by Lane Hart
“I’ll do my best,” the woman agrees with a nod before I reluctantly let Cooper push me out the door.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Quincey
I’ve never felt as relieved as I do when Ian walks into the Savage Asylum where everyone had gathered to wait and find out what’s going on. Now I wished I hadn’t left my apartment before the guys did to go get us lunch. When neither of them showed up at the tattoo studio and wouldn’t answer their phones, I came over here to the bar and found out from Torin that they had both been arrested.
“Oh, thank god you’re okay!” I exclaim as I go and throw my arms around Ian’s neck. I pull away to see his face when his body remains completely rigid, barely moving even to breathe. Then I realize that Gabriel’s not with him, which is very, very bad. “Where’s Gabriel? What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know what the fuck he’s thinking!” Ian exclaims as he reaches up and claws at his short hair. “Why would he do this?”
Do what? What did Gabriel do? I want to ask these questions, but Ian looks shell-shocked, so I grab his hand to pull him to an empty chair at one of the tables. “Come sit down and start from the beginning,” I tell him. He drops into a seat, then hangs his head in his hands. “I lost it. I lost my shit and now Gabriel’s locked up! He shouldn’t be in there. He’s too good. They’ll kill him!”
Since what he’s saying doesn’t make a lot of sense because I didn’t even think Gabriel had a criminal record, I look to Cooper who came in with him. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Ah, yeah a little,” he answers. “Liz is trying to sort it all out, but we think Gabe signed a plea agreement, holding him responsible for the two felonies so that Ian’s charges would get dismissed. And Ian was released…”
“Oh my god,” I say as I cover my gaping mouth. “Felonies are serious, right?”
Cooper swallows and then nods. “Liz says the punishment for a felony usually only means one thing — an active sentence.”
The entire group gathered in the bar is silent as they overhear Cooper’s words and let them sink in, not even the jukebox is playing. You could hear a pin drop, which is why everyone, myself included, nearly jump out of our skin when the bar door blows open so hard, I think it broke some hinges and left a dent in the wall.
I’ve only seen Gabriel’s older brother a few times, but right at this moment he looks like a black-bearded giant on a fucking rampage. He storms in and heads right for Ian. Fisting the front of his shirt, he jerks the distraught man up to his feet before any of the other guys can intervene. Abe may only be a few inches taller and a little broader in the chest and arms; but right now, with Ian’s shoulder’s slumped in defeat, he seems so much bigger than the other man.
“What the fuck did you do?” Abe yells in Ian’s face. When he doesn’t respond immediately, he shakes him like a ragdoll. “Answer me! What the fuck did you do to get my baby brother locked up?”
Cooper reaches for one of Abe’s arms as Chase comes running into the bar and tries to wedge himself in between the two men. “Let him go, man,” Chase says. “Kicking his ass isn’t going to change anything.”
“Not until he answers my fucking questions!” Abe responds, his tan face turning a darker shade of burgundy.
“I’m sorry,” Ian says. “It was all my fault! Hit me. I deserve it.”
“Listen to me, Abe, you know Ian didn’t make Gabriel do shit,” Cooper interjects as he stands shoulder to shoulder with Chase, the two men acting as a human barrier to keep Ian from being murdered while the other guys shove me and the rest of the women behind the bar. “Gabe worked out a plea without waiting for an attorney, okay? That’s on him. Liz is down at the police station trying to undo it.”
“You think I wanted to leave him there? I didn’t!” Ian shouts. “If I could switch places with him, I would in a heartbeat! I don’t know what the fuck he was thinking!”
“He loves your sorry ass, that’s what he was thinking!” Abe yells back.
I’m not the only one in the room who gasps at hearing that tidbit even though I already knew it was true before this moment. I just didn’t expect Abe to out Ian and his brother to the other Kings this way.
Realizing what he just said in front of everyone seems to diffuse some of Abe’s anger. He even let’s go of Ian’s shirt and allows Chase to push him backward a few steps.
“What I meant to say was, you knew he would do anything for you,” Abe goes on to say as he jerks on the front of his cut to straighten it out. “And you shouldn’t have let him!”
“I know that,” Ian replies as he leans back against a table and grips the edges of it on either side of him. I can’t help but notice that, ironically enough, it’s the same table where Ian and I…met just a few weeks ago. “If Gabriel had told me what he was going to do, I wouldn’t have let him go through with it!”
“How did all of this happen?” I ask as I weave my way through the guys until I’m next to Ian. I know he could use a little comfort and support.
“Oh, baby girl,” he says as his arm winds around me, pulling me close enough to rest the side of his face on the top of my head. “Your upstairs neighbors were talking shit,” he goes on to tell me and everyone else. “I tried to ignore the insults and would have if they hadn’t…they took a piss on us.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell him as I hug him.
Ian buries his face in the side of my hair, and I hear him whisper, “This is so fucked up. I just wish I could just go back to last night when we were with you… I can’t lose him, Quincey.”
“You won’t,” I promise him.
“Ian, man, you and Gabe didn’t do anything any one of us wouldn’t have done too,” Torin says when he comes over and pats him on his back. “We’ll figure this shit out. Jade couldn’t help?” he asks.
