Page 113 of Mafie Queen

Evie sits up in his lap, scolding him with her eyes. “Your fathernever saved Damien from the abusive asshole.Your fathernever endured the pain he did. AndBorissure as hell never savedme, so he hasnoclaim over the death of the man that tortured me for years and took my parents from me. He can throw a fit for all I fucking care—these deaths belong to us.”

He smiles up at her, one of the rarest gifts he can give.

“I have no arguments there, Princess. I was just informing you that he might be after the same thing. He tends to not always think of others before himself.”

“Then I guess we'll just have to teach him then, won’t we?”

He wraps his arms around her and chuckles.

“I have a strong feeling you’re going to teach us all plenty.”

Evie laughs, and we all know he’s right. The loudest silence stretches out before Damien breaks it again. “So, any ideas on what you guys want to do over the next few days before training begins?”

“I know I want a painting day with Evie,” I say. “The walls in my room are too boring.”

“You trust me to help paint the walls?” Evie asks, stunned and confused.

“With the proper supervision,” I tease. She splashes water at me, and I splash her back, accidentally getting Alexi in the process. His face hardens, and he glares death at me before looking at Evie.

Then, out of fucking nowhere, Alexi gets out of the water only to jump right back in the middle, splashing all of us and sending water everywhere. It’s a good thing this room is basically just a large pool house.

Evie howls with laughter, and Damien launches himself towards Alexi. They begin brawling like two kids fighting over the last cookie. I slide over to Evie, and we prop ourselves up on one of the benches, watching the two of them duel.

Her head falls to my shoulder as I tug her close. This next week will be a lot for her. We all have a big day coming up that no one has told Evie about.

“Hey, has Alexi told you what Wednesday is?”

“No,” she says, turning to face me with those gorgeous gray eyes.

“It’s the anniversary of our mothers’ deaths. We usually all go to their graves together and leave flowers.”

“Oh.” Her face falls, and I hate that I’ve ruined the moment, but I wasn’t telling her so she would feel sad.

“I wanted to see if you would like come with us?”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m pretty damn sure I want my wife by my side while I go to see my mother’s grave.”

A soft smile touches her lips.

“I like it when you refer to me as your wife.”

She lands a gentle peck on my cheek, and I squeeze her tight. “Good, because you’ll be hearing it for the rest of your life.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” Her head falls into the crook of my neck before she shoots up. “Wait, are you going to bring backup?”

I shake my head startled. “No, why would we need backup?” The boys stop wrestling to tune in.

“What do we need backup for?” Damien asks.

Evie looks at us as if we have all lost our minds.

“Visiting your mothers’ graves.”

Damien stills at that while Alexi draws in a deep breath. “We do not need backup because it is a private matter.”

I can feel Evie’s body coiling for a fight. This is probably the most sensitive subject we could touch on, and I don’t want tension here.

---