Page 6

CHAPTER SIX

violet

NOW

Heart in my throat, I watched as Luca gave his twin a back-pounding hug. It always took them a few minutes to stop and just reconnect again after being apart for so long. Two big men, both of them normally exuding power and strength that intimidated most people who didn’t know them—and some who did—had a moment of vulnerability as they soaked up finally being back where they belonged. Side by side, as they’d been since the womb when one embryo divided into two identical beings.

Having watched the original Thornton terrors all my life, I knew how hard it was on both Lyric and my husband that they lived so far apart. When we were teenagers, Lyric had been a huge part of what we’d expected to be our happily ever after.

Luca would get settled into whatever team he got drafted to. Then I would pick a college and follow him. We would buy a house big enough that Lyric could live with us and he could open his ink shop. The Thornton Terror Twins would reign supreme in whatever poor unfortunate NFL town we landed.

Those plans had gone up in flames that still left some of us shuddering at the choices we’d made. In the span of less than twenty-four hours, every dream had turned to smoke. No one had survived that one disastrous night unscathed. Fate had taken all our endgame plans and cackled loudly as it had torn each and every one of us apart.

I didn’t like remembering those years when all our lives had been in shreds that no one knew how to patch back together. But the memories weren’t as hard to relive now. Remington had been the glue that had fixed us. He’d taken one dream and turned it into something tragically beautiful.

My first husband had been an angel sent to earth solely to love me and our daughter, but he’d also been the salvation that Luca was graced with. Even more than fifteen years since his death, I never spent a day not whispering a thank-you to his spirit that watched over me and the family I’d made with Luca.

Lyric and Luca visited each other several times a year. They couldn’t go more than a few weeks without seeing each other before one of them got moody. Which was an understatement if I’d ever heard one. It was safer for everyone that we planned visits that weren’t just for major holidays.

Mila and Lyric tried to bring their four kids to West Bridge or Santa Monica as often as they could. But because of Lyric’s heavy schedule due to his art being in high demand, it was easier for us to go to Creswell Springs.

The brothers’ first hug after not seeing each other for a while was always emotionally charged. But I knew it would be so much worse when it was time for our visit to be over. It got harder and harder to witness every time we packed up to return home.

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to put Luca and Lyric through that too many more times. A lot of different factors were in play, but if all went well, my surprise for the brothers would be finalized before the end of our trip.

Shaw bumped her hip against mine as she walked over to join me, both of us smiling affectionately as we watched Luca press his forehead hard against his twin’s. They needed a few moments to simply breathe in the same air. Without thought, I wrapped my pinkie finger around Shaw’s, and we stood there absorbing the scene, remembering all our good childhood memories with the two troublemakers before us.

And then a loud war cry came from one of the many savage children running around the large front yard, breaking the moment. We all turned to see what was going on. Not surprisingly, it was a Thornton who was causing trouble. I released a small exhale, glad it wasn’t one of my Thorntons for once.

My two older boys were bouncing around after some of Arella’s kids, and I was thankful to see that Aidan and Ciaran were on the customized play set. That was close enough to the ground to keep my blood pressure from shooting for the sky. My youngest tried to give me a stroke daily. But when he was around so many of his cousins, someone was always whispering suggestions that my no-impulse-control child was ready to explore.

Love Bug was waiting near Jagger for her cases to be unloaded, chatting to him about something that had him smiling and nodding to whatever story she was telling him. Fallon had spotted Amala, Calina, and Jessa when we’d first arrived and had run over to chat with Amala, who was her go-to source for information.

Which was a good thing, in my opinion.

With a personality so much like Aunt Emmie’s, Fallon was the group fixer. She attempted to stay on top of situations where any of the others could—and usually would—get into trouble. Fallon would at least attempt to keep Jessa away from any of the other kids who struggled with impulse issues. The big brown eyes and deep dimples of Hayat’s daughter were irresistible. A few choice words and a flutter of those thick lashes, and she could cast a spell on anyone.

All our demons were accounted for except for Grier…

Ian had his brother pinned to the ground in some seriously impressive jujitsu move. I wondered if Sixx had been giving them lessons when he came with Ali to visit her sister, Abi. “I told you I was going to help Grier carry her things inside.”

“And I said there would be plenty of her crap that we could both help her,” Isaac raged back, trying to twist out of the hold. “Twenty people could help, and there would still be plenty of her crap for us to carry in. She has a case that’s full of just face goop.”

A sharp gasp quieted the boys quicker than anything I’d ever seen before. Grier stood a few feet from the fighting twins, her chin wobbling for all of three seconds before she slapped her hands on her hips and glared at Lyric’s sons, looking so much like Shaw at that age that a million different memories swam through my mind, making me smile. “My stuff isn’t crap. Or goop. And I don’t need or even want help from you two idiots.”

Ian and Isaac gaped up at her, their cheeks red from exertion and anger. Somehow, Isaac kicked out from under his brother and jumped to his feet. He took two steps forward to get to Grier, but she turned, letting her long blond hair flap back over her shoulder and smack him in the face like a whip. As she walked away, Ian swept his twin’s legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground with a painful-sounding crunch.

“Grier, wait up. I’ll help you,” Ian implored, jogging after her. “I would never call your stuff crap. It’s precious. Just like you. Hey, come on. Please don’t be mad at me because Isaac is practically brain-dead.”

She hmphed but didn’t give him so much as a glance.

