by Nora Ash
“That we would abandon a pregnant bird and our baby?” I continued, stepping around the left side. We both reached for her, but she flinched away.
“Don’t,” she said, trying to pull away, but neither of us were having it. We stepped in, trapping her between us, and simultaneously wrapped our arms around her.
The moment she felt our bodies press against her, whatever had been keeping her together crumbled to dust. She sagged between us, and this awful, broken sob tore out of her throat.
“Audrey,” I murmured, tightening my hold on her so I could rest my head against hers.
“Don’t cry, love,” Liam said. “This is happy news.”
“Happy?” she hiccuped. “I don’t even know whose name I’ll write on the birth certificate!”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, giving her a small squeeze. “It’s just a piece of paper. The three of us know the truth. And so will the kid.”
“We’ll both be the father,” Liam said. He nudged her gently to get her to look at him, and smiled softly at her tear-stricken face. “We are both the father.”
“How can you accept this so easily?” she sniffled. “It’s…”
“It’s exactly how it should have been from the start.” I glanced at Liam and he gave me a short nod in return. Breathing deeply, we both stepped back from her.
The small box that’d been burning a hole in my pocket since we stopped by the jewelers on the way to Audrey’s flat felt heavy as I fumbled to get it out. My heart pounded so hard in my chest I could hear my own pulse drumming in my ears, a heavy mix of excitement and just plain fear making me shake as I sunk to one knee next to my twin.
“Audrey—“
“What are you doing?” The look on her face was priceless—sheer shock.
“Audrey—”
“Get up!”
“Audrey!“
“For fuck’s sake, what are you doing?!”
“God, woman, would you shut up for just one second and let us do this?” Liam laughed. He carded the hand he wasn’t holding his box with through his hair, eyes dancing with mirth when they met mine. “You’d think being two about popping the question would make this easier.”
I smirked at him and returned my attention to Audrey. She was shaking. Badly.
“It’s going to be okay, love,” I said, grabbing her hand with my box-free one. “We’ve worked everything out—it’s going to be okay. Just take a deep breath and let us do this. Trust us.”
She didn’t say anything, but I could see her chest moving as she breathed in deeply.
“Good girl.” I glanced at Liam, and he grabbed her free hand.
“First off, we want to apologize. Both of us.”
“We’ve not made any of this easy on you, and we are truly and deeply sorry for all the pain we’ve caused you.”
“We can’t promise that we won’t give you a few gray hairs over the years...”
“But we can promise you that we will never, ever, put you through the kind of bullshit we have while we got our heads out of our arses.” I offered her a small smile.
“We should have known from day one,” Liam continued. “It’s always been Louis and me. We’ve always been a unit. And yet it never occurred to us that when we fell in love with the same woman, it was always meant to be that way.”
“There is no other way, Audrey. You’re not meant to be with me, you’re not meant to be with him. You’re meant to be with us. Both of us.”
“W-what?” Her eyes widened as she struggled to accept what we were offering her.
“We’re saying, love, that we want to share you. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“And before you get any ideas—we’re not taking no for an answer.” Liam flicked the lid of his box open, revealing the ring inside. I followed suit.
“You know this is how it’s meant to be, love,” I said, gently, when I noticed how she was still shaking. “Deep down, you know.”
“You’re insane,” she whispered. “We can’t do this. You can’t… you can’t share me, I’m not a… a… sandwich.”
“A sandwich?” Liam grinned at her lame ending. “You’re not a sandwich, so we can’t marry you?”
“Shut up, you know what I mean!” she hissed, cheeks reddening. “For one thing, it’s not legal. And who’s to say you wouldn’t end up resenting the hell out of me down the line? That you wouldn’t regret it?”
“You’re telling two mafia sons you can’t marry us because ‘it’s not legal,’” I said, shaking my head at her. “Do you think we give a flying fuck, as long as you say yes? It doesn’t matter whose name goes on the bloody paperwork, it doesn’t matter what the law says. All that matters is how we feel about you. And how you feel about us.”
