“Alex hates the sitter,” Lindsay announced immediately.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I felt the muscles down my arms clench.

“Why?” I demanded.

Lindsay laughed.

“Just kidding!” she said. “I think he’s in love. He was drawing pictures of her when I left.”

I relaxed a little, but Lindsay’s idea of a joke made me want to punch her in the face. Her little sister, Laura, was visiting from Ohio and had volunteered to babysit so we could all go out. I hadn’t been happy about the idea of some chick I didn’t know watching my kid, but Raine knew her from when they were kids, so I’d given in, but I wasn’t happy about it.

“Don’t goad him!” Raine snapped at her friend. “That was just rude, and you know it!”

“Stop that shit,” Nick scolded his girlfriend under his breath. “What’s wrong with you?”

John Paul snickered behind his beer bottle.

“Sorry,” Lindsay said.

She seemed to mean it.

I took a deep breath and looked at Raine as she reached over to put her hand on my leg. Part of my trying to be civilized around her friends involved her sticking up for me a lot. I didn’t like it, but it was probably better than having me react with any of my violent tendencies.

We ordered, and everyone started with the small talk as we waited for our food. I still sucked at small talk, but I was getting better at sitting back and pretending I was interested. I’d already lived through two evenings with Lindsay and Nick without biting their heads off. This would make it three, and I planned on surviving the encounter.

I made it all the way through the meal. I even talked to Nick a bit about his latest escapades as a flight instructor. I couldn’t have cared less, but every time I talked nicely to him, it made Raine smile.

“So who’s up for a club?” Lindsay asked as she looked over the dessert menu.

The last thing I wanted was to go to some bar, even if I was trying to prove that I could do all the things Raine wanted to do and still keep my cool. I did have my limits, but I didn’t have to voice them.

“I really need to finish my packing,” Raine stated. “I’m sure Laura would like to join you though.”

Thank you, Raine.

We paid the bill and headed outside to part ways. Before we could, John Paul called me over for a cigarette. Raine rolled her eyes, but she was happy enough to chat with Lindsay and Nick a little longer before we headed back to the condo.

“We got interrupted.”

“Yeah,” I said as I lit my smoke, “what were you going to say?”

“It’s about Landon.”

“What about him?”

“Well, he is basically the next logical dude in succession after Franks,” John Paul said. “The thing is, they’d been arguing—arguing a lot. People knew about it, and now everyone’s convinced he put out the hit on Franks.”

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “What’s he going to do?”

“It sounds like he’s made a run for it,” John Paul said. “No one’s seen him since this morning when Moretti made the accusation.”

I considered the information for a moment. Normally, I would have thought Landon was too difficult to track, and he’d never be found by anyone. However, I had found him, and I wasn’t a bounty hunter. If I could trace him, maybe someone else could, too.

My thoughts shifted to Evan Arden. If anyone could find and locate Landon, it would be him, but he was dead as far as Moretti was concerned.

Wasn’t he?

Would he have gone against everything he seemed to believe and contact Moretti to let him know he had survived? Had he even gone as far as to tell him about the hit on Franks and to plan to blame it on Landon the whole time? Just how devious was this guy?

I had no idea.

The whole line of thinking made me uncomfortable, and John Paul was giving me a bit of a look, so I swallowed and focused my thoughts elsewhere.

“Landon could be in trouble,” I said.

“I know,” John Paul agreed. “That’s why I’m leaving. Tonight.”

“I’m not getting involved,” I stated. “No fucking way.”

“Not asking you to, bro,” he said. “I just wanted you to know.”

“I appreciate it.”

We shook hands, and John Paul walked off toward his car as I rejoined Raine and her friends.

* * *

Lindsay decided to stick around for a bit and keep Alex occupied so Raine and I could finish the packing. The whole condo was a fucking disaster of boxes. I didn’t know how we had managed to accumulate so much shit in the brief time we’d lived here, but I was sure it wasn’t mine. I blamed Lindsay and the effect her addictive shopping habits had on Raine.

They had both bought a shit ton of stuff for Alex, too. The kid had more toys than he knew what to do with, and all he cared about was drawing and playing with any kind of blocks you put in front of him. He was either going to end up in art school or engineering school.

I made sure Alex and Lindsay were occupied with a movie on Disney before I snuck off to the bedroom. Raine’s ass was sticking out of the closet and making me want to grab on to it for a little ride. I didn’t though.

Focus.

I took a deep breath, but it didn’t help. My hands were shaking a little, and I rubbed them against my thighs to try to make them stop. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this. Maybe I should just wait until we were all moved in to the new place. Right now, it was too easy for her to grab her stuff and take off if I fucked this up.

She wouldn’t do that.

I couldn’t quite convince myself.

Just fucking do it, you pussy.

“Hey, Raine?” I called softly, almost wishing she wouldn’t hear me at all.

“Yes?” She pulled her head out of the closet and looked at me expectantly. When I didn’t answer right away, she narrowed her eyes a little. “What is it?”

“I was just…um…” I looked toward the balcony door and tried to come up with the right words.

“What, Bastian?” Raine dropped a couple items from the closet into her suitcase and came to my side.

I ran my hand over my face.

Just fucking say it.

“I was wondering if…if maybe…shit.”

Raine placed her hand on my arm, and I realized it was shaking as much as my hands.

