Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
MIRA
I have run the operation four times today.
Four full scenarios, start to finish, in the chalk corridors Ghost drew on the workshop floor.
Doc administered the contraction simulation twice at half strength so I’d know what it feels like before tomorrow night when he runs it for real. Jax drilled me on the code phrases until I was saying them in my sleep.
Reeve timed every deviation, contingency, and abort trigger. He ran me through three of them back-to-back in the afternoon session until my responses were automatic.
I know the east wing of Millhaven Regional better than I know this compound.
I know the distance from the elevator bank to the private floor in steps. I know which orderly position Ghost’s man will be holding when Viktor’s team moves through the corridor. I know exactly where I need to be and what I need to look like and what I need to say when the moment arrives.
That’s what today was.
Now it’s evening, and my back aches.
The baby has been moving since three o’clock, and I’m in the main building common room, holding a book I haven’t been reading since Cade left, when Cade comes back through the door.
Jax is behind him.
Reeve behind Jax.
They come in from the debrief that’s been running in the security office for the last hour, the one I wasn’t in because Reeve said my part of the day was done and I needed to eat and rest.
They sit down. Cade is across from me, Jax beside him, Reeve at the end of the table with his notebook, which he doesn’t open.
I put my book down. “I need to say something,” I say.
Nobody tells me to go ahead. They just wait, which is what they do, and I look at the three of them in the common room light, and I think about five weeks of this world and what it’s done to me and what I’ve done to it and what’s on the other side of Friday if everything goes the way the plan says it goes.
“I’m not staying because I’m trapped,” I say.
Cade looks at me.
“I know how this started. I know I came here because Viktor was going to kill me, and you were the only wall I could think of that his money couldn’t move.
I know the claiming was a war declaration first and everything else second.
” I look at each of them. “That’s not why I’m staying anymore.
I’m choosing this. All of you, this world, this life. Permanently.”
I pause.
“Is it permanent for you?”
“Permanent,” Cade says without hesitation.
Jax looks at me, and the easy performance is completely gone, and what’s underneath it is what I suspected was underneath it from the first morning he brought breakfast and stayed longer than the food required.
“From the night you walked in,” he says. “Chin up, seven months pregnant and moving like you owned the room you’d never been in before. I knew then.” He pauses. “Permanent doesn’t cover it, but it’s the closest word available.”
Reeve looks at me across the table. “No exit,” he says. “I made that decision in the first week, and I don’t revisit decisions. Nothing that happens after Friday changes it.”
My mind drifts to the folder tied with a black ribbon. Viktor’s voice through the bathroom door saying, “Don’t worry about the wife.”
I came here for a wall, but I found three men who fight alongside instead of in front of, who claim instead of contain, who held this ground for five weeks against financial pressure, a fire, a near-retrieval, and a contractor with a completion clause, and who are going to walk into a hospital on Friday and end the thing that’s been running since before I got on that bus.
After Friday, the wall will be gone because the threat is gone.
What’s left is this.
“After Friday, we build something real,” I say. “We build a family. On purpose, with all the specifics that means inside this world.”
“We’re already building it,” Cade says.
“I know,” I say. “I’m saying I want to keep going.”
Jax and Reeve nod.
Cade looks at the table and back at me.
The common room runs its Wednesday evening around us, the compound settling into the night outside the windows, the perimeter lights coming on, the rotation beginning its circuit.
I look at the three of them, and I think that this is what it looks like when people have stopped performing for each other entirely, when everything that needed to be said has been said, and what’s left is just the fact of being in the same room, and the room is enough.
It has been enough for a while now.
I look at Cade. “Stay,” I say.
He looks at me.
“All three of you,” I say. “Tonight.”
The table is quiet for a moment.
Then Cade says, “Yes.”
Jax’s green eyes lock on mine, the easy mask completely gone. He gives me one slow nod. Reeve closes his notebook without a word. His answer is in the way he stands up with the others.
We leave the common room together. The compound is dark outside. Only perimeter lights cut through the night. No one speaks as we walk across the yard to Cade’s room in the main building. The moment the door closes behind us, the air changes.
I’m the one who starts it.
