“Who else do you think it could be?” Logan asked.
“Maybe Uncle Declan and Uncle Jagger and Uncle Ren? I don’t like Jordan’s poopy diapers.”
Logan laughed. “Luckily you don’t have to change them.”
“’Cause they got a line, right?”
“Assembly line,” Logan corrected. Watching the three big men work in perfect unison to change their youngest daughter’s diaper had become a family event of sorts. It was something they’d perfected with their older daughter, Sierra, who had just turned three last month.
“They’re funny,” his daughter exclaimed.
“They used to do that to you when you were a baby,” Logan pointed out. “They’ve gotten a lot better at it.”
Ren, Declan, and Jagger had gotten a later start on parenthood than the others in the group and he’d known from conversations with Ren that it was Ren’s PTSD that had held them back from taking the final step. While his brother-in-law rarely suffered from panic attacks anymore, it was Ren’s trust in himself that had to be healed before he was willing to bring a child into the mix. Even on the many occasions he and his lovers had babysat, Ren had always made sure either Declan or Jagger was around on the off chance something would trigger a violent reaction. It had never happened but no one had ever told Ren he just needed to get over it or pressured him in any way.
The trio was also the only family members who hadn’t legally bound themselves to each other in marriage since it would have meant that only the union between two of them would be recognized. And everyone knew that what the three of them shared couldn’t be split into anything other than equal parts and especially not for the sake of something as simple as a piece of paper that said two of them loved each other just a little bit more. So while they all still retained their legal names, they’d committed themselves to each other in a private ceremony that declared them all as Barrettis.
“It could be Uncle Connor and Uncle Zane,” Logan said as he started down the stairs. “Brennan is coming home from school just for the party and you like Hannah and Leo, right?”
“Leo is slower than me.”
Logan shook his head. His daughter was so much like Dom in personality even though she carried Logan’s DNA.
“And Hannah?”
“She has pretty hair,” his daughter declared. Logan took that to be a good thing. Although Connor and Zane were the last couple to be enfolded into the Barretti family, they’d brought with them Zane’s half-brother and sister who were thriving in their care. At 21, Brennan was finishing up college and 12-year-old Hannah was about to enter the dreaded teenager phase. Both Connor and Zane had nearly lost it when Hannah had announced that she had a boyfriend at their last family gathering. And Leo, though only 4, was giving both men a run for their money because he was both off-the-charts intelligent and a magnet for trouble. And with Mrs. Finney as a babysitter, it usually tuned into complete chaos.
“Remember, no racing Mrs. Finney in her wheelchair,” Logan admonished. “Papa’s office chair is not a race car.”
“I know,” came the dramatic reply.
“And Aunt Savannah is not fat, she’s…”
“Big?”
“Pregnant,” Logan said in exasperation.
“Who else is coming?”
“Let’s see, Gabe and Riley are bringing Jess and Bailey and Uncle Shane and Aunt Savannah are bringing Michael.”
“What about Eli?”
“Remember what I told you about how Eli lives really far away now and has to go to school a lot?”
His daughter nodded. “So he can fix sick people.”
“That’s right,” Logan said.
“Tell the story Daddy.”
Logan let out a sigh as he carried his daughter into the kitchen. His heart flip-flopped like it always did when his eyes fell on his husband. Dom looked up from the cake he was decorating and smiled. “Everything all set?”
“Not quite,” Logan replied. “Someone distracted me,” he said as he poked his finger against the little girl’s chest.
“Uh oh, what did you do?” Dom asked.
“Nothing,” their daughter replied with her patented look of innocence.
“Tristan’s here!” came a loud voice from the other room.
Logan bit back a grin as Tanner raced into the room. At 8, their son was all arms and legs and his only speed seemed to be overdrive.
“Is that my cake?” Tanner asked as he came to a stop in front of the three-layer cake that Dom was frosting. Before Dom could even answer him, Tanner swiped his finger through the frosting and sucked it into his mouth.
“Tanner,” Dom growled.
“Hey, where’s the birthday boy?”
“Here!” Tanner yelled as he ran across the kitchen and threw himself into his older brother’s arms.
“Tristan!” The little girl in Logan’s arms squirmed until he put her down and Tristan scooped her up as soon as she reached him.
“I’ve missed you, squirt,” he said. Once he reached Logan, he put his arm around him and said, “Hey, Dad.”
Logan hugged him back and then Dom was pulling their son into his arms for a bear hug. “Good to have you home, son,” Dom said as he took the little girl from Tristan’s arms. “How you feeling?”
“Good,” Tristan said as he mimicked his younger brother and stole some frosting from the cake. “Checkup was all clear,” he said with an easy smile.
