Ty sat at his desk and tapped his pen against his jaw. His client was fighting for custody of his three children, which his alpha ex-husband currently held. Custody law wasn’t his strong suit, but he had a junior associate to handle the intricacies there. He needed to focus on presentation, and how he wanted the judge to view the facts in the case.

He was no stranger to overbearing alphas. He was no stranger to alphas who threw their money around and expected their partners to be grateful for it. He was new at thinking it was unusual behavior, or that it was wrong. Would that hurt him, going into the custody hearing?

He was looking at this all wrong. What was it that the ex wanted? According to reports from both partners and from the children, the alpha preferred to have a nanny taking care of them. That wasn’t unusual and it wasn’t neglectful. Ty himself was going to have to bring on a nanny, when his baby was born. Nannies constituted appropriate care. Of course, the alpha had gone through four nannies in the space of a year.

He sent an email to one of the paralegals, asking her to reach out to each of the nannies for a deposition. A loving father would want stability for the children. He couldn’t be held responsible if a nanny suddenly had a family emergency, or if she got ill, or if she decided his kids were too awful to deal with and had to leave. But four in one year? That was just too much.

He made a face at himself. Something else was going on here, he just didn’t know what it might be.

Darren, from the mailroom, knocked on his door. “I’ve got a package for you, Mr. Cunningham.”

Ty looked up and smiled, then he frowned. The package had telltale stripes on the edge of the envelope to signify that it was an air mail package. He’d studied international law, but he didn’t have any clients at the moment with overseas entanglements. “Thanks, Darren. How’s law school going?”

Darren blushed. “It’s going, sir. It’s going as well as can be expected. I love the work, and I love studying, but it is a grind.”

“Yes, it is.” Ty chuckled and shook his head. He could remember those days, and he hadn’t even needed to have a job to support himself. “Just wait until your first law job. Hope you like coffee.”

“Things to look forward to.” Darren grinned and headed out again.

Ty picked up the package. Okay, he didn’t have any current clients with international entanglements, and he didn’t have any international criminal clients at all. It made no sense at all for Scotland Yard to send him a package filled with what felt like documents, of any sort.

He grabbed a letter opener and slit the top of the thick envelope. Yes, those were definitely documents, A4 paper all bound or stapled or paper clipped together. He racked his brain to try to find any clients who might have gotten into legal trouble in Great Britain, but couldn’t think of any.

He laughed at himself. It had to be pregnancy brain. He wasn’t showing yet, but his pants were already a little tight. He’d have to get around to getting some paternity suits soon. He could sit here and try to figure out which of his clients these documents pertained to, or he could pull the papers out and look at them.

He did exactly that, still shaking his head at himself. Just as he’d expected, he found a cover letter. According to said cover letter, D. I. Jamal Blackwell was sending the enclosed to Ty as a courtesy to Sebastian Britton’s attorney. The documents related to the matter of the murder of Britton’s husband, Niall Griffin-Britton, and had already been sent to the Home Office for review…

Ty dropped the cover letter onto his desk, like it was radioactive. He wasn’t Seb’s lawyer. He would never be Seb’s lawyer. As a partner he wouldn’t be assigned to a case without being told, and his firm was far too upright and stodgy to risk their reputation on such a strong conflict of interest. He scowled and fired off a message to the managing partners, informing them of the situation.

He was gratified, although embarrassed, when Madison Clarke himself walked into his office ten minutes later. Clarke was probably seventy-five years old, and the third Madison Clark to be a managing partner with the firm. He had a full head of snowy white hair, a scowl to beat the band, and a law library locked up inside of his head that Ty could only dream of. “What’s all this, then?” he thundered.

Ty used to be intimidated by Clarke’s bluster. Now he knew it was just the old man’s way. He repeated the information he’d given by email. “It would be a gross conflict of interest for me to represent him, obviously,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I was his fiancé and he’s been pestering my parents ever since he got back to the States. But more than that, this whole thing where he decides we’re representing him without even reaching out to us is a little… sleazy, don’t you think?”

