I smiled widely as she snuggled Vitaly into her arms, propping him up on her chest, then walked back to her father.
I smiled even further when, once she got to me and I took her hand from her father, she handed Vitaly to me.
I loved my son.
He was my perfect mini-me.
And I loved that Annie loved Vitaly like he was her own.
I knew that he’d never feel unloved, because Vitaly was still just as much a part of Annie even if he wasn’t of her flesh. She loved him with her whole heart, and I would forever be grateful.
Annie had dressed Vitaly in the smallest little tux I’d ever seen.
Hell, I didn’t even realize they were made that small.
But, somehow, Annie was able to pull it off in the two-week time limit I’d given her for our wedding.
Her mom, sister, and my mom had accomplished a lot, in fact.
And done a damn fine job of it.
“You ready?” The minister asked.
Annie smiled.
“Almost,” she said, hurrying back to Nonnie.
There, she grabbed the burp rag that my son had started requiring since he’d started eating more, and placed it over my shoulder.
I rolled my eyes and repositioned Vitaly in my arms.
We’d found that the best way to situate him was up so he didn’t lose his previous bottle.
See, he had acid reflux, and it enabled him to projectile vomit about six feet in front of him.
So we tried to circumvent it before it happened.
And what better way to commemorate the wedding than to have him vomit like that, and every single camera in the room catching it.
Thankfully, I didn’t have anyone behind me, because that’s what he did in the next moment.
Swear to Christ, it never ceased to amaze me at how well he could aim it.
“Shit,” Annie said, watching in horror as Vitaly finally laid his head back down once he was done, almost like a sleepy little drunk who didn’t have a care in the world.
The crowd was stunned silent, and I couldn’t help the small laugh that leaked out of me at their amazement.
“See, I told you!” I pointed at Casten.
Casten held his hands up. “I was wrong. You were right. It is impressive.”
“I hope you got that on camera,” my father said, I guessed, to the camera chick that Annie had hired to take photos of us, since I didn’t bother to turn around.
I wasn’t mad at him anymore.
I knew he was just doing what he thought was best. However, I would never be raising Vitaly like that.
He would know what love was, and I would prove it to him by showing his mother every day that I was graced to have her.
“If you’ll both turn to face each other, we’ll start the vows,” the priest said.
When I faced Annie once again, I studied her.
She had her heart in her eyes, as she always did.
And she looked so beautiful.
“You look beautiful,” I said, interrupting the priest.
Annie smiled.
“Thank you,” she mouthed.
“Annie, do you take Vitaly to be your husband, to have and to hold from this day forward?”
“I do,” she responded firmly.
I wanted to laugh at how sure she sounded.
“And do you, Vitaly…”
“I do.”
The crowd laughed.
But I didn’t need him to say that stuff.
I knew it like I knew I’d draw my next breath.
I’d give anything and everything to have Annie forever at my side.
And she knew it.
“Well,” the priest said, sounding flustered. “Who has the rings?”
“Oh, that’s me!” Tasha said, jumping up and fishing down her cleavage for the rings.
“Really?” Annie asked her.
“It was the only place I had. Do you see any pockets in this bitch?” Tasha asked.
Annie closed her eyes, and I laughed.
“Eww, they’re warm,” Annie groaned, passing hers over to me.
I took it, and slipped it on Annie’s finger without waiting for the priest’s approval.
“You’re mine,” I told her.
She grinned, then followed suit, placing the ring on my finger.
“You’re mine, too,” she informed me.
“Was the priest even needed?” Casten muttered from behind me.
I flipped him off.
“Your tone’s not needed,” Tasha shot.
“Did I ask you?” Casten shot back.
And things deteriorated from there.
But the main part of the entire thing was accomplished.
Annie was officially mine.
***
Annie
6 months later
“He got another letter,” I said, handing the letter over to Mig.
Mig promptly tossed it into the trash.
I just shook my head, and secretly wished I could make it to where Jennifer couldn’t have a pen or pencil anymore.
Any time Mig saw a letter from Jennifer, he got into the worst moods.
Ones that took him hours to work out of his system.
I watched as Mig got up and walked outside, leaving me to finish dinner with Vitaly alone.
“Well,” I said to Vitaly. “Would you like anymore pears?”
He slapped the spoon away from me before I could get it any closer to his mouth.
“I’ll take that as a no,” I said as he babbled and blew spit bubbles.
I handed him his sippy cup that I was trying to introduce him to, and winced when he threw it.
It hit the table with a skid, bounced off the sliding glass window where Mig had just exited, and fell to the floor with a solid crack.
I gathered the dishes, placing them all into the sink and running water over them before I went back to Vitaly with a towel.
Once he was cleaned off, I walked him to his bathroom, and ran a bath for him.
