Something Green

by London Miller

  The thought made his stomach turn.

  The door opened with far too much force as the man standing on the other side of it walked in, his shoulders barely clearing the doorway.

  Kyrnon didn’t know the man from Adam, but he didn’t miss the way Syn sat up like a bloodhound who smelled prey. The action was only made worse because Luka was practically a mirror image of him.

  His smile as he turned at who had captured their attention was too easily given.

  Dismas, who was still behind the counter with his black book, took one look at the man who’d come in, then to Syn, and the money Kyrnon had set on the counter when they arrived was finally picked up and stuffed in the safe below.

  Shite.

  “At least the night’s about to get more entertaining,” Fang muttered with a grin behind the lip of his beer bottle.

  He clearly knew something Kyrnon didn’t.

  “Didn’t think we’d be seeing you around, Syn,” the man said as he passed, barely paying the rest of them any mind. “Heard you finally got the shit beaten out of ya.”

  Five years he’d been fighting by the man’s side—raiding buildings, kidnappings and the like—yet he still would never allow Syn to stand where he couldn’t see him.

  He trusted him, sure, but even he knew Syn had a tendency to react without thinking, and if you stood between him and the thing he wanted … he didn’t mind cutting through you.

  “What’s it to you, Van?” he asked, stretching one leg out in front of him. “You still can’t beat my arse, mate. Not even if both me hands were tied behind my back.”

  Kyrnon sighed. “Let’s let sleeping dogs lie, eh?”

  This was exactly what he’d been afraid of …

  “Pussy always gets a man in trouble,” Van continued idiotically. “Least it wasn’t the jailbait you flaunted around—”

  Two seconds.

  If he’d taken two seconds to consider who he was standing in the bar with, the eejit might have chosen his words a bit more carefully, because each of them knew just who he meant by “jail bait.”

  But unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize who would react to it first.

  Tăcut lurched off the stool and grabbed the man by his shirt and yanked him clear across the floor.

  He might have had a solid fifty pounds on Syn and probably packed a mean swing, but Tăcut wasn’t a small man.

  At all.

  “Who the fuck are—?”

  Tăcut slammed the man’s head into the table, managing to break it while rendering the man unconscious.

  Luka shrugged as he stared down at the unconscious man. “Six for technique. Two on finesse.”

  “The fuck is your problem?”

  Seemed Van’s friends had only just now noticed he wasn’t with them anymore.

  “S’alright, lads,” Kyrnon said, waving them off, just drunk enough not to give a fuck that their friend was currently unresponsive on the floor. “Let’s not fight about it.”

  Except when the one in the middle turned his eyes onto him, Kyrnon knew.

  This wasn’t going to end well for his fists.

  8

  The girls had already fallen asleep, leaving Amber and Lauren awake in the living room of the suite.

  It felt like old times—back when the only things on their minds were school and work.

  “That old apartment had a lot of memories,” Lauren said, braiding the ends of her hair. “And now that I think about it, our neighbors might have hated us.”

  Amber laughed, thinking of everything that had happened in those days.

  From finding out who Mishca really was …

  Discovering her ex sleeping with her cousin in her own bed.

  Kyrnon meeting said ex with only a hand towel to hide his junk.

  They’d had the best of times, and even as some doubts had crept in, she still couldn’t bring herself to regret anything about where she was and who she was with.

  She couldn’t imagine her life without them.

  The sound of the elevator arriving made both of them glance up in confusion, knowing that the only set of keys that would allow anyone up here were held by them and the front desk.

  But they didn’t have enough time to panic before Kyrnon came stumbling in with Red and Luka in tow.

  “Where’s—?”

  “The Russian had a work thing to deal with, and this one,” he said with a jerk of his thumb in Kyrnon’s direction, “got a little homesick.”

  When it became clear that he meant Kyrnon was homesick for her, Amber laughed as she crossed the floor to him, catching some of his weight when he stumbled, even as he pulled her into his arms.

  “You’re supposed to be out enjoying your night,” she reminded him.

  “I’ll have nearly a whole twenty-four hours before I have to wait to see you in a couple of days. Let me enjoy this.”

  Had it ever been possible for her to say no to him? To completely ignore the way he cupped her face in his scarred hands and gently kissed the middle of her forehead.

  And from her forehead, he kissed her temples, then the tip of her nose, both her cheeks, and finally … her lips.

  She kissed him back.

  For everything she was worth—losing herself in that moment with him.

  She could taste the alcohol on his tongue, even as she felt the urgency of his hands as they slipped around her and held her tight.

  “I won’t leave you standing alone this time,” he whispered as he pulled away.

  Of that, she had no doubt. “Now, or later, I’ll always show up.”

  “All right, lover boy. We’ve got one more stop to make,” Red pronounced, gently pulling him away.

  “They’re trying to kill me. It’s a plot against me.”

  “Have fun, babe.”

  Kyrnon shook his head hard even as Niklaus led him back out. “Not fun. It’s not—”

  “Don’t worry,” Niklaus said as he got them onto the elevator. “He’ll make it in one piece.”

