Page 43 of Risk (Gods #3)

Four Months Later

E xhausted but elated, I look at Kaden, sitting in the chair by my hospital bed.

Both of our children in his arms. One nestled in each, tucked safely against his chest. His eyes keep flitting between our sons—like he’s not sure how to give them equal eye time, but he wants to—and it just makes my heart swell.

I am totally and utterly in love with him and our boys.

God. I’m the mother of two twin boys, as of one hour ago. They’re fraternal, meaning they don’t look exactly the same.

“We need names for them,” Kaden says, giving me a warm but tired glance, filled with love and devotion before looking back at our boys.

We still haven’t settled on names. We couldn’t seem to agree on any, which caused a few little tiffs during the later months of my pregnancy, but they ended with us making up. In bed. For hours.

“I was thinking we should give them different names so they have their own identity.”

“Well, I wasn’t thinking we’d call them both Jack,” he deadpans.

“Funny.” I roll my eyes. “I meant, nothing like Ryan and Bryan, or Clark and Mark, or Eric and Derek.”

“I got you.” He chuckles softly.

“Do you have any names that matter to you? That you’d like to call the boys?”

“Yeah. One. But I don’t think it’ll work.”

“What is it?”

“Artemis.”

“Smooth.” I roll my eyes again, but a smile creeps up the corners of my mouth, warmth filling my tired body.

“Do you want to stay with the Greek gods’ names theme that you Kincaids have?”

I ponder it for a second. It was what my mom and dad began, and carrying on that tradition would be good.

“Hmm…yeah, I think I might like that. What do you think of calling one baby a Greek name and giving one a name important to you?”

“I don’t have any names that matter to me.”

I raise a challenging brow at him. “You called your cat Balboa after the Rocky films, so clearly, you do have one name that matters to you.”

“I’m not naming one of my sons after a movie character.”

“Why not? So long as it’s a name you like, go for it.”

We’re silent for a moment as we both think. I pick up my phone and google Greek gods’ names and spot one immediately.

Kaden clears his throat a minute later. “How about…Henry?”

“After your trainer?”

He nods.

“I love it.” I smile.

“What about you? Found a name yet?” He tips his chin in the direction of my cell.

“Actually, I have. What do you think of Dionysus? We could call him Dion for short.”

It’s Kaden’s turn to smile. “I think it’s perfect.” He gets up from the chair, our boys still safe in his arms, and sits down on the bed beside me.

I lift one of our boys from Kaden’s arms and hold him so he’s facing me, and Kaden does the same.

“So, who is who?” Kaden bumps his shoulder against mine.

I stare at our boys for a long moment. I see Kaden in my sweet boy in my arms. It’s in the shape of his mouth and the lighter shade of his soft hair, and when I look at my son in Kaden’s arms, I see a lot of my brothers in him.

“You’re holding Dionysus, and I’ve got Henry.”

Kaden looks between them both before looking at me. “You’re right.”

“I’m always right,” I tease.

“Middle names?” Kaden asks me.

“What about Brett?”

“After your dad?”

“Yeah. Do you think he’ll like that?”

“I think he’ll love it.”

The thought of making my dad happy heals something in my chest.

“Dionysus Brett Scott.” I say his name out loud, testing it out.

“Works perfectly,” Kaden says.

“What about Henry’s middle name?” I ask him.

“Creed,” Kaden states.

“Like from Apollo Creed from Rocky?”

“I forget you’ve watched those movies probably as many times as I have.” He chuckles.

“Henry Creed Scott. It suits him.”

“You don’t want to hyphenate their last names? Kincaid-Scott?”

“No. Because I figure, one day, we’ll get married, and then I’ll be a Scott, so it makes sense for us all to have the same name.”

Kaden is staring at me, and his eyes look a bit watery. “You’d marry me?”

“It’ll be a definite yes, whenever you ask me.”

“You won’t be waiting long,” he murmurs before pressing a soft but lingering kiss on my mouth. “I love you,” he tells me. “So fucking much.”

“Love you too.”

There’s a knock on the hospital room door, and we part to see Lo coming in, who’s directly followed by Ares, Ari, Zeus, Cam, and lastly my dad.

“Oh my God!” Ari exclaims in a hushed whisper, coming straight over to the bed. “Look at them both! They’re so beautiful. And so are you! How the hell do you look so good after birthing two babies?”

I run a hand over my tangled hair. “I really don’t, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

She rolls her eyes at me good-naturedly, then presses a kiss to my cheek.

“We brought gifts,” Cam tells me.

I see my brothers all placing a variety of gift bags, stuffed animals, what appears to be a box of my favorite chocolates on the provided table and setting down balloons that say Twins! and Double the Trouble!

“Where are the girls?” I ask Cam.

“We left them with Elle. Didn’t think you’d want them climbing all over you today, but we’re gonna bring them tomorrow, if that’s okay?”

“Of course it is. My boys need to meet their older cousins ASAP.”

“So, who’s who?” Lo asks, coming over and perching on the side of the bed.

He kisses my temple and reaches over to shake Kaden’s hand in that manly way they do.

