The Underground: The Complete Series

by Snow, Jenika

25

  Stella wiped sweat from her brow as she picked another strawberry and put it in her basket. At least twenty women and children surrounded her, all of them in good spirits as they picked their harvest of fruits and vegetables. The sun was bright above them, but it felt damn good to be outside doing something productive.

  “Katherine, can you take these into the kitchen while I start pulling the carrots and lettuce?”

  “Sure thing.” The twenty-one-year-old girl grabbed the basketful of fruit and headed into the house.

  “Stella, sweetie, look at this one!”

  She turned around and shielded her eyes from the blinding sun. Her father stood a few feet away holding up an extra-large carrot like it was going to win the blue ribbon.

  It had been three months since he had been released from rehab with a clean bill of health. He was a different man, and now that he worked full-time for Tate building ten Everclear homes, he’d found a purpose. He hadn’t taken a drink of alcohol, and she couldn’t have been prouder.

  Miles bumped her shoulder, and she grinned over at him. The normally pristine man had dirt smeared across his brow and beads of sweat dotting his forehead. “I hope you’re prepared to cook all this food that you’re making us pick, you slave driver.” He winked and made his way to where they were picking potatoes.

  Since first coming to Everclear and reconnecting with Tate, she had quit her crappy job and come to work for him. The fact that she was able to help people that really needed it brought her so much satisfaction she often found herself tearing up. Seeing these women and children knit themselves back together was so rewarding that she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

  A strong arm wrapped around her waist, and a firm chest pressed against her back. The fresh and clean scent of Tate washed through her. His deep voice seeped into her. “Look at what you’ve done, baby.” She looked around. “Look at all the smiles and laughter. None of that would be present without you being here.” She knew it wasn’t all her; hell, without all of them working together, none of this would be possible. She smiled and leaned into Tate. If someone had told her a year ago this was how her life could be, she would have told them to shut the fuck up.

  “I love you like there is no tomorrow, Stella.”

  A smile formed on her lips, and she turned in his arms and lifted up to kiss him. “And I love you.” It was crazy the way things worked out, but there was nothing wrong with a little craziness in a person’s life.

  Epilogue

  One year later

  Tate could’ve watched Stella all day long.

  The way she looked when she didn’t think anybody was watching her was an aphrodisiac. The little lift of her lips as she smiled, and the dirt on her hands and smeared across her face as she planted flowers in the backyard garden had him grinning.

  He was happy and so damn lucky.

  He’d come out to the patio five minutes ago, and all he’d done was watch Stella plant the Gerber daisies. She had music playing from her phone, but it was too low for him to hear. But he watched Stella sing along, her hair piled high in a messy bun and the sun beating down on her already golden skin.

  His cock was hard, his need for her insatiable. It didn’t matter how many times he took her, how much time had passed, he always wanted her like it was the first time. Did she realize how much control she had over him? Did Stella understand the lengths he would go to, to keep her near?

  He wasn’t a good man, not really, no matter how much good he tried to do. He did illegal shit, had no issues revealing that fact. But she loved him regardless, had become his wife, and was soon to be the mother of his first child.

  She stood and wiped the dirt from her knees, a wisp of her hair falling along her temple, the wind gently blowing it. She smiled as she surveyed her flowers, the purples and pinks a splash of color among the green. Before she’d come along, he hadn’t cared about any of this. And truth was he still wouldn’t, not if she hadn’t.

  But the fact she’d fallen in love with gardening, that she spent most of her free time out here planting, watching these flowers grow and bloom, brought so much happiness into his life that he felt his cold, hardened heart softening.

  But only for her.

  She turned and looked at him, lifting her hand and blocking out the sun. He saw the way her smile grew, her focus solely on him.

  “You know we have gardeners for that,” he teased, knowing she loved it out here too much to allow anyone else to do this.

  She smiled wider and glanced at the flowers again.