“No,” Chase answers. “The sheriff’s department and city police aren’t on great terms. Jade said anything she does would probably only make things worse.”
“Then all we can do now is wait,” Dalton says. “Punching our own brother won’t change a damn thing.”
“But being honest with you all might,” Ian says as he lifts his head from my hair. “I love Gabriel, more than as a friend or a brother. As soon as he walks out a free man, we’re going to live together and be together. That’s the fucking end of the discussion. I don’t give a shit what any of you think about us. You can either prove to us that you know what the hell loyalty is about or you’re just fucking pussies who can’t back it up.”
“The Savage Kings’ bylaws don’t have a problem with it, and I don’t either,” Torin says with another slap to Ian’s back.
“I already knew, man, and I’ve never been a pussy,” Dalton says with a grin as he offers Ian a fist bump that he hits.
“Me neither,” Chase says, following suit as all the other Kings speak up with similar reassurances until only Abe hasn’t commented and everyone is watching the big angry man, waiting to see how he responds.
“I’ve known Gabriel was into dudes since he was a kid,” Abe tells the room. “Didn’t care then and don’t care now,” he says and then points a finger at Ian. “But if you fucking hurt him or land his ass in prison again, I’ll break your neck.”
“Understood,” Ian says with a nod. “I’ll break my own goddamn neck if I ever hurt him.”
And just like that, it felt like a weight was lifted from the room, from the Kings, and from Ian’s shoulders.
Now if we could just figure out how to get our boy out of jail.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Gabriel
“We have to stop meeting like this,” I say with a smile when the guard brings Ian into the visitation room Wednesday morning. “Want me to see if we can have a quickie in the bathroom?”
“Shut up,” he snaps at me, his face hard with enormous bags under his bloodshot eyes. “You’re going to let Liz try and get your plea thrown out.”
“No, I’m not,” I tell him. “I signed a p
lea agreement with the district attorney, and a judge has already granted it. It’s a done deal. Case closed. They’ll be transferring me to the Department of Corrections to serve out the rest of my sentence any day now.”
“Come on, Gabriel! Don’t be a fucking idiot! I’m not gonna let you spend another goddamn day in there for me. They never should’ve accepted this stupid ass plea!”
“I can do this, okay?” I assure him. “We put three guys in the hospital, one in the ICU…”
“I put three guys in the hospital,” Ian amends.
“If one of them had died, we both would’ve been looking at serving decades! That’s nothing compared to the ten months I’ll have to do.”
“Ten months!” Ian wails.
“Trust me. I’d rather do the time than lose you again. With your record and the probation violation, you would’ve got twice as much time, maybe more depending on the severity of those jackass’ injuries.”
“You’re insane,” he grits out through clenched teeth. “Why? Why would you do this?”
“You know why. Because I love you and I would do anything for you. How do you not understand that yet?”
Raking his fingers through his blond hair, he says, “I still don’t understand how you even did this shit. Why did the DA agree to drop my charges when I’m the one who threw the first punch?”
“That was easy. I told her about how those assholes started it, what they said to us and did to us because of who we are, because we love each other.”
Shaking his head, he says, “I’m not worth it. I’m not worth you losing almost a year of your life! Just ask your brother!”
“Abe has tried to protect me since we were kids, and he can’t anymore,” I explain. “I’ll talk to him and make him understand. I love you, and I couldn’t let you serve any more time, especially when it was my fault this time and it was my fault last time you were arrested and had to do five years. Abe would do the same for me or Mercy.”
“Seeing you in here, you’re killing me,” Ian says with his blue eyes glistening. “And it wasn’t your fault either time!”
“Yes, it was,” I reply. “And I’ve felt guilty about it for years. Now it feels like I’m finally getting what I deserve for messing with your head that night. And I never should’ve gone for a PDA with you. I knew you weren’t ready for everything that can go along with it…”
“I got myself arrested five years ago, and I want PDAs with you. I would fuck you in the middle of the street if you would just get the goddamn plea thrown out!”
“I still get to do tattoos in here,” I tell him. “And I’ll have a lot of time to draw, which I don’t do enough of when I’m scheduling clients back to back.”
“You’re not funny,” Ian mutters. “What…what if someone tries to hurt you?”
“No one is going to touch me,” I promise him. “The Kings get respect in here. And I can take care of myself even though you and Abe have never thought I could.”
“I know you can take care of yourself,” he says. “I just like to be there to protect you, and I can’t when you’re in here!”
“It’s only ten months,” I remind him. “About forty-three weeks, three-hundred and four days. It’s not even a whole year, and then we can spend the rest of our lives together.”
“Gabriel, you won’t be there when your nephew comes! Abe is going to be devastated.”
And fuck, that reminder hurts because he’s right. I won’t be there, and that’s not something I can ever get back. Still, I’ve made my decision, and it won’t change. “I’ll see the little man before he even starts remembering shit. Abe will forgive me.”
“What about me? How am I supposed to survive ten months without you?”
“That’s easy. You’ve got Quincey to help you get through it.”
