Pete understood, on the surface at least, why Keegan hadn’t told him about Dmitry’s impending arrival. It wasn’t hard for him to wrap his head around the idea that Keegan expected the people who worked for the Witness Protection Program, who already had a tip-off about Dmitry, to have more information to give than Keegan would.

It wasn’t as if they had a whole network of informants and intelligence agents, or anything like that. When Pete thought about it like that, he had to be kind of annoyed that Cooper and the other marshals didn’t beat Keegan to the punch.

At the same time, it kind of rankled for Keegan to have said nothing at all. Pete pointed this out, once Cooper left them alone together. The tub of Rocky Road ice cream Keegan had brought him did nothing to mollify his feelings on the subject. He didn’t care that the ice cream was organic, or gourmet, or imported.

“How could you just not say anything?” he asked, putting his ice cream dish down. “I understand why you didn’t think you had as much information as Cooper, although you seriously underestimated the amount of red tape in that agency. But you didn’t say anything at all? This is my life here. This is our baby’s life, and you just let it slide.”

Keegan hung his head. “You’re right; I should have mentioned it. I honestly thought you already knew. Which obviously turned out to not be the case, and I’m sorry about that. I think I overestimated the marshal service. I won’t be doing that again.”

Pete scowled and gestured with his spoon. “It was too important to make assumptions.”

He sighed. He couldn’t hold onto his anger, especially not after Keegan had gone and made arrangements for him to not get hauled off to San Juan or Bozeman or wherever the hell. Getting angry wasn’t getting him anywhere, and the ice cream would melt soon if he didn’t hurry up and eat it.

“Do you think we can beat him?” The issue of Dmitry was the main issue on his mind, after all.

“I don’t know.” Keegan wrapped Pete in his arms and pulled him in, so Pete could rest against his strong chest. “We’re going to try.

“We’ve got you here. We’ve got some good, strong, solid guys keeping you safe. That Cooper guy, he seems like a good egg. Do you trust him?”

Keegan’s body was still tense, even though his words were soothing and he seemed to want Pete to relax.

Pete did a double take. “What? Yeah, of course I do. I’ve been working with him for two years now. I trust him with my life.”

He looked up into Keegan’s eyes and realized he was serious. “Keegan, what’s going on? Don’t try to pull one over on me, either. I need the whole truth this time.”

Keegan licked his lips and looked away. “We were trying to figure out how Dmitry knew that you’re in New York. It’s not like any one person stands out here, right? That’s part of why they sent you here. Anyway, one possibility is that not everyone in Cooper’s organization is entirely honest.”

Pete jumped to his feet and took off toward the bedroom. “We’ve got to get out of here. He’s going to come for you, too, you know. If you thought he’d cut you a break because we were technically divorced when you and I met, you’re gravely mistaken. He’s going to rip you limb from limb, and he’s going to make me watch.”

Keegan followed Pete into the bedroom. “He might. I’m willing to take that risk. I’d take any risk for you. You know that.

“But right now, I’m not worried about Dmitry coming for me. I’m only worried about you, and about dealing with the mole in the marshals’ service. We’ve got ways of trying to figure out who it could be, and we’re doing everything possible to keep you safe. You know that, right?”

“Sure. But you have things like morals, standards, and scruples. Dmitry’s got things like car batteries, and razors, and acid. Somehow the two aren’t quite on the same level.”

Pete shuddered and looked for his suitcase. He could still hear the screams if he let himself, echoing across the years. “Somehow, one seems a bit more unsafe than the other.”

Why couldn’t Keegan understand? If Pete had to watch Keegan suffer like that, he would die. He couldn’t cope with it, not even a little bit.

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Keegan reached out and took Pete’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go check out your apartment.”

Pete wanted to object. The apartment across the hall wasn’t his. It was vacant, and he was using it as a safehaven until Dmitry was caught.

He didn’t feel like fighting right now, though. He’d stay silent about it until the immediate threat had been dealt with. Then they could fight about the apartment. Pete wasn’t letting Keegan lose the millions of dollars he could get for that place on his account.