“We’ve got no hesitation, Audrey. We want this, and we’ll always want this. If you worry we might change our minds, don’t. We won’t.”
“Do you love us?”
“You know I do,” she whispered. A single tear slid down her cheek.
“Equally?” Liam asked.
She pressed her lips together and nodded. More tears trickled down her pretty face.
“Then say yes, Audrey. Let us make you happy—today, tomorrow and every day after that.”
“And ideally sometime soon,” I mumbled, cringing at the strain on my shoulder from keeping the damn box outstretched for so long. “Some of us are still healing from broken bones here.”
She made a barking noise, a mix between a laugh and a sob and shook her head. “You’ll be the death of me.”
“Nah, love. We’ll be the reason you wake up laughing every day for the rest of your life.”
“Or moaning,” I interjected with a sly smile.
“That too,” Liam agreed.
“You’re sure?” she asked, the worry clear in her teary eyes. “You’re sure I will never come between you?”
“Well, I mean, we were hoping you’d come between us pretty damn often, to be honest…” My playful tone died at the scathing look I got from Liam. Right. Not the time.
“We’re sure, Audrey. Or we wouldn’t be here.”
“Then… yes.” She sniffed, straightened her back and gave us both a small smile. “Yes, I will marry you. Both.”
Elation so intense it nearly made my heart skip several beats rushed through me at her acceptance. I’d been prepared for the worst, even as I’d hoped for this very outcome, but to actually hear her say the words… I pressed a kiss to her knuckles and slid my ring on her right hand. To the casual observer it looked identical to the ring Liam placed on her left hand—a solitaire diamond flanked by two small rubies set in a white gold band. You’d have to study them both closely to find the small difference in them—like she had with us to notice the scar on Liam’s hand that set us apart.
Grimacing, I got to my feet and rolled my shoulder, which gave Liam enough time to swoop in and steal the first kiss from her lips.
“We’ll make you so, so happy,” he murmured against her ear when I gently turned her head to kiss her, too. Her lips were sweet and soft and exactly as perfect as I remembered against my own.
This was it. This was everything I’d wanted out of life, even if I hadn’t realized it before she came into my life. Not moving my mouth from hers, I slid my hand down to her still-soft belly. Everything and so much more.
Liam’s hand bumped gently against mine as he rounded it on the lower part of her belly and pushed his forehead in against the side of her head. “Your parents are gonna love this.”
Audrey snorted and pulled away from our kiss, a little breathless but with mirth dancing in her eyes. “I don’t know, maybe it’ll actually be an improvement. Sure, it’ll be hard to explain to their friends why there are two grooms at the wedding, but at least you’ll make an honest woman out of me. Ish. At the very least it can’t get much worse than their reaction when I told them I didn’t know which of you were the father of my baby.”
Liam arched both eyebrows at her. “You told them? Shit, no wonder you
r mother looked like she wanted to bash our heads in with the teapot.”
Audrey smiled happily, apparently not too worried with her parents’ obvious wish to see us dead. “Yeah, I wasn’t about to lie. Not about something as important as my baby.”
“Our baby,” I growled, pressing my hand firmer against her stomach. A flush of possessive emotions toward her and the still-invisible baby bump came rushing up from the deepest part of my core. The part that’d known she was going to be my wife from the first time I got between her thighs. It felt like a lifetime ago. “It’s our baby, love.”
“Or babies,” Liam said with a smirk. “You never know, might be twins. Pretty sure it runs in the family. On our mother’s side.”
Audrey’s smile paled significantly. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“What? What’s not to love about that idea?” I gave her my best shit-eating grin. “Two adorable ginger babies to keep you on your toes.”
“Mum did always say she would’ve stopped after just two if we’d been her firstborn,” Liam said, a wicked smirk on his face. “I’m sure she meant because we were the most perfect children you could imagine.”
