Patience (Serpents Series #5)

c h a p t e r . s i x t e e n . p a r t . t w o

REIGN

"Come on, buddy. Let's get you cleaned up," True announces picking Grey up.

'I can do that!" Anastasia drops her napkin and stands to take a maple syrup-covered Grey from True's arms. "I need some grandson time." The kids are in a 'pancake' phase where they refuse to eat anything but pancakes, so their version was a kind of breakfast-for-dinner kind of situation.

"You get that every time you show up here," Stephen scoffs. Anastasia promptly thwaps him behind the head. True laughs taking a seat by her husband again. Grey screams in laughter at his grandma's antics. Thanksgiving dinner just ended and almost everyone is falling asleep- mostly the kids. I chuckled at my friend's antics.

Before the girls, Thanksgiving was usually just the boys, our parents and a few of the guards who didn't have any family or place to go besides us. When the girls came, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas were now the biggest get-together with half of the dining hall just for food. True takes her role in our family seriously. She turned the place into a home and protected everyone in it. After taking our plates to the trash- Yeah, disposable plates to limit the amount of work Sierra has on her plate- we head out to the tent outside for dancing and dessert. Cam doesn't have a wink of sleep in his blue eyes. He and Jordan have been running around exploring. I think I saw him making moon eyes at her earlier. Jordan may have literally tapped him out of it. Bet Tristan's going to have fun with that in a few years.

I sip my whiskey taking in the peaceful moment of the day. The warm body snuggles deeper into my side. "Cold?" I fixed the blanket on her shoulder.

"Nope. You run warm. Think I'm staying here forever," Royalty smiles, cuddling into my neck. I chuckle, pressing a kiss to her head.

"Forever is a long time, peach."

"And I want it with you, big guy," she whispers the very words that can bring me to my knees. Three simple words I've been dying to say the moment I kissed her for the first time done to spill but instead I tip her chin up and kiss the hell out of my woman. My tongue slowly slides into her mouth and I get that pretty little whimper. God, I love kissing her. I've done it a thousand times and every single time, it's like a new experience with new borders to be crossed. I just grab the back of her neck when a loud whistle followed by cat calls and kissing noises comes from the dance floor.

"Assholes," I mumbled making Royalty giggle. I kiss her once more before looking at the clowns who claim to be big, bad mafia men. "Can help you clowns?"

Axel's the first man to speak. "Gosh, you guys make my heart melt," he actually puts his hand on his heart.

"Doc's growing up," Seb wipes a fake tear from his eye. I scowl and they laugh.

"Alright! Leave the people alone before we don't get any more godchildren," Luna finally came to our rescue.

"What do mean anymore? Have you been drinking? I told Ax not to let you into the tequila," Royalty asks as Luna walks closer to us. When Luna whispers 'Cam', Royalty squeezes my hand a little tighter. I give her a reassuring kiss.

"We have time, peach. Lots of time," I bend to kiss her cheek and playfully bite her ear. Royalty giggles and I start planning how I'm going to make her scream later but my dirty thoughts are cut off by Stephen, True, and Ax withdrawing their guns and marching into the foyer filled by Seb, Tristan, and about ten of our guards with furious expressions.

"Take the kids and the girls upstairs. Lock the doors and check your phone for my message," True stops by us with a low voice. Royalty immediately sits up and nods. She calls Cam and Jordan over and tells them to run up the stairs to Luna's room. She turns to me, already standing with my pistol drawn.

"Go," I kiss her head and make sure that everyone is upstairs before I blink twice at the sight in front of me. "What. The fvck," I raise my gun and stand beside Tristan. Damon fvcking Garcia stands with his hands in his pockets on the driveway. He's surrounded by five men- dumb in the sense that he showed up here uninvited.

"This is going to be interesting." Tristan slurs.

"You have exactly ten seconds to get in your car and off my fvcking property," Stephen clicks off his safety. True stands slightly behind him, shotgun aimed for Damon's head. That girl has been eyeing shotguns the day she hit the bullseye of every target.

"But then I'd have wasted time driving alllll the way over here. Where's the fun in that?"

"You'll be wasting your life if you don't get in the car and drive the fvck away," Axel steps forward. One of his guards clicks his safety and I watch him like a hawk.

"Easy motherfvcker," he locks eyes with me. He's a big guy but I know which artery to cut if he so much as breathes the wrong way.

"I'm not playing games with you. You better have a good reason as to why you interrupted the evening with my family." Stephen wants to pull that trigger.

"I came to see if your mind has changed- in the spirit of Thanksgiving and all," Damon shrugs. "Ten million and all is back to the way it was."

"I don't make deals with entitled brats who vapes," Stephen cocks his shotgun- the one identical to True's. "If Carla wants to negotiate the price then we can have that conversation. Speaking of Carla, where is the actual boss because even senile she won't appoint you as her successor without several mental evaluations," he settles.

"She and my father are a bit 'tied up' at the moment," he smirks. Damon looks at True with a menacing glare. "I heard you had a personal experience with the Russians. Vladimir was not a planner. Didn't quite know how to be invisible," he chuckles. True doesn't give any reaction but I notice the slight tremor in her finger on the trigger. Stephen steps forward and both sides ready themselves for gunfire.

"Say that shit again and see what fvcking happens to you!" he yells. Damon smirks, keeping his eyes on True. "Eyes on me, asshole."

"I'd hate for something else to happen. Anyways, it was a pleasure boys. We'll see each other again soon," Damon mocks and salutes, turning around and walking back to his SUV. His men don't get into the other cars until he does. We watched them drive off and out of the gate.

"He's living for Carla's sake but the next time he threatens me, I'm putting a bullet in his fvcking skull." Stephen drops his gun and everyone else seems to ease up. "Are you okay, baby?" he immediately turns to his wife, cupping her face with his free hand.

"I am," she looks at him. They are probably having one of their secret conversations.

"He's a dead man. Pretty sure he's got Carla tied up somewhere," Ax walks over to us. "Where are the girls?"

"Everyone's upstairs," I answered. He immediately heads inside. The rest of our men go inside leaving me, Seb, Tristan, Stephen and True on the staircase.

"You think she's alive?" Seb asks.

"Damon thrives on ego so if he has her somewhere- which he most likely does- he would want her to see the 'success' of his plan. Else all this effort would be for nothing," True says. Stephen's hand is holding hers tightly.

"Eugene, assign two extra bodyguards for every woman in this house. You're assigned to True and Grey," Stephen starts to delegate. "Seb, get Cain and find every transaction this sociopath has made since the email. I want every call to and from his phone. If he's working with someone I want to know about it. Check in with our inside man and tell him to fvcking look harder or it's his head." Seb nods and heads inside. "Tristan, ask Cait to meet me in my office. I've got a special assignment for her."

Let apologize one time. The action moves pretty quickly in this one and I don't think I put in enough romance between these two but I'm still editing so bare with me. It's about to go downnn