CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
TESSA
The world blurs to back roads and headlights, a forest and a canopy of stars dotting the post-midnight sky. Symbols of joy in an otherwise burdensome day.
We’re speeding to the maternity hospital, which is about forty minutes away from the resort, because Rena just delivered her babies.
The timing is unfortunate. It has everyone spread thin.
There is already a skeleton crew rotating shifts in the resort so more employees can enjoy the carnival.
Axel and Ryker usually work around the clock during the Underground Independence Festival for the same reason.
And temps are assigned to staff the public areas.
We also have extra security devoted to my family and the guards following us.
But nothing would keep these men from celebrating Rena becoming a mom. Even Bernard hopped in Maddox’s Cadillac Escalade with us, forsaking the employee nonsense to celebrate with a young woman he views as a surrogate granddaughter.
We arrive in a caravan of vehicles, but manage to park and rush inside as a group.
Rena is bright-eyed, cradling her teeny son, and thrilled to have a party for her first hour postpartum.
It’s the polar opposite of how I’d be, and yet I’m utterly fascinated.
Ty is glowing, in awe of his wife and infants, his baby girl nestled in his arms. The three other couples that comprise their family are doting, munching on Skittles and Doritos and bantering about movies.
They respectfully make room for the Noire brothers the moment we arrive.
I snatch a sleeping Remy from Mercy and snuggle up on the couch with him while she says her congrats and hellos.
She and Ryker wanted him to meet his cousins, and he sleeps like a log, so they decided to drag him out of bed.
I could lay him down somewhere, but I enjoy cuddling him, and he provides a welcome shield for me to quietly drink in the scene from afar.
Axel kisses Rena’s forehead, and I swear as he steals that baby boy from her, a few tears break free. He’s usually so composed that the simple act is disarming.
And when Maddox taunts him with the moniker Grandpa Axe, he doesn’t appear to be disturbed by the title. He looks honored, like he might dissolve into a gooey puddle on the floor. It has Rena weeping through giggles and repeating the new honorific.
As I scan the rest of them, I find all the men are somewhat emotional.
Jax claims a seat on Rena’s bed. Maddox praises the babies’ names—Lyric and Lennon—for being music-related. Cash hovers near Ty, in awe of his niece’s grip on his finger until Ryker swipes the tiny princess for himself. All of them are glossy-eyed and various degrees of choked up.
Mercy plops down beside me with a sniff, and I turn to find her crying too.
“It took a lot for them to get here. I wasn’t around much right after they lost their parents, but I know Axel and Ryker were terrified they’d mess up raising the four kids.
So, this …” She glances back at the men crowded around Rena, laughing and joking and gushing over the newborns.
“It probably feels like they’ve got another piece of their mom.
They can be a lot, but there’s nothing more important to them than the people in this room. ”
Every encounter with them has me reevaluating my previous notions regarding family, like Maddox told me I would.
“That’s clear.” An anvil of overwhelm compresses my lungs, my throat instantly raw and sticky. “I’m afraid Maddox is going to do something reckless.”
“Reckless or dangerous?” she asks, and for the first time, based on that distinction, she seems very much a Noire.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Well, danger is part of this world. You know that.” She smooths her hand over my thigh, waiting on me to elaborate. She never pushes me, but I suspect she knows more about what’s going on than she lets on.
“He made a love confession or declaration, and I can’t help but think he wouldn’t have if—”
“That’s not true.” Despite her efforts to remain neutral, she can’t hide the buoyancy in her query. “Did you say it back?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t want to under duress. It’s all so screwed up right now. We need time. I want to show him how I feel, not simply parrot the sentiment.”
“I understand that. And it’s okay that you move at a slower pace with feelings, but that’s not how”—she pauses, perusing all the Noires—“any of them are. Everything this family does drips with intensity, so Maddox moving fast with you makes sense. Once they make a decision, really make it, they stop at nothing. But that extends to everything. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect you. They all will.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. It’s like there’s a sixth sense, sending me a warn—” I stop abruptly when the three women who are part of Ty and Rena’s crew join us.
I’ve met Ivy and Celeste before, but the third woman is new to me.
