a kiss too? I know you're hungry little one. But I just want one little baby kiss.” She kissed her goddaughter and was never more grateful for the family that she had.
Noah inclined his head for the guys to follow him to the conference room. "Hey guys, let's get this over with and call Ian."
Jonas followed, but he grumbled. "I can't believe we're still going to deal with that guy."
Noah was philosophical about it. “Look, we're not necessarily going to be friends, but we don't need to be enemies. Besides, now he owes us. And I've a feeling with this bunch we’ll be collecting on that favor sometime soon."
Matthias had to get the hell out of the penthouse. It was too much. All of it. All the happy couples. He left without a word, but Oskar saw him going.
When the German gave him a quizzical glance, Matthias just ignored him. After everything that had happened in the last couple of days, he was still feeling raw. The monster inside him was too close to the surface, and he needed to take the beast out for a walk away from the people he cared about. And he needed to put his past to bed.
Something happened to him at that house. The moment his hands had grasped those blades, he’d started to enjoy the fight. It was one thing to go hand-to-hand combat, it was another thing to actually use his weapon of choice. Knives were personal. And he’d enjoyed it a little too much. Now stuffing the monster back inside was a little more difficult to do. Especially since he’d been out to play in spectacular fashion.
Matthias followed the directions to the letter. He took the train downtown to the meet point, across the street from Club Throb. In the small neighborhood park he took the bench facing the club and waited silently for the rest of his party to show up. There was no running away now.
Matthias felt more than heard when the bench behind him was occupied. "I told you your past was coming for you. But it's here. I've had a sighting."
Matthias sighed. "Do you know if they know where to find me?"
"Not yet. But given that your boss is so tight with Orion, it might only be a matter of time. They knew where to start looking. So I'm not sure how much time you’ve got."
"Well, if they come looking, they're going to find trouble."
"Are you going to tell them?"
There was something that he’d thought about long and hard. What did he tell Noah? He’d never really disclosed all of his past, just given him bits and pieces that were enough to form his own version of the story.
Although what Noah had formed already had been the stuff of nightmares. But real life was so much worse. Bad enough to give the devil himself nightmares.
Before he’d come into ORUS, he’d been barely human. A real-life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Orion had flipped a switch inside him that made everything go from terrible to monstrous.
He had to keep them all safe from himself. Which included keeping them safe from this. "I'm not telling them anything. It's my mess. My past. I want to protect them as long as I can."
"Matthias, if your old family is looking for you, then you probably need to warn Leo at the very least."
"Not going to happen. I will protect them. That’s what you do for family. Protect them and keep them safe. That's my job."
"Mate, if you're not gonna warn them, there's not much I can do to help you.”
Matthias ground his teeth. “If anyone comes knocking at my door, they’re not going to be happy about it."
"What do you need? I feel like I need to do something. I owe you my life."
Matthias thought a minute. “Nothing. We’re done. You’ve done enough. Debt is paid. You come knocking on my door again, and I’m going to assume that you're with them. And we both know what I do to enemies."