Page 112 of Vows of Ruin

Color rises in her cheeks. She looks relieved in a way that cracks something open inside me. A rustle of footsteps behind us draws my attention. I don’t need to look to know who it is. Liam lowers himself to the grass on my right, pulling me into him, and pressing a kiss to my temple. Wrecker sits on Daisy’s other side, his expression a storm of concern and affection.

Daisy brightens the moment she sees him.

“Morning,” Wrecker says softly. “You good out here, kiddo?”

She nods, leaning just slightly into him. Liam’s hand finds my thigh, warm and grounding. I take a slow breath, looking at the three of them, Daisy tucked between us, Wrecker protective, Liam steady, the garden wrapped around us like a cocoon.

For the first time in days, maybe weeks, I feel it settle. This is family. Messy. Loud. Chaotic. Chosen. And Daisy, bruised, scared, stubborn little miracle that she is… Is part of it now.

Daisy’s gaze drifts across the garden, settling on the old hammock strung between two massive oak branches. It sways in the breeze, fabric faded from all the time in the sun and storms.

She points at it. “Can I… get in that?”

The question is so earnest, so small, I can’t help the laugh that slips out of me. “Of course you can.”

Liam huffs a quiet chuckle beside me. “Careful,” he warns her. “It’ll try to throw you out before you’re settled.”

Right on cue, another voice chimes in “Yeah, he would know.”

We all turn. Max is walking toward us, hair a total wreck, shirt half buttoned, looking wholly unapologetic about it. He drops into the grass next to me and Liam. Daisy giggles. Wrecker smirks. Liam rolls his eyes. I lean over and kiss Max without thinking, soft, slow, the kind of morning kiss that tastes like contentment and danger all at once. His hand slides up my thigh, warm and grounding, like he can’t help touching me when I’m near.

Daisy climbs awkwardly into the hammock, testing her balance. It wobbles once, violently, before she settles, arms thrown wide, grinning up at the leaves. Wrecker watches her with that quiet awe he always gets when she smiles.

That’s when Max speaks. He looks at me. Then Liam. Then Wrecker. Then back at the small girl curled in the hammock, like she’s finally found a place to rest.

“That’s it,” Max says, voice firm and final. “She’s staying with us.”

The words hit the air like a stone dropped in still water. We all stare at him. Wrecker is the first to speak. “You sure?” he asks, voice low, rough with emotion he tries, and fails to hide.

I tilt my head, searching Max’s face. “Our lives aren’t exactly set up for kids to be running around,” I remind him gently. “Danger follows us like a shadow.”

Max doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t waver. He glances at Daisy again, kicking her feet gently in the hammock. Then at Wrecker, whose whole expression has softened. Then at me and Liam, who sit flanking him like twin pillars of something unbreakable.

Max’s voice goes quiet. Certain. “She belongs with us.”

Liam meets Max’s eyes, the silent communication between them as old as brothers, deeper than blood. Then Liam nods once, slow and absolute. “We’ll figure it out.” He says.

The four of us sit there in the morning light, me, Max, Liam, Wrecker, watching Daisy laugh in the hammock as the wind sways her gently. For the first time in a long time, I feel something warm and steady bloom beneath my ribs. Hope. The dangerous kind. The kind you build a life around.

Chapter Forty-Two

Reaper

The mansion feels too full. Not noisy just… full. Like every room is holding its breath, Doc took Daisy down the hall to check her over, leaving the rest of us in the family room. The mood is calm, but the tension sits under the surface, humming low.

Wrenley curls up at the end of the couch, one knee pulled to her chest, hair still damp from the shower. Max sits beside her, her ankle hooked over his knee, arms folded. I’m leaning against the wall behind them, watching the way everyone shifts, waiting for the conversation to hit its boiling point.

Wrecker stands with his back to the window, hands on his hips, bouncing between worry and hope like he can’t settle on either. Margot and Elias sit at the table, papers spread out because of course they have done their homework. Torque is pacing and Riot is eating something he stole from the kitchen. All of us are circling the same truth. Wrenley breaks the silence first.

“She can’t go back there,” she says quietly. “She’ll run away again, she doesn’t feel safe. And she obviously feels safer here with us.”

Wrecker lets out a breath like he’s been holding it for an hour. “She wants to stay,” he says. “She told me that the second Doc walked her out of the room.”

Max runs a hand over his jaw. “Then she stays.”

It’s not a suggestion. He’s been stone-sure since he saw her in that hammock.

Torque stops pacing. “If she stays here, that’s not a simple thing.” He says. “She can’t go to public school. She can’t be out running around the city.”