Keegan didn’t have any guidelines about how he wanted the apartment Pete would be staying in decorated. “It’s your place, Pete,” he explained patiently. “You don’t have to stay in it forever, obviously, but it’s yours for the duration.

“Decorate it however you want. Go nuts. If nothing else, even if you and I don’t work out, decorate it the way you would if you were going to use it as a portfolio piece. I don’t care. I’m going to write it all off anyway, and you might as well have fun with it.”

Pete tried to focus. Maybe Keegan was right. Maybe he could have some fun with the decor, and let his own tastes run the show for once, instead of a client’s.

It would only go so far, of course. Once Dmitry found him, he would either flee, or he’d die. Either way, he’d never see the place again. He could enjoy it while it lasted, though. He might as well make some good out of a bad situation.

Starting on Monday, Pete got a much more intimate picture of Keegan’s lifestyle than he’d ever expected to see. Keegan had an office, down in SoHo, but he was only in it sporadically. He believed in minimal office space and time for most employees, reserving the space for administrative staff who needed to be on-site to handle paper records, or deal with servers, and for employees who lived in noisy buildings or with small children and needed to be able to get away.

He went to the office for meetings, but he preferred to work from home. “I spent a lot of money on this building. Why wouldn’t I want to spend time in it?”

He took Pete up to the roof deck and gestured. “I mean, come on. Look at it. Would you rather be in an office dealing with your cube neighbor’s stinky feet all day, or would you rather be up here, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine?”

Pete had to admit it was a nice place to spend a day, especially if he could avoid getting too close to the edge. “What if Dmitry gets a helicopter and takes me out from up here?”

Keegan jerked his head toward the marshal who’d accompanied them upstairs. “I think we have to get used to only being alone inside my unit for now. But trust me, Biff over there will shoot Dmitry right between the eyes if he tries.”

Pete leaned closer. “What if Biff is the dirty one?” The marshal’s name wasn’t Biff, it was Nate. But Keegan had renamed him within about three minutes, and it stuck.

Keegan smiled and took Pete’s hand. “The chances of Dmitry getting a helicopter through New York airspace without attracting law enforcement attention are slim to none. You get that, right?

“Ever since September 11, New York’s been one of those special cases. You can’t fly over Manhattan, not even in a helicopter, without a billion authorizations to do it.”

Pete tried to relax, but Keegan didn’t know Dmitry. He could be so persuasive; it wouldn’t be hard for him to talk a news helicopter pilot or someone like that into letting him on board. And once Dmitry was on board, of course, all bets were off.

Keegan thought he knew. The marshals thought they knew. No one knew Dmitry the way he did.

Keegan did go out, more than once. He went to the Hellion Club three times during that week. “I’d rather not,” he explained to Pete. “I’d honestly rather stick around here with you.

But if I’m not around at the Club, people will notice. And since we’re expecting Dmitry to show up there, we need everything to appear perfectly normal.”

Pete didn’t like it, but he had to admit that Keegan was right. “What happens? Would he call ahead and let someone know he was coming?”

Keegan tilted his head. “He didn’t explain it to you when you were together?”

Pete shook his head. “No. He never explained where he was going, not once.”

“Okay. Another point not in his favor. Basically, the Club started out here in New York, not long after the English took the town from the Dutch. Right?

“The English had all these ideas about sexuality, and alphas and omegas, and who was allowed to do what, and who was allowed to exist, and all that. The alphas of New Amsterdam started a secret society for the protection of themselves and their families. The English were already used to secret societies, so they didn’t think much about it.

“The club grew. There are branches all over the Western world now, but the biggest one is in New York. And we don’t have to be quite so secret, but to be honest, it’s a hard habit to break. Sure, the Pride movement has done a lot to make sure we’ve all got our legal rights and everything, but folks don’t exactly trust it yet.”

Keegan winced and leaned back on the couch. “Plenty of the things we do are kind of antiquated now,” he continued. “But one of the biggest draws for younger alphas is the fact that they can go to any Hellion Club, in any city, and just walk in the front door.

“There are no barriers to entry, nothing like that. If they wanted to vote, they’d have to transfer their membership, but I can walk into the Hellion Club in Honolulu and be just as at home as I would be right here in New York. For guys who have to travel, it can be a godsend.”

