Chapter 30

Nessa comes back in from the cold, her nose pink and red hair wild. It’s refreshing to see her without sadness haunting her eyes. She seems to be healing, and I believe part of that is thanks to the kid who has become her shadow.

Everyone cleared out after breakfast. Boris and I are left loading up the last of the dishes when Nessa pulls up a chair to the kitchen island. Kai heads to his room, and once we hear the door shut, I have a feeling I know where this is about to go.

“He asked if we would adopt him.”

Yup. Damn, that kid has balls. He’s definitely one of us.

“What did you tell him?” I ask as Boris hands me a wet plate. I begin drying it, waiting for her reaction. Nessa’s lips lift in a gentle smile, her shoulders relax, and when her eyes connect with mine, I know.

“I told him I would love to adopt him, but that I need to talk to the two of you first.”

Boris pauses, midway to handing me another plate. “Are you sure, Lisichka ?”

Nessa glances to the side, then to him. “I’m not trying to replace what we lost, that would be impossible. But Kai deserves a family. He deserves people who will fight for him, just like he fought for me.”

She pauses, a heavy sigh slipping past her lips.

“He tried to take a bullet for me.”

Silence stretches while we all let that truth sink in. The now fourteen-year-old kid was willing to die for her. If that doesn’t scream devotion, I don’t know what does.

“I’m in,” I say, making them both look at me with their mouths agape.

“What?” Placing the plates I just dried in the cabinet, I shrug. “You both had to know I was fully team Kai when he basically told the old man to fuck off and try harder.”

Nessa’s eyes widen. “When did that happen?”

Boris dries his hands before walking around the island to sit next to our girl. “When we were saving them. I told him to keep you safe. Apparently, he took that to heart because when I tried to come see you at the hospital, he said I had no business going to you unless I was certain I would never hurt you again.”

I can tell Boris is still ashamed of how he handled things, but I’d like to think we have worked through it.

“He said that to you?” Nessa looks stunned, eyes blinking in disbelief. “Well, feck.”

Boris chuckles, tangling their fingers together as I move to stand on her other side. “The moment you told him ‘together’, I knew,” I say, kissing her on the head.

“His eyes remind me of Enya’s,” Nessa says. “I think that was why I knew I needed to save him the second I saw him in my scope. It was like I finally got the chance to save her.”

“I think the kid and I still have a lot of trust to build,” Boris says. “But I am honored he would choose us over everyone else in the world.”

Nessa nods before looking between the both of us.

“I want him to have a normal life. I want him to have everything he was never given. So that means that these little training sessions you two do with him behind my back stop now.”

I laugh out loud as Boris’ brows furrow. “How do you know about that?” he questions.

Nessa rolls her eyes. “The two of you seemed to magically start getting along and spending time together on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out at some point?”

“Well, no,” Boris starts, “I did however believe that by the time we did tell you, somehow we could convince you to be okay with it.”

“Come on, Love. He’s in this world, already been exposed to some of the darkest corners of it, let's show him how we fight the darkness.” I say, trying to bring reason to the conversation.

I know, this is shocking for everyone here, myself included.

She stands, shaking her head. “I can live with the combat training, teaching him to be aware of his surroundings and scanning for tails and such, but I won’t get behind the weapons. No guns, no drugs, no murdering. Deal?”

“Deal,” comes a voice from the corner of the room. We all slowly turn to see Kai standing there, a Twizzler hanging out of his mouth and the biggest grin I have ever seen on his face.

I smirk, holding out my arms. “Welcome to the family, Kai. I think we need to make a call because whoever said bloodthirsty assassins and rich as hell mob leaders couldn’t adopt a child needs to be informed that we can, in fact, do whatever the feck we want.”

“I am a retired mafia don,” Boris corrects, but I wave a hand in dismissal as Kai’s arms wrap around my waist. Ever so faintly, I hear him whisper, “Thank you.”

I tighten my grip, keeping him close as I whisper back. “No, thank you.”

=====

Apparently, popcorn and movie nights are a thing with Evie and her crew of men. They said we needed to celebrate Kai joining the family, so here we are. Dr. K is putting the adoption paperwork together, and Boris says it should be official in a week. Mafia money talks, which is also how both Boris and I can be listed as fathers and Nessa his mother.

So, in celebration, we’re watching what I believe to be one of the best Disney movies to ever be created. Atlantis: The Lost Empire .

Seriously, can someone tell me why this movie didn’t blow up in the box office? It has humor, mystery, a bad guy, action, adventure, and so many cool giant, fighting things!

Okay, sorry, I’m getting worked up. But I’m still kinda pissed that this movie struggled because people expected ‘more singing’ and ‘less explosions’ from a Disney movie. I loved Moana too, but the adventure of Atlantis is like every ten-year-old boy's dream.

“I never knew this movie existed,” Kai says, taking a bite of Lev’s pineapple pizza. My stomach flips a little bit because the kid actually enjoys that shit. Between his pizza taste and Daddy B’s ice cream taste, I’m a little afraid of what my future may look like food-wise.

If family traditions mean we all eat weird shit while watching a movie, I plan to pick the movie from here on out so I will actually be able to sit through this.

