Shakedown

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Though we all knew that it would end, I just hadn’t wanted it to.

  Now he was being taken away in handcuffs, able to stand on his own two feet finally, and I felt my heart leaving right along with him.

  My heart was pounding in my chest, and I physically ached with each and every step he took farther away from me.

  I couldn’t stop myself from doing what I did next.

  “Wait!” I cried out.

  Bruno stopped half in the entrance to the police precinct that I’d followed him to. Where he was now being escorted by a cop in handcuffs to where he was officially arrested.

  Bruno half turned just as I hit him hard.

  The police officer doing the escorting had to physically hold Bruno up with a palm to the middle of his back so he wouldn’t fall.

  The officer began to protest but Angel interjected with a, “Let her.”

  The police officer removed his hand and went to the side, giving us space.

  “Don’t forget about me.”

  Bruno laughed into my neck. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

  With those parting words, I allowed my hands to drop from around his neck.

  But before I backed away entirely, I placed both hands on either side of his scruffy cheeks.

  “I love you, B.”

  Bruno’s eyes flared, but before he could say another word, the local news media found us, taking pictures of the man who’d attempted to ‘murder’ the governor.

  Angel stepped in and barked, “Get him out of here.”

  Bruno was pulled from my arms in the next second.

  “No questions,” Angel barked. “I said what I had to say at the news conference.”

  Angel had said a bunch of nothing. He’d literally talked himself around in circles.

  But whatever.

  I didn’t much care.

  All I cared about at this point was finding a way to get Bruno out.

  “I want him out in seven months max,” I told the man that was standing by my side.

  Lynn looked at me. “I don’t know if that’s possible this time. The governor was hurt, and there’ll be…”

  “I’m pregnant,” I told Lynn.

  He was the first person I told.

  Not even Bruno knew.

  He wouldn’t know until he was out.

  I didn’t want him to worry about it while he was in there.

  Lynn looked over at me and sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “You’ll call a news conference,” Angel suggested. “Tell everyone what’s been going on. Get sympathy on Bruno’s side.”

  Lynn turned his head and looked at the man that was supposed to be upholding the law.

  I loved my brother-in-law.

  “I think that just might work. At least partially,” Lynn replied.

  I sure hoped so. Because I’d never had a kid before. I didn’t want to fuck it up by myself.

  CHAPTER 25

  Go disappoint the next bitch. I’m busy.

  -Coffee Cup

  BELLE

  Five months later

  “He’s out.”

  My head whipped around, and just that small of a movement had my stomach tightening in protest.

  “When?” I asked.

  “As of fifteen minutes ago,” Lynn said into my ear. “He should be on the way there now.”

  I was a little bit sad that he was out and hadn’t wanted me to come get him.

  But I wasn’t going to complain too badly.

  I mean, the man was out!

  I had my man back!

  “The man we got in as a character witness to men having brain bleeds was very influential,” Lynn said. “It made the difference.”

  I’d done my research.

  After Bruno had gone in, I had nothing but time to figure out a way to get him out.

  I didn’t care if I had to lie, cheat and steal. I was getting him out.

  I would not live my life without him any longer.

  Even if I had to move to a country that didn’t extradite criminals, I’d do it.

  My family would just have to come to me for holidays.

  “I knew it would,” I said, getting up off the couch and heading toward the door.

  I’d taken up residence in Bruno’s house.

  Now, there was a little bit of me, and a little bit of him, sprinkled everywhere.

  I hoped that he didn’t mind.

  But I needed to be there to help with the animals.

  I didn’t want anything to happen to them while Bruno was gone.

  I didn’t see him on the porch and knew that he probably wouldn’t be here as fast as I was hoping if he’d just been released. Sadly, where they’d been keeping him, the prison in Huntsville, was over two hours away.

  I had some time yet.

  But still… I checked just to make sure.

  “So is it done?” I asked.

  I’d wanted to go to the trials, but they’d been held in Austin, and I’d been given the express orders I was not to travel due to high blood pressure. And, when I was going to go anyway, my mom, brothers, and sisters had literally stolen my car to keep me from doing it.

  I was literally on the way to bed rest if I didn’t calm my shit down.

  But Bruno being gone was incredibly stressful. I wanted him home.

  And I had no clue how anybody thought I could stop worrying about my man.

  I decided to heed my doctor’s orders, seeing as the moment that Bruno walked in the door, I was jumping him. And being on bed rest meant that I probably couldn’t ‘do’ Bruno.

  I hadn’t had him in a very long time.

  So long, in fact, that I felt like I was dying inside.

  That, and perpetually horny.

  It was getting really, really hard to think about work during a sex scene when all I could think about was reenacting the sex scene with Bruno like I had that one time in the car on the way to Nevada.

  How was I supposed to prove a hundred percent effectiveness without first trying it out?

  Now that Bruno had given me that in real life, I was loathe to act it out in my brain any longer.

  I groaned, took one last look out onto the porch, and then dejectedly walked to the bathroom to get myself cleaned up. Which then led to a complete and total shower, seeing as I wanted to look good—and smell good.

