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Epilogue
Gauge
“What are you smiling about?” I ask Atlas.
My brother has had his eyes glued to his wife since they arrived at headquarters with their twins. Every time she turns to look at him, he’s already staring at her with the cockiest grin plastered on his mug. Jo just rolls her eyes and gives him a dazzling smile.
Atlas turns his attention back to me, his grin still stuck on his face. “We’re having twins.”
I blink. For a smart guy, my best friend can be obtuse at times. “Bro, I think you mean you had twins.”
The alpha asshole giggles—fucking giggles. He shakes his head. “Nope. You heard me right. We’re having another set of twins. Knocked her up real good last night.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.This smug guy thinks he’s a fucking fortune teller. “Atlas, it was a fluke the first time when you called it. I can’t believe you two already had sex. Isn’t it too soon?”
Atlas shrugs. “I mean, yeah, it’s a little soon to get pregnant again. The twins are only six weeks old, but we can handle it. Josephine is an amazing mother—like superwoman or some shit. This pregnancy is going to be a fucking breeze compared to the last one. I suggested wrapping up, but when she slid down on me, skin on skin… No fucking way was I going to back out of that tight clutch. Goddamn, it felt good having her riding me hard again.”
“Jesus!” I grimace, trying hard not to cringe. Atlas tends to over-share when it comes to his relationship with Jo. “I was talking about whether it was too soon to have sex after the pregnancy, not whether it was too early to have more kids. Thanks for the colorful visuals of my kid sister fucking my best friend.”
Atlas throws his head back and guffaws with carefree laughter.
It’s a side of him I’ve never seen before. He’s finally at peace with his past. The moment he finished Esteban, you could see the change take hold of him. All his anger and hate washed out of him like dirty suds down the kitchen drain.
Don’t get me wrong, the dude is still dangerous as hell. Cross him and it may be the last thing you do, but the heaviness which once followed him everywhere has dissipated. He is truly content. He’s got his feisty wife and the first installment of the soccer team he’s trying to build with his kids. The man is rich with life in all the ways that matter.
I couldn’t be happier for my brother.
Atlas slaps a hand on my shoulder. “Call us even for all the times I’ve heard you going at it with Opal. You forget that’s my little sister you’re in love with.”
At the mention of Opal’s name, I look across the room at her snuggling one of our little nephews. She’s engrossed in a one-way conversation with the baby, cooing and singing out of key.
Too fucking precious.
“She looks mighty fine with a baby in her arms,” Atlas says at my side.
Yes. She. Does.
My cock punches against the zipper of my jeans, eager to find out whether Opal would be onboard for a baby of our own.
Who the hell am I kidding? Of course, she’d be on board. Opal has a natural nurturing gene. She’s dropped hints throughout our relationship she’d like a family one day.
I’ve been asses-over-teakettles for her since the moment I laid eyes on her stripping in that filthy club in Utah. She could have had her pick of anyone on the crew, but for whatever reason, she picked me—not even a competition. I was it for her since day one. She was it for me too, but I had to get out of my head before I realized I couldn’t live without her. Once I did, I fought like gangbusters to win her back, earn her trust, and gain her love. She was worth the uphill battle.
Won’t mince words—I love Opal with every ounce of my being. Need her like I need air to breathe. But she has ghosts more problematic than my own. My gorgeous woman has only begun to come to terms with what happened to her when she was a helpless teenager.
I’ve been through some heavy shit in my life between my crappy upbringing and life in the Navy, but watching the woman I love struggling to overcome a past that she never had a choice in makes all the rest seem insignificant. No amount of hurt or pain I’ve endured in my thirty-one years compares to the ache I feel for Opal overcoming her past trauma.
Every time I think of what that perverted fuck put her through, my blood spikes. He hurt her in ways that are not even sadistic but evil.
Some of my brothers have never had a hard time pulling a trigger or ending a life, like Atlas and Reaper. I’ve always had to justify it, with the pros heavily outweighing the cons.
But this guy, the pedophile who hurt the most precious woman in existence…I’ll kill him, no balance needed or extra effort in my thoughts.
No one hurts her and gets to walk away alive.
Chase comes out of the back hall from his tech lair and freezes in place. His eye home in on Simone holding our other nephew. He smirks and swaggers up behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder. She looks over her shoulder at him as he bends to place a kiss on the baby’s head. He then stares at her intently, saying something for her ears only.
Her lips pucker with disapproval. She grabs the throw pillow on the couch next to her and whacks him in the head. Chase curses, rubbing his face.