I step forward and reach up to pull Cade down into a kiss. His mouth is firm and demanding from the first second. One big hand cups the side of my face while the other rests heavy on my hip. I kiss him hard, telling him without words that I chose this, that I’m choosing all of them.
I turn to Jax next. He meets me halfway, hands sliding into my hair as he kisses me with the kind of hunger he usually keeps hidden. His mouth is hotter, more emotional. He groans softly against my lips like he’s been waiting for this exact moment for weeks.
Reeve is behind me when I turn to him. He doesn’t rush. He slides one hand around my waist, careful of my belly, and kisses me with that same quiet precision he uses for everything important. Slow. Certain. Like he’s already decided this is permanent and is simply executing the decision.
I pull back just enough to look at all three of them.
“I want this,” I say, voice steady. “All three of you. Tonight. I’m not unsure. I’m not scared. I want you to claim me together.”
Cade’s eyes darken. “Then you’ll have us.”
They move as a unit.
Jax pulls my shirt over my head while Cade works on my pants.
Reeve folds each piece of clothing neatly and sets it aside.
When I’m completely naked in front of them, all three men pause.
Their eyes move over my body—over my heavy, swollen breasts, over the prominent, round curve of my belly, over every change pregnancy has made.
Cade steps in first. His large hands cup my breasts from underneath, lifting their weight like he knows exactly how much they ache at the end of the day. He squeezes gently, thumbs brushing over my sensitive nipples until they tighten into hard peaks.
“Fuck, these have gotten so full,” he mutters.
Jax moves behind me. He presses his mouth to the side of my neck and kisses down to my shoulder while one hand strokes slowly over the curve of my belly.
Reeve kneels in front of me. He supports the underside of my belly with both hands, thumbs stroking the tight skin with careful reverence. Then he leans in and presses a slow, open-mouthed kiss right below my navel.
“So beautiful like this,” Reeve says quietly. “Carrying our child and still standing here telling us you choose us.”
Cade lowers his head and takes one swollen nipple into his mouth. He sucks deep and strong, the pull sending sharp pleasure straight between my legs. Jax reaches around and cups my other breast, rolling the nipple between his fingers while he kisses the back of my neck.
I moan softly. The feeling of three sets of hands and three mouths on me at once is overwhelming in the best way.
Reeve stays on his knees, kissing and licking across my belly while his hands stroke every inch of the swell. Cade switches to my other breast and sucks even harder, groaning when he tastes the faint sweetness already starting to leak. Jax keeps whispering low against my ear.
“This body is ours. This belly. This baby. You. All of it.”
They take their time worshiping me. Cade devours my breasts with dominant hunger, sucking and biting just enough to make me gasp.
Jax’s hands roam my hips and sides while his mouth stays on my neck and shoulder.
Reeve maps my belly with slow kisses and touches, making sure I feel completely supported and claimed at the same time.
My knees start to feel weak from the overwhelming attention.
Cade feels the shift in my body immediately. Without a word, he slides one arm behind my back and the other under my thighs, lifting me like I weigh nothing.
He carries me across the room while Jax and Reeve follow close. They arrange the pillows on the wide bed with quick efficiency—Cade props two behind my shoulders and upper back so I’m half-reclined, comfortable, and fully supported. Reeve adds another under my hips, tilting me just enough.
They lay me down together.
Cade settles on my left side, Jax on my right, and Reeve moves between my spread thighs. The way they position themselves feels practiced, even though it’s not like they’ve already thought through every angle that keeps both the baby and me safe.
Cade claims my mouth first, kissing me deep and slow, his hand cupping the side of my face.
Jax leans in and latches onto my right breast, sucking with that open, hungry intensity that is so uniquely him.
He moans against my skin as he draws my swollen nipple deep into his mouth, tongue working in lazy, filthy circles.
Reeve spreads my thighs wider and lowers his mouth to my pussy.
His first lick is slow and exploratory, tasting me thoroughly before he settles into a precise rhythm.
Two fingers slide inside me, curling exactly where I need them while his tongue focuses on my clit with calm, unrelenting focus.
He reads my body like he reads everything else—adjusting pressure and speed the moment my hips twitch or my breath catches.
The sensations crash over me from every direction.