“Frankly it offends me.” Clarke put one spotted hand onto the stack of documents. “It offends me on a deep level, that he would even think about trying to put one of my colleagues into this position. I will deal with this personally, Mr. Cunningham. Your time is too valuable to waste on this nonsense. That said, should you happen to encounter him again, please tell him in no uncertain terms that one does not engage an attorney by telling the police that someone is their attorney and presenting it as a fait accomplit.” He sniffed, picked up the package, and strode out of the room. His back was as stiff as a rod, and he walked faster than Ty had ever seen him.

Ty slid down in his seat. Thank God for Clarke. He would have to deal with the fallout, of course, but for now he’d successfully offloaded it onto someone else and he could be grateful. He had no idea what Seb had been thinking, listing Ty as his lawyer.

He looked at the phone. The baseball season had chugged into the All-Star break, but that didn’t mean Carter was home. Of course it didn’t. No, Carter had been an All-Star for years, and he was having the best year of his career. He’d have been an All-Star no matter what. Ty would have felt a lot safer if Carter was here.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek and put his head down. He had an amazing husband, who he loved and who loved him. Probably. That didn’t mean he had suddenly turned into some kind of delicate flower who couldn’t take care of himself. It was nice to have someone who wanted to defend him, but he’d done just fine for the past seven years by himself. He didn’t need to go running to an alpha just because his ex did something dumb.

That said, Seb had done something weird and foolish. Keegan, Carter, and Carter’s coach were trying to figure out whatever it was that Seb was up to. They should know about this little shenanigan. He picked up the phone and texted Keegan. You’ll never believe what Seb did.

Keegan texted him back two minutes later. Flowers? Dead flowers? A jar full of dead roaches?

Ty stared at his screen for a moment, trying to figure out where in Hell that had come from. No. And gross. I just got a package from Scotland Yard. He told them I was his lawyer.

OMG. WTF. Then, Do you still have it?

Ty chuckled. No. Our managing partner was NOT HAPPY about it. He took the whole package and went to go deal with the problem.

Keegan didn’t text back. He called, which was odd for him. “Hey. So he seriously tried to set you up as his lawyer? Like, for free?”

“I don’t know. It must be, because we never had the talk about fees. Or retainers. Or me acting as his attorney. The answer would have been no on all counts, of course.” Ty scanned his laptop screen as he spoke to his brother. He needed to figure out what it was that the alpha with all of the nannies was hiding. He would try to depose the kids, too, but he’d need something to go in with beyond the fact that they were chewing up nannies and spitting them out.

“Well, duh. Lawyers don’t work for free.”

“Sometimes we do, actually. I wrapped up a pro bono case last week for a guy who’s been in Riker’s for two years without ever being charged with a crime. But we only work pro bono on cases that are in the public interest, or for indigent clients. We don’t do pro bono for investment bankers who come from rich families.” He sat up a little straighter. “Why does he need a lawyer with Scotland Yard?”

“The husband is always a suspect, Ty. Come on, you’re a freaking lawyer. It’s criminal law 101. Even I know that.” Keegan snorted.

“Okay, but they wouldn’t have let him leave England if he was enough of a suspect to need a lawyer.” Ty tapped his pen on the desk. “Maybe it wasn’t ruled a homicide at that point.”

“You could be right.” Keegan went quiet for a second. “Let’s get together tonight. I want to talk to Tracy about this. Maybe we can watch the game.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Ty forced himself to calm down. “We’ll meet at my place at seven thirty, maybe? I’ll get take-out.”

“Sounds good.”

Ty got back to work. He filed a request to subpoena the alpha’s financial records. If the nannies had signed non-disclosure agreements, any payments to emergency rooms would show up in the financial documents. Payouts to the nannies would show up there too.

He made sure he had enough takeout to feed Tracy, and he wasn’t surprised when Carter’s coach showed up at the apartment. “Good to see you, Tracy,” he lied. He didn’t exactly hate Tracy, but he knew Tracy didn’t like him. Welcoming the guy into the house wasn’t exactly easy, but he did it anyway, for Carter’s sake.

