Page 50 of His Reluctant Savior

With him continuing to pace, I could’ve taken him out, but that would slam the door shut at The District, and the last thing I wanted to do was to kill Easton. He also belonged to me, just as I belonged to him. Could I harm my family for Dalton? I hoped I never had to face that decision.

“Malik ordered us to find you and give him any news.” He finally stopped and looked at me. “He looks bad. Sully hurt him, but they seem to have… made up or something.”

“Wait, what?”

“Don’t ask. I don’t know the details.”

“What do you mean bad?”

“Malik was… cut up, Sully style.”

“Jesus… Are you sure Malik is safe from Sully?”

Easton just looked at me without an expression on his face and blinked slowly. “Yes, they are like pickles and peanut butter. It’s weird, but… Sully is too obsessed over Malik to kill him outright.”

Fuck, I really needed to get this shit cleared up so I could return and check on Malik. If Sully fucking hurt him… There was no love lost between Sully and me.

Back on track… “East, I need you to stay quiet about this a while longer. Please.”

He deftly flipped the dagger between his fingers, something he did before he plunged it right into your heart or threw it into your eye socket. I braced myself, with my hand slowly reaching behind my back for my gun.

“Are you going to come back? If not, I will make them bring you back. You’re mine. You’re the only reason I’m there. I need you to keep teaching me everything.”

“That’s my plan. If… for some reason, I can’t, I’ll come for you, okay? You belong with me.”

Easton finally sagged and nodded before putting on his mask of indifference, as if he hadn’t been on the verge of murdering me in spite. “Then I will stay quiet.”

“Thank you, East.”

I took the risk and reached for him, pulling him into a hug. He didn’t like to be held, but the only affection he ever really got was from me. Even if he was stiff and didn’t hug me back, I knewhe enjoyed it because he never pushed me away. Or he just liked to humor me, which was a strong possibility.

“Give me a few weeks. I should have everything wrapped up.”

He finally pushed me away and stepped back. “Fine, you’ll have it. But when you come back, we work twice as hard.”

I cracked a smile. “Of course. Anyway, I’m going to grab some necessities here, and then I’m going to burn this place to the ground. If there’s anything you want of mine, now’s the time to take it.”

The house had nothing of sentimental value, but I needed to help with Dalton. Easton and I headed toward the basement, and in the security room, I loaded up my laptop, grabbed a few extra hard drives, and shoved them into the laptop bag. I also packed up extra burner phones and a couple of my favorite guns.

Easton walked over to the desk and lifted the framed photo, the only photo in this house.

“You kept the picture,” he said, almost in awe. The only emotion I’d ever seen come from Easton was anger—unless he wore one of his masks to fit in with society.

I took the photo from him and looked at it. He and I were wearing our gis after a kung fu sparring session. We’d just wrapped it up when Layla came in and took our picture. For some reason, she took a lot of photos of us, being more sentimental than any of us. She printed it out and gave me a copy.

I had my arm wrapped around Easton’s shoulder, smiling broadly and sweating. He’d just turned sixteen, and he tried to smile, but it was small and wooden. The slight leaning into me and head tilt toward my shoulder showed his affection for me, if you could call it that. Perhaps it was more of an attachment. That waswhy I kept the image, which was proof of his love for me in his own way, even if he never truly felt such things.

It was the closest thing I’d ever been to being a father.

I handed the image back to him. “Keep it. I’ve got a digital copy.”

He removed the photo from the frame and shoved the image into his pocket before he headed toward the gun vault.

After thirty minutes, I grabbed everything I needed, and we were running out of time. People could come looking here again in case Dalton returned.

“I’m thinking about burning the place to the ground.”

“Don’t,” Easton said. “Let it fall to ruin. Maybe one day you can come back.”

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