None of these characters are mine!

Alec could hear the music from outside the apartment and it made him grin. It was some upbeat Maroon V song he didn't know the name of. But it didn't matter; what mattered was the smile on his little brother's face when he opened the door.

Max and Izzy were dancing across the living room floor, hands clasped together and feet stomping. Simon was sitting by the radio, picking out which song to go next.

"Alec!" Max ran at Alec and jumped on him. It took years of practice for Alec to easily sweep Max up off the ground.

"Hey lil' bro!" Alec greeted. "Where's my other lil' bro?"

"Jace is working," Izzy said quickly.

Ahh. That meant he was out doing a deal. Probably nothing big, seeing as Alec was still waiting on his next load from the smugglers Jordan had sent from Mexico. Until that arrived, they were running off of small deals here and there. Jobs that should be run by a teenage dropout, not a drug cartel boss. But whatever.

"We can still go to Olive Garden, right?" Max asked. "When Jace gets home?" His blue eyes were wide and hopeful, with his glasses falling a little bit off his nose. Alec placed him back on his feet and grinned at his little brother.

"Of course."

If Max had asked him for a pony and the dead bodies of a hundred small children, Alec would've given them to him. He would go to the end of the earth for his little brother if it made him happy. Max deserved it, for being the only light in the dark tunnel that was Alec's life.

"Thanks, Alec!" Max wrapped his arms around Alec in a hug. His little bald head glinted under the kitchen light, reminding Alec why he'd chosen his life to become that long, dark tunnel. For Max. There was a reason and it was a good one.

"Honeys, I'm hooome!"

"Welcome home, Jace," Izzy snorted.

Jace pushed open the door and Max was at his side in an instant, wrapping him up in a big hug. Simon made his way over, giving Alec a solid nod and grinning at the affection Max was showing his big brother.

"Alec said we can go to Olive Garden!" Max was cheering.

"Are they opened?" Jace asked. Izzy nodded in confirmation and Jace fist-bumped Max. "Sweet! I love Olive Garden!"

"You just love their bread sticks," Izzy said. Jace gave her a no duh look.

"I'm gonna go get ready!" Max took off to his room, probably to get a shirt on.

"And guess what the breadwinner brought home?" Jace pulled out a thick wad of money and waggled it in Alec's face. "How'd your deal go?"

"Not well," Alec said, though he personally thought meeting Magnus was a positive thing. "It was a setup. Cops."

"Did they follow you here?"

"No." Alec had changed up his route plenty of times on his way home to lose the cops, even though he hadn't actually seen either Magnus or Ragnor following him.

"Good." Jace wandered into our living room and plucked a book off the bookshelf. While most of the books were real, we had a few with hollowed out insides to stash cash. He dropped the money from the deal inside the fake book and locked the little padlock on the side. The book locked up like a little girl's diary.

"So we've caught the cop's attention?" Izzy asked.

Alec nodded grimly.

"That doesn't make sense," Simon said. "We aren't a big cartel compared to some; we only supply to New York and Chicago. And we're careful with out deals. So what caught the authorities attention?"

"Bane, the cop, didn't say anything about the cartel," Alec said. "Though, he didn't say anything about anything, really. They've obviously seen me enough times to recognize me as a suspect. They might think I work solo."

"Let's not get optimistic," Simon said. "That never works out for us."

"I'm ready!" Max came out from his bedroom like a whirlwind. "I have my new Naruto shirt on, with my favorite baseball cap!"

He gestured to his hat with a toothy grin.

"Handsome," Izzy whistled, tapping his hat. "You look better than all of us combined."

Max shook his head in protest.

"She's right, you know," Simon chimed in.

"Guys," Max whined, making them all laugh. Alec loved watching his family. They meant the world to him and he'd be damned to let Magnus take him away from them, whether the cop was attractive or not.

"And then he took our guns!"

Caterina glanced up at Ragnor's outburst, then went back to looking at her phone. "Uh huh."

"And he called me cute," Magnus added. "What kind of criminal flirts with the cops?!"

"Uh huh."

"You have no idea how difficult it is to stay professional when there's a hot guy flirting with you! It's impossible, Cat! I just wanted to-" slam him up against the wall and press our lips together, "-punch him!"

"Mmm. Awful."

"And he told me to leave!" Ragnor yelped. "That was actually mean."

"Yup."

"He was so rude!" Magnus agreed.

"Okay, boys?" Cat looked up. "Don't you think that maybe you're making light of this just to cover up how scared you were?"

They were silent for a second.

"I just thought he was going to be a drug dealer, someone who would come without a fight," Ragnor said.

"He had me at gunpoint," Magnus added. He didn't mention the sick flash of arousal he'd gotten from Alec's rough hand on his neck and the kiss of the metal to his temple, knowing that Alec was in full control.

So he was a little kinky, so what?

"Well, he's either insane or a lot more dangerous than you think," Cat said. "I think we need to bring in Camille."

Magnus and Ragnor nodded.

But Camille was ruthless and Magnus didn't want Alec hurt. He hoped she went easy on his pretty blue-eyed criminal.