Page 51 of Worth Risking It

“Yeup.”

Both of us staring at the water, I extended my arm to let him take another sip before giving it back.

“You know.” I took a deep breath, held it, and huffed loudly. “From the day we were born, we always knew one day, we could possibly die because of the Pampinella’s.”

“Never thought we would be killed by one, though,” he grumbled, finishing my thought. Sniffing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “What the fuck was he thinking? He’s our brother, but I can’t help but think he deserved this.”

Horrified, my attention snatched to him, my jaw falling.

“Don’t even look at me like that,” he hissed without facing me. “You and I both know he signed his death certificate the second he even thought about fucking Amanda. And to be stupid enough to not cap it and knock her up?”

Anxiety quickened my pulse as my focus snapped to the water again. Chugging another gulp, I mentally tried to tally how many times I came inside Chastity. It had to be hundreds by now.

“He knew better,” he whispered, pumping his fist in the air. “Why would he be so stupid?”

Dropping my legs and crossing them, I bent forward, digging the bottom of the bottle in the sand. “Maybe he fell in love with her.”

A quiet chuckle rumbled from his chest. “Love? The Shaw’s are not built for love, brother.”

“You don’t love your wife?”

He snorted, taking the wine. “I mean, I guess a little. She’s smoking hot, great in bed, has given me four great sons, hell of a housekeeper. And she knows how to keep her mouth shut; she’s very loyal. She’s great. I guess I do love her, but not enough to die for.”

“Would you kill for her?”

“In a heartbeat. That’s mine. She’s good to me, she’s good to my boys.”

“Then you would die for her.”

He squinted and tipped his head to peek at me over his bicep. “What’s up with you?”

My thumbnail picked at the yellowed label. “You ever thought about what you would be if you weren’t a Shaw?”

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno. Have you ever wanted to be something other than an assigned bodyguard for a Pampinella? If we had been born under normal circumstances, what would you have done with your life?”

He blinked slowly, suspiciously. “What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering—”

“There ain’t nothing to wonder about, kid. We are Shaw’s. That’s what we are born for. This is our purpose.”

“But, I mean, your kids. Your sons. What if they wanted to go off to college, become doctors or lawyers or…beach bums? Fall in love with a stranger, get married…have daughters.”

“What the fuck is going on with you, Wyatt? What’s all this love talk shit? You’re freaking me out.”

Chortling, the opening of the bottle hovered in front of my open mouth, my head shaking. “I was just asking questions, man. Just curious.”

“There ain’t nothing to be curious about. Our parents had us to protect a Pampinella. My sons were born to protect Jack’s kids. One day, you will have sons to protect Milo’s. That’s it, man. That’s all there is,” he barked, slicing his hand through the air.

“And what if I wanted a daughter?”

A leg fell to the sand and tucked under the other as he turned toward me, an incredulous expression on his face. “What the hell would you want a daughter for?”

An image of a little girl with a mixture of mine and Chastity’s features flickered in my brain, and I smiled, my heart skipping. The night I put her on a plane to go to Florida, I had had a dream where she was my wife, running Wanderlust Masseuse, I had a regular job, and we had a beautiful daughter who had us wrapped around her finger.

“This is because of Chazzy, isn’t it?”