“I’d imagine.” Pete had a lot of practice not sounding impatient, and he called on every bit of it right now. “So, what about Dmitry?”

“He just has to show his badge, scan it in, and he’s allowed on the premises. We have a policy of not cooperating with law enforcement unless there’s a specific crime involved. In Dmitry’s case, he qualifies, because he’s been convicted of being a nasty son of a bitch.”

Keegan grinned. “But we can’t set up a tickler system or anything else to just alert the NYPD when a wanted man walks into the club, because our history tells us to be very wary of the authorities.” He rubbed at his face. “Part of what I’ve been doing this week is trying to work with the rest of our membership to come up with a way to cooperate with the marshals, to make sure we can take Dmitry down without jeopardizing other members’ privacy and rights. A lot of people are very concerned about that.”

“How many criminals do you have at the Hellion Club, anyway?” Pete toyed with the tassels on one of the throw pillows. One of the rights involved was probably Pete. If the Club helped one omega leave his husband, what was to stop the Club from interfering with other members’ marriages?

That was how most of the members would feel about it, anyway. Most old-school alphas didn’t believe in divorce. They believed an alpha had a right to his omega, period.

“A few that I know of. I’m sure they’re all innocent, of course.” Keegan made a face. “If I don’t say that, Ty bursts in and lectures me about ‘innocent until proven guilty’ until I puke on his shoes.

“Anyway, the difference is that Dmitry has been convicted, while these other members haven’t. Also, Dmitry hurt you, and I can’t have that. These other guys wouldn’t dare touch you.” He rubbed at his knuckles.

“You do that a lot. What’s up with that?” Pete took Keegan’s hand and brought it to his lips.

“Oh. Boxing. Members of the Hellion Club usually train in boxing, at least a little bit. It’s just a thing, a pastime we picked up along the way. Some prior president thought it would ‘civilize’ the alphas.” He chuckled and brought Pete in for a kiss.

Pete was more than happy to be kissed, and to have his lover distract him from his worries. Keegan picked him up, even though Pete was several inches taller, and carried him into the bedroom. Then, he carefully undressed the omega, like he was unwrapping a gift.

Keegan moved to lay him down on the bed, but Pete resisted this time. He unbuttoned Keegan’s shirt, stripping it off and exposing his chest. Keegan had a beautiful body, powerful and strong.

Pete didn’t know why Keegan didn’t dress to show it off more — he could certainly afford to get his atrocious clothes fitted better. It was just as well, though, because Keegan’s beautiful body was all Pete’s for as long as Pete could stay in New York.

He moved for Keegan’s pants, and got rid of those too. Soon enough, Keegan was naked before him. Pete was at a loss for words.

They’d made love plenty before, of course. Usually, Keegan took the lead. He made Pete feel like he was a prince, cherished and adored.

Today, Pete found himself struck mute by the awesome risk Keegan had taken upon himself. Keegan didn’t have to expose himself to the kind of monster Dmitry was. He didn’t have to bring Pete into his building, even if Pete was carrying his child. There were limits, after all, to what anyone could expect from a lover.

And Keegan had exceeded them all.

Pete couldn’t think of any other way to express how he felt about what Keegan had done and was still doing for him. He plunged his tongue into Keegan’s mouth instead, letting his body do the work of explaining what his voice could not. He traced the lines of Keegan’s hard body with his fingertips, finding every way he knew of to heat Keegan up.

He sank to his knees, taking Keegan into his mouth so deeply that Keegan could only shout. Pete had to show his appreciation to every part of Keegan somehow, before he would let his lover touch him. It felt like the only way he could express himself.

It was only when Keegan had worked up a beautiful sheen of sweat that Pete reached for the lube. Keegan looked like he could barely focus, but he managed to accept the bottle and slick his fingers up.

Pete rocked back onto him, eager to have Keegan inside of him. “I don’t need a lot of prep, you know this,” he insisted, breathless with need.

Keegan, too, seemed to be having trouble catching his breath. “Babe, you know that’s not how it works. I’m not going to hurt you, Pete. You’re my world. I’m always going to treat you with that reverence.”

