Page 167 of Restitution

“Pregnant,” Base repeats as if it’s a given. “You didn’t know?”

Mum and Ewan stare at each other, and I snort a laugh as her tears vanish – she covers her mouth and lets out a little squeal. “I need to call her! Oh, my, Sebastian dear, please grab me another glass of water.”

Ewan flattens his lips. “Did you not say you hated children?”

“Don’t you fucking start too.” He shakes his head as he goes to the sink and pours Mum more water. “You, Barry and Tobes can stand in the corner while I become the best dad in the world.”

“We need to bring her home,” Mum says, giving Base a warm smile as he hands her the glass.

“Too dangerous,” I say. “Base has an agreement with his grandfather’s enemies, which is why he married Nikita. We told you this already. Luciella needs to stay dead until he fixes it.”

Ewan narrows his eyes. “You’ve put my daughter into this mess.”

Base smiles at him. “I’m not going to let you get to me. I just survived Tobes for weeks; you can’t scare me. Not even Baz here can scare me. I’m a survivor of Tobias Mitchell, and I deserve a fucking medal.”

“Language, Sebastian.”

“Sorry, ma’am. You deserve a medal too.”

I try not to laugh. “Baz?”

Base winks. “Suits it, doesn’t he?”

“No,” Barry retorts, clearly fed up. “I’ll drive you to the airport in the morning, then I never want to see you again.” Barry looks over at me. “Lisa and Eva are still at the safe house. I’ll take them home.”

Dez, who’s been sitting silently for the past hour, eventually speaks, counting on his fingers each point. “So Tobias is alive. He fed Bernadette her own husband before you strangled her to death. Chris Fields is dead. The underworld you both were trapped in is destabilised. You both got away with hundreds of murders. And to top it all off, Luciella is pregnant with Base’s spawn?”

Base raises a glass of water. “Spot on, Desmond.”

“Did I miss anything?”

“I’m sure I’ll text you if I remember anything. Since, you know, you were travelling the world with your girlfriend while we all fought for our lives. I think it’s safe to say Kade loves me more than you.”

“If one of you had told me, I would’ve helped.”

Tylar leans her elbows on the table, looking at him. “You’re terrified of harmless bugs, and you only drive small-engine cars because you don’t like going fast. And you do the dishes with an apron on because the water splashes make you feel sick. When they were training at the manor, you pretended to be asleep half the time when Base came to the door because you didn’t like fighting. What exactly would you have done?”

“Shameful,” Base says with a repulsed expression. “Why are we friends with him, Kade?”

I shake my head. “Shut up, Base.”

Once we finish eating and help clean up the mess, Mum shows me and Stacey our room. There’s a king-sized bed, fresh sheets, fluffy pillows. I haven’t slept like this in so long. I shower with Stacey glued to my back, and I lather her with soap while I kiss her.

She stands under the water while I wash her hair, then gasps as I drop to my knees until she unravels against my tongue. And when we climb out, I dry her hair then commit each inch of her to memory with delicate, chaste kisses against her skin as I slide her PJs on.

I kiss the tattoos I designed – the ones she got for me and never covered up the way I did mine. I kiss the initials on her back, then she falls asleep in my arms.

I don’t sleep yet though – I stay with her against me, studying her face, playing with her hair while I silently go through every scenario in my head. Every scenario I’ve thought of that could ruin this moment.

None of them happen. Instead of the house blowing up or Bernadette rising from the pits of hell to take this away from me, I slip into a deep, peaceful slumber.

48

STACEY

Arms envelop me, keeping me safe as I stretch and yawn, the high sun glaring through the window making me wince and screw my eyes shut. For the first time in what feels like years, we slept until the middle of the day, peacefully dreaming of our future.

And what a great future it looks to be.