Tristan had been an unexpected surprise for Logan and Dom. It had been Zane who had told them about Tristan when Zane became the boy’s advocate in court. Tristan had been 10 when he’d been discovered living in a run down, rodent-infested apartment with his crack addict mother. Zane had been trying to find a relative who would take the boy in but when it was discovered that Tristan had been born HIV+, the few potential leads dried up and Tristan was facing a life of bouncing from foster home to foster home. As soon as Dom and Logan had met Tristan, they’d known he was their son. And while the very real prospect of losing Tristan to his disease loomed in their minds, it ultimately had no bearing on their decision to take him into their home. They’d been lucky over the years as Tristan’s health remained good but it had been hard to watch him go off to college.
“Daddy, tell the story!”
“Sylvie, who tells the story even better than me?” Logan asked.
Sylvie grinned and then turned her eyes to Dom. “Papa, tell the story!”
Dom shot him a dark look that promised he would get his revenge but all that did was turn Logan on since he knew exactly what Dom’s “punishment” would entail.
Logan slapped Tristan on the back and said, “Can you give me a hand with the decorations for Tanner’s party?”
“Sure thing.”
Tristan left the kitchen and Logan started to follow him but slowed when he heard Sylvie say, “Papa-”
“The story, right. There once was a very beautiful woman named Sylvie.”
“Like me!”
Dom chuckled. “Sylvie and Papa loved each other very much but one day Sylvie went to heaven to be with God.”
“Like an angel, right Papa?”
“Exactly like that.”
“But she knew you’d be lonely so she sent you Daddy,” Sylvie said earnestly.
Logan looked over his shoulder and saw Dom watching him. “That’s right, she sent me your Daddy so I wouldn’t be lonely anymore,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. Logan held Dom’s gaze for a moment and he could see the love he had for Dom reflected back at him.
“And so Daddy wouldn’t be lonely anymore either,” Sylvie said as she leaned down and pressed her forehead against Dom’s to get his attention.
Logan walked out of the kitchen but just before he was out of hearing distance, he heard Dom say, “That’s right, honey. She made sure Daddy and I found each other and then she gave us you and Tanner and Tristan.”
“She must have loved you and Daddy lots,” Sylvie said softly.
“She did, ba
by girl. She absolutely did.”
The End
Thank you for reading Freeing Zane!
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Zane and Connor’s story. This was the final book in the Barretti Security Series. It has been such a fun journey getting to know this amazing group of men and women and I hope you enjoyed the time you spent with them. Up next I will be working on Book 3 of the Finding Series (Gray and Luke’s story) (M/M) as well as a couple of other new books.
As a new author, I am always grateful for feedback so if you have the time and desire, please leave a review, good or bad, so I can continue to find out what my readers like and don’t like. You can also send me feedback via email at [email protected]
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***Other Available Titles by Sloane Kennedy***
Loving Vin (Book 1, Barretti Security Series) (M/F)
She was the daughter of a serial killer and she was living in his house...
After years of searching war torn Afghanistan for his MIA brother, Vincenzo Barretti has finally come home and now he's ready to settle back into life as co-founder of Barretti Security Group. But his home is no longer cold and empty the way he likes it.
Mia Hamilton needs a quiet place to hide from the press to try to rebuild her life. Being the daughter of a notorious serial killer is bad enough, but being the one who killed him has made her a target for every news agency in the world. She wants nothing more than to be left alone, but the reporters are relentless and will stop at nothing to get their story. With no place to go, she accepts an offer from Dominic Barretti to stay at his older brother's home until she can figure out what to do next. But she didn't expect the homeowner to return so soon or to feel something she's never felt when he's around.
Vin doesn't need or want a woman in his life and certainly not one that comes with so much baggage. So what if Mia evokes feelings in him he thought were long dead? She's a liability and he wants her gone. But forcing the quiet, strong-willed young woman from his life turns out to be a lot harder than he thought...
Redeeming Rafe (Book2, Barretti Security Series) (M/M)
He wants revenge against the brothers who betrayed him but first he has to get past the one man he can't resist...
At the tender age of eight, Rafe Barretti lost everything. His parents, his childhood, his innocence. And the brothers who were supposed to protect him let him go instead. Twenty years later and he's finally ready to exact his revenge by taking away everything they hold dear - their company, their reputations, their futures. But even that isn't enough - their loved ones will have to pay too and all their precious secrets are fair game.
Former mercenary Cade Gamble's only job is to take down the hacker stealing sensitive, private information from Barretti Security Group and Cade is damn good at his job. But there's more at stake because the co-founders of BSG, Dom and Vin Barretti, are like family and no one touches Cade's family. The fact that the vengeful young man turns out to be the youngest of the Barretti clan doesn't matter. But when their tumultuous encounters turn into something more, Cade will have to decide between protecting the only family he has and giving in to his need to save Rafe from himself.
Can Cade help Rafe find redemption so he can forgive the sins of the past or will Rafe's quest for vengeance destroy them both?
Saving Ren (Book3, Barretti Security Series) (M/M/M)
Three men brought together by circumstance who found something none of them knew they needed…
Ren Barretti has finally come home after a year of being held captive by the terrorists who slaughtered his entire Special Forces team. But he can’t escape the nightmares that torment him or the guilt that he was the only one to walk away. The life his older brothers have brought him home to doesn’t exist for him anymore and to keep them and their loved ones safe from the rage and pain that consume him, Ren needs to disappear.
