Gideon stared out over the violent surf crashing against the sandy beach. From this high up at the top of the hotel, they seemed silent and small, but he knew that down there, the waves, salt spray, and seagulls swirling around made for a cacophony. A storm was moving in, the sky gray, and the ocean cold. By Christmas, there might be snow piled on the sand.

“I thought you said this guy wasn’t like your siblings,” Cole murmured into his ear, one arm coming around his waist to hold him while he offered a glass of whiskey. “Why are you so tense?”

Ice clinked against the sides of the glass. After staring out over the chilly beach, he almost wanted to discard it in favor of something warm to drink, but they were inside, where everything was warm and glowing from the Christmas lights strung all over the place. Cole made it for him, so he took a sip.

“I’m just having a hard time unwinding from all the shit going on back home,” he said. As far as Cole knew, this trip was solely to get away from his family for Christmas. Well, and to check up on his people here at the beach who supplied the busy season when summer came around.

Cole hummed like he could tell there was something else bugging Gideon, which he probably could, the perceptive little shit, but he dropped the subject. Instead, he leaned into his side more heavily and peered out the window.

“Is it really going to snow?” he asked. “Somehow, I thought it was impossible for it to snow at the beach.”

“Why would it be impossible?”

“Just…” Cole waved a hand about, “Snow and the beach don’t mix in my mind. I don’t know.”

“When it snows, we can go to the beach and see it.”

Cole shivered a little, thinking about that, then pressed closer and murmured, “Okay.”

Then the penthouse was filled with the little chime that let them know someone rode the elevator all the way up here, and a second later, someone knocked at the door.

“Can you get that, and I’ll call to let them know we are ready for the food?” Cole asked.

“Okay,” Gideon immediately missed Cole’s warmth when he pulled away. He sipped the whiskey and tried not to think about how terrified Abel and Theo had looked when he showed up at their doorstep, interrupting their breakfast. Like he was Godzilla about to tear through their lives and smash it to smithereens.

He got it. He hated to be there, too, in their little beach house that was so goddamn far removed from the life he leads. But it was precisely what he needed.

He opened the door and smiled. “You made it.”

Abel may not have been affiliated with the family business, but he could easily fit in. He had the look of a Barta, the same physical features, just a little softer, and the same calculating, measured eyes. He read as a predator, like the cobra tattoo rearing its fangs beneath his chin.

And Theo was no less threatening. He was small and beautiful and looked right into your soul when he made eye contact. Gideon remembered him being particularly unnerving when he was lucid between the moments of vague delusions that mostly dominated his life since Ken kept him drugged and stupid. Now, he looked more like a person than a shell, his pretty eyes curving with a friendly smile, but Gideon knew what happened to Ken. What he was capable of when shoved to the brink.

He had a predator tattooed on him, too. A tiger stalked his side, all teeth and claws—Ken's idea, no doubt, but it was still befitting. These two were not to be fucked with, not that Gideon would want to anyway. Theo’s friendly smile held something back. Abel was not smiling at all. They eyed him cautiously.

“Come on in,” he stepped to the side and gestured into the penthouse.

They stepped in and looked around at the towering Christmas tree and mountain of presents beneath, the sheer number of windows looking out over the beach, and the general luxury of it all. Neither seemed particularly impressed. They had been there and done that and preferred their little beach house. Their scan was to orient themselves.

Cole stepped into their line of vision, lowering the phone and waving.

“This is Cole,” Gideon gestured to him. “Cole, this is Theo and Abel.”

“Nice to meet you!” Cole looked between Abel and Gideon with his big doe eyes, clocking every similarity between them. Then he looked at Theo, and his face softened. It was hard not to be disarmed by Theo’s good looks. Or maybe Cole could sense something of a kindred spirit in him.

“We brought some crab dip,” Theo held out the bag he had been clutching in his hands.

“Ooh,” Cole reached for it immediately. “Thank you!”

“It’s the best damn crab dip you’ll ever taste,” Abel announced proudly. Theo ducked his head and smiled, turning a little red. Gideon got a strange feeling in his chest, borne mostly out of relief that Ken didn’t manage to drive this kid completely insane. There had always been something kind of innocent about him, and it was nice to see that he could still be proud and embarrassed about getting a compliment from his boyfriend. Gideon took another sip of his whiskey.

“Well, shit,” Cole laughed, “I’ve got to try it then. Come on in. Take your shoes off. Gideon, get their coats.”

Just like that, the strange tension bled out of the air. They all settled around the table and ate what really was some of the best damn crab dip Gideon ever had. The room service arrived with salad, steak, and various side dishes. It was served with a nice red wine that Theo took one sip of and did not touch again.

Gideon carefully watched Cole as they ate. His reasons for inviting Theo and Abel over for dinner instead of just setting up a meeting with them primarily involved ensuring that Cole got along with them. Abel was silent the entire dinner, focused on eating one bite after the other and taking measured sips from his wine glass to make it last the whole course of the meal. Theo and Cole were the ones who filled the space between them with conversation.

“Did it snow on the beach last winter?” Cole asked at one point, still fixated on the strangeness of that phenomenon.

“I mean, a little bit, yeah. But it never really snows very heavily anymore,” Theo told him. “Back when I was a kid, I remember this snowstorm that dumped a bunch of feet of snow. It was so tall, and I was so little that I could hardly see over it!”

 “Have you always lived here?”

“My family came here every summer when I was a kid,” Theo answered, which did not directly answer the question and left a lot of time unaccounted for, but Cole was good at reading the room and didn’t press.

