Epilogue
Hell unleashed…
VERONICA
~ Four Weeks Later / End of November ~
We finally found our home.
It’s not near our friends, like we originally planned, but it’s perfect.
We’re closer to the boys’ training facility, just on the outskirts of Scarsdale, New York.
It’s a beautiful three-story, five-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion.
Yes, I said mansion. With a large in-ground pool, a four-car garage, and a huge, and I mean huge, backyard.
The place is gated and gives us complete privacy.
Our master bedroom takes up the entire top floor with its own balcony overlooking the backyard.
The second floor has four bedrooms that we aren’t sure what to do with yet, but the boys are excited at the idea of filling it with kids. I have to agree; there is more than enough room here to have a whole herd of them.
The main level contains two living rooms, an entertainment room, kitchen, and two dining rooms. Along with a wine cellar, gym, two offices, and library that we most likely won’t be using again.
A laundry room, mudroom, way too many closets and storage rooms, and a fully finished basement that we are thinking of turning into a game room for when the gang is over.
We also have a pool house at the back that has an apartment above it.
I should ask Aubrey if she wants to move in up there, she’d love it here.
There’s so much space that I have no idea what we’ll do with it all, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We came to visit it last week while Gabe was away, but I fell in love with it the moment we stepped in.
I video called Gabriel and showed him everything and told him this was it. This was our forever home. The boys made an offer right away, and now we are back to sign everything and make it officially ours, and Gabe finally gets to see the place in person.
I wander around our future bedroom, looking over the huge space and what we could fill it with.
The realtor just left after handing us the keys and showing us how to change the codes for the front door and garage.
We plan on moving in slowly, since we don’t have any furniture or anything yet except for clothes.
But we’ll hopefully be in our home within the next two weeks.
Gabe, Noah, and I haven’t been back to the penthouse since the whole incident. None of us really feel comfortable going back there. But we’re lucky enough to have great friends who went to collect all our things for us, and Silas has officially put it up for sale.
You’d think having a murder in a place would bring down its value, but apparently that isn’t the case for New York. He’s been receiving crazy offers from the second it was listed.
I stroll out onto the balcony, setting my hands on the cold railing as I look down at the beautiful snow-covered lawn.
We had our first snowfall just yesterday, and it makes the place look even more picturesque.
Being here feels like a vacation home that you get to live in for the rest of your life, and that’s exactly the feeling I was looking for when we were visiting places.
Noah comes out a few minutes later, joining me with his arms circling my waist from behind around my winter coat.
He’s been doing really well and says the pain is all gone; he even stopped needing his painkillers, so I guess he means it.
But I can tell he’s excited to get back to his life.
He misses working out and moving around.
Sometimes I find him lifting canned goods as if they are weights, and it makes me laugh. Although I stop him every time, I can understand this is hard for him. But I think what he misses most is sex. He’s always cornering me and trying to get it on, hoping I’ll fold and give in. But I don’t.
I haven’t punished Gabe with the sex restriction, but we still try to be respectful toward Noah.
We only have sex occasionally, either in the shower when we’re alone or when Noah is sleeping.
He knows what we’re doing and keeps telling us it’s okay, that we don’t have to hide.
But I can tell he appreciates us being discreet.
“God, I miss you so much.” He kisses down my neck.
“Two more weeks, babe. And then I promise to ride you from the moment the sun comes up all the way until it goes back down.” I smile, tilting my head to the side and kissing his lips.
“Damn, that’s going to be some intense sex.” Gabe joins us as well, laughing. “She’ll probably break your dick, and then you’ll have a new sex restriction.”
“Don’t jinx him!” I point at Gabe. “I miss his cock just as much. I don’t think I can wait any longer than two more weeks.”
“We could just end the waiting now, christen our new home. Start up here and work our way down through every room,” Noah says, hands roaming up and down my body. God, this is torture.
I push him off while giggling. “No. Two more weeks.”
He huffs out with a pout. “Fine.”
I can’t help but smile at his reaction, then turn back to the scene before me as I sigh.
“What are you thinking about?” Gabe steps up, passing his fingers through my hair. It’s now black at the top and hot pink the rest of the way down to my waist.
