Order (Tattoos and Ties Duet #2)(62)

He’d barely made it on time then had to rush through the bowels of the rented convention center to stand with his family, waiting for their cue to take center stage with their father. The stress of the drive was nothing compared to the tense, awkward silence greeting him now. Not one single member of his family or extended family spoke to him. The pack stood huddled together about ten steps away, and there might as well have been a concrete barrier separating them. Alec stood to the side, phone in hand, staring at the screen while his entire family pretended he didn’t exist. He didn’t even rank high enough to get an occasional disapproving glance. They paid him no attention at all.

Alec checked the time on his wristwatch. How was it already ten forty-five at night? He couldn’t help the glance toward his joyfully exuberant siblings, or the anger building inside him—maybe more a self-loathing than anything else. Why did he always drop everything to do their bidding when they called?

To avoid an unwanted scene, one fueled by all these hurt feelings he was experiencing, Alec opted to have Key there with him for support. He could get through anything with his biker only a screen away.

With phone in hand and a freaked out Key on live feed, he used his Bluetooth in his ear to talk. On poor Key’s behalf, his guy had no idea what was going on. Alec wouldn’t give his family the satisfaction of explaining for fear they might overhear his feelings had been hurt. Key looked skittish as hell, clearly afraid he might be seen, but Alec protected him from view, stepping as far away from everyone as he could and spoke of nothing important—the traffic getting to the venue, the suit he’d chosen to wear which also happened to be the one he wore to work that morning, and his plans to stay the night in the Hilton right across the street from the convention center. What he should be doing right now was booking a room. With his family’s attitude, he had no doubt they hadn’t thought to include him in their reservations. Hell, they hadn’t even offered a lame apology for failing to inform him sooner of his mandatory participation in tonight’s event.

“Okay, let’s go,” his father’s event coordinator ordered, drawing back a side curtain.

“Are you ready?” he asked happily, staring into the phone. His badass biker looked paler than he had on his birthday, like he was truly going to pass out this time, and Key immediately started shaking his head.

“No, I’m not fuckin’ ready, Alec. I’m hangin’ up.”

“I promise to make it worth your while when I get home,” he said in his sexiest voice, not caring that he’d stepped within hearing distance of his oldest brother. He refused to be dissuaded by the hateful stares that instantly came his way. He didn’t need any of them in order to have a family of his own. He adored the man staring back at him from the lighted screen. Key gave him the strength and courage to stand tall and let the rest go. His lover had such a genuinely alluring way of being the perfect partner who offered him everything he’d ever wanted in a relationship. His beautiful man, who happened to be wearing a ball cap backward on his head—a look Alec loved—had, in fact, not hung up the phone as he’d threatened to do at least twenty times in the last several minutes. Instead, he moved his body out from in front of the camera. Alec stared at the messy bed in Key’s apartment, wishing he were in it. The television playing in the background relayed the election results and the night’s win by their beloved representative Pierce. That was another point in Key’s favor—he’d tracked the results all night long, keeping Alec up to date as he’d driven to Austin.

“Don’t do this, Alec,” Key growled.

“I love you too, honey.” Key’s startled eyes and stress-etched forehead came back into view, looking at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“What the hell kind of response is that?”

“Mmm.” Alec stood at the back of the line with his heart pounding but feeling stronger than ever when his family was introduced. Cheers erupted as they walked out on stage. “Here we go!”

Key disappeared again, and in his ear, he could hear the delay on the event from Key’s television. This hadn’t been the landslide win his father had expected. The challenger had done a good job of building a destructive campaign against his father’s lack of action, but in the end, his father had prevailed, and the ten or so thousand people in attendance tonight seemed excited.

Alec smiled, waved, and took his place in line, congratulating his father who smiled brightly at him, shaking his hand in a happy, hearty pump. He bet that killed his old man.

“That’s your fake smile.” Key yelled the words in order to be heard over the continued cheering. Alec dropped his phone inside his suit coat pocket, taking so much comfort in Key being there with him.

“You bet,” he said, pretty certain he couldn’t be heard.

“The screen’s gone black. Can you still hear me?” Key yelled again. “Nod if you can.”

Alec nodded, and maybe ten seconds later, when the crowd quieted to let his father continue speaking again, he heard Key’s encouragement in his ear. “You got this. Keep that smile on your face. You look hot as shit.”

A genuine smile tugged at the corners of his mouth at Key’s appraisal. The brother who had so intently ignored him backstage, knocked him in the arm, pretending some sort of comradery as Key said, “You’re the best lookin’ one of the bunch. I bet they fuckin’ hate that.”