“Bastian, what’s the matter?”

I closed my eyes again. I could do this. I was sure I could. I just needed my mouth to fucking work for once. I needed to say the right words in the right way, but all I did was babble.

“I just thought maybe with Alex and all and starting a new life in a new place…” I continued to stammer, trying to find something in my head that didn’t make me sound like a total idiot. With another deep breath, I fell back to the only way I’d ever managed to express myself without getting into trouble.

The Bard’s words were far better than my own.

“Might I not then say, 'Now I love you best,'


When I was certain o'er incertainty,


Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?


Love is a babe, then might I not say so,


To give full growth to that which still doth grow?”

I looked to the floor, took a deep breath, and then stared into her eyes. I pulled a little box from my pocket and laid it in my palm before I opened it. The shining, simple solitaire ring in the center of the velvet sparkled in the bursting Miami sun.

“Raine, will you marry me?”

Raine said nothing for the longest fucking time. There was sweat dripping between my shoulder blades, and the gleam from the ring was refracting rainbows all over the walls as my hand continued to shake. I realized I’d totally forgotten to get down on one knee, and mentally smacked myself for fucking up the easiest part of all of this.

I glanced from the ring to Raine’s face. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and my heart stopped. For a brief moment, my world ended as I waited for her to deny me.

“Yes, Bastian,” she whispered as the tears overflowed. “Yes, of course. Of course I’ll marry you.”

A huge breath escaped me, and I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing her and picking her up to hold her to my chest. I buried my face in her hair and tried to pretend all the tears belonged to her alone.

“Thank you,” I whispered against her ear. “Thank you so fucking much, Raine…thank you.”

“Oh, Bastian.” She tightened her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I love you so much—so, so much!”

“I love you,” I replied, “more than fucking anything.”

I squeezed her to me again, and the shaking in my hands and arms finally stopped as I held her. Figuring I was probably keeping her from breathing, I relaxed my grip and set her down. I reached up and wiped the tears from her face.

“Do I get to put that on?” Raine asked with a smile. She pointed down at the ring still in my hand.

“Shit! Yeah…I forgot.” I grabbed the ring out of the little box and took Raine’s offered hand. With a deep breath, I slid it up and over the ring finger of her left hand.

It looked fucking perfect.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked as he came into the room. He narrowed his eyes at Raine’s outstretched hand. “What’s that?”

“An engagement ring,” Raine said. “Your dad and I are going to be married.”

Alex furrowed his brow and looked back and forth between us.

“Will you be my mom then?” he asked.

Raine smiled.

“If you want me to be.”

Alex considered this for a moment.

“Okay,” he said with a shrug. “Can we have macaroni and cheese for dinner? Lindsay said I had to ask first.”

Raine bit her lip as she stifled a laugh.

“You know that stuff is nasty,” I said.

“It’s good!” Alex insisted.

Raine elbowed me in the ribs.

“Fine,” I said, “but you have to have vegetables with it.”

“Ugh!” Alex looked up at the ceiling and spread his arms out wide. “Why?”

“Because if you don’t, no macaroni.”

“Ugh!” he cried again. “Does it have to be green?”

“Yep,” I replied with a half-smile.

“Not broccoli!”

“Green beans?” Raine suggested.

Alex slumped his shoulders and let out a ridiculously long sigh.

“Fine,” he muttered as he turned and ran off to the kitchen, yelling at Lindsay. “Dad said yes!”

Raine was shaking with silent laughter.

“He’s a lot like you,” she said.

“I don’t eat that shit.”

“I mean the way he acts when he doesn’t get what he wants.”

“It’s a good thing you said yes, then.” I smiled and pressed my lips to hers.

* * *

Raine curled up beside me and kissed my shoulder as she trailed her fingers across my chest and down my abs, and my cock responded. Her eyes glanced up at me, and her tongue darted over her lips.

“Got something for me?” she asked with a sly smile before her hand dropped lower. She stroked slowly down my shaft to my balls and then made her way back up again. I turned my head and brought her face to mine, kissing her deeply as she kept running the tips of her fingers over my dick. I moaned into her mouth, and her tongue traced over my lips.

She pulled back, released my cock, and swung one leg over my hips. Placing her hands on my chest, she rubbed herself up and down my cock slowly.

“Oh fuck, baby,” I groaned. “You’re driving me crazy.”

“Good,” she replied. “That’s exactly what I wanted.”

“Anything you want,” I said. “It’s yours. Just keep doing that.”

“Is that all you want?” she asked with a sly smile. “You are easy to please.”

“Tease,” I mumbled. I tilted my hips up and ground against her.

“I don’t think you can call me that when I’m naked and on top of you,” she said.

“I can when I’m not buried inside that quivering vagina of yours.”

“Quivering vagina?” Raine started laughing, and I grinned up at her like the love-struck idiot I was.

“You know,” I said, “the one hiding in your moist triangle of curls.”

“Way to set the mood!” She rolled her eyes at me.

“Set the mood for my purple helmeted warrior? He’s just dying to fight his way through your underbrush.”

“That’s it,” she said as she started to get off of me.

I grabbed her wrists and held her in place. She laughed as she struggled, and I pulled her down to me and tickled her sides, which just made her laugh harder.

“Shhh,” I whispered, “you’ll wake Alex.”