  After finishing up in the bathroom, I looked at myself in the mirror.

  It’d been a long five months.

  My hair had grown out to a length I’d never had it at before. My eyes had dark circles under them, and I was at least twenty pounds heavier because I found it was easier to eat my feelings than acknowledge them.

  That, and I was six months pregnant with Bruno’s child.

  A child that was even then kicking and rolling in my belly, letting me know that he or she was very much there.

  I heard the creak of the door, and then a soft ‘click’ of the front door latching.

  I walked out of the bedroom, uncaring of my appearance—I was in one of Bruno’s t-shirts and nothing else.

  A t-shirt that was the last shirt he’d worn with me. A t-shirt that didn’t smell like him anymore, but I pretended it did.

  The moment I saw him, butterflies exploded in my belly.

  He was scruffier than he’d been when I saw him last.

  And his eyes also had dark circles under them.

  His hair was a shaggy mess, and I knew that would likely be one of the first things we fixed.

  After.

  I ran to him, all but throwing myself into his arms.

  I hit him hard, a sob already catching in the back of my throat the moment he wrapped those massive arms around me and pulled me in tight.

  His face ducked to my neck, and he inhaled deeply, uncaring about the cold, wet strands of my hair that all but whacked him in the face at my exuberance.

  “You’re here,” I breathed.

  Bruno’s hands moved from around my back to my hips and then
froze.

  I felt my heart start beating in my chest a million miles an hour.

  This was it…

  He pulled back even farther, so far in fact, that I instantly hated the distance.

  Then his eyes met mine.

  I knew what he was looking at. Trying to get me to admit.

  I wouldn’t.

  Not now.

  He inhaled deeply, and then reached for his t-shirt, slowly lifting it up and up and up until my belly was exposed.

  My big—there was no hiding it now—belly.

  His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard, and then he was once again looking into my eyes.

  “What the fuck?” he rasped.

  I grinned. “So I was going to tell you when you got home, but you took forever.”

  He blinked, then once again allowed his eyes to trail along my belly, not even noticing that I was naked but for the t-shirt he was still holding up.

  “How?” he asked.

  “Well,” I said. “I don’t honestly know. I was on birth control. But as you know, it’s only ninety-nine point nine percent effective. So there is a slim chance that it doesn’t work. If you’re asking me how it became twins, I don’t know that either. But they say you’re more prone to have twins if a mom or a sister has twins. So, there’s that likelihood. It just happened. And, at this point, I think it may be too late to see if they’re boys or girls since they’re so big, and it’s cramped inside there.”

  Bruno slow-blinked, then said, “Twins?”

  I nodded.

  “I’m having twins.”

  I nodded again.

  “And you didn’t tell me,” he growled.

  I bit my lip. “It’s not like I didn’t want to. Honestly, if it would’ve gotten to the point where you would’ve been inside while I was having them, I would’ve told you. I wouldn’t have had them without telling you. But… I wanted to do it in person. I wanted to do it without a foot of plexiglass between us. Or chains around your ankles. I wanted you to hold me when you found out.”

  I didn’t even get the chance to finish my last sentence before he was picking me up bridal style and carrying me to our room.

  I bit my lip. “I’ve gained twenty pounds since you last saw me and held me.”

  He laid me down on the bed oh so gently.

  Then he started stripping his clothes off.

  I watched, tongue pressed tightly to the roof of my mouth, as he got to his pants.

  This was it. The moment I’d been waiting for. Dreaming about. Thinking about nonstop.

  “Why do you look like you’re about to cry?” he rasped.

  I shifted my feet until they were spread apart, revealing my need to him.

  “I’ve been horny as hell with no one to fix it,” I told him, shifting on the bed.

  He grinned then, so wickedly that I knew he didn’t care in the least that I was horny and wasn’t able to fix it on my own.

  He knew the power he held.

  Goddamn.

  The look in his eyes, paired with the smirk on his face? Yeah, I knew how the next five minutes were going to go, and I didn’t freakin’ care that it would be fast.

  Not when I knew he would be here later to fix the ache that only he could heal.

  He removed the rest of his clothes with a swiftness that relayed his need, his eyes on me as he did.

  When he finally got to his underwear, he pushed them down over his hips, and his engorged cock popped free.

  “Take off your shirt,” he urged.

  I slowly rocked back and forth to get up on my elbows, and then pushed myself up from there, all under the amused stare of the man that would one day be my husband.

  Even if he hadn’t actually asked yet.

  He tilted his head slightly sideways as he palmed his cock.

  “What was that look for?” he asked.

  I opened my mouth to tell him something else. Something that wasn’t going to put pressure on him to ‘do the right thing.’ But then I found my mouth saying the words before I’d even realized they were going to come out of my mouth.

  “I want to marry you,” I blurted.

  He grinned, then bent down for his pants.

