“We’ll deal with it together,” Elijah corrected. “You’re no longer alone. We’re all bound together. I get it, Alonzo. It was a difficult concept for me as well. I lived a life similar to yours. Not the same, but close. I didn’t trust at first. Not anyone. But Drake is . . . Drake. You can count on him. He’s exactly what he seems to be. Your leopard can hear lies. I don’t think Drake is capable of lying to one of us even if we weren’t leopard. Believe in him, all of us and what we do. That’s how you can live a double life. That’s how you can hold on to your woman through it.”

Alonzo had listened to them pitch their plan to get the criminal world under some semblance of control. There was always going to be that world. Nothing, no amount of policing would ever stop it, but they could be on the inside and stop the worst of it. If they knew all the players, there were ways to stop them, just not lawfully.

Working one’s way to the top to be acknowledged as a crime boss was a double-edged sword. A finite balance with a terrible price. All of them had been willing to pay that price in the hopes that in the end something good would come of it. He’d been willing, he’d been all in. He’d grown up seeing the worst that could be done to innocent people and he wanted to be part of what stopped it, but now there was Evangeline.

Elijah shook his head, leaning toward him. “Do you think, when I found Siena, that I didn’t want to take her and run? I want her safe in the way you want your woman safe. Siena is carrying triplets. I’m going to have three children in a few months to protect as well. Do you think I want them in this life for one moment? I know other people will whisper about them behind their backs. I grew up with my grandfather and father committing crimes in countries all over the world, destroying lives. I know what they’ll have to go through. Just as you know what’s in the future for Evangeline.”

“Joshua’s right about one thing. She deserves better.”

Elijah nodded. “She does. There’s no question about that. None of us thought we would ever find the right woman before we made our decisions, but we have them and all we can do is go forward. If we try to run, to disappear, we’ll never be safe. You know yourself you can’t stay on the run forever and have any kind of life.”