The amusement that lightened AJ’s eyes made Brian’s heart warm. There was no way he could ever explain the sheer joy, the absolute love that he felt at the moment he’d seen AJ drop down to the ground. Then, to hear him speak, that cocky amused sound in his words, had been like the sound of angels. All he could think was Thank God.
None of it beat the look on AJ’s face when Brian told him he was late, though. First surprise, then amusement and love. “Sorry, love. Got here as quick as I could.” He said with a shrug. “I had a few things I had to acquire before I could come.”
“Well, they better be worth it.” Brian had to wipe at his nose again, the blood still slowly trickling down. He caught a flash of something in AJ’s eyes that was ruthlessly shoved down when he glanced over and saw Brian wiping away blood. “Pinch it, Bri, an tip your head back.”
After that, Brian could actually see AJ click over to the matter at hand. He turned colder, harder. His gaze was icy as he looked at Alarico. “Now, you and I, we’re going to discuss business. Essentially, that’s all this is to you, yes?” he asked.
Alarico looked as calm and cool as ever, his hands clasped before him, as if having a gun trained at his forehead was an everyday occurrence. For all Brian knew, it could be. You never knew. These people were absolutely crazy. “Might you put the weapon away, Xander? I am not fond of doing business via gunpoint.” Well, that answered that part of things.
“You know, I think I may.” AJ gave him a grin that was reminiscent of a shark. “But keep in mind, my dear man, that I am not alone. Nor am I putting it fully away. I’m not stupid.” But he lowered it, uncocking it as he did. He didn’t put it away, though, but held it in his hands as he folded them in front of him, much the same as Alarico stood. “As for business. You worked very hard to get me here. But, I have to say, your group here has gotten sloppier since I last knew them.”
Shrugging, Alarico flashed a grin full of straight, white teeth. “We all work with what we have. I must say, I am impressed by the talent you’ve displayed. It’s a pity you didn’t join with us when you were younger.” He added on something in Spanish that Brian didn’t understand, but it had AJ throwing his head back and laughing.
“I’m not interested in signing up here, Alarico. Even if I was, do you think I would after everything you’ve done?”
“You are alive. Your amante is alive.”
That coldness in AJ’s voice grew. “That is the only thing that’s keeping you alive right now.” He said in a low voice. “Sending Jeff to bother us, I could live with. Him hitting me, I could live with. That was one on one between two men. It was honest and open.” A small tremor ran down AJ’s frame, the only outward sign of his fury. It gave Brian even more insight into how tightly coiled AJ was on the inside. He wished he could go to him, to touch him and soothe, but right now he knew it was safer and smarter to stand out of the way.
AJ tipped his head to the side a little and suddenly everything about him radiated menace. “But you shot at the person who is the most important to me in the world. You threatened him, and had Jeff make promises to do it again. You used our company as a cover to observe us and to threaten us and to make our lives hell. Thrashing my house, ok, that I can forgive too. But then you came into my home, my own home, and stole this man. You brought him here and you hurt him. All to piss me off enough to finally bring me to you. That was your final goal, wasn’t it? To get me here.”
There wasn’t even any remorse in Alarico’s eyes. In fact, he looked pleased. “That was exactly it. Which, I might add, we have succeeded at. We have you here. Now I’m thinking I might change my plans a little. I find I like you. You are sure you wouldn’t like to join us now? There is much we could offer you and much you could do for us.”
“You underestimate me, Alarico.” AJ said with a shake of his head. “You did this to get me here, thinking you’d kill me, knowing you might lose a man or two in the process. It’s why you have only goons here. But you underestimated me. You knew you’d piss me off, but you have no idea what you’ve unleashed here. The stupidest thing you could ever have done was to touch this man. You think that I can just forget what you’ve done? My man stands there, bruised and bloody, because of you.”
“But still alive.”
“You hurt him.” There was a wealth of anger in that sentence. Brian heard the rage there and, even as he worried what would happen, he couldn’t help how his heart swelled to see the love that AJ held for him. He stayed silent as the two continued to square off. “You hurt him, Alarico, and for that I will never forgive you. I should make you pay for every drop of blood he’s shed.”
“It seems we are at an impasse then, Xander. Neither of us is willing to let the other walk out of here alive.” Alarico said this regretfully, as if this was something that he didn’t want to do.
Chuckling, AJ gave him another smile. “Oh, you don’t understand. I’m not going to kill you, Alarico. No, I’ve got something else, something better. See, Jeff stopped by my house. Funny thing is, he didn’t know what you’d done with Brian. But after some careful questioning, I found out there was a lot he knew. Got me thinking. So, I went around and asked a few questions, called in a few favors. Oh, that reminds me.” AJ held a finger up as if suddenly remembering something. “You really should get the security in your home checked. Really, it wasn’t even a challenge to bypass it. The extra security on your office wasn’t much better.”
For the first time Alarico looked uncomfortable. “What were you doing in my home?” he demanded, his voice not as steady as it had been. That seemed to please AJ.
From the sidelines of all of this Brian found himself fascinated. It was like watching a melodrama play out right in front of him.
“Just checking out a few things, picking up a few papers. I found a file on your computer that was really interesting. Really, really interesting. Black, I believe the folder was labeled.” When Alarico hissed, AJ’s grin grew. “Ah, you know the one I’m talking about. Well, I copied it. A little leverage we might say. Safely hidden now, too, where only myself and another know. At a place that only I and my lover can access. In the event of my untimely death, there are orders where it’s being held for it to be released to the LAPD.”
“You bastard.” Alarico hissed, all signs of his false kindness fading away.
