"Can I just make sure I understand this right?" Lottie stood in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest, one shoulder leaning against the door frame. "You asked him about the money, and now you're moving in with him?"

"I mean, obviously there was more to it than that," Lucas chuckled as he folded another shirt. "He means it about you keeping the money, though. He doesn't want it back, but he does apologize for being a dick about it."

Lottie unfurled her arms and stepped into the room to help pull clothes from his closet and fold them. "He was a dick?"

Lucas shrugged. "He was going through a thing. I think he was trying to prove to himself that money could at least solve one problem, if not all, so he overdid it and sent you way too much. But he admits that was his screwup and the money's yours to do what you want with."

She huffed at that. "Okay. That counts as being a dick. I still feel really weird about it, though."

"Yeah," Lucas agreed. "I totally get it, believe me. I think it's just something we're gonna need to give some time, adjust to it. I mean, people have managed for centuries, right? One goes out to work and earns all the money, the other stays at home and does... house things..."

"Chores," she said dryly.

"Those," he agreed.

"So, what. You're gonna be a house-husband?"

Lucas paused in his shirt-folding while he pondered her question. "I guess? I mean, not the husband part. I don't think we're anywhere near the rushing off to get married part yet."

"Yet," she teased.

"Get lost." He chuckled and set the shirt down on the stack. "You know me, Lottie. One day at a time. We've had a few weeks. I'm not gonna start planning a wedding based on that."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes and lay the pants she was folding down on the bed. "Is this all gonna fit in your bag?"

"It better. It's not like I own... much of anything, really," he admitted.

Lottie nodded, then stepped in and hugged him tightly. "He better look after you," she said. "Or he'll have me to deal with."

Lucas chuckled and hugged her back. "I'll let him know."

"Yeah, you better!"

"Is that everything?" Jayden eyed Lucas' hold all like he doubted one person could fit their entire life into such a thing.

"Yeah." Lucas shrugged. "Where shall I put it?"

"I cleared out a closet for you. Here." Jayden led through to his bedroom and gestured to one of the closets with a grand flourish and a warm smile. "Let's get you settled in."

"Thanks."

They worked together to unpack and hang everything before it could crease. Lucas appreciated having Jayden's help, but more than that he appreciated that Jayden was willing to do such a mundane chore himself.

"Do you get staff in?" he murmured. "I don't remember seeing anyone, and you never mentioned any in your briefings."

"The building provides cleaning staff," Jayden admitted, "but I only let them in like once a month. Clean the carpets, wash the walls, whatever. I prefer to do my own shit."

Lucas smiled a little. "Well when you get your job back, you might need to let them in. I can do laundry, but they might have to teach me how to take care of the rest."

Jayden eyed him, then nodded. "Okay. If that's what you want."

"What I want," Lucas murmured, "is to take you shopping. We can't keep making do with ties and belts. We should get some proper, safe restraints in here. Maybe a couple of gags. You know, you can get these great gags which have a cock instead of a ball, so you can get stuffed both ends at the same time." He grinned at Jayden's bright red cheeks. "Or a dildo or two so you can sit on one while I fuck your mouth."

Jayden nudged his glasses up his nose while his face burned. "Oh my God, Lucas! Let's go, like, right fucking now!"

"Nuh uh. You've got today's schedule worked out already," he teased.

"Yeah I'll get Marcus in here and tell him it's gonna change."

"Tomorrow." He leaned in to kiss Jayden roughly. "How about today we just go out to dinner? That way you still get to call Marcus in, and we don't have to deal with my cooking."

"Mmmhhhh." Jayden moaned into his mouth. "Fine. Where do you wanna eat?"

"I dunno. We went fancy last time. How about some place we can just walk in and sit down without a reservation, and with a reasonable expectation that the paps won't be at the door?"

Jayden stepped back, his cheeks still bright, and whipped out his phone. "Okay. How about Coppola's? They do great Italian."

"Sure."

Lucas didn't really care what or when he ate. That came with the SEAL training. Any picky eaters got it hammered out of them after a few days of being unable to eat anything at all, and life in personal security did much the same thing. You ate when the principal gave you a moment, and you ate whatever was on hand. If the client was at a Thai restaurant, then by God you learned to eat Thai food if you didn't already like it. He wasn't particularly bothered what got ordered, either.

Jayden eyed him, then smiled as he tapped away at his phone. "Okay. Let's tell Marcus the new plan." He paused and eyed the closet, then added, "have you got anything that isn't a suit?"

Lucas shrugged. "A couple of t-shirts. A pair of jeans."

"They'll do. Can, uh. Can Marcus and Kinkaid, like, not wear suits? I dunno. Would it be weird having them in there dressed like bodyguards?"

He smiled faintly. "They can wear casuals if it's a casual kinda place. They just need advance warning. Which is what briefings are for."

