Epilogue
TOMMY
“Sorry to interrupt, but I need to put in our next order for groceries. Danika, do you have any requests?” I stare at my phone as I wait for her instructions.
Sachi is over, and the two have been sitting on the couch talking for the last hour.
I have no idea how they continue to come up with things to say, but they manage.
“No food requests. I need deodorant, though. It’s—”
“I’ll just take a photo and send it to them. That’s easier.”
Sachi’s brow wrinkles in confusion. “What do you mean send a picture? Don’t you have to find it yourself and add it to the cart?”
“Not when you pay for full service,” I tell her.
Danika gives her friend a thin smile. “Tommy employs a service that cleans, shops, and even cooks for us—they’re kind of like estate managers. It’s pretty amazing.”
“Oh man. That sounds like a sweet gig—way better than Instacart. I wonder if they’re hiring.”
I can’t help but chuckle. Sachi’s mind is a mystery to me, but she’s entertaining.
I’ll give her that. “No other additions? You haven’t ever asked for any female products,” I point out somewhat awkwardly.
I know women don’t always have periods in perfect cycles, but she hasn’t had one since we met. I figure she’s due.
“I brought some stuff with me, and since all the stress from the past month threw off my cycle, I haven’t needed any.”
“Stress can do that?” I ask, genuinely curious.
Sachi’s brows rise. “Yeah, but so can having unprotected sex.” She gives her friend a knowing look.
Danika looks from her friend to me and back. “Surely not.”
“How long’s it been?” asks Sachi.
Dani pauses to think. “My last period started … I guess six weeks ago?”
Sachi gapes at Dani. “You’re two weeks late and never thought to check?”
I’m watching the conversation unfold like it’s on television because it feels surreal. I knew there was a chance she could get pregnant, but not necessarily probable. Only thirty percent of women get pregnant in the first month of trying. I looked it up.
“I had a lot on my mind.” Dani shrugs impishly. “You don’t really think…”
“I think you should find out for sure. That’s what I think,” Sachi says in no uncertain terms.
“I’ll go,” I blurt. Both women look at me wide-eyed. “You two stay here.” The words are an afterthought. I’m halfway to the door before I know what I’m doing. My wife might be pregnant, and I need to know for sure. Now.
I’m not gone ten minutes before I sweep back into the apartment with a plastic sack full of tests.
“Did you buy all of them?” Sachi asks incredulously.
“Two of each. I wasn’t sure which was best.” And I don’t want to fuck this up. I’ve never felt so damn on edge in my life.
Dani stands and takes the bag from me. “Well, no time like the present, I guess.” She starts to walk away, but I snag her arm and spin her back around for a kiss—deep and enduring, just like my love for her.
“Whatever the result, I love you, and everything is going to be wonderful,” I tell her in a rush, and I truly believe it because as long as we have one another, that’s all that matters.
Relief softens her features. “Thank you, Tommy.”
I watch anxiously as she walks away, leaving Sachi and me to stare blankly at one another.
“Well, I did not see this coming today,” she says with a smirk.
“That makes two of us.” Thinking about kids theoretically is totally different from knowing one is on the way. The reality of it hits me like a Mack truck. The disorder. The chaos. The poop.
I could be a father soon.
The overwhelming surge of fear eases with the mental image of Danika round with my child.
I’m not doing this alone. She’ll be by my side, helping me adjust to a new normal.
Suddenly, I’m overcome with a ferocious protectiveness that I didn’t know was possible.
We haven’t even confirmed if she’s pregnant, yet I can say with confidence that I would sell my soul for that baby.
What is taking her so long?
She hasn’t been gone five minutes, but it feels like an eternity. Finally, she returns from the bathroom, wide green eyes locking onto mine. She nods.
“ Holy shit ,” Sachi breathes. “You’re going to have a baby?”
Dani nods again. Our bodies have united to create a child that is now growing inside her.
Unadulterated joy spreads a wide grin across my face.
“We’re gonna have a baby,” I say in awe.
An anxiously optimistic smile teases my wife’s lips. “I’m pregnant.”