“Right on that one. But, I’m not done yet, mi amigo. See, I knew that would be enough to get us out of here, but I wasn’t quite sure it would be enough to convince you to leave us alone. Not only me, but those I love. I thought that maybe you’d get it into your head to come after my loved ones again. So I got a little more insurance. Rex?”
At the sound of his name, Rex dropped down as well, a gun in each hand. He moved one hand, keeping the other trained at Alarico, and did something with his phone. AJ looked at his friend and smiled. “We decided a little backup was needed. A little extra help to show you the error of your ways. To show you what waits for you if you mess with me and mine.”
The doors at the end of the room, a room that Brian realized was a warehouse, opened and a group of at least thirty walked in, two commanding looking men at their head. One looked very Hispanic. Cuban, Brian thought he might be. The other was white, middle aged, but built like a construction worker. Apparently Alarico recognized because his body went tense. “Sean. Julio.” He said in a hard voice.
The one that Brian assumed was Julio, the Hispanic man, grinned widely as the whole group arrayed themselves behind AJ and Brian. “Hello, Alarico. Nice day, isn’t it?” he said as he moved to stand on one side of AJ. The other man, Sean, moved to AJ’s other side. “I agree, Julio. Beautiful day.” He added in.
AJ chuckled a little. “As I’m sure you know, Julio here heads the Pythons now. A group which, according to him, I still remain a part of. Which makes me part of the family. By extension, Brian is as well. And Sean here, well, we all know how little you and him get along. But he’s become very close knit with the Pythons. We all had a nice little chat about you, amigo, and they’re very willing to back me on all this.”
Going hard again, AJ stepped away from them, taking another step toward Alarico. “What that really means is that if you lay a single hand on me or those I love ever again, if you even think about doing it, you’ll have a war on your hands so fast you won’t even know what hit you. I know the size of your little group of friends here. You stand no chance against my families.”
Furious, Alarico shot something at AJ in rapid Spanish that made AJ’s grin razor sharp. “Don’t you forget it, you little bastard.” AJ seethed at him. “You had no idea what you were messing with when you messed with me and mine. If you value your life at all, you’ll stay the hell away from us.”
“We’ll be keeping an eye on things around here.” Sean threw in, smirking. “Just to make sure no one ends up trying anything funny. I’ve got eyes and ears in more places than you’ll ever know.”
“Same here.” Julio crossed his arms over his chest, a scornful smile curving his lips. “And trust me, you don’t want to test our family when it comes to protecting our own. Xander’s ours, and so is Brian. You’ve gone against us before and lost. Try this again and we guarantee that you’ll lose again, permanently.”
Mockingly, AJ put one arm over his waist and bowed just a little. “Now, I think I’ll be taking my lover home.” He announced. He held a hand out to Brian, who was still watching everything in shock. This hadn’t been what he’d expected at all. He was both fascinated by it all and humbled by AJ’s love. But when he saw AJ reaching for him, there was no hesitation in stepping forward and taking his hand.
By now his nose had stopped bleeding so he didn’t have to pinch it off anymore but he could feel the blood that had dried on his face and chest and shirt. AJ looked at it, briefly touching Brian’s face with just his fingertips. Then he sighed. “Just a second, love, ok? There’s one last thing I have to do. If you don’t mind?”
Brian had a pretty good idea what it was and couldn’t stop himself from being pleased by the thought. “Go right ahead, Age.”
Grinning, AJ winked at him once before turning and letting his fist fly so fast that no one saw it until it connected with Alarico’s nose. As the man dropped down to the ground, clutching at his face, AJ smirked.
There was the sound of people shouting from the group by the wall. Some of them made as if to rush forward, but the group behind AJ pulled their guns all at once, turning and pointing them at the people by the wall. Alarico’s people froze, then slowly sank back down to the ground.
AJ wasn’t concerned with them anymore. He wrapped his arm around Brian’s waist and looked into his eyes. The rage was gone now, concern in its place. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, love.”
Now that everything was done with, Brian found that he was tired. More tired than he had thought he would be. He sagged against AJ a little and all his aches and pains suddenly seemed to come to life. AJ said nothing else, only held him closer and helped him out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took a little bit to walk down the road to where they’d stashed their vehicles. Thank God this part of town wasn’t busy. If anyone had seen the way that Brian looked it would have raised way too many questions. Just the sight of the bruising and blood on Brian had AJ trying to fight the urge to go back in there and take down the people who had dared hurt this angel.
Once AJ got Brian situated in the backseat of the car, AJ turned to the men who were still with him. The others had dispersed, but Julio and Sean were still there, as well as Rex. “I can’t thank you guys enough.” AJ told them seriously.
“Once a Python, always a Python.” Julio said with a wide grin. “So you took some time to grow up and live? Doesn’t make you less one of us. Just good to have you have around, hermano.”
Sean smiled as well. “Un amigo de los Pythons es un amigo mío.” He said in flawless Spanish. A friend of the Pythons is a friend of mine.
Amused, AJ shook his head to clear his thoughts out. He looked behind him at his lover who looked half asleep on the seat. “I better get him cleaned up. I’ll stop in like I promised before we go back to tour.” He told his friends.
Julio clasped his hand in a way that AJ hadn’t done in years. “Bring him with you. I’d like to get to know the guy who inspires such loyalty in you.”
“You can count on it.”
After shaking both Julio and Sean’s hands, AJ piled into the backseat and Rex took the driver’s seat. While Rex started them off down the road, AJ simple gathered Brian close to him and held him. They needed no words for the moment. Brian’s arms came around him, holding him tightly. They simply relished in being back with one another. It had been a day of hell, but they were together again and for right then, that was enough.