Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
JACE
I’m happier than any man should be allowed. Like I’ve won the equivalent of the lottery of love.
I could apologize for my luck, but fuck that.
I deserve this and so does Viv.
Just because you’ve been stuck in a shitty situation doesn’t mean you can’t flush it all and start over.
Or in my case…
Finally start a life with the woman you love.
“There’s a bunch of baskets and stuff.” I shrug at them placed everywhere in my living room.
“The designer said they’re handmade and seagrass.
Don’t know what you’re supposed to put in ’em.
Usually, I just use them for my cheesy snacks.
But, whatever. Women seem to love having hundreds of them, so I thought… ”
Vivian doesn’t look focused on the baskets, so I shut my mouth before I stick my foot in it.
I’m already tasting my toe with that cheesy snack reveal.
Jaw dropped, she’s gazing around my house with its palette of sand, sea, and sky.
After I bought it, I hired a designer and told her to decorate it for my wife.
When she asked to meet her, I said, “She’s not mine yet, but when she is, I want this place to be just like her.
Serene. Natural. Soft. Like the perfect day at the beach. ”
Did I know Vivian would be mine one day?
Yeah, because I was willing to wait forever for her, alone in this house, until she filled it with our future.
There’s not a drop of testosterone in the design, and that’s fine by me. I got enough in my veins, and my dick is secure. I’ll give my woman whatever she wants.
Baskets. Throw pillows. Enough plants to turn our house into a rainforest.
But Vivian’s eyes light up at the gallery-white walls, perfect for hanging photos.
She caresses the deep-blue sectional sofa, knowing that’s our prime cuddle spot.
Beaming at the clean lines of the white oak dining room table, set for our future family of eight, she gets this whimsical look, as if she’s imagining our future… when it’s now.
We’re doing this.
This is our home.
“You like it?”
“Like it?” She races across the sisal rug, crashing into me with a hug. “I’d say I love it, but that doesn’t feel right because I love you so much for doing this. Jace, it’s perfect.”
I loop my hands around her waist. “I know it’s not fancy and historic like your home. It’s kinda rustic and relaxed, but—”
“But my home will become our gallery.” She reminds me of her plan. “While this place will be our sanctuary.”
I flash my sexiest smile, trying to tempt her. “Can it be a sanctuary full of screaming kids? There’s a king-size bed in our bedroom to make ’em, and four bedrooms upstairs to fill ’em.”
“Maybe.” She bounces her brows. “But let’s start with the cat.”
Nodding toward Moose, who’s curled on the sunshine-bathed rug by the sliding doors to the deck outside, Vivian’s slowing my roll. She doesn’t want me to get my hopes up.
“By the way…” She tilts her head at our first orange-tabby fur baby. “Who watched him while you were gone for so long?”
“The neighbor’s kids. I pay them twenty bucks a day to come in and take care of Moose. Also—they can play with my telescope.” I nod toward it on the deck outside.
“Didn’t know you were into watching stars.”
“I’m not.” Guiltily, I grin. “I was into watching Nash and Vale across the river. They like giving me a show.”
“Was into?” She lingers her fingertip down my chest. I find myself wearing my shirt unbuttoned for her.
“Mmm.” I let her stir everything inside me. “Was thinking we could give them a show tonight—they have a telescope too—after we practice first.”
I start walking her backward toward the sofa, ready to test the stain guard on it, but she palms my chest. “Don’t you have a meeting about a meeting in two hours?”
I roll my eyes. Cockblocked by Bratva bullshit, as Vale rightfully calls it. Damn, I’ll be glad when this shit is over.
“Yeah, and you’re coming with me.”
Her face falls. “But I need to unpack.”
“Sorry, Smokeshow. We got years to make this place our home, but a few days to wait before we make a deal with the devil. So until we do, I’m not leaving you unguarded.”
“Fine.” She softly bangs her cute forehead on my chest. “But once we have a deal with him, I’m going back to work. I miss my clients, and I’m building our gallery.”
I lift her chin. “Deal for that deal.”
Two hours later, I’m leaving her with a kiss at the bar of my mom’s club.
“Now be a good queen,” I murmur over our lips, “and pick out a toy for us to play with later.” I gesture to the wall of boxed sex toys for purchase.
“I’m good.” She swivels on her barstool. The club is closed. It’s just staff in here. “I have you and Nash has a telescope; it’s all we need.”
She feels it too. The bond with our kings and queens, but the need for it to be just me and her.
It’s like your birthday, when you get a whole bunch of presents you like, but you just want to hide in the corner with your new favorite gift, the book you love.
I bend down, nuzzling my nose to hers. “I’ll tell Nash the show begins at eight, until then…” Fuck, I can’t stop kissing her. “Behave.”
I point at Lucy, one of the blonde twins who runs the bar. Looks like Luna’s not here yet. “Lucy, this is Vivian—my everything. Take care of her, please.”
“Yes, sir.” Lucy salutes, bar rag in hand.
Finally, I leave Vivian with one last kiss before I run upstairs, taking them two at a time. I’m late. Don’t care. I’m in love.
A fact that annoys Grant when I enter our mom’s office, the last king to arrive. “Goddamn, Prince Pussy Whipped,” he grumbles. “Gonna start charging you by the late minute.”
“What can I say?” I fall onto the sofa to sit beside Nick. “Pussy is priceless.” Nick elbows me. “Oh, so is dick.”
Sasha laughs. “Mama is right. Dick and pussy. Is all you talk.”
My brothers shrug—no sense denying it.
“We have an interesting development.” Not wasting time, Axel leans forward, his elbows on his knees, his inked hands tapping the manila folder in his grasp.
Mom sits at her desk, clicking her gold pen.
