Sovereign (28 page)

I circled to his front and kicked him so he landed on his back, the knife penetrating deeper. Bloody bubbles rose from his lips as I settled on top of him.

Someone yelled my name. I stabbed downward. Dylan screamed weakly. I withdrew the knife and did it again. I stabbed and stabbed until Sin grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet.

“Stop. It’s over. Stop.”

“Renee? Teddy?” A car reversed out of the garage and squealed tires, passing us and almost knocking us over with the draft.

“Renee is gone. Teddy—” His voice broke.

I dropped the knife and wrapped my arms around him.

“Lucius took him.”

“I left Dylan alive. This is my fault.” I shuddered, everything shaken all the way down to my soul.

“No.” He stroked my hair as Laura ran out the front door and collapsed on the stairs, head in her hands. “You didn’t do this.”

“Renee.” A flash of her kind smile on the first day we met struck me like a slap in the face. “Are you sure? Maybe she—maybe…”

“No. Shh. She’s gone. I’m sorry.”

I stared down at Dylan, blood covering his throat and face. Pulling back, I looked down at my red hands, the blood seeping into my shirt and jeans. I shook even harder.

“You’re in shock. Come inside.”

“We need to go to the hospital. We have to help Teddy.”

Sin locked his arm around my waist and guided me to the porch. “We will, but we can’t take you like this.”

“We have to—”

“Lucius has him. We’ll leave as soon as you’re okay.” His voice remained calm as he hurried me up the front steps.

“Laura, I’m going to get Stella cleaned up. Pull my sedan around. We’ll all go to the hospital as soon as we’re done.”

Sin picked me up and carried me to my bathroom. He turned on the shower and stripped me. All I could do was stand, my teeth chattering. He stripped his clothes and got in with me.

The red bloom on Teddy’s shirt spread larger and larger in my mind. His wide eyes full of pain and surprise. “Do you think Teddy—?”

“I don’t know.” He hastily lathered a washcloth.

The blood sluiced down into the drain, a crimson river that would never run clear again.

I covered my face with a shaking hand. “It should have been me.”

“Don’t say that.” Sin pulled my hand away. “Never say that. We’d all be dead without you. Either from the hell of the Acquisition or Dylan’s bullets.”

“But Teddy—”

“No!” He slammed his fist into the tiles hard enough to break one. “Never wish yourself away from me.”

He crushed me to him, our battered souls clinging to one another as they had done from the start. “Never.”

EPILOGUE

S
TELLA

“
T
EDDY, COME IN.
I
T’S
time for lunch.” I called loud enough for the dark-haired toddler on the lawn to look up at me.

“Mommy!” He grinned and did his best to navigate the grass toward me. Lucius ran up behind him and scooped him into his arms, tickling him as they barreled through the sunny morning.

I rubbed my stomach, the twins growing inside me apparently engaged in a fistfight. I turned as Lucius stomped up the stairs behind me.

Teddy giggled like a maniac. “Again, Unky Lusus!”

“Lunch first.”

“Mommy’s a buzzkill, little man.” Lucius set him on his feet in the foyer. He toddled off toward the kitchen. I may have been his mother, but he knew Laura had all the snacks.

“When are you going to pop?”

“Two weeks. You know that.”

“You keep telling me that, and I keep disbelieving that you can
still
be pregnant. Huge, is all I’m saying.”

“Beautiful, he means.” Sin came down the stairs and gave me a kiss. He peeked down the hallway and saw Teddy.

Giving me a grin, he turned and crept along behind his son, then grabbed him up and blew raspberries all along his stomach as he giggled.

“Are you sure they’re both girls?” Lucius matched my lumbering pace toward the breakfast room.

“That’s the word at the doctor’s office.” I trailed my fingers beneath my mother’s portrait that hung in the hall. I’d painted it from memory, and her smile greeted all guests to the house.

“Do you think maybe you could name one Lucia or something?”

“Not a chance.” I eased into the breakfast room. Lucius pulled out a chair for me, and I sat, my feet thanking me for the brief respite.

“Here.” He scooted out the chair next to me, and lifted my feet up.

I leaned back and closed my eyes. “Thank you.”

“Welcome.”

Sin came through from the kitchen and started rubbing my shoulders.

“He’s not eating sweets, is he?”

“Not really. Laura knows he’s supposed to eat lunch first. She only gave him a handful of jellybeans.” He kissed my forehead and kept rubbing.

“That’s sweets.” I threw my hands up. “Whatever. No one listens to the preggo lady around here.”

“Yes we do.” He dug his thumbs in, unwrapping my tight muscles like a Christmas present.

“I’m just irritable.”

“We know.” He laughed and kissed me again.

“Twins are your fault.”

“You may have mentioned that a couple hundred times. Though, I don’t think it’s true.”

