Page 84 of His Lair

“I’ll explain it later. We need to get out of here.” I bend down and scoop my mother into my arms.

“Put me down! What are you doing? Sammie, what happened in here.” She pounds on my chest, and then I hear it. The scream she lets out the moment she sees John’s body. “What did you do?”

“He was a dirty cop, Ma, working for a rival family. He was using you as leverage against me.”

“No, I would never do that to you.” She shakes her head while clinging to my shirt. “No, that’s not right.”

“Youwouldn’t. But he would and he did.”

“I was supposed to get married today.” She sniffles.

“Now, you can watch me get married instead,” I say softly.

My mother doesn’t respond. I know she’s still foggy from whatever they shot into her system. I should probably have a doctor come look her over—although, it’s not like she’s never been this drugged out before.

“I was clean, Sammie,” she says after a few moments of quiet contemplation.

“I know, Ma, and you can be again,” I tell her, while some part of me knows she will probably go back to her old habits.

Does it hurt that she got clean for a man she thought loved her but could never do it for her son? Fuck yes, it does. But nowis not the time to dig around in that hole. Because I’m getting married.

“Guys, I’m getting married!” I yell out over a shoulder.

“We know,” Louie says.

I told Louie that Lailani was an angel, and I meant it. Seeing her walking toward me in a white dress with her father by her side confirms I was right. Because She looks every bit as angelic as I claimed. She is fucking breathtaking and she is mine.

“Look after her. She’s all I have,” Mr. Miller says to me when he hands her over.

“I will,” I tell him.

He raised her alone. He did a fucking great job too. His words ring true, though. She’s all he has. She is all I have. I mean, I have my friends. I have my mom sometimes. But Lailani? She’s it. She’s everything.

“Do you want kids?” I ask her before the minister says a single word.

“Uh, yes?” She looks at me, confused.

“Thank fuck, because I’m getting you knocked up as soon as humanly possible,” I whisper. “I want more of you, which means we need to reproduce you.”

“Um… we can unpack that later. Do you want to get married?” Lailani asks me.

“Let’s do it.” I smile and nod at the minister, signaling for him to start the ceremony.

I watch my wife dance with Jazzy and Antonia.My wife.I have a wife.

The thought makes me smile. She’s so fucking gorgeous. And when she looks back at me with a huge smile on her face, I see it. That sweet, not-so-innocent woman I fell in love with. Lailani may still have some parts of her I don’t know, but I can’t wait to meet them. I want to spend my lifetime learning everything about this woman, and we have the rest of our lives to do it.

“You know, having an assassin in the family might be useful,” Louie says from beside me.

“Fuck off, you are not using my wife to do your dirty work,” I tell him.

“Why not? She’s a professional.”

“She’s my wife, not your contractor. Find someone else,” I ground out. “Or better yet, do it yourself.”

“Fine. But when she gets bored playing house and starts torturing you for fun, I want front-row tickets,” he says.

“You think I’m going to let her get bored?” I laugh as I stand from my chair and walk over to the dance floor. I extend a hand and steal Lailani away from Antonia and Jazzy. “Mrs. Russo, I’ve been waiting for this dance all night.”