  She certainly hoped so.

  Kyrnon was understandably hung over, but he still managed to get himself to the airport on time, much to her amusement.

  She wanted to laugh at the sight he made sprawled out across several seats, his arms folded across his chest and a pair of opaque sunglasses on his face.

  If she hadn’t seen the twitch of his mouth as she got close, she might have thought he was sleeping like that.

  “Not enough sleep?” she asked, taking the seat next to him so his head could rest in her lap.

  “If I ever tell you Skorpion is in town for a pint, remind me of last night, eh?”

  She laughed, running her fingers through the strands of his hair. “I’ll try, but you know how stubborn you are.”

  He groaned, rolling slightly on the limited space of the seats and threw an arm around her. “Not stubborn enough to repeat this hell, I promise.”

  She patted his shoulder apologetically, at least until she got a look at his hands. “Why’re your knuckles so bruised?” It’d been too dark last night for her to make it out, but she certainly saw it now.

  “The 707 to Dublin is now boarding—”

  Kyrnon’s hand shot up. “That’s us. Better get a move on, lovie.”

  Right.

  It would also give him enough time to think of a good answer.

  She shook her head at the sight of him rising. At least it wasn’t his face this time.

  The Irish countryside was just as beautiful as she’d imagined it to be.

  Rolling hills, charming little villages, and a crispness to the air that had her breathing in deep as she rolled the window down.

  Despite their long flight and even briefly falling asleep on Kyrnon’s shoulder, Amber wasn’t tired as she took in everything around her—there was too much to see.

  She still had no idea where they were going—though if she had to guess, it was somewhere very much like a place he’d described to her so many years ago during their early days togeth
er.

  Amber tried not to smile at Kyrnon’s disgruntled expression as she reached over to pat his hand. He curled his hand around hers, even as he continued to glare at the cottage they were quickly approaching.

  “It was supposed to be bigger.”

  She couldn’t imagine how much bigger it could possibly be considering its proximity to the sea, but she didn’t mind the size of it all. In fact, this made it better.

  The stone pathway leading up to the front door and the lush spread of green grass, blooming flowers along the sides, and its thatched roof gave it a rustic appeal. It was exactly the sort of place she’d love to escape to for weeks at a time with nothing more than her favorite coffee and art supplies.

  It seemed only right that they stay in a place like this before the wedding.

  Kyrnon barely had the car stopped before she was climbing out, inhaling the scent of the salt in the air and staring out at the wash of blue up ahead as the water lapped at the shore. She felt the breeze in her hair as she walked the short distance up to the remote property, spotting the envelope stuck to the door.

  He’d told her once all about the properties he owned around the world. Though she’d only had the chance to visit a few, he certainly hadn’t told her about this one. She couldn’t help but wonder if he’d managed to fit buying this place into his two-day plan.

  Another envelope waited for them inside, resting against the side of a bouquet of white roses. She suspected it was from Kyrnon until she picked it up and got a look at the wax seal along the back.

  An intricate R.

  “Who’s this from?” she asked, holding the envelope for him to see before he plucked it from her hand, his gaze scanning over it. He mumbled something under his breath that she couldn’t make out before slipping a finger beneath the paper and ripping it free.

  He pulled the card out from within, his gaze darting over the front as he read the note. She was about to ask what it said before he frowned and passed it over to her. She read it without question, not sure what she was going to find, even as disbelief filled her by the time she reached the end.

  “Do you understand what these are?” she asked, looking back at the gilded note to make sure she hadn’t imagined it. “They’re invitations to this year’s Met Gala.”

  His expression melted into amusement. “So they are.”

  “No, you don’t understand. These can’t be bought,” she said, remembering all the rumors she’d heard about the event whose guest list was approved by a single person. “How did he even get these?”

  Kyrnon let out a chuckle. “You probably don’t want to know the answer to that.”

  She could almost forget why she was annoyed at him for keeping Kyrnon away with these—and she had a feeling he might have known that.

  “We should definitely call him to say thanks.” These sorts of tickets deserved an exception.

  “Not likely. Somehow you’ll end up owing him a favor in the end, and I can’t have that.”

  It was funnier because she knew he wasn’t wrong.

  The Kingmaker just had that way with people.

  “So do you like it?” he asked, almost eagerly, gesturing out around him with a wide display of his arms.

  She couldn’t think of anything he’d ever shown her that she hadn’t liked, and their little cottage by the sea was definitely not an exception to that.

  “I couldn’t think of any place better.”

  “Good,” he said before plating a kiss on her lips. “Because we have dinner first, then we’re going to work on making a baby.”

  Wait. “We’re going to what?”

  They never ceased to amaze her.

  Their friends because they went along with it all, and Kyrnon because he had a way of making everything right in some grand or extravagant fashion. It was what he did best.

  So when they walked into HIDDN HOLLOW PUB—even as she wondered why there was a missing E from the name—she smiled at the sight of their friends at the lengthy table that split the room in two.

