16. Mackenzie
I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see the imposing building of Verona Falls University appear against the skyline.
The gothic stone structure, with its turrets and arched windows, seems to reach into the clouds. It’s just starting to get light, and the faint glow in the sky only serves to highlight the imposing building.
The snow has stopped, at least for the time being, allowing us to safely drive home. We finally found the keys to the car in the pocket of Eric’s Santa suit after a lot of time spent searching the cabin. In hindsight, we probably should have checked sooner, but we were occupied with surviving. We got lucky that we put out the fire, or else they would have melted, along with the rest of him.
We kind of lost it a bit at the end, there. I’m trying to force away feelings of guilt about us fucking in all their blood, but I’d rather feel guilty about that than ashamed of what they made us do. I’ve carried too much shame in my life from dealing with fucked up men. After we’d come down from our orgasms, the guys had taken care of the dead bodies, dragging them out into the woods and hiding them in the snow, while I’d stood under the shower and washed away the blood.
We’d cleaned up best we could and then got the hell out of there. The moment we’d gotten service on our cells, Dom had put in the call to Nataniele to get a professional clean up team in there—no questions asked. They’ll ensure the bodies are never found, and they’ll get rid of the brothers’ car, too. It’s highly unlikely that either of the brothers ever mentioned to anyone else that they were planning to go and terrorize the tourists staying at the Hideaway Cabin, so I don’t expect their disappearance will ever be linked back to us.
We pull the car into the parking lot, and Kirill turns off the engine, silence settling around us.
The huge wooden double front doors swing open, and a well-dressed man in his forties appears. Nataniele. He’s holding a baby with gorgeous blonde curls and pink cheeks.
Our baby.
I can’t get out of the car quickly enough.
Lucy spots me, and a huge smile breaks out across her cute little face. She babbles at me and holds out her chubby arms. I take her from Nataniele and hold her close, burying my nose into her little baby neck, her skin so soft, and inhale the familiar scent of her.
“Hi, baby girl. I missed you so much!”
Her fat little fingers wrap around a lock of my hair, and she gabbles something incoherent at me.
“You missed me, too, huh?” I decipher for her.
The guys climb out of the car and surround us, all making a fuss over their daughter, too. Nothing warms my heart like seeing these three men utterly smitten with Lucy. She already has them wrapped around her little finger.
“Was she good?” I ask Nataniele.
“She woke up a couple of times last night, but she settled pretty quickly.” He smiles at his granddaughter. “Didn’t you, Lucy-Lu?”
It seems surreal to be back home and talking about such mundane things. Surreal, and beautiful.
Lucy smiles back at him.
Nataniele turns his attention to us. “And how are the four of you?”
I share a glance with Dom, Tino, and Kirill. “We’re okay,” I reply. “Glad to be back.”
Nataniele shakes his head. “I don’t know how the four of you attract trouble the way you do.”
Dom arches his brow. “You’re one to talk.”
In the past, Nataniele probably would have said something stern, but now, he simply smiles and shrugs. Lucy has softened him the way she has all of us.
The nightmare we’ve just endured is already receding. I know I’ll need time to recover, as will my men, but it won’t break us. After all, we’ve been through far worse. If those men thought they were the monsters of our story, they were sorely mistaken. We met the monsters long ago. Those idiots in the woods were barely a footnote compared to what we’ve overcome.
The truth is, living how we do, with the connections we have, life is never going to be easy for us. There are always going to be challenges along the way, but that’s okay. The most important thing is that we have each other, and we can watch our daughter grow, and be a family. Maybe we’ll even have more children one day. I’d love for Lucy to have a sibling, and I know we’ll definitely have fun trying to get pregnant. Just thinking about how feral my men will go if I tell them to put another baby inside me causes heat to condense between my thighs.
God, it’s as if I can never get enough of them. I glance at the men one by one, and I swear they’re thinking similar thoughts.
I kiss Lucy’s soft cheek. “Let’s go inside,” I say. “We’re home.”