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He sighed – actually sighed – and then kissed the shell ofhis nah for me

“I trust you, James”

He let out a little gasp of air, then he was drawing me into his arms His hand came up to cradle the back ofthat they just completely enveloped me

“I won’t let you down, Aleks I swear it”

And with that, he shifted us until ere both lying flat on the bed He pulled h I’d never once slept with another soul in a bed besides hn’s fingers played withme to sleep within minutes When I woke up, the clock showed that it was just after eight in the one and just the utility knife was on the nightstand But I knew in ot out of bed and ure out that I was actually on the second floor of a two-story house, but I had no trouble confirhn was still indeed there

Because I could hear his raised voice and the anger in it was clear as day

As was that of the anger in the voice of whoever he was arguing with

Chapter 9

Vaughn

I heard the car co the bathrooh the alarm I’d set, which was extremely unusual forwith Aleks before, so I couldn’t exactly be upset about it But oversleepingthere with Aleks in my arms I would have expected hiht, but he’d been wrapped around me like a vine Fortunately, my body hadn’t had tooerection But as soon as I’d awoken to Aleks’s soft breath against ers pressed into ly

The night before had been both a near disaster and a nighthtmare had come first Aleks hadn’t spoken to me most of the previous day as we’dWhen we’d gotten to our destination, he’d been so exhausted he’d been on autopilot and he’d been out cold within seconds of his head hitting the pillow I’d actually had to take his shoes off It’d still been pretty early, so I’d gone to the kitchen to eat the sandwich I’d bought for h I hadn’t been particularly hungry I’d also returned a couple of phone calls to some sick fucks ere in the market for “protection,” but I hadn’t done more than tell the assholes I wasn’t currently available In a world like mine, that just madewith the situation with Aleks, ly unavailable, thened because the assholes wereup their own reasons for what I was up to As far as they were concerned, I was getting rid of witnesses or rivals for whatever degenerate I orking for Little did they knoas all smoke and mirrors and it’d all been carefully constructed to catch a er fish than any of them

But all that was in jeopardy now because I needed to make sure Aleks was safe first