Arranged love

CROSS

WE ALL SIT around the table at Grave and April’s, having Sunday breakfast. It’s our newest tradition as our family grows. The girls coming into our lives makes us more and more human. Less evil in our everyday life.

“Hey, Alexa,” Grave starts.

“Hmm?” She looks at him, slowing her chewing.

“Do you mind staying on at Crown? That is, until Lucky’s is back up and running, and I can find someone else to take over.”

She looks at me confused and then back at him. She swallows her food. “I don’t mind, but I don’t want to take that away from you.”

“You’re not.” He reaches over and takes April’s hand, bringing it to his lips. He kisses her knuckles, making her blush at the intimate act. “I want to come home and be with my wife after a long day at Kingdom.”

Alexa starts nodding. “Yes, sure, that’s …”

A silence falls over the room, and April starts laughing.Belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.

“No!” Jasmine breathes, her palms slapping the table. “You got married without us?” she asks in disbelief.

“No, but …” April holds up her left hand and smiles brightly, showing off the massive diamond that’s on her ring finger. “We have a wedding to plan.”

The girls start jumping up from the table, screaming and hugging one another. The guys laugh. Bones walks over to his brother and slaps him on the shoulder. “I’m proud of you, brother,” Bones tells him. Grave nods, smiling, but I can see him trying not to get choked up about marrying the love of his life.

A lot has happened over the past two weeks. We’ve started renovations on Lucky’s. We dropped the investigation and had Jeffrey sign off on the accidental report. Then Jasmine, Alexa, and I got into a very heated discussion when I told them I was paying for all of it. I didn’t want either one of them to worry about it. Jasmine had already put up so much for Kink, and Alexa only had enough set aside from selling the studio to do the small remodel. I told her to keep the insurance money, and I would handle it.

Ethan is in jail. Grave finally had enough and called in a favor. Ethan was picked up during a sting operation for distributing illegal narcotics to a minor. He’ll be away for a while. We’re just glad he didn’t kill anyone or himself. April tries to visit him, and he refuses to see her. She hates herself for it, but even more, she hates that he doesn’t want to be better.

“I love you.”

I look over my shoulder to see Alexa come up to me. Bending over the back of my chair, I wrap her arms around my shoulders from behind. “I love you too, gorgeous.”

Reaching up, I take her left hand and turn her palm over and kiss her tattoo on her inner wrist. I do it all the time out of habit. A reminder that no matter what, she’s by my side.

She kisses my cheek and skips off to go talk to Jasmine across the room, who is already scrolling through wedding pictures online with Emilee.

April plops down in Alexa’s vacant seat beside me. “Congratulations,” I tell her.

“Thanks.” She laughs excitedly, but stops suddenly, and her face turns serious. “I was wondering if you could help me out with something.”

“Of course,” I say, figuring it’s a gift for Grave with his birthday coming up.

“Do you have any openings next week at Tit for Tat?”

I frown because that was not what I was expecting. “I can make time.” Tit for Tat doesn’t have to be open in order to give her a tattoo. Hell, I did Grave’s in a hotel, practically sitting in the dark because he wanted to wallow in his pity.

She shifts in her seat. “I, uh, I love Alexa’s tattoo and Grave’s …” Her smile returns. At the mention of his name, he comes up behind her.

She lifts her hips off the chair and digs into her back jean pocket. “I drew something …” She trails off, holding the still folded piece of paper in her hand.

“It’s beautiful,” Grave tells her lovingly.

She licks her lips. “I … we want to get matching tattoos, and we would love for you to do them.”

“Of course,” I say, shifting in my seat to face her. “Just let me know the time and day that’s best for you. I’ll make myself available.”

“It’s …” She gets choked up, and Grave starts rubbing her shoulders. “It’s for the baby.”

My chest tightens. It’s the first time I’ve seen her show any emotion about their loss around him. Other than when we were here, and she asked him if he was still using. It just shows how far they’ve come.

I reach out my hand, placing it over hers, and smile. “I’d be honored to.”

She gives me a sad smile and leans forward, hugging me. “Thank you,” she whispers. Pulling away, she wipes her cheeks and gets up, walking away while pocketing the piece of paper.

I stand and face Grave. “Congratulations.” I hold out my right hand to shake his, but he pulls me in for a hug, slapping my back.

“Thanks, brother,” he whispers, choking on the word, and I hug him tighter before pulling away.

“Hey, where are Haven and Luca?” I hear Emilee ask no one in particular.

“Probably fucking,” Jasmine answers, making us all laugh. “Must be nice,” she mutters.

Alexa comes bouncing back over to me. She throws her arms around my neck. “The girls want to go wedding dress shopping.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll only be gone for a few hours. When I get back to Kingdom, we can lay in bed and take a nap.”

I run my hands down over her ass. My fingers slide into her pockets, making my cock hard. “We’ll be doing something, but it won’t be sleeping.” Then I kiss her, knowing she’s safe and all mine. If anyone threatens that, I’ll make them pay the only way I know how-by setting their world on fire.

THE END

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