THE WATCHERS: 6 Military Romance Bundle

by Kristina Weaver

  It’s strange, but most of them, from Crissy, the firstborn, all the way to my little Anna all look like me before the surgery. Jess grumbles every time and curses my strong swimmers and alien DNA because, according to her, she should have lookalikes since she does all the work.

  I snort and run after Theo, who’s targeted Jericho’s eldest son and has a gleam in her eye that spells trouble. She’s her mama’s girl, a biter, and she usually doesn’t let go until someone’s bleeding. Or missing flesh.

  Jess, of course, is sipping her drink and grinning at me merrily as I juggle three shrieking females and try to ignore the teeth in my leg where Theo is now locked on after I gave her what for, right after Jericho saved his kid from death by the rabid Chihuahua known as Theo.

  “Theo, baby, stop biting Daddy. Please.”

  Her nose scrunches and she adds a little more force, her expression so Jess that I feel my heart melt immediately.

  “Aww, come on, princess, Daddy loves you. You want cake, huh?” I wheedle, grimacing when she lets go with a whoop and runs for the food table, Jess’s glare—which I pretend not to see—burning into the back of my head.

  “I’ll kill you if she gets at the sugar again! Last time she stayed up for thirteen hours.”

  “Sorry! Love you.”

  “What a sap!” Lex groans, just as his newborn son Caleb lets out a toxic sounding fart in his diaper that sounds wet and deadly, his legs kicking as he coos.

  “Baby! Caleb needs a change!”

  “Not on your life,” she yells back, her eyes dancing when something starts reeking and a nasty trail starts leaking from the diaper. “I told you not to let him lick that cupcake; he’s too small to tolerate that stuff.”

  “He has taste buds; he liked it,” he volleys back, holding the kid at arm’s length with a pout.

  Caleb giggles, I swear he does, even though the women insist their too young at that age. Lex grins through his gagging before he trots off to save the kid from the toxic diaper.

  “Hey, Uncle Trace!” Aww, crap. I love this kid, but damn he still scares me, I think as Oscar pops up next to me, forcing me to let my other rug rats run wild again. “He’s going to be smart, and we’ll be best friends me and Caleb. We’ll probably marry Theo and Crissy, though I call dibs on Crissy because Theo bites.”

  The matter of fact way he says this makes me groan because I know, if he’s saying it, it will happen one day, and I am not sure I want any of my babies doing that stuff. Ever. Nuns. They’ll be nuns. Or lesbians. Yeah.

  “Look kid—”

  “Don’t worry though, Uncle Trace. I won’t let nobody hurt her. She’s too mouthy, but Daddy says real women aren’t afraid to speak their minds. I guess I’ll just have to keep protecting her when she teases that Joel kid at school. He’s big though, but Daddy told me to hit him in the nuts and it worked. Say, Uncle Trace, could you ask her to at least stop making eyes at Cody Harris? It’s annoying seeing my girl making eyes at the kid who picks his nose and eats it.”

  Christ!

  “This kid…you take care of him when he comes near her, and I’ll have a talk to her. No kid of mine is going out with a nose picker.”

  Oscar nods solemnly and sighs.

  “Women are a lifetime commitment.”

  He runs off for his prey, my girl, without another word, but I can’t move for the laughter choking me. Hell, I could do worse than Nick’s boy stalking my daughter. At least I know he’s got her back. And I’ve seen that kid fight. Nick, through and through.

  Arms wrap around me from behind and I grin as Jess’s flowery scent envelops me along with her warmth.

  “He’s going to love her one day and make a whole new family. Stop worrying, Papa, he’s a good kid.”

  “Yeah.”

  We watch as everyone runs around after the children, Jericho at the grill, Lex trying to give Caleb back to his mother before he blows again, and I think back to that day five years ago when all I felt was loneliness and anger while watching my friends build their lives.

  I never would have guessed I could have all this. I planned for it, sure, and I worked my ass off to convince Jess to marry me—man thong and all—but I’m still amazed to be here. Especially after two months of dating, which I had to submit to or lose that bet.

