Morgan and Clay head over to the kitchen, where Greyson is pulling out a few beers as well as non-alcoholic ones. They come back carrying the lot, handing one out to everyone. Except for Morgan and Emma, who get the non-alcoholic versions,and me, who gets a damn water bottle.
“Sorry, man. Your woman said no beer or anything bubbly.” Greyson chuckles as he hands it over.
Everyone rises from their seats, standing in a circle in the center of the room. Veronica gently slips off my legs and takes my arm as I try to stand from the armchair.Fuck, I’m going to need my pain meds again.
“I’ll get you them right after,” Veronica whispers with a tender smile, reading my mind.
I nod and stand beside Aubrey, Veronica at my opposite side with Gabe at hers. Silas and Cecilia hold each other beside Gabe, followed by Clay and Morgan doing the same, as well as Greyson and Emma between them and Aubrey.
I bring my arm around Veronica’s waist, just as Gabe places his around her shoulder. Both of us holding on to our girl. We all lift our bottles toward the middle, pressing them together and looking at each and every one of us.
It’s a beautiful thing to see, this life we’ve all built together. This group that started off as strangers, then friends, and now family. People we would do anything for. People we would die for. Kill for. None of us are perfect, but we complete each other. We’re a team.
“To family.” I lift my water bottle a little higher.
They all join in, hitting their beer bottles to my plastic one. “To family.”
I take a sip of my drink then look at the beautiful goddess in my hold, just as Gabe does the same. And without needing to communicate, we’re in sync, just like we’ve always been. We both lean in simultaneously and kiss her cheek on either side.
“To loving you,” I whisper into her ear.
“To making babies,” Gabe whispers in her other. She giggles and pushes us away as we laugh.
Gabe looks at me over her head, since this is one of the rare times she’s not wearing heels and matching our height. “She didn’t say no,” he whisper-shouts.
I smirk at him, then grin down at Veronica rolling her eyes at me. “She didn’t say no.”
Chapter forty-five
Epilogue
Hell unleashed…
VERONICA
~ Four Weeks Later / End of November ~
We finally found our home.
It’s not near our friends, like we originally planned, but it’s perfect. We’re closer to the boys’ training facility, just on the outskirts of Scarsdale, New York. It’s a beautiful three-story, five-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion.Yes, I said mansion.With a large in-ground pool, a four-car garage, and a huge, and I mean huge, backyard. The place is gated and gives us complete privacy. Our master bedroom takes up the entire top floor with its own balcony overlooking the backyard.
The second floor has four bedrooms that we aren’t sure what to do with yet, but the boys are excited at the idea of filling it with kids. I have to agree; there is more than enough room here to have a whole herd of them.
The main level contains two living rooms, an entertainment room, kitchen, and two dining rooms. Along with a wine cellar, gym, two offices, and library that we most likely won’t be using again. A laundry room, mudroom, way too many closets and storage rooms, and a fully finished basement that we are thinking of turning into a game room for when the gang is over. We also have a pool house at the back that has an apartment above it.I should ask Aubrey if she wants to move in up there, she’d love it here.
There’s so much space that I have no idea what we’ll do with it all, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We came to visit it last week while Gabe was away, but I fell in love with it the moment we stepped in.
I video called Gabriel and showed him everything and told him this was it. This was our forever home. The boys made an offer right away, and now we are back to sign everything and make it officially ours, and Gabe finally gets to see the place in person.
I wander around our future bedroom, looking over the huge space and what we could fill it with. The realtor just left after handing us the keys and showing us how to change the codes for the front door and garage. We plan on moving in slowly, since we don’t have any furniture or anything yet except for clothes. But we’ll hopefully be in our home within the next two weeks.
Gabe, Noah, and I haven’t been back to the penthouse since the whole incident. None of us really feel comfortable going back there. But we’re lucky enough to have great friends who went to collect all our things for us, and Silas has officially put it up for sale.
You’d think having a murder in a place would bring down its value, but apparently that isn’t the case for New York. He’s been receiving crazy offers from the second it was listed.
I stroll out onto the balcony, setting my hands on the cold railing as I look down at the beautiful snow-covered lawn. We had our first snowfall just yesterday, and it makes the place look even more picturesque. Being here feels like a vacation home that you get to live in for the rest of your life, and that’s exactly the feeling I was looking for when we were visiting places.
Noah comes out a few minutes later, joining me with his arms circling my waist from behind around my winter coat. He’s been doing really well and says the pain is all gone; he even stopped needing his painkillers, so I guess he means it. But I can tell he’s excited to get back to his life. He misses working out and moving around.
