Page 91 of Trouble

“Or the time we swapped her hair gel withglue.”

“You two need to shut up, or I’m giving you your rings back,” Audrey growled, though the glint of amusement in the corner of her eye sparkled with suppressedlaughter.

“No take-backsies,” I said, giving her a gentlesqueeze.

“You’re stuck with us now,” Liam agreed. “Forlife.”

“Well, let’s see how long that’ll be, exactly. Come on, let’s go tell my parents the happy news. I sure hope your sweet-talking abilities improve right quick, or I’ll likely be a widow before we even getmarried.”

I laughed, and caught Liam’s eye over the top of her head. The smile on his so familiar face echoed through me, and I knew I looked as happy as he didthen.

No matter what shit came our way—today, tomorrow, or the day after that—it didn’t matter. We’d thought we’d been a unit before, him and I, but we’d been wrong. We’d been missingher.

She was the glue tying us together tighter than we’d ever thought possible; the sun we both orbitedaround.

With Audrey between us, there was nothing we couldn’tovercome.

I looked from my twin to the woman who’d given me more than I could ever put into words, and I knew the rest of my life would be filled withlaughter.

Epilogue

“Youjustate not halfan hour ago. How are you still hungry?” I frowned down at the ginger baby latched on my left breast. “I swear you know when we’re in arush.”

As if on cue, an angry wail erupted from the other side of the room. My shoulders slumped in defeat as my very pregnant, soon-to-be sister-in-law laughed and carried my other daughter over to me, deftly placing her in my right arm. “We are definitely not making it ontime.”

“Probably not,” Mira said as she patted the now remarkably quiet baby’s head. “But I do think being a new mother of twin girlsandthe bride gives you some leeway when it comes topunctuality.”

“Not to mention the bride of LouisandLiam,” Evelyn, my other sister-in-law, said dryly from her seat by the door. She was holding her own, sleeping baby boy in her arms. Jeremy was only a couple of months older than my girls, and I was intensely envious of how calm he always seemed. He never fussed, hardly ever cried, and generally had a reputation of being the most chilled-out baby inhistory.

At just over three months old, it might be too early to say, but I was convinced Lily and Rose had inherited their fathers’ distinct taste for causing mayhem. Hence why I was currently nursing two satisfied-looking babies with my wedding dress pooled around my waist—only half an hour after their lastmeal.

“Yup. Saints get to be as late as they want,” Mira agreed with a teasingsmile.

I sighed and sank further back in the chair as I looked down at my daughters happily taking their sweet time. It was still hard to believe that they were mine, even three months after giving birth to them, with Liam and Louis anxiously clutching at my hands from each their side of my hospital bed. There’d been a couple of raised eyebrows when the nurse had asked for everyone but the father to leave and the twins had made a point out of closing the door, both remaining inside, but I’d been in too much pain to care. And frankly… the further along I’d gotten in my pregnancy, the less I’d been worried about what other people thought—in general, and about my relationship with the two men I loved, morespecifically.

They told me I’d wake up laughing every day if I said yes to their proposal, and they’d kept that promise. Happiness had been a concept I thought I knew before they asked for my hand in marriage. It turned out I’d only ever seen a pale shadow of what it truly could be. I did wake up laughing every day, and at night, I fell asleep between them, safe in their arms and satisfied all the way into the marrow of mybones.

Yes, not everything was sunshine and rainbows, and it never would be. They were mafia. They would always be mafia. And now, so would I. But I had entered into this world of darkness and corruption with my eyes wide open. I knew what was waiting for me, despite the new leadership the Steel brothers implemented the day after they took over London. Death was only a last resort instead of the first choice when punishment had to be doled out, but that didn’t mean my new world wasn’t violent. Ordark.

I looked up from Lily’s sparse, ginger locks and caught my mother’s eye. She was sitting in the corner of my dressing room, her mouth drawn into a worried line as she watched me nurse mybabies.

My parents didn’t know what exactly my new family was engaged in, but I was pretty sure they’d put at least part of the puzzle together when big, burly guys showed up outside their house, standing vigil day and night. It was the twins’ insistence that my parents get ‘round-the-clock protection, and I hadn’t argued. Neither had they. The only mention they’d ever made was when my father asked me if I knew the guy currently standing next to their privet bush. When I said yes, his lips flattened, but he didn’t ask me any furtherquestions.

They’d taken my engagement to the twins better than could have been expected. There’d been a few moments’ stunned silence. Then my mother had asked me if I was sure this is what I wanted. I’d said yes, and they’d both congratulated us, albeit perhaps a tad stiffly. I didn’t mind—I knew it was a lot for them to take in, and honestly, I was just thankful they didn’t kick me out the door for ruining their perfect image. Turned out my parents—though thoroughly entrenched in their golf-weekends and suburban bliss—truly just wanted me to be happy. Even if I found that happiness in ways they didn’t necessarily approveof.

And once Rose and Lily arrived, my mum had pretty much melted. I’d even caught her giving the twins extra servings of cake when we visited, presumably as a thank-you for finally giving her the grandkids she’d been not-so-subtly sighing for since I roundedthirty.

I gave my mother a smile across the room just as Rose finally popped her tiny mouth off my boob and, with the cutest little yawn, closed her eyes and went straight to sleep. “Would you hold her, please,Mum?”

The worried frown between her eyebrows smoothed a little as she got to her feet to pick up her granddaughter. A gentleness I only vaguely remembered from when I was a kid eased over her face as she cooed at the sleeping baby in her arms, rocking her gently. Rose, probably exhausted from eating like the piglet she was, didn’t so much as flutter an eyelid. But then again, she was used to being transferred from arm to arm. She and Lily had a very large family of adoring aunts and uncles, and as the only girls born to the Steel empire thus far, they were already getting spoiledrotten.

I looked around the small room, and something warm fluttered in my belly as I looked at the three women there. My own sister had opted not to be a part of my pre-wedding session, making her views of my“heathen lifestyle”known as passive-aggressively as only Melcould.

The women here—my mother and my two almost-sisters-in-law—were all the support Ineeded.

I’d bonded with Evelyn and Mira pretty much instantly. Something about marrying into a mafia Family definitely created some fast and deep bonds, and both they and their husbands had welcomed me with openarms.

A rap of knuckles against the door pulled me from my mushy thoughts—and Lily from her nursing. She gave an irritated little huff at being disturbed mid-snack, but then closed her eyes and fell into the same instantaneous food coma as hersister.

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