Sin moved around and sat opposite me, putting my feet in his lap. He knocked my house shoes off and rubbed my swollen feet. “Spread your legs a little more.”

I tilted my head at him. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“I did but—”

“Do it.” He used that tone—the one that sent a thrill through me every time.

I slowly opened my legs.

“Pull up your skirt more.”

“Sin.” I shook my head.

“Stella. Do it now.” He dug his thumb into the bottom of my foot.

I grabbed the material and pulled until my skirt hit mid-thigh.

“Much better.” He continued rubbing, his gaze vacillating from my eyes to between to my legs.

My body warmed as he watched me. “You’re a bad man.”

“So I’ve been told.” He switched feet. “As soon as Teddy’s down for a nap, I’ll be going down on you.”

My temperature kicked up a notch. “Bad, bad man.”

He shrugged. “What? I can’t give my pregnant wife the special attention she deserves?”

One of the babies kicked what must have been a vital organ. I groaned and rubbed my belly with a vengeance. “Twins are all your fault.”

“Actually they’re not.” Teddy walked into the dining room, his green scrubs making him look older.

I closed my legs and wrinkled my nose. “What do you know? You’re not even a real doctor yet.”

I huffed as he leaned down and pecked me on the cheek.

“Okay, you’re right. It
is
all Sin’s fault.”

“Much better. I thought you were in rounds or something all day?”

“Nope. Got done this morning. Wanted to come by and see little T. And check on you, of course.”

“I’m fine. I mean, I would like to have my body back to myself, but other than that, I’m good.”

“I could do like a check or something. See how your cervix is dilating—”

“Don’t even think about it.” Sin squeezed my foot tighter.

“Teddy was kidding. Right?”

“Yeah, kidding. Little T in the kitchen?”

“He takes after his namesake. He’s in there charming Laura right out from under you.” I smiled up at him.

“That’s my man.” He pushed through the door to the kitchen.

Sin rubbed my feet for a little while longer. “Have you thought any more about names?”

“Yes.” I set my feet down and leaned forward, resting my head on his chest.

“I know we discussed lots of different ones, but I’ve been thinking… What about Rebecca and Renee?”

He stayed silent and pulled me closer.

“If you don’t want to, that’s okay. Those names obviously carry some baggage. But I thought it would be—”

“I love it.” He tilted my chin up and pressed his lips to mine.

Little Teddy toddled in, both uncles hot on his heels.

“Mommy, jay bees!” He held out a hand with two jellybeans stuck to it.

“I see that.” I shook my head.

He ran to Sin, who picked him up and sat him in his lap. Sin whispered in his ear. Teddy’s eyes lit up, and Sin pointed at me. “Tell her.”

“I love you, Mommy.” His smile, so much like his father’s, was infectious.

“I love you, too.”

Sin cupped his hands around Teddy’s ear and whispered again.

“Daddy love you, Mommy.”

“I love Daddy, too.”

Laura bustled in from the kitchen with lunch, and before long we were all laughing at big Teddy’s and little Teddy’s antics.

I lay my head on Sin’s shoulder, and he pulled me close. The long shadow of the Acquisition no longer darkened our doorstep, and the nightmares were nothing more than ghosts.

A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you, reader, for giving me your most valuable asset—your time. This has been a dark and twisted journey, one I’m glad you’ve taken with me. This story is over, but there are more to tell. I hope you’ll come along with me on some new adventures—some dark, some light—in the near future.

There are so many people who helped this series go from a dream to words on a page. My family, who let me run off for days on end to get this story out of my head. My friends, who encouraged me to keep writing. And the readers who chatted with me, made fabulous art, or wrote beautiful reviews.

Thank you to Mr. Aaron for going over just how depraved I could get and working through different scenarios for Acquisition payback. Thank you to Sloane Howell, my first line of editing defense and my writing bestie. Thanks to Jeff, for doing the heavy lifting on comma placement and my overuse of the word “but.” Thanks to Rachel at The Saucy Owl for being my beta guinea pig.

Thanks to Neda, who is awesome at PR and life in general. Thanks to my Acquisitions, the most supportive bunch of readers a gal could have. Thanks to Vivian at Beaute de Livres, Terilyn, SueBee, The Literary Gossip, Irene, the PinkLadies, Leia, Warhawke, Jabberwocky, Kay, Shhluts, Heather, PopKitty, Agents of Romance, GetYourSmutOn, WhoSheReads, Samantha, Sissy, Lin (my first fan ever), and every other blogger, reader, supporter, or person who has sent me a note or just followed me on social media (if I left anyone out, I’m sorry, but the Oscar music started playing and they dragged me off stage).

Readers and book lovers like you are what keep me writing. You keep doing you, and I’ll keep doing me. And we can all dream that we keep doing Sin.

PS Keep your eyes peeled for
Cash Remington and the Missing Heiress
, out in May. I hear Cash is up to some shenanigans. He’s a real character.

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