  After I killed Black, got Jess and me to the hospital, and then swiftly married her—in a freaking kilt, which I will never live down—I got a call from a friend looking for the missing senator.

  Ah, Irina, you beauty. That woman and her girls came through for me in the best way. Shadow ceased to exist in one fell swoop, the untrustworthy senator is still missing, and Nick’s contacts gave me a new identity and a chance at life.

  Now I live in my house—the monstrosity Jess had no clue how to decorate but tried anyway—with my crazy wife who threatens to shoot me every other day and five daughters who are just as unique as their mama. I’m part of something now, no longer watching, but enjoying every moment.

  They drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “Hey, asshole! I hear you like thongs and Wild West themes!” Blaze yells, waving me over with a chuckle.

  “Jess! This is your definition of ‘to the grave?’” I groan, feeling her body shake with laughter.

  “It was girls’ night—tequila and rum. I misspoke.”

  Christ.

  She kisses me softly and pulls me down before I can trudge over to the gang of cackling assholes waiting for me at the grill.

  “Meet me in the laundry room and I’ll make this up to you. Bet you can’t last five minutes,” she whispers seductively, nibbling at my ear lobe.

  And just like that, I can handle the ribbing and jeering as I walk over to the guys, watching my wife’s ass sway seductively.

  “You’re on!”

  She’s mine.

  That’s all I have left to say, and I’m keeping her. Even if I have to cheat to win sometimes.

  ***

  Jess

  I love the man, but he’s a fruitcake. He watches our kids with the concentration of a Secret Service agent and threatens little kids on the playground if one the little horrors cries to him about bullying. Which they probably deserve, I can tell ya. I love my girls, but they are…Daddy’s girls.

  It’s been five years since Shadow was taken out, and Kinsley finally found that intel we were looking for. Turns out, some very influential people on the Hill got their asses handed to them for bribery, corruption, and conspiracy charges.

  I have an old friend in the White House who just managed to accidentally slip the files into a certain inbox. Apparently, when the president gets angry he goes all the way, because not long after that, those men were brought to trial and a lot of heads rolled. Except the senator’s. Those sexy Harem ladies took care of that.

  They’ve barbecued with us twice, but Trace has this fear that I’ll run away and elope with Irina. Can’t blame me, the woman is seriously hot.

  Trace got his fresh start with us all, and while the guys still rib him on a daily basis, he’s so happy—and frankly nuts—he hardly minds at all. At least, he doesn’t have the time to mind because our five girls keep him too busy to bother with revenge pranks.

  Most days I spend gossiping and just enjoying life. Lex and his Rosie have one little girl who was born “all shook up” as they like to joke. I swear she cries in Elvis lip curl.

  Jericho…his wife and kids are hilarious the way they run circles around him. Nick and Lenny are still Nick and Lenny, raising their own brood, with another on the way and one very adorably eerie son—a boy I’ll have fitted for a tux as soon as Crissy is old enough to get married. Then she’s his problem, the little sassy-mouthed Daddy’s girl.

  Blaze and his Evie have their one boy, Holt, who according to Evie is all she can handle since he takes after his father in looks and temperament. King would only have one kid—he had his junk funked after Kinsley went through a hard labor, and he swore never to risk losing his girl again
. That’s my family, in all its glory, and man, are they gloriously whack.

  I finally have everything I longed for, and I even mended fences a little with Rachel, though it will never be the same after Trace threatened to make her son an orphan if she ever hurt me again.

  Me?

  I’m great. I finally have the babies I wanted, though the doctor is still surprised I conceived once, never mind three times. Apparently, one of my ovaries looks the way I feel when Theo starts acting up: like death.

  Meh, it must be God finally cutting me some slack, I think.

  Oooh, and that thong? Trace still wears it for me sometimes. And he looks phenomenal in it. And he dances for me. Ahh, what a life.

  So yeah. I can safely say…

  My name is Jessica Matthews, wife, mother, sister, aunt…

  Mostly, you can just call me happy.

  *Oh, and I won, Trace. (Don’t let him tell you differently.)*

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