“We go in and do just that—use the power of persuasion to convince him to do the right thing.”

“And if he doesn’t agree?” I ask with a smile, knowing what the answer will be.

“By the time we leave him, he will be running to the cops.”

“Sounds good.” I nod. What I do isn’t always smiled upon, but knowing that one more fucked-up criminal will be off the streets before my child comes into this world makes me feel that much better about doing what I have to do. “Lets roll.”

I open the door to my car, getting out at the same time Kenton does. We don’t even bother with the front door. We walk around the side of the house, checking windows until one opens. Kenton goes in first and I follow behind him when he gives me the signal that it’s clear. After that, we search the house, making sure that no one else is inside. By the time we make it to the basement Meyer Bulger is in the middle of getting a blowjob. The chick that was sucking him off runs out of the room screaming when she sees me. I let her go, knowing that she was paid for her time and is not likely to get involved.

“Meyer,” Kenton says, sitting down casually across from the guy.

“What are you doing here?” he finally asks, his eyes are glossed over from the co**ine he was shoving up his nose.

“We came to have a chat,” I tell him, setting my gun down on the table in front of me. His eyes go wide and his hand moves to the left. “Try it and I will put a bullet in you.”

His eyes search my face, and I know that he can tell that I’m not f**king around. His hand that had been reaching for his piece moves back to his lap.

“What do you want?” he asks, looking between Kenton and me.

“You,” Kenton says with a shrug.

“What the f**k does that mean?”

“You know what it means, Meyer.” I shake my head.

“I’m not a snitch.”

“Then you’re dead,” I tell him, starting to stand.

“No, you don’t understand.”

“I do understand.” I look him over. “I can see it now. You probably started using your own product when no one was watching. Eventually your addiction caught up with you and you couldn’t get enough. When that happened, you started f**king up, and the people at the top of the food chain didn’t like that much. Now they want you dead. So tell me. What’s it going to be?”

“You know if I talk to the cops I’m signing my death warrant.”

“You have a better chance of surviving if you work with the cops,” Kenton tells him.

“Fuck.” He shakes his head, his eyes falling to his lap, and just like that, I know we won.

I look at Kenton and smile, ready to get the f**k home to my girl.

"Ma, we’re not moving," I state firmly then watch Sophie's bottom lip wobble. Fuck, I hate when she cries, and she cries about everything lately. “Baby, please don’t cry.” I pull her into my side, kissing her head.

"I always wanted to live in the country, and the money from selling my house can buy it. Please just look at it before you say no,” she says, looking up at me with tears filling her eyes.

"You’re not buying our house." I look at the ceiling, praying for patience. "Ma, do you see the trouble you’re causing?" I narrow my eyes on my mom. “I leave my girl with you for three days, and this is what you do?”

"Your mom’s not causing trouble." Sophie sighs, looking at my mom then me

. I see something pass between them. "What?" I look at my mom and then back to her.

"I have something to tell you," Sophie says, biting her bottom lip while avoiding eye contact.

"What?" I repeat.

"I think you should sit," she says, wringing her hands together.

"I don't need to sit. Is it about the baby?" I ask, feeling sick all of a sudden.

"I really think you should sit, honey,” my mom says quietly, causing me to panic.

"Tell me," I growl.

"We're having twins," Sophie blurts then covers her mouth, looking at my mom with wide eyes.

I stare at her blankly for a minute. I don’t make her repeat herself; I heard her loud and clear. "I need to sit," I mumble, walking over to the couch where I plop, putting my head between my knees. “How did this happen?” I wonder out loud. Hearing my mom laugh, I lift my head to glare at her.

“I’ll be in the kitchen,” Mom sings, walking off.

“Are you okay?” Sophie asks, coming to sit next to me and running her hand down my back.

I sit back, pulling her into my lap to run my hand over her stomach. I can’t believe this; it’s like hitting the kid lotto.

“You’re okay with this, right?” she asks, and I realize I haven’t spoken to her; I’ve just been staring at her stomach, running my hands over her large bump.

“Shocked as hell.” I shake my head in disbelief. “We’re having twins.” I smile then feel it fall from my face. “They’re both okay, right?”

“The doctor said they’re perfect.”

“Why are we just finding this out?” I rub her stomach again, amazed that two babies are growing in there. I can’t imagine how large her stomach will be when it comes time for her to give birth. She’s so tiny, and her stomach is already large at just four months along.

“The doctor wasn’t sure why the other baby didn’t show before now, but he was suspicious when I told him we could feel him or her moving already, so he did an ultrasound to see what was going on. That’s when we saw that there were two of them, and he assured me that everything’s fine,” she explains with a beautiful smile that lights up her whole face.

“Do you really want to move?” I pull her head down to lay against my chest. I love the townhouse, but I can’t see us raising our kids there. The neighborhood is mainly single people and couples with no children.

“I know you love your place, but I want my kids to grow up close to family. Well, your family, anyways,” she says softly.

“They’re your family now too, and my place is always your place.”

“I know.”

I can hear the smile and tears in her voice, so I pull her face away so I can look at her. “All right, baby. We’re gonna have to move anyways. One baby would be okay in our place now, but two would be pushing it.”

“Really?” she asks happily.

“Anything for you, sweet Sophie,” I tell her, watching in fascination as she laughs and cries all at the same time.

Chapter 13

Sophie

“I can’t believe how much has changed. I mean, you got married, you are not only pregnant but you’re having twins, and now you’re moving into a new house,” Maggie says, coming to sit down next to me on the couch. “I should have guessed that you’re having twins though. You’re really frickin’ huge,” she says, rubbing my large belly.

I know she doesn’t mean it in a bad way, but her words hit me wrong and I start to cry. My boobs are giant, my belly is so big that I can’t even see my feet, and my legs are swollen and probably hairy.

