Page 179 of Savage Don

Shit.

An empire waits for us in California.

What better place to start the rest of our lives?

Epilogue

Francesca

2 months later…

Somehow, the ocean smells different out here.

Fresher.

Maybe that’s because the heat isn’t muggy like it gets back home—it’s calmer and more laid back.

… Or perhaps it’s because this is a fresh start, and I can just smell it in the air. Then again, I’m sure anything would smell fresher than the living room I just stepped out of. It’s filled to the brim with dusty boxes and unpacked luggage.

We’re here. A couple of New York kids in California.

Our new home is right on the beach, and after the past few stressful days, I couldn’t wait to take advantage of that.

We’ve really only started unpacking the boxes in the bedroom—Ray is still up there right now, going through everything—but I’m already sick of it.

I just want to start our new life.

It’s going to be so exciting… at least, it will be once we get ourselves settled.

How long that will take isn’t clear to me. I’ve never moved before. But it’s not the move that has me thinking forward, because even it pales in comparison to what comes next.

A baby…

I feel my engagement ring brush across the fabric of my tank top as I place a gentle hand on my belly.

There’s no bump yet, but a dozen pregnancy tests assured me that I have an heir growing in my womb.

Shit. We really left the east coast with a bang.

First, we had a massive wedding, with just about every important member of the mafia from all across the country in attendance… and a very confused Janice.

I couldn’t tell her much, but that angel helped me recover from my disastrous fall term last year, so she deserved to be there as one of my bridesmaids.

She’s still in New York, but we’re taking online courses together. I’ll graduate if it kills me—I mean, it already almost did, so why not get that sweet diploma?

Still, I haven’t exactly had the time to concentrate on taking more than one or two courses at a time. Not since the wedding.

Because as soon as Ray and I tied the knot, we started fucking like rabbits.

No more birth control. No more games. We knew what was coming. We knew it would be stressful, so we just went at it, two lovers ravenous for each other.

Those first two weeks after our wedding might have been the hottest of my life. We fucked all over the world. From Italy to Ireland, to Greece and Russia, we fucked our way through South America and Asia and everywhere in between.

Then, when we returned to our home on the east coast for the final time, I took my pregnancy tests, and they all came back positive.

Fuck.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous—having a child is a huge responsibility. But I’m even more excited. Ray and I are going to rule the west coast, and we’re going to rule parenthood. I can just feel it.