Tracy faked a little smile. “How’s it going?” He edged into the apartment. “I hear you got a package today. Some interesting information from Scotland Yard.”

Ty led them into the kitchen. He’d laid the food out on the counter, so the cats were less likely to make a move on it. He figured the guys could help themselves. “I didn’t really look it over,” he told them. “I figure that’s confidential information, governed by attorney-client privilege.”

Tracy scowled at him. “But aren’t you his attorney?”

“No. As a matter of fact I’m not.” Ty smiled brightly at Tracy and dished himself out some vegetables. “He would have to engage me, and pay me, and I would have to agree to it. None of these things have happened, nor would they, so here we are. What I did see is that Scotland Yard is sending his lawyer, or the person they believe to be his lawyer, information about his husband’s murder ‘as a courtesy.’ That’s… disturbing.”

“They think he did it.” Keegan loaded up a plate with as much food as would fit and grabbed a beer from the fridge.

“I think he did it.” Tracy was more selective in choosing food, but he also grabbed a beer.

“Do either of you have any evidence?” Ty looked back and forth between them.

Tracy squirmed. “So some of the people I’ve been talking to have been, ah, making some inquiries. They obviously haven’t been getting in Scotland Yard’s way, but they’ve been keeping up with the investigation and letting me know what’s going on. If you’d bothered to read the packet Scotland Yard was good enough to send you, you’d know that.”

“It’s not my business,” Ty reminded him, clenching his jaw. “If I’d done that, he might be able to sue me.”

“How can he sue you if he’s the reason you got the stuff in the first place.” Tracy scoffed at him. “Anyway, what they found out is that the Brittons had a volatile marriage. Apparently the police showed up to their flat several times for domestics. That doesn’t happen over there, not for rich people.”

Keegan winced. “If the husband was the kind of guy I’d imagine good ol’ Seb would have married, he’d have been mortified.”

“I can only imagine.” Ty would be mortified if the neighbors called the police for a domestic disturbance in his home. He couldn’t think of what it would be like for some upper-crust Englishman, where they took class distinctions even more seriously. “Is there any more evidence or just ‘they argued a lot?’”

“I thought it wasn’t your business?” Tracy rolled his eyes. “Some inquiries into Britton’s financial dealings showed he was having some challenges. He’d made some bad investments, and he wound up getting fined because of the scandal back here in the States. I thought he’d gotten away with it, and since he got promoted and still has a job I guess he did. He didn’t go to jail or anything, so from that perspective he got off light.”

Ty nodded slowly. “But if he got hit with a substantial fine, and he had some other money trouble, it would have still been a pretty big issue.” He sighed. “I guess I can see the motive. I’m not sure how they’d prove the husband was murdered, but that’s not my job.”

“No. Your job, little brother, is to stay alive.” Keegan stuffed his mouth full of pasta and swallowed. “This explains why he came back to the States and immediately came to sniff around your door, bro. He knew you were loaded, and he probably figured you’d be so besotted with him still that you wouldn’t think twice about defending him from murder charges. For free even.”

Ty made a face. “You’re not wrong. It’s a little ego-shattering, but you’re not wrong. I wasn’t good enough for him seven years ago, I’m certainly not going to be good enough for him now.” He cackled with delight. “It must absolutely burn him to be the one being rejected, especially since he literally can’t compete with Carter.”

Ty sat up straighter as the realization slammed into him. “Carter.”

Tracy scowled at him. “Yeah. Your husband, father of your child, All-Star second baseman, too good for you by an order of magnitude?”

“That’s the guy,” Ty replied as Keegan growled. “If Seb will kill to get at his ex’s money, what would he do to get at mine?”

Keegan stopped growling and turned pale. “Crap. We’ve got to warn Carter, man.”

Tracy rubbed at his face. “Hopefully he won’t go there.”

“I still don’t see him as a murderer. But the motivation fits. If he’d kill his husband, what else would he do?” Ty put his plate down and pushed it away. He couldn’t even think about food anymore.

