Page 91 of Wicked Mafia Sinner

The brothers showed up on a Saturday morning three months after the dust settled. All of them. Rafael carried drywall. Drake rewired the back room and installed security I didn't ask for but probably need. Luca repainted the mural on the far wall and somehow made the climbing vines look better than the original. Kon replaced the back door with something that could survive a battering ram, which he tested personally. Massimo handled the insurance claim, the lease renewal and the mountain of paperwork that came with reopening a shop the city had labeled a secondary crime scene. He made every last red-tape headache disappear in under two weeks.

Sloane brought lunch for the crew. Onyx brought a playlist. Katriana brought fresh flowers from a supplier she sweet-talked into donating opening-week inventory. Ilona handled the social media relaunch and had my follower count tripled before the paint dried.

Rowan handled the rest quietly. The bank note is gone. Paid in full without a single word of negotiation or a single mention of it to me until I pulled up my account and the balance read zero. I screamed loud enough to rattle the windows of the cabin. He just turned the ring on his finger and shrugged.

He also built me an illustrating table. Custom. Angled top, adjustable height, a built-in pencil tray with slots for every graphite weight I use, and a swing-arm lamp that throws perfect light at any hour. He set it in the back room of the shop where the afternoon sun pours through the window I painted shut two years ago and he pried open with a flathead and some Russian cursing. I draw there in the mornings while the shop fills with the scent of fresh arrangements and the low hum of customers browsing.

The sign on the door reads OPEN again and some days that single word is enough to make my eyes sting.

"Rowan." I blow out a breath.

His hand wraps around mine and I squeeze hard enough to make his knuckles blanch. This man has taken fists from trained killers without blinking. He flinches now.

The door opens.

A man walks in and the energy in the room shifts. Tall, sharp, temples threaded with the same gray that marks Rowan. Dark eyes carry a history I can read even through the haze of contractions. He moves with authority and a dry warmth, like Rowan without the glacier.

"Cora, this is Ares. An old friend from New York City."

I manage a handshake between contractions. "Nice to meet you. You'll have to excuse the circumstances."

Ares looks from me to Rowan to my belly and back to me. "Sorry it took me so long. Turns out this place wasn’t so easy to find. Let's get this done so you kids can have a baby."

I laugh. Both of them are the same age with matching gray temples and the word "kids" from a man who looks like Rowan's slightly more charming mirror image cracks me up, which immediately triggers another contraction.

"Oh God. Don't make me laugh. Laughing and contractions are a combination straight from hell."

I breathe through it. Signal for him to start.

The ceremony is fast. I wouldn't have it any other way. Ares performs the vows at super speed.

Rafael stands closest. The brothers fill the room behind him. Dangerous, beautiful men with their hands at their sides and their eyes bright, watching two of their own make a promise none of them expected Rowan Kasyan Volkov to ever make.

“Do you take this woman–”

“Ares!” I warn.

“You know the words, give your answers.”

"I do."

"I do."

Rowan slips his ring on my finger. The cool metal settles against my skin with a weight that grounds me through the next contraction. He gently takes my face in his hands.

“I vow to protect the light in your heart, your life and our love with all of my being.”

Tears stream down my face. When I find my voice, I pour my soul into my next words. “I vow to never let the darkness take either of us.

With shaking fingers, I slide my ring onto his finger.

“By the power vested in me, I pronounce you man and wife. Kiss, her brother.”

Rowan kisses me. I kiss him back. Then I break the kiss and grip the bed frame hard enough to make the wood groan.

"This baby is coming. Right now."

Everyone except for the midwives clear out. The compound goes quiet and the world narrows to my body, his hands, and the work of bringing a new life into the underground.