He was playing nicely, making a fantastic mess with bubbles and water, when I looked up to find Mig at my side.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I smiled at him.
“I know.”
Mig still didn’t like Jennifer any better now than he had six months ago…or even a year ago.
And I knew it would take time for him to get over it, I just wished he didn’t close himself off for hours following one of Jennifer’s letters.
“I’m gonna go get ready for bed,” he said.
I nodded, standing up to offer him a quick kiss.
Which he took and reciprocated.
He gave my butt a soft slap, then exited the room.
I looked over at Vitaly.
“Your daddy’s tired,” I said. “And you have no water left.”
He didn’t.
Mostly because it was all over the floor.
Which I left, because I was tired myself.
I’d had a full day at work, having two massage clients, which always drained me, and had done four hair jobs.
It was what you would call, busy.
I never had an uneventful day, and it was getting harder and harder to keep up.
I’d have to hire someone soon, especially if I wanted to keep having Vitaly at the shop with me.
Twenty minutes later, Vitaly was a sleeping, heavy, reassuring weight in my arms.
I laid him down into his crib and smiled at my dog.
She had a new master, and it was most assuredly not me or Mig.
She was all Vitaly’s, through and through.
Closing the door quietly, I walked down to our bedroom, not surprised to find Mig already in bed.
He was laying back, the remote in his hand as he flipped through the news stations.
He paused on the one that was showing off a huge bust.
“Hey!” I said e
xcitedly. “You’re on the news again!”
He rolled his eyes to me, then shrugged.
He’d had many, many of them over the years.
But his most impressive drug confiscation to date was still the one he’d done with Liam Cornell and his crew.
It’d been a massive shipment of drugs that he’d found after his kidnapping, but this one on the TV was pretty damn impressive in its own right.
“You get him down?” Mig asked.
I went to the bathroom, not bothering to answer his question.
It would be obvious that he was down seeing as he wasn’t in my arms any longer.
Vitaly was a momma’s boy.
And I was his momma.
Every last bit of myself belonged to him and Mig.
And I was so happy that every day I woke up I was thankful to wake up and experience it all over again.
I was just stepping into the shower when I felt Mig’s strong hands on my hips, guiding me in.
His cock…his hard cock…was pressed to my backside as he maneuvered us both underneath he spray of the shower.
“I love you, baby.”
I knew he did.
“I know.”
He squeezed me tighter, and placed his Jack and Coke on top of the shower stall, right next to my shampoo and conditioner.
This was a nightly ritual now.
I got Vitaly in bed.
He got his drink.
And we met in the shower.
Sometimes we stayed in there long enough to have some hot, steamy sex.
And others we stayed in there until the hot water ran out, talking about our day while he sipped his drink.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
I turned in his arms, studying his face.
The lines that ran out along his eyes.
The hard set of his jaw.
The color of his eyes.
And I fell even more in love with him.
“I know.”
“What else do you know?” He asked, teasing me with a kiss on my lip.
“I know that you’re mine.”
He smiled.
“Damn straight.”
***
Two days later
“He doesn’t know I’m here.” I said to Jennifer.
Jennifer sneered. “Then what are you doing here? Come to see how the mighty have fallen?”
“No,” I leaned forward in the metal seat, smiling at the woman that was handcuffed to the table in front of me. “I already know how far you’ve fallen.”
“And how far is that?” She hissed, her face now much less pretty than it had been before her prison sentence.
I decided to show her instead.
Pulling out my phone, I started to scroll through the pictures of Vitaly, smiling at them.
“He’s a beautiful boy,” I said. “That’s one thing I can say about you. You made a pretty baby.”
Her face split into a painful grimace.
“I…”
I held my hand up.
“No,” I snapped, startling her.
Leaning on my elbows, I showed her one of my favorite photos of Mig and Vitaly.
“This is the day he came home from the hospital.” I showed her. “Do you notice anything missing?”
Her lip trembled as she stared at what she’d lost before she’d even had it.
“No,” she said painfully. “What?”
“Me.”
She jerked back like I’d slapped her.
“Your child is now my child. Vitaly is mine. Not yours, mine!” I stood up until I was leaning over the metal table. “If you send him another goddamned letter, I’m going to bring that letter up here, set it on fire, and shove it down your throat.”
She shook her head.
“You can’t do shit to me. This is a free country. I can write whomever I want.” She gritted her teeth.
I smiled then, letting her see just exactly what she would have on hands if she decided to write another goddamn letter.
“I’m being a hundred percent serious.” I said. “And if you ever try to bribe another guard by using your mouth on him, I’ll come up here and cut your fucking tongue out so you can’t use it again.”
She laughed.
“I’d like to see you try.” She replied stubbornly.
