Family Ties

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Hannah's POV

"Han...let me just preface this by saying I didn't have much of a choice." Harry sighed as he rubbed his hands over his face, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and hanging his head. "It was the only way I could guarantee we all got out of this for good."

I closed my eyes tightly, trying to remain calm, but my nerves were shot at the fact that in the last 24 hours I'd been kidnapped, my kids were missing, and it sounded an awful lot like my husband had made some kind of deal with the devil.

"What did you do?" I asked, my stomach clenching as I awaited his answer.

He took a deep breath and sighed, leaning back into the couch as he dropped his head back to look at the ceiling, before he slowly turned his head to look at me.

"I made a deal."

The look in his eyes told me that he knew I wouldn't be happy about it, but there didn't seem to be any regret in them. It was classic Harry, doing something he knew I wouldn't like but hiding behind the fact that he thought it was the right thing. That familiar anger I felt at him making such a huge decision without me rose inside me, and I wasn't sure if I even had the strength to keep it down anymore.

"What the fuck do you mean you made a deal?" I snapped. "A deal with who?"

He didn't have to answer me, we both knew he'd climbed into bed with Stanks for whatever reason, and the only thing running through my mind was flashbacks of when we were all locked in Tollenworth and fighting for our lives. All I could see was the people I love being gunned down in a hail of gunfire, and it seemed likely that it might be the only way this ended.

"I had no choice!" He defended. "You don't know him, you don't know how he is. He wasn't just gonna let us all walk away!"

"What did you promise him?" I said through gritted teeth. "Jesus Christ, Harry. What have you done?!"

"I've protected my family! Like I said I would. I know him, I know how he works, I need you to trust me on this." He said as I shot up from the couch and started pacing.

"Trust you? You think-" I started before he cut me off.

"Yes! I need you to fucking trust me." He interrupted as he stood up. "I know you're pissed, and I get it. But this is one of those times where you don't understand how this world works, and I do. So you can be mad at me all you want, but the deal is done, and I have no choice but to honor it. So yes, you need to trust me."

"What was the deal? What is he making you do?" I asked, feeling the tears pool in my eyes with fear as to what kind of danger he'd put himself in.

"Baby, I know him. He wasn't gonna let us go." He said as he took a step toward me. "If I hadn't made that deal he could have killed all three of us right then and there for even showing up. He knows we interfered with his deal, that he's out a lot of money because of us, and he would have killed Mitt and Deaks for helping us."

I closed my eyes tightly and tried to take a deep breath, and I didn't miss the fact that he hadn't answered my question.

"This way, nobody's gonna get hurt. He won't be selling innocent kids, us and the people we love can live the rest of our lives without the threat of him hanging over us. We can take the kids and go home, and live our lives the way we've always wanted." He said as softly as he could as he stepped toward me, brushing the back of his hand over my cheek. "I also promised you we would help those kids, stop him from hurting any more of them, and that's what we're gonna do."

I looked up at him, his green eyes burning into mine as he did his best to plead his case, but I had yet to know what he'd promised Stanks in return. A man like Stanks wasn't about to just guarantee Harry all of those things without some serious benefit.