Cole blinked a few times at the dim light falling across the ceiling in streaks where it spilled into the bedroom around the curtains. It was late enough in the morning for the sun to already be up. Which meant he'd slept through Gideon kissing his forehead goodbye before leaving for work.

He was not supposed to have to work today. As soon as his contacts at the precinct tipped him off about the date of Logan's arrest, he'd arranged to take the day after from the Accounting Firm.

Who knows what he expected to need it for? Maybe consoling his distraught husband after he'd had to face his dark past or coaxing him because he was angry that Gideon tried to leave him behind. Cole still found the things that went on in Gideon's head amazing and mind-boggling.

There was also the matter of Logan's arrest falling on the night before they had to have dinner with Gideon's family. Cole had seen much of the family in passing, but this would be the first time everyone came together since Gideon killed his brother. This dinner was going to be at his mother's home. No need for them to eat together in public to humiliate and pressure Gideon like his brothers had done at the last family dinner Cole had attended. No, it was going to be dinner at mom's house. This might honestly be even more terrifying.

In hindsight, knowing they had to go to his mom's house probably contributed to Gideon's inability to rein in his anxiety over showing Cole his skill in removing a person from their life as they currently knew it.

Either way, Gideon had arranged for the day off so he could work himself into a tizzy about dinner in private. Unfortunately, some kind of big thing was going down at the firm. A critical meeting, which required his presence, was happening today and today alone.

That was about all Cole knew. He did not ask about it. He was even less interested in hearing about Gideon's day job than he was in hearing about his moonlighting. It was a bunch of rich motherfuckers playing around with money like kings in the treasury rearranging stacks of gold coins for fun. And Gideon wasn't the type to come home and complain about numbers to Cole.

He'd complained about this meeting, though. Instead of spending his day working off nervous energy by pounding Cole into the mattress or swimming laps in the pool, he had to sweat under a suit while talking shop in a conference room somewhere. He must be so miserable right about now.

Sometimes, Cole wished he could chain Gideon to the bed and keep him here, so he didn't have to straighten his shoulders and deal with other people's nonsense all the time. But he wasn't going to go out and work at the accounting firm or oversee the shipments from cartels. And someone had to bring in the copious amounts of wealth that supported this mansion and their lifestyle.

Cole could survive on rice and beans, but Gideon would die without his private chef and ability to indiscriminately eat out.

Besides, he liked that Gideon was the one taking care of him, even though he wished it wasn't so exhausting. He could comfort himself with the knowledge that Gideon had been exhausting himself long before Cole entered the picture. And back then, he didn't have a little husband to come home to.

He flexed his fingers and toes, gradually climbing out of the heavy fog of sleep. Then he dragged himself out of bed. He threw one of Gideon's soft tees and a pair of his sweatpants on, then stared down at himself for a while, still a bit dazed from just waking up. More precisely, he stared at his own crotch, envisioning how these sweatpants looked on Gideon. They looked very good. Just the thought was making Cole rise to the occasion a bit.

Unfortunately, there was no occasion. Gideon wasn't here this morning to wake him up with a warm, coaxing hand on his cock. Instead, he was begrudgingly attending a meeting. Just imagining his misery made Cole lose interest in touching himself. Not that he'd had much interest in the first place. Gideon had brainwashed his cock into believing it belonged to him, and Cole's own hand left it feeling dissatisfied.

Since Gideon had done the brainwashing, Cole made sure to involve him in the consequences as often as possible. He ran back over to the bed to grab his phone from the bedside table. Then he flopped on the mattress and palmed himself through the sweats a few times. Once he had a sizeable bulge, he snapped a picture and sent it to his husband.

His husband, who should have been busy at work by then, responded within two seconds.

[Do not touch yourself.]

Cole snorted.

[Be ready by ten. A car is coming to pick you up.]

Cole checked the time and saw he still had a couple of hours. He answered back a snarky [yes, daddy] and then fiddled around on his phone for a while until he wasn't tenting the sweats. When he wandered downstairs to the kitchen, Andre was in the middle of sealing some chicken thighs into a plastic bag filled with marinade.

A huge bouquet of at least two dozen roses on the counter gave him pause in the doorway. The flowers on the tables throughout the mansion usually came from the gardens outside, picked and arranged by Jessica. But the roses out front were pale pink, white, and yellow, not vibrant, sanguine red. These were stereotypical red roses, brought in from outside.

There was no note attached, but there did not really need to be.

Gideon gave him roses like this all the time now. Usually, there was a note attached with something like Wear the blue lingerie tonight if the roses were blue or Don't touch yourself today if he wanted to come home and edge him all night or Don't you dare touch yourself today if he wanted to come home and punish him. Cole never could back down from a dare, after all.

