EPILOGUE
SABLE
Two Weeks Later
The castle is so quiet, the stillness is starting to freak me out. There are too many ghosts trapped here; I expected more of them to make noise. My men are far from me in the different reaches and wings that suit their own needs. We could be miles apart, yet somehow still inside the same building. That was always true, but it’s so much more poignant now that it’s just the six of us here.
Or so we think.
Since we killed everyone who needed to die and let the rest of them go, we found out it’s not just Nina living like a fucking rat in my tunnels. We’ve found three interlopers still living deep within the castle, and given the secret mountain passages we found, there may be many more to discover. For now, though, there’s no way for anyone but them to get to me inside my own wing.
The boys have been asking me what I want, what my plans are, and it’s hard to say. There are literally billions of dollars’ worth of equipment and assets on this university’s campus. Lex had the idea of making the medical school into a research hospital, and that seems like a good place to start.
If we were going to reopen any part of Bellthorn as a school, there would need to be many serious changes first. Medical care seems easier for now. I used to be an extremely selfish person, and the idea of having a mountain castle for myself and my five boyfriends sounds too delicious to pass up, but maybe that’s not what’s best for everyone. Maybe the reason everything went so terribly wrong with the Founders and my parents was that their greed always got in the way.
What if I did the right thing, whether I liked the idea or not?
The signature scent of the delicious cologne reaches me a moment before his warmth envelops me. I know it’s Lex right away. I know them all by the way they smell, by the way they walk. An arm wraps around my waist, and he pulls me into him. “I like seeing you like this,” he says.
“Like what?”
“Relaxed. Calm. Happy.” He kisses my neck between each word.
“Mmm,” I agree. “Where are the others?”
“Working on a surprise for you.”
I tense up against him.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“I’ve had a lot of surprises in my life, and very few of them have been pleasant, if you can believe it.”
He laughs just a little, but it’s not a happy sound. “Let us change that for you. This one is a good surprise, I promise.”
“Well, if you promise, I’ll reserve judgment,” I tease.
“Oh no, not Sable Briarwick’s awesome judgment,” he teases back, but this is insulting enough, so I slap him. He laughs for real this time.
“You’re lucky I have terrible judgment, or I wouldn’t be in love with you.”
“You’re in love with me?” he asks, happiness and marveling in his tone.
“I think that’s quite obvious, unfortunately,” I answer him, annoyed with just how much he’s teasing me.
“I love you in a way I never imagined it was possible to love. I used to think the type of love I feel for you was a lie to keep wives quiet, but you are in fact, my soul.”
“How romantic. I forced you to love me despite your nature.”
“You never forcedmeto love you,” Parker says as he joins our embrace.
“You stalked her, Parker. If she had figured it out sooner, she could have pressed charges and forced you into jail instead.”
“The system is extremely corrupt. I wouldn’t have served any time. Just like we killed a couple dozen people and we’re not taking a visit to the electric chair.”
I never thought I’d be thankful for corruption. That’s just a little too Uncle Carl of me.
“You guys see what’s out there?” Orion barges in with a cardboard box in hand. “There’s some good stuff!”