He took his time getting Pete ready, and it was worth it. When he finally slid into Pete, he dragged right across Pete’s sweet spot to make him see stars. Pete cried out and surrendered, letting himself just feel.

Keegan drove himself into Pete again and again, deep and fast, but without any kind of furor. Every thrust lifted Pete up, higher and higher, until the heat inside of him became too much. He struggled to hold it back, but it was futile. His orgasm burst from him like a geyser, spraying both of them with his release.

Keegan’s rhythm faltered on seeing him peak and came a few short seconds after. Pete loved the feeling, going bare with Keegan. It felt so good, so right, to be together like this, as deep as two people could be entrenched.

He’d never even considered going raw with anyone else. With Keegan, it was the only way to be, no barriers.

Keegan pulled gently out of him a few moments later and gave Pete a hand up. They staggered into the bathroom and into the giant walk-in shower where Keegan lovingly washed Pete down under the spray from four different showerheads. “I could get used to this,” he murmured, eyes closed in bliss, as Keegan rubbed shampoo into his long, dark hair.

“Mmm.” Pete could hear the smile in Keegan’s voice. “So get used to it. It’s not like there isn’t room for three people here. Or more.”

“Keegan.” Pete knew he should talk about how it wasn’t reasonable, how he might have to leave at any minute. Dmitry could show up tonight, for crying out loud. They couldn’t tell themselves they could get used to this because they couldn’t.

But Keegan, damn the man, had already convinced him to hope. “We can’t count on it,” he said instead.

Keegan hummed and kissed the shell of Pete’s ear. “We can try.”

Keegan squared his shoulders and held his head high. He didn’t want to be here tonight. He’d put a lot of time and effort into the Hellion Club, and he loved the place. He loved it in spite of its flaws, or maybe because of them. The jury was still out.

But Pete was at home, being guarded by someone Keegan wasn’t a hundred percent sure of. And that made him antsy in ways he didn’t want to acknowledge even to himself.

Plus, the omega in question was the most beautiful in the world. He was also the smartest, the most interesting, and the most fun. The omegas here at the club were handsome, smart, and entertaining, but none of them could hold a candle to Pete.

Why would he want to come here and look at these other men? He didn’t. That was the only possible explanation. He didn’t want to come here and look at them; he wanted to be at home with Pete. These were fine men, adventurous and charming, but they weren’t the man he loved.

But Keegan had finally convinced the board to let him bring one — only one — marshal into the Club without the intention of making an arrest on the spot. Even that was a huge concession, and Keegan had been forced to resort to blackmail to get away with it. He didn’t share that nugget of information with Cooper.

Instead, he met Cooper outside the hotel where the Hellion Club was located and handed him a visitor pass. “We give out exactly five of those per year,” he warned the beta. “And we have so many bored lawyers on the rolls, I wouldn’t even think about trying to talk about anyone or anything that you see.”

“I know, I know.” Cooper took the pass and rolled his eyes. “And I should stick to you like glue.”

“Oh, God no. That would be weird, man. Weird.

“You don’t have to stick to me like glue, but if any of the omegas hit on you, don’t take them up on it.”

Keegan glanced over at the door and at the doorman. Fred watched them with a thinly-disguised air of disgust. Security, of course, had been warned.

“They’re expecting gazillionaire alphas, not public servant betas. It’s just … it’s a different dynamic, false pretenses kind of thing.”

Cooper folded his arms over his chest and pursed his lips. He raised his eyebrows, but otherwise seemed calm. “Do you need a shovel for that hole you’re digging? Central Park’s right across the street. The ground’s probably softer, might make it easier.”

Keegan scoffed. “I don’t think making it easier is in my best interests right now. Look, facts are facts. It’s the way things are here, and that’s all there is to it.

“If you met one of them off hours, I’m sure you’d hit it off and there wouldn’t be a problem. When they’re at work, though, they’re expecting tips you can’t afford on a government salary. And if you can, well, we should probably talk about that.”

“For crying out loud, Cunningham, I’m straight!” Cooper threw his hands up into the air.

