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Family Reunion
It was absolute chaos. There were screaming toddlers, infants crying because they wanted milk, Serena had been pranking the boys her age, and well, I thought whiskey wasn’t entirely out of the picture as Ax and Dom fought over the grill and argued with Vic over the correct way to make homemade barbecue sauce. Never thought I’d see any of them argue over sauce, but the closer they got, the more they argued.
It was a thing, apparently, in our clan.
Everyone was present. Every Family, including the Sinacores, and somehow it felt complete… like we were always supposed to end up here with our families on campus. As big as all our houses were, this was the only place that had enough lawn so we could at least control and watch for the kids, that allowed us all to eat and make sure everyone stayed alive, didn’t fall into a pool, find a horse or cow to pester, or in Chase’s case, chickens.
And I wanted safe, so I had the University security stay back for extra pay just to make sure the day went by smoothly.
It had been a rough few weeks, but at least now, things were calmer. Katya and Santino were given an ungodly inheritance from Santino’s grandfather, and as we predicted, her marrying into the Five Families solidified our position overseas. To make matters even sweeter, Andrei made Santino his underboss. I thought the guy was going to cry when Andrei said it. But who better to have as your underboss than a pure-blood Sinacore whose specialty is killing. Oh, and who was married to your baby sister. Bonus points for that.
I took a sip of my coffee and walked up toward the freshman dorms where I first met Trace. I could almost see that car coming down the lane again, her jumping out of it, hugging Frank, and then all her clothes getting scattered in the breeze while the guys and I just watched the train wreck happen.
She’d wrecked me that day in the best way possible. It had always been her. It would always be her for me. Always.
“Reminiscing?” Chase joined me on top of the small hill facing the gates to Eagle Elite, “Or did you maybe bring a flask of Tex’s finest whiskey and leave the group, so you don’t get judged for not drinking wine?”
I rolled my eyes, reached into my back pocket, and handed it to Chase.
“Knew it.” He took a swig. “Ah, it tastes like dirt and money. I like it.”
“You steal my whiskey?” Tex joined us, followed by Phoenix.
Phoenix crossed his arms and snorted. “When do they not steal your whiskey?”
“How do you know these things?” Chase asked. “Like I truly want to know what your secret is. Do you have hidden cameras everywhere? Blink twice if you’re an alien. Zombie.”
Phoenix shoved him away. “You’re an idiot.”
Chase dangled the flask in front of him. Rolling his eyes, Phoenix took a swig and started choking. “What do they put in that?”
“Pure testosterone from bull testicles,” Tex said with a completely straight face.
Phoenix went completely white.
I snorted out a laugh. “Can kill anyone but can’t drink testicles, noted.”
“Should anyone though, be drinking testicles?” Phoenix asked.
“I was joking.” Tex elbowed him, his eyes meeting mine. “It’s been a few years since we’ve all stood here like this.”
Chase cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“And now wives,” Phoenix said on an exhale.
“Kids,” I added.
“And more coming,” Tex said, looking over at the crowd gathered around the tables. “We can’t protect them all.”
“We’ll try,” I vowed. “We’ll try not to let them make the same mistakes we did. It’s all we can do. Try.”
Nostalgia punched me in the gut when a pristine black Lincoln started driving along the long pathway toward us. It stopped directly in front of the dorm, and out popped Luca and Frank, the men who’d helped us build this empire brick by brick because it was originally built on their backs.
“We have wine!” Luca announced. He held up a box of wine, turned slightly toward us, and inclined his head with a smile before walking toward all the screaming kids who were currently making a beeline for the man who always had candy in his pockets.
Dante, Sergio, Dom, Ax, Andrei, and Vic chose that moment to join us on that small hill. All of us stood in a line.
Frank eyed me, Chase, and so forth until Vic at the very end. He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I want to say we did good, but you boys did this yourselves. You’ve done your Family proud. You’ve done me proud.” He smirked at me. “Even you, Nixon, even you.”