"Okay, okay." Jayden laughed and hurried out of the room. "Marcus!"

Lucas continued to unpack, and finally reached the t-shirts and his one pair of jeans.

It was probably better not to tell Jayden that he only owned these for when clients wanted discreet, just like Jayden was about to ask of Marcus and Kinkaid.

The restaurant was a tiny little place below a parking garage, narrow and cramped, with windows lining one wall to try and make it look bigger. Lucas noted that the place was mostly booths, which he detested for protection because they reduced mobility so much, but he spied a few tables at the back, so requested a couple of those. At first the waiter tried to push the tables together for them, but Marcus intervened and the waiter seemed to suddenly intuit that two of these four people were security.

Lucas wasn't surprised by that. This was the Upper West Side. People around here probably needed a bodyguard or two now and then.

He sat facing Jayden, and just like that Marcus and Kinkaid became just another couple of guys the next table over. Once the place got a little busier nobody would suspect the two tables were remotely connected.

Jayden took his menu and ran his eyes over it, then smiled to Lucas. "What'll you get?"

"Why don't you choose?" Lucas murmured as he sipped his water. He'd automatically selected the seat which left his back to the only door, because it meant he blocked line of sight to Jayden for anyone entering. It was on Marcus to watch the door.

Hell, technically it was all on Marcus and Kinkaid. Lucas wasn't working.

"Why don't you choose?" Jayden countered, pushing a menu into his hands. "Then we can order, and I can move on to staring into your eyes and playing footsie under the table."

"Well, when you put it like that..." Lucas looked to the menu and skimmed over it, then decided that picking through thirty options was time not spent watching Jayden, so he picked whichever one his gaze settled on, then put the menu down.

"You can't have chosen that fast!"

"Baked lasagna," Lucas answered with a smirk.

"God damn it!" Jayden's gaze flit across his own menu at speed. "Okay! I'm done!" He put his menu down and laughed. "You don't give a guy time to..." He tailed off, his gaze flitting past Lucas' head.

His hands came together on the table, fingers picking idly like he was niggling at a hangnail.

Lucas idly unrolled the cutlery from his napkin and gripped the knife.

"...really decide what it is he wants," Jayden continued, his voice distracted.

Marcus stood and eased between the tables.

Lucas cast his glance toward the mirrors to try and see what had worried Jayden.

Past the other customers, beyond the waiters, by the front of the restaurant, a motorbike courier had placed his insulated bag on the bar top like he was there to collect a takeout order. He hadn't taken his helmet off, or even slid his visor up.

The courier unzipped his bag and reached inside.

"Get down," Lucas snapped.

Jayden dived under the table as the courier withdrew a SIG MPX K from his bag. The miniature submachine gun was so out of place that for vital seconds, most of the people in the joint didn't seem to know how to react.

Marcus and Kinkaid were on it before the SMG was even fully raised. Lucas bounded from his chair and kicked it aside to clear a path, then rushed forward to provide additional distraction in case their gunman figured he could try and snap off a lucky shot toward Jayden.

The trigger got pulled.

The MPX was gas-powered. It had a distinctive, slightly muffled sound, but just about everyone inside began screaming and clamoring for the exit.

The restaurant went from peaceful to total chaos with the squeeze of the trigger, and Lucas hung back to let Marcus and Kinkaid handle it. They were the ones wearing vests.

He grit his teeth and watched as his colleagues waded in against a weapon which could break ribs even through their ballistic vests, and he had a choice to make.

Training took over, and he was glad to let it. Lucas turned his back and trusted Marcus and Kinkaid to protect him as he offered his hand to Jayden. "Quick," he hissed. "Come with me."

Jayden grabbed his hand, and Lucas hauled him out from under the table, using his body as a shield as he wrapped his arm around Jayden's shoulders. "Stay low," he breathed as he pushed Jayden toward the kitchen.

Jayden ducked his head and let Lucas steer him through the swinging doors and into the heat of the kitchen, where staff were either milling in confusion or continuing to cook and paying no mind to the noise outside. "How did they find us?" he gasped.

"Out!" Lucas bellowed. "Active shooter! Get out!" It was faster and easier than trying to propel a principal through a crowded industrial kitchen, and as staff began to scurry toward the rear door, he pushed Jayden after them. "I don't know," he said as they ran. "They've gotta have people tailing you, but we haven't seen..."

He tailed off.

Tony.

Tony knew the comings and goings of everyone in Jayden's building.

Could it be that simple?

They barreled out of the door and into the mass of staff who had got out back and then just stopped, like the emergency was suddenly over, and Lucas kept Jayden's head down as he assessed the new situation.

It took all of a second to spot the gun.

Another second to shove Jayden to the ground.

He just about had time to deduce that the gunmen must have come as a pair before the screams began.