“Then why do you care if they’re expecting a billionaire or not?” Keegan blinked at him, confused. Were marshals evaluated on their ability to complicate everything, or was that a skill limited to Cooper alone? “Do you want to hang around out here arguing about it, or do you want to go inside and scope the place out?”

Cooper muttered under his breath but stomped toward the entrance to the Hellion Club. He turned to face Keegan just before they got to the door. “How the hell does anyone in there take you seriously when you wear a pineapple print suit?”

“Magic,” Keegan told him with a massive smile. He added jazz hands, just for effect.

Cooper grunted and let the doorman scan his pass. The doorman scanned Keegan’s pass too, just for appearance’s sake. He knew who Keegan was, of course. Everyone knew who Keegan was.

One of these days, Keegan was going to sneak in here with a boring lawyer suit and a hat. Then they would see if anyone recognized him.

When Cooper stepped into the gilded palace that housed the Hellion Club, he stopped in his tracks. Most new people did, when they saw the place for the first time.

Keegan had expected better from a federal marshal on duty, but he guessed he couldn’t have everything. The place was awe-inspiring, after all. Fortunately, when Keegan bumped into him, it served to nudge Cooper forward and jolt him out of whatever rabbit hole he’d fallen into.

“The 1920s called,” Cooper said to Keegan, under his breath. “They want their aesthetic back.”

One of the Club’s older members tottered by, a twenty-year-old omega in hot pants on one arm, and a martini in his free hand. “And maybe a few of their residents. What the hell is this place, Cunningham? A brothel?”

A couple of people turned to glare. One of them was an omega. Keegan put an arm around Cooper’s shoulders and steered him toward the bar. Thank God, or whoever looked over Hellions, it was still too early for the place to be overfull.

“No. The Club doesn’t sell sex, and we don’t act as pimps. We do provide health services to omegas working here, and we do encourage a certain … decadence in the image we present. That part is deliberate.

“If omegas choose to take it a step further, it’s their choice. It’s emphatically not part of their employment contract.” He smiled as the bartender, a beautiful young man with the fanciful name of Oberon, approached. “I’ll have a Kyuuri Hana, please.”

Cooper glowered at Keegan. “You know I can’t drink on the job,” he hissed.

Keegan didn’t miss a beat. “My guest will also have a Kyuuri Hana.” Oberon winked and slipped away to mix the gin and cucumber drink, an extra sway to his hips.

Keegan turned to Cooper. “It will look odd to not have a drink in your hand,” he told him. He kept a smile on his face, but he spoke quietly and seriously to his companion.

“I’ll drink mine while you nurse yours. Then you can play with my empty glass while I drink yours. Trust me,” he added. “I’ve done this a thousand times before.”

Cooper recoiled, face a rictus of horror. “You’re going to be dead on the floor before we’ve been here an hour.”

Keegan chuckled and settled into his seat. “I trust you to make sure I get home okay.” He passed Oberon his tip and turned back to Cooper. “So. I’m a little nervous tonight.”

“I can tell.” Cooper gave Keegan’s glass a significant look. “Your glass is shaking.”

Keegan hadn’t realized he was doing that. He took a sip of his drink — it tasted fantastic; Oberon was great at his job — and braced himself and his otherwise shaky hand on the counter.

“Can you blame me? You’re the only one in that office I can trust right now.”

It hurt to admit that. Keegan prized honesty, but he wasn’t used to admitting to weakness in front of anyone. He trusted Cooper to a point, but only to a point.

Cooper looked away for a second. “That’s why everyone around you and Pete from here on in is someone I know personally.” He toyed with his glass. He lifted it to his lips and looked like he was going to take a drink, but put it down again.

“Gomez is with Pete now. He’s got no weaknesses for the syndicate to exploit. No family, no financial dealings of note. He’s basically a robot with good hair.”

Keegan did a little bit of a double take at Cooper’s casual assessment. “A robot?” Keegan personally didn’t think much of Gomez’ hair; his short, close-cropped style seemed pathetic when compared to Pete’s long tresses.

“More or less. He gets emotional about the bad guys trying to take out the good.” He sighed. “I’ve narrowed down the possibilities for the mole to about six people. All of them are good people, or folks I thought were decent people, anyway.

