“I know. It’s just hard.”
“It always will be,” he says. “But the pain gets lighter.”
I rest my cheek against his chest. “You know I couldn’t have done this without you, right?”
He chuckles, the sound tight. When I pull back, I see the emotion in his eyes.
“You deserve happiness too,” I say, squeezing his shoulder. “You’re not the only one looking out for me anymore.”
He sighs, glancing inside at Lily dancing around the kitchen.
“I’m not even sure how to go about it…”
“Be honest. Tell her how you feel. Life’s too short not to.”
With a final squeeze, I head back inside. My guys watch me like I’m their entire world.
As they are mine.
This journey has been brutal—full of pain, loss and blood. But every dark moment led me here. To them. To this life.
To love.
Because this life is a dangerous game…
Epilogue
Katherine
I’ve decided weddings aren’t my thing.
Too many people. Too many eyes. No matter how much healing I’ve done, my skin still prickles under all the attention, the accidental brush of someone’s skin against mine.
But I’m here—for Selene. For my brother. For Dario and Keir, too. Like it or not, we’re family now. Selene legally took Kaz’s last name so the Bravata could carve out a front-facing empire in Vegas. Smart. Ruthless. Exactly like her.
She looks radiant. Regal, even. The kind of beautiful that comes from surviving hell and daring it to try again. I don’t do sentiment, but I’ll give her that—she earned every second of this. And the three men who’d set the world on fire for her? She deserves them too.
I watch from the edge of the reception, tucked beneath a vine-draped canopy strung with soft fairy lights. It’s the first quiet I’ve had in hours. I sip champagne and let myself breathe.
“You’re hiding,” a smooth voice says behind me—feminine, sharp, amused.
I turn just enough to meet her eyes. Lilith.
My brother’s second-in-command wears a black leather jumpsuit like it’s her birthright. Tattoos coil down her arms, her ashy blonde hair tumbling to one side. There’s danger in her grin, and something else. Interest.
“I wouldn’t say hiding,” I reply coolly, watching as her gaze skims over me like a hand.
“Waiting for someone then?” she asks, her smirk sliding into something more deliberate.
My cheeks heat. Damn her.
“Why?” I tease. “Would that make you jealous?”
Before she can answer, there’s a crash and a muttered, “Fuck,” from the bushes.
Keir’s cousin stumbles out of the greenery, leaves in his hair and mischief all over his face. He’s tall—annoyingly so—and his green eyes are too bright for someone who looks like he could kill a man with his bare hands and then bake cookies about it.
“Ladies,” he grins, brushing dirt off his shirt like that somehow resets the moment.