One thing that Gideon noticed was that Theo glanced at Abel constantly. It made sense in the context that they were dating, he supposed, but Theo’s eyes darted to him almost obsessively, as if looking to make sure he was still there or as if he was constantly searching for validation. Abel sat there like a rock, occasionally meeting his eyes but mostly unphased by this behavior. This was just about the only tip-off that Theo wasn’t perhaps as well-adjusted as he seemed. And from the little Gideon already knew about him, that was impressive.

“Wait,” Theo gushed as Cole encouraged him up from the table after they had finished eating and ushered him toward the couches around the Christmas tree. “You are an artist?”

“I like to paint a little, but I’m more excited about the exhibit I’m putting together at my studio. It’s a display of a bunch of my old co-worker’s art.” Cole settled them down on the couch and threw a smile over his shoulder at Gideon. He fucking loved talking about his studio to anyone who would listen. Gideon smiled back, then braced himself and turned to Abel.

He was already looking expectantly at him.

“Would you like a drink?”

“One glass of wine is fine for me.” Abel shook his head. “I’m driving us home.”

Gideon stood to make himself a drink. Abel followed him to the wet bar and watched as he took his glass behind the counter to grab ice out of the ice machine, then pulled down one of the bottles of whiskey lined along the wall.

“Theo told me you two have met before,” Abel said. His bluntness was refreshing. Gideon got tired of people dancing around what they wanted to say to him because they were afraid he would go postal if he didn’t like it. Shoulders straight, chin lifted, and eyes hard, Abel met his gaze and laid it all out on the counter between them. Gideon had sex with his boyfriend in the past, in some pretty fucked up circumstances, and he did not like that. Gideon would not deny it. He never claimed to be a good guy.

“He seems a lot better now than when he was with Ken,” Gideon said by way of acknowledgment. “You’re good for him.”

“Sure, I don’t whore him out to men like you all the time,” Abel said.

Gideon sighed and set down the bottle of whiskey, “Look…”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” Abel held up his hand and looked off to the side, the muscle in his jaw ticking. “He’s worked hard on healing himself from all that bullshit and does not need you dragging it all up.”

“That is the last thing I want to do,” Gideon assured him. “Look, you know I lead a dangerous lifestyle.”

Abel snorted.

“And I never…” he paused to take a deep breath, then emphasized the word again, “never expected to marry someone. And now I’m going fucking…” he stopped himself and took a sip of the whiskey. “I have safehouses and I’ve got contacts back home that can help me keep Cole safe if something ever happens.”

The word ‘something’ felt like it expanded in the space between them and sucked all the oxygen out of the air. It was Gideon’s literal nightmare. And there were men he knew he could rely on. There was Elijah and Alexis. But he was paranoid. He needed a backup plan for the backup plan for the backup plan. Plan C.

“But I need a backup to all that,” Gideon looked Abel directly in the eyes. “Someone who understands the risks, has no real connection to us like everyone else back home does, and who I can trust.”

“You want us to take him in if shit hits the fan?” Abel pressed his lips together. He id not like that. Not one bit. And he shouldn’t. This was nightmare scenario stuff. Cole would be distraught. It would be dangerous. Abel would be wise to say no, grab Theo, and never look back. “You really trust us?”

“Yes.”

He knew Theo when he was with Ken. He knew what happened to Ken and others who tried to hurt him. He could see how much healthier Theo appeared now. Abel was a good guy. And they were just outside the life enough that people wouldn’t think to look at them if Cole disappeared.

Abel turned and braced his back against the counter, elbows up on it. He looked at where Cole was animatedly describing his studio exhibit, hands waving all over the place and mouth moving a million miles an hour. Theo was completely entranced, as most people were when Cole got going.

“Theo told me you were always nice to him,” he said.

Gideon knocked back the rest of his whiskey because…well, Jesus Christ. “That’s a fucked up thing for him to say. I’m sure I was no different than anyone else.”

Abel glared out of the corner of his eye over his shoulder. “Meant something to him, enough that he remembered you were nice to him.”

That might be the sole reason Abel agreed to come to this dinner. Because Theo assured him that Gideon had been nice about using his body. Gideon reached for the whiskey bottle again. He couldn’t believe he thought it would be no big deal to talk to these two and not feel like a piece of complete shit for showing up in their lives. This had been a terrible, horrible idea. But nothing was more important than Cole. The more safe houses Gideon had, the better he would sleep at night.

“How come you aren’t talking to him about this?” Abel asked. “After all, you guys know each other better than you know me.”

This was true. Able had been about ten years old the last time they saw each other. The question still stunned him, though. He never even considered asking Theo about this. Perhaps it was because the last time he met Theo, he had literally no agency. And had struck Gideon as clinically insane. Maybe it was because this morning, he got the impression from Abel that he was a guy who was very large and in charge.

“Is it ‘cause he’s the crazy twink, so I must be the well-adjusted one?” Abel’s voice was teasing, but there was something sharp underneath. He had a chip on his shoulder that was not unfounded. People probably talked down to Theo twenty-four-seven. Gideon knew he certainly didn’t assume he was the one who made the decisions in the relationship and certainly did not think of him as the one who would be capable enough to protect Cole. Crazy enough, maybe, but not in a responsible, planning kind of way.

“I can talk to him instead,” Gideon looked over at the two of them. From the snippets he could hear, it sounded like Theo was sharing a story about how he and Abel had gone to some kind of painting craft night.

Abel waved him off. “I’ll ask him about it. If he’s alright with it, no promises, but we can exchange contact information, and you know where we live.”

“Oh my god!” Cole exclaimed, shooting to his feet and pointing out the wall of windows. “It’s actually snowing!”