“They made a second one,” I tell him, thinking about how excited I was for my mom to go out and buy the DVD the day it was released. I was pissed that they never even put it in the theater, but at least I had a hard copy I was able to watch over and over until I actually burnt out the disk.

Well, that’s what my mother claimed anyway. I never believed her.

“Can we watch it next?” Kai asks and I grin at his enthusiasm. I knew I liked this kid.

“I’ll get it for you and we can watch it soon. I think everyone here might want to go to bed.”

Kai glances around the room, noting that half of us are nodding off as the movie comes to an end. “It’s like eight thirty,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

“We’re old,” Nessa says, curling into Boris’ side. The man hogged her during the whole movie and made me watch as she ate some of his pistachio ice cream.

It was torture, and I’m not talking about watching her lick the spoon and wishing it was my cock torture. I’m talking about witnessing the woman I love willingly eat a dessert that is intentionally flavored like nuts.

I shake slightly as a shiver of disgust runs down my spine. Half of these people must not have taste buds. Laney is curled up on the couch with her two men, one of them fast asleep on her chest as she strokes his hair and the other holds them both close.

Evie and her men take up two of the couches, sprawled out so that they can all touch each other. Akio and Adrian look exhausted with two little girls fast asleep in their laps.

Okay, maybe this isn’t so bad. My girl is smiling, and my soon-to-be adopted kid looks happier than I ever knew possible.

The movie comes to an end, and Damien stretches out before kissing Lev and Evie. When he stands, he looks over at Kai.

“So when do you start training to be like one of us, Kid?”

Nessa sits right up, hand in the air. “No, no, nope. He already agreed. No guns, no drugs, no murdering.”

Damien’s excitement falls before he looks at me. “Damn, she took all the best things.”

He shakes his head, walking over to start cleaning up. I help him grab a trash bag and get to work on the popcorn buckets and no less than ten empty Twizzler packages.

When Nessa and Laney leave the room with Evie, saying they need to organize invitations for the island university, I finally feel like I can speak.

“She never said no knives, teaching him to get out of zip ties or ropes, or how to diffuse bombs.”

I swear Damien actually glows with excitement when he realizes I have a plan. Because yeah, no way in feck is my kid going to not learn how to do everything possible to stay safe.

“Fuck yeah, bro,” Damien says, high-fiving me.

Kai walks over then, his eyes squinting like he knows we are up to something. Damien throws an arm around his shoulders before pulling him close.

“Don’t you worry, little man, I’ll make sure you don’t miss out on all the fun stuff. She also never said I couldn’t teach you about torture.”

Kai laughs, shaking his head.

“She might kill you,” he says.

Damien shrugs. “If I die, I die. No need to worry about it until then.”

“ Memento Mori ,” Kai says. The phrase makes me freeze. Remember, we all must die. It’s often a phrase used to brainwash soldiers into believing someone else's fight is worth their life. I don’t want Kai to ever think that his life isn’t worth more than someone else’s fight.

“I studied Latin phrases in college,” I say. “I was always intrigued by the different gods that everyone used to worship, and I wanted to know more about them and their origins. The phrase Memento Mori was originally used to remind Roman generals who celebrated their victories a little too hard, that even they will die one day. It was a way to humble them. Yet, like all good things, history changed that.”

I stand, walking over to my soon-to-be son to teach him a lesson I once had to learn on my own.

“The underworld uses that phrase with their soldiers, tricking them into thinking that life is meaningless and fleeting, that the only thing that truly matters is what you die for.”

Kai looks at me with interest, absorbing my words and taking them to heart.

“But what matters most, is what you live for.” I pat Kai on the shoulder, squeezing tight as the words that saved me, the ones I have tattooed on my thigh, ring in my mind. “ Memento vivere. ”

Remember that you must live.

“How do you know that saying?” Kai questions as Damien stares at us as if we have two heads.

“Someone once tried to teach me that my life was worth nothing because one day it would end. I have fought on many sides of different wars, and they are all just as ugly as the other. But the thing they never teach you is that you can rise above it all.”

I walk over to Kai and place a hand on his shoulder. “ Memento vivere. ”

“ Memento vivere ,” he echoes.

“Not that I understand what’s happening,” Damien says, pulling Kai and me from our bonding moment, “but I have an idea to keep your training on the down low.”

“What are you thinking?” I ask, knowing we can’t just send the girls away every time we want to teach him something or practice a skill.

“What if every week, we have Kai come stay with us for a night? That way he and I can train in the gym and Lev can teach him about hacking. I’m sure Alexi will have plenty to say about technique, and we aren’t breaking the rules.”

Kai’s face lights up with hope as he stares at Damien.

“What do you think, kid?” I ask him. “Want to hang out with this gobshite once a week?”

“Hell yeah,” Kai says, bumping fists with him.

“I’ll suggest it to Evie,” Damien says. “Then, she’ll tell Nessa. It will make them think it was their idea.”

“Damn.” I whistle. “You’re a savage.”

Damien winks as he walks backwards toward his girl.

“I’m the best at what I do.”