Page 109 of King of Cruelty

Our mother smiled at all of us as she sat next to the fire—happy and free. The last bit in no small part due to the heartfelt pleas delivered to the parole board by Lyla and her mother. “That’s right. I’d swear you two were twins if I didn’t witness myself that the doctor only pulled one baby out of me that day.”

We laughed, broken only by Laurel running up and jumping on Sienna’s lap. “Yes, Auntie?”

“Oh, I was just saying how much your auntie Lyla loves you.”

“That’s right I do,” Lyla cooed, holding out her hands and catching Laurel when she ran giggling into them. “Who’s my favorite girl? Huh? Who does Auntie love more than anything?”

“Me! Me!”

My heart melted into a puddle watching my sister with my perfect girl. Every day I pinched myself, but Laurel remaineda high-energy, rambunctious five-year-old—racing throughout the Fairfield like she ran the place and everyone in it.

“Baby girl, did you finish your packing?” I asked. “We’re going to visit your brother tomorrow, remember?”

Yep, the next day, we were jetting off for Laurel’s monthly weekend with Damien, Talia, and Jeremiah. Damien still wasn’t father of the year, but after adopting Jeremiah, he finally started to wake up to what a massive asshole he’d been.

One weekend every month wasn’t much, but Laurel looked forward to it just as much as Damien, Talia, and Jeremiah did.

“I did it, Mommy,” Laurel confirmed. “I did it all myself.”

“Oh, really?”

Liam slid up to me, tossing me a covert headshake. He may have been forty years old, but the man was lean, hard, sexy, and gently greying like the fine-ass silver fox daddy he was. “Not a chance,” he muttered. “What she means is she supervised me packing her bag all by herself.”

I laughed. “That sounds about right. And thank you,” I said, kissing him hello. “I missed you.”

“You better have,” he growled, kissing me harder. “It’s been a whole six hours since I got my hands on you. You better have missed me so much, we need to go downstairs and do something about it.”

“Oooh.” I shivered. “Yes, please.”

“Mom.” Elizabeth pushed between us, snapping me back to reality. “How come I don’t get to go with Laurel to New York?” Her pout was out in full force. “She’s my sister, and sisters do everything together. Like you and Auntie Si and Auntie Lyla.”

Liam and I exchanged smiles over her head. We’d been having trouble explaining the family dynamics to Elizabeth, and why she couldn’t stay overnight in the home of a guy my guys still hated with all their guts. But even so, I loved how close mygirls were. They loved each other the way Sienna and I always loved each other. They had each other’s backs—forever.

“You are absolutely right,” I said. “So how about this? Tomorrow, you, Laurel, Jeremiah, me, and Daddy are going to spend the whole day together in Central Park. Sound fun?”

“Yeah!” She ran off. “Laurel, did you hear? I’m coming too!”

“Are Damien and Talia on board with that?” Liam asked.

“Yeah, I already cleared it with them. They’re actually looking forward to having some alone time. They’re going to make a date of it.”

“That’s good. It means Frost won’t be there,” he mused. “And his death is delayed another day.”

I rolled my eyes, chuckling. It may have been a long time ago, but Damien Frost hurt me, and that was something my guys would never forgive.

I rested my head on Liam’s shoulder, and then my arm around River when he came over, dropping a kiss on my temple.

So much had changed in the last five years since we faced our biggest threat. After Bane destroyed the drive, new alliances were made and new bonds forged, but all wasn’t forgiven.

Many people—former Brotherhood members and others—rose up to challenge the kings, as determined to topple them as they’d always been. And even though my heart stopped every time they went out to face those threats, my guys always came back.

They wouldn’t admit it, but I put their endless winning streak to the new and most important alliance they made, with River.

It took time, but a year after taking down Debra and her people, River officially joined the Merchants. So officially, he moved into the Fairfield, and brought all of his people with him—getting his second family off the streets and into the dozens upon dozens of empty apartments that were waiting to be filled.

Now I went to sleep every night under the same roof as all the guys I loved more than air.

“Are you two done slobbering all over each other?” Genny stormed over and plucked the cake box from my hand. “The birthday girl’s waiting.”

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