Page 1 of Climbing Everest
Everest
I t stings. Every time Kato drags the razor between my breasts right over my heart, it stings. They can tease me all they want about my pain tolerance, but they only had my one initial – I have to get three.
By the time Kato finishes, I have three letters carved into my skin vertically between my breasts – B K M – for the three loves of my life, Brixton, Kato, and Maddox.
We’re practically a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Or…Romeo s. Plural since I couldn’t choose only one of them if you held a gun to my head.
And of course, there will be no suicide.
No. The correlation is the fact we come from rival families. I don’t think I could call them enemies, per se. I guess it depends on who you ask.
The Bratva – who my father works for - runs the east side of Cedar Springs, controlling anything imported or sold into the area from drugs to weapons. Kato’s father leads the west side, doing pretty much the same thing except I’m pretty sure he has a hand in the skin trade.
I’m not the biggest fan of Christos Antoniou. But, honestly, I’m not exactly a fan of my own father, either. They’re both criminals, they both treat their kids like we’re nothing more than a pawn in their quest for world domination, or something as equally ridiculous and unattainable.
At least Kato is being raised to one day take over his family’s operations.
Me? I’m being raised to marry someone to further my father’s reach and power.
Unfortunately for him my heart, mind, and body already belong to someone else. And we officially just branded each other for the world to see.
“I still think we should go make it legal. We’re adults. We don’t need anyone’s fucking permission,” Brixton says, blowing on the slices in my skin while his own seeps blood that runs between his pecs, making a path to his stomach.
He dabs at the beads of blood again, then presses his hand to my flat belly. Flat for now.
Our parents might suspect we’ve all been fooling around through the years, but they have no idea we’re madly in love and I’m officially in a poly relationship with three men.
It had all started innocently enough; we’d get dragged to various events, and since we were around the same age, we tended to congregate to other areas of the house or banquet hall, anywhere away from the adults where we would overindulge on the desserts.
By thirteen, I knew my heart belonged to them. Yeah. That was a little early for such a declaration, but there had never been a doubt in my mind – even to this day – these three men were meant to be my husbands.
Okay. So legally I can’t marry all three. But being as we don’t know which of my men fathered the baby we just found out I was carrying, I figure we’re tied for life, anyway. Unless one of them suddenly decides they no longer want to share me and demands a paternity test.
“It’s going to be hard enough to tell my parents I’m carrying the grandchild of their adversary without throwing in the news of our elopement,” I tease him, laying my hand over his and tilting my head back for a kiss.
But Brix is right. I’m eighteen. They’re all nineteen, with Kato turning twenty in two months. We are legally adults and can damn well choose to spend the rest of our lives together regardless of what our parents think.
We aren’t old enough to drink yet, but we’re going to be parents in nine months.
It’s going to take me some time to get used to that notion.
“If they have a fucking problem with it, we’ll pack up and move on,” Madd says.
“That’s easy for you to say. What about Kato?” I point out.
Madd and Brix are being trained to be Kato’s right-hand men. They’ll be his guards, his consiglieres, and whatever else he might need.
Kato is being groomed to run a multibillion-dollar criminal empire. Not exactly the type of life I want to bring a child into, but both he and I come from a long line of mafia families. It would be damn near impossible for either of us to simply walk away from this life or our families.
Kato shrugs as he applies some antibiotic cream and a bandage to the initials carved into my skin, then tugs my shirt over my head. “I could find work somewhere else. Even start my own syndicate.”
“Right. Because your father will let you walk away that easily.” Just like me, Kato is an only child. He’s the only heir to his father’s business, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying on his parents’ part, either.
Poor Mrs. Antoniou was the constant recipient of Christos’s anger over the fact she wasn’t able to produce an army of sons to carry on the Antoniou legacy.
We’re currently sitting in the woods surrounding my family’s estate. I can’t count how many times I’ve snuck out here through the years to meet with my guys. It got so much easier as we got older and we could simply get in our cars and meet up.
But nights like tonight, when I stared at those two blue lines…there was no way I could wait. I sent out a group text telling them to meet at our spot and prayed they would be as happy as I am.
Holy shit were they. I don’t know why we decided to celebrate by mutilating each other, but it was romantic.
To me, anyway.
I like the thought of having them right over my heart everywhere I go. Even if we’re separated for a few hours, a few days, or by an ocean, their ownership is right there on my skin, and mine is on theirs.
Marriage is legally binding, but it’s a piece of paper. A ring can be stolen or lost. I don’t even want to think about what would have to go into removing the marks we left on each other.
It’s chilly out tonight as fall starts making itself known, but I don’t feel it with all three of them wrapped around me in one way or another, Brix’s huge jacket wrapped around my shoulders.
All three of my guys are quite a bit taller than me, but Brix is a freaking giant at six feet seven inches tall. He’s strong but lean, his body like a basketball player’s. I’m average height at five foot six, but I have a feeling our child will be a bruin like their daddy…whoever it might be.
“Does it…it’s going to be hard to know who the father is by looks alone,” I say, leaning against Brix’s chest and looking at each of them in turn.
