Page 139 of Renascence

“It’s a maybe.”

“Good enough. We can convert the snake room into a nursery.” The room now stands empty, all the snakes donated to the zoo once Emily moved in. The only one I have left is Doom, and his terrarium is now in the living room. Strange thing is I don’t even miss them. “Or we can begin adding a second floor.”

“I saidmaybe.”

“Yeah. The kid will already have built-in playmates with the prez and VP’s kids.”

“You’ve made up your mind, haven’t you?” She tries to fight the amused smile tugging at her lips.

“I heard you, darlin’. You said maybe.”

“Mm-hmm.”

She leans in to my side, taking my hand and wrapping my arm around her waist. I use the opportunity to stroke the spot on her hip where our tattoo—the one Raven designed—is inked. Tek comes over, kneeling before us.

“Got some news.”

“What is it?” I ask.

“Vitalli. Seems he hanged himself in his cell last night. Guards found him this morning.”

“Jesus. First the son, now him?” Emily remarks.

The guys we got to jump Junior a couple months ago took things too far. Apparently they’d been after him for a while; we only made it possible for them to get to him. Since Vitalli couldn’t pay the guard anymore, he happily took our bribe to look the other way. As for James, he doesn’t bother Emily anymore. It could be the restraining order she got against him, or it could be the fact that I broke his arm that day he showed up at Jeff’s house. Either way, he’s gone silent.

Tek nods to me, then walks off.

“You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you, Liam?”

“Vitalli had a lot of enemies, darlin’.”

I catch the look she gives me, not missing that I didn’t answer her question. She doesn’t push the issue, only returning to her position on my chest. There’s no way I was letting Vitalli off that easily, and I was definitely not allowing Emily’s picture to get passed around because of a court case. We got rid of every copy we could find—digital and physical. Now she won’t have to endure a trial.

Gage catches my attention from across the room and I nudge Emily.

“Come on, we gotta go talk to Gage.”

I grab a stool, watching Em to see her reaction when she hears the news.

“Emily, we have something we’d like you to consider,” Gage says.

“What’s that?”

“Sweet Treats. You know the place, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s closed now. Why?”

“It’s closed because it’s changing ownership. To the club.”

“You bought it?” She glances between me and Gage.

“Yeah. And we want you to run it.”

“What?” Her eyes widen in shock.

“We want you—”

“Shut up!” She covers her mouth, jumping in place. “I mean, I don’t mean shut up, I mean… Oh wow, are you serious?”