Ares and Zeus both shuffle over, giving me cheek kisses and congratulating Kaden with handshakes before taking seats around the bed.

Cam and Ari sit around the bed, too, all peeking over to look at our boys.

My dad stands at the end of the bed, staring over at us. He’s not spoken a word yet.

“Well, everyone, meet Henry Creed Scott.” I lay my hand over Henry’s tiny, bunched-up legs.

“Aw, Henry Creed,” Ari coos. “I love it.”

“After Duval?” Zeus asks Kaden knowingly, and Kaden nods by way of reply. Zeus’s hand finds his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

“And this is Dionysus”—I lift my eyes to my dad, hoping this will have the effect I want it to—“Brett Scott.”

My dad’s expression is usually stoic, but his eyes get wet, and his mouth trembles. He covers it with his hand.

I hear a sniffle and see that Ari is blubbering.

“What?” she asks defensively, making us all laugh, breaking the obvious tension. “It’s just such a beautiful name.”

My eyes search out first Zeus and then Ares. I know I shouldn’t, but I need to know they’re okay with me giving Dion Dad’s name as his middle name. Mostly Zeus because he was a dad to me when Brett wasn’t.

Zeus smiles. “I love it, Missy. But you’re gonna have to tell me how the fuck I spell Dionysus ’cause I ain’t gotta clue.”

I give a watery laugh. “It’s D-I-O-N-Y-S-U-S. But pronounced Dai-uh-nai-suhs.”

“So, basically spelled nothing like it sounds.” Lo laughs.

I dig into his ribs with my elbow. “He’ll be called Dion pretty much all the time, buttmunch.”

“Who was born first?” Lo asks me, knowing how important that is for a twin.

“Dion.”

He leans over and lifts Henry’s tiny hand and gives it a gentle fist bump. “Don’t worry, little man; Uncle Lo’s got your back. Us second-born twins have to stick together.”

I shake my head at him, but there’s no fire in it, just love for my dopey younger brother.

Everyone takes turns holding Henry and Dion.

My dad is the last to hold them. When he has Dion in his arms, he comes and sits on the bed so he’s facing me.

“Thank you,” he says to me, eyes holding mine.

“For what?”

“Giving him my name.” His eyes go down to Dion again. “He’s got your eyes,” Dad says softly.

“Mom’s eyes.”

He looks at me again and nods. “Yeah, your mom’s eyes.” He glances over at Henry, who is currently being held by Lo, who seems to be having a serious one-sided chat with my few hours’ old son. “Henry looks like Kaden.”

“Yeah, he does.”

“I’m proud of you, Artemis. And I know your mom is looking down right now, thinking the exact same.”

I brush a tear away. “Thanks, Dad.”

He leans over and kisses my forehead before drifting over to Lo to switch babies with him.

I wonder if this is what it was like when Lo and I were born. Family in the room, fawning over us.

It hurts my heart that Kaden doesn’t have any biological family left to have here, not that his dad would have even been allowed within a hundred miles of the boys.

We never told my family what happened that day with Gary. We decided it was a secret they didn’t need to know or be burdened with. It’s only something that Kaden and I know, and we’ll take it to our graves that we were there the day Gary died and we witnessed it happening.

It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be to move past it.

Seeing someone die in such a violent way right in front of you should be traumatic—it is traumatic—but not thinking about it hasn’t been difficult.

Maybe that makes me cold, but I don’t care.

That man murdered a mother in front of her son, and said son happens to be the man I love with every fiber of my being.

He also kidnapped me and held me at gunpoint for hours while I was pregnant with his grandchildren.

Karma came for him. And she was angry.

Kaden talked about it once with me, and he’s never mentioned it since. I know he’s relieved that Gary is gone and that our children and I are safe. That’s all he cares about.

Kaden might not have any biological family left, but he has us. All of us Kincaids. Forever.

I glance over at him chatting with Zeus and Ares. He catches my eye and smiles at me.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop feeling the way I do when he looks at me.

It’s like an explosion going off in my chest. The kind of explosion that my mind tells me is dangerous and risky, but my heart knows for sure it’s safe.

We can’t change the past, but we do have power over our present and future.

We can choose to either continue the cycle and pattern set by our childhood and take them into adulthood or we can change it, break it, giving ourselves the life we deserve, and alter the course of the lives our boys will have.

Making sure they never know what it’s like to suffer hardships.

We’ll create a life for them, like the one we should have had, but never got the chance to have.

In a way, watching them live it, knowing that Kaden and I are giving that joy to them, it’ll be a way of healing that broken child inside of each of us.

But my suffering was nothing compared to his. Seeing him now, with our boys, I know what an amazing father he will be—already is. I know there will never be a day when Dion and Henry doubt how much Kaden loves them.

And I’ll make sure Kaden never doubts how much I love him.

He’s mine just as much as I’m his.

Maybe we wouldn’t have gotten here if we hadn’t slept together that night of the wedding, if I hadn’t gotten pregnant. Or maybe we would have eventually found our way to each other. Maybe that night in the hotel room was always meant to be the start of us.

Our beginning.