  Sacha was already stuffing his mouth full of some sort of tart while his baby sister and cousins looked on.

  Place settings for the pair of them were set at the top of the table, making her feel really sentimental as she sat in the chair Kyrnon pulled out for her.

  “I want to thank the lot of ya for coming on such short notice,” Kyrnon called over the room, silencing the voices. “It means a lot, but I know it means even more to Amber, so you have my gratitude.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Mishca called, earning an affectionate smile from Lauren.

  “Thank God,” Syn said as he grabbed a roll from the basket on the table. “I’m starving, mate.”

  Dinner commenced shortly after.

  Food was passed around the table, drinks were had, and a comfortable conversation started around the table.

  It was interesting, seeing the mercenaries now when they weren’t weighed down by responsibility—when they had a moment to themselves to actually let down their guard instead of constantly looking over their shoulders.

  She didn’t think she had ever seen them smile as much as they were now.

  Skorpion slapped his hand down on the table, rattling the surface and nearly sending the glasses to the floor.

  “It’s only fair that the best man gives a speech.”

  Luka tilted his head up a fraction, looking very proud as he attempted to stand before Alex put a hand on his shoulder and forced him back down.

  Red waved his hand. “I’m not nearly drunk enough for a speech.”

  “Even better,” Reagan said encouragingly.

  Kyrnon didn’t show it, not when he kept that careful smile on his face as he took a swig of his Guinness, but he was nervous. She felt it in the way his hand curled tightly around her thigh and the way his entire body went tense.

  This was the first time, in a long time, that she realized just how different they were.

  She’d grown up in a loving home surrounded by family, and they were still merely one flight away if she wanted to see them.

  Kyrnon had been a Traveler, and even after that, he’d been used and abused by a child fighting ring until he’d ultimately found a home in the Den.

  In all the ways that mattered, everyone sitting around the table was his family.

  And this would be the first time someone would share something so personal.

  If she didn’t already feel like she wanted to cry, she certainly did now.

  “It’s fair enough to say I’ve known Kyrnon. I can call you that, right?”

  Amber laughed as everyone else did, pretty sure this was the first time she’d ever heard him use his given name.

  Kyrnon waved him on. “Seems fair enough. Let’s have it.”

  Niklaus grinned as if this was the moment he’d been waiting on. “I could tell you about all the times he’s gotten us into some shit.”

  “Mostly Syn’s fault,” Kyrnon cut in.

  Syn choked on his vodka, even as Iris giggled beside him. “I beg to fucking differ.”

  “Or the Budapest job.”

  “We remember Budapest very differently …”

  “But through all that,” Niklaus continued before Kyrnon could interrupt him again, “I’ve never regretted any of it because I had Kyrnon at my side, ready to take on whatever it was so long as it meant we got out alive.”

  Amber was expecting to laugh through the entirety of Niklaus’s speech, especially knowing the way Luka could start up with him at a moment’s notice, but she hadn’t expected the wave of emotion to hit her as he grew more serious.

  “Do not fear death. Embrace it. Pain is inevitable, learn to love it. Morbid as they sound, those were the first words Kyrnon ever said to me. They got me through some dark days, and ultimately, they helped me realize that it wouldn’t always have to be that way.”

  For the barest of seconds, she thought she saw him touch Reagan’s arm just as she squeezed Kyrnon’s hand.

 
; “Standing with him—he showed me what family meant when I wasn’t so sure of it anymore.” He shrugged, his smile becoming a bit more shy. “He’s saved my life more times than I can count, and there’s nobody I trust more. Amber.” He turned those blue eyes on her. “I’m leaving him in your capable hands, and you’ll take better care of him than I ever could. And trust me when I say he’d be fucking lost with you.”

  He held his glass a little higher. “I know I speak for everyone when I say about fucking time.”

  Cheers rang out, the sound of glasses clinking, and Amber embarrassingly wiping tears from her eyes.

  It was easy to remember, through the good and the bad, why she loved them all so much.

  9

  It only seemed fitting that she wake up to rain on her wedding day.

  But she didn’t feel dismayed at the sight of the light drizzle. She smiled because of it. Her mother had always said rain on your wedding day brought good luck.

  She didn’t know if that was true or not, but it felt right.

  She didn’t care that her hair would probably get ruined within seconds of standing in the downpour—she still took her time pinning the curls in place before carefully twining the bits of baby’s breath through them.

  She was equally excited about finishing her makeup the way she liked.

  Nothing she could possibly think of could ruin this day.

  Kyrnon had left sometime the night before, promising to adhere to the no seeing the bride before the wedding, though he hadn’t seemed all that happy about it.

  The girls had come over early this morning to help her get ready even as they readied themselves.

  The cottage was small and only had two bathrooms, but they managed to make it worse. It did, partly, look as if a bomb had gone off.

  Finished with her own hair and makeup, Lauren walked in carrying the clear bag that carried the white dress tucked inside it.

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  It had been nearly three days ago that she’d been trying on the dress for the first time, but today was the day.