I grinned then, walked calmly around the table, and then pulled my fist back to launch it at her face.
It hit her in the side of her perfect nose with a sharp crack.
“Do you see any guards rushing in to stop me right now?” I asked her, yanking her head back so I could see her eyes.
She shook her head as she tried in vain to stop the blood from flowing out of her broken nose.
“That’s because I know how to bribe, too, and I don’t have to use my sexual wiles to do it.” I grinned. “I have papers for you to sign.”
“What papers?” She questioned nasally.
I slapped the forms that were needed to relinquish all rights to Vitaly that Jennifer might have once she got out of prison.
By her signing them, she’d be relinquishing those rights, and she’d never have a chance at getting him back.
“I’m not signing that.” She pushed the papers away.
I pushed them back, then pulled out a pen.
“It’s either you sign them now, or I send a few of the club members back with them later. Trust me, they hate you just as much, if not more, than I do.” I laughed. “And they’re cops. They have a lot more resources than I do. Think of your life you have right now, and imagine it about ten times worse. They can fuck with you in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.”
She took the pen like it was a snake ready to strike, then scribbled her name that didn’t look anything like her normal signature.
“There.” She threw the pen.
I caught it in midair, pocketed the pen, and grabbed the papers up off the table before placing them nicely into the folder in my purse.
Once situated, I started walking, but stopped in the doorway. “Have a nice life. I know I will.”
With that parting comment, I went home to my two boys, happy as a mother fucking clam.
And I knew she wouldn’t be writing any more letters. Nor would I ever see her again. God help her if she tried.
Coming Soon
Flash Point
Book 2 in The Kilgore Fire Series
6-2-16
Chapter 1
You and me. Bed. Now.
-Masen to her cat, Jetson.
Masen
“I hope these cookies taste okay,” I muttered to Mia.
Mia’s eyes turned to me.
“They taste fine,” she said. “Stop carrying on about them.”
I muttered something that sounded much like ‘fuck you’ to her under my breath.
I refrained from saying, ‘how do you know?’
I wasn’t trying to be a bitch. But I really, really didn’t want to be here.
Why?
Because Bowe was here.
Bowe was a guy I’d met online through a dating sight.
At first, I’d liked him.
I was ready not to be alone anymore, and he’d been great.
But then I started the comparing.
It happened with every single man, never failed.
I’d compare the hair. The eyes. The voice. The personality. Everything.
And I always found them lacking.
I didn’t think it was fair of me to hold them to standards that they’d never, ever compare to.
Nobody was Booth.
That was the end of it.
And I was destined to be alone.
Bowe, however, didn’t feel the same.
He thought we could work…and he was clearly going to keep trying.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t looking forward to what it meant to have him ‘try’ to win me over.
&n
bsp; Something he’d said he’d be doing.
Bowe wasn’t a bad guy.
In fact, he was incredibly attractive.
He was tall, Italian, and stacked.
He had black hair, but I preferred brown.
He had deeply tanned skin, I preferred sun kissed.
He had a rich, deep baritone that was smooth like dark chocolate.
What I preferred, though, was deep and husky. The type of voice that always sounded like it’d smoked a pack a day, but had never touched a cigarette in his life.
See, nobody would ever win.
I had what I wanted in my mind, and nobody would ever touch that again.
Nobody but him.
“Hey there,” Bowe said once I entered the main room.
I hid my grimace. Barely.
I smiled congenially at him, but made no move towards him.
I wouldn’t be, either.
He took a step forward, my guess, to come to me, but I looked away and didn’t see any other progress.
Mostly because my eyes were trained on a man’s across the room.
The first time I’d seen those eyes, I’d been enraptured.
They were a rich green that really struck me stupid.
But then you got to the pupil of his left eye, and you never knew what hit you.
He had flecks of brown above and below his left eye’s pupil, making it look as if, from far away, as if he had the slit pupil of a cat.
It was amazing, and truly one of a kind.
People used to call him freaky…and maybe to someone else, it would have been.
But to me, it was pure and utter beauty.
Booth stared at me as I stared at him, watching me with those eyes that looked to be ravaged with indecision.
“Fuck,” Mia hissed beside me.
I ignored her and placed the cookies down gently on the first available surface, which happened to be the bumper of the fire truck.
Then I was running, straight past the man that would never measure up, into the arms of the man that everyone would always be compared to.
“Booth,” I breathed, hugging him so tightly that I was sure I was cutting off any and all air flow to his body.
His arms went just as tightly around me, and we hugged for long, long minutes.
“Should we leave them alone?” I heard someone mutter behind us.
I held on tighter.
I didn’t care what anyone else did.
Jack & Coke (The Uncertain Saints Book 2) Page 21