It was mortifying to imagine the florist printing out these little notes and attaching them before delivering the bouquet.

But today, there was no note, because Gideon had expected to be at home with him this morning. The roses were probably a part of his overthinking and over-planning, a way to coax Cole if he'd been upset the previous night.

The fridge door opened, rousing Cole from staring blankly at the flowers. Andre put the marinating chicken into one of the fridge drawers and then turned around with his hands on his hips to raise a brow at Cole.

"Good morning," Cole's voice cracked as he shuffled over to the breakfast nook and threw himself down on one of the benches.

"Good morning, kid," Andre said cheerfully, his accent rolling the words off his tongue in a pleasing way. "I've got fresh strawberries today. Up for some crepes?"

"Andre," Cole propped his cheek in his hand and smiled, "If I divorce Gideon, would you marry me? Your food is the best thing about this place anyway."

"Sorry, kid, I don't think my wife would allow it," Andre smiled back. "I'll take that as a yes?"

"Yes, crepes sound fantastic."

His phone buzzed, and he glanced down, expecting another text from Gideon. Instead, it was from Elijah.

[Club's shut down. It's been crawling with cops since last night.]

Cole jammed the call button and waited for Elijah to pick up.

One of the things that turned Logan's take-down into a months-long planning process was that Cole insisted on the club remaining open.

Logan was a worm who liked to sleep with and hand out underaged boys, but that was just him. The club itself was a well-established business before it fell into his hands, and a lot of people relied on it for work, from dancing to bouncing to providing extra services. Cole didn't want to see those with no other options turn to working on the street instead.

Elijah had always overseen the actual operations of the extra services anyway. Aside from insisting on employing kids, liaising with certain high caliber clients, such as Gideon Barta, and being a pain in the ass, Logan hadn't contributed much to the day to day. Elijah would patiently put up with his nonsense to his face and then turn around and run the place how he wanted behind his back.

Logan collected the money, but Elijah was the one that dancers could go to if they got stiffed, and he was the one who set up the escorts to take them off-property if a client requested it.

They were careful and never drew the attention of cops. But then Gideon and Cole decided to have Logan arrested, and the investigation was sure to turn up his pimping.

So, they had to scrub all evidence of the extra services from the club before the warrants came down. Without tipping Logan off. Just having him arrested was as easy as swatting a fly, but protecting everyone that could potentially be harmed by his fall was a little more difficult. Thankfully, Logan was careful. All the underage kids working for him were listed as barbacks on file. Any records of illicit dealings were on paper alone.

For months, Elijah and Alexis located every shred of evidence, his evil book of debts that he held over people's heads, the accounts which showed income from both regular and extra services, contacts, and anything else. Then yesterday, after he left the club, they smuggled everything out, leaving behind only pristine, above-board records for the cops to find when they shut everything down a few hours later.

"How does it feel to be a business owner?" Cole asked as soon as Elijah picked up.

"Well, Logan is still alive, and even then, the club is currently in the hands of the cops, so…" Elijah sounded out of breath, his words harsh and choppy. In the background, Cole could hear weights clinking.

"Gideon won't let things drag out," Cole assured him.

"Yeah, he's certainly…efficient." The tone of Elijah's words made it clear he had more he wanted to say about that, but he was benefiting from the immense power Gideon wielded to rearrange people's lives, so he withheld his thoughts. Instead, he complained, "I've been getting nonstop calls this morning."

"Hopefully, the cops get their noses out in a couple of days, and you can have it up and running soon," Cole sighed. "Have you talked to the kids?"

"Yes. The three who were working last night got the rundown when I made them switch to working in the back, and I called the other two this morning. I explained that they won't be able to turn tricks or dance anymore, but I think they all want to stay on when it opens back up."

Besides taking the paper trail out of the club last night, Elijah and Alexis also had made sure that when the cops raided the place, nobody was giving out extra services and that all the underage employees were doing age-appropriate work—stocking the bar or cleaning the bathrooms. Now that Elijah was going to be running the operation, that was all they would be allowed to do until they were legal.

He and Elijah talked a bit more about business. The crepes appeared before Cole, along with a latte, complete with a little foam leaf on the top. Andre had been experimenting with latte art lately, using Cole as his guinea pig. The crepes were thin and buttery, filled with fresh, from-scratch whipped cream. The strawberries were that perfect kind with a strong, sweet taste. Cole got distracted by his food and Elijah had another call coming in, so they said their goodbyes for now.