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“Yeah, yeah, bro. Keep your hair on,” Conner’s arms tighten around my waist. “We’ll be there. We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“I still can’t believe they’re getting married,” Remi adds, looking up at Ace. “We’re going to be—”
“Don’t say it,” he growls.
“Shit, bro,” Conner chuckles. “Imagine explaining that one to your kids. You’ll be their father and their step-uncle.”
“Con,” Remi warns.
“Oh, come on, that shit is funny.”
“No, what’s funny is how you’ll have to rock up to the wedding in a wheelchair if you keep pushing.”
“Relax, I’m joking. It’s a joke.”
“This is nice,” Hadley says, trying to instill some order again.
“What’s that, Hadley baby?”
“The six of us sitting here with everything behind us.”
A ripple goes through the room as Conner, Cole, and Ace share a brief look.
“What?” Hadley frowns.
“Nothing, Dove.” Cole drops a kiss on her head. “Everything is good.”
“Damn straight,” Conner adds, but I hear the hesitation in his words. His concerns can wait for another day. Nothing is going to ruin this moment.
“So long as we always look out for each other,” Ace says with a hint of pride, “nothing can touch us.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Cole grabs his juice box and thrusts it in the air.
“Family.”
“Family.” The word echoes through the room, and I know without a doubt I’ve finally found my place in the world. Right beside Conner and his two brothers.
And I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.
Epilogue
Conner
I'm standing at the front of the biggest, fanciest hotel room I've been in in my entire life, wearing a fucking suit and surrounded by people I don't know.
When James decided he wanted the three of us to be his best men, we all argued. But it seems what James Jagger wants, James Jagger gets, because here we all are, looking about as pleased as each other as we stand side by side, taking in the insanity around us.
"Who are all these people?" Cole whispers to me.
"Fuck if I know." Anger swirls around inside me.
The vast number of guests that we don't know just point toward the fact that we once again have no idea who our father is.
We've never met any of his friends, and the only 'work' colleagues were those who went storming into that warehouse before me and the bent cops at Joker’s a few days before.
Are we surrounded by people who know what kind of man James Jagger is? Could I ask any one of these people, these men, and would they give me a better answer than the man himself?
None of them scream I'm a member of a criminal gang but then, what do criminal gang members look like?
