War

Chapter Forty-Five

A/N - 4 chapters to go 💔

Bit heated this chapter...

~~~

Marco

"Is this due to become a regular occurrence?", I sipped my peppermint tea and looked opposite me; at Phoenix who looked amused, then Zane who was looking at Phoenix.

Shocker.

"Don't act like you don't love it", Aniyah nudged me from her position to my left, her face lit up in a blinding smile, "we should make it a weekly thing".

"Weekly?", Zane and I said simultaneously, Phoenix laughing with a shake of his head.

"Double dates, what's not to love?", he asked, placing their intertwined hands on top of the table, "okay, update us- how are the babies doing?".

"All three of them are thriving", Aniyah beamed from ear to ear, "baby A is a kicker".

"And I have no doubt he'll be the troublemaker", I mused, taking another sip of my tea, "but as Aniyah said, they are all healthy".

"Good", Zane smiled, picking up his own black coffee, "you know you don't have to look at my drink in such disgust?".

"I will look at it in disgust until my dying breath", I narrowed my eyes, squeezing Aniyah's thigh under the table, "it's poison".

"Are they always this...this?", my wife asked my cousin's partner who nodded solemnly, a smile stretching across his face.

"It's their love language", Nix claimed, Zane and I frowning instantaneously, "that's what I tell myself anyway".

"What were you two like when you were younger?", Aniyah asked, her gaze flickering between the two of us as my lips twitched upwards in amusement.

"Marco was a sadistic piece of shit", Zane was quick to throw me under the bus, "you think he's bad now? Should've seen him when he was a teenager".

"Zane would spend his days making out with countless guys and girls in his club", I smirked, sipping my peppermint tea as I watched his jaw clench, he then looked at Phoenix in what I assumed was a silent apology.

"You do look beautiful in the club", was all he said, kissing my cousin's temple- I was convinced neither of them could do any wrong in the other's eyes, it was the same for Aniyah and I.

"He turned his basement into a torture chamber when he was eighteen", Zane smirked, his thumb tracing the back of Phoenix's hand slowly.

"Still one of my greatest achievements", I flashed him a grin, squeezing Aniyah's thigh once more, "and she loves me regardless".

"I do", she confirmed, leaning over and kissing my cheek- this woman.

"They're worse than us", Zane muttered, a snort escaping Nix a second later.

"Nobody's worse than us", he chuckled- at least he was self aware.

~

We'd decided to return to Zane's after breakfast, because apparently this was what we did now, yet even I couldn't deny the contentment that had been filling me these past few days.

It felt as if everything was falling into place despite the fact I'd spent my whole life believing I wasn't worthy of happiness.

"So you just beat up the kid's older brother instead?", Aniyah looked at me with wider eyes, amusement laced in her tone. Zane snorted, finding pride in himself at sharing yet another story that made me sound like some form of delinquent.