* * *

Carter slept on the plane from San Francisco to New York. He didn’t usually sleep on planes, but the All-Star game had taken a lot out of him. He’d played hard and played to win, and the coach hadn’t taken him out of the game at all. Sorry, Bowman, but a lot of these fans paid specifically to see you. So as long as you’re good to go, we’re going to keep you out there.

Carter got it, he really did. He also got that the coach of the AL team at the All-Star game was a division rival who was not above taking an opportunity to bust up a team that was giving him trouble in the standings. Fortunately, Carter had been in good condition going into the game. He’d have a few days off to rest, maybe look at a few houses, and then he’d be as good as new.

Screw Al King, anyway.

When the plane landed, the flight attendant woke him up and he deplaned with the rest of the first class passengers. He got into the car Ty had sent for him and relaxed on the way home.

Home. He hadn’t been back to his own apartment in how long now? He needed to get around to putting the place on the market. Ty’s place wasn’t big enough to store all of Carter’s crap, but Carter just didn’t want to keep going back there anymore. He didn’t want to be apart from Ty when he didn’t have to be. They were in the same city, they loved each other, they should be together.

Ty was home when he got there. It was early for him, but it turned out there was good reason for it. “I took a half day at work today. I had an appointment with the obstetrician.” His hazel eyes almost glowed as he pulled out a strip of printed photos.

The thing in the photos didn’t look human. It looked like an alien. Still, Carter could make out a distinct head, and limbs, and a cord. “Is that your sonogram?” He found he was whispering, like he could somehow disturb the baby with a loud voice.

Ty nodded, a huge smile creasing his handsome face. “It was the first one. I can’t… it’s… there aren’t words. I heard the baby’s heart. It was magic. It was absolute magic. The baby is in there, and it has a heart that’s beating.” He threw his arms around Carter and squeezed. “Thank you, Carter. Thank you for giving this to me.”

Carter put his bag down and held Ty close. He loved the way his husband smelled, the scent of his shampoo and the way his body heat warmed Carter’s skin. “Can we nap?” he asked, running his hand through Ty’s hair. “I want to be in the bed. I want to hold you close, and celebrate, but I’m too tired for anything more energetic.”

Ty kissed him. “Of course.”

They retreated to the bedroom. The cats eyed them suspiciously when they disrobed, but when they made no move to get frisky the cats calmed down. Amun seemed particularly happy to see Carter, curling up on Carter’s side as Carter wrapped himself around Ty. “I have missed you so much,” Carter told Ty. He put a hand over Ty’s still-flat stomach. “I wish I could have been there with you and heard its heartbeat for myself.”

“I understand why you couldn’t,” Ty told him. Both Isis and Ra had found sleeping places for themselves pressed up against Ty, and he looked blissfully happy. “I do. It would have been great to have you there, but I understand why you had to be at the All-Star game. “ He yawned. “We watched it, you know.”

“Who’s we?” Carter refused to indulge in the imaginative part of his brain that immediately sprang to Seb Britton.

“Me, Keegan, and Tracy.”

Carter had been about to close his eyes, but there was no way he’d be able to sleep after that. “Wait, Tracy came over here without me?”

“Yeah. He, ah, Seb kind of told Scotland Yard that I was his lawyer. It was this whole thing.” Ty squirmed, and Carter’s dick made a valiant effort to convince him he wasn’t as tired as he thought he was. “We’re a little worried.”

“You should be worried. The guy’s a psycho.”

“About you.”

Carter chuckled, and Amun dug his claws into his skin as a warning. “It’s not my sweet flesh he’s after, sweetheart.”

Ty snorted. “It’s not mine either. We think we’ve figured out his motive in chasing around after me, and it’s not my good looks and charming personality.” He made a face, and then he grinned. “You know, a few years ago I wouldn’t have looked a gift horse in the mouth. Now I’m all, ‘What kind of guy knows a guy is married and still chases after him?’ That’s weird. It is weird, right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t do it.” Carter relaxed. “For all that’s appealing about erasing the other guy from someone’s memory - and don’t get me wrong, I’m totally gloating about that right now - there’s something just icky about chasing a dude when you know he’s happy with someone else. Of course, Sebastian is completely devoid of human decency, so I’m not surprised or anything, but still.”

