Page 226 of Psycho

I couldn’t even imagine it.

The world we lived in was a dangerous place, and we had painted a target on our women’s backs.

The only thing we could do was take caution and ensure they would never be alone without us with them.

We’d risked suffocating them, but it was better than the alternative.

Better than living in this world without them, that was for sure.

But things have been good for over four years now.

The King’s Men ruled the West, and with the backing of the Four Horsemen—a group of four men who ruled the country’s banking system—we were untouchable.

I was learning that having so many weaknesses in this world wasn’t bad after all.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Roman asked. “You might want to be careful, or Lainey’s gonna get jealous.”

I rolled my eyes at him and cupped the back of his head, pulling him closer to me.

He relaxed, his brown eyes soft.

“I’m taking Lainey home,” I said, pulling away.

He laughed. “You can’t.”

“Why the fuck not?”

The back door opened, and Dominic and Emmy walked out, holding a huge ass cake and reminding me why I couldn’t just leave with Lainey.

Fucking hell.

They brought the cake over to the table Lainey and Ryleigh were at and put it in front of my girl.

The bar wouldn’t be open for another couple of hours. Only a handful of us were there, including the kids, running around and playing with each other.

Ryker came up to me when he noticed the commotion, and I picked him up into my arms.

He looked more and more like his father the older he got, and at six, he was already the tallest kid in his class.

If I wasn’t such a big man, I might have trouble carrying him.

“What’s going on, Uncle Mickey?”

I stared down at the little brat. He grinned at me, showing off two missing front teeth.

Beside me, Roman sniggered. “Yeah,Uncle Mickey. Tell Ryker what’s going on and why you can’t just take his aunt home just yet?”

I took in a small, inaudible breath. “We’re celebrating Aunt Lainey’s graduation.”

“From college, right?”

I nodded, smiling a little, because despite wanting to take my girl home and ravish every delectable inch of her body, I was damn proud of her achievements.

Lainey had graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

She didn’t know what she wanted to do with it, yet, and I didn’t care if she couldn’t really do anything with the degree.

For all I cared, she could just hang up her degree and stay home with me for the rest of her life.

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