I let him go anyway, though, dropping him to his feet so abruptly that he wasn’t prepared and fell straight to his knees.
I used the position he was in to my advantage, and lifted my knee up to aim at his face.
His nose crunched, and blood and snot started to spew.
“Let me enlighten you,” I hunkered down to his level, and stared him straight in the eyes. “You raped and assaulted my very soon-to-be wife.”
“And what, you’re here to kill me?” Josh shot back nasally.
I shook my head. “No. I’m here to let you know that you didn’t break her.”
Josh’s head tilted. “Why the fuck would I care?”
I shrugged. “I’m also here to tell your cellmate that you raped my woman. Do you know why he’s in here?”
Josh’s eyes flicked up to the bunk, and then back to me, panic started to leach into his eyes.
“I see that you do.” I stood up and backed away, nearly smiling when Josh’s cellmate got off the top bunk and hit the solid concrete floor with a soft thud.
“You told me you were in here for boosting a car,” Josh’s cellmate snarled, rage clear and evident in his voice.
“I did boost cars,” Josh lied frantically.
I backed away until I was now standing in the hallway.
Once I was clear of the door, Ghost shut it.
“I can’t believe you were able to get him moved in here with that man.”
Tate Casey was a bruiser. His arms were lined with tattoos, and it was clear that even while on the inside, he hadn’t missed a workout.
He was one of my brother’s men. He’d worked for Hail Auto Recovery and had been on a job one night when he’d come upon a couple of gang members raping a young girl, no older than fourteen.
After beating each and every one of them to death, he’d then gone and taken out five more of the gang before he was caught and detained by police officers.
Though he’d done the city justice, Tate Casey had priors, and he was sent to prison for his misdeeds.
He was going to spend a few years in the pen, but those years would be easy years. At least in prison standards.
“Thanks for the favor, man,” I said to Ghost as we walked down the hallway.
The guard who’d been on ‘break’ came back and nodded at us as we passed, grinning slightly when he heard Josh’s screech of pain. “Have a good day, boys.”
The older guard was fuckin’ hilarious, and obviously didn’t like Josh all that much either.
Although we could’ve done this without him, it worked out well that he was helpful.
“Anything else you need help with before I head home?” Ghost asked. “Mina’s been texting me all day telling me that the girls are driving her nuts.”
I grinned.
“I got one text today,” I said. “Audrey told me that I better have chocolate and dinner waiting for her when she got home from her shift, because she had a ‘really awful, no good, very bad day,’” I chuckled. “Thanks for the help,” I said to Ghost, offering him my hand.
Ghost took my hand.
“I’d do anything for you after you put a smile on my sister’s face like the one I saw yesterday,” he told me bluntly. “If you ever need me, I’m there.”
We parted ways, and as I drove home, food and chocolate in the seat next to me, I realized that I’d hit the proverbial jackpot.
And as I pulled into the driveway, I saw Audrey waiting on the porch for me, eggs in a basket at her side, and a feeling of peace swept over me.
Stepping out of the car, I rounded it and grabbed dinner, holding them both up for her inspection.
“Good?” I asked.
Her eyes crinkled at the sides.
“Perfect.” She stopped. “Almost.”
“Almost?” I asked, heading up the her.
She nodded. “Almost.”
“What would make it perfect?” I asked, stopping two steps down from her, making us at almost eye level.
“If you kissed me.”
Epilogue
Real men make triplets.
-T-shirt
Tobias
I stared at my phone, confused.
“You want to do what?” I asked.
Audrey started to growl under her breath.
“But we’re getting married in four hours,” I tried.
“I know that, Tobias,” she said through what sounded like gritted teeth. “But they have an opening, and if I don’t do it today, then I won’t get to see the baby for a whole two weeks since we’re going on our honeymoon tomorrow.”
I gave up.
She’d been talking about this for days, about how excited she was to see the baby. The baby that we’d started working on no less than three weeks ago. Which was funny, since she was now eight weeks pregnant.
Audrey’s best guess was that her birth control shot had worn off before it was supposed to, and she apologized. I’d, of course, been ecstatic.
“Fine,” I said. “But you know that if we go, that I’m going to see you before the wedding, and all that bullshit about me sleeping alone last night was for nothing, right?”
That had been what bothered me the most. I’d wanted to sleep with Audrey in my arms, just like we’d done since we’d gone on the cruise together. She’d, however, won that argument. And I’d slept alone for the first time in a very long time.
It sucked.
I missed her stealing the blankets. I missed her rolling over until she was snuggled up to my side, only to roll back over moments later—with the covers.
Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, and I was now in a grumpy mood.
“Come pick me up in five minutes,” she ordered.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my keys.
“Where are you going?” Reed and Finley asked at the same time, both of them seated on my couch and eating out of a bag of potato chips that was on the cushion in between them.
“Apparently, Audrey was able to finagle an appointment today.”
“But you’re getting married today.”
I gave Reed a look that clearly said what I was feeling.
Reed started to laugh.
“Have fun.”
“I hope you see twins.”
I flipped him off. “One is all I’m hoping to see today.”
Forty-five minutes later, I was in a state of utter and complete shock.
“You’re fucking kidding, right?” I licked my lips carefully, trying not to betray my rising panic.
The doctor, who’d been really cool with me and my misgivings at the last doctor appointment, shook his head. “Nope. There’s one. There’s two. There’s three.”
I felt lightheaded, and I lost feeling in my face as he pointed them out.
And then I fainted. Like a little fucking bitch.
When I came to, Audrey was leaning over the side of the bed looking at me.
Her eyes were wide, and she was staring at me like I’d surprised her.
“Are you okay?”
I thought about that for a moment.
My head hurt, and I was laying on a floor covered with stuff that I probably didn’t want to be laying in, seeing as it was a OB/GYN’s office, and I was about to have three kids at the same time.
“I don’t think so.”
She nodded like she knew exactly what I was talking about.
“I don’t think I am either,” she admitted. “I think this might very well kill us.”
I started to laugh, and then curled up until I was sitting up, just inches from her face.