Ty laughed quietly. “Apparently. But, um, evidently Scotland Yard thinks he’s a suspect in his husband’s murder. It looks like the motive is financial, which explains why he’s suddenly interested in the guy he couldn’t even tolerate seven years ago. It’s my bank account he wants, not me. And there’s one thing, in his mind, standing between him and my money.”

“Your actual inclinations?”

Ty’s laugh had a tinge of bitterness to it that Carter didn’t like at all. “No. Those don’t seem to have ever mattered to him. It’s you. So we’re all kind of worried about him taking things into his own hands with you. You know… safety wise.”

Carter’s skin ran with goose bumps. He couldn’t deny that it was a possibility. He couldn’t be surprised at the idea of Seb killing his husband. “Seb can try to take me out, babe, but I’m not some undersized overbred English aristocrat. I’m a good old-fashioned corn-fed American athlete who carries a club for a living, okay?” He kissed the back of Ty’s head. “Sleep now, then houses.”

They had a good nap. Carter woke up later than Ty did, but that was okay. When he did wake up, Ty had dinner on the table, and a message from a realtor named Larson who wanted to take them to look at houses on Saturday. Carter had the day off, it still being the All-Star Break, so he agreed on the condition that he got to sleep in.

The next day was Friday. Ty headed in to work. Carter went to see Tracy.

Tracy, as it turned out, was actually pretty upset with Ty. “The guy knows we’re in the middle of looking into his ex’s crap and he can’t read the gift Scotland Yard drops into his lap? He’s useless. He’s worse than useless.”

Carter closed his eyes and tried to remember that Tracy was one of his best friends. “I’m sure he had his reasons. He is a lawyer. He went to school for a long time to know how these things work. You know he took on Garcia’s brother-in-law’s case pro bono, right?”

“I hadn’t heard that, actually. Really?”

“Yeah. Already the guy’s out of jail on his own recognizance, so that’s something. If Ty says he couldn’t look at the file, then he couldn’t look at the file. Anyhow. He says he thinks Seb’s going to go after me?”

Tracy massaged his temples. His kids were playing in the pool just outside the window, and it looked like fun. Carter wondered if he could get away with jumping in with them, clothes and all. “It makes sense, given his motivations. The guy’s trash, Carter. He’s just in it for the money, and he’s having a lot of financial problems. Desperate people do desperate things, and if the insurance payout from the husband is already running out…”

“Dude gets paid how much for being an investment banker and he’s got to kill his husband for money?” Carter shook his head in disgust. “Look, I know I’m clueless when it comes to finance and investing. That’s how I got into this position. I went with Chambers in the first place, because I needed guidance. But this guy, he had the gall to give me crap for getting taken for a ride when he was part of a massive fraud and he’s so desperate for money he’s killing people and chasing after a married man he dumped years ago?”

“Preaching to the choir, buddy. I get it. Dude is trash,” Tracy repeated, and kicked the trash can beside him for emphasis. “That said, I have to agree with Mr. Buys-a-husband. You’re what stands between him and his goal, at least in his brain. I don’t know if Tyler would go to him if you weren’t around. He didn’t want to believe Britton was capable of doing something like this, but in the end he had the evidence in front of him.

“And as much as I don’t like the guy, I have to say, the idea of something happening to you was what shook him into action. He wasn’t okay with that by any stretch of the imagination. I think he really does care for you, and love you.” Tracy made a face.

Carter laughed at him. “You’ll find yourself liking him in spite of yourself, Tracy. Just you wait and see. He’s a good guy, and he makes me feel good. That’s the important thing, right?”

“I guess. I just - there’s got to be something wrong with a dude who has to buy a husband, damn it.”