  Tate let his gaze linger on her belly, the slight mound underneath her now dirty white T-shirt evident. His heart jackknifed in his chest. His child grew in there. She might only be four months along, but already he couldn’t wait to hold their child in his arms, to tell him all the secrets of the world, to teach him how to be a better man than Tate had ever been.

  He’d be a good father, protect their child, make sure he flourished, knew how to handle himself, but also respect others.

  Tate stood and met Stella halfway, immediately pulling her into an embrace and holding her tightly. She smelled of dirt, but underneath all of that was her sweet scent, the one that reminded him of honeysuckle and sun-kissed flowers.

  “My life,” he whispered. Tate pulled back and immediately dropped to his knees, pushed up her shirt, and placed his forehead against her belly. He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly, taking in the sweet scent of her, relishing the fact there was no other place he’d rather be. Hell, he didn’t give a fuck if anyone saw him right now, this dark and dangerous kingpin who was on his knees worshipping the woman he loved.

  She ran her fingers through his hair, her touch making him feel alive.

  Stella made him feel alive, like there was nothing else on this planet that could bring him down. Before her he’d been a shell of a man, living for the sake of going through the motions. And if she wasn’t by his side … Fuck, he didn’t even want to think of that. It made rage fill him, sorrow claim him at the very thought of not having her.

  He stood and cupped her cheeks, staring into her eyes. “Only mine, and what a lucky bastard I am,” he whispered before leaning down and capturing her mouth with his.

  For all his faults, Stella was the one good thing in his world. And when their baby came, it would be the three of them. He’d live, breathe, and die for them because there wasn’t anything on this planet more important to him than they were.

  * * *

  Five years later

  Stella knew the type of man Tate was. She’d known what she was getting into when she felt herself falling in love with him, when she heard his story, realized that even if he loved her unconditionally, he’d always been this ruthless, hardened man who would do anything to make his empire stand. She’d never be able to change that, to change him.

  And she didn’t want to.

  She loved him for who he was, scars and darkness and all.

  Even now, all these years later, their marriage was stronger than ever. They had a little girl laughing and running around the yard as her daddy chased her, the little boy she carried kicking wildly in her belly. Stella could see a change in Tate. It wasn’t on the surface, because she knew he’d never show that to anyone but her … and their children. But it was clear as the sun shining down on them right now.

  She hadn’t missed his scuffed-up knuckles a few times he’d come home late at night, knowing he’d used force to put someone in their place, that violence was his calling and he used it as his weapon of choice.

  Stella didn’t ignore any of that, hated that he had to use brute strength to get what he wanted, but she wasn’t a fool in pretending that a part of him didn’t revel in doing it, in making blood splatter on the ground like a grisly, abstract painting.

  And despite all of that, knowing he was considered a “bad guy,” Stella loved him more than ever.

  Placing her hand on her belly, she felt their little boy kick. A smile curved her mouth as happiness a
nd love filled every part of her body.

  Tate lifted their little girl, Bonnie, named after Stella’s mother, and the love on his face was clear. He grinned and leaned in to kiss her on the forehead.

  “Daddy?”

  “Yes, baby girl?” He slowly made his way over to where Stella sat.

  “Do all boys have these?” she asked and pointed to his tattoos.

  “Not all, sweetheart.”

  “I want my boyfriend to have one,” she said and grinned.

  Tate made a gruff sound in the back of his throat and Stella grinned. “No dating until you’re middle-aged and I’m too old to have a little one-on-one time with the guys who come knocking at the door.”

  Bonnie’s brows dipped as confusion covered her face. “What’s middle-aged?”

  Stella chuckled just as Tate sat down on the patio beside her, Bonnie in his lap.

  Stella could just imagine how Tate would be when Bonnie started dating. Lord help the boys who wanted to take his little girl out on dates.

  “I’ll have my shotguns cleaned when that time rolls around,” Tate said and looked over at her, a grumpy expression on his face. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking about.”

