Page 74 of Bastard

The club morphed in the absence of Todd and the illegal activities, but the relationships stayed pretty much the same. Even though Riddick now sat at the head of the table, everyone still called Jace the boss because he handled the money. In fact, it was now the road name Jace went by.

Not Bastard.

Not Red.

Just Boss.

I may occasionally play around with it in bed, too. Sometimes.

“How’s my favorite princess?” Riddick asked when we joined them.

“She’s reveling in her grandmother’s attention and demanding fealty from Neil.”

Riddick fought back a laugh. “As it should be. Especially with you two as parents.”

“Hey,” Jace frowned. “No, actually. That’s right.”

That set us all off. I wiped away some tears from laughing so hard. “She’ll be the proper heir to two empires. Bossing Devil’s Wrath around while running Stroman.”

“Now that I believe.” Riddick nodded. “Hey Boss, I forgot to tell you, the charity run is getting moved up an hour. We have the route all settled and the donations square. Everything is good to go.”

Jace clapped his hands together. “This is the biggest one yet. I can’t believe how much money we’re on track to donate.”

I was probably most proud of what the boys had done with Devil’s Wrath in such a short time. Their legal businesses were booming and now they had two major fundraisers a year that brought in over a million dollars each—with no help from me. They were doing good in their community. It got weird with the Pythons for a little while, but when they realized Todd was really gone and no one in Devil’s Wrath cared about them anymore, they essentially took their money and ran.

There was a knock at the door and Teddy unlocked it to let one more couple in. David and his mysterious girlfriend, Anastasia. She claimed to be an art dealer but everything about her screamed spy. A spy who knew a lot about art, but still a spy. Her reflexes were too fast and too well-honed for a normal person. Plus, she always seemed to be gone.

But she was here tonight.

“Hey there!” David hugged me. “It’s been ages!”

“Ha, ha,” I deadpanned. We had lunch earlier today. Anastasia worked out of an office near the island and whenever David stayed with her, we had lunch. “Good to see you again, Anastasia. How’s the art world?”

“Mysterious and dangerous.” She winked. “Can I interest you in a Van Dyne?”

“I’m not currently buying expensive art, but you’ll be the first person I call when I’m ready.” Although, owning a piece by the mysterious British artist would be fun. “Can you really get a Van Dyne?”

Anastasia’s eye glittered. “I can get anything. But I only deal in legal art transactions. Also, yes. I actually know N—I mean, Van Dyne. If you wanted a piece, even a custom piece of artwork by her, I could arrange it.”

Everyone knew Van Dyne was a pseudonym for the artist, but so far no one actually knew who she was. The mystery was driving the art world wild with conspiracies and comparative art analysis. The mystery was as good as the art.

And Anastasia knew who it was… “Good to know.”

Teddy arranged for us all to sit together at one large table. Dinner was as delicious as promised, and as happy as I was for Teddy’s success, I was mostly happy to have a night out with my husband and our closest friends. Jace held my hand whenever it was realistic. And sometimes when it wasn’t. Just before dessert was served Teddy stood up, waving in two waiters with trays of champagne. “I would like to make a toast.”

I settled into Jace, my head on his strong shoulder, a glass in each of our hands.

“A long time ago I was a lonely kid. I didn’t really get along with my folks and the kids at school thought I was pretty weird. But I could play baseball. I met Jace and eventually Abel Riddick. There was this girl who always hung around, too.” He pointed at me. “Abel, Jace, and me…we didn’t get a great start in life. And maybe we went the wrong way about living it? I don’t know. All I did know was that the only people who cared about me at all were these two assholes. We went into life together as strangers and came out as brothers.”

I felt Jace tense up. His hand on my leg started to dig in.

“Sometimes people say they’d die for someone else, but we actually mean it. We even picked up this Storm guy. We became a family. We got through the dark times together. By having each other’s backs. And I just wanted you to know that even though you’ve all grown up and picked up some ladies and had some kids, I still got your back.”

“And some free food?” Storm joked, but he definitely had a tear in his eye.

“Yeah, yeah. Free food too. To family.” He held up his champagne.

We all stood up, holding out our glasses. “To family.”

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