Page 25 of Fated Surrender

“What about you? You think I don’t know what happened in Raleigh? You never said a word either, so don’t give me shit,” Connor said, bumping chests with Aleks.

“That was different. That was one case. How many have you had, that have pushed you to the brink of hell and spat you back out?” Aleks demanded.

“I couldn’t say anything, Aleks. You of all people know that. I couldn’t bring this to our home, our doorstep. That’s not even taking into consideration most of these cases are classified,” Connor said, stepping back.

Aleks took a deep breath and pulled Connor into a hug.

“This is your one get-out-of-jail-free card. You try to pull this Lone Ranger shit again and so help me,” Aleks threatened.

Someone blew their nose loudly and Connor turned to see Rian wiping his eyes on a wad of napkins.

“Ri, it’s okay, buddy,” he said.

Rian twisted the napkins in his hands as Damian rubbed his shoulder. “It’s not okay. If you couldn’t go to your family, you could have come to me. I could have baked you a cake or given you a blow job or something.”

Connor buried his face in his hands.

“I have that covered now, thanks, Rian,” Madison said, smiling up at Connor.

He stopped and looked down at his mate. For the first time since they had met, she was looking at him with none of her normal defenses in place. He could see love and pride in her eyes.

“But, he was all alone.” Rian sniffled, breaking the moment as he dabbed his eyes.

“With all those awful images,” Rebecca said, her eyes spilling over.

“Carrying that heavy burden.” Ashby hiccuped as he cried.

“All those years,” Sebastian whispered, burying his face in Liam’s chest.

Connor looked around and was at a loss as to who he was going to calm down first. Rian had set off that damn Inner Court, emotional, pregnant wavelength. As if on cue, Kate and Nicholas came into the diner together, Caleb and Bran right behind them.

“Why are we crying? I was making a decaf vanilla frappe for Kate when the next thing I know we’re both crying,” Nic demanded. He and Kate sat next to Rebecca and Ashby, asking what happened.

“Shoot me now,” Connor groaned.

“Everyone just found out how amazing my man is. Tonight I’m going to do my best to start alleviating some of that stress he has accumulated over the years.” Madison winked and looked down at his jacket pocket. He patted his jacket and felt a distinct lump there. He looked down at the hem of her dress.

“You get him, gurrrlll!” Rian cheered, wiping his eyes.

“Sex him up!” Felix cheered.

Madison looked over to Felix and winked.

“Of course. Gingers are sex gods.”

Felix’s mouth dropped and his head whipped around to Claybourne’s.

“See! See! I told you.” Felix pumped both of his arms in the air.

Connor took advantage of the distraction and sauntered over to where Madison sat. He dropped his voice an octave.

“Ma’am, you’re under suspicion of contemplating public indecency. I’m going to have to strip search you.” He put his hands on his hips, displaying his Sentinel badge and gun. He heard his mate’s breath catch.

“Lord have mercy. That just went into the spank bank.” Rian sighed.

Connor looked over to Rian and, with a straight face, eyed the man up and down.

“Now don’t you cause any trouble, I know men who would love to do a full cavity search on a pretty boy like you.” Connor gave him his best cop face.

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