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I throw my head back, crying out. Oh, God, why does he have to be so good at this?
"Fight me."
I do. I fight like hell.
And I lose. But I win too.
"Damn you," I mutter, glancing at the clock when he finally releases me. We're so late. But I don't even care anymore. I'm precisely where I want to be. And he knows it, too.
"Love you too, little mouse," he says, smirking as he presses a soft kiss to my forehead. And even though I'm sure he's going to be the death of me, I can't help but return his smile, feeling lighter and more at peace than ever before.
Epilogue
Mattia
Five Years Later
"It's literally terrifying how much you know about the mafia, Passero," Diego says to Coda, staring at him across my dining room table. "You're like a fucking walking encyclopedia of death."
"Here we go again," Athena groans, making Karina crack up.
"Jealous, Butera?" Coda smirks.
"Yes," Diego's wife says. "It drives him nuts that you know everything."
"He only thinks he knows everything," Diego scoffs.
"I know more than you, motherfucker."
"Coda!" Karina says, smacking her husband.
Diego lifts his middle finger in the air, flipping Coda off.
"I'm impressed," Nico says, lifting his beer to his lips to take a pull. "If you ever decide to go straight, there are about nine universities that'd kill to get their hands on you."
Coda's grin widens, which makes Diego scowl.
"Wait," Callandria says, her brows wrinkled. "They teach mafia classes?"
"Yep." Nico's wife, Norah, beams at them. "They teach everything these days."
"She's not lying," Genesis mutters, her eyes wide. "I accidentally signed up for a kayaking class. I thought I was going to die."
"How do you accidentally sign up for kayaking?" Amalia asks.
"That's what I want to know!" Domani's wife, Ireland, cries.
"Don't even ask," Genesis groans, making the girls laugh. "It's entirely Gabriel's fault."
"Hey, I had nothing to do with that," he protests.
I chuckle, shaking my head as I glance around the table at our family. Aurelia dragged everyone here tonight to celebrate my birthday. Until her, that wasn't something I did. I let the day pass every year without marking it. What was the point when it just reminded me of the family I'd lost?
Aurelia changed that. She's changed everything.
The past five years have been the best five years of my life, as fucking cheesy as it is to say. They haven't passed without their challenges. In this life, there are always fucking challenges. But we meet them when they come and appreciate peace all that much more when we have it.
Every man at this table knows what it is to fight. And they know precisely what we fight for.
