Page 70 of Pay the Price

And if it was a girl, she would be like Willa — strong and funny and beautiful. Her eyes would sparkle when she talked and she would light up every room with her smile.

It would be like having a little Willa running around, except that version of Willa would be us too. She would be the best of all of us, because that was what we were going to give our baby, boy or girl.

Willa placed her hand on my face, the way she did when she really wanted my attention. And it always fucking worked too, because when she looked at me like that, like she was looking at me now, I’d do anything in the fucking world for her.

Who was I kidding? I’d do anything in the fucking world for her all the time.

“What would we have done without each other?” she asked.

I felt like my fucking heart was about to stall in my chest because I knew the answer: we would have been lost forever without each other. Fuck, I’d already been lost when Willa had come to Aventine, just like I’d been lost in that closet when we were kids until she’d opened the door.

“Our baby will have us,” I reminded her.

She nodded. “But you never know what this world is going to throw at them. Isn’t it better to have lots of people to count on?”

“Our baby won’t need to count on anybody else,” I said, because I was a stubborn motherfucker, even with Willa.

She smiled, like she knew I was in a mood and wasn’t going to give in, which was correct. “Okay, thenI’dlike some community. Claire and Mara are still in school. They don’t even have boyfriends, let alone three of them. And I like Daisy. I can be there for her while she sorts out this thing with the Beasts, and I’ll be able to talk to her about stuff that’s harder for other people to understand.”

Now I got it. Willa was still young — only twenty-one — and she was about to be a mother — and a wife to all of us once she decided whether she wanted to have the wedding before or after the baby was born.

It felt natural and right, but I knew not everybody saw it that way, that it was hard to understand, even for people like Claire and Mara — Willa’s two best friends — who didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

Plus, Willa was still on the outs with her mom — they talked, but they were a long way from being close — and I guessed she might feel sad that her mom wasn’t around when she was going to get married and have a baby.

So yeah. Willa might not be lonely, but she didn’t have anyone who really understood her life. She was making it clear that she wanted that, and my only fucking mission in life had become to give Willa everything she wanted, so a cookout with the fucking Beasts it was.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “But only if you let me make you come before they get here.”

Her breath caught in her throat as I slipped my hands back into her shorts.

“Here?”

“Right fucking here,” I said, stroking through her wet folds. “I want these two cookout-hosting motherfuckers to watch. It’s the least they can do.”

Chapter 42

Daisy

Isighed with happiness as I sank into the pool at the Kings’ house. It was a gorgeous patio area, expertly designed with the huge modern pool, a hot tub, and an expansive patio complete with a full outdoor kitchen under a stone palazzo.

I’d been iffy on coming when the Beasts had mentioned it (see aforementioned headache, hangover, and all the work I had to do on the house), but now I was glad we’d come.

It was at least ninety degrees and the pool felt absolutely delicious. Six hotter-than-hot men ambled around the patio, giving each other shit in a bikini-melting display of inked skin, sculpted muscle, and flat abs that was enough to set the surrounding woods — ringing the perimeter of the lush lawn — on fire.

“Thank you for this,” I told Willa, who’d sunk next to me into the water.

She was so pretty, her blond hair piled onto her head, green eyes sparkling. Thanks to her pregnancy, she was rounder than when I’d seen her last, and it suited her. She looked soft and happy, so different from the first time I’d seen her when she’dbeen on the run from Neo’s stepfather and had needed to crash at my house with the Kings.

“Thankyou,” she said. “If it were up to the Kings, we’d never leave the bedroom, let alone have company.”

I laughed and felt my cheeks get hot. Willa was probably the only person in Blackwell Falls who understood my situation with the Beasts — minus the murdered-brother part.

“Was it weird?” I asked. “At first, I mean.”

She turned over onto her stomach and folded her arms on the edge of the pool. “It was and it wasn’t. I think I just knew everyone else would think it was weird, but when I put all that aside, when I just thought about whatIwanted, howIfelt, it seemed totally right.”

“I think that’s where I’m getting hung up,” I said. “Except it’s not just the… harem thing.”

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