Alex thought himself to be cool in a crisis and unflappable even in the most bizarre situations. But Claire's murder had been a wake-up call. He had known the wagons were circling and he soon had to pay the price of saving his goddamn legacy, which was all he had left of his family. He just wasn't able to resign himself to the fact that the deal he'd made to save this once-failing company would cost him so much. Still a bargain had been made with the devil and the devil always got his due.
The kicker in all of this was that, somehow, since Cat had come storming back into his life, he didn't think he had breathed so deeply before or experienced the little joys of everyday life. Even though they were in this situation, all he could think about was doing little things that used to make him happy. He hadn't felt so alive, in so long that he had forgotten what it was like to actually be present in the moment.