No one bites until Nick laughs. “K, Axel. Spare us the drama. What is it?”
He lifts the folder. “The results of our paternity tests.”
Sire reaches into his suit pocket, pulls out his wallet, and tosses a Benjamin on the ottoman between the sofas. “Hundred says we’re Maxim’s sons.”
Loch scoffs, almost insulted. “Can we not bet on what Mom went through?”
“It’s quite alright.” Mom flits her jeweled hand. “My greatest joy was trying often to make sure you were all Maxim’s sons.”
Grant tosses his chin up, begging the ceiling. “Can we not talk about Mom and sex? I’d like to have it with my wife again, and this shit is a boner killer.”
“Just tell us,” Nash insists. He doesn’t have a dog or a dad in this fight. “Who’s whose?”
Axel looks at Mom before she nods, permitting him. Guess he’s already told her.
Part of me wants to press pause on this moment and never know because it doesn’t matter.
We know who our mother is; she’s the lioness who taught us how to love.
A pride of lions is often a stable core of hunting females, protected by a coalition of males, often brothers, who guard their cubs and territory. It’s a balance of power, the nature of our beasts.
Despite the DNA, we know who our father is; the man who taught us how to be men—Maxim. He showed us how to value the female. How to respect her. How to trust her instincts and leadership. She carries our future, and it’s our duty to die protecting her.
I don’t remember much about Maxim except that he made my mom smile. Even in death, she smiles through tears, remembering him.
“Maybe we don’t need to know,” I urge. “It doesn’t change that we’re all brothers.”
“Ahem.” Sasha’s cute.
“And our sister.” Loch throws his arm around her.
She rests her head against her twin’s chest while Axel cocks a dark brow, answering me, “You’re right; we’re brothers, but we’re not all Ruslan’s sons. A fact that will matter in our meeting with him.”
Axel recaps, “He went after Sire, the firstborn, and bribed him for his kidney.”
I glance at Sire sitting across from me. He’s never looked so stoic at the almost-fatal sacrifice he made for us.
“And he came after me and took my son,” Axel continues, pain twisting his handsome face.
“But thanks to Sire’s sacrifice, I got Lev back and thought I’d have to donate my kidney next.
It’s what Ruslan wanted when he approached Ruby.
Then inexplicably, Ruslan retreated. He’s rejecting Sire’s kidney but doesn’t want mine, and this is why. ”
He tosses the folder over the money on the ottoman.
“You’re not his son!” Nick almost laughs ironically. “Holy shit, Axel. All this time, you’re the second-born and supposed to take over as the next Pakhan because Sire is a holy man and didn’t want it. But damn, you’re not even Ruslan’s son! Does he know?”
“He must,” Axel deduces. “Maybe he ran DNA on my son. Maybe he took one look at Loch and me as men and could see it.”
Quickly, I glance between Loch and Axel, clocking Maxim’s traits. Then at Sire, then at Grant, who’s obviously my full brother. We just have this look. I can’t fucking describe myself, but me, Grant, and Sire are a house of mirrors, reflecting our mother, whose DNA trumps our father’s.
“What about me?” Nick leans forward, reaching for the folder, but Axel touches Nick’s hand, his face serious, like the situation.
“You’re just like Loch.” Axel shares what Nick was too young to remember. “You’re just like our father, the hero, Maxim.”
“Well.” Grant slaps his knees. “Don’t me, Jace, and Sire feel like shit on a sandwich now? We’re the spawns of Satan.”
“Don’t.”
Mom’s voice carries a severity we know to respect.
“You’re nothing like him.” She aims her warm stare at Grant.
It’s brimming with love. “You were always my levity; you made me laugh. And you…” She points at Sire.
“You were my light, my first hope. And you…” She looks at me, touching her heart.
“You were love, our heart.” She pauses, blinking back rare tears.
“Despite who your father is, you’re all your own men now.
You each have your queens and your families to build. You are free.”
“Ahem.” Sasha clears her throat again. “I will have king one day.”
Axel glares protective daggers at her. “Who?”
Whoops, any dick who goes near our sister will end up in the dirt.
Loch laughs, jostling his twin. “She’s joining a convent, don’t worry.”
“What is convent?”
“A place for nuns,” Sire answers Sasha’s worry. “You know, for women who marry God and don’t have sex.”
“Pft.” Grant scoffs. “That’s not what I heard.”
“Mama!” Sasha protests, her dark brows shooting up. “You send me to convent?”
Mom throws her hands up. “You boys, quit getting your sister all riled up over nothing. No one is sending my daughter anywhere. You’re staying here, safe with me and my guards.”
“Can’t keep her locked up forever,” Sire warns.
“Trust me,” Nash adds, eyeing Loch. “It’ll backfire, and she’ll fall in love with her bodyguard.”
“Can we get back to this meeting?” I twist my neck, eager to get back to Vivian waiting downstairs. “We need a plan.”
“Clearly, it’s your kidney.” Grant grins. “You’re the biggest buck of us all and his true blood. Buzz, buzz, brother. You’re going under the knife.”
“It’s not that bad,” Sire assures me.
“It’s not happening,” I answer.
Loch fumes, “Then how the fuck do we get rid of Ruslan and kill Sheremetev? We’re supposed to make a deal.”
“We will,” I reply, mirroring Axel, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. “He’s not getting my kidney; it’s not what he really wants.”
Axel snarls, “I don’t give a fuck what he wants.”
But I search Axel’s glacial eyes, knowing how they can melt for love.
I scan all of my brothers, my sister, then my mother and decree, “Ruslan wants our forgiveness, and the deal is… he’ll get it.”
“Forgiveness?” Sire cocks a skeptical brow at me. “You sure you can give it?”