The thing about it being Christmas was that Cole did not want to have a fight. He wanted everything to be picture-perfect, not a single LED bulb out in the string lights wound around the penthouse. The sheer amount of presents under the tree is mind-boggling, truly, but he’s just excited to have any at all after years of not even bothering with a tree—not since his mom. He did not want to ruin it by fighting with Gideon.

The thing was, this was not an isolated incident. They had fought about it before, and the fact that Gideon did not course correct after those fights had resentment sitting heavily in Cole’s gut and itching beneath his skin.

Somehow, Gideon thought that Cole, knowing he was a criminal who beat people and sometimes shot them to death, was all the openness required in the relationship. Like if he threw the worst thing he’s ever done at Cole and got emotional about it, Cole would then understand when he kept other stuff from him. But that was all shit Cole knew about him before. The big confessions just confirmed what he’d heard on the streets, and now that he knew all the scary stories were true, that was not what he really cared to hear about.

After shooting James in front of Cole, Gideon clammed right the fuck back up. Cole was sure his own attitude while processing that night didn’t help because he had not known how he felt about seeing someone’s brain falling out of their skull. He still did not. Talking about the violence and horribleness of Gideon’s life was one thing, but seeing it was another. At any rate, Gideon donned the kiddie gloves with him sometimes now and did shit like put tails on Cole twenty-four-seven without telling him so that Cole had to find out by flipping his lid and trying to attack the poor guy who was just doing his job.

And he took him away on Christmas, saying it was to get away from The Family, only to run into a different family here by a fantastic coincidence, only for Cole to find out the whole thing was planned, and Gideon was here solely to ask them to watch Cole if shit hit the fan. Not telling Cole any of this gave the whole scenario the same feeling as someone introducing their dog to someone to make sure it gets along with their pets before leaving it there and going off on vacation.

Or, maybe Gideon just didn’t want to ruin his Christmas. In which case, the asshole could have dragged them to the beach for all this nonsense in the summer, for goodness sake. This led to the conclusion that something was going on in the business, making him nervous enough to set up safe houses outside of his usual network.

He chewed on his fingernail and watched Gideon’s back as he stood at the sink, washing the hot chocolate mugs from Abel and Theo. Cole was a little pissed that he liked them so much. Abel he didn’t get a great read on, but Theo seemed lovely if not a little off in a way that made Cole wonder if he used to be into hard drugs or something. Supposedly, they were not affiliated with the family business, but there was some connection. It's just another thing being kept from Cole.

“Do you still want to watch a Christmas movie?” Gideon asked over his shoulder, steam rising from the sink in front of him.

“So, is it a big relief that I got along with Abel and Theo?” Cole blurted out.

His tone had Gideon shutting the water off and grabbing a towel to dry his hands. He turned and eyed Cole cautiously. “What?”

“Would you even tell me that I was in danger when you shipped me off to them?” Cole asked. “Or would you just tell me that I was going on a fun vacation to the beach to hang out with Abel and Theo. Yay!”

He trailed off with a flash of jazz hands, then let them drop to his hips and pinned Gideon with an expectant stare. Gideon sighed and put a hand over his eyes.

“You know,” Cole continued. “I’m amazed you manage to run a criminal organization at all.”

Because Gideon had already heard this the other times they have had this argument, he drops his hand and immediately barks, “Because my men don’t fly off the handle whenever I don’t share every single little detail with them!”

Cole pressed his lips together. It was a bad argument anyway, to compare their relationship to the business because they were fundamentally different and Cole would not have it any other way. But it was an old argument and he was falling back into the routine of it, rehashing it. He crossed his arms.

“Need to know might work for them, but not for me,” he said. “If shit’s going to impact my life…if I’m going to have to leave the city and get stuck in some safe house away from my friends and my studio and everything else in my life, then I need to know about it. You have got to keep me in the loop.”

Gideon looked off to the side, jaw clenched. There was an obvious family resemblance between him and Abel, but the whole tight-eyed, jaw-clenched silent anger that they both did was strikingly similar. The fact that Abel had that look about him had immediately set Cole on edge, but he only looked at Gideon that way. His entire being softened when he looked at Theo, as much as someone with neck tattoos and an overpowering stature could be soft. He was, shockingly enough, both taller and broader than Gideon, but perhaps most intimidating of all was the fact that he wasn’t intimidated by Gideon.

And Theo looked at him like he hung the literal moon.

“Is there something going on that I need to know about?” Cole pushed. “Like I’m mad you are still trying to manage my life without telling me, but is there some reason why you are trying to set up safe houses? Do I need to be worried?”

Gideon would not look at him. His biggest fear, the one deep, deep down inside of him, Cole had determined, was that Cole would decide this was too batshit insane and dangerous, then up and leave him. This is why he freaked and waited on him hand and foot after killing James, bringing him flowers, flying him to Italy so he could visit the Louvre,  practically licking the floor upon which he walked. And it was why getting him to talk about anything scary in his life, especially the stuff that potentially impacted Cole, was like pulling teeth.

“I wish I could trust my family, but I can’t,” Gideon admitted through gritted teeth. “They know about my other safe houses and contacts. They know about Elijah. I just wanted something outside of all that where I’d know you would be safe.”

“But not for some specific reason,” Cole asked. “There isn’t an imminent threat?”