  “Funny thing,” he said as he came back up, a velvet box in his hand. “I was going to do this after we met with your parents later. After I asked your dad for your hand in marriage. But, since you asked…”

  He placed the black box on my stomach, and I stared at it with awe.

  “Ask me later,” I breathed, my eyes going from the box that was now being kicked, to the man that was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to open it. “There’s one single part in every book I read. That part where the man asks the father for the daughter’s hand in marriage. That’s my favorite part.”

  “Why?” he rasped, reaching for the box now, his eyes no longer on me or the box, but at my stomach that was doing acrobatics, looking like I was an extra in the Exorcist.

  I reached for him with one arm while balancing on the other.

  He held out his hand.

  I took it and placed it on my belly and waited.

  It took half a second.

  Kick. Punch. Roll.

  Kick. Punch. Roll.

  He hissed, and my eyes flashed up to meet his.

  “Holy shit,” he breathed.

  Then he was leaning forward, forcing me to my back, and kissing the hell out of me.

  I hadn’t kissed him since he’d gotten back.

  I’d forgotten how much I missed having his hands on me while he plundered my mouth with his.

  I moaned into the kiss, kicks and babies forgotten while I lifted my hips, urging him to do something.

  He got the hint, moved up more thoroughly and pressed himself against me solidly.

  I groaned at the feel of him, so close to where I needed him most at that moment.

  “It’s safe?” he asked, pressing the tip of his cock against my entrance.

  “Yes,” I hissed.

  Then he was sliding inside of me.

  I stretched like it was the first time all over again.

  Groaning, I pulled my head back and arched my back, my breasts pushing into his chest.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  Then, quiet Bruno was there.

  Quiet, yes. Idle, hell no.

  He fucked the living hell out of me.

  And he did it slowly. Reverently. I had no idea just how reverently and slowly until I needed him to move faster.

  But that only caused him to move slower.

  To give me everything I hadn’t known that I needed.

  My breasts ached for his touch, and he knew it.

  He ran his fingers around the tips almost before I even realized where I wanted those hands.

  His mouth met my skin, sucking and licking, all before I even asked.

  It went on like that for what felt like hours, but when it finally came, it was like a wrecking ball straight to the… everything.

  Nerve endings fired. Toes curled. Hearts sang.

  Then I had an out-of-body experience as everything slammed into me so fast and hard that I had no time to brace myself.

  I heard Bruno grunt, then plant himself deep and jerk inside of me.

  But I was too busy riding the wave to notice, or care that he’d stopped.

  When I finally came down, when I finally caught my breath and leveled out my heart rate, I slumped against the bed.

  Bruno was leaning over me awkwardly, but apparently it wasn’t bothering him any.

  When he came up, his eyes were shining.

  “I love you, too.”

  Those words that I’d said to him all those months ago when he’d left. Words that hadn’t been repeated until now.

  I grinned. “Good.”

  “Now what?” he asked, breath still coming out unevenly.

  “Now we go talk to my dad. Because I want to see what’s in that black box about as badly as I wanted you home.”

  He pressed a
kiss into the middle of my chest. “Let’s go. But I want to stop at one other place first.”

  CHAPTER 26

  Don’t trust children. They’re here to replace us.

  -Text from Belle to Bruno

  BRUNO

  Twins.

  Fucking. Twins.

  I’d just seen them both, live, on the computer screen that Zach had rolled into the room for me.

  He’d gotten it from the pool house where all the medical equipment was held, and the large group watched along with me while Zach found the two heartbeats beating a mile a minute inside of my soon-to-be wife.

  I was sitting on the couch, Belle’s head in my lap, and staring at the screen with a feeling of awe filling my chest.

  There were two babies.

  Holy shit.

  Two babies that were mine.

  “Both are very healthy looking,” Zach announced as he pressed a button and printed a photo out of one of our children’s asses.

  “Thanks.” Belle rolled her eyes when Zach gave it to her.

  “You’re welcome.” He grinned.

  Then he started to flip off switches and the computer monitor died.

  He tossed me a rag, and I caught it in midair and cleaned Belle’s belly off.

  “Babies for everyone!” Six half-clapped as she tried to do so around the child in her arms.

  Lynn and Six’s children had been born while I was on the inside.

  While I was sad that it’d happened that way, I couldn’t deny the outcome.

  The world was a safer place for that baby.

  That baby who reached for Belle the moment that Belle was within reach.

  My heart all but rocked in my chest at the sight of Belle reaching for Six’s son, pulling him in close, and tucking a kiss into the crook of his throat, causing the tiny baby to giggle.

  I stood up and walked toward them, stopping closer to Six than I did Belle.

  “You did good, kid,” I told her.

  Six grinned. “Kind of hard to do bad when he all but delivers himself.”

  “True dat,” Trick said. “Swear to God. Thought that I was going to watch her deliver right there on the hospital floor. Luckily, they got her into a bed first. And kept me the fuck away from anything I wasn’t supposed to see.”

  There were chuckles all the way around, and I felt even worse that I’d missed it.

  That’s when Belle spun and placed Six’s son in my arms.