I surge forward and sweep her into a spinning hug. She squeals with delight, and Sachi dances around us with her arms waving in the air.
Once we settle into the news, I realize I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Even my sperm were desperate to claim Dani. I’m committed down to my DNA, and that’s a fact.
“Are you going to tell your mom and gran right away or wait?” Sachi asks.
Dani grins. “I could never keep a secret like that from them. They’d sniff it out of me the second I walk in the room.” The girls both giggle as my phone starts to ring. It’s my brother.
“Yeah?”
“Shae’s water just broke. We’re headed to the hospital. Need you to let the others know.” Every word is spoken with clipped military efficiency. Renzo has slipped into emergency management mode, which tells me, he’s freaking the fuck out.
“You want me to do that and not DiAngelo?”
“Called you first. You got this? The Russians will happily use an excuse like this to catch us off guard.”
Well, I’ll be damned. He’s leaving me in charge. “Yeah, I got you covered. Good luck, man.”
“Gotta go.”
Both Dani and Sachi stare at me expectantly.
“Everything okay?” Dani asks.
“I think so. Looks like today is baby day all around—Shae’s gone into labor.”
“That’s so exciting, but Renzo sure sounded serious. There’s nothing wrong, is there?”
“No, he just wants us to be on high alert for anything the Russians might try while he’s unavailable.
” The oldest of Biba’s sons recently seized control, and from what we can tell, the youngest has been exiled from the organization.
No one knows what he might do. There’s concern he could try to blame us for his loss of status since we were the catalyst to his father’s death.
They can’t prove it was us who pulled the trigger, but they likely suspect.
The oldest won’t care since he’s now in power, but the youngest could be a problem.
“I’m going to go make some calls in my office. Holler if you need me.”
They both wave. I dial DiAngelo and head for the back hallway. The phone picks up, but no one answers.
“D, you there?” I ask into the phone.
No answer. Nothing audible, at least. I can hear muffled sounds in the background and am instantly on high alert.
I put the phone on speaker, turn the volume all the way up, and raise the phone to my ear.
I strain to make out whatever clues I can as to what might be going on when D’s voice registers in the background.
“Hands behind your back, and they better stay there. You hear me?”
I stop dead in my tracks. What the fuck is going on? Did the Russians come after him?
I listen even harder, trying to determine whether I need to get my gun or if he’s got the situation under control. Silence, then a quiet whimper.
“You can do it—I know you can,” DiAngelo says in a low murmur. “Fuck, yeah. Take me in all the way. I want to feel my cock against the back of your throat.”
I pull the phone away from me and stare at it as though it’s suddenly covered in shit.
What in the ever-loving fuck? That prick really must hate me to answer the phone and make me listen to his bullshit.
I’m about to disconnect when I realize that asshole is supposed to be on protection duty for my sister.
If he left Terina alone while he’s off getting his dick sucked, I’ll bury that motherfucker.
“ Jesus , Ree, your face was made to be fucked.” DiAngelo’s words snag in my ears.
Ree? He couldn’t mean … surely, not. There’s no way.
“Tell me you want it. I want to hear the words.”
“Please, D,” she begs. “Please come on my tits.” Her voice is huskier than normal, but there’s no mistaking it. That’s my fucking sister.
I’m so stunned that the disgust I should be feeling has no room to surface. How is this happening? Terina and DiAngelo argue anytime they’re around one another. He’s ten years older than her. Hell, that’s his best friend’s little sister. Does Renzo know?
No, there’s absolutely no fucking way.
But man, do I want a front-row seat when he does find out because, for once, it won’t be me looking down the barrel of his anger.
Terina starts to moan, and I lose my shit.
“ Jesus fucking Christ, stop before I vomit !” I scream into the phone.
Muttered curses follow before someone fumbles with the phone.
“Tommy?” D asks breathlessly.
“Yeah, fuckwad. Don’t think that’s what Renzo meant when he said take care of my sister.”
A single curse is his only answer.
“ Fuck .”
You got that right.
Thank you so much for reading Death’s Favor !