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The guards with guns all tensed, but they didn’t move as I continued to shout for my sister.
Almost a full minute later, the door behind them opened, and Monroe stood there in a nightgown with a pretty kimono-style robe over it. Her hair was up in a messy knot on top of her head. But what had me pushing past all the men with scary guns was the sight of the black eye that had her right eye nearly swollen shut.
“The fuck happ
ened to you?” I touched her cheek under the swollen eye, causing her to flinch.
She grimaced. “I fell. Blood pressure dropped when I got up too fast.”
“Are you okay? Did you hurt anything else? The babies?” She shook her head, and I wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug. “Fuck, I missed you, Mon.”
She wrapped her arms around me too. “Missed you,” she mumbled.
“Hey,” Maverick called out. “Could you maybe call off the goons so I can get a hug too?”
Sighing, she glanced over her shoulder. “Gian?”
A man dressed in only sweat pants walked out of the shadows just inside the doorway and gave a terse order in Italian that had all the guns lowering. It was the first time I’d ever seen Gian Fontana in the flesh, but after all the pictures Barrick and Braxton had shown us the last few days, I knew it was him. He was a good-looking guy, but he wasn’t as tall as Lyric, nor as bulky. He had some killer abs, though, and when he looked at my sister, I saw what Lyric told me he’d seen in Gian’s eyes the night he took Monroe, and I began to relax.
As soon as the guns were out of the way, Maverick pushed his way forward and threw his arms around both of us.
When I had both my brother and sister to hold on to, I was finally able to breathe again. My heart skipped a beat and then began to work the way it was supposed to, and I had to blink back tears for a few seconds before I could get control of my emotions.
I had her back.
But then I looked at her face and wondered if I was going to get to keep her.
Chapter 21
Monroe
Seeing my sister and brother, having them wrap their arms around me with Gian only inches away, made the world feel right again. All that was missing were Mom and Daddy, and it would have been perfect.
But our parents weren’t there, and with twenty of Gian’s men still standing around holding guns—even though they weren’t pointed at anyone—it made me realize just how far from perfect this moment was. I glanced at the others, the “rescue party” that had come to take me home, and I grimaced.
Two of the men, I didn’t know, but I had to assume these were Lyric’s cousins that Mila mentioned. One had long, brownish-red hair pulled back into a bun, his thick beard giving me a bizarre Belle’s Beast kind of vibe. Beside him stood a guy with the same brown eyes the Beast had, but his hair was short and dark. It took me a while, but eventually my gaze landed on his legs, and I realized he had on a prosthetic blade, like I’d seen amputee runners wear.
Max and Reid were with them, but I wasn’t surprised. Uncle Bash was always sending Max when he couldn’t go himself, and we all knew he was being groomed to take over the MC one day. Reid, who was only a little older than Max, looked more like his brother than his cousin. Their dark hair, metallic-blue eyes that seemed to be a Reid trademark, and overwhelming height were so similar, they could have passed for twins in dim lighting.
Ben and Lyric were in the back of the group, but it was Ben who pushed his way through the guards to reach us.
He pulled me out of my siblings’ embrace into his own crushing hug. “It’s so good to see you, little one,” he said with a harsh sigh. “Lexa was so worried.”
I felt my chin begin to quiver at the mention of my cousin, and he quickly shook his head at me. “She sent me to tell you she’s sorry, Monroe. When she found out about the DNA test, she lost it. She feels so bad for giving you an ultimatum and wants me to beg you to forgive her.”
“I forgive her,” I rushed to assure him, relieved Lexa wasn’t going to make me choose any longer. “Of course I do.”
“Someone needs to tell me about this DNA test,” Gian said, pulling me away from Ben and behind him protectively.
I wrapped my arms around him from behind. When I touched him, I could feel some of the tension actually drain out of him. His hands covered mine, his thumbs caressing over my knuckles, but he kept his eyes trained on Ben.
My cousin-by-marriage faced Gian with a clenched jaw, but then he surprised me when he stuck out his hand. “You saved Lexa when you shot Adas Petrov three years ago. Thank you.”
After a small hesitation, Gian shook his hand. “I didn’t do it to save your wife. I was protecting Monroe.”
“But you still saved her,” Ben said. “And I’m still thankful.”
“The DNA test?” Gian reminded him.