“Oh, there is. There is, Tracy. But it’s all… it’s all stuff that Sebastian put there, and that his parents put there. I’m telling you, this guy is as good as gold. I love him, and that’s good enough for me.” He grinned and changed the subject, and before he knew what was happening the day had passed. It was time for him to go home to Ty.

The next day, he and Ty slept in a bit before heading out for a long day of house hunting. Their realtor, a youngish guy by the name of Larson, had a plan. “I’m going to stick with Manhattan today, if that’s okay with you guys,” he told them. “You guys both seem content here, and you work here. If you don’t see anything you like we can start looking a little further out, but neither of you strikes me as the ‘six acres of property’ type.”

Carter laughed and put his arm around Ty. “I grew up on a farm, but I don’t need to try to recreate it. I’m okay with public parks, thanks.”

Ty nodded. “I think we’re both okay with that.”

The first place they visited was a tall glass structure with a distinctly modern vibe. Carter didn’t mind it, and it had a courtyard and a private play space for residents’ children. That had a lot of appeal, but when they asked Larson to double check the building bylaws it turned out the place had a strict no pets policy. Ty would sooner cut off his hands than give up the cats, so they moved on.

“You like pre-war buildings anyway, don’t you?” Carter pointed out, hoping to ease the sting a little.

“I mean yeah, I like them aesthetically.” Ty shrugged. “I also like plumbing and electricity that work, so there’s sometimes a tradeoff.”

Larson pulled out his tablet. “That’s not a problem, actually. I’ve got, ah, five places on here that are fully renovated pre-war buildings, four of them allow pets. Let me see, you guys want to avoid the Upper West Side for some reason, which is a total bummer but it’s your choice. This one here over 76^th should be right up your alley. It’s quiet, it’s got great skyline views, and you’ll have an easy commute.”

Carter looked over at Ty, who shrugged. “We’ll take a look, sure.”

The building had an elegant lobby, the kind that made Carter think of elegant hotels from the twenties and not anyplace people actually lived. He couldn’t imagine a kid toddling across the black marble floors, so shiny he could see his face in it. “Do people with children actually live here?”

Larson huffed out a little laugh. “More than you’d think, although their kids do tend to wear shoes with extra traction. Come on, I’ll show you the unit.”

Carter had thought the elevator in Ty’s building was pretentious. This one was positively gilded, although it didn’t have an actual human being employed to run the thing so he guessed he’d take what he could get. The fourteenth floor was as silent as a mausoleum when they emerged onto it, and Carter recoiled. This wasn’t a home, it was a tomb.

Then they walked into the unit Larson was trying to sell. It was beautiful. His breath caught in his chest as he looked out over the city. The kitchen was beautiful, and not excessive at all. Every bedroom had a view, and the whole apartment had a homelike warmth that made him smile. He reached out to take Ty’s hand in his as they explored the four bedrooms and five bathrooms of this palatial home.

It cost a fortune, because of course it did. It was a mammoth apartment with more bathrooms than bedrooms in Manhattan, near Central Park and the museums. Carter almost felt like it was a bargain, but he also knew Ty was going to be contributing more to the purchase than he was.

He took Ty aside, away from Larson. “What do you think?”

Ty looked up at him. “What do you think? I can live almost anywhere, Carter. You’re the one who makes a living with his body. Physical comfort is more important to you.” He huffed out a little laugh. “Not that it’s trivial to me, but it actually has a measurable effect on you and your job. Do you think you can live here and be happy?”

Carter took a deep breath. “I hated it until we saw the apartment itself. But up here - it feels good. It feels pretty amazing, actually.”

“Awesome. We’ll buy it, then.” He walked in and had a conversation with Larson.

Ty made an offer for half a million less than the sellers wanted. Larson wasn’t optimistic about their chances of getting the house, but the sellers agreed immediately and they had an appointment to close on Thursday. Carter should have figured Ty would manage that. He was a lawyer, of course he was a master negotiator.

And that was that. All that remained was to buy furniture. Ty turned to Carter, eyes shining. “Welcome home, Carter.”

Carter wondered if a grin had ever broken someone’s face. His felt big enough to do exactly that. “Welcome home, Ty.”