“Just how much our lives have changed in just five months. I went from hating you two to not being able to live without you,” I finish with a laugh.
“I don’t think you ever really hated us.” Noah smirks.
“You’re right, I don’t think I did. And now here we are, buying our first home together. Planning a future together.” I bite my lip and look away from them, feeling the emotions rise.
“What’s bothering you? I can see there’s something going on in your mind,” Gabe asks softly.
“I just… I guess with the whole wedding planning for Emma, reality has been hitting harder than I thought.” I turn to them, wanting to make things clear.
“I don’t want you to think that I don’t love our life and what we have. I do, and I never want to change any part of it. I know at the end of the day, all that matters is that we have each other. I just hate that we’ll never be able to live that moment together, you know?”
Noah and Gabe exchange a look that I can’t decipher. They nod at each other before Noah takes out his phone and starts tapping away at it. Gabe takes my hand and brings me back inside.
“Where are we going?”
“We have somewhere to be.” He grins at me. “You’ll see.”
And one hour later, I understand exactly what we’re about to do. I stand outside the car in front of Maze’s shop and look back at the boys, to find them both smiling at me. “Are we really doing this? Gabe?”
They nod. “I think it’s time we did it. I can go through this for you.”
I wrap an arm around each of their necks and kiss their cheeks. “I love you both so much. Thank you.”
We head inside and Maze takes me aside right away, while the boys go off with Bear.
The plan is for Noah and Gabe to get a black band with an intricate design inside of it that will give it a hollow look.
While mine will simply be the detailed design, making it look like I’m the missing piece to their rings.
“Hey, do you think you have time to give me another small tattoo? It’s nothing extreme, maybe five-ten minutes tops,” I ask Maze in a low voice, making sure the boys can’t hear me.
“For you, girl, I always have time. What were you thinking?”
Thirty minutes later, I walk back to the front with my two new tattoos to check on the guys.
They’re both waiting around, chatting with Bear and another customer about hockey.
When Noah sees me, he comes over asking to see my ring tattoo.
As we planned, they match perfectly, and my heart beats harder as I look down at them.
“It’s not the only thing I got.”
He frowns, looking me up and down. “What do you mean?”
I turn my arm that is covered in ink and show him the new addition right in the center of my wrist. His eyes widen as he stares down at it, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. “Kitten…”
“It’s the Trinity knot,” I tell him softly, but it’s not the only thing with it. On either side of the knot are the numbers seventy-nine and eighty-six, for my boys. “Three hundred and sixty-eight reasons to be happy forever.”
“Fuck…” He wraps his arms around me, squeezing me tightly in his hold. “I love you, Veronica. Hell, that’s not even a strong enough word to describe what I feel for you.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” I whisper into his ear.
We pull apart and I go over to Gabe, wanting to see his tattoo. But when I reach him, I notice his ring finger is empty, and something in my heart breaks. My eyes well with tears on their own.
He stands right away, taking me in his arms. “Vixen…”
“I’m okay. I understand that this was too much for you; it’s okay,” I rush out, wiping my tears away.
He pulls back, holding onto my arms with a smile. “That’s not why I didn’t do it.”
“I… I don’t understand?”
His hands drop from my arms, and he reaches into his back pocket, taking out a small square jewelry box and drops to one knee. “I had a different kind of ring in mind.”
He beams up at me, popping it open to reveal a deep sapphire-blue engagement ring with what looks like tiny diamond vines wrapping around each side of the ring.
My hands fly to my lips on a gasp. I look around at everyone who watches us. Bear and Maze hold each other with a smile on their faces, while the client now has his phone out filming us. And then to Noah, who watches me carefully.
“I… I thought we agreed we wouldn’t do this?” Tears track down my face. “That we… we wouldn’t get married if I couldn’t marry you both…”
Noah takes a step closer, cupping my face and wiping my tears away.
“Marriage was never my dream, Veronica, but it’s always been his.
Ellis and I talked this over for a while, and we both agreed that you deserve a wedding, just as much as he does.
I don’t need you to wear my last name, to have a ceremony, and be recognized by the law.
All I need is this,” he holds up his ring finger, “and you.”