“We will both help. I’m sorry, Grier. Come on, don’t be angry. I hate it when you’re mad at me,” Isaac pleaded. But my goddaughter had already tuned both boys out. She was Shaw 2.0 in every possible way, and I absolutely loved it. “I didn’t mean to call your crap…crap. I should have said stuff. Or things. I didn’t mean crap. Ugh! Will you please stop and forgive me?”

Grabbing her smaller carry-on that Jagger had just unloaded from the back of the SUV, she rolled it past the boys without so much as a flicker of her thick lashes in their direction. Jagger paused, placing another case on the ground for the other kids to grab, shifting his gaze from the boys to his eldest daughter to where Shaw and I stood on the porch, and then back to Grier.

His lips twitched, but he was quick to hide his grin by diving back into unloading the endless amount of luggage. There were so many of us, between Shaw and Jagger’s two girls and my five monsters, that it took two huge SUVs to transport all of us anywhere we went together, which tended to be almost everywhere. It wasn’t even the time of year for a major holiday. Our kids were on spring break, and everyone else had decided to spend it in Creswell Springs too.

“I know it gets cooler up here than back home, but dang, girl, that was arctic,” Love Bug praised as she slipped the strap of one of her pieces of luggage over her shoulder. The two girls walked up the steps of the ridiculously large house Aunt Emmie and her friend Anya Vitucci had built for all our families to stay in when we visited for holidays, or just because.

There was plenty of space for all of our extended relatives, but if we were going to make Creswell Springs our home base, as I hoped to, we were going to need our own house. Our own space for our many…needs.

Which was my secret reason for our spring break visit. It had been chaotic trying to keep the surprise to myself, but I was so close to being able to reveal it.

As the girls walked by, Lyric held out his fist. “That’s my girl. Don’t let any little pricks disrespect you, kid.”

Grier bumped her fist against his, a ghost of a smirk teasing her lips, her dimple appearing for all of a half second before she marched into the house with Love Bug right behind her.

Luca elbowed his brother hard in the ribs, making him groan in discomfort. “Don’t say prick around the girls.”

Lyric rolled his brown eyes, annoyance flashing over his handsome face. “For fuck’s sake, brother. You gotta calm down. Love is a teenager. She probably hears all kinds of foul language at school. Besides, prick isn’t even that bad. Remember how we were around Vi and Shaw at that age?” Both men tensed, going on a little trip down memory lane that had the potential to make either of them homicidal, thinking of anyone acting the way they had around our girls.

Shaw and I tried to hide our laughter behind coughs, but the guys were so lost in their thoughts for a moment, I doubted they heard us. Lyric shifted his head to look straight at his sons, leaving the past behind where it belonged. Mostly. “I could have called them fucking assholes, and no one could say I was a liar. Both of you walk over to the shop and assist your mother with whatever she and River might need help with. I find out you didn’t make it over there or didn’t help them, you’ll spend the next two weeks regretting every bad decision you’ve ever made in your short lives. Which, I can promise you, I’ve been keeping a tally of.”

“Can we go too?” Ethan ran over and stopped at the bottom step, his twin right beside him. They looked up to Ian and Isaac, which would have been adorable if my eldest set of twins weren’t so diabolical on their own. Add in Ian and Isaac influencing them, and that was a recipe for nuclear destruction. “We promise to help Aunt Mila.”

Luca shared a look with his brother, an entire conversation taking place without a word having to be uttered. Lyric nodded, and Luca glanced over at me. I shrugged, leaving the decision up to him, and he sighed. We didn’t have to worry about things like we did back in Santa Monica. Or even West Bridge. Creswell Springs was safe.

Well, safer . But it wasn’t the current residents I needed to worry about. It was the chaos my horde of heathen children left behind them wherever they went. But we didn’t have to deal with paparazzi stalking us here. My kids could walk down the street to their cousins’ house without needing a bodyguard. We could be ourselves here, because the town was protected in a way that was perhaps morally gray to most people. And that was oddly comforting to me. My family was safe and happy here, and it had a little to do with the Angel’s Halo MC—and the mafia royalty who lived next door.

Now that Luca was retired and getting restless after a few years of just soaking up the joys of life, we needed a full-time residence. For all of us. Lyric and Luca’s connection wasn’t the only thing I’d considered when choosing our forever home. Creswell Springs could give us everything we’d ever dreamed of.

Luca grunted and gave our sons a firm nod. “Fine. But I find out either of you has caused any trouble and we’re gonna have issues. You feel me, boys?”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.

“Go on, then.”

Lyric slung his arm around Luca’s neck, half dragging him down the steps to where Jagger was still unloading. “Come on, slacker. Stop expecting Jags to do all the heavy lifting. Did you let yourself go? Your muscles don’t work anymore?”

“Fuck you, asshole,” Luca grumbled, the curse words flowing freely without Love Bug’s “innocent” ears close enough to hear.

Shaw released a light laugh while she watched the boys chase after their cousins as they walked in the direction of WomanLand that Mila co-owned with her sister-in-law River. It was a few miles away, but Ethan and Elijah needed the extra exercise to burn off some of the energy they’d bottled up on the plane ride.

“I love coming here,” my bestie murmured. “Everything is different. West Bridge has those small-town vibes, but it always feels like it’s missing something.”

She was right.

It was missing something.

Us.

All four of us, finally together as a family like we should have been all along. We couldn’t be us there, though. Not fully, like we could in Creswell Springs.

I touched my chest, remembering that spot that had felt so empty for such a big chunk of my life. It hadn’t been empty in a long time.

And now, it never would be again.