Police Detective Declan Hale has felt an undeniable pull towards the very straight Ren Barretti since the day Ren’s brother married Declan’s younger sister almost a dozen years earlier. But even though the Ren who has come home isn’t the one who left, all of Declan’s feelings come rushing back to the surface and he steps in to help the only man he’s ever truly wanted. And even though there’s no future for them, keeping Ren safe is all that matters and Declan will risk anything to make that happen.
Tough as nails former soldier and mercenary Jagger Varos has returned to Seattle after years of running from his past and he’s hoping that joining Barretti Security Group will help him finally call the city he left behind home. But within weeks, his new beginning is tested after multiple run-ins with the gruff, infuriating Detective Hale. When he inadvertently discovers that Declan is hiding Ren from the very brothers offering Jagger a new start, Jagger finds himself torn between his newfound loyalty to Vin and Dom Barretti and the need to protect the young man he himself helped rescue from his captors.
For Declan and Jagger, it’s hate at first sight but they soon realize that they will need each other if they have any hope of saving Ren from himself. And neither of them expects their mutual distrust in one another to grow into something else entirely or that Ren himself will find in both of them what he needs to rebuild his life and come to terms with who he really is.
Can the fierce attraction between three men become something more or will the demands of the real world tear them apart?
Finding Home (Book 1, Finding Series) (M/M/M)
Vengeance. It's the one thing on ex-cop Rhys Tellar's mind and he's spent every day of his two year prison sentence planning how he'll bring down the former lover and partner who sold him out and cost four people their lives. A six month parole stint working at the CB Bar Ranch in Southwestern Montana should be the easiest thing he's ever done. But the last thing he expects is to feel something for both the charismatic ranch hand who befriends him and the enigmatic foreman who's pretending to be something he's not.
A future. That's what Finn Stewart wants, but to have it he must leave behind the man he wants above all others, his very straight boss and best friend, Callan Bale. As the only openly gay man in a small, homophobic community, Finn has to fight every day to be who he is and walking away is starting to seem like the easier path. Until Rhys Tellar shows up and changes everything.
A Lie. Callan Bale's entire life has been about hiding the man he really is and it's about to cost him the one person who's managed to worm his way past the walls he's spent years putting up. But choosing Finn would mean giving up everything he's worked for and breaking the promises he's made. At least losing the younger man to Rhys means Finn can have the life he deserves.
Three men. Three choices. One chance at finding home.
Finding Trust (Book 2, Finding Series) (M/M)
He wanted a new beginning. What he got was a glimpse of a life he could never have...
Widower Dane Winters just wanted a new beginning for himself and his six month old daughter after his estranged husband's cold-blooded murder and moving to a small town in Southwest Montana seemed like a good place to start. But he never expected a favor for a friend to turn into a deadly encounter that puts him on a collision course with a mysterious stranger passing through town.
Former FBI agent Jaxon Reid stopped in Dare, Montana to right a wrong, not get caught up in the life of an uptight, country vet with a holier-than-thou attitude. But he soon finds himself drawn to the quiet, insecure single father who's trying to leave behind a life of pain and heartbreak.
Dane can't deny his attraction to Jax, but he knows that pursuing a relationship with the gorgeous, younger man will only end in heartbreak and turn him into someone he swore he would never be again. But when danger looms, he's forced t
o accept Jax into his life and home, along with the emotional vulnerability that being around Jax brings to the surface.
As their connection deepens, can Dane find the trust Jax needs from him in order to build a life together or will he let his past destroy his one chance at a real future?
Gabriel’s Rule (Book 1, The Escort Series) (M/F)
After nearly ten years of moonlighting as a professional escort, Gabriel Maddox is good at giving women the forbidden pleasures they crave. They don’t need to know that something inside of him dies a little each time he does it or that his desperate need for cash is the only reason he can’t walk away. They just need to know that to get what they want, they have to play by his rules.
Riley Sinclair is starting over. She’s left dry, dusty Texas and her ultra conservative, fanatically religious parents and cheating, mean-spirited fiancé behind for a new life in Seattle. But one look at her stunningly gorgeous new neighbor Gabe brings back all the insecurities she’s trying to escape.
Gabe can only offer Riley pleasure, but when she discovers that his perfect outside hides something terribly broken on the inside, will she risk her heart to give him what he needs?
Shane’s Fall (Book 2, The Escort Series) (M/F)
Shane Matthews loves women, sex and money and as a professional escort, he gets to have all three whenever he wants. So what if he’s not the same, naive person he was when he started – it’s what he’s good at. But life is catching up with Shane and he’s losing the battle against an addiction that has haunted him for years. He’s managed to keep the truth from his friends and family, but the pressure of pretending to be perfect may just be too much.
Freeing Zane (Barretti Security Series, Book 4) Page 23