“Of course there was that time we set fire to the kitchen while playing tag,” I mused. “Pretty sure she mentioned something about wishing we’d come with return labels then.”
“Purely accidental, of course,” Liam interjected.
“Or the time we swapped her hair gel with glue.”
“You two need to shut up, or I’m giving you your rings back,” Audrey growled, though the glint of amusement in the corner of her eye sparkled with suppressed laughter.
“No take-backsies,” I said, giving her a gentle squeeze.
“You’re stuck with us now,” Liam agreed. “For life.”
“Well, let’s see how long that’ll be, exactly. Come on, let’s go tell my parents the happy news. I sure hope your sweet-talking abilities improve right quick, or I’ll likely be a widow before we even get married.”
I laughed, and caught Liam’s eye over the top of her head. The smile on his so familiar face echoed through me, and I knew I looked as happy as he did then.
No matter what shit came our way—today, tomorrow, or the day after that—it didn’t matter. We’d thought we’d been a unit before, him and I, but we’d been wrong. We’d been missing her.
She was the glue tying us together tighter than we’d ever thought possible; the sun we both orbited around.
With Audrey between us, there was nothing we couldn’t overcome.
I looked from my twin to the woman who’d given me more than I could ever put into words, and I knew the rest of my life would be filled with laughter.
Epilogue
“You just ate not half an hour ago. How are you still hungry?” I frowned down at the ginger baby latched on my left breast. “I swear you know when we’re in a rush.”
As if on cue, an angry wail erupted from the other side of the room. My shoulders slumped in defeat as my very pregnant, soon-to-be sister-in-law laughed and carried my other daughter over to me, deftly placing her in my right arm. “We are definitely not making it on time.”
“Probably not,” Mira said as she patted the now remarkably quiet baby’s head. “But I do think being a new mother of twin girls and the bride gives you some leeway when it comes to punctuality.”
“Not to mention the bride of Louis and Liam,” Evelyn, my other sister-in-law, said dryly from her seat by the door. She was holding her own, sleeping baby boy in her arms. Jeremy was only a couple of months older than my girls, and I was intensely envious of how calm he always seemed. He never fussed, hardly ever cried, and generally had a reputation of being the most chilled-out baby in history.
At just over three months old, it might be too early to say, but I was convinced Lily and Rose had inherited their fathers’ distinct taste for causing mayhem. Hence why I was currently nursing two satisfied-looking babies with my wedding dress pooled around my waist—only half an hour after their last meal.
“Yup. Saints get to be as late as they want,” Mira agreed with a teasing smile.
I sighed and sank further back in the chair as I looked down at my daughters happily taking their sweet time. It was still hard to believe that they were mine, even three months after giving birth to them, with Liam and Louis anxiously clutching at my hands from each their side of my hospital bed. There’d been a couple of raised eyebrows when the nurse had asked for everyone but the father to leave and the twins had made a point out of closing the door, both remaining inside, but I’d been in too much pain to care. And frankly… the further along I’d gotten in my pregnancy, the less I’d been worried about what other people thought—in general, and about my relationship with the two men I loved, more specifically.
They told me I’d wake up laughing every day if I said yes to their proposal, and they’d kept that promise. Happiness had been a concept I thought I knew before they asked for my hand in marriage. It turned out I’d only ever seen a pale shadow of what it truly could be. I did wake up laughing every day, and at night, I fell asleep between them, safe in their arms and satisfied all the way into the marrow of my bones.
Yes, not everything was sunshine and rainbows, and it never would be. They were mafia. They would always be mafia. And now, so would I. But I had entered into this world of darkness and corruption with my eyes wide open. I knew what was waiting for me, despite the new leadership the Steel brothers implemented the day after they took over London. Death was only a last resort instead of the first choice when punishment had to be doled out, but that didn’t mean my new world wasn’t violent. Or dark.
