Page 81 of Mine to Keep
Yesterday, I told my boys I had to finish one last job, explainingwhat I had to do and why. Even though they didn't like that I had to do it, they understood that it was necessary to make sure we lived in peace.
“All done, baby boy.” I draw him in for another kiss before giving Talon one as well. “Now I’m all yours.”
“Good.” Javier pats my cheek softly before going back to his canvas.
Talon giggles and wipes my face. “Javi got paint on you.”
“What are you working on, baby boy?” I ask, tilting my head to the side so Talon can get the paint off my face.
Javier leans over to his palette and swipes his brush through the blue paint he mixed. “Something for the showcase next month. I already have a buyer, but they want it displayed before they take it home. Probably to rub it in someone’s face.” He rolls his eyes. Even though he comes from money, Javier is not pretentious.
After I collected my boys and we moved to Puerto Rico, Javier talked to his father about possibly showcasing his work to be sold. He told him his idea to donate the proceeds to group homes, and Javier’s father, Adrian, was all over it. It took him no time at all to put something together and for Javier to display his work. He sold out his first event.
He kept his word to donate. After he got the payout, he said he wanted to go to California and personally deliver a check to the group home that I grew up in. While we were in California, I showed my boys where I lived with Patience, where we worked and where she was buried. They helped me pick out some flowers to lay at her grave, and comforted me when I cried about missing her.
We stayed at the house I owned in Cali for a week, but it no longer felt like home. It felt like Knox, not Koda. So they helped me pack up and get rid of a lot of stuff—namely weapons I hadPeggy coordinate a pickup for. She asked to buy the house to use as another safe house and with all the renovations and upgrades, she’s probably the best person to own it.
For his second showcase, Javier plans to distribute the payout among the group homes on the island.
Besides having money from his family, he works full time as a hotel manager, so he doesn’t need the money from the sales.
Talon just started grad school at a college about a fifteen-minute walk from our house. Every morning he has classes, I walk with him—Javier joins us if he doesn’t have to work early.
He got his acceptance letter when he got to his parents’ house, since he said he wanted to be close to Javier when they graduated. After what happened in Canada, he wanted to get as far away from North America as possible.
They still had nightmares about being shot at, and it makes me feel like shit that I exposed them to my life. There’s nothing I can do to change my past, but I can keep them safe now.
I look over the painting in front of Javier and smile. It’s the scenery we see outside of our bedroom window. It’s the view that sold us when we moved back. I paid for the house in cash, and we moved in the next day.
And christened every single room.
“What are you going to call it?” I ask.
“When I See You,” he says, swirling the paint on the canvas. “Though I’m sure the owners will probably change it.”
Talon rests his head on my shoulder. “I love it, Javi. We need one just like it for our wall.”
Grinning over at him, Javier says, “All we gotta do is stand on our balcony, T.”
I play with the curls of Talon’s ponytail while he and Javier pick up the thread of conversation they were having before I showed up.
For the next hour, we keep Javier company while he finishes the painting, talking and making plans for the day.
“Papa will be over this evening for dinner. Says he wants to talk to you about some kind of business proposition that has to do with security.”
When I met Javier and Talon’s parents, I told them I worked in security like I told my boys—I couldn’t very well tell them I used to kill people for a living.
Neither Talon nor Javier’s parents really minded that the three of us were in a relationship. They admitted they didn’t understand it—Adrian took longer than any of them to come around—but since we were all grown, they didn’t object to us being a throuple.
I give Javier a deadpan look. “He does know I don’t know shit about security, right?”
Javi laughs. “He doesn’t want you to do any security. He wants you to head his company. Someone he trusts.” Javier pauses. “Well, someone he hopes he can trust, since we’re together and he trusts my judgment.”
“Thanks for that,” I say dryly and slap Talon on the ass.
“Hey, what did I do?” he asks.
I shrug. “You were closer.”