“It does hurt to be wrong sometimes, but here we are. Anyway, three of them have some outstanding debts they’ve been anxious about, all medical. One of them just bought a place down on the Jersey Shore, a nice big house.

“Now you know we’re not paid enough to afford that stuff, and I know Bob isn’t married, and he didn’t come from money, either. Another one, Brasier, just sent his kids to a pricey boarding school that no one in this organization should be able to afford. ”

Keegan flexed the muscles in his free hand. It would be very easy for him to find out more about “Bob,” and to take care of this matter personally. He’d also be the first suspect — and who knew? Maybe there were extenuating circumstances, or maybe there was another explanation. “And the last?”

“The last is Greg; he actually is Russian. I don’t want to suspect him, because suspecting people just for sharing the ethnic background of the bad guy is wrong, but it is a little suspicious, don’t you think?”

“I think.” Keegan took another gulp from his drink. “All right. Those are all good to know. And you’re not letting any of them guard Pete, right?”

“Not even a little bit.” Cooper took a deep breath. “For what it’s worth, Greg asked not to guard Pete. He said he didn’t want there to be any potential issues.

“I’ll admit, I’m nervous too. I’m about a hair away from pulling the plug on this whole thing and sending Pete to San Juan.”

The fact that they’d already discussed San Juan meant he wouldn’t wind up in San Juan or Bozeman. What were some of the other options? Guam, maybe?

“It’s what you know.” Keegan didn’t judge him for it. “The thing is, it’s not…” He moistened his lips as he tried to come up with the right words. “It doesn’t change any of the reasons we decided to try a different approach, but I can see the appeal. I can.”

“If this goes south, it’s the end of my career.” Cooper did take a gulp of his drink this time. So much for not drinking on the job.

“And, you know, Pete’s life. But hey, details.” Keegan glowered. Did Cooper seriously expect sympathy for his career being at risk when Pete was out there risking his life?

“Trust me, I know. I just want you to understand that there are actual consequences to me, too.” He grimaced. “Not quite the same ones. For a career public servant, it’s certainly a terrifying prospect. It’s not like there are a lot of job opportunities for disgraced former marshals.

“But if we win, if we can nab Dmitry, it’s going to open things up so much for everyone.” He swirled the ice in his glass. “I like Pete. I think he’s a nice guy who definitely deserves more than hiding from the world for the rest of his life.

“He deserves a family. He deserves to be able to walk down the street with his man, hand in hand.”

Keegan looked down into his cup. “I want that. I do. There’s stuff that has to happen first, though, and I don’t want to count my chickens before I’ve even got eggs. I don’t know if that makes sense to you.”

“It does. It does.” Cooper glanced around the main bar. “So is this the whole thing? You guys hang around and ogle omegas?”

Keegan jumped a little. “Oh, God no. Let me show you around. That’s why we’re here, after all.” He led Cooper on a turn around the main room. “There are fire exits, of course, but they’re all alarmed. As they should be.”

“How reliable are the people who manage the alarms?” Cooper glared at the doors, curling his lip dubiously. “It’s not like it’s never happened before, with someone disabling the alarms.”

Keegan raised an eyebrow. “This hotel has housed the Queen of England, Cooper. She wasn’t a guest of the Club, obviously, but I’m pretty sure the majority owner of the hotel is a member.”

“Well, then.” Cooper grinned. “Good enough for me.”

Keegan gave Cooper a tour of the Club and its facilities. As an officer, Keegan had the authority to go into areas that were off-limits for most members, like the security room and the kitchen. He wasn’t necessarily welcome there, but he was allowed, and when security found out exactly who and what Cooper was, they became more cooperative about letting “brass” into their space.

Cooper showed security a picture of Dmitry. “This man has been convicted of a variety of charges, including murder, torture, racketeering, terrorism, and … well, you name it. He’s grotesque.

“If you see him, do not engage. Alert me, and Cupcake here, and wait for instructions. I don’t care how much the Club is paying you, it’s not enough for this dude to carve you up. Are we agreed on that?”

“Absolutely.” The head of security, Gus, nodded with enthusiasm. “He sounds like bad news. Are we expecting him?”