“Why are you crying?” she asks, looking at me like I’m crazy. I probably am crazy.

“I’m a big, fat, hairy beast,” I tell her on a sob.

“Oh God, you’re so dramatic.” She laughs, making me cry harder.

“Why’s my wife crying, Maggie?” Nico growls, walking into the house, Devon following close behind him, carrying a box.

We’re in the process of moving from the townhouse to our new country home. The process took longer than we’d planned. The house was a short sale. The bank took two months to get back to us that they had accepted our offer.

I wipe my face, trying to get rid of the tears; I don’t want Nico to see me cry. He’s so amazing and supportive while I’m horrible with my constant complaining and crying. I start crying harder as I think about what a bad wife I am.

“Geez, girl. You need to calm down. We can shave your legs if it’s bothering you that much.” Maggie rolls her eyes, handing me another tissue. I blow my nose then look up when I see a shadow fall over me.

“You know I hate to see you cry,” Nico says softly, putting one hand on the armrest of the couch and the other on my neck. “If Maggie’s the reason you’re crying I’m gonna make Maggie leave,” he says, making my eyes narrow.

“If you try to make my friend leave, I’ll leave with her.”

I watch as one side of his mouth quirks up before he replies, “You can’t. You have two of my kids growing inside you. So basically, your body is half mine until you’re no longer pregnant. Not only that, you have my last name, meaning I own you.” He smirks.

“Holy shit,” I hear Maggie say from beside me. She doesn’t sound pissed, which is surprising.

“I can’t believe you just said that to me,” I tell him, ignoring Maggie.

“Believe it.”

“I really cannot believe you just said that,” I hiss, glaring at him.

“Would rather have you mad than crying,” he says before leaning forward, kissing me until I can’t breathe, and then standing and leaving the house.

“I’m not sure what just happened, but that was hot. So hot that I want to drag Devon into your spare bedroom,” Maggie says, and I look over to see her leaning back, fanning herself.

“He just did that so I would stop crying,” I tell her in shock.

“He did,” she agrees, smiling.

“He’s crazy.” I grin back at her.

“Crazy hot.” Maggie giggles, and I look at her in shock; I have never in my life heard her do that.

“Did you just giggle?” I ask.

“Absolutely not.” Her eyes get big. “Holy shit, I f**king giggled. What the hell is wrong with me?”

“I don’t know, but you should get that checked out,” I tell her with a straight face.

“Your man turned me into a giggling school girl.” She sighs, laying her head back against the couch, a large smile on her face.

I smile and then look around our new home. The house is a newer two-story brick home with a location perfect for being close to family. Our new living room is much larger than the townhouse’s, with dark bamboo floors, tall vaulted ceilings, and large windows that look out to the forest behind the house. The kitchen is also large and has all new appliances, with a large island that can seat five barstools. Next to the kitchen is a small dining room that was built into a rounded section of the house that is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling bay windows.

I love this house. I love that the backyard is huge and already has a play set for kids. I love that all the bedrooms are on the second floor so we won’t have to be separated from the babies when they get here. What I really love is that Nico loves it as much as I do. I know he loved his townhouse and his neighbors, but when he walked into our new house for the first time with me, I could see it on his face that he loved it. Or maybe he just loved the fact that he’d have a three-car garage and two of his brothers as our neighbors.

“Aunt Sophie!” I hear yelled in time to see July running into the living room, carrying a very annoyed Daisy in her arms.

“Hey, honey.” I sit forward on the couch as she runs to me.

“Uncle Nico said you’re getting another puppy.”

“He did, did he?” I look over at Maggie, who shrugs her shoulders.

Nico hasn’t said anything to me about getting another dog, but with him, I never know what’s going to happen. He never even told me he wasn’t going to be working for Kenton anymore or that he was taking a job with the MNPD working with Leo until he had to be gone for a week to do some training and testing. When I first found out, I was upset; I didn’t want him to change jobs because of me. Then he sat me down and explained that, with the babies coming, he didn’t think he would be able to handle being away all the time, and taking the job with Leo meant he would have more stability. I told him that was good, but if he didn’t like it, he should go back to working for Kenton.

“Yes, but Daisy’s still my favorite,” July says, and I laugh as she pulls a wiggling Daisy up to her face to talk to her. “You will always be my favorite. You’re so cute and small and fluffy,” she tells the Pomeranian before bringing her down to her chest for a hug. Poor Daisy looks like her eyes are going to pop out of her head, making me wince.

“Honey, why don’t you let Daisy down for a bit and go wash your hands? Maybe we can make some sandwiches for everyone.”

“Uncle Nico ordered pizza,” she says, holding Daisy tighter against her, making her squirm.

“Daisy may need to pee.”

I guess those are the magic words, because she immediately puts the dog down. I watch as Daisy jumps off the couch, quickly running away, probably trying to find somewhere to hide.

“I don’t want her to pee on me. May peed on me one time when I was holding her, and that was gross.”

“That is gross.” I laugh at the squeamish look on her cute little face.

“Now that you live here, can we have more sleepovers?” she asks, looking around.

“We can.” I don’t tell her that it won’t be for, like, ten years. She doesn’t need to know that. I’m still trying to recover from the last sleepover we had.

“Good! The last one was so much fun!”

I smile and shake my head. Having six kids over for a sleepover was insane, and not something I want to repeat anytime soon. The first couple of hours were fine, but then it came time for bed and none of them wanted to sleep, except Jax, who was hanging with his uncle most of the time. Then there was a lot of crying. We had to take all of the kids home at around two in the morning, so it really wasn’t a sleepover; it was more like an extended visit. I love them all, but I won’t be doing that again for a long time.