I looked up from Lily’s sparse, ginger locks and caught my mother’s eye. She was sitting in the corner of my dressing room, her mouth drawn into a worried line as she watched me nurse my babies.
My parents didn’t know what exactly my new family was engaged in, but I was pretty sure they’d put at least part of the puzzle together when big, burly guys showed up outside their house, standing vigil day and night. It was the twins’ insistence that my parents get ‘round-the-clock protection, and I hadn’t argued. Neither had they. The only mention they’d ever made was when my father asked me if I knew the guy currently standing next to their privet bush. When I said yes, his lips flattened, but he didn’t ask me any further questions.
They’d taken my engagement to the twins better than could have been expected. There’d been a few moments’ stunned silence. Then my mother had asked me if I was sure this is what I wanted. I’d said yes, and they’d both congratulated us, albeit perhaps a tad stiffly. I didn’t mind—I knew it was a lot for them to take in, and honestly, I was just thankful they didn’t kick me out the door for ruining their perfect image. Turned out my parents—though thoroughly entrenched in their golf-weekends and suburban bliss—truly just wanted me to be happy. Even if I found that happiness in ways they didn’t necessarily approve of.
And once Rose and Lily arrived, my mum had pretty much melted. I’d even caught her giving the twins extra servings of cake when we visited, presumably as a thank-you for finally giving her the grandkids she’d been not-so-subtly sighing for since I rounded thirty.
I gave my mother a smile across the room just as Rose finally popped her tiny mouth off my boob and, with the cutest little yawn, closed her eyes and went straight to sleep. “Would you hold her, please, Mum?”
The worried frown between her eyebrows smoothed a little as she got to her feet to pick up her granddaughter. A gentleness I only vaguely remembered from when I was a kid eased over her face as she cooed at the sleeping baby in her arms, rocking her gently. Rose, probably exhausted from eating like the piglet she was, didn’t so much as flutter an eyelid. But then again, she was used to being transferred from arm to arm. She and Lily had a very large family of adoring aunts and uncles, and as the only girls born to the Steel empire thus far, they were already getting spoiled rotten.
I looked around the small room, and something w
arm fluttered in my belly as I looked at the three women there. My own sister had opted not to be a part of my pre-wedding session, making her views of my “heathen lifestyle” known as passive-aggressively as only Mel could.
The women here—my mother and my two almost-sisters-in-law—were all the support I needed.
I’d bonded with Evelyn and Mira pretty much instantly. Something about marrying into a mafia Family definitely created some fast and deep bonds, and both they and their husbands had welcomed me with open arms.
A rap of knuckles against the door pulled me from my mushy thoughts—and Lily from her nursing. She gave an irritated little huff at being disturbed mid-snack, but then closed her eyes and fell into the same instantaneous food coma as her sister.
“Come in,” I called as I covered up my leaking breasts with a soft towel. Breastfeeding was all well and good, but I wasn’t about to get milk all over my expensive wedding dress.
Isaac popped his head in the door. “The twins were wondering if you’ve changed your mind? Can’t say I blame ya if you have, but I did promise them I’d make sure you don’t leg it.”
I grinned. “Just feeding their unruly offspring. In fact, would you take them down with you so I can get ready without being interrupted by these two gaping maws again?”
“Sure.” Despite Isaac’s confident tone, the look of unease as he stepped into the room to take his nieces from me and my mother was pretty priceless. Marcus and Blaine, who both had kids of their own, didn’t blink when asked to hold my two tiny bundles of terror, but Isaac always looked like he’d rather be anywhere else than stuck with two babies in his arms.
“We should probably get down to the ceremony as well,” Mira said, taking pity on her brother-in-law. She deftly snatched a sleeping baby from his grip, leaving him with just the one. “Come, Evelyn. Let’s go make sure Audrey’s grooms haven’t set fire to anything.”
“I thought Marcus was on fire extinguisher duty?” Evelyn teased as she followed the two other Steels out the room, blowing me a finger kiss before shutting the door behind them.