“He is a member.” Keegan sighed. “We can’t keep him away. But we’re going to use that as an opportunity. It’s not something the Club usually does, but it’s also not a problem the Club usually has to handle. We don’t want to be a group that harbors terrorists and killers.”

Gus recoiled a little. He’d served in the military, working in Iraq. He’d fought against terrorism. Nothing disgusted him more than the idea of terrorists. “No, sir.”

Keegan sighed. He hated it when they called him “sir.” Sure, he was an officer, but he was still a normal guy.

He and Cooper headed back into the main room and got another round. Sebastian Banks approached him in an attempt to dress Keegan down about some idiotic violation of protocol, so Keegan stole his drink and chased him away again. When he and Cooper finished their round, they headed back to Keegan’s place and separated for the night.

Keegan would have given anything to tell Pete the coast was clear, and he could come over, but the doorman called up to him. “It’s your brother, sir. Should I send him up, or send the elevator to the boiler room again?”

“That was a fun one, wasn’t it?” Keegan gave some serious thought to repeating the prank but decided against it. “Let Ty come up; I’m sure whatever he’s got going on is a world-ending crisis or another kind of terrible disaster.”

“Very good, sir.”

Ty appeared at Keegan’s door only moments later. His eyes were wild. “Beau showed up at my house.”

He walked right into the apartment, holding his head in his hands. “I wasn’t even home yet, but Beau showed up at my condo with this St. James guy. And when I wasn’t home, they demanded the key from my doorman.”

Keegan covered his mouth with his hand, so his brother wouldn’t see him laughing. “I — I’m sorry. That’s awful. It’s not funny.”

He snickered and headed for the kitchen. He’d rather be with Pete right now, but Ty definitely needed him. Pete was safe with Cooper and Gomez across the hall.

“I’ll fix you a drink.” He pulled a few Manhattans together and sat down with his brother. From the way things sounded, Ty would probably need more than one drink tonight. “The doorman didn’t give him the key, did he?”

“No, he didn’t give them the key. He told them to go back to the coffee shop and wouldn’t even let them wait in the building.” Ty scowled and took a deep drink from his glass. “Thank you for this, by the way.

“Beau pitched a hissy fit, and that’s what I walked into. At which point Beau started shouting at me for not wearing ‘soft purple’ like St. James likes.”

Keegan let his mouth hang open. “Wow. I can’t believe Beau would behave like that, in front of the guy, no less. What the hell is he thinking?”

“Well, St. James — and I’m ninety percent sure his family tree doesn’t branch even a little bit, by the way — took off, because Beau was clearly out of his freaking gourd. Which just made him angrier. He started screaming.

“He’s screaming about how I’m going to wind up old and barren, I’m past my prime, I’m going to be a burden on them until the day I die, and what the hell am I going to do when I die alone on my kitchen floor and my cats eat my flesh.” He drained the rest of his glass in one gulp.

Keegan blew out a low whistle and passed Ty another drink. “That’s freaking insane.”

“It’s all on camera.” Ty let his head fall back. “It’s all on camera, and there were witnesses. The firm is going to have to fire me. They can’t have a guy on staff whose father’s bringing the firm into disrepute like this.” He sat back up, eyes wide with fear. “Do you think that’s why he’s doing it?”

“He’s enough of a jerk to do exactly that, but I don’t think he could think outside himself long enough to plot like that.” Keegan grabbed one of the pre-made Manhattans for himself. “I’ll talk to them. I’ll get them to back off. They’re absolutely out of line, and they need to stop.”

Ty let out a shuddering breath. “I just — can I hide out here for the night? Beau’s hanging around outside the building, and if I go back, I don’t want to know what he’s got up his sleeve.”

“Yeah. Of course. Go hit the guest room. Are the cats all set?” Keegan kept his face sympathetic, even though he was cursing inside.

He got Ty settled in the guest room and ducked into the bathroom to text Pete. Family crisis. Brother dropped in. You okay?

I’m fine. Sounds like a major issue.

I told you my parents were awful. Keegan sighed. If his parents were so bad with Ty, what would they do about Keegan and his ex-ballet dancer?