“I need you both!”
“And you’ll have us both soon,” I assure him. “Just promise me you’ll stay out of trouble.”
“I promise,” he agrees. “I’m never doing shit to get locked up again.”
“Good,” I say. “Me either. Hopefully.”
“Fuuuck,” he groans as he slumps in his chair and then scratches his fingers over his scruffy, golden jaw. “Is now the wrong time to be thinking about how hot you look with a beard? It probably is, isn’t it? I don’t care, though. You’re hot, and I swear I’ll work out some conjugal visits for us, as often as possible.”
“I love you, you know that?” I tell him with a smile stretching across my face. I didn’t think I would ever hear him give me a compliment in prison, much less while I was the one in handcuffs. “Even though it took you forever to come around.”
“I love you too,” he says with a smirk, finally saying the words I’ve always wanted to hear. “Even though you make incredibly bad decisions.”
“Forgive me?” I ask.
Blowing out a breath, he says, “It’s a good thing you’ve got a nice, tight ass, boy scout.”
Epilogue
Ian
Five years later…
It’s a beautiful day on Shackleford Banks, the perfect afternoon for the Savage Kings’ annual family picnic.
These days the adults are almost outnumbered by the amount of kids running around the beach.
Ryder and Tristan are two of the youngest princes, Irish twins born just eleven months apart, who are now three and two respectively. It’s easy to see their resemblances to their particular father. Tristan got my light hair and blue eyes, and Ryder got his tan complexion and dark hair from Gabriel.
I never thought I could love someone else’s kid, but I do. Tristan and Ryder are both mine in every sense of the word. And while parents aren’t supposed to have favorites, I can see more of myself in Ryder. The kid is tough as nails, stubborn as hell, and even at three he walks with a natural bad ass swagger. He doesn’t have a filter either, saying whatever the fuck is on his mind. That’s why I’m not even shocked when Ryder comes up to my beach chair and says, “Daddy Ian, why do the other kids out here only have one daddy but me and Tristan have two?” He holds up one tiny finger and adds another as if I need a visual representation of the question.
Gabriel and I are both called daddy by Ryder and Tristan, it’s just Daddy Gabe and Daddy Ian when necessary to differentiate between the two of us. Occasionally, Quincey calls us both daddy too. Speak of the devil, she gives me a little wave from where her and the other old ladies are sunbathing and gossiping.
“Well, son, I’ll let you in on a little secret,” I tell him when I pull him closer to whisper in his ear. “Only the coolest, smartest and most special kids get two daddies. But you can’t tell any of the one daddy kids or they’ll be sad.”
“Okay,” he agrees with a nod. “Can I tell Tristan when he’s older?”
“Absolutely,” I reply as I ruffle his soft black hair.
“Oh crap!” Ryder exclaims before he takes off running toward the tide. “Tristan fell again!”
Before any of the adults can reach the blond Tasmanian devil, Ryder scoops him up and sets him back down on his feet. I can’t hear him from here over the wind and waves, but based on the finger wagging in his little brother’s face, he’s probably giving him a lecture about not going out too far.
Ryder just laughs and grabs Tristan’s hand to pull him deeper into the waves. Since they’re both wearing life vests and Gabriel’s fishing five feet away, I know they’ll be fine.
The three of us have been sharing one bed ever since Gabriel got out of prison, which was the longest ten months of my fucking life. I think that period of time shaved ten years off my life from how crazy I was with worry for him. I kept my promise though and haven’t ended up behind bars again. How could I when I have this incredible family to take care of?
We had to move out of the loft and into a house when Quincey was pregnant with Ryder. He needed his own room and a few extra bedrooms because we knew he wouldn’t be an only child for long.
Some outsiders still don’t understand our uniqu
e lifestyle, but that doesn’t bother us. We’re happy, so we don’t care what anyone else thinks.
Getting up from my chair, I cross the warm sand and then wade into the ocean until I’m standing next to Gabriel.
“Can you believe it’s been five years?” he asks me with a grin before turning to watch the kids jumping into the waves.
“No, I can’t,” I answer.
“Do you think they would be here if Quincey hadn’t left us stranded?” Gabriel asks, nodding to our sons.
“Yes,” I answer without hesitation. “Because one way or another, we ended up exactly where we’re supposed to be, with the people we were meant to love.”
“Wow,” Gabriel says as he blinks his eyes rapidly. “I thought you would say no.”
“I don’t think I could’ve ever really said no to you,” I tell him honestly. “Quincey told me once, early on, that things have a way of working out, if we’re brave enough to chase our dreams.”
“She was brave enough to help us catch ours,” Gabriel says as he looks back over his shoulder to wave at her. “I’ll have to thank her for that again tonight.”
“And every other night, from here on out,” I add as I throw my arm over his shoulder. Gazing out over the ocean with him by my side, our children playing in the surf, and all of our family gathered around us, I know that Gabe and Quincey truly made all of my dreams come true.
The End
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue were created from the authors’ imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual people or events is coincidental.
The authors acknowledge the copyrighted and trademarked status of various products within this work of fiction.
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