She sits on the couch with us, a nursing cape covering all but some wiggly toes. “I’m Leigh, and this little guy is George.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Tessa. I’m … with—”
“Maddox,” Ivy finishes with a grin when I trip over what to call myself. “He can’t take his eyes off you.”
I glance at Maddox and find him rocking one of the babies, but his fiery gaze is indeed searing into me. I’m hit with a sudden longing for a future with him—kids and home-cooked meals and dancing in the kitchen. He’d be an amazing dad.
“From what Rena tells us, he never could,” Celeste adds with all the flair and sophistication of an old Hollywood actress. “I hope you made him work for it.”
We all laugh, but Mercy is the one to boast.
“It wasn’t nineteen years in the making,” she begins, referring to the two decades that Ryker pined for her, “but Tessa certainly brought him to his knees. And most would have thought it couldn’t be done.”
Leigh bites back a laugh. “Nice. Men like them”—she studies the room of ten formidable godfather types, though I’m not sure if she’s including Bernard in this—“require a lioness to tame them.”
“Hey,” Rena hollers, “no girl time without me. Get over here, Mercy and Tessa.”
Maddox beams, and my face flushes. I might be apprehensive about exchanging I love yous when our life is spinning out of control, but with that elation staining his face, I’m brought back to his mom telling him love was an action.
He embodies that perspective in everything he does.
Even the way he silently cheers for me being included is a statement of how well he loves me.
Cash steps over to take Remy from me and lays him on another couch before we make our way to the new mom.
Jax refuses to move from Rena’s bed, but she permits him to mingle with the ladies.
The rest of us crowd around her while the Noire men and Bernard hang out with Ty, Wells, Liam, and Gage to watch the news.
Rena pulls me in close and whispers in my ear, “People think Maddox never takes life seriously, but sometimes, the ones who throw a party for everyone else are the loneliest inside. I’ve never seen him this lit up, Tessa. It’s so much more. And now I’ll get to call you sister.”
I’m not even shocked that my stomach flips with excitement at the thought of being a Noire someday.
When Maddox announced me as his future wife at the festival, I assumed it had to do with claiming me.
When he said it to my father, his fingers were inside me, so there were too many other factors to focus on.
Rena implying it amid this wholesome gathering feels like an honor.
“You can think of me as a sister,” I tell her, “but Maddox and I aren’t there yet. Let’s take one milestone at a time. I think you becoming a mom is enough for today.”
“You might not have the official title yet, but you’re there.” She shimmies her shoulders in a little dance move. “We can also focus on my perfect babies though.”
We cozy up and chat about all things La Lune Noire, employee high jinks that Rena’s missed.
She tells us about the antics that go on in their French chateau.
From what she says, it’s huge, and they all have their separate areas, but caring for four little ones—the twins, George, and Ivy and Wells’s little girl, Felicity, who is currently asleep in a playpen—will be hectic.
And Rena casually drops that she wants a whole litter.
“The Stanley Cup?” one of the guys roars, and we all twist to see what’s going on.
There’s a breaking news story about the highly guarded NHL championship trophy, the Stanley Cup, being stolen.
“You think that’s real?” Wells asks.
Liam opens his laptop, fingers flying frantically over the keys.
“Must be real. What would be the angle to use that?” Gage howls. The man is massive, all bald head, muscles, and tatted rage. “Look to see if there’s anything shady around that Arizona town.”
I nudge Ivy while the speculation continues because she seems to be equally invested, and I appreciate her quiet strength. “What do they mean, is it real?”
She ponders her response for a beat, stringing her fingers through her ginger locks, but when she arrives at an answer, it’s obvious she’s trying to be forthright.
“There are people who manipulate the media. Occasionally, stories you see across several platforms are fabricated for various reasons. We’ve been investigating them. ”
I don’t know much about what they do, other than Liam helping Maddox. My time at La Lune Noire has taught me never to ask outright. But I’m certain they aren’t working for a law-abiding organization to investigate false news stories.
The whole idea is disturbing. That type of power could dismantle society. Or the underworld.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to pepper her with questions about how the media manipulation works when the next story catches my attention.