CHAPTER EIGHT
Alex knew he shouldn't be here, he knew he was probably the last person Ian wanted to see, but what other options did he have, really?
Well, you could have canceled those plans and never come here, a pain-in-the-ass voice at the back of his head offered.
And maybe he would have, if not for the fact that those commitments had been made months ago and one of them was an invitation to the White House.
Alex would never say no to such a thing from the current administration.
Besides, he'd never expected things to be so bad. He had a safe place to stay here, he'd brought his mom to help… He should have been fine.
One day in, and he was most definitely not fine.
Which was why he was here—because there was ultimately only one person he trusted to keep his family safe.
Pacing back and forth through the small room he'd been escorted to, he could only hope he hadn't made himself big enough nuisance in the foyer that someone would leak the story of an Alex Reed sighting, involving him looking unhinged, not to mention unkempt.
He tugged at the bottom of his sweatshirt. It was clean, at least, which couldn't be said about the shirt he'd been wearing earlier.
When the door opened, he turned so fast he almost stumbled, and he grabbed the top of the nearby chair to regain his balance.
And to keep himself upright when the disappointment hit hard in his stomach.
Ian hadn't come. He hadn't—
"Thank you for waiting," the man from earlier, Vic Something-or-other, offered with a gesture towards the door. "I'll escort you up to our VIP area."
"I don't—" Alex pressed his lips together and stared at his fingers, the knuckles whitening. "If Ian isn't here—"
"He'll be there shortly, but we all thought it would be better to move you to a more discreet location first."
Oh. Okay then.
Blinking back the unexpected—and unwanted, thank you very much—tears, Alex followed Vic out of the room and to the elevator on the other side of the floor, away from the entrance foyer.
He really needed to get a grip.
The short trip up wasn't enough time to do so, though, judging from the way his heart constricted the moment the elevator door opened and he saw Ian waiting there with a blank expression that quickly turned into a frown.
Fuck, Alex had missed him so much.
"What's wrong?" Ian took a half step forward, then paused.
Alex stepped out of the elevator without taking his gaze off of him. Ian looked the same as always—commanding and tall, with broad shoulders, brown eyes, short hair so dark it seemed almost black until the light didn't hit it just right, and a jawline that would make fashion photographers weep.
"I'll leave you to it," Vic said quietly behind him, and Alex managed to find his voice to offer his thanks, only to lose it again once he was alone with the man he couldn't have—and couldn't forget.
"Alex?" Ian offered in a softer voice. "Come in and let's sit, okay? You can tell me why you're here."
The VIP lounge area had a high end hotel feel, one Alex had not missed these days, but as he sat down on the couch and took a glass of water from Ian, the surroundings still offered a strange comfort in their familiarity.
"Okay, I'm here and I'm listening."
Ian took a seat that was close but not too close, making Alex ache at the distance.
That's your fault, he reminded himself.
As if he could forget.
"I don't… I don't know if there's any danger, really," he finally started.
"Nothing too suspicious in the fan mail, no threats, nothing like that.
I'm in town for the next two weeks, though, and I don't know if it's paranoia after being away for so long, but I feel like everybody's watching me.
Nothing's actually happened, nobody's even approached me, and yet…
" He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know.
I thought we're going to be fine, safely tucked away, but Boo can't stay inside for two whole weeks, and I can't take him anywhere, I know that, my mom's there for that, among other things, but now I no longer feel like that's safe, either, and—"
"Hey, hey, take a deep breath, okay?" Ian gripped his wrist, snapping Alex back into the present. "Come on, in and out."
Alex did as he was told, then took a gulp of water.
"Sorry."
"You don't have to apologize for being stressed out," Ian told him as he let him go, making Alex miss his touch immediately.
"Although I do need some more information," Ian continued, voice still gentle but more business-like than before, and Alex took another sip of water to redirect his thoughts.
"If I understand you correctly, you intend to stay here for two weeks, and although nothing has made its way onto the internet yet and there's been no incident so far, you think there's someone already watching you.
And you're not alone, although you sound like you're trying to hide that part—with the help of your mother? "
Alex let out a humorless laugh. He sounded like he was losing his mind, but even worse than that, he sounded like—
"I'm not hiding a lover," he assured Ian quickly, although he swallowed down the rest of it: I wouldn't have come here if I was. I'm not so cruel.
Ian nodded. "Okay."
Alex sighed. There was no easy way to say this.
"I'm hiding a baby."
Ian's face went through several expressions in a span of maybe two seconds, and Alex couldn't tell what any of it meant before he was looking at Ian's blank, professional expression once again.
"You're hiding a baby."
"Yes."
"Is it—Is it yours?"
Alex almost choked on air. "Yes! Yes, of course he's mine, I haven't kidnapped someone else's child!"
"Okay."
"I'm not hiding from the law!"
"Alex. I hear you."
Clamping his mouth shut, he pressed his lips together hard and exhaled slowly through his nose before meeting Ian's gaze again.
"I'm sorry."
"I assume you're keeping him secret?"
"I'm trying. I know it's not going to last forever, but for now, yeah.
The fewer people know, the better." Alex sat back, burrowing into the couch that honestly shouldn't be so comfortable in a high-end office like this.
"I've been keeping a low profile, not doing any public events, no press, no nothing.
I would've kept doing that, but there's an award ceremony I've been asked to speak at, because Victor Shio, my old mentor, is getting a lifetime achievement award.
I've been also invited to an event at the White House.
I didn't want to say no to any of that." He glanced out towards the window again.
"I couldn't imagine leaving Boo for so long, though, which meant bringing him here.
My mom tagged along, because she's a saint, and here we are. "
"Are you in the usual hotel?"
"No, I have a friend who has a place here that she barely ever uses.
Two floor apartment in a townhouse that looks like a hundred other townhouses around.
Quiet area, I haven't seen any of the neighbors yet, but apparently the building is only half-occupied anyway.
Most owners simply keep the apartments for a rare occasion, like my friend does. "
If he wasn't so used to paying attention to the smallest changes on Ian's face, he would've missed the fleeting grimace at that.
"Yeah, I know." Alex shrugged. "It is what it is, and since I'm taking advantage of it now, I can't be throwing stones."
Ian shook his head. "I wasn't going to say anything."
"You didn't have to." Alex offered him a small smile. "I know how you feel about rich people investing in real estate, especially when no one is living in it."
Back in the simpler times, soon after his first solo album had soared to the top of the charts and he was getting offers left and right for honestly ridiculous amounts of money, Alex had been wondering what to do with the influx of cash.
He'd consulted several people, including one of the hottest men he'd ever seen, who had been hired as his personal detail for a week in DC and who was so distracting that Alex went around spilling anything and everything that came to his mind in order not to confess the attraction itself.
Now, Ian seemed genuinely surprised for a second there, and Alex wondered why. Was Ian surprised Alex remembered that? Or was he surprised that Alex would admit to remembering a throwaway conversation from years back?
Come to think of it, maybe Alex should have kept his mouth shut.
"Anyway, the building doesn't have any security, but it's private and there's not many people wandering around. I thought it would be enough, especially since I didn't—" He looked down at his lap. "I didn't want to bother you."
Silence hung heavy for a long moment before Ian spoke up.
"You didn't have to stick with me, KRK would have arranged a different team for you or you could've—"
"No, I didn't want that! I didn't want anyone else but you."
In more ways than one.