Kato has icy blue eyes, Madd has green, I have gray eyes, and Brix has brown.
But even that won’t matter much. Kato is Greek.
Both his parents have brown eyes, something we all like to tease him about and accuse him of being the milkman’s kid.
Madd’s theory is he’s actually the product of an affair between Mrs. Antoniou and their driver who just so happens to have the same bright, icy blue eyes.
“And?” Madd asks. He shifts so he can lay his head on my lap and look into my eyes.
“It won’t bother you not knowing which of you is the biological father?”
Madd makes this dismissive sound in the back of his throat. Brix groans. Kato leans forward and cups my face in his big hands.
“Does it bother you ?”
“Absolutely not,” I tell him.
“Then why the hell would we care? You’re giving us our first child,” he says, leaning forward to press a kiss to my forehead.
“First of many, if I have my way,” Madd teases with a wink.
All three of my guys are the most perfect combination of hard and soft, jagged and smooth. They can fuck me so hard I scream until my throat is raw and voice scratchy, then lower me into a hot bubble bath and massage my sore muscles until I feel like a jellyfish.
They’ve taken turns with me, fucked me all at the same time until I felt so full, spewing some of the dirtiest things possible, then turned around and snuggled me until I fell asleep surrounded by all three of them.
And they love me. They love me as much as I love them.
Yet, there’s still this huge mountain standing between us and our happily ever after.
Or rather two mountains.
We’ll have to find a way to keep our fathers from going to war when they find out their children have formed an unorthodox family.
I can’t imagine Christos will be too unhappy. After all, he’ll be getting another heir out of this. His first grandchild, and I can only imagine how delighted he’ll be if I give birth to a boy.
Problem will be if we’re fully honest with our families about the fact I’m fully committed to all three of them, to Kato and Brix and Madd, and that we have no intention of discovering who actually impregnated me.
Maybe we’ll keep that little tidbit from the Antonious’.
The biggest issue will be telling my father.
He barely tolerates me as it is since I’m a girl, but he’s the one who screws anything with two legs instead of my mom.
I mean, yeah, they’re pretty much past childbearing years, but I remember how often he didn’t come home, and I remember hearing their fights about his cheating.
Who knows? Maybe I have a sibling out there I don’t know about.
His only daughter, pregnant by the son of his rival, his enemy. My Russian father will see this as an act of war somehow. He’ll use what I see as a blessing as a way to attack the Greek crime family.
Panic begins to seize me and I’m having a hard time drawing in a full breath.
“Fuck. What? What’s wrong?” Kato asks at the same time Brix lifts me as though I weigh nothing and turns me so he can see my face.
“My father. He’ll attack. He’s going to see this as some kind of…I don’t know. Ploy from your father. He’ll take it as a personal affront.”
No way will he be happy that he’s going to be a grandfather. Maybe Madd has the right idea – we should run.
“Let’s do it. Let’s run. Let’s pack some bags and move…fuck, anywhere. We can even live overseas. My mom still has some family in the UK. We’ll have some connections.”
Tears are streaming down my face now as the euphoria I felt moments ago is chased away by the what ifs that are right in front of me, both literally and figuratively. I can see the lights of the estate through the trees from where we’re sitting.
And once I push through them, walk through the house, and announce to my parents I’m carrying a child of Antoniou blood…
It won’t even matter whether the child is biologically Kato’s; Maddox and Brixton are still pledged to Christos and his organization.
Brix wipes away my tears with his long fingers then leans forward and presses his lips to my forehead. “I go where you go, E.”
“Same,” Maddox says.
Then we all turn our attention to Kato. Because there’s no way I can go anywhere if they’re not all three with me. I need my guys…my husbands. We might not be legally married, but as far as I’m concerned, the initials on my chest and the child in my womb have bound us.
Until death do us part.
Even after. I can picture all three of them in ghost forms searching for me through the ether so we can continue our lives together for an eternity.
That thought makes me smile through my tears even as the panic tries to keep its claws dug deep.
“You can’t possibly think I would ever let you walk away without a fight,” he teases, leaning forward and pressing a soft, lingering kiss to my lips. “If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do. But we have to be smart about this. No running off half-cocked.”
I sniff and blink away the tears clinging to my lashes. We’re leaving. The four of us are going to pack it up and start our lives somewhere else, somewhere we no longer have to be associated with the Antonious or the Sidorovs. I can’t imagine my father will look too hard once I take off.
Thing is, we’re all of age. They can’t stop us if we want to move out, if we want to be together.
Now the panic is receding and in its place is excitement and a little anxiety over the unknown. We’ll all have to find jobs to support ourselves and our baby, and we’ll have to find somewhere to live.
Brix can use his car without worrying about it being reported stolen since he bought it himself with cash. But the rest of us…well, my father and Kato’s father have supported us and Madd for as long as I can remember.
A grin stretches on my face as I look from one face to the other and see the love I feel in my chest reflected on their faces.
We are in this together. We’re building a family together.
And I can’t wait to start our lives out from under the shadow of our fathers.