Page 47 of The Mob and his Messenger

I wave back, wishing I could capture this moment, wishing I could capture every single moment we ever spend together.Extended EpilogueTen Years LaterDom“Dad, I think I know what I want to be when I grow up.”

I stand at the barbecue, flipping the burgers, looking through the hot steamy air to where Dallas is standing with her mother and her mother’s husband, Frederick. Just beyond them Henrietta and Charlotte are sitting at their little tea set, both with their mother’s glowing blonde hair, her smile, and the playfulness in her eyes.

I know that little Liam is asleep in his crib, just beyond the patio door so that he’s shielded from the sun. The yard is filled with laughter and general happiness, even with Gabriel being here at the same time as Samantha. Matters are helped by the fact that Gabriel is here with his own wife, Jennifer. And there genuinely seem to be no hard feelings between them.

They’re both just happy.

Proud of their daughter.

How could they not be?

While I’ve gone onto establish and consolidate the more legitimate sides of my business, Dallas has paved a blazing path through the publishing world, writing nine bestsellers in the last ten years, one of which has just been optioned to be made into a movie.

As I stare at her now – made hazy by the heated air – I feel a fresh savage swelling inside of me.

Standing there in her long flowing dress, her body even more curvaceous after the births, I have to bite down to stop the desire from erupting in me like a goddamn volcanic explosion. Her hair has turned pale blond in the sun an even more gorgeous tone, and she wears it long and hippy-ish down her back, a beautiful bundle I can fist and guide and adore and love.

“Dad?” Angelico says, calling for my attention from his place on the grass beneath me.

He sits with his hands in Poppet’s gray fur, Poppet content to lie in her patch of shade under the tree and sleep with her favorite child atop her. Poppet and Angelico have always been close, ever since he was born. Poppet was there, keeping vigil. I get a sense Poppet wants to spend her final lazy long days in the arms of the boy she considers partly her son.

“Did you hear me?”

“Sorry, I’ve got too much wax in my ears,” I grin.

He rolls his eyes, but can’t hide his twitching smile. “Dad, I’m not a little kid anymore. That’s not funny anymore.”

“Okay, big man,” I say. “Tell me what you’re going to do when you’re older.”

“I’m going to be an astronaut,” he says. Suddenly his face becomes very serious. “I know it sounds really hard, but I’ve been looking into it and I actually think I could do it, Dad. I just have to study super hard and do more sports, like soccer and lifting weights and stuff. There are books and stuff, and I was wondering if I mowed the lawn this weekend could I buy some of the books?”

“You want to mow the lawn and as your reward, you want me to buy you books?”

“Yes,” he beams.

I smile broadly. “Then we have a deal,” I laugh. “Only a madman would turn that down.”

“Do you think I can do it, Dad?”

“I know you can do it,” I growl passionately. “Angel, you’re hardworking and you know have to put in the effort, the smarts alone won’t do it. Don’t get me wrong, son. You’re intelligent, too, but it’s the grit that counts. And you’ve got it. I don’t know how being born in all this, but you’ve got it.”

My son smiles up at me, and even Poppet cocks her head a little.

“Thanks, Dad,” he says. “And I think I’ve got it, that grit stuff, because, well, because you’re my hero. And I always look up to you, if that makes sense?”

He gets shy now, turning away, busying himself with massaging Poppet’s ears, which she’s grown to love in her old age.

“It makes sense, son,” I say. “And I know you don’t want to hear it, because you’re a big macho man now, but I love you.”

“I love you, too, Dad,” he smiles.

Just then Dallas turns and catches me looking at her.

She smiles and I return it, and then a cloud drifts across the sky and unleashes a fresh ray of sunlight, and it shines straight on her, my perfect wife.

I love you, I mouth.

She blows me a kiss and giggles.

The sound riding the shimmering summer air.

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