  He cracked a smile, and she laughed. As she listened to Tate tell Bonnie a story, she couldn’t help but let every little emotion consume her, couldn’t stop herself from grinning like a crazy person at the fact that she was deliriously happy, that even though life had been pretty shitty to her in the past, she was living perfection.

  She was living her dream.

  Extended Epilogue

  Several years later

  Never in his wildest dreams did Tate think he’d have a wife, let alone children. He’d been a hardened recluse, never making connections, never seeing himself with someone because he was too empty to let them in.

  But then he’d met Stella, an unlikely meeting, a forced relationship. It had started off rocky, a debt being paid to save her father, but it had turned into something so much ... more.

  And now, after all these years, he wouldn’t have changed that reluctant deal she’d made with him for anything. He wouldn’t have done anything different because it had gotten him to where he was right now.

  A husband to a woman he loved more than life itself.

  A father to a beautiful little girl and a baby boy who was the spitting image of him.

  His world. That’s what they were to him.

  His family.

  He might not deserve them, deserve this life they’d created together, but he wouldn’t give it up for anything. He’d sacrifice everything for them, using his last breath if it meant they’d get one more day on this planet.

  But he wasn’t just a husband and a father, a business owner and underground fight ring peddler.

  He didn’t just have wealth and power.

  He had friends, a close-knit community that had helped make him whole.

  And as he looked at Kash and Tristan, the scarred fighter holding his wife close, their two children playing with the others, Tate felt like not everything in life was as hard as it seemed. And as he glanced at Adrian and Brea, their little girl giggling at something Bonnie said to her, he realized that no matter how dark the world was, and how much it tried to pull you down, there was always hope.

  Although Tate wasn’t a good man by any means, did illegal things to make a living, and earned a vast fortune by letting people beat the shit out of each other underneath his club, it was the people who stood by him that told him he wasn’t alone in any of this. That maybe he wasn’t all bad.

  Because he’d fight for each and every one of them until he was dead in the ground.

  He headed into the kitchen where Stella was, her back to him as she bent over and grabbed the lasagna out of the oven. His gaze zeroed in on the roundness of her ass, how perfect it was, how much he wanted to curl his fingers around the mounds and squeeze them.

  God, he was getting hard, and that was probably not the best thing given the fact they had a houseful of friends over.

  She straightened and set the casserole dish on the stove before closing the oven door.

  But he found himself walking up to her, gripping her hips, and pulling her gently back against him, letting her feel how hard he was for her.

  He buried his face in the crook of her neck and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. She smelled like lemon, fresh and clean, crisp and ... his. “You know we have servants to help with this, right?” He muttered those words against her skin and felt her pulse quicken.

  A grin spread over his mouth at the fact that she was affected by him so much.

  “I like being able to prepare a meal for our friends,” she said softly, breathlessly.

  He pressed his hardened dick against her ass again, holding back the groan that would have spilled.

  “Tate, we have people here,” she said softly and then chuckled when he nipped at her neck one last time. He forced himself to take a step back. She turned around and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in closely.

  “Adrian and Kash will understand why I suddenly had to take you upstairs,” he said with a grin, and couldn’t stop himself from leaning in and claiming her mouth. She moaned and he felt his arousal heighten feverishly. Even after all these years it felt like the first time with Stella. He felt like he was falling in love with her all over again each and every day.

  He gave her one more lingering kiss, the selfish part of him wanting to take her upstairs and drive his cock deep within her tight pussy, but that would have to wait … until tonight. And when the guests were gone and the kids were asleep, he’d take his wife to their bed, strip her naked, and worship every single part of her.

  Because she was his.

  He helped her with the food, and together they headed out into the dining room. Everyone gathered around, the older kids sitting at the table, the younger ones in high chairs. And as Tate sat there staring at the men and women he called friends … family, he realized that even in the darkest times, the hardest parts of life, there was always that silver lining.

  There was always hope for redemption.

  The End

  About the Author

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